Answer. I do not believe that the rebels could fight as well, or make such marches as they have done, upon such small rations as our prisoners have received.
Question. Can the health of men be preserved upon such rations as they have given our prisoners?
Answer. No, sir; it cannot, not only on account of quantity, but quality. I have seen some specimens of their rations brought here by our paroled prisoners, and I know what they are.
Question. As a general rule, what is the effect of treating men in that way?
Answer. Just what we hear every day – men dying from starvation and debility. Many of these men – mostly all the wounded men – are suffering from hospital gangrene, which is the result of not having their wounds dressed in time, and having too many crowded in the same apartment. We have had men here whose wounds have been so long neglected that they have had maggots in them by the hundred.
Acting Assistant Surgeon J. H. Longenecker, sworn and examined.
By Mr. Gooch:
Question. What is your position in the United States service?
Answer. Acting assistant surgeon.
Question. How long have you been stationed here?
Answer. Since the 27th of July, 1863.
Question. Will you state what has been the condition of our paroled prisoners, received here from the rebels, during the time you have been stationed here?
Answer. As a general thing, they have been very much debilitated, emaciated, and suffering from disease, such as diarrhœa, scurvy, lung diseases, &c.
Question. In your opinion, as a physician, by what have these diseases been produced?
Answer. By exposure and want of proper food, I think.
Question. Are you able to form any opinion, from the condition of these men, as to the quantity and quality of food which they have received?
Answer. From their appearance and condition, I judge the quality must have been very bad, and the quantity very small, not sufficient to preserve the health.
Question. We have seen and examined several patients here this morning, who are but mere skeletons. They have stated to us, as you are aware, that their suffering arose wholly from the want of proper food and clothing. In your opinion as a medical man, are these statements true?
Answer. I believe that these statements are correct. We have had some men who looked very well. How they managed to preserve their health I am not able to say; but, as a general thing, the men we receive here are very much debilitated, apparently from exposure, and want of sufficient food to keep up life and health.
Question. Are you acquainted with the case of Howard Laedom?
Answer. Yes, sir; I am.
Question. Will you state about that case?
Answer. I did not see the patient until recently, when he was placed in my charge. I found him with all his toes gone from one foot in consequence of exposure. He has suffered from pneumonia, also, produced by exposure, and there have been very many cases of pneumonia here, produced by the same cause, many of whom have died; and we have held post mortem examinations upon many of them, and found ulcers upon their intestines, some of them being ulcerated the whole length of their bowels.
Question. Have you made many post mortem examinations here?
Answer. We have made quite a number of them. We make them whenever we have an opportunity; whenever bodies are not called for or are not likely to be taken away.
Question. Are you enabled, from these post mortem examinations, to determine whether or not these prisoners have had sufficient quantities of proper food?
Answer. Not from that. Those examinations merely indicate the condition in which the prisoners are returned to us.
Question. From all the indications given by the appearance of these men, are you satisfied that their statements, that they have not had sufficient food, both in quantity and quality, are true?
Answer. These statements have been repeated to me very often, and from their condition I believe their statement to be true.
Question. How many paroled prisoners were brought here by the last boat?
Answer. Three hundred and sixty-five, I think.
Question. In your opinion, how many of these men will recover?
Answer. Judging from their present condition, I think that at least one hundred of them will die.
Question. What, in your opinion, will be the primary cause of the death of these men?
Answer. Exposure and want of proper food while prisoners.
Assistant Surgeon William S. Ely, sworn and examined.
By Mr. Harding:
Question. What is your position in the service?
Answer. Assistant surgeon of the United States volunteers and executive officer of hospital division No. 1, or Naval Academy hospital.
Question. Please state the sanitary condition and appearance, &c., of the paroled prisoners received here, together with their declarations as to the cause of their sickness, and your opinion as to the truth of their statements.
Answer. I have been on duty in this hospital since October 3, 1863. Since that time I have been present on the arrival of the steamer New York on five or six different occasions, when bringing altogether some three or four thousand paroled prisoners. I have assisted in unloading these prisoners from the boat, and assigning them to quarters in the hospital. I have found them generally very much reduced physically, and depressed mentally, the direct result, as I think, of the ill-treatment which they have received from the hands of their enemies – whether intentional or not I cannot say. I have frequently seen on the boat bodies of those who have died while being brought here, and I have frequently known them to die while being conveyed from the boat to the hospital ward. Their condition is such (their whole constitution being undermined) that the best of care and medical treatment, and all the sanitary and hygeian measures that we can introduce appear to be useless. Their whole assimilative functions appear to be impaired. Medicines and food appear, in many cases, to have no effect upon them. We have made post mortem examinations repeatedly of cases here, and on all occasions we find the system very much reduced, and in many cases the muscles almost entirely gone – reduced to nothing literally but skin and bone; the blood vitiated and depraved, and an anœmic condition of the entire system apparent. The fact that in many cases of post mortems we had discovered no organic disease, justifies us in the conclusion that the fatal result is owing principally, if not entirely, to a deprivation of food and other articles necessary to support life, and to improper exposure. On all occasions when arriving here, these men have been found in the most filthy condition, it being almost impossible, in many cases, to clean them by repeated washings. The functions of the skin are entirely impaired, and in many cases they are encrusted with dirt, owing, as they say, to being compelled to lie on the sand at Belle island; and the normal function of the skin has not been recovered until the cuticle has been entirely thrown off. Their bodies are covered with vermin, so that it has been found necessary to throw away all the clothing which they had on when they arrived here, and provide them entirely with new clothing. Their hair has been filled with vermin, so that we have been obliged to cut their hair all off, and make applications to kill the vermin in their heads. Many of them state that they have had no opportunity to wash their bodies for six or eight months, and have not done so.
Question. What have been their statements to you in their conversation with you?
Answer. Their reply almost invariably has been, that their condition is the result solely of ill-treatment and starvation; that their rations have consisted of corn-bread and cobs ground with corn, of a few beans at times, and now and then a little piece of poor meat. Occasionally one is heard to say, that in his opinion the rebels are unable to treat them in any better manner; that they have been treated as well as possible; and I have found several who stated that their physicians were kind to them and did all they could, but complained of want of medicines.
Question. Is it your conclusion, as a physician, that the statements of these paroled prisoners, in regard to the treatment they have received, are correct, and that such treatment would produce such conditions of health as you witness among them upon their arrival here?
Answer. Yes, sir; and that in many cases their statements fall short of the truth, as evinced by the results shown in their physical appearance; and these men are in such a condition that even if they recover, we consider them almost entirely unfitted for further active field service – almost as much so, we frequently say, as if they had been shot on the field.
Miss Abbie J. Howe, sworn and examined.
By Mr. Gooch:
Question. From what State are you, and what position do you occupy in this hospital?
Answer. I am from Massachusetts, and am here acting as nurse.
Question. How long have you been here?
Answer. Since the 15th of September, 1863.
Question. Have you had charge of the sick and paroled prisoners who have come here during that time?
Answer. Yes, sir; some of them.
Question. How many of them have you had charge of, should you think?
Answer. I should think I have had charge of at least 250 who have come under my own charge.
Question. Can you describe to us the general condition of those men?
Answer. Almost all of them have had this dreadful cough. I do not think I ever heard the like before; and they have had chronic diarrhœa, very persistent indeed. Many of them have a great craving for things which they ought not to have. One patient who came in here had the scurvy, and he said: "I can eat anything that a dog can eat. Oh, do give me something to eat;" and in their delirium they are crying for "bread, bread," and "mother, mother." One of them called out for "more James river water to drink."
Question. What has been their general complaint in regard to their treatment while prisoners?
Answer. Their chief complaint has been want of food and great exposure. Many of them who had clothes sent them by friends or our government, were obliged to sell everything until they were left as destitute as at first, in order to get more food. I have seen some of their rations, and I would myself rather eat what I have seen given to cattle, than to eat such food as their specimens brought here. One man had the typhoid fever, but was in such haste to get away from the hospital in Richmond in order to get home, that he would not remain there. He had the ravenous appetite which men with typhus fever have; and other men told me that they gave him their rations which they could not eat themselves. This produced a terrible diarrhœa, and he lived but a few days after he arrived here.
Question. What has been the physical condition of these, emaciated or otherwise?
Answer. Just skin and bone. I have never imagined anything before like it.
Question. Have their statements, in relation to their exposure and deprivation of food, corresponded entirely with each other?
Answer. Yes, sir, entirely so, except those who were able, by work, to get extra rations; and those extra rations were not anything like what our men have here, but it gave them as much and as good as their guards had; and they have not only been treated in this way, but they have been ill-used in almost every way. They have told me that when one of them was sitting down, and was told to get up, and was not moving quickly in consequence of his sickness, he was wounded by the rebels in charge. They have often told me that they have been kicked and knocked about when unable to move quickly. I could give a great many instances of ill-treatment and hardships which have been stated to me, but it would take a great deal of time to tell them.
Rev. H. C. Henries, sworn and examined.
By Mr. Odell:
Question. What is your position here?
Answer. Chaplain of the hospital.
Question. How long have you been here?
Answer. I have been on duty since December 7, 1861.
Question. You are familiar with the facts connected with the condition of paroled prisoners arriving here from the south?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Will you state generally what was their condition?
Answer. I think it would be impossible for me to give any adequate description, for I think all language fails to fully express their real condition as they land here. Their appearance is haggard in the extreme; ragged, destitute even of shoes, and very frequently without pants or blouses, or any covering except their drawers and shirts, and perhaps a half a blanket, or something like that; sometimes without hats, and in the most filthy condition that it is possible to conceive of either beast or man being reduced to in any circumstances; unable to give either their names, their residence, regiments, or any facts, in consequence of their mental depression, so that I believe the surgeons have found it quite impossible some times to ascertain their relation to the army. Their statements agree almost universally in regard to their treatment at the hands of the rebels. There have been a very few exceptions, indeed, of those who have stated that perhaps their fare was as good as, under the circumstances, the rebels were able to give them, but the almost universal testimony of these men has been, that they were purposely deprived of the comforts and medical care which could have been afforded them, in order to render them useless to the army in the future. That has been the impression which a great many of them have labored under. They have given their testimony in regard to their condition on Belle Isle. There were three in one room here not long since, who told me that some eight of their comrades died during one or two days, and their bodies were thrown out on the banks that enclosed the ground and left there for eight days unburied, and they were refused the privilege of burying their comrades, until the hogs and the dogs had well-nigh eaten up their bodies. Yesterday, one man told me that he was so starved, and his hunger had become so intolerable, that his eyes appeared to swim in his head, and at times to be almost lost to all consciousness. Others have stated that they have offered to buy dogs at any price for food, of those who came in there; and one actually said that when a man came in there with a dog, and went out without the dog noticing it, they caught him and dressed him and roasted him over the fire, over a gas-light, as best they could, and then ate it; and, as he expressed it, "it was a precious mite to them." Their testimony in regard to the cruelty of the guards and others set over them is to the effect that in one instance two comrades in the army together, who were taken prisoners together, and remained in the prison together, were separated when the prisoners were exchanged. One was returned here and the other left. The one who was left went to the window and waved his hand in adieu to his comrade, and the guard deliberately shot him through the temple, and he fell dead. I mentioned this fact to others of our prisoners here in the hospital, and they said that they knew it to be so. Some of them were there at the time the man was shot.
Question. Do you keep any record of the deaths here?
Answer. I have not kept a record. I have the official notice of the deaths; but inasmuch as the records are kept at the office, and we have had so many other duties crowding upon us – so many deaths here – it has been almost impossible for us to keep any record. I think it is impossible for any description to exaggerate the condition of those men. The condition of those here now is not so bad, as a class, as some we have received heretofore.
By the chairman:
Question. Has the treatment of our prisoners latterly been worse than before, from their testimony?
Answer. I think there has been no very material change of late. I think it has grown worse from the very first; but for a year past, I should judge it could not be made any worse.
Question. Just the same thing we now see here?
Answer. Yes, sir. I would give just another fact in regard to the statements made here by large numbers of our returned prisoners. On Belle Isle, their privies were down from the main camp. From 6 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening they were permitted to go to these sinks or privies, but from 6 at night until 6 in the morning they were refused the privilege of going there, and consequently, so many suffering with diarrhœa, their filth was deposited all through their camp. The wells from which they drew their water were sunk in the sand around through their camp, and you can judge what the effect of that has been. Some of these prisoners, soon after they were put on Belle Isle, not knowing the regulations there, and suffering from chronic diarrhœa, when making the attempt to go down to these privies after 6 o'clock at night, were shot down in cold blood by the guards, without any warning whatever. Several such instances have been stated to me by parties who have arrived here.
By Mr. Odell:
Question. You make these statements from the testimony of prisoners received here?
Answer. Yes, sir; from testimony that I have the most perfect confidence in. Men have stated these things to me in the very last hours of their lives.
By the chairman:
Question. Were they conscious of their condition at the time they made their statements?
Answer. Yes, sir; I think they were perfectly conscious; yet there is one thing which is very remarkable, that is, these men retain their hope of life up to the hour of dying. They do not give up. There is another thing I would wish to state: all the men, without any exception, among the thousands that have come to this hospital, have never, in a single instance, expressed a regret (notwithstanding the privations and sufferings that they have endured) that they entered their country's service. They have been the most loyal, devoted, and earnest men. Even on the last days of their lives they have said that all they hoped for was just to live and enter the ranks again and meet their foes. It is a most glorious record in reference to the devotion of our men to their country. I do not think their patriotism has ever been equalled in the history of the world.
The committee then proceeded, by steamer, from Annapolis to Baltimore, and visited the "West Hospital," and saw the patients there. As they presented the same reduced and debilitated appearance as those they had already seen at Annapolis, and in conversation gave the same account of their treatment at the hands of the rebels, the committee concluded their examination by taking merely the testimony of the surgeon and chaplain of the hospital.
"West Hospital," Baltimore, Md., May 6, 1864.
Dr. Wm. G. Knowles, sworn and examined.
By the chairman:
Question. Will you state whether you are in the employment of the government; and if so, in what capacity?
Answer. I am, and have been for nearly three years, a contract physician in the "West Hospital," Baltimore.
Question. Have you received any of the returned Union prisoners, from Richmond, in your hospital?
Answer. We have received those we have here now; no others.
Question. How many have you received?
Answer. We have received 105.
Question. When did you receive them?
Answer. Two weeks ago last Tuesday. On the 19th of April.
Question. Will you state the condition those prisoners were in when they were received here?
Answer. They were all very emaciated men, as you have seen here to-day, only more so than they appear to be now. They were very emaciated and feeble, suffering chiefly from diarrhœa, many of them having, in connexion with that, bronchial and similar affections. From the testimony given to me by these men I have no doubt their condition was the result of exposure and – I was about to say starvation; but it was, perhaps, hardly starvation, for they had something to eat; but I will say, a deficient supply of food and of a proper kind of food; and when I say "exposure," perhaps that would not be sufficiently definite. All with whom I have conversed have stated that those who were on Belle Isle were kept there even as late as December with nothing to protect them but such little clothing as was left them by their captors; with no blankets, no overcoats, no tents, nothing to cover them, nothing to protect them; and that their sleeping-place was the ground – the sand.
Question. What would you, as a physician of experience, aside from the statements of these returned prisoners, say was the cause of their condition?
Answer. I should judge it was as they have stated. Diarrhœa is a very common form of disease among them, and from all the circumstances I have every reason to believe that it is owing to exposure and the want of proper nourishment. Some of them tell me that they received nothing but two small pieces of corn-bread a day. Some of them suppose (how true that may be I do not know) that that bread was made of corn ground with the cobs. I have not seen any of it to examine it.
Question. How many have died of the number you have received here?
Answer. Already twenty-nine have died, and you have seen one who is now dying; and five were received here dead, who died on their way from Fortress Monroe to Baltimore.
Question. How many of them were capable of walking into the hospital?
Answer. Only one; the others were brought here from the boat on stretchers, put on the dumb-waiter, and lifted right up to their rooms, and put on their beds. And I would state another thing in regard to these men: when they were received here they were filthy, dirty, and lousy in the extreme, and we had considerable trouble to get them clean. Every man who could possibly stand it we took and placed in a warm bath and held him up while he was washed, and we threw away all their dirty clothing, providing them with that which was clean.
Question. What was the condition of their clothing?
Answer. Very poor, indeed. I should say the clothing was very much worn, although I did not examine it closely, as that was not so much a matter of investigation with us as was their physical condition. Their heads were filled with vermin, so much so that we had to cut off their hair and make applications to destroy the vermin.
Question. What portion of those you have received here do you suppose are finally curable?
Answer. We shall certainly lose one-third of them; and we have been inclined to think that, sooner or later, we should lose one-half of them.
Question. Will the constitutions of those who survive be permanently injured, or will they entirely recover?
Answer. I think the constitutions of the greater part of them will be seriously impaired; that they will never become strong and healthy again.
Question. What account have these men given you as to the comparative condition of those left behind? Did the rebels send the best or the poorest of our prisoners?
Answer. I could not tell that; I have never inquired. But I should presume they must have sent the worst they had.
Question. You have had charge of confederate sick and wounded, have you not?
Answer. Yes, sir; a large number of them. This was the receiving hospital for those from Gettysburg.
Question. What was the treatment they received from us?
Answer. We consider that we treated them with the greatest kindness and humanity; precisely as we treated our own men. That has been our rule of conduct. We gave them the very best the hospital would afford; and not only what properly belonged to the hospital, but delicacies and luxuries of every kind were furnished them by the hospital, and by outside sympathizers, who were permitted to send delicacies to them.
Question. It has been stated in many of the rebel newspapers that our prisoners are treated the same and fed with the same rations as their soldiers in the field. In your judgment, as a physician would it be possible for their soldiers to retain their health and energy if fed as our prisoners have been?
Answer. No, sir; it would be impossible; multitudes of them would have died under such treatment.
Question. I do not know as I desire to question you further. Is there anything more you desire to state?
Answer. I do not know that there is; it is all in a nut-shell.
By Mr. Odell:
Question. Is not the disease as evinced among those men clearly defined as resulting from exposure and privations, and want of proper food and nourishment?
Answer. That is our decided opinion as medical men; the opinion of all of us who have had anything to do with these men.
By Mr. Gooch:
Question. The condition of all these men appears to be about the same. Is there really any difference in their condition except in degree?
Answer. I think that is all. Some men have naturally stronger constitutions than others, and can bear more than others. That is the way I account for the difference.
By Mr. Odell:
Question. Are the minds of any of them affected permanently?
Answer. We have had two or three whose intellect is very feeble; some of them are almost like children in that respect.
Question. Do you think that grows out of the treatment they have received?
Answer. I think the same cause produced that as the other.
By the chairman:
Question. Is not that one of the symptoms attendant upon starvation, that men are likely to become deranged or idiotic?
Answer. Yes, sir; more like derangement than what we call idiocy.
By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Can those men whose arms you bared and held up to us – mere skeletons, nothing but skin and bone – can those men recover?
Answer. They may; we think that some of them are in an improving condition. But we have to be extremely cautious how we feed them. If we give them a little excess of food under these circumstances they would be almost certain to be seriously and injuriously affected by it.
Question. It is your opinion, you have stated, that these men have been reduced to this condition by want of food?
Answer. It is; want of food and exposure are the original causes. That has produced diarrhœa and other diseases as a natural consequence, and they have aided the original cause and reduced them to their present condition. I should like the country and the government to know the facts about these men; I do not think they can realize it until the facts are made known to them. I think the rebels have determined upon the policy of starving their prisoners, just as much as the murders at Fort Pillow were a part of their policy.
Rev. J. T. Van Burkalow, sworn and examined.
By the chairman:
Question. What is your connexion with this hospital?
Answer. I am the chaplain of the hospital.
Question. How long have you been acting in that capacity?
Answer. I have been connected with the hospital in that capacity ever since the 20th of October, 1862.
Question. What has been your opportunity of knowing the condition of our returned prisoners?
Answer. I have mingled with them and administered unto them ever since they have been here, night and day. I have written, I suppose, something like a hundred letters for them to their relatives and friends, since they arrived here.
Question. Have you attended them when they were dying?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. And conversed with them about their condition, and the manner in which they have been brought to that condition?
Answer. Yes, sir; I have.
Question. Please tell us what you have ascertained from them.
Answer. The general story I have gotten from them was to the effect that when captured, and before they got to Richmond, they would generally be robbed of their clothing, their good United States uniforms, even to their shoes and hats taken from them, and if anything was given to them in place of them, they would receive only old worn-out confederate clothing. Sometimes they were sent to Belle Isle with nothing on but old pants and shirts. They generally had their money taken from them, often with the promise of its return, but that promise was never fulfilled. They were placed on Belle Isle, as I have said, some with nothing on but pants and shirts, some with blouses, but they were seldom allowed to have an overcoat or a blanket. There they remained for weeks, some of them for six or eight weeks, without any tents or any kind of covering.
Question. What time of the year was this?
Answer. All along from September down to December, as a general thing, through the latter part of the fall. There they remained for weeks without any tents, without blankets, and in many instances without coats, exposed to the rain and snow, and all kinds of inclement weather. And where some of them had tents, they were old worn-out army tents, full of holes and rents, so that they are very poor shelters indeed from the storms. I have been told by several of them that several times, upon getting up in the morning, they would find six or eight of their number frozen to death. There are men here now who have had their toes frozen off there. They have said that they have been compelled to get up during the night and walk rapidly back and forth to keep from dying from the cold.
Question. What do they say in regard to the food furnished them?
Answer. They represent that as being very little in quantity, and of the very poorest quality, being but a small piece of corn-bread, about three inches square, made of meal ground very coarsely – some of them suppose made of corn and cobs all ground up together – and that bread was baked and cut up and sent to them in such a manner that a great deal of it would be crumbled off and lost. Sometimes they would get a very small piece of meat, but that meat very poor, and sometimes for days they would receive no meat at all. And sometimes they would receive a very small quantity of what they call rice-water – that is, water with a few grains of rice in it.
Question. You have heard their statements separately?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Do they all agree in the same general statement as to their treatment?
Answer. Yes, sir; they do.