Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War

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.

Question. How were they clothed when they arrived here?

Answer. They were clothed very poorly indeed, with old worn-out filthy garments, full of vermin.

Question. What was their condition and appearance as to health when they arrived here?

Answer. They looked like living skeletons – that is about the best description I can give of them – very weak and emaciated.

Question. Have you ever seen men at any time or place so emaciated as these are – so entirely destitute of flesh?

Answer. I think I have a few times, but very rarely; I have known men to become very emaciated by being for weeks affected with chronic diarrhœa, or something of that kind. But the chronic diarrhœa, and liver diseases, and lung affections, which those men now have, I understand to have been superinduced by the treatment to which they have been subjected; their cruel and merciless treatment and exposure to inclement weather without any shelter or sufficient clothing or food, reducing them literally to a state of starvation.

Question. Could any of them walk when they arrived here?

Answer. I think there was but one who could make out to walk; the rest we had to carry into the hospitals on stretchers.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Did these men make these statements in their dying condition?

Answer. Yes, sir.

By the chairman:

Question. Were the persons who made these statements conscious of approaching dissolution?

Answer. Yes, sir; I know of no particular cases where they spoke of these things when they were right on the borders of death; but they made them before, when they were aware of their condition.

Question. So that you have no reason to doubt that they told the exact truth, or intended to do so?

Answer. None whatever. There has been such a unanimity of testimony on that point, that I cannot entertain the shadow of a doubt.

Question. And their statements were corroborated by their appearance?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. You have had under your charge and attention confederate sick and wounded, have you not?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How have they been treated?

Answer. In my judgment they have been treated just as well as any of our own men ever were treated. In fact, they have got better treatment than our men did formerly, for the reason that, in addition to what we have given them – and we have tried to treat them just as we would have them treat our men – in addition to that, we have allowed the rebel sympathizers of Baltimore to bring them, everyday, delicacies in abundance.

Question. Were these rebel sympathizers bountiful to them in that line?

Answer. Yes, sir, very.

Question. What has been the feeling evinced by our returned prisoners, after having received such treatment, in regard to having entered the service? Have they ever expressed any regret that they entered our army?

Answer. As a general thing, they have not. In fact, I have heard but one express a different sentiment. He was a mere youth, not more than 16 or 17 years of age now. His feet were badly frozen. He remarked that he had regretted, even long before he got to Richmond, that he entered the service. But I have heard a number of them declare that if they were so fortunate as to recover their health and strength, they should be glad to return to the service, and still fight for their country.

Question. They then bear their misfortunes bravely and patriotically?

Answer. Yes, sir, they do.

Question. And without complaining of their government?

Answer. Yes, sir, without complaining of their fate, except so far as to blame their merciless enemies.

DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, DISTRICT OF MEMPHISDeposition of John Nelson in relation to the capture of Fort Pillow

Evidence Department,

Provost Marshal's Office.

John Nelson, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith:

At the time of the attack on and capture of Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864, I kept a hotel within the lines at Fort Pillow, and a short distance from the works. Soon after the alarm was given that an attack on the fort was imminent, I entered the works and tendered my services to Major Booth, commanding. The attack began in the morning at about 5-1/2 o'clock, and about one o'clock p. m. a flag of truce approached. During the parley which ensued, and while the firing ceased on both sides, the rebels kept crowding up to the works on the side near Cold creek, and also approached nearer on the south side, thereby gaining advantages pending the conference under the flag of truce. As soon as the flag of truce was withdrawn the attack began, and about five minutes after it began the rebels entered the fort. Our troops were soon overpowered, and broke and fled. A large number of the soldiers, black and white, and also a few citizens, myself among the number, rushed down the bluff towards the river. I concealed myself as well as I could in a position where I could distinctly see all that passed below the bluff, for a considerable distance up and down the river.