Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War

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.