Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1862-04-03
The Slaves at Columbus Report
of COmittee.

/
The following is the report of the Com
mittee appointed by the Ohio Senate to
inquire into the treatment: of the rebel pris
oners at Camp Chase and ascertain the
facts in relation to prisoners being permit
ted 10 retain their slaves in prison:
Your committee found some thirteen
hundred persons confined in the three
prisons, mostly from Tennessee, Kentucky,
Missouri and Mississippi, and their quar-
tiers were in all respects as good, and some
a little better than those of the soldiers
outside, and your committee were assured
that the rations distributed were the same
in quantity and quality as those given our
own men. No complaint was made as 10
any of these things. but there was a gen.
eral expression of satisfaction Herewith.
Your committee found seventy -four ne.
groes in the prisons, mostly taken prison
ers at Fort .Donelson. OF these from
what they could learn, few were free
when taken, having been hired by officers
as cooks and servants. The remainder,
perhaps fifty in number, were slaves in at
tendance upon their masters, and while so
employed, were taken along with their mas
ters. None of them were in arms, all
having been returned for menial service
merely. Since their capture they have
Travelled with their masters, attending and
serving them as before. On their arrival
at Columbus, they took charge of and
carried the baggage of their former mas
tiers from the depot to Camp Chase, the
men having no servants being compelled
10 carry their own, as our soldiers do on
similar occasions. Arrived at Camp Chase,
the privates were as far as possible separa-
ted from the officers, and, for obvious rea-
sons, placed 10 different prisons; but the
negroes were placed in the same prisons
with officers who were their former mas
lers. Whya unless that they might Con-
tinue to attend and serve their former mas
tcrs. And they have ever since done SO
cooking, washing, waiting upon and
serving them just as before their capture,
the relation of master and slave being as
vigorously maintained BY the master and
as fully recognized by the negroes and the
other inmates of the prison as ever it was
in the State of Tennessee.
As 10 rebel officers released on parole,
your committee could not get much def
mite information, other than that, with few
exceptions, these paroles were granted by
order of Gen. Halleck. That the clemen-
cy so shown was mistaken, the following
facts as to the conduct of these officers
while in Columbus will show. They came,
wearing their side arms, stopped at the
principal hotels, registering their names
-"Colonel," major" or Captain" with
the significant letters &C. S. A" added;
appearing from day to day in rebel uni
forms (some of these gaudy, all of them
neticeable) in the offices atd parlors, and
at the public tables of these hotels, in the
streets and drives of the city, frequenting
the theatre and other places Of amuse-
ment, and visiting the Senate and House
Chambers, where, with marked considera-
tion, they have been invited to privileged
seats within the bar. At all these places
and on all occasions, giving expression 10
sentiments of continued adherence to the
rebel cause and of bitter hostility to the
Government and people of the United