The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1863-12-01
SHOCKING SCENES.

There appears to have been no exaggeration In
the accounts already given in regard to the condi.
ton of the negroes at the various contraband
camps in the Mississippi Valley. Congregated al
these depots, without employment, deprived ofthe
food to which they have been accustomed, and of.
ten without shelter or medical care these helpless
creatures perish as if swept off by pestlence-
VIM. D. Butler, delegate of the United States
Christian Commission writes to Rev. DIR. w. G.
Eliot as follows respecting the negroes who came
into Vicksburg after the surrender of General
Pemberton, mostly from beyond jackson:
"About the first of August the military authori-
ties became alarmed lest pestilence should break
out among them and extend to the army. Peremp-
tory orders were issued to at once remove across
the river all negroes, of every age and wheth
er sick or we'll, who we're not in some employ
ment.
One morning I went out to inform certain
Lieut.. W, who, with an inadequate force, was
executing the order, that one of them in the Bap-
fist church was dead and that another, woman,
was lying behind fence, dying. He told me that
he had detailed, for the purpose of removing the
negroes, 20 army wagons; that he had hauled
them, well, sick aud dead, with all their traps to
the river, where he had steamer to convey them
to point opposite the lower part ofthe city;
that he had one wagon to haul the dead and that
some days he found as many twenty; that in
one be use he found six dead bodies. with living
ones sitting and lying around them, apparently I'M
conscious of their situation Holes we're dug on the
rivers bank and the dead buried. The searching
out and removal Of these negroes consumed about
fifteen twenty days. About three hundred we're
thus removed to the low grounds opposite Vicks-
burg, and there left 10 the weeds without any sle
ter, under the care of man who was appointed to
organize them into camp, and separate smallpo
from the resin general to do what he could
for their relief. He was soon taken sick, and a
certain Captain was appointed to take charge
of all the contrabands in and around Vicksburg.
He told me that these negroes had suffered aud
were still suffering untold want and wretchedness
that from Is to 20 die daily Sometimes they
would crawl off into the weeds and die, where
their bodies would be found only by the stencil
which arose from their decay. That there was no
white man with them but a nephew of his; that ra-
tions furnished them by the Government, but
sometimes he had difficulty in getting them over
the river; that once they were five days without
receiving any food, and the negroes in their des-
pair threatened to kill him thinking the fault was
his He also stated that they hal no or shell
ter except brush to shield them from the sun, or
storm, dews of night. Captain A stated
to me that there were in his camp 2,000 at
Young's Point 1851; on Papaw Island, where he
purposed gathering most of them, $500; and on
Blacks plantation, on the Yazoo, 2400--in all
over $4,000. One morning | went among the
wretched masses where they were hauled to the
bank OF the river, preparatory to being sent
tried in vain to find some women who were able
to work, We wished their labor at our house,
All were either sick or taking of the sick. l
saw nothing but one sad scene of misery"