Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-11-13

The eastern journals are filed with the
mast beart2sickening accounts OF the suf-
ferings endured By our Union soldiers who
have been solunfortunate 50 as to fall into
the hands of the rebels, and have been con.
Rned in the lOathsOms prisons at Rich
mond- The treatment Of our prisoners by
the rebels is brutal in the extreme. A
correspondent Of the Philadelphis IUqui-
rer states that Of 200 prisoners who were
Bsnt home under q flag of truce q feW
days since, every one was sick when they
arrived st Annapolis, and 85 died within
. week after their arrival. A post NOR.
TEN examination of all these was made
by the attending hospital ply sicians, and
1t was the deliberate opinion that they
sunk into death solely from previous ne
glect, starvation and iIl-treatmenb whilst
confined in the vile prisons Of Richmond.
They had been obliged to sleep in the
dirt, on the ground, in sand and upon OF
amid flth Of every kind, until their skins
were so oOatsd-sotuaily perforated that
serubbing and washing could neither re-
move the dirt imbedded grains Of sand
SC, nor create reaction upon the skin.
EFsrJ symptom known to scientific sur
gsOns, upon examining the stonachs Of
the dead, demonstrated clearly they had
died from the effects Of starvation and
- l. Il
mond When FIRST put on board Gov.
ernment vessel, many Of them had nothing
under heaven 10 cover even portion of
their nakedness, except miserable old
tsttered blanket, alive with vermin. They
had been robbed of their clothing shoes,
money, and everything else. Not one Of
them was able to walk from the steamer
to the hospital, and some actually died
whilst being carried on litteTs. It would
seem as though they had been thus kept
under ill-treatnent and starvation until
vitality had nearly vanished, and then
sent home to die in order to save the
trouble Of burying them. Several now
dead we're 50 weak when delivered from
under the rebel flag Of truce as not to be
able to articulate their names, and there
being no clothing on them to designate
the company or regiment to which they
belonged, have died and been buried with
out the ability 20 inform their relatives
and friends who it was who had thus
found 8 soldiers grave.
A correspondent Of the New York Times
gives the following description Of one ef
the horrid prisons into which Union
prisoners are crowded into at Richmond /:
&c Close on to the canal and at the corner
Of Cary and TWenty-6rst streets, and
within a mile Of Rockets stands the
horrid Libby Prison. The entire length Of
the building on Cary street is l35 feet,
with depth Of about 90 feet on Twenty
first street. Il is divided into sections by
stout brick walls, and is, 90 the side next
to the canal, four stories, while on Cary
street it is but three stories in height
each Of the stories being divided into
three o5lopg low rooms 45 by 80 feet. On
the ground floor the room next to Twenty
first street is appropriated to the rebel
guards, the next one to the Union officers,
and the third is the hospital. This is on
the Cary street side, or front of the build
ing. On thecanal side, the lower story or
ground floor, is the cock house and recep-
Iacle for the dead, until q sufficient num-
berhave accumulated to make it worth
while to remove them, or until the stencil
becomes too great for the rebels themselves
TO bear. On the second floor, in the two
rooms next to Twenty first street, are over
500 Union prisoners, and in the third
room on the fJor may be found the rem
nRnt Of some one hundred Union citizeHs,
who have been incaroerated since the COM
mencement of the war. Some few of these
prisoners were Quakers. and were reless-
ed on payment of $500 each. The three |
rooms on the upper floor contain at least
200 Union soldiers each. Four small |
sized windows at each end OF these rooms |
admit limitedsmouut of light for about |
25 feet, leaving about 40 feet in The cen.
ter, Of each, lOhtTe print cannot be read IN
the daytime. Prisoners once admitted to
the Libby never leave it for any pur-
pose, day or night, except to be exchanged
or Is be carted to an unknown grave
There are nl-eonstructed water closets in
the rooms, which, owing to the continual
breaking Of the waste pipes, emit q most
intolerable efluvis. In addition 10 all
this, the whole place is one nest Of the
ration Of fair bread and a plate Of small
dark eolored beans Tor COW peas twice
q day, is the usual fare, meat being used
only in small quantities"
Belle Isle" IS it is called, in james
River, is an another place where Union
prisoners are kept Il is long, low sand
bank, and when there is q freshet iu the
river, large portion Of it disappears be-
meath the filthy waters Of the James It
Is on this mere s8ndpit that hundreds Of
our poor shivering soldiers are now held
In their wretchedness, naked and famish-
ing, and subject 10 all the dire diseases
on exposure to the elements
In such locality. Il has never been oc-
supied as dwelling place, and was only
visited in the daytime by the shad fishers,
who had few rude huts there, until the
Il chiVslry found il a convenient place
10 get rid Of the id Yankees"
The relentlessly cruel treatment Of the
Union prisoners in Richmond, commenced
after the 6rs. battle Of Ma ,
masses, when the prisoners were confined
N "Mgon's Tobacco Factory" which
building was perforated with musket balls
n at least twenty places, fred at our men
or simply looking out Of the windows.
The rebel General Winder then, as now,
lad charge Of the prisoners, an1 the same
cruel regime then inaugurated
las beeR ever since continued by him at
he Libby and elsewhere. Winder's two
Captain Turner and Lieut.. Z,
Smsch exceed himself in cruelty. The
ormer has been known TO threaten to
lang one individual because he would not
'et twelve men to sweep the street in
ront Of the prison, and he put four men
n irons and in a dark room on bread and
Ester for 48 hours, because they would not
lean out his stable, Lieutenant Emsch
s the man who, when Colonel Benedict
vas unable to leave his wretched bed.