Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1863-11-27
TREATMENT of pR1soaERs OF war,

1nLAAmGNI L Vc fhl6uHE End We WAN. -
The Yankee papers are loud and furious
Just nov in their denunciation OF the Con.
!cdera,e authorities for alleged maltrea,-::
ment Of the prisoners OF war. We have
repliet;, remarks 10 the Richmond Whig,
as tar rs we thought proper to their ground.
less complaints and slanderous charges.
The question is not one Tor argument with
them, and il makes but >little difference
Whether they are plea sed or not with the
treatment received by these captives. We
advert to tho subject for the purpose Of
Pntt;ng on record, in perpetual memory,
evidence Of the character and conduct Of
those who thus rail against the .Confede--
rate authorities. Here is narrative en-,
bracing specifications which it would have
been easy to ,!isprove If they were false,
but which, though publisL 1 some months
ago, remain without disproof OF. even denial
that We have ever seen or heard Of. It is
The account of member Of Bragg's army,
furnished to the Memphis Appeal, of his
experience in the Yankee prison at Alton,
Illinois:
The Alton penitentiary was, some three.
or tour years ago, condemned by the State
authorities as totally unfit for criminals
even. Yet thirteen hundred officers and
privates, two hundred Of which had the
small pox. were confined in the basement,
live feet he.ow the ground, almost shut off
rom daylight, sunshine and air-stone
floor covered with wafer trickling from tho
! walls on either side, and mid winter rs il
was, the only provision; fer fire was small
| stove to eight men. The berths we're after
the fashion Of horse stalls, one above tile
other, with passage 80 narrow as ba,sly
to admit of one person. passing at time
| and soon there was MI average of more
than every other berth occupied by some
untor'une Confederate with the small pox
and ss fast as tney died, others from ST.
Louis pr'-ons supplied their places. Du-
ri"g january the average OF deaths reach,
ed for q time eight, and eventually thir-
teen per day; and in February the NOR
taiity became so great. and burying Con-:
fcderates became such a tax to the govern
ms1it and SO lucrative to the undertaken.
that the commander Of the prison adver-
tlSed in one Of the Alton papers, "Prouo..
sails for burying the Confedesates will be
received sand lie, to the Lowest biddeE:p
This same c"terprising undertaken was de-
'ected by one of our number, who sus-
pected him, and privately marked one of
the coffi:is, in the work OF "Yankee swiud.
ling by closing the coffin in the "dead
ro"n'," and ON arriving ut the cemetery
would dump the corps into the grave, and
return the same coffin for another subject.
until nine had thus been buried, and be Of
course re ewing pay for niue ocffins, when
he really supplied but one.
Ihe Quantity OF rations supplied US was
hs.,fiicien, 10 meet the requirements of-ths
we'll, and altogether unfit for the sick.
| Well men would 90 the sweepings of the
prison dining roum and gather up scrmps
| OF bread and meat and eat them with a
perfect relish; and Of the sick, those Of
hem that were fortune enough to recover
supplied by their fellow prisoners With rats.
which they killed and prepared With their
own hands.
No record of the dead waasskept until
February. One Of The officers Of my rnom
wrote 10 Ge' e'sl Curtis, commanding at
ST. Louis, requesting that inasmucl, as the
snail pox WAS raging to sucl, an extent,
would he not order that we might be sent
20 soh'e other psisom.-His reply was, that
"nnder tho circumstances, he would ;adviaA'
Immediate vaccination" During the pre-
vaence of small ipox. besides pueumopia,
er?sirelas and diptheria, the scoundreIs
would propose to release any who would
take the oath. Believing it to be between
the oil and death, they availed themselves
Of the contenptibls proposition,