Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-11-23
IRON Lihh1 prison.

sation with the Rev. John Hussey, Pres
byterian clergyman, of Ohio, who was on
his way home from Libby Prison. and Gas.
tie Thunder at RiehnIvndi where ne had
been confined since the goth September
last, having been taken prisoner at the bat
tie of Chickamauga. He gave us an in
teresting, aud we doubt not an entirely
truthful, account of His own and the hard
ships of other prisoners at Richmond, and
one that We can not here, in the brief
course of an article, reproduce with its
necessary details. ~. saAt -
Mr.. Hussey was acting on behalf of the
Christian Commission at the time of his
capture, having gone to the army of the
Cumberland to bind up the wounded and
attend to the hospital necessities of the
soldiers. In the discharge of this duty he
and-thoss associated with him mfnistered
both to the Union and rebel sick and
wounded Their errand was one of mercy
and they were in every sense and by every
ruleAof, war non-combatants. Notwith-
standing this; however, MIR. Hussey was.
after the battle, and while he was staying
with our wounded, arrested and taken be-
fore Judge Terry, the same who killed
Senator Frederick in a duel in California
four years ago, and by him first thoroughly
and vnlgarly cursed and blackguarded as
a "psalm singing abolitionist,p and then
sent off to Richmond and there.con in
squalid filth and want until few days
ago. Hs5tslls us that thatthe suffsrings of
our prisoners are absolutely incredible and
that his own treatment, harsh and con-
suming as it was, is=not to be COM
pared, to that of many Others. When he
was started to Richmond the rebels took
his tent blanket from him, leaving him
simply the. clothes he had on him. When
thrown into prison he had no bed-no chair
no covering of any sort by day or night.
He was put in with those who had been
there for months, and who, like him, were
citizens and non-combatants. He was
given small half loaf of bread and two
ounces of meat once every twenty-four
hours, usually about one o'clock in the day,
and that was all the food until the next
twenty-four hours had rolled away. The
prisoners were all covered with lice from
head to foot-were rank smelling with
dirt and filth, and were every day falling
by the hand of diseases engehdered by
their situation. AIlthe operations of their
animal life had to be performed in that
one room, and in the warm weather OF
September no one can imagine the horrid
stencil, aad the sickening, smothering and
torturing loathsomuess OF life which they
underwent. The very windows were board
ed up-save few small spaces-to KEEP
the prisoners from looking out, and oyel
their heads was slate roof upon which
the rays of the sun poured down, making
the air of their room rotten with corrup'
ton. When the weather grew cooler and
the nights became chilly, this unnatura
heat was changed into equally unnatuEa
cold. The prisoners had no covering, ant
they lay on the floor and their blood WA
chilled and re-chilled every night, thu
producing congestion of the lungs, pneumo
MIA, and all the diseases incident to suct
exposure.
In prison Mr.. Hussey met with Thomas
Hill, a citizen of West Virginia, who'll
himself was simply citizen and who had
never been connected with the army, bu
who had been violently taken from hi
peaceful home down in the back country
simply because that by reason of his un
compromising Unionism he was obnoxiou
to the secessionists. Mr.. Hill is a man Q
high character and has been guilty of n
crime whatever, never having been eve
charged with any! Along with Mr.. Hil
there are over . hundred of our fellow cit
izen from wsst Virginia, all uou.combat
tants and all carried from their homes o
the frontier by Bill jackson, Imboden an
jenkins. for no other cause than their 10y
atty. Mt. Hpssey says that they and til
other political prisoners from North Care
lima, aud the so:called Confederate Statet
are treated worse than any other class
prisoners. They are being murdered b
the inhuman fortunes of hunger aud 81
pos6re. In response to our. INQUIRY hp'
this terrible treatmensIoouldb be stopped, b
said orlfbyrepFssAl, as long as eoatederai
prisoners are feAslea On regular ration
aud given all tbatthe5 could buy in addition
and allowed $50 many privileges, SO Ion
win the rebel authorities feel freetoabus
all the laws.Sf war and all the humanItie
of ciyiliEatiop, There is much force in hi
idea on this head, especially as IT apple
to us here in West Virginia. The question
naturally comes up to any Union mAn'smtn
in this shape, yiz=-Why are orr West yir
GINA fellow citizens, who are non.eo
bataa,s, permitted BY Us 70 e.taksna. !,