The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-12-09
II hard-bread opened, for the refreshmept

bsen for q long time unknown. It is a
touching sight to see them, each with his
quart can, file by the steaming coffee bar
rels, and receive the refreshing draught
whose taste has long been unfamiliar. II
seems scarcely possible that men should
feel such childish joy as they express in
once more receiving this common stimu-
liant. And then, the eager, hungry glare
which their CLASSY eyes cast npon the
chunks of ham as they clutch and devoul
their allowance with a wOlf-like avidity
These facts can only be understood by the
spectator in remembering that for months
they have been deprived of a sufficient
quantity of palatable food, and that the
little they have received has been rarely
cooked, because in country Astounding ir
fuel, and gloomy with immense pine for
ests, their iailors forbade them the pool
privilege of adequate fires At the prison
pen near Milan, Ga, for some weeks there
has been no meal or flour given to the
prisoners, and the sweet potatoes issued in
lieu thereof have been eaten raw, because
there was no opportunity of getting fuel
for cooking purposes.
Such is the condition of the men whom
we are now receiving out of chivalrOus
Dixie. These the sons, brothers, hus-
bands and fathers of the North. Men re-
duced to living skeletons; men almost
naked; shOeless men, shirtless men, hat
less men; men with no other garment
than an Overcoat; men whose skins are
blackened by dirt and hung on their pro.
truding bones loosely as bark on a tree
men whose very presence is simply dis
gushing, exhaling an odor 80 fetid that it
almost stops the breath of those unaccus-
toned to it, and causing an involuntary
brushing Of the garments if with them
there is accidental contact. imagine
$4,000 of such wretched creatures penned
together in space scarcely large enough
to hold them, and compare their condition
with the most miserable condition that can
be imagined. The sufferings of the Revo-
lutionary cartives on the prison ships at
WallabOut Bay will not stand the COMPARE
son, and the horrible night in the Black
hole in Calcutta scarcely exceeds it in
atrocity. Remember, too, that the men
thus returned are the best specimens of the
suffering. Only those are forwarded to
US whom the rebel authorities decide to
be strong enough to bear the fatigue of
transportation. If those whose wretched-
ness l have vainly endeavOred to portray,
are the best specimens of our sick and
wounded, is it not awful to contemplate
what must be the woe of the remainder
Look, now, at this record of the rebel
surgeons. Here is damning proof of in.
humanity, scarcely to be credited among
a people protesting Christianity in the
nineteenth century. For the period of a
month, through which these reports ex-
tend, there is a constant, mOnotonous
complaint, often assuming the language of
protest, against the treatment to which the
sick were subjected. Men in the last
stages of emaciation from chronic diar.
rhea, received no nourishment whatever,
and starved to death on the coarse rations
which the stomach of strong man would
reject. Others, suffering from gangrene
and ulcers, were compelled to tester in pu-
tridity without even sufficient water to
cleanse their loathsome sores. Week after
week the diseased and the dying were kept
without shelter, and many of them with
out clothing, on the bare ground, exposed
to torrid sun by day, and to heavy rains
at all times, in total disregard of the earn
est and almost despairing appeals of kind
hearted physicians for their relief. 1t is
very easy to understand how much of this
terrible wretchedness was unavoidable,
nm ri ,1or In hot MT ~fs
ed from the scarcity of medicines, but it
requires very ingenious mind to palliate
in any degree the heartlessness which al
lowed the sufferers to remain shelterless
in country where the materials for shell
Ter are as abundant as in the South, and
where thousands of willing hands from
the prisoners in the stockade would have
furnished all the labor But why dwell
on these matters7 The shocking inhu-
mainly OF the rebel authorities will be pa
tent to all who read these plain unvarn-
ished reports.