American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-02-03

death on the slightest iufraction of the
military rules Of the Jail. Hearing of
this deplorable state Of affairs, the lady
before mentioned obtained access to the
prisoners by means not necessary to speci-
| fly, and found such condition to be even
worse than it had been described to her.
She Immediately set herself to the task
of allevia;ing their suffering. She secret
ly collected from the Union men of Charles
ton thirty-fv hundred dollars, to which
sum she added five hundred dollars of her
own small fortune, and with this money
she from time to time purchased suchpro-
visions and comforts as she thought nec-
essary for the prisoners, and privately in
troduced her stores during her daily visits
to the Jail. Nor did her kind offices end
here. She and her children faithfully
nursed those of the prisoners who were
suffering csth wounds or with disease, and
expended their own domestic iu11..rles IN
aileviating the axacting wants of the sick
bed. These scenes of misery were sufi-
ciently trying to kind hearted woman,
but more awaited her.
On the arrival at Charleston of the pris-
oners from the captured steamer Isaac
Smith, the lady prepared herself with
large supply Of provisions, and entered the
Jail. The first sight that met her eyes was
the body of stalwart, athletic man, lying
upon the floor, perfectly naked and appar
emily dead. On stopping to examine him,
she found that he YVES not dead, but in a
stupor, produced by extreme suffering
She applied large bowl of tea to his lips,
when, to her astonishment, he seized 1t
and drained it almost at draught. This
man had not had so much as morsel of
food or a cup of water for three days. He
was terribly wounded upon the head, and
from the wide and putrid wound she wash
ed double handful of flies and maggots.
The second man she saw lying in corner
of the prison, almost naked, with his limbs
twisted together as if he were then in the
agonies of death. Observing that the la
DIV was making towards this sad object,
the iailor said "You need not trouble
yourself about that man. The doctor says
he has not five minutes of life in him. "
So the lady passed on to the other suffer
ers who mi ght be benefited by her care;
She found that they were all in mortal need
of her services, but none as she afterwards
discovered, to her horror was in such need
as the miserable man whom she had just
passed by, thinking his case hopeless
On visiting the prison the'next day, she
found him still lying in the position in
which she had left him, alive and smear
ed over with the filth which the poor crea-
ture in the frenzy of famine, had gather
ed from the floor and attempted to devour.
This man, not outstanding all the lady
could do for him, died at the end of an
other day. | know that this scene is re-
voting to common sensibility, but it is not
given to incite sentimental pity nor pleas
ant tears It is the stern, hard, terrible
truth, which the men of the north should
know when they come to deal with the
miscreants who inhabit the doomed city
wherein this tradgedy was enacted.
As long as the Union prisoners remain
ed n.Charleston the lady was assiduous in
her attentions to them; but there came an
order removing them to Columbia. Then
the last tie Of her affection for Charleston
was broken; she prepared to quit home
which she had occupied for twenty years,
and if possible to make her way North
Already she had received warnings from
her friends, and notices to quit the town
from her enemies She ana her children
were pursued with hQois aud ieers as they
passed along the streets. They were de-
nouncei as - damned yankees, and on one
occasion some chivaric son Of the South
took upwhat in their exaggerated language
they term crock" and hurled itafter the
helpless woman. Gathering together her
movable household goods and her scanty
fund.- now much reduced, with her family
of four young children, she, at great ex-
rense, made her way to Richmond, and
was permitted to cross within lines.