Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1864-11-16

Col Ould. The officers were permitted
to send out and buy articles at extrava-
CANT prices, and would find the clothes,
stationery, hams and butter which they
had purchased, bearing the marks of the
sanitary commission. In one instance
this constant thievery became an unex-
pected advantage to the inmater After
the famous tunnelling out, by which SO
many effected their escape, the guards con-
fessed that they had seen the fugitives,
but supposed they were theirown men
stealing the boxes! The tunnel after
running upder the street. had its outlet
near where the boxes were piled up.
When Richmond was threatened by OUT
troops. Richard Burner took care to dash
the hopes of his captives, as well as add
to their anxiety, by informing them that
should Fitzpatrick succeed in entering
Richmond, it would not help them, as the
prison authorities would blow up the
prison, and all its inmates" Lieut.. La
touche was overheard observing to reb-
el officer with whom he had entered the
cellar, where the two hundred pounds of
pow der were said to be placed. There
is enough there to send every damned
Yankee to he'll Turner himself said,
in the presence of Col Farnsworth, in
answer to the question, " Was the prison
mined 2" " Yes and | would have blown
you all to Hades, before | would have
suffered you to be rescued" A remark
of Turner's justifying the act, which was
mentioned to one of the commissioners,
bnt accidentally omitted in the formal
testimony, gives quite decided turn to
the very natural probability that the
ficndish plan was resolved upon: Sup
pose Fitzpatrick should have got in here,
what would my life have been worth when
you all got loose Yes, would have
blown you all to Hadcs before l would
have suffered you to be rescued"
Thousands of sufferers at Belle Isle en-
dured similar hardships, intensified by
entire want of shelter Stripped of blan-
kets and ovcrcoats, hatlcss often, shoeess
often, in ragged coats and rotting shirts,
they we're obliged to take the weather as
it came. Here and there tent had o
fire, and the inmates gathered round it,
but the thousands ontside shivered as the
cold cut them to the bone, and hudded
together for warmth and sympathy.
The winter cpme--and one of the hard
est winters ever experienced in the South
but still no better shelter was provided.
The mercury was down to zero at Mem
phis, which s further south than Rich
mond. The snow lay deep on the ground
around Richmond. The ice formed in
the James, and flowed in masses upon the
rapids on either side of the island. Wat
er, left in buckets OH island, froze two or
three inches deep in single night. The
men resorted to every expedicnt to keep
from perishing. They lay in the ditch,
as the most protected place, heaped upon
one anothes, and lying close together, as
one Of them expressed it, like hogs in win
ter" taking turns as to who should have
the outside of the row. In the morning
the row of the previous night was mark
ed by the motionless forms of those "who
were sleeping on in their last sleep -
FROZEN TO DEATH Every day, during
the winter season. numbers were conveyed
away stiff and stark, having fallen asleeT
in everlasting cold. Some of the met
dug holes in the sand, in which to take
refuge. All through the night crowds O
them we're heard running up and down tc
keep themselves from freezing And thi
fate threatened them, even more than i
would have threatened most men exposed
to an equally severe temperature, ever
with such thin clothing and inadequat
shelter-FoR THEY WERE STARVING!
They gnawed the very bones which ha'
been thrown away, sometimes breaking
them up for soup. They were glad to &c
T the refuse bread which was occasionall.
thrown to them by the guards. The.
even ate the rats which burrowed in tn
encampment A dog. belonging to an Of