Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1864-12-02
Our Returncd Prisouers.

SHOCKING INHUMANITY OF THE REBELS.
Two vessels filed with our sick prisoners,
just exchanged at Savannah Ca, arrived at
Annapolis. Nd, on Friday. The steamer At
lantic brought 6i9 living skeletons and dead
bodies, having been buried at sea. Our sur
geons we're appalled, at the wretched condition
OF the survivors. Not man among the num-
Der but had to be sent to the hospitals, many
to leave them only for the graveyard. The
900 on the Blackstone were in better condition,
and made the welkin ring as they landed on the
free shores of Maryland.
A correspondent OF the New York Herald
who witnessed the reception of our prisoners
below Savannah, gives this interesting ac-
count -
al never in my life conceived of such scene,
OF misery as some Of our poor fellows present.
ed. They suffered from scurvv mostly; but |
was told that others, worse off than those we
received, were left behind because of the i'm
| possibility OF transporting them in safety. Yet
they were joyous beyond description as they
came once more beneath the folds of the old
flag. On the passage down the Savannah river
to Venus Point-the designation of the spot
where the exchange is in progressively were
! permitted to make no demonstrations OF iov.
! Cheering, shouting and singing were prohibited
! by the rebel guards, who threatened to fire into
| the crowd if the stringent rules were violated
But when the vessels were lashed together, the
air was filled with jubiant shouts, and poor,
emaciated sufferers, resting in the strong arms
OF our nurses, mingle their feeble notes OF glad
ness with the lusty tones of the hale and hearty
as they were borne across the gang-planks 10
the decks of the Union craft
Our men were ragged beyond descriptinn.-
Some OF them had nothing on them but panta-
looms, and noticed one pair of inexpressibles
the legs of which reached only part way to the
knees of the wearer. Others had their limbs
| bound up with strips of blankets in place of
any other covering. Still others, whose gar.
ments had by great care been kept together,
were covered with vermin, which ratified from
them like sand. The sick vino were able to
help themselves at all, were certainly the most
pitiable objects | ever beheld. They were COW
cred with gangreGOus, fungous sores, harbors
for worms and maggots to crawl and wiggle in.
They were doubled up if in permanent
cramp. Some Of them had their lips eaten
away by their loathsome disease, and were un-
able even 20 pronunce their names. They
washed and shaved, and furnished with new
clothes; and then having been placed upon
clean cots, were fed with biscuit coffee and
!
our men, as well as their physical frames, were
worn out; and after getting taste of biscuit
ard coffee some of them cried for more, as ba-
| bies cry for breast milk and yet they confessed
| that they had not in any three days of their i'm
prisonment eaten so much as they had just de-
voured."
Before our prisoners were moved from An
dersonville, Ga, l 600 had been buried there.
Correspondence of the rebel surgeons there
furnishes full proof of the cruelty of their treat
ment. Men in the last stages of emacia,ion
from chronic diarrhea received no nourishment
whatever, and starved to death on the coarse
rations which the stomach of a strong man
would reject. Others, suffering from gangrene
and ulcers, were compelled to tester in putridl-
ty without even sufficient waterto cleanse their
loathsome sores Week alter week the diseased
and the dying were kept without shelier, and
many of them without clothing, on the bare
ground. exposed to torrid sun by day and to
heavy rains at all times, in total disregard Of
the earnest and almost disparing appeals Of
kind-hearted physicians for their relief.