Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-07-30
ing 7ortwe-Neses about Wisconsin, Prison.
ers-7he Spirit of Martyrs Shoun.
or.prrRs an WIS. BATTERY.

ers-Ihe Spirit OF Martyrs Shoacn.
Correspondence of the State Journal.
QUARTERS Sd Wis. BATTERY,
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn, July II, 1864.
MEssRs. EDIroRs Yesterday p. N. our
camp was thrown into commotion by the sud
den appearance of our comrade, Thomas
Boyle, who was taken prisoner at the battle
of Chickamauga, and who made his escape
from the rebel prison at Americas, Georgia,
10 miles south of Atlanta by railroad, on the
l4th day of June, and after being captured
three times-once by blood hoaRds-and many
hair-breadth escapes and thrilling adventures,
came into our lines on the Chattahoochee
river on the 5th of July.
The tale of horror he tells of the suffering
and treatment of our PRISONERS is almost be-
yond belief The barbarous ages give no
parallel to it, The sufferings undergone by
our men at Belle Isle and Libby Prison were
comforts compared to this.
The statements of Mr.. Boyle can be relied
upon in their every particular. Any one
that knows him will testify 10 his veracity.
make this assertion, feeling that many will
doubt even the faint outline | shall give of
his statements.
At the time he made his escape, there were
confined NINETEEN THOUSAND Federal
prisoners in a stockade inclosing TWELVE
ACRES ofground, through the center of which
runs s1Oanp, that covers about three acres
of said twelve. The men are without blan-
kets and many of them almost nude, and all
ragged, dirty, and lousy. No soap is allowed
them. They have no tents or shelter except
holes IN the ground which they have dug with
their hands and sticks for shovels, making
roofs (if such they may be called) over them
by using sticks for rafters which are covered
with dirt. The water they have to use is OBJ
tanned by digging holes on the edge of the
aforementioned swamp. Their ratiOns con-
sist of about three ounces of meat and apiece
of corn bread four inches square each day.
In lieu of this bread they eery often get a pint
and one half of corn meal which they have to
bake, lcitltout salt, on a board before camp
fire. Sometimes their bread and meal fails
and then they get pint of rice. They very
often have to go without their meat ration.
Such treatment seems almost too horrible
for well, able-bodied men to undergo; but
they are not well, on the contrary, they are
suffering the most horrible diseases. Nearly
all of the Gettysburg and Chickamauga pris-
| oners, that are yet alive, have the scurvy in
its worst form. Two-thirds of the whole
number are suffering from the same dread
disease. Their limbs are stiff and swollen,
| teeth dropping out and gums loose and fiabby.
The soul turns sick from the awful picture.
| The hospital differs from the stockade or
prison only in that there the men have tents
| but they are compelled to lie on tie ground
| 1citholtt blankets. The average number of
deaths is fifty per day. The rebel surgeons
| have no medicine to give tie sick.
At the stockade they have an imaginary
| line which if our men cross they are shot
| dead by the rebel guards, and hence it is
| there called the "dead line" Many of the
mems sufferings are so great that they voLUN-
TARILY CROSS THE DEAD LINE AND ARE SHOT.
Mr.. Boyd says he has witnessed many such
| scenes.
There are very many crazy ones, made so
by their intolerable sufferings and loss of all
hope of being exchanged.
The dead are stripped of their clothing, if
there be any that is at all good on them, and
then piled up in a cart and drawn off to the
burial ground and thrown in trenches about
six feet wide and the usual depth that graves
are dug and then covered with earth.
OF the eleven men from our battery that
were taken at Chickamauga, three are dead,
| viz: l.. j. Uline, died at Richmond, Va, Titus
| Chaplin died in Danville of the small pox,
Henry Hess died of fever. Ga Decker, who
escaped from Danville, but was reeaptured
after getting so miles away, is with the Others
at Americas and quite well Sylvester Palmer
was Just coming down with the scurvy at the
| time of Mr.. Boyles escape Paul Guion and
| VIM. Mcmahon were both in the hospital very
low with scurvy; Thomas Hawley is also
| very low with scurvy and diarrhea and in the
hospital; James Livingston was in the stock
| ade, and had buried the lower part of his
| body in the ground to see if it would not re-
| lieve him of the scurvy.
| The following 1st Wisconsin Infantry men
with which Mr.. Boyle is acquainted are well,
viz: John Dougherty, sergt Anderson and
| VIM. Mills.
May God pity the friends of the bereaved
and the suffering ones still in prison and their
friends, and hasten the close of this war that
| the suffering ones may be free.
Mr.. Boyle says that the men often wonder
why they are not exchanged or paroled. The
rebels represent it as all the fault of our
| Government. But they nearly all say that il
| Uncle Sam has stated the terms upon which
he will exchange, and the reason is because
the rebels will not exchange negroes, then
are they willing to stay there and suffer and
die. The idea of the lofty sentiments they
are giving their lives for is all that has kept
them alive thus far. A country should be
proud of such noble martyrs.
l shall have ready in few days Mr.. BOyle's
narrative of his escape and adventures, as
near verbatim as possible, which will send
to you, at his request, for publication.
III. S. HOWARD,
Sd Wis. Battery, Chattanooga, Tenn.