Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1864-05-26
Number 81.

opportunity Many have been N eiI
: cilessly shot and killed When the
failed to comply with all the demand
: Of their jailers; sometimes for viola
ting rules of which they had not beef
informed Crowded In great mum
bers in buildings, they have beer
fired at and killed BY the Sentinel:
outside when they appeared at the
windows for the purpose ofobtaininc
q little fresh air. One man, whose
comrade in the service aud Ia cap.
svity had been so fortunate as to be
among those released from further
torment, was shot dead as he was
waving with his hand last adieu To
his friends. Other instances Of
equally unprovoked murder are dis,
closed by the testimony h31'gI .si'e.
The condition of our fetursed soi.
dfers as regards personal cleanliness
has been filthy almost beyond des.
cription. Their clothes have been
so dirty and covered with vermin
that those who have received
these men have been compelled to
destroy their clothing, and reclothe
them with new and clean raiment
Their boots and hats have been so
| infested with vermin that, in some
instances, repeated washings have
Jailed to remove them, and those
who have received them in CHARGE
have been compelled to cut all the
hair from their heads, and make ap-
plication to destroy the vermin.
Some have been received with no
clothing but shirts and drawers and
pieces of blankets, or other outside
covering; entirely destitute of coatss
hats, shoes or stockings and the
bodies OF those better supplied with
clothing have been equally filthy
with the others, many who have been
sick and in the hospital having had
no opportunity to wash their bodies
for weeks and months before they
were released from captivity.
Your committee are unaDled to
convey any adequate idea of the sad
and deplorable condition of the men
they saw in the hospitals they visited
and the testimony they have taken
can not convey to the reader the i'm
pressions which your committee
there received. The prisoners we
saw, as we were assured by those in
charge of them, have greatly improv-
ed since they have been received in
the hospitals, yet they are now dy-
ing daily, one of them being in the
very throes of death; and your com
mittee stood by his bedside and wit
messed the sad spectacle there pre-,
sented. All those whom your com.
nittee examined stated that they
have been thus reduced and emacia
ted entirely in consequence of the
merciless treatment they received
while prisoners, from their enemies.
Physicians in charge of them--the
men best fitted by their profession
and experience to express an opin-
ion upon the subject--all say that
they have no doubt that the state.
ments of their patients are entirely
correct.
1t will be observed from the tes-
timony that all the witnesses who
testified upon that point state that
the treatment they received while
confined at Columbia, South Carroll.
ma, Dalton, Georgia, and other pla-
ces was far more humane than that
they received at Richmond, where
the authorities of the so called Con-
federacy were coRgregated, and
where the power existed, had the in
clination not been wanting, to reform
these abuses and secure to the pris-
oners they held some treatment that
would bear a feeble comparison to
that accorded by our authorities to
the prisoners in our custody. Your
there ore. are constrained
20 say that they can hardly avoid the
expressed py so MANY of
,ur released soldiers, that the inhu-
nan practices herein referred to are /
he result of determination on the {
part of the rebel authorities to re-
luce our soldiers in their power by
'rivation of food and clothing, and !
~ exposure, to such a condition that 8
hose who survive shall never recoy I
r so as to be able to enter into effect. {
We service in the field, and your com
nittee accordingly ask that this re- Q
,ort, with the accompanying testimo- c
". be printed, with the report and s
estimony in relation to the massacre 8
If Fort Pillow-the one being, in l
heir opinion, no less than the other i
he result of predetermined policy.
Is regards the assertions of some of {
he rebel newspapers, that our pris- 1
'Rers have received at their hands I
he same treatment that their own
oldiers in the field have received,
hey are evidently but the most I
daring and unblushing falsehoods. ]
So one can, for a moment, be decei- I
ed by such statements, who will re.
Iect that our soldiers who, when ia
zen prisoners, have been stout,
Iealthy men, in the prime and yigor
# life, yet have died by hundreds
IDder the treatment they have recei-
ed, although required to perform
10 duties OF the camp or the march; I
While the rebel soldiers are able TO {
make long and rapid marches, and 4
o offer o stubborn resistance in the I