The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1864-08-11
Return Of Exchanged Their
Sufferings and Deplorable Condition.
A Tale of Unmitigated and Infamous
CrunItU sea. -.r~ .esE
NEW w-ORLEANs, July 27, 1864,

Cruelty. gsl q
NEw-ORLEANs, July 27, 1864.
Few sights have been recently seen il
the streets of this or indeed of any othe
American city which have created more
painful or profound impression than the
marching in last Sunday morning, The
25th inst, of some 500 of our men who
have been exchanged and just come in
from Camp Ford, near Tyler, in Texas
via Shreveport and the Red River. II
would be absolutely impossible in words
to express to your readers the abject
sQualor, destitution, and wretchedness Of
these noble soldiers as they filed up past
the headquarters of Gen, Candy on st.
e! Charles street, on their way from the boat
to the quarters assigned them in the Ala
bama aud Foctor's Cotton Presses. With
scarcely an exception, they were bare
footed, ragged to degree that cannot be
conceived of; many were absolutely desti-
tutc of sufficient rags to ELL the require
ments of common decency; large numbers
were without shirts or hats Of any kind !;
infested with vermin, their dingy rags
futtering in the wind and bound upon
their persons with strips of bark aud
strings; but they marched into New-Or-
leans proudly in spite of their squalor,
and with stout loyal hearts cheered the
old flag, in defense of which they have
SO cruelty and needlcssly suffered.
These men represented many States,
but the largest numbers Of any regiments
were the Goth Indiana, 16S men, the
18th Iowa 167 men. 18th Kentucky 100
men, and the 10Th New-Y ork 90 men, be-
side many smaller squads from nearly
every State IN Tic Union. Quite large
proportion Of them were the troops who
were captured under Lieut.-Col, J. B.
Leake Of the 2Qth Iowa at Bayou For
doche, some six or eight miles from Nor
ganzia, La, on the 26 of last September
The story of suffering which these men
have experienced since that time can
never be told as the men themselves re-
late it, nor can any language convey to
the world the misery which has been
theirs much of the long weary time that
they have been penned up in that terri
bic inclosure at Tyler, in Texas. 1t is
true that it is not to be expected that the
quarters Of prisoners of war shall be beds
of roses, but the Confederate authorities
have seemed 10 exercise, ever since this
war began, a refinement of cruelty in
their trcdfment of prisoners which is u
disgrace to the civilized world, a scandal
to the age in which We live, and an out
rage upon all the amenities which en-
lghtened nations practice toward their
prisoners taken in honorable warfare.
The stockade at Tyler or rather at
Camp Ford, which is somewhere about
four miles from Tyler, consists of an in
closure made Of pine trees, cut some sew
enteen feet in length, split in half, and
set upright in the ground, making
stockade some fifteen feet in hight The
size originally was an area of about two
acres, which was, however, enlarged af-
ter the Red River expedition to embrace
some seven acres in extent. There in
that pen some 4, 800 of our men have
been cooped in hunger, nakedness, filth,
and wretchedness for months past, and
until the last Of June 30 means were a.
lowed to the men for removing the filth
which had during the time accum ulated
inside their inclesure.
During last Winter our men were bare
footed almost to a man; many had no
shirts; scarcely any one had any blanket
at all in which to wrap his shivering
limbs from the winds; wood was doled
out in quantities insufficient even to cook
their scant rltions Of corn meal and hard
corned beef To be explicit, two sticks
of cord wood were issued per week to
cook the rations Of a mess Of twelve men,
and this was packed in on the mems
backs from the adjacent forests under
strict guard. Not even straw was per-
mitted to the shivering men, and have
the assurance of our officers and men of
having walked up many night last Win
ter benumbed with cold, and unable to
sleep from their inability to keep the
sluggish blood circulating in their veins.
No tents or quarters Of any kind what
ever were assigned the officers or men,
save the canopy Of Heaven for a shelter
and the earth beneath for bed.
They at once set about constructing
shelter of brush, bark and logs, when
permitted to go outside the stockade to
the neighboring forests aud cut Inside
the stockade itself were-trees at the start,
and these were used 50 far as they went
for constructing shelter in the shape Of
rude and brush huts.
Col. Lcake states that when he and
his brother officers in captivity first ar
rived at Camp Ford, on the 23d Of last
October, they were drawn up in line,
counted, aud ordered to be shown their
quarters. The hospitable duty developed
upon Adjt. Ochiltrie, who conducted
them to a part of the inclosure, where
there was slight ridge OF side hill, on
attaining which the Adjutapt, with the
bow of Brummel, turned to the party
remarking: "Gentlemen, these are your
quarters for the present" and walked a
away. And then in the earth they bur-
L. &c