Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-12-08
Southern Treatment Of our Prison-


The revolving details of the deliberate
and savage cruelty inflicted upon oul
soldiers In rebel hands, are familiar &c
our readers. The Port Royal CORES
pondent OF the New York Times now
/ furnishes evidence, derived from rebel
(ocuments, which strips OFF every pre-
tenseof excuse or palliation Cor this bru
tal treatment, and leaves 1t standing in
Its naked deformity. as o horrible mon
ument Of the brutalizing effects of hu
man slavery. For such brutality could
be possible nowhere among men profess
ing 10 be civilized, except they had be
come besotted by the influences of tina,
institution which has fearfully proved
. itself the sum of all villainies. s58i
The Times correspondent furnishes
copies Of the daily official reports of the
rebel surgeons themselves who had
charge Of the prisoners confined at An
dersonville,7 Ga. The reports copied
'soyer the space of q month, In the mid
summer of 1864, and confirm all that has
been said heretofore of the barbarities
practiced upon the prisoners. We fur
ther find from these rebel documents,
which would not be likely to over-state
the matter, that the prisoners were de-
prived, with the most needless and
lheartless cruelty, of necessaries entirely
withiR the means of the rebel authori-
ties to grant; that they were forbidden
to use what their own labor would have
easily supplied them with, at no cost to
the rebel government The Times sums
up from these rebel reports, which it
prints but which are too lengthy for
our columns, the necessities above re-
1erred to, which could easily have been
supplied but Of which the Union mar
tyrs were deprived, as follows:
/. The room allowed our prisoners
within the Andersonville stockade might
have been enlarged, so that the $4,000
or 80, 900 prisoners could have been re-
moved from unwholesome contact; so
that the means of ablution and general
attention to personal cleanliness might
have been available; and 80 that the
sick might have been separated from
those In health.
2. Our prisoners might have had
abundant shelter at no cost to the rebel
authorities. Pine woods abounded all
around them, and shelter tents of mode.
rate comfort our men would gladly have
extempOrized from these, by their own
labor.
= 3. Water could have been supplied to
our men at q small cost OF labor which
the healthy prisoners would themselves
have readily borne.
A. Fuel was superintendent on every
side OF the Enclosure. Yet, the Confede-
rate surgeons testify that enough was
not permitted to reach the stockade,
even To do the sparse cooking of the hos
8. Our men might have been permit
thd toremove the excrement Of the camp;
but 1t appears to have been part OF the
punishment indicted on them to prevent
such removal-five acres being complete
~ covered Herewith.
We might add to this list of needless
and deliberate cruelties-cruelties aris-
ing In no sense or degree out of the
straits of the Confederacy either in the
matter of labor or provisioning. But it
Is needless to enlarge the indictment.
Says DR.. Patterson, writing to his
superior in the Confederate Medical De-
partment, on the 18th OF August. az
find great negligence in interring the
dead, some of the bodies having lain as
many as four days." With the ther-
mometer at 100 in the shade, we know
what this means. Four days later, Dr.
reports to his superior from
the same hospital: THE patients are
compelled to lie on the ground, many OF
them without blankets and some of them
'esthsas clothes" This officer pleads in the
same report for small supply Of wash
Ing basins: The ones we have been
using the urges) for dressing wounds
md .lce,s are not fit for other use" The
surgeon prays, too, for some means of |
getting water supply for the hospital.
DR.. Masses making his hospital re-
port on the 10th Of August. states that
find the beef In very bad condition, |
having been blown by flies 80 long that |
t was infested with live insects or
:reepers."
So late as the 7th of September, DR.
Chornburg testifies regarding his pa.
tents that many of them are still on
he ground, without blankets or anything
o protect them" Another surgeon
that the peas furnished to his
'atients "scoald produce disease among
,csms;:" and still another. says: "The
rowded condition, the lack of an album
lance Of good water, the accumulation
4 human excrement, the prisoners food
ot being cooked, don't speak well of
be health Of the prison." MANY of
~ patients, again adds Dr.. Thornburg,
are suffering as much from hunger US
rom their disease"
Such u Southern chivalry at its first
tempted outset upon career of indie
endence. Such are some Of the creden.
ais 1t offers to sustain its claims for
into the family OF civilized
atoms. Will foreign sympathizers look
the picture7 IL Is drawn by no un-
iendly hands. /,
SHERNAH's Misunderstanding to the
'atements of the rebel press, Gen.
ko.1 Sko a-L - | ,