The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1864-12-08

to him, but il was too late-"anOther
guard would haze furlough," the
men said. 1t was q common belief
among our men; arising from state.
ments made by our guard, that Gen
etal Winder, in command, issued an
order that any one Of the guard who
should shoot q Yankee outside of the
"dead- line should have month g
furlougb, but there was probably no
truth in this. About two a day were
thus shot, some being cases Of suicide.
brought on by mental depression or
physical misery, the poor fellows
throwing themselves or madly rush
ing outside the slime"
The mental condition of large por-
ton of the men was melancholy. be-
ginning in dependency and ending
in kind of stolid and idiotic indiffer-
ence. Many spent much time in rous
ing and encouraging their fellows,
but hundreds were lying about mo-
tionless, or stalking vacantly TO and
fro quite beyond any help which could
be given them within their prison
walls. These cases were frequent
among those who had been imprisoned
but short time. There were those
who had been captured at the first
Bull Run, July, 1861, and had known
Belle Isle from the first, yet had pre-
served their physical and mental
health to wonderful degree. Many
were wise and resolute enough to keep
themselves occupied some in cutting
bone and wood ornaments, making
their knives out of iron hoops-others
in manufacturing ink from the rust
from these same hoops, and with rude
pens sketching or initiating bank notes
or any sample that would involve long
and patient execution.
Letters from homo very seldom
reached us, and few had any means
of writing. In the early Summer, q
large batch of letters-fve thousand
we were told-arrived, having been
accumulated somewhere for many
months. These were brought into
camp by an officer, under orders to
collect ten cents on each; of course.
most of them We're returned, and we
heard no more of them. One of my
company saw among them three from
his parents, but he was unable to pay
the charge According to the rules Of
transmission of letters over tho lines
these letters must have already paid
ten cents to tho rebel Government.
1t is melancholy and mortifying
fact, that some of our trials came from
our own men. At Belle Isle and An
dersonville there were among US a
gang of desperate men, ready to prey
on their fellows. Not only thefts and
robberies, but even murders were com.
mitted. Affairs became so serious at
Camp Sumter that appeals were made
to General Winder, who authorized an
arrest and trial by criminal court
Eighty-six wero arrested and six were
hung, besides others who were severe
ly punished. These proceedings ef.
fected marked change for the better
Some weeks before being released,
was ordered to act as clerk in the hos
pital. This consists simply of a few
scattered trees and fly tents, and is in
charge Of DR.. White, an excellent and
considerate man, with very limited
means, but doing all in his power for
his patients. He has twenty-five as.
sistants, besides those detailed TO ex.
anime for admittance to the hospital
This examination was made in small
stockade attached to the main one. to
the inside door of which the sick came
or were brought by their comrades
the number to be removed being lin.
tied. Lately, in consideration of the
rapidly increasing sickness, it was ex,
tended to one hundred and fifty daily
That this was too small an allowance
is shown by tho fact that the deaths
within our stockade were from thirty
to forty day. l have seen ono hun.
dred and fifty bodies waiting passage
to the "dead house." to be buried with
those who died in the hospital. The
average of deaths through the earlier
months was thirty a day; at the time
| left the average was over ono hun.
dred and thirty, and one day the rec.
ord showed one hundred and thirty
six.
The proportion of deaths from star,
patton, not including those consequent
on the diseases originating in the char
acter and limited quantity of food, such
as diarrhoea, dysentery and scurvy,
cannot say; but to tho best of my
knowledge, information and belief
there were scores euery month. We
could, at any time, point out many fol
whom such fate was inevitable, at
they lay or feebly walked mere skele
tons. For example, in some cases the
inner edges of the 2 bones of the arms
between the elbow and the wrist, with
the intermediate blood vessels, were
plainly visible when held toward the
light. The ration, in quantity, was
perhaps barely sufficient to sus
tain life, and the cases Of starvation
were generally those whose stomach'
could not retain what had become in
digestible.
For man to find, on waking, thai
his comrade by his side was dead, was
an occurrence too common to be noted
I have seen death in all the forms o.
hospital and the battle field, but the
daily scenesin Camp Sumter exceeded
in the extremity Of misery all my pre-