Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1864-11-18
Sufteriu rs of Our Soldiers im Rebel
Prisons.

recently published under the auspices G
the Z. S. Sanitary CoSmission, givin
sworn statements of the privations an
sufteriHgs endured by Union soldiers il
rebel hands. The records OF this vol
ume are most painful, but should b
known to all lovers of freedom an.
common humanity. The proofs of III
barbarity of the rebels toward UnioI
prisOners-nOt of mere occasional act
of atrocity, but of deli berute and per
sistent cruelty-are such that none bu
the wilfully blind can fail 10 see an,
shudder at them. The evidence, draw
from many different SD lrces, and sifte'
by upright and truthful men, il cumu
lative in its character, and presents al
irrefragible argument against any pre-
tensions of the rebels to even the char
acter of tolerably humane savages. II
! contrast with this is exhibited ihe emf
nently humane regulations OF the Uniol
prisons and hospitals, the entire mass o
statements being properly vouched TO
and authenticated.
Speaking of the appearance of prison
ers who were brought to A Annapolis ant
Baltimore from Libby prison. Belle Isl'
and other Southern military stations
the committee say:
The photographs of these diseased anC
emaciated men, since so widely circulat
ed, painful as they are, do not, in many
RESPECTS, adequately represent the suf
terers rs they then appeared.
The best picture cannot convey tht
reality, nor create that startling anC
sickening sensation which is felt at the
sight OF q human skeleton, with the
SKIN drawn tightly over its skull, and
ribs and limbs, weakly turning auO
moving itself as if still Il living man.
The same spectacle was often repeated
rs the visitors went from bed TO bed
from ward to ward, and from tent t.
tent. The bony faces stared out above
the counterpanes,w watching the passerby
urealniiy and indiilerently. Here and
there lay one, half over upon his face
with his bed clothing only partially
dragged over him, deep in sleep or stu
por. 1t was strange to find Il Hercules
in bones; to see the immense hands and
feet OF d; young giant pendant from
cCuId be spanned Will. the thumb and
finger. Equally strange and horrible
was il 10 come upon II ..ian in one part
shriveled to nothing but skin and bone,
and i'll another swollen and missilapcn
with drOpsy or scurvy or, further OH,
when the surgeon lifted the covering
from a poor, half-cOnsciouS creature, to
see the stomach fallen in, deep as ba-
sin, and the bone protruding through n
blood red hole on the hip.
In summing up, the Committee say:
"it is the same story everywhere
prisoners OF war treated worse than con-
victs, shut up either in sufiocating
buildings, or in outdoor Enclosures,
without even the shelter that is provi-
ded for the beasts OF the field unsup-
piled with sufficient food supplied with
rood and water injurious and even poi
s0nous; compelled to live in such per-
sOnal uncleanliness as to generate YER
min !; Compelled to sleep Oh floors often
covered with human filth, or on ground
saturated with it: compelled to breath
an air oppressed with an intUlerable
stencil henumed in by q fatal e;,d-line,
and in hourly danger of being shot by
unrestrained and brutal guards; des-
pondent even to madness, idiOcy and
suicide; sick of diseases $50 congruous
in character as to appear and spread like
the plague,) caused by the torrid sun,
10y decaying food, by the filth, by YER
min, by malaria. and by cold removed
ut the last moment, and by hundreds at
IA time, to hospitals corrupt as sepul-
cher, there, with a few remedies, little
care and no sympathy, to die in wretch
edness and despair, not only among
strangers, but among enemies too re-
sentful to have pity or to show mercy.
These are positive facts. Tens of
thousands of helpless men have been
and are now being disabled and destroy
ed by process as certain as poison, and
us cruel us the torture or burning at the
stake, because nearly rs agonizing and
more prolonged. This spectacle is daily
beheld aud allowed by the rebel Govern
ment.
No supposition of negligence, or
thoughtlessness, or Indifference, or a"ci-
dent, or incfficiency, or desttution, or
necessity, can account for all this. So
many and such positive forms of abuse
and wrong cannot come from negative
causes.