The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1865-09-26

@. c. Gibbs, once commandment of the post
of Camp Sumter at Andersonvillc testified TO
the crowded state of the prison; lit was
more like an ant.hill than anything else.
At au early period there We're ouly 6,OOO or
1000 prisoners there; subsequently there
were $4,000. lie testified to the existence
of the dead line and to the fact that
hounds were employed to track escaped
prisoners.
DR.. John e. Bates. an assistant rebel sur
gcou at Andersonvillc, reported for duty
at that post September 80, 1861 aud re-
manned until March &C. On going into a
ward Of the hospital he was rather
| shocked lie saw a number of men lying
partially naked, dirty and lousy, IN the
sand othcrs were crowded together IN
small but unserViceable teuts. They often
asked him for a teaspoonlul of salt, or for
some of tho siltngs from the meal, or for a
bone. Tho men were destitute OF medical
attendance, as aho of clothing aud bedding.
There was little fuel. He narrated M
story of u young prisoner of fifteen or six-
teen years of arc, to whom he occasionally
broughta a potato or a biscuit, and who I'm
ally died ,of gangrene and scmvy; his
sores gangrened, aud from want OF food
and from lice he died." 1t was against the
orders to give any thing to the prisoners to
help their condition. When DR.. Bates
went there, there were 10000 or 20,OOO
prisoners crowded together, of whom IRON
., 600 to $500 were sick. Some had made
holes, or burrows, in the earth. The Doc
tor saw but little shelter excepting what
ingenuity had devised lie says:
found them suffering with souryy, dropsy
diarrhea, gOugrenS, pneumonia, and other dis
eases. When prisoners died they were laid II
wagons, heads ioremostt to be carried Oh. DON
know how they were buried. The eiliuvia IRON
the hospital was very oiltnsive; if by accidl't my
hands were abraded would not go into the hos
ptal without putting plaster over the affected
part. lfpcrsonS whose systems were reduced ol
inaction should perchancc, stump toe, or scratch
the hand the next report 20 me was gangrene, Sc
potent was the regular hospital gangreue. Ih'
prisoners were more thicky confined in the stock
adc, like ants aud bees, Fifty per cent. oi-thos
who died might have been saved; feel safe il
saying scyonty-fve per cent might have beer
saved had the patients been properly cared for.
According to DR.. Bates the men had only
20 ounces of food for % hours.
The next day Dr.. Bates continued his
testimony He said
The scurvy there was next to rotcuncss; som
of the patients could not eat, because there wa
no mastcatiou; their teeth were loose; tucy ire
auently asked him to give them something to ca
which would not cause pain; while Dr. ote
venson was Medical Director he did not NANTES
much interest in the relief of the necesSitonS; tn
rations were less than twenty ounces in twenty
b. four hours he did not know but what man woul
starve to death on it, especially il the food was
few articles and monotonous sometimes the mes
was GOOD and sometimes bad IN conscq ucucc
the paucity and unwholcsomeneSs OF rations, SON
Of the m5n starved to death; the reamputatipns, ow
ing TO gangrcncous wounds, were numerous; thei
!, was plenty Of wood in the nrighbmhocd, whc
might have been cut to answer all demands.
The following letter was offered in test
= mony:
Fnsr DIVISION c. S. NJ. y. HOSPITAL,
Y September s. 1864.
. SIR As officer of the day for the past twenty
u four hours | have inspected the hospital aud fin
4 IL in as good condition as thenature Of the crcun
- stances will allow. A majority of the hunks al
3 still unsupplied with bcdding while ina portit
u of the division, the tents entirely destitute
: either hunks, bedding, or straw the patients beir
~ compelled to lie upon the bare ground.
n / would earnestly call your attention to the a
p ticle Of det the corn bread received from u
- bakery being made up without sitting Is who'll
unfit for the use of the sick; and often, as in Il
h last twenty -four hours, upon examination the inn
" portion Is found to be perfectly raw. The me
Ibee6 received by the patients does not amount
l. over two ounces day; and for the past three
Il four DAYS no -four has been issued. The Co
= bread cannot be eaten by many for 70 do SO won
be I, Increase the diseases Of the bowels, fro
= which a large majority are suffering; aud 1t
q therefore thrown away. All their ratinns receive
u by way Of susenanee is two ounces OF boiled be
II and half pint of rice sonp per day Una
D. these circumstances all the skill that can
J., brought to bear upon their cases by the medic
N officer will avail nothing.
- Another point 90 which feo II my duty to ca
ID your attention Is the deficiency OF medicines.
g. have bu, little more thuu the indigenous barks al
l. roots wit which to treat the numbers of forms
a disease to which our attention is daily called
Ia the treatment of wounds, ulcers, etc., we have
>. orally nothing but water. Our wards, some
II them are wild with gangrenc; and we are col
r PEELED to fold our arms aud look quietly upon
l. ravages, not even having stnulants 10 supp
NJ the system under its depressing influence; the
1 ticls being 50 limited in supply that it eau only
- issued for cases under the knife.
would respectfully call your earnest attenti
0t to the above facts, in the hope that something m
k. be done to alleviate the suilerings Of the sick
Of J. CREwIS PILOT.
W Assist Surgeon, p. A. c. 81 and officer of
II 70 Surgeon e. d. ELANp, in charge First Div
u ion G. s. NJ. 7. Hospital.
OF DR.. A. w. Barrows, who had served
- physician to tho Twenty Seventh. Mass
chusetts, and had beena prisoner at And'
} sonville testified that when he wsnt the
10 there were six or seven hupdred =
~ tients lying on the groncd partially make
~ some had broken limbs aud gdnSrel
IL scnrvy aud chronic diarrhea." CAPITA
10 Wirz threatened that when any prison
~ escaped he would slarve every id ft
0, kee for it.. He had seen WiTz on hOri
III back with the blOod-hOunds, and testified
several cases in which prisoners had di
~ from their lacerating bites. The matt
used for vaccination was poisonous, and =
9s putations resulted. In regard TO food |
- Barrows says:
:" The ration when he went there was small = I
ounces of bacon, small potato, corn bread I
ld and half inches square6 no Coffee tea, sugar,
rs. flour; sometimes there was little rice soup
nd gallon OF rice to thirty gallous OF wato IN J'
:. the morals Of the prisoners were corrupted
I" cruel treatments men would steal from each otl
something 10 eat and would work even among
is filth for the potato plrirgs, or any thing Csc.
on OF cruelties inllicted upon tie pr
at oners he says '-
III The prisoner was punished either in the sto,
nj or The chain gangs; the stocks consisted OF fran
raj work six feet high with boards shut together,
N. barely sufficient room for mans neck; II
~ | thus fastened could stand on their feet, wi
~ others merely touched the ground with tieir Ia
90 and the chaiu-gang was sometimes composed
Q sig men aul sometimes eighteen; they were ha
IN cuffed, and chaius passed around their necks
ed legs, and 70 these chains a thirty-two pound /
ia was fastenedi the gang would be held together
-. or two weeks, the mer meantime being exposed
wv the sun ard rain, which bad the effect Of weak
su' ing and reducing theni hehad no doubt Of the
ent that some died in consequences another kind
not punishment was putting the feet IN stocks, the
ate being elevated and the other parto OF the body
~ ing on the grouud When . raid was expe'
>, from Kilpatrick, the witness heard Captain
IL gyo an order 10 hre upon the Prisoners u I
Ter hudded together; there were from thirty three
the thirty six thousand prisoners there at the u
rt- and ~ the month OF August as alpearsya rom