Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1865-02-10

standing Immediately BESIDE me sehu-
mel, who must have acted under his di-
rect orders. December 10, Moses Smith,
Of The 7th Maryland colored infantry
while standing beside my quarters,
searching for scraps Of food from the
sweepings Of the cook-house, was shot
through the head
There were very many similar murd-
ers. / never knew any PreteEse even
made Of investig sing or furnishing them.
Our HFes were never safe for one mo-
ment Amy sentinel, at any hour Of
day or night, coald deliberately shoot
down any prisoner, or into any group Of
prisoners, black or white, and be would
not even be takan of bis past for it.
Nearly every week an officer came in
to the prison to recruit for the rebel
army Sometimes he offered heavy
boantiss. Always hr promised good
clothing and abundant food Between
twelve hundred and eighteen hundreG Z
Of our men enlisted in two montha
was repeatedly asked by prisoners,
sometimes with tears in their eyes
what shall / do7 ] don't want TO
starge to death. / am growing weaker
daily. If stay here | shall follow my
comrades TO the hospital and the dead
house. If | enlist | may live until / can
escape
had charge of the clothing left By
dead, and re-issued it to the living !
distributed articles Of clothing In more
than two thousand prisoners, bot
when ! escaped, there were fully five
hundred without shoe or stocking, and
more yet without garment above the
waist, except one blouse or one shirt
Men came to me frequently, upon whom
the rebels, when they captured them,
had left nothing whatever, except q
light cotton shirt, and pair Of light,
ragged, cotton pantaloons
The books Of all the hospitals were
kept and the daily consolidated reports
made up under my supervision Daring
the two months. between October / s and
I December Is, the average number Of
prisone was 800 The deaths for
that period were fully 1900, or twenty
per cent Of the whole. brought away
the names Of more than twelve hundred
of the dead; some Of the remainder
never we're reported the others could
not procure on the day Of my escape
without exciting suspicion. As the
men grew more debiiitaled the per cent
age OF deaths increased.
left about $500 remaining in the
garrison, December 18th, And they we're
then dying at an average Of twenty eight
day, or thirteen per cent per mouth
The simple truth IS that the rebel
authorities are numbering our soldiers
a, Salisbury By cold and hunger, while
they might easily supply them wiih am
pie food and fuel They are doing this
systematically, and | believe are killing
Intentionally, for the purpose Of either
forcing our Government TO nd exchange
or forcing our prisoners into the rebel
army.
The following is the testimony before
the committee, Of Junins Henri Browne.
| AN a Journalist by profession; have
been since the breaking out Of the war
an army correspondent OF the New York
/ Tribune. was captured 10 that capacity
I in the middle OF The Mississippi River,
( while running past the batteries OF
I Nicksburg, on The night Of May 3, 1868,
our expedition having been destroyed
/ by the rebel siege guns | vas held
/ prisoner some twenty months, having ia
that time been an occupant Of seven
Southern prisons, the last being the Sal
isbary North Carolina) peniTniiary,
where | was kept with my co-iaborer,
Albert ID. Richardson, for almost eleven
months, making my escape iherefrom in
his company, on the night of Dseemb bel
Is, 1864
The treatment OF our prisoners va,
bad enough everywhere, bat it was SC
barbarons and inhumAn al Salisbury
for Two months previous TO my escape
that | regard the exposure thereof I
duty ] owe to the thousands whU still
remain there
Early in October from nine 70 ter
thousand Of our enlisted men we're sen
to Salisbury from Richmond and other
points, and as they bad been robbed O
their clothing and blankets, aud receiv
ed very little food or shelter. the NOR
tality among them became almost i'm
mediately widespread and alarming
Every tenement within the prison lin
its was converted into hospital, and
offered my services as medical dispense
aud assistant to the rebel surgeons
soon made daily visits to the sick wh
, could not obtain admission to the over
crowded hospitals, lying in tents on tn
/ ground without covering, aud with yer
seant raiment, where they had creps fo
, protection from the cold rains, the snow
and the biting winds, and performe
: such poor services as lay in my llmite
: power Their condition was dIstressin
{ in the extreme. They had no means {
/ keeping warm, except by Sres Of yer
! green wood, that filed the rude shelter
With bitter smoke, and which, added t
+ the carbonie Acididized atmosphere froI
: so many breAths, aud the emanatioF
frous uuwholesome and unwashed bodie
q packed together like figs, entirely poi
5 oned the air and destroyed the health
e almost all who inhaled it.
3 The sickness and mortality in thos
$ outside quarters, as well as elsewhere
o continually increased, and the marv,
3 was that any one survived. Starved 81
V freezing, with hardly enough water
4 drink, much less to wash their person
= or the scant clothes they wore, the pos
IS fellows naturally aud necessarily d
l. SPARED, and not q few of them WEI
y anxious to die, to escape from the slo
l. torture of their situation.
IS had the best means of knowing, sT
IT It is my 6rmest belief that out Of eigl
r or nine thousand prisoners at Salisbar
n there we're not az any time Eve hu
II dred Of them in sound health; an OPT
n ion in which all the rebel soldiers
IS whom / expressed it fully coincide
le The deaths during the last two months
r. passed st Salisbury ranged from twent
D. i've 10 forty-fve per day-diarrhea, dy
in entery, estsrrh, pneumonia and I
e phoid fever, all engendered By scar
t. ty of food, shelter and raiment-bsil