The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-08-08

ing to the exigencies of the case, the
number of prisoners then confined, or
the fears entertained of an attempt to
set them at liberty by raiding parties of
United States troops.
When prisoners were first received it
was usual to subject them to search for
money, valuables, &C., which ostensibly
were to be restored to them when they
were released from captivity, but which
in reality went into the pockets of those
who controlled the prison. Notwith-
standing law of the Confederacy ex-
pressly prohibited the dealing in green
backs, yetthe initiated, a few whose "loy-
atty" was unquestioned, could always
obtain for reconsideration thegreenbacks
which they required.
The writer of this was the foreman of
the last grand jury which was empan-
neled for Sumter county, Ga, and in
the performance of his duty he had to
investigate large number of present
ments for dealing in the forbidden cur
rency, which were brought against poor
Union men in every instance. Struck
by this fact, he resolved to examine, as
his position gave him right to do, into
al! the circumstances; where the money
originally came from, aoho did theselling
Vi lt-lh0CCuy tllc WuOlt WtUQUS OU0-
randi-and he ELECTED the fact above
that the Winders and Wertz were the
principals, acting through subordinates
in gathering bushels of plums, in the
way of premiums, &c. Meanwhile, the
poor prisoners were left to the tender
mercies of their jailor and commissary
for their food, which might have been
| improved in quantity, at least, If their
money had been left in their own pos
session.
At first il was customary to send a
wagon into the stockade every morning
| at ten o'clock, loaded with the rations
for the day-bacon and corn bread, moth
ing else-but as the number of prisoners
increased and the greed of gain grew
| upon the trio above mentioned, the corn
bread was reduced in its quality, being
then manufactured of equal proportions
of ground field peas and corn, unbolted
unsifted, uncleansed indeed, from the
dirt and trash which peas naturally ac-
cumulate; and at last when the number
| of prisoners increased to over thirty-sev-
en- thousand, the meat rations per week
were reduced to piece of bacon for each
man about three inches long and two
wide, with one pone of the bread above
| described perday. Then, also, the custom
| of carrying the prisoners food into the
stOckade in wagons was abolished. They
drove up to the gates, which were slight
| ly opened, and the scanty food, foul and
| unhealthy as it was, was thrown inside
by the guard to be scrambled for by the
| wretched prisoners, the strongest and
est share, the weak and sickly getting
| none.
1 have mentioned the small brook
| that runs through the lower part of the
stockade, and which supplied the water
for drinking and washing. This brook
has its rise in swamp not far from the
prison, and at no time, certainly not for
a heightened period, was the water suit
able or healthy; but when the f@ces
and filth, the drainage of the whole
camp of prisoners, came to be superadd-
ed to the natural unfitness of the water
for drinking or cleansing purposes, my
readers can judge what thirst was as
suaged, or fevers cooled, or throbbing
temples washed, by this floating stream
of filth and disease! At any time, I'M
der the most rigid hygienic restrictions,
1t Is difficult to maintain health and
cleanliness amongst large body of men
what do you think was the condition
of thirty-seven thousand half naked,
have starved men, without any police
| regulations, under no moral or restrain
ing influences If the remnant who
were finally allowed to pass out of this
military Golgotha were not wild beasts,
unwashed, befouled devils, no thanks
are to be given to Henry Wertz for lack
OF effort to produce such a consumma-
ton.
| XNhop ~ ro;nnI oe ~ Jaoe ~, %Lot o1
mate almost continually during the
spring and fall months, the soil within
| the enclosure was one mass of lOblolly,
soft mud, at least fifteeninches in depth,
through which stalked and staggered
the gaunt half-clad wretches thus con-
| fined. The stencil from the prison could
be perceived for tao miles, and farmers
liuing in the neighborhood began to fear
for the heath Of their families.
AS consequence of this, the hospi-
tals-facetious was Wertz in his horrible
humanity--were crowded to repletion
with the emaciated, starved and diseas-
ed men who wear trundled into them.
The hospitals were constructed of logs,
unhewed, the interstices untitled and
open, admitting the rain, without floors,
cots, hunks or blankets, filthy and fetid
with the fostering, putrid bodies of the
sick, the dying and the dead. Words
fail language is impotent to describe one
of these dens of disease and death. l
once mustered the courage, impelled by
the earnest entreaties of Northern
| friend, to enter one Of them, to visit one
who was tenderly reared, and walked in
the best ranks of Connecticut society,"
l believed had seen before this what !
deemed to be human wretchedness in its
worst forms. thought could nerve
myself to witness mortal agony and
wretchedness, and restitution, as I had
heard it described, without blanching or
trembling. But If the CONDENSED horrors
of hundred "black holes" had been
brought before my mind to prepare me
for the ordeal, they would have failed to
realize the facts as ! saw them face to
| face.
cannot, in daily paper, read by in
nocence and virtue, detail what met my
sight on the occasion I refer to. will
not pollute any page, save the records of
the court that must try the culprit for
the crime of torture by disease and filth,
with the details of that caravansary of
horrible, Intentional slaughter. For
fear that some may think have exag-
gerated, an episode here will perhaps
dispel such illusion. Convicted by the
horrible fact that was disgusting stencil
i'm his nostrils, General Winder, then
Commissary General of Prisons, but
hoyino his headouarters at Anderson