The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1865-08-29

Union men IN every instance. Struck
BY this fact, he resolved to examine, as
his position gave him right to do, into
all the circumstances where the money
originally came from acho did the sell.
ing Of it; indeed the whole naodus ope-
randi, and he elected the fact above
stated, how the money was obtained tha;
the Winders and Wertz were the princi-
pals, acting through subordinates in gath
ering bushels of plums, in the way Of
premiums, SO. 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 POSSESSION.
AT first it was customary to send a
wagon into the stockade every morning
at 10 o'clock, loaded wish the rations foI
the day, bacon and corn bread, nothing
else; but as the number Of prisoners In
creased, and the greed of gain grew upon
the trio above mentioned, the corn bread
was reduced in It's quality, being then
manufactured Of equal proportions oi
ground field peas ard corn, unbolted,
unsifted, uncleanssd indeed from the dirt
aud trash which peas naturally accumu-
late, and at last, when the number OF
prisoners increased to ever thirty-seVen
thousand, the meat rations per week we're
reduced to piece of bacon for each man
about three inches long and two wide,
with one pone of the bread above des.
cribed per day. Then, also, the custom
of carrying the prisoners food into the
stockade was abolished. They drove up
to the gates, which were slightly opened,
and the scanty food, foul and unhealthy
as it was, was thrown inside by the guard
to be scrambled for by the wretched
psisoners, the strongest and those nearest
the gate getting the largest share, the
weak and sickly getting none.
[ have mentioned the small brook which
runs through the lower part Of the stock
ade, and which supplied the water for
drinking and washing This brook has
its rise in a swamp not far from the pris-
Oh, and at no tune, certainly not for a
heightened period, was the water suitable
or healthy but when the faces and 6lth
the drainage of the whole camp of prison
ers came to be superadded to the natural
unftness of the water for drinking or
cleansing purposes, my readers can Judge
what thirst was assuaged, or fever cooled
or throbbing temples washed, by this float
ing stream of 6lth and disease At any
time under the most rigid hygieuic re-
strictions, it is difficult to maintain health
aud cleanliness amongst large body of
men what do you think was the condi.
ton Of thirty seven thousand half naked,
half starved men, without any police reg
ulations, under no moral or restraining
influences 7 IF the remnant who were
finally allowed to pass out of this military
Golgotha were not wild beasts, unTashed
befouled devils, no thanks are to be given
to Henry Wertz for lack of effort to pro-
duce such consummation.
When it rained, az 1t does in that cli-
mate almost continually during thcspring
and fall months, the soil within the inclo-
sure was one mass of loblolly, soft mud ,at
least fifteen inches in depth, through
which stalked and staggered the gaunt
half clad E-etches thus confined The
stencil from the prison could be perceived
for two miles, and farmers living IN the
neighborhood began to fear for the health
of their families.
AS consequence of this, the hospitals
-facetious was Wertz in his horrible hu-
manity-were crowded to repletion with
the emaciated, starved and diseased men
who were trundled into them The hos.
pitals were constructed of logs, unhewed
the interstices untitled and open, admit
ing the rain, without floors, cots, hunks or
blankets, filthy and fetid with the Tester
ing, putrid bodies of the sick, the dying
aud the dead. Words fail, language is
impotens to describe one of these dens of
disease and death. I once mustered the
courage, ,impelled BY the earnest entreaties
of northern friend,t enter oneIof them,
to visit one who was tenderly reared and
walked in the best ranks of Connections
society.
I believed I had seen before this what
[ deemed to be human wretchedness in
its worst forms / thought that / could
nerve myself to witness mortal agony and
wretchedness and destitution, as l bad
heard i. described, ,withHout blanching or
trembling. But if the condensed horrors
of hundred "blaek races" had been
brought before my mind to prepare me
for the ordeal, they would have failed to
realize the facts as I saw them face to
face
cannot, in a paper read by innocence
and virtue, detail what met my sight on
the occasion I refer to. I viii not POL
lutte any page, save the records Of the court
that must try the culprit for the crime of