Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1865-02-10
BRUTAL TREATMENT OF PRISONERS BY THE
RERELS
A. 7. SECHAND.

REBELS.
WASHINGTON, January 3O.-Messrs Rich
ardson and Brown, who escaped from Sails
bury prison, appeared before the committee on
the conduct of the war this morning, testify
ing that the rebel authorities are numbering
our soldiers by cold and hunger, while they
migth easily supply them with ample food and
fire.
On November 18th, many of the prisoners
had been without food for As hours. They
also mention deliberate cases of killing and
wounding. During the months from the 18th
of October 10 the 18th OF December, the
deaths were about 20 per cent. of the whole
number, and when they left at the latter date
| they were dying at the average rate OF l3 per
cent. month.
The following is the testimony, before the
committee, of Junius Henri Browne:
am journalist by professions; I have been
since the breaking out of the war, an army
correspondent Of the New York Tribune; was
captured in that capacity in the middle of the
Mississippi river, while running the batteries
of Vicksburg on the night of May Sd, 1863,
our expedition having been destroyed by the
rebel siege guns. l was held prisoner some
occupant of seven Southern prisons, the last
being the Salisbury IN. C.) penitentiary,
where was kept with my co-laborer, Albert
| D. Richardson, for almost eleven months,
making my escape therefrom in his company
en- the night of December lS, 1864
The treatment of our prisoners was bad
enough everywhere; but it was so barbarous
and inbuman at Salisbury, for two months
previous to my escape, that I regard the ex-
posure thereof duty owe to the thousands
| who still remain there.
| Early in October from nine to ten thousand
of our enlisted men were sent to Salisbury
| from Richmond and other points and as they
had been robbed Of their clothing and blank
cts, and received very little food or shelter the
mortality among them became almost imme-
diately widespread and alarming.
Every tenement within the prison limits
was converted inlO hospital, and offered
my services as medical dispenser and assistant
to the rebel surgeons. L soon made daily
visits to the sick who could not obtain sdnis-
sion to the overcrowded hospitals, lying in
tents on the ground without cover and with
very scant raimeut, where they had crept for
protection from the cold rains, the Snow and
the biting winds, and performed such poor
service as lay in my limited power Their con-
dition was distressing in the extreme They
had no means OF keeping warm except by
fires OF very green wood that filled the rude
shelters with bitter smoke, and which, added
TO the csrbonic acidized atmosphere from 80
many breaths, and the emanations from un-
wholesome and unwashed bodies packed to-
gether like figs, entirely poisoned the air and
destroyed the health OF almost all who in
| hailed it,
| The sickness and mortality in those outside
| quarters, as well elsewhere, continually in
creased, and the marvel was that any one sur
vived. Starved and freezing, with hardly
water enough to drink, much less TO wash their
persons or the scant clothing they wore, the
poor fellows naturally and necessarily despair
ed, and not few OF them were anxious to die
to escape from the slow torture of their situa-
tion
| had the best means of knowing, and il is
my irmest belief, that out OF eight or nine
thousand prisoners at Salisbury there were
not at auy time five hundred of them in sound
healih-an opinion in which all the rebel sur
geous 10 whom expressed it fully coiucded.
! The deaths during the last two months l
passed at Salisbury ranged from twenty-five to
iorly-fve per day; diarrhea, dyseutery,
catarrh, pneumonia, and typhoid fever-all en-
| gendered by scarcity of food, shelter and raj
ment-being the principal diseases. l have
no doubt if the prisoners had been properly
treated-as prisoners of war in the North are,
TO the best OF my knowledge and information,
treated-the mortality at Salisbury would not
have been more than an eighth of what it was.
The capacity Of the so-cslled hospitals
| nine in number which were without any of
| he comforts or concomitants OF those instita-
| tions--was not to the fullest over five or six
hundred patients aud the number of prisoners
who ought To have been inmates thereof was
! at least as many thousands. The hospitals
merely afforded some protection from the cold
and rain, and furnished rather better rations
than were given to the men who were sup
posed by transparent fiction to be in good
health. Hardly any one would go to the hos
pitas so long us be could help himself or in
duce any one to help him, the daily spectacle
OF ghoslly and hideous cOrpses going there
from to the dead-houss filling all behoders
with horror, and inducing the soldier to be
lieve that all who entered those filthy and pest
ferrous tenements doomed to die
The prison limits a; Salisbury revealed
scene OF wretchsdness, squalOr despair and
suffering such AS accustomed as l am TO
army life and the horrors OF military hOspi-
tails aud batte-fields-had never before wit
uessed. The prison uthoFities-especialy
altar the massacre attending tha laktomnkad