Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-30
The Two Sides of the Pris-
on Question.
What was Done under the shadow of
Authorify-M0re Dead Lines than
One-HorrOrs that were not Expe-
rienced at AndersonviIIe- = How
Much a "Rebels- Life was Worth
I'm n Northern Prison.

One-Horrors that were not Expe-
rfenced at AndersonviIIe- How
Much "Rebers- Life was Worth
I'm n Northern Prison.
Correspondence Of the New York Newsl
WEST VIRGINIA, Dec s, 1865
For months we have borne the denuncia-
G tions of our Northern enemies based on
: | our alleged cruel treatment of Federal pris-
oners during the war; and though smartinp
under the wrongs thus done us, we have
studiOusly held our peace, for we thought it
best that the past should, if possible, be for
: gotten. Our silence, however seems TO have
served only as an incentive to continued
r and increased maleyolence on the part of our
) traducers; and We nov feel that we should
e | be false to our manhood were we to longer
t passively submit to their assaults. Abandon
: ing, therefore, the meek doctrine of contin-
f ued submission to continued wrong, we saw.
"an eye for an eye, and tooth for a
t tooth p i 5 e.t
Now, sir, those who I" live in glass houses
, should not throw stones" If the South had
her Belle Isle, her Libby, and her Ander-
sonville, the North had her Camps Douglas,
Morton, and Chase-her Johnson's Island
!. and her Rock Island, her Fort Delaware,
Elmira, and Point Lookout, and fair in
vestigation north of Mason and Dixon's
Line peradventure might develop the EQUALS
of Winder, and Wirz, and Turner, granting
that they were as brutal rs represented.
Your would-be-regarded sanity humanitari-
ans hold up their hands in affected horrorat
the idea Of dead lines" as though they
were diabolical monstrosities of Southern
origin. But we do not intend that You shall
cheat yourselves Of the glory of such an in
ventiOn. Camp Chase had her " dead line "
before such thing was dreamed of in the
South. We got the idea from you, as we
got slavery, and you are entitled to all the
honors and emoluments of the patentee.
was in Camp Morton and at Johnson's Is
land, and you had "dead lines" there; and
you had them at all your prisons, and Con-
federate prisoners were shot for crossing
them, as you very well know. Besides,
it was not an unfrequent thing for your
sentinels to fire into the barracks and at pri-
soners passing to and from the sinks at night
l know that at Johnson's island one officer
was killed while quietly standing in the door
of his quarters; and two of nv messmates.
Lieut. billiard of Mississippi, and Lieut.. In
man of North Carolina, were badly wounded
one night in 1864, by the same ball: the first
In the arm, while passing to his bunk, the
second, in the shoulder while asleep in his
bunk. There was no excuse for this outrage
| as the lights were out and perfect quiet pre-
| vailed in the room. Next day, the comman-
| ding officer came in, got the names Of wit
nesses, and intimated that the matter would
be Investigated, but we heard no more of it.
1t was common for our rooms to be fred into |
under the pretext that our lights were burn |
ing when it was only the reflection upon
our windows from the sentry lamps, and was
repeatedly explained to both officers and |
men, without avail. Yet we were assured |
by the commandant that the men were ex-
pressly charged not to fire at lights, but to
call the officer of the guard When we
would call to the sentinel that our lights
were out, and explain that it was merely the
reflection from the lamps, the answer wouldnot
unfrequently be, You area d-dliarp fire
quently heard the epithets "D-n rebel"
and "D-n rebel son of b--h, applied to
our officers by the guard upon slight provo
cations, and sometimes when there was no
provocation at all. l knew this done in one
instance by a Lieutenant, a Dutchman, in
the Federal service, while calling the roll in
a certain block. He applied the offensive
language to the whole company, because
some laughed at his awkward pronunciation
of names, whereupon a Confederate Major
stepped up to him, and assured him if he
dared repeat it he would knock his teeth
down his throat. 1t was not repeated Asa
general rule, however, the officers were cour-
teous to us. We were rarely maltreated by
men who had been to the front but the men
of the One Hundred and Twenty eighth
Ohio with few honorable exceptions, who |
had never heard hostile gun, and who were
especially enlisted for guard duty, appeared
to derive peculiar pleasure from the abuse
of helpless prisoners; it afforded so safe and
admirable an opportunity for an exhibition {
oftheir personal courage, and loyalty to the '
"Old Flag"
Again we were not allowed until after ;
the surrender of Lee, under any circum-
stances, to have oral communication with re- l
lations or friends. Extreme illness, even
lying at the "pOint of death" would not open (
the gate for the admission of brother or a I
sister, father, or mother, or wife. | have {
known a sister, mother, a wife who had I
Travelled hundreds of miles, on reaching
Johnson's Island denied the privilege of an I
interview with brother son, or husband; j
and / have seen the "1oved ones" standing
afar of, gazing at each other and weeping as I
though their hearts would break, but not a
word were they allowed to make. Under
such circumstances, though, perhaps
stranger to all parties, the tears Of sympathy I
have welled up in my own eyes and was G
not ashamed of them for / too, had 'loved y
ones" away in "DixieP learn that no {
such rule prevailed in Southern prisons / 5
hope not r.
Another wrong: The suffers, when al '
lowed to sell at all, were allowed to prac- {
tiee upon the prisoners the most outrageous
extortion. They realized from two to three a
hundred per cent. upon their sales. OF t
Al r. 2 |
very short time; and they were often a
changed. Why / cannot tell, unless ii was a
that as many as possible might fatten upon o
our misfortunes. n
come now to the most painful feature
connected with our imprisonment, that Of b
starvation, not in a land desc il
lated and scared by invasion not in a land d
where the invader had proclaimed and car y
ried out the policy of destroying every grain p
Of wheat and every ounce OF meat, and o
that tended to its production
not in land whose women and children A
we're already perishing for bread but star e.
vation in land that flowed with milk and il
honey; starvation in land that had not Il
,nly an abundance, but a superabundance tc
even Of the luxuries Of life. cl
| think il was in November, 1854, that the p
Iutler was ordered not to sell any more pro- n
1isions to prisoners, and we were not al ~
owed to receive any, except from near rela- d
ives in case Of sickness, and that after an IN
examination by the chief surgeon and upon m
his recommendation. Up to that period
hose who had frieuds or relatives had Jared
veil, and had been enabled to minister to the
necessities of their fellow prisoners who had
lot for to th5ir eternal honor be it said, l.
here were thousands in the United States
yho we're liberal and generous toward
southern prisoners almost TO a fault. May ps
rod reward thsm we never can, though | d
ach of us had the wealth Of Croesus and we're hs
o live a thousand years But with the or ar
ers alluded to came suffering, oh, what suf a
eringl We were confined for months strict an
y to prison rations. No sugar, no coffee Ii
10 tea, only bread and salt beef or salt pork, tv
r salt fish, the latter as poor as poverty, st.
nd as unnutritious as pine shavings, varied VI
ccasionally with fresh beef but never oy
nore than two-thirds enough Of either. pc
We would get one onion, or one Of
otato each, and an ounce or so Of hominy III
fany would consume the whole at one meal; II
theirs thought it more wise to divide it into by
To or three meals, but all were hungry tai