New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-30
The Horrors Of Point I.ooisout and Etmlrn.

We have been anxious, says the Charlottesville
(Ya.) Chronicle to see from some competent
hand an account of the manner in which our Con
iederate soldiers Jared as prisoners of war, and
we are therefore, happy to announce that Mr.. A.
NJ, Kelley, of the Petersburg Index, has published
in small and very readable volume his eX-
perience of protraCted confinement at Point
Lookout and Elmra. There is so much said about
Andersonyie and Salisbury, that it is well to
know how these things were managed by the
parties whose yirtuous indignation has been so
much aroused against Capt. Wir2 and Major Gee
1t is proper, however, to bear in mind that the
opportunities for providing some toefable degree
O. comfort to those held as prisoners OF war were
ery different at the North from what they were
ut the South. For the last two years Oh tae war
the population of the Southern CohIeueracy were
not only deprived Of the Injuries OF ME, but IT
was really q struggle to procure 1000 OIL the
painest kind. Most persons consumed no Yea,
coffee, or sugar many lived without meat. The
clothing was of the rudest material and the ward
robes Of the weathiest exceedingly scanty BY
ripid blockade the Federal ships and troops rem
dered it difficult to procure medicines, which, if
obtained were sold at fabulous prices.
1t is well known also that our armies subssted
on the scantest rations, and that frequently they
were almost in starving condition.
At the North there was everything in abund-
ance--corn, wheat, pork, beef, vegetables, wooden
and cotton fabrics, medicines, wines, fruit, tea,
coffee, ETC.
Notwithstanding this, at the prisons of Point
Lookoutand Elmira, where thousands of prisoners
were confined, our men were always hungry, and
in the winter were never protected from the cold.
Mr. Kelley gives the following as the bill of fare
at Point Lookout: For breakfast four or five
ounces OF meat (pork or beef and slice of bread
and rather over half pint of watery slop,
by courtesy called SOUP" This was all q man got
to eat in twenty-four hours.
| AT EmiTa the ration of bread was full pound
per day. The meat ration, on the other hand, was
invariably scanty. " 1t sometimes happened that
| the same man got bones only for several success
sve days" Rats were eaten in numbers. AZ
| have seem says our author, mob of hungry
rebs besiege the bone cart, and beg from the
| driver fragments on which an August sun lad
! been burning for several days.
| At Point Lookout the water was $50 impreg-
mated with some mineral as TO offend every nose,
and induce diarrhea in almost every case 1t
cOlOrs everything black in which it is allowed to
rest, and scum rises on the top Of a vessel if it
is left standing during the night, which reflects
the prismatic Colors distinctly the surface of
stagnant pool" There are wells" outside
the prison pen from which the Federals supplied
| themselves with good water,
Speaking Of this same prison. the writer says
"During the scorching summer whose severity
during the day is as great on that sand barren as
anywhere in the Union north Of the gulf, and
through the hard winter, which is more severe at
that point than anywhere in the country south of
Boston, these poor fellows were confined here in
open tents on the naked ground, without plank
or a handful of straw between them and the heat
or the frost of the earth. And when, in the win
ter high tide or easterly gale would flood the
pen, and freeze as it flooded, the suHerngs of the
half-clad wretches may be easily imagined Many
died outright, etc. Even the well-clad sentinels
although relieved every thirty minutes, (instead of
every two hours, as is the army rule) persisted in
some instances, and others lost their feet and
hands, through the terrible cold of the season."
During all this season the ration of wood
4 allowed to each man was aTmful for five days,
and this had to cook for him as well as to warm
him."
This is not all Only one blanket was allowed to
boL Tbara inug,D III aF,d
every extra blanket was seized
" You could receive nothing in the way Of cloth
ing without giving up the corresponding article
which you might chance to possess All money
Every third day there were negro sentnels OF
duty, whose insolenCe and brutality were in
tolerable," If a prisoner crossed the dead line
their warning was the click of the lock, some
times the discharge of the musket.
The shelter at Point Lookout was at the rate o
one 50 " tent-covering about tx feet square
to each squad of five; on one Sibley tent-diame
ter fifteen feet-tO every eighteen men.
The author was transferred from Point Look
out to EImira, where number of the officers il
command were civil and kind, and number brute
: and villains. One Capt Bowden at this prison
had up before him, on some occasion, prisOne
drunkenness, and he sought to know where he go
his liquor. Hale refused to tell, it would com
, promise others. He was acc ordingly tied up b,
the thumbs, suffering exquisite torture but he re
to remember this when they got home. BOWdel
f grew eXasperated, and attempted to gag him b.
r fastening heavy oak tent-pin IN his mouth sufi
, cienty-a difficult operation he struck him il
i the face with the oaken billet-a blow whicl
8 broke several of his teeth and covered his mout
e with blood
e AT Elmira the most scandalous neglect existe
l. in the hospitals in the matter of providing his pa
. tents with proper food 81 do not doubt tina
r many Of them persisted from actual Starvation
There was also " an iueXcusable deficiency i
n incidence Several weeks, in which dysenter
J. and inflammation of the bowels prevailed, Their
g was not grain of any preparation of opium i
y the dispensary, and many poor fellow died 70
!. the want Of this medicine The doctors were ais
8 extremely ignorant, The mortality which too
a place exceeded even the reported mortality a
V AndeTsonville.
!, At Andersonville, out of population of Sc ,OOC
j. six thousand, sixth of all died from Febrr
/. airy l, 1864, to August /, 1864 At Elmira tn
- quota was not made up till the last of August, S
Y that September was the first month during whic
e any fair estimate of the mortality could be madt
Now, out of less than $500 persons on the first
e September three hundred and eighty-six died tha
G MONTH At Andersonville, it was one-thrty.sixt
IS of the whole per month; at EImira it was on,
e twenty fifth. At the first it was less than thre
If per cent per month at the latter it was four pt
}. cent per month.
V An Amusing BIunder.