The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-03-22
10y OUR own SPECIAL REpoRTER
Trial Of Major John Fl. Gee.
SEVENTEENTH DAY.
WEDNESDAY,. March Dist 1866

| to Salisbury in October, 1S64-was member of
the Senior Reserves, in Col Hoke's regiment
my company quartered at the south-ea
corner of the garris n-when We first went there
we had no quarters-atter while we got tolera-
bic comfortable quarters, made of logs and
boardS-thc poles were got near the town-they
were tolerable plenty there. l was guard
while there-was instructed not to trade with
the prisoners, not to trade with them nor have
anything to do with them. was not with the
guard at any time when food was offered to the
prisoners which they were not allowed to take,
that recollect of-once when had my haver
sack with rations in it, prisoner asked me for
some bread; l didn't know whether would be
allowed to give it to him, and asked the sergeant
| of the guard whether might give it to him he
said it against the rules, but that he some
times gave them part of his rations and that
there could be no harm in giving them some
| thing to eat, and then gave the prisoner some
! bread.
CROSS EXAMINED.
The poles for our quarters got about two
miles Off and hauled in in wagOns-can t tell how
many wagons were used-a man was detailed
from our company to go and have the poles haul
ed. cannot tel how long after we went there
before we got poles to make our quarters, per-
haps two or three weeks; it may have been lon
gcr-cannot swear it was not less than six weeks
! I don't think it could have been more than six
weeks, if that long, for was not there long and
! they were brought there before l went away
| left there the 2nd of December. We had several
| aXes-our company had two, three, or four,
| may be more-somc of the men sent home for
| their axes to use; one OF my mess sent home for
! his axe. We generally carried out eighteen to
| twenty prisoners 1Or water at one Ilme-We QQ not
always carry all who wanted to go, but only the
squad of eighteen or twenty-don't know how
many times went after water in day, sup
| pose six or eight times-We were going continu-
| ously-we were allowed an hour to go and return,
but had an hour, l think, for dinner; with the
exception OF this, we were going continuously.
| have seen the prisoners Sometimes washing
themselves in the creek when they went, after
water-thcy were permitted to do so. by the
but what we got from the sergeant, and that was,
not to trade with or give any thing to the prlS-
oners, or have any thing to do viii them. re-
ceived no such orders from any commissioned Of
| fcer-t understood in the camp that these
were the orders-the soldiers in camp said these
were the orders-orders to the guard were always
given by the sergeant. do not know that there
was commissioned officer in charge of the water
| gatG-I suppose there was.
| mean by saying that there were plenty of
poles, that there 4 good deal of timbered
| land about there-cant tell how many acres there
were-there were large bodies of oak and pine
land about there. We sometimes build houses of
oak logs in that country; do not split it, but
build them of the round poles We built our
quarters of logs-there were great quantities of
| poles where got them-can't tell how many
houses cHuid have been built of the poles in three
or four miles of there, perhaps several hundred.
We had to have wagons to haul the polCS-wc
had plenty of wagons; they were impressed
| they were used to haul wood-they hauled wood
into the prison-the wagons were imp cssed from
| the citizens around therc-dont know how many
wagons our regiment had-thcre several of
them-I suppose they belonged to the govern
| ment.
! Greensboro aud from Greensboro to Salisbury
was never in the service before went to Char
| lotte in HOke' 5 giment.
Moses Palmer called and sworn-22 years old
reside in Lynn, Mass.,-was a prisoner at Sails
bury belonged to the 9th army corps; 2nd divis-
ter, Va.-went to Salisbury Oct. 9th, 1864 and left
| the latter part of Feb. 1S65-wcnt with the sick
| from Salisbury to Richmond-there were about
| five hundred of the sick who left for Richmond
assisted in making out their paroles. The rest
of the prisoners We're sent to Wilmington made
out their paroles-there were about $500 of them.
was in the prison from the time l went there
until the 18th of November, and then went to
Maj. Gees headquarters kept the prison regis
tcr-thls embraced a list OF the prisoners, their
names, rank, company and regiment; Also a list
of the deaths. There were, my arrival ut Sal
/ isbury, about two thousand prisoners; afterward
others arrived, making the aggregate about 5000
or 5000. caIrAot tell how many escaped from the
prison, it was impossible to find out, because the
prisoners would not report when any had escaped
- Knew sixteen 10 escape there were about
100 who enlisted out of the prison. No account
was taken of those who escaped have no idea
of the number-do not know the number of
capes that were reported while was there.
CROSS EXAMINED.
wrote the paroles of the prisoners by the
der of Maj. Goethe orders were TO make the
paroles out soon possible, and that l should
employ as many clerks rs should be necessary
he showed great anxiety to have the paroles made
out speedily. 1 carried the news of the exchange
of prisoners to the prisoners at the request of Maj
Gee, and that they would be paroled.
Here question put to the witness as to the
!
witness in communicating to the prisoners the
intelligence of their exchange, objected to by
the Judge Advocate, on the ground that state
mentS of the prisoner in his own favor were mad
missable as evidence.
The Counsel for the defense commended that all
the prisoner said to various persons at the prison,
or to the prison and post officials while at Sails
bury, having reference to the prisoners or the
the prison, part of the gesfg and are adj
missible evidence for defense, as explaining his
conduct and showing the dnineus, and, in some
instances, the acts.
The Counsel cited large number of authorities
to sustain the position, aud entered into a some
legality of admitting the declarations of the pris
oners, commitant with the actions, to show what
his actions and the animus of them were, while in
charge of the prison at Salisbury.
The Judge Advocate replied, and read authori-
ties to sustain the objection, showing the law OF
evidence in cases similar to the one under consid-
Grafton.
The Court declined to makea general ruling
the subject, but would decide on each question
as it arose in the examination OF witnesses. The
witness was allowed to answer the question I'M
Mai. Gee told me to tell the prisoners they
would have something good to sleep over, or
words to that effect-tOld me to tell them not to
shout or make an unusual noise, as the guard
might fire on them executed the orders ana
cautioned the Sergeant Majors ofDivisions and also
the prisoners, as | came out-this was between 10
and u o. clock at night.
/ Those who were enlisted in the prison, were
generally foreigners-some natives who rcpresen-
ted themselves as forci gncrs, were enllsted-the
know The officers stood inside the gate when
the recruiting was going On-several claiming to
be foreigners were rejected and turned back
was at the bridge one day when an officer, said to
be from Columbia, S. c., enlisting; man
claiming to be a foreigner enlisted, the officer
went to him and took him by the collar and led
him out from the line and kicked him-Major
Gee, who was standing between the gate and the
line of recruits, told him he must not abuse the
prisoners, that they were under his charge, and
that the officer had not given his receipt for the
recruits and therefore he should not kick them
do not know that his not having given his re-
ceipt for them the only reason he said the
officer should not abuse them-he said the pris-
oners were still under his control and should not
be abused.
The majority OF the prisoners at Salisbury came
from Richmond-I suppose they had been in pris
on, most of item, nearly tour months not quite
four mont :, the register showed they ere
taken on the Wilmington Railroad on the 10th of
Augnst-they were generally in very desolate
condition-had summer cothing-a majority of
them appeared very weak, what should call,
sickly, though they could walk-many of them
were shoG1ess, but most of them had hats caps
ofsome sort-I think there was about one blanket
to fifty men-their clothing consisted of Shirt
pants-some had drawers-very few shoes and
Stockings-some few had overcoats-the clothing