The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-06-14
The Horrors of Point Lookout and
E1mira.

we nave DeoI aiiAlOuo' SesJ o
lottesville (va.) Chronicle, to see from some
competent hand an account of the man
ner in which our Confederate soldiers
Jared as prisoners of war, and we are,
therefore, happy to announce that Mr.
A. M. Kelley, Of the Petersburg lader, has
published in q small and very readable
Y Volume his experience of protracted con-
fnement at Point Lookout and Elmira.
There is so much said about Anderson
Vile and Salisbury, that it is well to know
how these things were managed Dy the
parties whose virtuous lndlgnatlon ~, mas
been so much aroused against Capt WIZ
and Major Gee.
It is proper. however, to bear in mind
that the opportunities for providing some
tolerable degree of comfort to those held
as prisoners of war were very different at
the North from what they were at the
South. For the last two years OF the war
the population of the Southern Confedera-
CIV were not only deprived Of the luxuiies
Of life, but it was really struggle to pro-
cure food of the plainest kind. Most per-
sons consumed no tea, coffee, or sugar;
many lived without meat. The clothing
was of the rudest material, and the ward
robes fthe wealthiest exceedingly scanty.
By a rigid blockade the Federal ships
and troops rendered it difficult to procure
medicines, which, if obtained, were sold
at fabulous prices.
IT is well known also that our armies
subsisted on the scantiest rations, and
that frequently they were almost in
starving condition.
AT the North there was everything IN
abundance-corn, wheat, pork, beet, veg
etables, wooden and cotton fabrics, medl-
cines, wines, fruit, tea, coffee, etc.
Notwithstanding this at the prisons OF
Poiut Lookout and Elmira, where thou
sands 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 break
fast, four or five ounces of meat (pork or
beef and a slice of bread and "rather
over half a pint of watery slop, by cour-
tesy called soup" This was all a man
cot to eat in twenty -four hours.
At Elmira the ration of bread was
full pound per day. The meat ration, on
the other hand, was invariably scanty.
.It sometimes happened that the same
man got bones only for several successive
days. Rats were eaten in numbers. ~
have seen," says our author, "a mob OF
hungry srebs' besiege the bone cart, and
beg from the driver fragments on which
an August sun had been burning for sew
eral days.
At Point Lookout the water was $50
impregnated 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
a scum rises on the top Of avessel if it is
left standing during the night, which re-
fleets the prismatics colors as distinctly
as the surface of q 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 con-
fined here in open tents on the naked
ground, without a plank or handful OF
straw between them and the heat or the
frost of the earth. And when, in the
winter, high tide or an easterly gale
would flood the pen, and freeze as it
flooded the sufferings of the halfclad
wretches may be easily imagined. Many
died outright, etc. Even the well-clad
sentinels, although relieved every thirty
minutes, Gnstead of every two hours, as
is the army rule,) perished in some in
stances and others lost their feet and
hands through the terrible Geld of the
season"
"During all this season the ration of
wood allowed to each man was an armful
for five days, and this had to cook for him
as we'll as to warm him.
This is not all: Only one blanket was
allowed to each man. There were regu-
lar inspections, and every extra blanket
was seized.
"You could receive nothing in the way
Of clothing without giving up the CORES
ponding article which you might chance
to possess" All money was also taken
away.
Every third day there were negro sem
tinels on duty, whose "insolence and bru-
tality were intolerable." If prisoner
crossed the dead line, their warning was
the click of the lock, sometimes the dis
charge of the musket.
The shelter at Point Lookout was at
the rate of one GA" tent-covering about
six feet square-to each squad of five or
one Sibley tent-diameter fifteen feet to
every eighteen men.
The author was transferred from Point
Lookout to Elmira, where number OF
the officers in command were civil and
Ltd a,,d NUN ha,. Of h,:,tas nd yzillair