The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-03-14
MARCH IA, 1866.

to the other rations received in the hospital
There was disturbance gotten up by some ff-
teen or 20 of the prisoners who made an attnck
upon the relief guard coming into the yard, took
away their guns and made a rush upon the large
gate-at the same time trying to rally the priso-
ners, but they would not rally. Quite number
were killed and number wounded by the guard; !;
the artillery fred three times, the firing continr-
ing from fifteen to twenty minutes efforts of
the prisoners continued not more than ten minu-
ties. / saw Maj. Gee on the platform there at that
time, over one of the pieces of artillcry-the men
that were killed were in the open space enclosed
by the buildings, some five or six of them-I saw
them after the disturbance was all over not at the
time they were killed.
On December Sth there was firing on the pris-
oners which commenced about dusk, and con-
tinued an hour or more-it was pretty dark
night; they fired about once in four or five min
utes-the weathe- was warm. I don't know that
any one was killed by this firing. The men went,
at different times, 4S hours without rations-32
men besides myself of my regiment entered the
prison with me; seventeen of them died there
the supply of wood was generally from two to
four feet that is, from aquarter toa half cord per
day to the hospital once, when very cold, for
day and night we had no wood at all, and the
sick suffered very much from cold. The night
they had no wood one man had his feet frozen.
CROSS EXAMINED.
refer to the prisoners outside of the hospital,
when say, we went 4S hours without rations.-
On the 25th of November, when the outbreak oc-
Cured, was between the citizens building and
the large gate, behind well. Don't know how
many of the guards were killed at that time, or
how many were wounded. did not hear Major
Gee order the firing to cease when saw him at
the time OF the outbreak
@. How do you know there were only twenty
prisoners engaged in the outbreak?
A. don't know it certainly; Sergeant Beaston
who led them, told me SOL can not swear, ofmy
own knowledge, there were only 20 men engag
ed saw the men rallying to the space enclosed
by the buildings, but they would not rally on
the fence-I should judge 200 or 800, perhaps
more, rallied to this place !; tlla cannon where
saw Maj. Gee was the one at the north angle of
the prison-he was standing with the guard who
were standing in the corner of the fence not over
fifteen feet from the gnn; I would not say wheth-
er to the south of the gun or the north-ths was
after the firing had all ceased, thatI saw him stand
ing there 1 do not know the cause of the firing on
the sth of December-[Witncssed marked the
place on the map where hestood during the fling
on the 25th of November; on the Southwest side
of the "citizens'," house] fixed the date of the
firing in December, by having put it down in my
diary, which kept while in prison. Inevcr met
Maj. Gee personally, but once in the hospital,
then he did not speak a word to me nor to him.
l have not stated, since arrived in Ra cgh, that
did hear Maj. Gee give orders for the firing to
cease. The Ward-master insmy hospital, was a
prisoner of war.
BY THE COURT. F
The Cooks were prisoners of war, don't know
their names. The Is or 20 men who begun the
attack, think were fully ten minutes before they
were done-they rushed toward the gate.
John Kennedy, called and sworn, age 81 years,
resides in Somerville, Mass.,-I was in the army
in 1854, seth Mass. Reg, taken prisoner on We'll
don R. R., 10Th August 1S64-was taken to Libby
prison and thence to Belle Isle thence to Salisbury
on the Sth Oct. There were about 5000 prisoners
there when Ireached there-I can't tell how many
went there when did, there were two trims of
thcm-there was not much sickness among them
at that time, most of them could stand up for
their rations-we got no shelter for two or three
weeks, then had two tents for 100 men, some
time after there was another tent-the tents were
ably, fy-tents and common wall tents-no other
shelter but what the men provided for themselves
the holes were feet deep cxcavated round, and
could sit down in them, but not stand up, and
had fireplaces to them with holes punched for
chimneys-think one third lived in this way-these
holes though damp were more comfortable than
tents, as they got clear of the wind-they built Il
little porch over the mouths of these holes to
turn off the rain, but in hard rain some of these
would cave in, as they were built of mud.
The rations were generally half loaf Of either
wheat or corn bread and sometimes what was
called sorghum bread, supposed to be made of
sorghum seed-sss pint rice soup, sometimes
seemed to be boiled after meat, generally 3 or
spoonfuls rice in q pint water, without salt ex-
cept sometimes-oncc we got meat 3 days in sue
cesson, at other times we got none for 10 days
sometimes we got gill ofmolassesin in lieu ofmeat
Ijudge, while We stayed there we had meat about
Is or 16 times-molasses about the same-onc
time we got bread about Z in the morning and got
nothing but rice soup till IL next night when we
got about a pint of four--sometimes when we had
flour we were furnished green pine wood to cook
with-sometimes We made minute pudding some
times dumpling and sometimes ash cake. When
we got meat got perhaps or ounces-some-
times we got tripe, which came as extra and did
not count as mcat-there were "a men in my tent
we had Sibly tent about e of them slept on
the bare ground-part of them had blankets, there
were two or three men came in the tent after
at first six men went out to get wood for 100
then tive-then four-then threc-and then two
went out for wood-these went generally once
every day-what the three men could lug in would
be divided among the three tents-after awhile
there were only three or tour men able to go for
wood, on account of the men getting so weak and
sickly. There was no clothing furnished us by
the authorities, We used to take the dead mems
clothes. Ihad friend who di d by my side o
typhoid fever, and We took his good clothes and
put old clothes on him, took his shirt, one took
his pants and one his gloves.
Rebel officers came in Oh several occasions and
got recruits, large numbers Of them-once neal
he big gate, a large crowd was there, and scvera
asked what they got outside, and man, I sup
posed to be an officer, said they got loaf of breat
and piece of rneat outside to all that went out
There were men who had their feet frozen.
can't tell the number. One ofthese lodged unde,
one of the prison hospitals, which was 8 or fee
above the ground and served for a lodging placs
for quite number. The sick were not all taker
to the hospitals, think half the sick were in th,
tents-one of the sick we took to the hospital tt