New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-07-12
ANnERsoNYILLE.

ne DOSEO0 -htutCUk anu CU7ytCut UOuTIpt
has extracts from a section OF the United
States Sanitary Memoirs, which contains
the report of a Confederate Surgeon,
Joseph Jones' that confirms the worst ac-
counts we have ever had of the treatment
Of the Federal prisoners at Andersonville.
Professor Jones is, of course, an impartial
witness, or rather his bias is toward the
rebel side, and he endeavors to excuse the
enormities to some extent. But the facts
he gives are all that are needed to show
that not one word has ever exaggerated
the loathsome barbarities, iendish neglect,
and deVilish cruelties of that vile area
wherein starved almost naked, and nearly
destitute Of shelter, thousand suffering
men were the average haggard population
of single acre. There were times when
forty thousand captives occupied twenty
seven acres.
In his description of the topography of
Andersonville, DR.. Jones thus describes the
quality of the water, where it entered and
when it left the stockade:
"The waters of the streams, wells. and
springs within the stockade Confederate
States military PRISON. and the military
prison hospital (federal) were also sub
jected to careful chemical examination, and
were found in like manner to be Of remark
able purity.
The waters of the stream issuing from
the stockade and hospitals are contaminat-
ed by the filth and offal of the Federal
prisoners, and contain not only these mat
tiers and various salts resulting from their
decomposition, but also numerous mag
gots, animalcula, and cryptogamous
plants.
As these waters, loaded with filth, flow
sluggishly through the swamp below filed
with trees and reeds coated with a filthy
deposit they emit an intolerable and most
sickening stencil. Standing as did over
these waters in the middle Of hot day in
September, as they rolled sluggishly forth
from the stockade, after having received
the filth of twenty thousand men, the stencil
was disgusting and overpowering; and if it
was surpassed in unpleasantness by any
thing, it was only in the disgusting appear
ance Of the filthy, almost stagnant waters
moving slowly between the stumps and
roots and fallen trunks of trees and thick
branches Of reeds, with innumerable long
tailed large white maggots, swollen peas,
and termenung excrements, and fragments
Of bread and meat #r.-s.
Even at this late day this eorroborative
testimony from Confederate officer is val
liable as rebutting the attempts of Copper
heads to whitewash the blacklist page in
the history Of the rebellion, and as proving
that care should be taken in restoring to
political influence and social regard the
men who tolerated or countenanced or
perpetrated the inhuman Outrages. We
give single passage to prove that we
have not put the case too strongly:
With regard to the condition of the sick
and the causes Of disease, DIR. Jones saws:
The patients and attendants, near two
thousand in number, are crowded into this
confined space, and are but poorly supplied
with old and ragged tents. Large num-
bers of them were without any hunks, and
lay upon the ground, oftentimes without
even a blanket-ne beds or straw appear
to have been furnished. IL afl &. - f,
1.-The tents extend to within a few yards Of
the small stream, the eastern portion Of
which we have before said was ased as a
privy, and was loaded with excrements;
and ] observed large pile Of corn bread,
bones, and filth of AL kinds, thirty feet in
diameter and several feet in height, swarm
ing with myFiads OF flies, in a vacant space
near the pots used for cooking. sIi5ra
"Millions of hies swarmed oyer every-
thing, and covered the faces Of the sleeping
patients and erawled down their open
mouths and deposited their naggots in the
gangrenous wounds Of the living, and in
the mouths of the dead. Myriads Of mes
quitos also infested the tents, and many Of
the patients we're so stang by these pestif-
erous insects that they appeared as If they
were suffering from slight attack Of
measles. p ~ToAi rM
@The police and hygiene ofthe hospital
were defective in the extreme, as the attend.
ants were selected from the prisoners; they
not emily robbed the sick Of their clothing
and rations. but also neglected their com
fort and cleanliness in a most shameful
manner. The sick were literally incrusted
with dirt and covered with vermin.
aWhen q gangrenous wound needed
washing the limb was thrust out q little
frofn the blanket Of board or rags upon
which the patient was lying, and water
poured over it, and all the putrescent mat
ter allowed to soak into the ground floor oil
| the tent. as Il x
The supply Of rags for dressing wounds
was said to be very scant and saw the
most filthy rags, which had been applied
several times and imperfeotly washed, used
in dressing recent wounds. When hospital
gangrsne was prevailing It vas imposaible
for any wound 70 sseape cbntagion under