The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-01-24

camp of very many of them. Disease is inner.
ent 10 camp life and campaigning in unhealthy
sections, Men are not naturally gregarious
and early become infected with disease IL
crowded together, without occupation or incen.
tive Even II these prisoners had not brought
the seeds of disease with them, it would have
required the strictest care and attention to
cleanliness, drainage, ventilation and diet, en-
forced with the authority of army discipline to
preserve health. Scurvy is not altogether the
product of defective diet The confinement of
large bodies of prisoners or soldiers, though
the diet may be good and varied, without the
observance of sanitary laws will engender
| scurvy
The will in cur camp, from the Colonel COM
mandlng to the lowest subordinate, was to do
everything in our power for the well being of
those prisoners. Unfortunately after the re-
tirement of Col. Eastman, u. s. army, on ae-
count of Sickness the colonel of q negro regi-
ment was assigned to us who manifested more
interest in the hygiene of camp than the din of
war and who liked the smoke Of the frying pan
better than the smoke of battle Camp
hygiene is great study, which during the war
was left by our brsvest and abest generals, to
the medical staff. 1t would have been better at
Elmira, but Notwithstanding this drawback,
the losses were not as large as among some of
our own regiments in malarial regions. The
7th Vermont lost more than a third of its COM
mand in digging the csral opposite Vicksburg.
The forty days siege of Port Hudson reduced
our effective force to 5000, leaving more than
l., 200 on the sick list
The prison acquired bad reputation from
several causes. First, contrary TO war depart
ment instructions, a female reporter was let in,
who disappointed in the valiant bearing of our
Johnnies and because she did not find the neat
ness OF a gentleman's parlor, or a first class
city hospital INDUCED in O newspaper squib of
bad odor. A Petersburg editor had a hack at
us. He was taken in the defenses of Peters
burg. Being jolly fellow and quite favor
lte at the officers quarters, he begged of me to
n h1Nan twrafk 81 d.
Secretary Stanton's order came to send to Point
Lookout 16O0,who were able to travel and vet
would not be fit for duty in a less period than
sixty days, included this editor and if he was
not mt or willing to fight within sixty days, he
travelled for us with his pen as soon as he got
home, descanting upon the horror of Elmira
and making Andersonville an Elysium in com.
parison. Copperhead journals were not slow
in copying these malicious attacks.
A Bangor friend wrote to me to look out for
the son OF Baltimorean. The hospitality of
Baltimore did not have good record, still I
gave the young rebel every advantage. The
young scamp requited me by attempting to
smuggle letter through, full of slander-The
Dlack hole oil Calcutta was paradise to FL
mira. l intercepted his letter aud re i'd it to
him. He hung bis head in shame
A second Bangor gen tleman wrote me about
his son, who was prisoner there. L sent for
him and offered to obtain his release and send
him to Bangor if be would take the oath. He
liked prison life too well, although when re-
leased in the spring of 1866 he came home. A
young fellow from Newburg Me-, quietly told
me he had been impressed into rebel regiment
and wauted me to get his release. His asso-
ciates found it out and he had to call on us for
protection while waiting for his papers. So it
seemed that misery liked company.
There was no lack of food or care very.many
OF the federal officers had quarters inside of the
palisades, and the medical staff took as much
interest in the treatment of their patients as at
home. Humanity knew no difference between
federal and rebel. Ny own children often dis
tributed grapes and fruit to the sick in the hos
pital and with tears in their eyes the sick
would draw these little ones to them in sad re-
membrance of the loved ones at home.
Contrast such efforts with the sickening rec
ord and portrayal of Andersonvile prison.
my kind friend and fellow citizen, Or. III. L.
Jewell, served six months apprenticeship in
southern prisons and was hurried from Ander-
sonville to Florence on the approach of Sher
dams army, at the time that Gen. ..Winder pro-
mulgated his Infamous order to open upon the
prisoners with cannon. The recital of cruelties
aud neglect depicted in Robert Kellogg's book
of Life and Death in Rebel Prison" which
DR.. Jewell, his associate, says is the most ac-
curate book ever written on Andersonville is
heart-Tendering.
Every prisoner, before be had passed through
the hands OF capturers, escorts and prison
guards, was plucked of every valuable article
of clothing or shelter, his person and pockets
were were gone through for money as search
ingly as prairie fire, and thus stripped was
turned in like an old horse to browse or statve.
An occasional blanket, defective cauteen, or
pail was smuggled in to set up house keeping
with, and in rare instances little money was
adroitly concealed with which to spice the va
ried diet of about four ounces of dry corn meal
and two ounces of ham per day. Fresh beef
was someties issued which was eaton raw, bak-
ed in the sun, or by lucky God-send, cooked
in some old pail.
Without covering or shelter they wandered
round during the day and lay down in the ma
larial damp of the night.upon the bare ground,
infested with maggots from the putrifactve
offal surrounding them. No rebel officers or
soldiers were stationed inside of the enclosure,
to look after the comfort of the prisoners. Loug
and weary hours of gnawing hunger were pass.
ed in lingering expectation of the daily return
ing ration cart supplemented by the dead cart
which took out its daily hecatomb of bodies.
Dr. Jewell tells me that the surgeon never Wis.
tied the sick or administered medicine inside of
the palisade. The prisoners sckened and died
without care or attention. unless the sick were
occasionally carried to the dead line, ,likethe poor
Hindoo to the bank of the Ganges, waiting for
the water to rise, in hopeful expectation of
being taken to the hospital outside by some
tender sentinel, unless sooner relieved by the
bullet of the guard, if in the delirium of fever
they should happen to crawl over the dead
line.
A parade is made of Stanton's figures rela-
tive to comparative mortality. 1t is said that
nRuTeS Wont lie, DuJ Wnen DaSeu upon the mac
curacies of Southern prison statistics, as COM
pared with the rigid accuracies of Northern
records we should hesitate to compare. At
Elmira headboard marked the grave of every
inmate, and the official records were a history
of every individual. At Andersonvile the dead
were picked up aud dumped in trenches like
rotten sheep, without enumeration. BY the
prisoners calculations, there was a daily aver
age OF 100 deaths inside of the enclosure, reach
ing as high as 130,i mean strength of 30, 900.
What the hospital rate outside was / don't
know. The death of prisoners who received no
care exceeded our ratio Of the entire mortality
by to l. Our death rate was constantly de-
creasing, theirs constantly increasing. Our
soldiers entered rebel prisons hale and stalwart
and could resist disease for while, but South
ern cruelties were dragging them down in in
creasing ratio.
During the war 1 occupied responsible posi-
tions, and had professional and sanitary charge
of large hospitals aud large bodies of troops,
saw service in nearly every department of the
South, and never witnessed harder working or
more kindly disposed officers to their charge
than at Elmira. / have certainly seen as great
suffering and mortality among our own troops.
If the rebel authorities had given of their mites
in substance and Kindness they would feel less
sensitive on the floor of Congress. 1t is we'll to
remind them of such things and to teach them
that 'the way of the transgressor is hard, "bo tn
as lesson to the present and warning to the
future generations.
EUGENE f. SANGER, NJ. D.