The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-02-10
Rebel Prisons.
To the Editor Of the Press:

1t is in vain that the rebel officials endeavor
to avoid or evade the!charge of intentional and
deliberate cruelty to the prisoners in their
hands. So far as food and clothing are con.
cerned they might say that their poverty pre-
vented them from supplying our poor fellows
with more or better of either. But this ex-
cuse will not serve them, because they would
not allow the supplies sent by our government
to reach their destination. We knew that they
were exasperated at seeing the bountiful sup
plies sent to our soldiers, while their own men
were living in the most miserable way. The
courage manifested by the rebel soldiers, and
the cheerfulness with which they endured
sharp and severe privations would have been
sublime in a good cause, but when they were
displayed in the attempt to found a nation
whose cornerstone should be human slavery"
the case was greatly modified
When first arrived at Libby Prison the ra-
tions served out to the officers there consisted
of aq1antity of wheaton bread, a small piece
OF meat and potato or two By and by
the wheaton bread ceased. and coarse corn
bread was substituted for it. This was made
OF unsifted meal, the hull of the corn not be-
ing taken out, and the effect of this upon the
digestive organs was almost like that of
pounded glass. The ration of meat was soon
reduced to piece the width and length of two
fingers and half as thick, supposed to be two
ounces and byiand by it ceased altogether. The
corn bread passed for a pound to each man,
but was really no more than three-q uarters Of
pound. 1t was made with cold water and inn
perfectly baked, AMI sometimes this was al i the
food furnished to each man for the twenty four
hours. This bread was unfit for human food,
and it was cooked once more. Graters were
made OF the tin cans in which preserved pro-
visions were purchased, by punching them full
OF holes with nail. The bread was reduced
to sort of coarse meal and made into hasty
pudding by a thorough boiling
At one time the ration furnished to the
officers was hardly sufficient to sustain life,
but the most of them were able to purchase
supplies from the prison officials at enormous
prices, and those articles in many cases were
taken from the stores sent by our government.
Sugar and butter were So pound, rebel money,
which we purchased of the prison officials at
fourteen for one in greenbacks. This COM
merce OF money was surrepti tious, because we
were not supposed to have any money, and it
was Confederate fiction that graybacks were
worth as much as greenbacks, and it was an
offense in a rebel official to acknowledge tn
contrary by making any exchange except at
par. Flour was $500 barrel and eggs dollar
each, candles a dollar each, and everything
else in the same pro portion.
When first went to Richmond articles Of
whatever sort sent to the prisoners were
honestly delivered. Many officers received
from the north large supplies, which in some
cases were sufficient to render them nearly or
quite independent of the rebel nation. I was
one of the fortunate number But by and by
nothing was delivered. Supplies sent to officers
as well as to the soldiers were withheld entirely.
But these were senti great quantities. Steam
ers from the north delivered to rebel steamers
at City Point immense supplies for Union
officers and men. These were transferred to
great canal boats by which they were brought
to Richmond and delivered from the boats
directly in the rear of Libby Prison. They
came in hogsheads, nice casks, barrels and
boxes of various size, generally directed to par
ticular Individuals hogshead, barrel or box
to each. Upon many of them we could read
the names of persons for whom they were de-
signed-of comrades whom we knew among
US, and many for soldiers.
But these packages were not delivered to US,
but were taken to an enormous tobacco ware
house just across the street from Libby prison,
where they were stored. This warehouse was
four stories in height, and it seemed to be piled
full of these stores to the roof, as we judged,
because we could easily see by the windows
how they were heaped up, closely packed to
tho Mv
ages that never came to me. The prison off,
cials sometimes had pretences for their with
holding the packages sent to us. In my case
it was that had improperly interfered with
prison matters, and the case was this: Infor-
nation came to me that three or four hundred
soldiers and officers had been turned into the
prison. upon the floor beneath US, and that they
had been without food for twenty-four hours,
The officers in our ward Immediately supplied
them from our scanty stock as far as we could
and wrote note to the prison commandant
demonstrating against this cruelty. It was for
this offense, as they pretended, that the pack
ages sent to me would not be delivered, but in
fact, the supplies had been sent to Richmond
several days before, and would not have been
delivered in any case.
Lne relatlonS eXSlstlng between the captIVo
officers and the prison officials were of the
most unfriendly kind. L never had any inter-
course with them of any sort, except in ths
cases have mentioned, and when in their
presence ignored them entirely. There was an
officer in the prison on the most cordial terms
with them. Before the war he had been a vio-
lent and well-known pro-slavery man, known as
such through the South. From this officer,
we kept ourselves aloof, shaving little or no in
tercourse with him, because it was through
him, as we thought that some importan. pris-
on secrets had been communicated to prison Of
ficials. From these, we experienced no other
than the rudest treatment. Dick Turner es-
pecially, was marked man, and some of our
officers told him. that when We captured Rich
mond, he would be hanged. He was in fact
imprisoned, but luckily he escaped. N. d.