The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-07-08

CHASTITY corpses, with their glazed eye-balls
staring up into vacant space, with the flies
swarming down their open and grinning
mouths and over their ragged clothes, in
tested with numerous lice, as they lay among
the sick and dyingF formed
PICTURE OF HELPLESS, HOPELESS MISERY
which it would be impossible to portray by
words or by ,he brush
Ills description OF the confederate states
military prison hospital" I condense as fol-
lows not changing his language: The pa
tients and attendants, near 1000 in number,
are crowded into this confined space, and are
but poorly supplied with old and ragged
tents. Large numbers Of them were without
any hunks in the tents, and lay upon the
ground, oft times without even a blanket.
"No beds or straw appeared to have been
furnished. The tents extend to within few
yards Of the small stream, the eastern portion
OF which is used as a priyy, and is loaded
with cxcrements; and / observed large pile
Of c0rn-hread, bones, and fifth of all kinds,
thirty feet in diameter and several feet IN
height, swarming with myriads of flies, in
vacant space near the pots used for cooking.
Millions of flies swarmed over everything,
and covered the faces of the sleeping patients
and crawled down their open mouths, and
deposited their maggots in the gangrenous
wounds Of the living and in the mouths of
the dead Mosquitoes in great numbers also
infested the tents, and many of the patients
were 50 stung by these Pestiferous insects
that they resembled those suffering from
slight attack Of the measles. x : The sick
were neglected in shameful manner, and
many Of them were literally
ENCEUsTED WITH DIRT AND FILTH AND
COVERED WITH YERMIN.
"When 4 gangrenous wound needed wash
ing the limb was thrust out little from the
blanket or board or rags on which the patient
was living, and water poured over it, and all
the putrescent matter allowed to soak into the
ground floor of the tent. The supply rags
for dressing wounds was said to be very scant,
and l saw the most flthy rags, which had
been applied several times and imperfectly
washed, used in dressing wounds. Where
hospital gargrene was prevailing it was i'm
possible for any wound to escape contagion
under the circumstances. = X The dead
house is merely frame covered with old tent
cloth and a few bushes, situated in the south
western corner Of the hospital grounds
"When patient dies heissimply laid in the
narrow street in front Of his tent until he is
removed by Federal negroes detailed to carry
off the dead. II patient dies during the
night he lies there until morning, and duc-
ing the day even the dead were frequently
allowed to remain for hours In these walks.
In the deadhOuse the corpses lie upon the
bare ground, and were in most cases covered
with filth and vermin. Five large iron pots
to be the only cooking utensils fur
nished by the hospital for the cooking Of
nearly two thousand men. The air of the
tents was foul and disagreeable in the ex-
treme, and, in fact, the entire grounds emit
ted a most nauseOus and disgusting smell.
l have seen men brought in from
the stockade in dying condition, begrimed
from head to foot with their own excrements
and so black from smoke and filth that they
resembled negroes rather than white men,