The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-07-29


he freezes on TO them at every opportunity.
August SH- Glorious tidings.! Last
night at sunset our camp was thrown into
! intense excitement by the entrance of two
rebel officers, who proclaimed that they had
/ been delegated to communicate to us " glad
tidings of great joy The Commissioners
Of the two Governments had met, they said,
and had agreed upon terms of immediate
parole and exchange, and at the earliest date
possible we viii be speeding on Cur way to
the Union lines. This is no newspaper re-
port, they stated, but they had actually read
/ the official notification sent to General
/ Winder ordering us to be prepared for in
/ slant removal n0rthward. | cannot describe
the mingled feelings of Joy, incredulity and
gayety that prevailed. The prolonged
cheers that went up were deatening. Those
who have lately entered this sink Of misery
place rs much reliance on the information
! rs the dying thief on the cross did in the
words of the Savior Most of the old prs-
! oners, however, do not believe a word of it,
| saw two men have a spirited battle be-
/ cause one of them believed the news and the
/ other refused to do so. One effect of the
matter has been 10 utterly unsteady the
market. Prices are tumhling. You can
now purchase a piece of pine the size of 4
mans arm for $1.20 rebel money. Pork and
meal only command half the rates they did
yesterday.
A"yrst 9h.-A heavy rain fell last night,
demOlishing huts, gopher holes" and wig
vans, spelling rations, and creating great suf-
fering. A source of much regret to many Of
Us is the fact that our friends at home have
no means of knowing whether we were
killed or captured in battle. / saw lively
melee at the north gate this morning A
small squad of prisoners, having no faith in
the rumored exchange, and rendered desper-
ate by starvation and other afilictions, had
asked TO be mustered into the rebel army.
As they were about to be marched out they
were suddenly assailed by a mob Of prisoners,
severely beaten, and dragged off to police
headquarters to be arraigned on the charge
OF high treason. Their trial is now pro-
crossing. SO far the rebel officers have not
interteTed. All prisoners arrested on i'm
portant charges are tried by ihries, and
each offender is permitted to have an attOr-
ney, if he can find one who will as
sumo the management of his case. There
are plenty Of men in this stockade enjoying
paSsable health who weigh only half what
they did when they were captured.
Aagut 10h.-We are having a continual
succession of rain, tempered by spells of sun
shine. Last night, during terrific storm,
the stockade fell in three places, causing great
CONSERVATION among the reserves and SEN
tries The rebel drums beat, the batteries
were quickly manned, warning shell
screamed over the prison, infantry fell into
line across the gaps, and the sentinel chain
was more than doubled. At the moment the
stockade fell great numbers of us might have
escaped, bat most of us were ignorant of what
had really happened until too late. -Four or
five hundred slaves are now repairing the
work of an angry Providence. 1t is enough
to make a man sick, to hear some, of these
Georgia "yahoos" brag about their southern
chivalry. The very first principle of chivalry
is kindness to prisoners of war. These
ignOramuseS don't know what the word
means.
Auqut 11H.-A few moments ago, while
a force of slaves were digging up the earth
near the dead-line TO bank the stockade with a
prisoner requested one of them to throw him
a root for fuel. A rebel miscreant who stood
by drew up his musket and shot the prisoner
dead. ] do not attempt to chronicle every
murder of this kind that occurs for several of
them happen daily. The interior military
government of this prison is subordinate to
It's civil government. The Union sergeants
elected or appointed over our messes and de-
tachments to draw ratiOns and transact busi-
ness for us, can any of them be tied up and
lashed by the police for the violation OF civil
regulations, the same as the meanest prisoner.
For the last three days we have drawn un-
usually small TatiOns, and what we have
drawn have been unfit for any human being
to eat. We are evidently getting the refuse
OF the southern commis5aTy department,
The cooked beans" ia kind of coarse peal
which they give us have all the nutriment
boiled out of them, and are thickly inter
mixed with bugs, worms, chaff, sand, gravel
and other filth, being very destructive to the
teeth. The fresh beef" issued to US is so
rotten that most of US throw it away.
Starved as we are we cannot stomach it.
What little cOrn-bread we draw is made from
unsiited meal, the latter being chiefly COM
posed of bran, husks, and chunks of cobs.
This bread is baked only part way through,
and contains little or no salt. If a man
should get all he could eat of this sort of
stuff it would soon kill him to eat it. We
would prefer our TatiOns uncOOlIed, if we
could draw wood to cook them with, but
while vast forests Of pine tower around us
our captOrs refuse to allow us to supply our
selves with fuel. Their excuse is that
squad of prisoners OyerpOwered their guards
in June, while out gathering loose wood, and
escaped TO the Union lines. We blame our
Government for this state Of affairs. 1t
should Tetaliate with a rem0rseless hand.
Our fate could be made no worse Sherman
should have been instructed to threaten the
complete ravage Of the South unless our
condition was ameliorated
august 12M.-I could scarcely sleep last
night on account Of the groans Of man who
lay near me. At daylight he was out of