The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-05-24
PENSIONS FOR PRISONERS.
A Memorial Issued to the Present Con.
gress.

The following memorial, issued b.
the national association of ex-unlol
prisoners of war, has been p~resente'
to the Forty-eight congress, and i
worthy a careful p%erusal, inasmuch a
the class of ex-soldiers included in tn,
provisions of legislation sought for
have presented a strong case, which i
worthy the intelligent consideration O
every mar who desires justice done thu
country's defenders:
HEADQUARTERS NATIONAL AssoCIA
1 OF Ex-UNIoN PRISONERS OF
WAR, CLEVELAND, o., April Sd
1884:
To the Senate and House of Repre-
s~entarives of the United States, in Con
gress assembled: Your memorialists
the ex-union prisoners of war, through
their national association would re.
spectfully set forth that they were SOL
diers and sailors in the service of the
United States in the late war for the
suppression of the rebellion, and that
while acting under the orders of their
superiors, and performing the duties
incident to such service, they were
made prisoners by the armed enemies
of the United States, and endured pro-
lenged terms of imprisonment, and for
various reasons this imprisonment was
attended by the most extraordinary
hardships. Even the very imperfect
and incomplete records in possession
OF the war department, of the mortality
among the union prisoners of war,
shows that these hardships must have
been incomparably greater than those
inotdonf RI oarutoa in fhn fold WITH
out going into details it will only be
necessary to point out that the death
rate among any given number of pris-
oners, and at any given time, was very
much higher than among a correspond
ing number of soldiers engaged in the
prosecution of an active campaign.
For instance, the report of Prof. Jo-
seph Jones, the confederate surgeon in
charge of the prison at Andersonville,
shows the following percentage OF
deaths to the mean number of prison
ers confined there in each of the five
months that the prison existed:
March, 1S64......3.77 June, 1S64......5. 3S
April, 1864...... 1916 July, 1856, ......6 "a
May, 1S6i........4.72 August, 1s64....10.U
Prof. Jones' report goes on to say:
"We observe a progressive increase of
mortality from 3.77 per cent. in March,
10 1903 per cent. of NEAR strength in
August. The ration of mortality con-
tinued to increase during September,
for Notwithstanding the removal OF
one-half of the entire number of pris-
oners during the early portion of the
month, 1857 deaths are registered from
from September l to 81.
"The entire number of federal pris-
oners was about 1851, and during the
period of near seven months, from Feb
ruary "a to September 81, 9,479 deaths
were recorded; that is, during
this period nearly one-fourth, or more
exactly, one in AZ, or 1913 per cent.
terminated fatally"
But ven these figures fall very short
Of properly representing the terrible
mortality, for the reason that of the
total of 1851 prisoners received at
Andersonville over 10000 came in af-
ter the opening of the great campaigns
in May, and the bulk of those that sur
vived were taken away in September,
SO that many thousands who were
brought to deaths door there, died in
other prisons or On the road to them.
or those who were left behind at An
Jacksonville, one in every three died in
and one-half of the re-
mainder died in October. When it is I
that these we're vigorous,
healthy young men, nearly all from ]
the fighting lines of Generals Grant and
Sherman, and consequently. seasoned 1
to privation and hardship, and that the {
average Imprisonment in Anderson |
vile was less than three months, the '
strain upon the constitu- +
ton of even a short confinement be- c
comes better understood. I
1t is the universal testimony that the
conditions in the other prisons we're 8
much worse, and the accompanying v
oss of life much greater than in An t
iersOnville, but as no statistics of
Charleston, Cahawba, Columbia, Ma
,on, Millen, Mobile, Camp Ford, Jack 8
on and Montgomery have ever been
ound, and those of Salisbury, Rich p
nond and Danville are very vague and
imperfect, it is impossible to sustain
hese assertions with the proof of fig il
res. "
Enough is known, however, to make G
beyond dispute that of the 1926, 900 Il
prisoners who were taken from the n
ime of the battle of Gettysburg, when D
he exchange was interrupted, to the h
lose of the war, at least 60, 900 died ',
'hile in prisons or Immediately after n
assing through u lines. The war a
apartment has a record of 29,957 of
hese, and presumptive proof enough
swell the number to 47,445. W
Your memorialists would therefore y
abmit, as an undeniable scientific n
nth that where the exposure of a o.
ody of men to privation and hardship lie
as resulted in killing fully one-half of g
lem in an incredibly short time, that II
lie strain on the constitutions of the
lrvivors must have wrought hopeless y
nd ~isreparable injury 1t is simply
npossible that the man who managed d,
survive what killed so large a pro- in
ortion of his comrades should not OF
had his vital energies lowered, w
capacity for work diminished, and al
days shortened, by what proved so e,
tai to them. 1t could not help dis B