The Washington herald., 1914-01-26

lieved the famine in the city and the
prisons was due ito the imbecility or
worse of the government"
"A riot would be a dangerous occur
renee now" he wrote. THE City Bat
talon would not fire on the people, and il
they did the army might break up and
avenge their slaughtered kindred. This is
a perilous time"
In the next line the diarist wrote: MY
wife paid 81 today for half bushel Of
meal"
The prisoners on Belle Isle were in
deed not the only hungry souls in Rich
mond at this stage Of the war. Famine
stalked the streets of the city and incom
petence in official places made no effort
TO combat it Stores of bacon and corn,
the staples of the South, were hidden,
while the soldiers under Lee and the pris
oners in Belle Isle alike were on half
rations.
The Belle Isle prisoners had plotted an
escape. but their secret had not been well
guarded, and the plan had failed. An OFF,
Ger, also a prisoner, taken into the secret,
had talked too freely in a Richmond hos
pital The authorities had taken alarm,
the gukrds at Belle Isle had been in
creased and were more vigilant than
usual There was no hope of launching
the entehprisesin the face of such condi-
TONS and the prisoners were obliged to
relinquish hope of quickly leaving their
cold and cherries quarters on Belle Isle.
Horrors Over CoIored.
Much had been told in the North of
the conditions at Belle Isle, which was
pictured as the worst of the Richmond
prisons. Men were represented as dying
there from hunger and freezing, with
out shelter, in the bitter winter weather.
A committee of inquiry appointed by
he TAT Commission
had prepared a report on conditions at
the prison, which presented harrow
ing picture OF suffering there.
Prisoners Were represented as lying in
a ditch like hogs in winter" 10 keep
warm, taking turns On the outside of
the row, and it was stated that ''in the
morning the row OF the previous night
was marked by tire motionless forms of
those who were sleeping on il. their last
sleep"
Every day during the winter season."
the report continued, numbers were
conveyed away stiff and stark. having
fallen asleep in everlasting cold. Some
men dug holes in the sand in which to
take refuge. All through the night
crowds of them were heard running up
ana down TO keep from freezing.
1.-The cold froze them because they
were hungry-the hunger consumed them
because they were cold. These two vul-
lures fed upon their vitals, and no one
in the Southern Confederacy had the
mercy or the pity TO drive them away"
This report was causing great indig
nation in the North, and in the South
also, but for a different reason
though well meant. it was overdrawn.
Considerations at Belle Isle were bad
enough, but not as bad as represented.
Life Inside "Dead Line" ~
Belle Isle had been established in 1852
as a summer prison camp. 1t had be-
come winter camp without special pre-
parations being made for protecting the
prisoners from the winter weather. They
lived in tents, in an Enclosure of perhaps
three acres in extent, on low, sandy soil,
with the James river running past on two
sides, and Richmond's windows looking
down on ali. Across the rapid tide on
the Richmond side Of the river we're the
Tredegar iron works, and above them the
Slopes Of a cemetery. A footbridge ran
10 the island from this side Of the river.
On the other side, among the rocks OF
the river bed. was q railroad bridge lead
ing to Manchester.
To leave Belle Isle a prisoner must
cross bridge, and the bridges were
always guarded. About the Enclosure
OF the prison was an earth wall, and
on this, forty fest apart. paced sentries,
day and night. A dead line" was drawn
inside the wall, as in all prisons of the
war. North and South, and no man
could cross il and live.
These conditions were hard enough
for hungry, sick, and homesick men to
bear; but no man in the prison was
called upon to sleep in the open air and
none died of freezing, except one poor
wretch who was thrust forth from his
tent by his mates because he was laden
with vermin.