Year: 1864




Some were 50 fortunate as to find shelte


in the tents, but even they were often we


with the rain, aud almost frozen whel


winter set in Every day some place wer


made vacant by diseases or by deaths, q


some were taken to the hospital, and SOM
to burial. But thousands had no tents
and no shelter of any kind. Nothing wa
provided for their accommodation. Lum
Der was plenty in thecountry or forests, but
not a cabin or shed was built, or allowed
to be built. Here thousands lay, with the
sand for their beds, and the sky for theil
covering, under fog, rain, cold, snow, hun.
dreds blanketless, coatless, shoeless, others
with ragged and rotten clothes. There
we're few fires and little shelter. A severe
winter came, in which the mercury was
down to zero even at Memphis, and water
lett in buckets on Belle Island froze two
or three inches deep in the night. The
snow lay deep on the ground around Rich
mond. The ice formed in the James, and
flowed in masses upon the rapids, on either
side of the island.


The men resorted to every expedient to
keep from perishing. They lay in the
ditch, as the most protected place, heaped
upon one another and lying close together,
IS one Of them expressed it, " like hogs in
in winter" taking turns IS to who should
have the outside of therow. In the morn
ing, the row of the previous night was
marked by the motionless forms of those
who were sleeping on in their last sleep"
frozen to death


Every day, during the winter season,
numbers we're conveyed away stiff and
stark, having fallen asleep in everlasting
cold. Some of the men dug holes IN the
sand in which TO take refuge. All through
the night crowds of them we're heard run
ming up and down, to keep themselves from
freezing. And this fate threatened them
even more than it would have threatened
most man exposed TO an equally severe
temperature, even with such thin clothing
and inadequate shelter-for they were
starving.


Rock-like husky corn bread (specimens
Of which we have seen, meat often taint-
ed, and suspiciously like mule meat; two
or three spoonfuls of rotten beans soup
thin and briny, often with worms floating
on the surface, made up their food. None
Of these were given together, and the
whole ration was never one half the guam
lily ueCeSSdTy NOF Ddr5 lie. near the
words of the prisoners.


"There was no name for our hunger
was hungry; pretty nearly starved to
death " walked up one night and found
myself gnawing my coat sleeve" AT used
to dream of having something good to eat"
f" l walked the streets for many night; 1
could not sleep for hunger" al lost flesh
and strength for want of food" "If 1 /
were TO sit here week 1 could not tell you
half our suffering These sentences form
the very poem of misery and starvation.


"Lice were in all their quarters" Yer
min and dirt encrusted their bodies. They
were sore with lying in the sand. None
not even the sufferers with diarrhaa-were
allowed to visit the sinks during the night,
and in the morning the ground was COW
cred and saturated with filth. The wells
were tainted the air was filed with dis
gusting o1ors.


Many we're taken sick daily, but were
allowed TO suffer for days before they were
removed to the hospitals, and when this
was done, it was often so late half of them
died before reaching it, or at the very mo-
ment their names were being recorded.


There was q hospital tent on the island,
which was always full of the sick. 1t had
no floor; the sick and dying were laid on
straw, and logs were their only pillows.
q If you or saw a horse dying,' said one,
'' wouldn't we put some straw under his
head ? Would we let him beat his head