Year: 1865

them die from the change in diet.


DIR. j. c. Dalton, Professor of Physiol
ogy and Microscopic Anatomy in the Col


lege of Physicians and Surgeons in thi


city, thus reports respecting the genera
condition of the prisoners delivered up al


Wilmington:


"The better cases were walking about


the streets, perhaps barefooted, or with nc


other clothing than pair of white cotton


drawers and an old blanket or over-coat,


both equally ragged. In these the slow,


dragging gait, listless manner, and caver-


nous, inexpensive look of the face, to-


gether with the general emaciation, formed


a peculiar aspect, by which they alone at


tracted the attention of the passer-by, and


by which they were at once distinguished


from the other convalesecent soldiers.


There was no occasion to inquire in Will


mington which were our returned prison.


ers; after half days experience any one


could distinguish them at a glance Many


of them, who had strength to crawl about


In this manner, were prevented from doing
so by the want of clothing. Major Rand
lete, the Provost Marshal of Wilmington,
told me that on one day forty of these
men came into our lines absolutely as max
ed as they were born. l inquired of Il
considerable number of them, whom Isaw
in the hospitals confined to their beds,
naked Or with only a shirt, and covered
with hospital blanket, what had become
of their clothing, and was told that they
had thrown away what remained as soon
as they could obtain shelter, because it was
so ragged, filthy, and full of vermin. One
of them, on being told that the SANITARY
Commission had sent them flannel shirts
and drawers, caught at the word with 4
childish eagerness and repeated the good
news to his companions with faint, half
imbecile smile, as long as was within
hearing. With the great majority of the
teebler ones personal cleanliness was a
thing which they appeared TO have entire
ly forgotten. They no longer retained
sufficient strength, either of mind or body.
to appreciate or correct the DEGRADATION to
which months of unavoidable uncleanli-
ness had reduced them. In the most ex-
treme cases the condition of the mind. as
well as the expression of the face. was alb
solutely ,fautuouS, and the aspect OF the
patient was not that of strong man re-
luced by illness. but that of idiotic pau
per, who had been such from his birth.
Nevertheless, several of the physicians in
formed me that the condition of the pa
tients had vi~ibly improved since their
and that | could not then form
an adequate idea of what it was when
they entered our lines. In that case it
must have been lamentable beyond de-
scription.


"Thc testimony of both men an officers
was uniform rs to the causes of their un-
natural condition. These cause were
first, starvation; and. second, exposure.
Only such officers and men rs could pro-
cure money were able to obtain ANYTHING
like sufficient nourishment. Some of them
told me that during the entire winter they
had received absolutely no meat; pint
of corn meal, often with the cob ground
in, sometimes with and sometimes with
out salt, handful of 'cow-pease,' and
sorghum molaSseS. constituted
their usual ration. When in hospital they
had only very thin corn-meal cruel and a
little corn-bread. To the debility occa-
stoned by this insufficient food was added
that resulting from exposure. 1t was
common thing for prisoner, Immediately
on being taken, to be stripped of his
socks, pantaloons, shirts
and drawers-and to be left with only an
old and worn-out pair of drawers, and
perhaps an equally WORKOUT shirt and
blanket given him in exchange. This
robbery of clothing was also practiced
more or less upon officers. Even an as
sistant surgeon, who was captured within
four miles of Richmond, told ME that he
was robbed of his flannel shirt while
standing in front of the Libby prison, and


in presence of the rebel officer in charge of
the squad. This was Immediately after
his arrival in the city, and when he had
been, for the three days succeeding his
capture, entirely without food With the
scanty clothing thus left them the men
were kept during the winter, often with
out any shelter excepting such as they
could cohtrive to provide by excavating
sort of rife-pit in the ground, and cover
ing it with old blankets or canvas, as their
supply of fuel was insufficient, and some
times entirely wanting. Even in the hos
pitals their suffering from cold was very
great.


"One of the most melancholy sights in
was that to be seen at the
Geer' hospitals. In these hospitals were
all the patients who had lost
their feet, either wholly or in part, by
freezing, from their exposure during the
past winter, and this in Il weIl-wooded
In some of them two or three
toes only, on one or both feet, were gan
grened, and in process of separation by
in others both feet had en-
tirely separated, and the patients Were
awaiting the time when their general
strength and the condition of the stump
would warrant final amputation. In
many cases the patients ascribed this gam
creme directly to frost-bites received on
particular occasions; in others to their
illness from which they were suffering


:,Gl