Year: 1864

. HD.-QRs-, ID WIS BIT,
Fl. PHELPS CHATTANOOGA, TENH.,
. July 18th.
ED. CHATTANOOGA GAZETTE:
Yesterday afternoon our batter


was thrown into a commotion by tn


sudden appearance of our comfade


Thomas Boyle, who was taken pris


oner at the battle of Chicamauga, an,
who made his escape from the rebe


prison at Americas, Ca. on the l9tI
ofJune, and after being recaptureC


three times-once by blood honds


and as many times re-escaping-


finally reached our lines on the Chat
tahoochee river, on the 5th of July


after many hairhreadth escapes and


thrilling adventures. The tale of
horror he tells of the suffering and


treatment of our prisoners is almost


beyond belief. The barbarous ages


give no parallel to it. The sufferings


undergone by our men at Belle Isle


and Libby Prison were comforts


compared to this. The statements


of Mr.. Boyle can be relied upon as


true in their every particular; all


who know him testify to his vera-
city. 1 make this assertion feeling
that many will doubt even the faint
outline l shall give of his statements
At the time of his escape there were
$4,000 Federal prisoners confined in
a stockade inclosing twelve acres of
ground, through the center of which
runs swamp, which covers about
three acres of said twelve acres
The men are without blankets, many
of them almost nude, all ragged and
lousy. No soap is given them -
They have no tents or shelter except
holes they dig in the ground with
their hands. For a roof they set
sticks up and lean them together at
the top, and cover them with dirt.


The water they have to use is got
from holes dug in the edge of Il e
aforementioned swamp. The rations
consist of three ounces OF meat per
day, and piece vi corn bread four
inches square. In lieu of the bread
they get a pint and half of corn
meal, which they bake, without salt,
Oh a board before a camp fire
The meat ration is very often minus,
and sometimes their bread and
meal; they then get one pint of rice
cooked. Such treatment is almost
too horrible for well, able bodied
men to endure But when we know
that they are suffering from the
worst form of diseases. then the
bare thought becomes appalling
Nesry all of the Gettysburg and
Chicamauga prisoners that are yet
alive are suffering from scurvy in its
worst form.


Two thirds of the whole 10, 900 are
suffering from the same dread dis
ease Their limbs are stiff and swol-
len until they are black and blue; teeth
loose and dropping out, their gums
being loose and fappy. The soul
turns sick from the awful picture
The hospitals differ from the stocka-
de only in that they have tents for the
sick, but no beds nor h1ankets-all
lie on the ground. The Surgeons
have no medicines.


At the stockade there is an imag
mary line, which if our men pass the
rebel guard shoots; hence it is called
che dead line" Many of the mems
sufferings become so intolerahle
that they voluntarily cross this line
and are shot Mr.. Boyle says he has
many such scenes. Many
of the men have become crazy
their great suffering and loss
of all hope of an exchange. Near all
of them say that they hope Uncle
Sam will not give one point from the
right to Undue an exchange. They
feel the loftiness of the principles
they are more then dying to sustain,
and it nerves them to bear heroically
all that our far more than inhuman
fee can put upon them-until they
sink into martyrs grave. Does the
country appreciate such noble sacri-
fees? The dead are stripped of all
clothing, if there be anything but
rags on them-and then piled into a
cart and hauled to the burial ground
and there cast into trenches 6 feet
wide, do, depth, and unshrouded, un-
coff1ned, covered with the cold earth.
The mortality is very great 1t is to
be hoped that some measure may be
speedily found to give these men their
liberty. God is just and merciful,
and in him is our trust.


Respectfully yours,