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UNION
AND CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND
STATE FROM JUNE 11, 1863, TO MARCH 31, 1864.--#20 FLAG-OF-TRUCE
BOAT, Brig. Gen. Neal Dow wished me to lay before General
Meredith the following statements of facts in regard to our soldiers at Belle
Isle, which facts General Dow had obtained from personal observation and inquiry
at the island when on Thursday of this week he visited it for the purpose of
distributing the clothing and blankets which the United States Government sent
to the soldiers. He declares that the soldiers on Belle Isle are suffering
beyond endurance. There are 5,400 on the island, which is low and unhealthy.
They have not tents, into which by crowding more than one-half can enter at all;
the remainder sleep without on the bare ground without sufficient clothing and
almost entirely without blankets. Many have no pants; many have no shirts; so of
shoes; and almost every individual lacks some essential article of clothing.
They are on half rations, have no fuel of any kind, no soap is issued to them;
they are consequently very filthy, of necessity. They need socks, additional
supply of blankets and clothes, unless exchanged soon; shoes, mostly 8, 9, and
10. They are dying at the rate of eight and ten daily now, and the rate must
fearfully increase from this on. One hundred will die daily by January 1. The
general says they ought to be exchanged if possible, or many, many lives will be
sacrificed and the health of the most of the remainder impaired. The above embraces the substance of what General Dow
desires me to say to you, taken from my notes of his conversation. I wish to add for myself, for I spent three days this
week in one of the tobacco factories ("Scott's") with about 160
privates who were <ar119_483> wounded at Chickamauga mostly, and now
nearly recovered, the others having been sent to Belle Island. I wish to state
how they fare. The rations are, for each man, twelve ounces of bread and two to
three ounces of beef or mutton in twenty-four hours, given about 1 o'clock each
day, and nothing else; no stoves, no fuel, no light at night, no soap. They have
no straw or bunks and very insufficient clothing and blankets; not one in four
has a blanket. They have very generally bad colds and cough incessantly. They
are not allowed to purchase anything. What they get is got by stealth from the
guard, who charge them two or three prices for everything they buy for them. I
paid a $1 for a small six-ounce loaf, but they usually get such a loaf for 50
cents, which is double the price out in the city for bread a little smaller. But
the most of the privates were robbed of their money and have to live on their
rations. So much for the private soldier. The following is the substance of what General Dow and
the officers generally desired me to communicate to you in relation to the
comparative treatment they and the rebel officers in the North receive. From
notes of his conversation: We receive twelve
ounces bread daily, one-half gill rice, four ounces meat, vinegar and salt, one
Sallow candle to each room containing from 175 to 200 officers. They furnish
stoves only for cooking purposes, and scarcely sufficient. We have to furnish
our own cooking and table utensils, have to do our own cooking and rise very
early, and then have no means of cooking more than two meals a day. We sleep on
the floor without blankets (except as our Government furnishes them to us), are
kept in close confinement in closely packed rooms, dark, deep, and
insufficiently ventilated, though our windows have no glass in them. Now, we
protest against the treatment their officers receive from our Government and we
ask that they be placed in similar position until we and our men are better
treated. They would have sent a petition signed by every
officer, but I thought it not safe to undertake to bring it through. They do not
ask our Government to retaliate on the private soldier in captivity, but upon
the officers. Let me add, the officers who return South, whether
they escape or are released, as the chaplains recently, almost uniformly
misrepresent the treatment they receive and from it justify the treatment our
officers receive. Respectfully, JOHN
HUSSEY, Delegate U.S. Christian Commission. -----
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