Martyria; or, Andersonville PrisonHamlin, Augustus C. (Augustus Choate)
History
Martyria; or, Andersonville Prison
Hamlin, Augustus C. (Augustus Choate)
Andersonville Prison; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
The rebel ration allowed by their law gave thirty-seven and a half pounds
of corn meal, three pounds of rice, or five pounds of peas, ten pounds of
bacon, salt, &c., monthly, of twenty-eight days, or about twenty ounces of
meal daily, and about six ounces of bacon. We have, as an aggregate number
of men for the above period (prisoners and guards), 29,000 + 4000 × 92 =
3,036,000 men, requiring, according to law, three million seven hundred
and ninety-five thousand pounds of corn meal. Now the commissary states
that he furnished 226,700 bushels of corn meal and flour; or, multiplied
by 50 pounds = 11,335,000 pounds, thus giving to each man more than three
and one-fifth pounds of meal and flour; or, allowing the usual per cent.
of water, more than four pounds of bread. That these men had sixty-eight
ounces of corn bread apiece, or that they could have eaten it if they had
been furnished that quantity, is not for a moment to be considered. This
analysis betrays the falsity of the commissary's statement, and
invalidates the remainder of his accounts.
It cannot be said that this meal was to be stored for future use, for it
is well known that corn meal will not keep in this climate but for a few
days without fermentation taking place. There is, again, another serious
item to be considered in connection with this statement. Why should this
overplus, of more than seven millions of pounds of meal, be sent to this
prison, when the army of Virginia was calling loudly for grain? The
statement and the figures indicate simply a foolish desire to cover up
deficiencies, and that too in a very hasty manner.
XX.
The same commissary states that he sent, during the same period of time,
three hundred and thirty-nine thousand pounds of bacon, or five million
four hundred and twenty-four thousand ounces. This will give thirty-six
hundred and eighty-four pounds of bacon each day of the ninety-two days;
and, after allowing six ounces per man to the rebel garrison, we shall
have remaining but two thousand pounds to be divided among the twenty-nine
thousand prisoners, or about one and one seventh ounces of bacon to each
man. Thus the account of the commissary, if true, proves that the
statement of the prisoners, that they received but two to four ounces of
bacon daily, was correct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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