Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First TimeFreese, Jacob R.
History
Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First Time
Freese, Jacob R.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
Of course it is not known, never can be known, how many millions of
dollars, nor how many thousands of lives the adoption of this policy
by the South cost the North; nor can the South ever know the amount of
advantage which they derived from adopting the policy; but that it was
a new mode of warfare, and showed great shrewdness on the part of those
who conceived and carried out the project, all will agree in admitting.
Having thus shown how the Confederate authorities used Union prisoners
to benefit their own cause, we will next proceed to state some
additional facts as to the abuse received by other Union prisoners.
The facts which we now purpose to state are not from hearsay, not from
one-sided newspapers, nor from partisan historians, but directly from the
lips of one who had occasion to visit Confederate prisoners frequently
during the war, whose whole soul was in, and with, the Confederate
cause, and who could not be, and would not be, by any who knew him,
accused of sympathy with the "Yankees," as he usually styles Union
soldiers when speaking of them. We have not space to write of all, and
will limit our remarks to only four of the many places throughout the
Confederate States at which Union prisoners were confined.
_First_.--"Libby Prison." This was located in Richmond, and had been
a tobacco warehouse previous to its use as a prison. It was an immense
brick building, three stories high, rough floors, no plastering, a great
number of windows, no fire-places, and no means for heating other than
for the office on the first floor. In this, hundreds of Union prisoners
were thrust and kept for weeks, months, years--some with scarcely enough
clothing left to cover their nakedness, and with no chance for a change;
many without a blanket, even in the coldest winter weather; all without
beds, or mattress, or anything but the hard floor to lie upon. Their
ordinary daily ration consisted of a loaf made from one pint of
corn-meal and one pint of rice soup. Occasionally, though rarely, they
would have bread made from wheat flour and soup made from meat and
bones. Once in a great while they were served with meat, but the
quantity served to each man was so small that it could be taken at a
mouthful. Our informant says he knows of a certainty that some _actually
starved to death_--that others _actually froze to death_--that many
were _wantonly shot_ while thoughtlessly looking out of the windows,
by sentinels on the sidewalks, who had positive orders from Lieutenant
Turner, the officer in command of Libby, to shoot any "d------d Yankee"
whose head might be seen at the window-bars; and that hundreds, yea,
thousands, died from sickness brought upon them by the privations from
which they suffered. We could give other details, but they are too
horrible to write, and would be too sickening to read.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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