Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Part 63

Answer. I was treated a great deal better there than I was at Belle Isle. We got meat twice a day, rice once, and Indian bread once. We got very near as much as we wanted to eat.

Question. How were you treated at Richmond?

Answer. I suffered there terribly with hunger. I could eat anything.

Question. Can you tell us what kind of food you got there?

Answer. Dry Indian bread, and, when I first went there, a very little meat.

Question. When were you taken sick?

Answer. I was taken sick--I was sick with the diarrhoea a fortnight before I went to the hospital, and I was in the hospital a little over a week before I was exchanged. I was released on the 7th of March, and got here the 9th.

Question. How were you treated while in the hospital?

Answer. I was treated there worse than on Belle Isle. We did not get any salt of any account--only a little piece of bread that would hardly keep a chicken alive.

Question. Did you get any rice?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Any soup?

Answer. Once in a while of mornings I would get a little.

Question. Did the physician come round to see you every day?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did he give you any medicine?

Answer. He gave me some pills.

Question. What was their manner towards you after you were taken sick and in the hospital? Were they kind, or rough?

Answer. They were neither kind nor rough, but indifferent. The corn-bread I got seemed to burn my very insides. When I would go down to the river of mornings to wash myself, as I put the water to my face it seemed as though I wanted to sup the water, and to sup it, and sup it, and sup it all the time.

Question. Did you make no complaint to the officers on Belle Isle of your food?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Did you ask them for any more?

Answer. No, sir; I knew there was no use. I do not think I spoke to an officer while I was there.

Question. Did you ever tell those who furnished you with the food you did get, of the insufficiency of it?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What answer did they give you?

Answer. That was all we were allowed, they said.

Question. Did you have blankets while you were on Belle Isle?

Answer. I had no blanket until our government sent us some.

Question. How did you sleep before you received those blankets?

Answer. We used to get together just as close as we could, and sleep spoon-fashion, so that when one turned over we all had to turn over.

Question. Did they furnish you any clothing while you were there?

Answer. No, sir; the rebs did not furnish us a bit. It was very warm weather when I was taken prisoner, and I had nothing on me but my pants, shirt, gloves, shoes, stockings, and cap; and I received no more clothing until our government sent us some in December, I think. We had to lie right down on the cold ground.

Question. Did you not have a tent?

Answer. I had none when I first went there. After a while we had one, but it was a very poor affair; the rain would come right through it.

Question. Were you exposed to the dew and rain, and wind and snow?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And before you got the tent you lay in the open air?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How did the others there with you fare; the same as you did?

Answer. Many of them had money, with which they bought things of the guard; but I had no money.

Question. Were there others there who had no money?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did they fare the same as you?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. After you went into the hospital, did you receive the same treatment as their own sick received who were in the hospital with you, or did they have any of their sick in there?

Answer. I think none of their sick were in there. I suffered a great deal with hunger when I was on Belle Isle. When I first went there I had no pa.s.sage of the bowels for eighteen days, and when I did have one it was just as dry as meal.

Question. Did you have any medicine at that time?

Answer. No, sir; I took no medicine until I went to the hospital. About the middle or last of February (somewhere about there) I took a very severe cold. It seemed to settle all over me. I was as stiff in all my joints as I could be.

Question. Did your strength decrease much before you were taken sick in February?