Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Part 66

Answer. Yes, sir; there were twenty-four of us taken prisoners. The small-pox was very severe among us. Our own men said that they were just trying to kill the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians. Out of the twenty-four, there were ten of us left when they started for Georgia. No man can tell precisely how we were treated and say just how it was.

L. H. Parhan, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. From what State are you?

Answer. West Tennessee.

Question. To what regiment do you belong?

Answer. The 3d West Tennessee cavalry.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. In Henry county, West Tennessee.

Question. From there where were you carried?

Answer. From there they marched us on foot, some 350-odd miles, to Decatur.

Question. What were you given to eat?

Answer. Sometimes for twenty-four or thirty hours we would have a little piece of beef and some corn-bread.

Question. Were you a well man when you were taken prisoner?

Answer. Yes, sir; a stout man for a little man. I was very stout.

Question. Were you brought to your present condition by want of food?

Answer. Yes, sir; and sleeping in the cold. They took my money and clothes and everything else away from me, even my pocket-comb and knife, and my finger-ring that my sister gave me. They were taken away when I was captured.

[The witness, who was so weak that he could not raise his head, appeared to be so much exhausted by talking that the committee refrained from further examination. As they were moving away from his bed, he spoke up and said: "I am better now than when I came here. I have some strength now. I hope I shall get better, for I want to see my old father and mother once more."]

James Sweeney, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Where did you reside when you enlisted?

Answer. Haverhill, Ma.s.sachusetts.

Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. Company E, 17th Ma.s.sachusetts.

Question. When were you taken prisoner?

Answer. First of February.

Question. Where?

Answer. Six miles from Newbern, North Carolina.

Question. Where were you then carried?

Answer. To Richmond.

Question. How were you treated after you were taken prisoner?

Answer. We had no breakfast that day. We started out early in the morning--the 132d New York was with us--without anything to eat. We had nothing to eat all that day, and they made us sleep out all that night without anything to eat. It rained that night; then they marched us the next day thirty miles, to Kingston, without anything to eat, except it was, about twelve o'clock, one of the regular captains, who had some crackers in his haversack, gave us about one each, and some of the boys managed to get an ear of corn from the wagons, but the rest of them were pushed back by the guns of the guard; then we were kept in the streets of Kingston until about nine o'clock, when we had a little pork and three barrels of crackers for about two hundred of us. I got three or four crackers. Then they put us in freight cars that they had carried hogs in, all filthy and dirty, and we were nearly frozen by the time we got to Goldsborough; and near Weldon they camped us in a field all day long, like a spectacle for the people to look at, and when we got to Richmond they put us in a common for a while, and then we were taken to prison. About eleven o'clock that day they brought us some corn-bread.

They gave me about three-quarters of a small loaf and a dipper of hard, black beans with worms in them. We were kept there all night. If we went near the window, bullets were fired at us. Two or three hundred men lay on the floor. I was kept between three and four weeks on Belle Isle.

Question. How was it for food there?

Answer. That night they gave us a piece of corn-bread about an inch thick, two or three inches long. Some nights we would have a couple of spoonfuls, maybe, of raw rice or raw beans; other nights they would not give us that. A squad of 100 men of us would have about 20 sticks of wood, and in order to cut that up we would have to pay a man for the use of an axe by giving him a piece of the stick for splitting up the rest.

We lay right on the ground in the snow. Twenty of us together would lay with our feet so close to the fire that the soles of our boots would be all drawn, and we would get up in the morning all shivering, and I could not eat what little food I did get.

Question. What is the cause of your sickness?

Answer. Just the food we got there and this exposure. Eating this corn-bread continually gave me the diarrhoea. We would get thirsty and drink that river water. We had little bits of beef sometimes; generally it was tough, more like a piece of India-rubber you would rub pencil-marks out with. What little food we did get was so bad we could not eat it. At first, for five or six days, we could eat it pretty well, but afterwards I could not eat it.

Question. Have you been brought to your present condition by your treatment there?

Answer. Yes, sir; by the want of proper food, and exposure to the cold.

John C. Burcham, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Julian:

Question. Where did you enlist, and in what regiment?

Answer. I enlisted in Indianapolis, in the 75th Indiana regiment, Colonel Robinson.

Question. When were you taken prisoner, and where?

Answer. I was taken prisoner at Chickamauga, on the 20th of September.

Question. Where were you carried then?