Chapter XI: Mortality at Andersonville

“Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
Let’s choose executors, and talk of wills:
And yet not so,—for what can we bequeath,
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?”
KING RICHARD II.

The number of prisoners confined in the Andersonville prison, all told, was forty-five thousand six hundred and thirteen. Of these twelve thousand nine hundred and twelve died there, or in other words two men out of every seven who were confined in that prison died there, and the average length of time of imprisonment was only four months.

That this was largely due to causes within the control of the Confederate authorities I propose to show by the sworn testimony of one of their own men who was in a position to know, and speak authoritatively.

On the 6th day of August 1864 Surgeon Joseph Jones, of the Confederate army, was detailed by the Surgeon General to proceed to Andersonville, and investigate and report, upon the phenomena of the diseases prevailing there. His visit was not for the benefit of the prisoners, but for purely scientific purposes. His report, from which I quote, tells a story of such as no prisoner could tell, for, if any were qualified to make such investigation and report, they had no opportunity to do so.

These extracts from the above mentioned report are taken from “Andersonville,” a book which I wish every civilized person in the world could read. This report was part of the testimony offered and accepted at the trial of Wirz, and is now on file in the office of the Judge Advocate General of the United States, at Washington.

“MEDICAL TESTIMONY.”

(Transcript from the printed testimony at Wirz Trial, pages 618 to 639, inclusive).

“Dr. Joseph Jones for the prosecution.

By the Judge Advocate:

Question. Where do you reside?

Answer. In Augusta, Georgia.

Ques. Are you a graduate of any medical college?

Ans. Of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ques. How long have you been engaged in the practice of medicine?

Ans. Eight years.

Ques. Has your experience been as a practitioner, or rather as an investigator of medicine as a science?

Ans. Both.

Ques. What position do you hold now?

Ans. That of Medical Chemist in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta.

Ques. How long have you held your position in that college?

Ans. Since 1858.

Ques. How were you employed during the Rebellion?

Ans. I served six months in the early part of it as a private in the ranks, and the rest of the time in the medical department.

Ques. Under the direction of whom?

Ans. Under the direction of Dr. Moore, Surgeon General.

Ques. Did you, while acting under his direction, visit Andersonville, professionally?

Ans. Yes Sir.

Ques. For the purpose of making investigations there?

Ans. For the purpose of prosecuting investigations ordered by the Surgeon General.

Ques. You went there in obedience to a letter of instructions?

Ans. In obedience to orders which I received.

Ques. Did you reduce the results of your investigations to the shape of a report?

Ans. I was engaged at that work when General Johnston surrendered his army.

(_A document being handed to witness._)

Ques. Have you examined this extract from your report and compared it with the original?

Ans. Yes sir, I have.

Ques. Is it accurate?

Ans. So far as my examination extended, it is accurate.

The document just examined by witness was offered in evidence, and is as follows:

_Observations upon the diseases of the Federal prisoners, confined
in Camp Sumter, Andersonville, in Sumter county, Georgia, instituted
with a view to illustrate chiefly the origin and causes of hospital
gangrene, the relations of continued and malarial fevers, and the
pathology of camp diarrhea and dysentery, by Joseph Jones Surgeon P.
A. C. S. Professor of Medical Chemistry in the Medical College of
Georgia, at Augusta, Georgia._

Hearing of the unusual mortality among the Federal prisoners
confined at Andersonville, Georgia, in the month of August, 1864,
during a visit to Richmond, Va., I expressed to the Surgeon General,
S. P. Moore, Confederate States of America, a desire to visit Camp
Sumter, with the design of instituting a series of inquiries upon
the nature and causes of the prevailing diseases. Small pox had
appeared among the prisoners, and I believed that this would prove
an admirable field for the establishment of its characteristic
lesions. The condition of Peyer’s glands in this disease was
considered as worthy of minute investigation. It was believed that a
large body of men from the northern portion of the United States,
suddenly transported to a warm Southern climate, and confined upon a
small portion of land, would furnish an excellent field for the
investigation of the relations of typhus, typhoid and malarial
fevers.”

Then follows a letter of introduction to the Surgeon in charge at Andersonville, and a letter to Gen. Winder asking permission to visit the Inner Prison, and an order of Winder granting permission. The report then proceeds.

“_Description of the Confederate States Military Prison Hospital at
Andersonville, Number of prisoners, physical condition, food,
clothing, habits, moral condition, diseases._

The Confederate Military Prison at Andersonville, Ga., consists of a
strong Stockade, twenty feet in height, enclosing twenty-seven
acres. The Stockade is formed of strong pine logs, firmly planted in
the ground. The main Stockade is surrounded by two other similar
rows of pine logs, the middle stockade being sixteen feet high, and
the outer twelve feet. These are intended for offense and defense.
If the inner stockade should at any time be forced by the prisoners,
the second forms another line of defense; while in case of an
attempt to deliver the prisoners by a force operating upon the
exterior, the outer line forms an admirable protection to the
Confederate troops, and a most formidable obstacle to cavalry or
infantry.

The four angles of the outer line are strengthened by earth-works
upon commanding eminences, from which the cannon, in case of an
outbreak among the prisoners, may sweep the entire enclosure; and it
was designed to connect these works by a line of rifle pits, running
zigzag, around the outer stockade; those rifle pits have never been
completed. The ground enclosed by the innermost stockade lies in the
form of a parallelogram the larger diameter running almost due north
and south. This space includes the northern and southern opposing
sides of two hills, between which a stream of water runs from west
to east. The surface soil of these hills is composed chiefly of sand
with varying admixtures of clay and oxide of iron. The clay is
sufficiently tenacious to give a considerable degree of consistency
to the soil. The internal structure of the hills, as revealed by the
deep wells, is similar to that already described. The alternate
layers of clay and sand, as well as oxide of iron, which form, in
its various combinations a cement to the sand, allow of extensive
tunneling. The prisoners not only constructed numerous dirt huts
with balls of clay and sand, taken from the wells which they have
excavated all over those hills, but they have also, in some cases,
tunneled extensively from these wells. The lower portion of these
hills, bordering on the stream, are wet and boggy from the constant
oozing of water. The stockade was built originally to accommodate
only ten thousand prisoners, and included at first seventeen acres.
Near the close of the month of June the area was enlarged by the
addition of ten acres. The ground added was on the northern slope of
the largest hill.

Within the circumscribed area of the stockade the Federal prisoners
were compelled to perform all the offices of life—cooking, washing,
the calls of nature, exercise and sleeping.

During the month of March the prison was less crowded than at any
subsequent time, and the average space of ground to each prisoner
was only 98.7 feet, or less than seven square yards. The Federal
prisoners were gathered from all parts of the Confederate States
east of the Mississippi, and crowded into the confined space, until
in the month of June, the average number of square feet of ground to
each prisoner was only 33.2 or less than four square yards. These
figures represent the condition of the stockade in a better light
even than it really was; for a considerable breadth of land along
the stream, flowing from west to east between the hills, was low and
boggy, and was covered with the excrement of the men, and thus
rendered wholly uninhabitable, and in fact useless for every purpose
except that of defecation.

The pines and other small trees and shrubs, which originally were
scattered sparsely over these hills, were, in a short time, cut down
and consumed by the prisoners for firewood, and no shade tree was
left in the entire enclosure of the stockade. With their
characteristic industry and ingenuity, the Federals constructed for
themselves small huts and caves, and attempted to shield themselves
from the rain and sun and night damps and dew. But few tents were
distributed to the prisoners, and those were in most cases torn and
rotten. In the location and arrangement of these tents and huts no
order appears to have been followed; in fact, regular streets appear
to be out of the question in so crowded an area; especially too, as
large bodies of prisoners were from time to time added suddenly
without any previous preparations. The irregular arrangement of the
huts and imperfect shelters were very unfavorable for the
maintenance of a proper system of police.

The police and internal economy of the prison was left almost
entirely in the hands of the prisoners themselves; the duties of the
Confederate soldiers acting as guards being limited to the
occupation of boxes or lookouts ranged around the stockade at
regular intervals, and to the manning of the batteries at the angles
of the prison. Even judicial matters pertaining to themselves, as
the detection and punishment of such crimes as theft and murder
appear to have been, in a great measure, abandoned to the prisoners.

A striking instance of this occurred in the month of July, when the
Federal prisoners within the stockade tried, condemned, and hanged
six (6) of their own number, who had been convicted of stealing, and
of robbing and murdering their fellow prisoners. They were all hung
upon the same day, and thousands of the prisoners gathered around to
witness the execution. The Confederate authorities are said not to
have interfered with these proceedings. In this collection of men
from all parts of the world, every phase of human character was
represented; the stronger preyed upon the weaker, and even the sick
who were unable to defend themselves were robbed of their scanty
supplies of food and clothing. Dark stories were afloat, of men,
both sick and well, who were murdered at night, strangled to death
by comrades for scant supplies of clothing or money.

I heard a sick and wounded Federal prisoner accuse his nurse, a
fellow prisoner of the United States army, of having stealthily,
during his sleep, inoculated his wounded arm with gangrene, that he
might destroy his life and fall heir to his clothing.

* * * * *

The large number of men confined in the stockade soon, under a
defective system of police, and with imperfect arrangements, covered
the surface of the low grounds with excrements. The sinks over the
lower portions of the stream were imperfect in their plan and
structure, and the excrements were, in large measure, deposited so
near the border of the stream as not to be washed away, or else
accumulated upon the low boggy ground. The volume of water was not
sufficient to wash away the feces, and they accumulated in such
quantities in the lower portion of the stream as to form a mass of
liquid excrement. Heavy rains caused the water of the stream to
rise, and as the arrangements for passage of the increased amounts
of water out of the stockade were insufficient, the liquid feces
overflowed the low grounds and covered them several inches, after
subsidence of the waters. The action of the sun upon this putrefying
mass of excrements and fragments of bread and meat and bones excited
most rapid fermentation and developed a horrible stench.
Improvements were projected for the removal of the filth and for the
prevention of its accumulation, but they were only partially and
imperfectly carried out. As the forces of the prisoners were reduced
by confinement, want of exercise, improper diet, and by scurvy,
diarrhea, and dysentery, they were unable to evacuate their bowels
within the stream or along its banks, and the excrements were
deposited at the very doors of their tents. The vast majority
appeared to lose all repulsion to filth, and both sick and well
disregarded all the laws of hygiene and personal cleanliness. The
accommodations for the sick were imperfect and insufficient.

From the organization of the prison, February 24th, 1864, to May
22d, the sick were treated within the stockade. In the crowded
condition of the stockade, and with the tents and huts clustered
thickly around the hospital, it was impossible to secure proper
ventilation or to maintain the necessary police. The Federal
prisoners also made frequent forays upon the hospital stores and
carried off the food and clothing of the sick. The hospital was on
the 22d of May removed to its present site without the stockade, and
five acres of ground covered with oaks and pines appropriated to the
use of the sick.

The supply of medical officers has been insufficient from the
foundation of the prison.

The nurses and attendants upon the sick have been most generally
Federal prisoners, who in too many cases appear to have been devoid
of moral principle, and who not only neglected their duties, but
were also engaged in extensive robbing of the sick.

From the want of proper police and hygienic regulations alone it is
not wonderful that from February 24th to September 21st, 1864, nine
thousand four hundred and seventy-nine deaths nearly one third of
the entire number of prisoners, should have been recorded. I found
the stockade and hospital in the following condition during my
pathological investigations, instituted in the month of September,
1864:

Stockade, Confederate States Military Prison.

At the time of my visit to Andersonville a large number of Federal
prisoners had been removed to Millen, Savannah, Charleston and other
parts of the Confederacy, in anticipation of an advance of General
Sherman’s forces from Atlanta, with the design of liberating their
captive brethren: however, about fifteen thousand prisoners remained
confined within the limits of the stockade and Confederate States
Military Prison Hospital.

In the stockade, with the exception of the damp low lands bordering
the small stream, the surface was covered with huts, and small
ragged tents and parts of blankets and fragments of oil-cloth,
coats, and blankets stretched upon sticks. The tents and huts were
not arranged according to any order, and there was in most parts of
the enclosure scarcely room for two men to walk abreast between the
tents and huts.

* * * * *

Each day the dead from the stockade were carried out by their fellow
prisoners and deposited upon the ground under a bush arbor just
outside the southwestern gate. From thence they were carried in
carts to the burying ground, one quarter of a mile northwest of the
prison. The dead were buried without coffins, side by side, in
trenches four feet deep.

The low grounds bordering the stream were covered with human
excrements and filth of all kinds, which in many places appeared to
be alive with working maggots. An indescribable sickening stench
arose from these fermenting masses of human filth.

There were near five thousand seriously ill Federals in the stockade
and Confederate States Military Prison Hospital, and the deaths
exceeded one hundred per day, and large numbers of the prisoners who
were walking about, and who had not been entered upon the sick
reports, were suffering from severe and incurable diarrhea,
dysentery and scurvy. The sick were attended almost entirely by
their fellow prisoners, appointed as nurses, and as they received
but little attention, they were compelled to exert themselves at all
times to attend to the calls of nature, and hence, they retained the
power of moving about to within a comparatively short period of the
close of life. Owing to the slow progress of the diseases most
prevalent, diarrhea and chronic dysentery, the corpses were as a
general rule emaciated.

I visited two thousand sick within the stockade, lying under some
long sheds which had been built at the northern portion for
themselves. At this time only one medical officer was in attendance,
whereas at least twenty medical officers should have been employed.

* * * * *

Scurvy, diarrhea, dysentery, and hospital gangrene were the
prevailing diseases. I was surprised to find but few cases of
malarial fever, and no well marked cases either of typhus or typhoid
fever. The absence of the different forms of malarial fever may be
accounted for on the supposition that the artificial atmosphere of
the stockade, crowded densely with human beings and loaded with
animal exhalations, was unfavorable to the existence and action of
malarial poison. The absence of typhoid and typhus fevers amongst
all the causes which are supposed to generate these diseases,
appeared to be due to the fact that the great majority of these
prisoners had been in captivity in Virginia, at Belle Island, and in
other parts of the Confederacy for months, and even as long as two
years, and during this time they had been subjected to the same bad
influences, and those who had not had these fevers before either had
them during their confinement in Confederate prisons or else their
systems, from long exposure were proof against their action.

The effects of scurvy were manifested on every hand, and in all its
various stages, from the muddy pale complexion, pale gums, feeble,
languid muscular motions, lowness of spirits, and fetid breath, to
the dusky, dirty leaden complexion, swollen features, spongy purple,
livid, fungoid, bleeding gums, loose teeth, œdematous limbs, covered
with livid vibices and petechiae, spasmodically flexed, painful and
hardened extremities, spontaneous hemorrhages from mucous canals,
and large, ill conditioned, spreading ulcers covered with a dark
purplish fungus growth. I observed that in some cases of scurvy the
parotid glands were greatly swollen, and in some instances to such
an extent as to preclude entirely the power to articulate. In
several cases of dropsy of the abdomen and lower extremities
supervening upon scurvy, the patients affirmed that previously to
the appearance of the dropsy they had suffered with profuse and
obstinate diarrhea, and that when this was checked by a change of
diet, from Indian corn bread baked with the husk, to boiled rice,
the dropsy appeared. The severe pains and livid patches were
frequently associated with swellings in various parts, and
especially in the lower extremities, accompanied with stiffness and
contractions of the knee joints and ankles, and often with a burning
feel of the parts, as if lymph had been effused between the
integuments and apeneuroses, preventing the motion of the skin over
the swollen parts. Many of the prisoners believed that the scurvy
was contagious, and I saw men guarding their wells and springs,
fearing lest some man suffering with scurvy might use the water and
thus poison them. I observed also numerous cases of hospital
gangrene and of spreading scorbutic ulcers, which had supervened
upon slight injuries. The scorbutic ulcers presented a dark purple
fungoid, elevated surface, with livid swollen edges, exuded a thin,
fetid sanious fluid, instead of pus. Many ulcers which originated
from the sorbutic condition of the system appeared to become truly
gangrenous, assuming all the characteristics of hospital gangrene.

From the crowded condition, filthy habits, bad diet, and dejected
depressed condition of the prisoners, their systems had become so
disordered that the smallest abrasion of the skin from the rubbing
of a shoe, or from the effects of the sun, or from the prick of a
splinter, or from scratching or a mosquito bite, in some cases took
on rapid and frightful ulceration and gangrene. The long use of salt
meat, ofttimes imperfectly cured, as well as the most total
deprivation of vegetables and fruit, appeared to be the chief cause
of scurvy. I carefully examined the bakery and the bread furnished
the prisoners, and found that they were supplied almost entirely
with corn bread from which the husk had not been separated. This
husk acted as an irritant to the alimentary canal, without adding
any nutriment to the bread. As far as my examination extended no
fault could be found with the mode in which the bread was baked; the
difficulty lay in the failure to separate the husk from the corn
meal. I strongly urged the preparation of large quantities of soup
made from the cow and calves heads with the brains and tongues to
which a liberal supply of sweet potatoes and vegetables might have
been advantageously added. The material existed in abundance for the
preparation of such soup in large quantities with but little
additional expense. Such aliment would have been not only highly
nutritious, but it would also have acted as an efficient remedial
agent for the removal of the scorbutic condition. The sick within
the stockade lay under several long sheds which were originally
built for barracks. These sheds covered two floors which were open
on all sides. The sick lay upon the bare boards, or upon such ragged
blankets as they possessed, without, as far as I observed, any
bedding or even straw.

* * * * *

The haggard, distressed countenances of these miserable, complaining
dejected, living skeletons, crying for medical aid and food, and
cursing their Government for its refusal to exchange prisoners, and
the ghastly corpses with their glazed eyeballs staring up into
vacant space, with the flies swarming down their open grinning
mouths, and over their ragged clothes infested with numerous lice,
as they lay amongst the sick and dying formed a picture of helpless,
hopeless misery which it would be impossible to portray by words or
by the brush. A feeling of disappointment and even resentment on
account of the action of the United States Government upon the
subject of exchange of prisoners, appeared to be widespread, and the
apparent hopeless, nature of the negotiations for some general
exchange of prisoners appeared to be a cause of universal regret and
deep and injurious despondency. I heard some of the prisoners go so
far as to exonerate the Confederate Government from any charge of
intentionally subjecting them to a protracted confinement, with its
necessary and unavoidable sufferings in a country cut off from all
intercourse with foreign nations, and sorely pressed on all sides,
whilst on the other hand they charged their prolonged captivity upon
their own Government, which was attempting to make the negro equal
to the white man. Some hundreds or more of the prisoners had been
released from confinement in the stockade on parole, and filled
various offices as clerks, druggists, carpenters, etc., in the
various departments. These men were well clothed and presented a
stout and healthy appearance, and as a general rule, they presented
a much more robust and healthy appearance than the Confederate
troops guarding the prisoners.

* * * * *

The entire grounds are surrounded by a frail board fence, and are
strictly guarded by Confederate soldiers, and no prisoner, except
the paroled attendants, is allowed to leave the grounds except by a
special permit from the commandant of the interior of the prison.

The patients and attendants, near two thousand in number, are
crowded into this confined space and are but poorly supplied with
old and ragged tents. Large numbers of them were without any bunks
in the tents, and lay upon the ground, ofttimes without even a
blanket. No beds or straw appeared to have been furnished. The tents
extend to within a few yards of the small stream, the eastern
portion of which, as we have before said, is used as a privy and is
loaded with excrements; and I observed a large pile of corn bread,
bones, and filth of all kinds, thirty feet in diameter and several
feet in height, swarming with myriads of flies, in a vacant space
near the pots used for cooking. Millions of flies swarmed over
everything and covered the faces of the sleeping patients, and
crawled down their open mouths and deposited their maggots in the
gangrenous wounds of the living and in the mouths of the dead.

Mosquitoes in great numbers also infested the tents, and many of the
patients were so stung by these pestiferous insects, that they
resembled those suffering from a slight attack of the measles.

The police and hygiene of the hospital were defective in the
extreme; the attendants, who appeared in almost every instance to
have been selected from the prisoners, seemed to have, in many
cases, but little interest in the welfare of their fellow captives.
The accusation was made that the nurses, in many cases, robbed the
sick of their clothing, money, and rations, and carried on a
clandestine trade with the paroled prisoners and confederate guards
without the hospital enclosure, in the clothing, effects of the
sick, dying, and dead Federals. They certainly appeared to neglect
the comfort and cleanliness of the sick intrusted to their care in a
most shameful manner, even after making due allowances for the
difficulties of the situation. Many of the sick were literally
encrusted with dirt and filth and covered with vermin.

When a gangrenous wound needed washing, the limb was thrust out a
little from the blanket, or board, or rags upon which the patient
was laying, and water poured over it, and all the putrescent matter
allowed to soak into the ground floor of the tent. The supply of
rags for dressing wounds was said to be very scant, and I saw the
most filthy rags which had been applied several times, and
imperfectly washed, used in dressing wounds. Where hospital gangrene
was prevailing, it was impossible for any wound to escape contagion
under these circumstances. The result of the treatment of wounds in
the hospital were of the most unsatisfactory character, from this
neglect of cleanliness, in the dressings and wounds themselves, as
well as from various other causes which will be more fully
considered. I saw several gangrenous wounds filled with maggots. I
have frequently seen neglected wounds among Confederate soldiers
similarly affected; and as far as my experience extends these worms
destroy only the dead tissues and do not injure specially the well
parts. I have even heard surgeons affirm that a gangrenous wound
which had been thoroughly cleansed by maggots, healed more rapidly
than if it had been left to itself. This want of cleanliness on the
part of the nurses appeared to be the result of carelessness and
inattention, rather than of malignant design, and the whole trouble
can be traced to the want of proper police and sanitary regulations
and to the absence of intelligent organization and division of
labor.

The abuses were in large measure due to the almost total absence of
system, government, and rigid, but wholesome sanitary regulations.
In extenuation of these abuses it was alleged by the medical
officers that the Confederate troops were barely sufficient to guard
the prisoners, and that it was impossible to obtain any number of
experienced nurses from the Confederate forces. In fact the guard
appeared to be too small, even for the regulation of the internal
hygiene and police of the hospital.

The manner of disposing of the dead was also calculated to depress
the already desponding spirits of these men, many of whom have been
confined for months, and even for nearly two years in Richmond and
other places, and whose strength had been wasted by bad air, bad
food, and neglect of personal cleanliness.

The dead-house is merely a frame covered with old tent cloth and a
few brushes, situated in the south-western corner of the hospital
grounds. When a patient dies, he is simply laid in the narrow street
in front of his tent, until he is removed by Federal negroes
detailed to carry off the dead; if a patient dies during the night
he lies there until morning, and during the day, even the dead were
frequently allowed to remain for hours in these walks. In the
dead-house the corpses lie upon the bare ground, and were in most
cases covered with filth and vermin.

* * * * *

The cooking arrangements are of the most defective character. Five
large iron pots similar to those used for boiling sugar cane,
appeared to be the only cooking utensils furnished by the hospital
for the cooking of nearly two thousand men; and the patients were
dependent in great measure upon their own miserable utensils. They
were allowed to cook in the tent doors and in the lanes, and this
was another source of filth, and another favorable condition for the
generation and multiplication of flies and other vermin.

The air of the tents was foul and disagreeable in the extreme, and
in fact the entire grounds emitted a most nauseous and disgusting
smell. I entered nearly all the tents and carefully examined all the
cases of interest, and especially the cases of gangrene, upon
numerous occasions, during the prosecution of my pathological
inquiries at Andersonville, and therefore enjoyed every opportunity
to judge correctly of the hygiene and police of the hospital.

There appeared to be absolute indifference and neglect on the part
of the patients of personal cleanliness; their persons and clothing,
in most instances, and especially of those suffering with gangrene
and scorbutic ulcers, were filthy in the extreme and covered with
vermin. It was too often the case that patients were received from
the Stockade in a most deplorable condition. I have seen men brought
in from the stockade in a dying condition, begrimed from head to
foot with their own excrements, and so black from smoke and filth
that they resembled negroes rather than white men. That this
description of the stockade and hospital has not been overdrawn,
will appear from the reports of the surgeons in charge, appended to
this report.

* * * * *

CONCLUSIONS.

1st. The great mortality among the Federal prisoners confined in the
military prison at Andersonville was not referable to climatic
causes, or to the nature of the soil and waters.

2d. The chief causes of death were scurvy and its results and bowel
affections, chronic and acute diarrhea and dysentery. The bowel
affections appear to have been due to the diet, the habits of the
patients, the depressed, dejected state of the nervous system and
moral and intellectual powers, and to the effluvia arising from
decomposing animal and vegetable filth. The effects of salt meat,
and an unvarying diet of corn meal, with but few vegetables, and
imperfect supplies of vinegar and syrup, were manifested in the
great prevalence of scurvy. This disease, without doubt, was also
influenced to an important extent in its origin and course by the
foul animal emanations.

3d. From the sameness of the food and form, the action of the
poisonous gases in the densely crowded and filthy stockade and
hospital, the blood was altered in its constitution, even before the
manifestation, of actual disease. In both the well and the sick red
corpuscles were diminished; and in all diseases uncomplicated with
inflammation, the fibrous element was deficient. In cases of
ulceration of the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal the
fibrous element of the blood was increased; while in simple
diarrhea, uncomplicated with ulceration, it was either diminished or
else remained stationary. Heart clots were very common, if not
universally present, in cases of ulceration of the intestinal mucous
membrane, while in the uncomplicated cases of diarrhea and scurvy,
the blood was fluid and did not coagulate readily, and the heart
clots and fibrous concretions were almost universally absent. From
the watery condition of the blood, there resulted various serous
effusions into the pericardium, ventricles of the brain, and into
the abdomen. In almost all the cases which I examined after death,
even the more emaciated, there was more or less serous effusion into
the abdominal cavity. In cases of hospital gangrene of the
extremities, and in cases of gangrene of the intestines, heart clots
and fibrous coagulations were universally present. The presence of
those clots in the cases of hospital gangrene, while they were
absent in the cases in which there was no inflammatory symptoms,
sustains the conclusion that hospital gangrene is a species of
inflammation, imperfect and irregular though it may be in its
progress, in which the fibrous element and coagulation of the blood
are increased, even in those who are suffering from such a condition
of the blood, and from such diseases as are naturally accompanied
with a decrease in the fibrous constituent.

4th. The fact that hospital gangrene appeared in the stockade first;
and originated spontaneously without any previous contagion, and
occurred sporadically all over the stockade and prison hospital, was
proof positive that this disease will arise whenever the conditions
of crowding, filth, foul air and bad diet are present. The
exhalations from the hospital and stockade appeared to exert their
effects to a considerable distance outside of these localities. The
origin of hospital gangrene among these prisoners appeared clearly
to depend in great measure upon the state of the general system
induced by diet, and various external noxious influences. The
rapidity of the appearance and action of the gangrene depended upon
the powers and state of the constitution, as well as upon the
intensity of the poison in the atmosphere, or upon the direct
application of poisonous matter to the wounded surface. This was
further illustrated by the important fact that hospital gangrene, or
a disease resembling it in all essential respects, attacked the
intestinal canal of patients laboring under ulceration of the
bowels, although there was no local manifestations of gangrene upon
the surface of the body. This mode of termination in cases of
dysentery was quite common in the foul atmosphere of the Confederate
States Military Hospital in the depressed, depraved condition of the
system of these Federal prisoners.

5th. A scorbutic condition of the system appeared to favor the
origin of foul ulcers which frequently took on true hospital
gangrene. Scurvy and hospital gangrene frequently existed in the
same individual. In such cases, vegetable diet, with vegetable
acids, would remove the scorbutic condition without curing the
hospital gangrene. From the results of the existing war for the
establishment of the independence of the Confederate States, as well
as from the published observations of Dr. Trotter, Sir Gilbert
Blane, and others of the English navy and army, it is evident that
the scorbutic condition of the system, especially in crowded ships
and camps, is the most favorable to the origin and spread of foul
ulcers and hospital gangrene. As in the present case of
Andersonville, so also in past times when medical hygiene was almost
entirely neglected, those two diseases were almost universally
associated in crowded ships. In many cases is was very difficult to
decide at first whether the ulcer was a simple result of scurvy or
of the action of the prison or hospital gangrene, for there was
great similarity in the appearance of the ulcers in the two
diseases, so commonly have these two diseases been combined in their
origin and action, that the description of scorbutic ulcers, by many
authors evidently includes also many of the prominent
characteristics of hospital gangrene. This will be rendered evident
by an examination of the observations of Dr. Lind and Sir Gilbert
Blane upon scorbutic ulcers.

6th. Gangrenous spots followed by rapid destruction of tissue
appeared in some cases where there had been no known wound. Without
such well established facts, it might be assumed that the disease
was propagated from one patient to another. In such a filthy and
crowded hospital as that of the Confederate States Military Prison
at Andersonville, it was impossible to isolate the wounded from the
sources of actual contact of the gangrenous matter. The flies
swarming over the wounds and over filth of every kind. The filthy,
imperfectly washed and scanty supplies of rags, and the limited
supply of washing utensils, the same wash-bowl serving for scores of
patients, were sources of such constant circulation of the
gangrenous matter that the disease might rapidly spread from a
single gangrenous wound. The fact already stated, that a form of
moist gangrene, resembling hospital gangrene, was quite common in
this foul atmosphere, in cases of dysentery, both with and without
the existence of the disease upon the entire surface not only
demonstrates the dependence of the disease upon the state of the
constitution, but proves in the clearest manner that neither the
contact of the poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the direct action
of the poisonous atmosphere upon the ulcerated surface is necessary
to the developement of the disease.

7th. In this foul atmosphere amputation did not arrest hospital
gangrene, the disease almost invariably returned. Almost every
amputation was followed finally by death, either from the effects of
gangrene or from the prevailing diarrhea or dysentry. Nitric acid
and escharotics generally in this crowded atmosphere, loaded with
noxious effluvia, exerted only temporary effects; after their
application to the diseased surfaces, the gangrene would frequently
return with redoubled energy; and even after the gangrene had been
completely removed by local and constitutional treatment, it would
frequently return and destroy the patient. As far as my observation
extended, very few of the cases of amputation for gangrene
recovered. The progress of these cases was frequently very
deceptive. I have observed after death the most extensive
disorganization of the structures of the stump, when during life
there was but little swelling of the part, and the patient was
apparently doing well. I endeavored to impress upon the medical
officers the view that in this disease treatment was almost useless,
without an abundant supply of pure, fresh air, nutritious food, and
tonics and stimulants. Such changes, however, as would allow of the
isolation of the cases of hospital gangrene appeared to be out of
the power of the medical officers.

8th. The gangrenous mass was without true pus, and consisted chiefly
of broken-down, disorganized structures. The reaction of the
gangrenous matter in certain stages was alkaline.

9th. The best, and in truth the only means of protecting large
armies and navies, as well as prisoners, from the ravages of
hospital gangrene, is to furnish liberal supplies of well cured
meat, together with fresh beef and vegetables, and to enforce a
rigid system of hygiene.

10th. Finally, this gigantic mass of human misery calls loudly for
relief, not only for the sake of suffering humanity, but also on
account of our own brave soldiers now captives in the hands of the
Federal Government. Strict justice to the gallant men of the
Confederate Armies, who have been or who may be, so unfortunate as
to be compelled to surrender in battle, demands that the Confederate
Government should adopt that course which will best secure their
health and comfort in captivity; or at least, leave their enemies
without a shadow of an excuse for any violation of the rules of
civilized warfare in the treatment of prisoners.”

(End of witnesses’ testimony.)

This was the testimony of a scientific medical officer, who was so thoroughly a rebel that he served as a private for six months in the Confederate army, and yet so humane as to condemn the barbarous treatment imposed on helpless men by such fiends as Winder and Wirz.

Let me call the readers particular attention to a few points in the testimony of Dr. Jones.

First. As to his charge of filthiness. He states the truth, as any ex-Andersonville prisoner too well knows, but he does not inform his Government as to the cause. He does not say that these men were turned, like so many swine, into the stockade, after being robbed of everything of value. That no cooking utensils were furnished, that not an ounce of soap was issued to the prisoners after May 1st, 1864. But he does tell us that water was scarce, and filthy beyond the power of description, he does tell how these men became dispirited by long confinement, by bad diet and worse drink, and by their filthy surroundings, and by the constant presence of death. What wonder that men under all these discouraging circumstances soon fell to the level of brutes? And yet all were not so filthy; all did not lose their instincts of manhood, but through all these discouraging surroundings, observed, as well as possible under the circumstances, the laws of health. Were it not so this story would never have been written.

Second. He speaks of hearing some of the prisoners exonerate the Confederate Government, and lay all the blame of their continued imprisonment on the Federal Government. There is too much truth in this statement to be pleasant to us as patriots, but let us see if these men were wholly to blame in this matter.

We had heard all sorts of discouraging rumors for the last ten months. The rebels had told us that Lincoln would not exchange prisoners unless the negroes were put upon the same basis as whites. That was just and honorable in the Government, but it was death to us. The fact is that of all the forty-five thousand prisoners that I saw in Andersonville there were not to exceed a half dozen negroes, and they were officers’ waiters. The rebels did not take negroes prisoners who were captured in arms, they killed them on the spot, and we knew it, but perhaps our Government did not.

For my own part I never exonerated Confederates for the part they took in cases where they might have done better. It is true that they could not furnish us such a quality of food as our Government furnished Confederate prisoners, but the excuse that they had not enough for their own soldiers is too flimsy as shown by the supplies that Sherman’s men found in Georgia on that famous “March to the Sea” after we had been removed from Andersonville. And even if they were short of food, they had enough pure air and water, and enough land so that we need not have been compelled to drink our own filth, nor breathe the foul effluvia arising from the putrefaction of our excrements, nor be crowded at the rate of thirty-three thousand men on twelve acres of ground, as we were at Andersonville. There was wood enough so that men need not have been compelled to eat corn meal raw. There was no valid excuse for robbing men of their little all and then turning them into those prisons, to live or die, as best they could.

When we come to the part our Government took in this matter it is simply this; General Grant was of the opinion that we could perform our duty as soldiers better in those prisons than we could if exchanged. Exchange meant giving a fat rebel soldier, ready to take the field, for a yankee skeleton ready for the hospital or the grave. Considered as a military measure I admit it was right; but considered from a humanitarian point, it was simply hellish.

Do you wonder that we thought our Government had forgotton, or did not care for us? And yet when the crucial test came, when life and liberty, food and clothing, were offered us at the price of our loyalty to our Government, our reply was “no, we will let the lice carry us out through the cracks, before we will take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, we will accept death but not dishonor.”

Don’t blame us if we were discouraged and disheartened, if we did growl at, and find fault with, a government which we imagined had deserted us in the hour of our greatest need; we were true and loyal after all, and if you had been placed in the same condition you would have done just the same.

Third. Dr. Jones in speaking of those prisoners who were paroled and were at work on the outside of the stockade says: “These men were well clothed, and presented a stout and healthy appearance, and as a general rule they presented a much more robust appearance than the Confederate troops guarding them.”

Why not? they had plenty of exercise, good water, fresh air, and enough food so that they could purchase their good clothes with the surplus which accrued after their own wants had been satisfied. They were naturally more robust men than those Home Guards, and their situation had enabled them to keep in a normal condition. Had the prisoners in the stockade received the same treatment as the paroled men who were at work outside of the stockade, they would have presented the same robust appearance, but that stockade and those guards could not have held us and the rebels knew it.

I have introduced the report of Dr. Jones for the benefit of a class of persons who are inclined to doubt the statements of ex-prisoners, and I submit that he tells a more terrible story than any of us can tell.