Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/134

. Think of a Government that will thus establish a cunning and cruel system of espionage over helpless victims, writhing under their strong, relentless grasp! Surely the Confederate War Secretary would not descend to such a small business as Secretary Stanton does! Sentinels walk on the parapet above the lofty fence which separates the pens of the officers and privates, and can watch both pens from their elevated positions. But despite their vigilance notes are frequently thrown over the parapet, and communication is thus kept up across the intervening barrier. These notes are tied to a small rock, or piece of coal, and sometimes a prisoner is struck on the face or person, causing some injury or hurt; but no one gets angry at the unintentional blow, and the note is promptly delivered to the party addressed. The notes from the privates abound in complaints against Schœpff, Ahl, Wolfe and their guards, and of great scarcity of rations. Their treatment must be hard and cruel.

March 13th to 15th—About 100 officers and 1,000 men have been sent off for exchange, and 500 officers arrived from Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. These sickly, limping, miserable looking men were chosen from the prisoners last August to be sent to Sullivan's Island near Charleston, and placed under fire of the Confederate batteries, in retaliation, it was said, for the placing of Federal prisoners in the city under the fire of the Yankee batteries. The Yankees had been shelling the city, killing women and children, and the Confederate General, to put a stop to such brutality, threatened to expose his prisoners to the fire if it were not discontinued. At first, in May, fifty officers were chosen by lot and sent to Charleston, but finding General Beauregard had not put his threat into execution, they were exchanged. Then, in August, 600 more were sent, and subjected to the harshest treatment, exposed in the sickly, malarial season to the severest hardships. For forty-three days they lived on ten ounces of meal and four ounces of pickles per day. Not a vegetable nor a pound of meat was issued to them, and consequently that depressing and dreaded disease (scurvy) became general among them. Their lean, emaciated persons were covered with livid spots of various sizes, occasioned by effusion of blood under the cuticle. They looked pale, languid and low spirited, and suffered from general exhaustion, pains in the limbs, spongy and bleeding gums. All this was caused by their rigid confinement and want of nourishing food. They were not given food sufficient to supply the elements necessary to