Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/338

 338 Southern Historical Society Papers.

September 2ist. " Deaths yesterday, twenty-nine, and this with pure air, healthy location, good water, no epidemic. The men are being deliberately murdered by the surgeon (Dr. Sanger).

" Of fourteen men in Dr. Martin's section twelve are dead ; of sev- enteen in Dr. Graham's section fourteen have died and two more are certain to die for want ot food and medicines. Both Dr. Martin and Dr. Graham (Confederate surgeons) have refused to send any more patients from their ward to the hospital, as death is almost certain to supervene."

"As I went over to the hospital this morning quite early there were eighteen dead bodies lying naked on the bare earth. Eleven more were added to the list by half past n o'clock."

"In October the weather grew bitterly cold, and the men, especi- ally the thousands who were lying on the ground in open tents, began to suffer severely, being mostly quite destitute of necessary clothing."

At length an order came from Washington that a list of prisoners should be made out for exchange, consisting of " those only who, by reason of age, sickness, or wounds, would be unfit for service for sixty days."

Some fifteen hundred were chosen as " unfit for duty for sixty days," being one-sixth of the whole; and on the morning of October 19, 1864, these were ordered to assemble for parole.

i

A HARROWING SPECTACLE.

Says Mr. Keiley : " I speak in all reverence when I say that I do not believe that such a spectacle was ever before seen on earth since the sick and the maimed and the afflicted of every sort crowded for help and healing around the Saviour's feet. * * * * As soon as the announce- ment was made that the parole-lists were ready, the poor wretches began to crawl from their cots and turned their faces toward the door. On they came (fifteen hundred of them), a ghastly tide, with skeleton bodies and lustreless eyes, and brains bereft of all but one thought freedom and home. On they came, some on crutches, some on their cots, others borne in the arms of their comrades ; others still creeping on hands and knees, pale, gaunt, emaciated ; some with the seal of death already stamped on their wasted cheeks and fleshless limbs ; yet, fearing less death than the agony of dying amid enemies, where no hand should give them reassuring grasp as they tottered forth into the dark valley, and their bones would lie in unhonored graves amid aliens and foemen. Such a set of haggard, miserable, helpless, hope-