Part 21

7th. In this foul atmosphere amputation did not arrest hospital gangrene; the disease almost universally returned. Almost every amputation was followed finally by death, either from the effects of gangrene or from the prevailing diarrhea and dysentery. Nitric acid and escharoties generally in this crowded atmosphere, loaded with noxious effluvia, exerted only temporary effects; after their application to the diseased surfaces, the gangrene would frequently returned 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 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 on this disease treatment was almost useless, without an abundance of pure, fresh air, nutricious 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 puss, 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 hygene.

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 captive 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 WITNESS’S TESTIMONY.)

[Illustration: (decorative separator)]

SUMMARY

The variation—from month to month—of the proportion of deaths to the whole number of living is singular and interesting. It supports the theory I have advanced above, as the following facts taken from the official report, will show:

In April one in every sixteen died. In May one in every twenty-six died. In June one in every twenty-two died. In July one in every eighteen died. In August one in eleven died. In September one in every three died. In October one in every two died. In November one in every three died.

Does the reader fully understand that in September one-third of those in the pen died, that in October one-half of the remainder perished, and in November one-third of those who still survived, died? Let him pause for a moment and read this over carefully again, because its startling magnitude will hardly dawn upon him at first reading. It is true that the fearful disproportionate mortality of those months was largely due to the fact that it was mostly the sick that remained behind, but even this diminishes but little the frightfulness of the showing. Did anyone ever hear of an epidemic so fatal that one-third of those attacked by it in one month died; one-half of the remnant the next month, and one-third of the feeble remainder the next month? If he did his reading has been much more extensive than mine.

[Illustration: (separator; small circular coastal scene)]

THE WAR’S DEAD.

The total number of deceased Union soldiers during and in consequence of the war, is 316,233. Of these, only 175,764 have been identified, and the rest will probably remain for ever unknown. Of the grand total, 36,868 are known to have been prisoners of war who died in captivity. There are seventy-two National Cemeteries for the dead of the Union armies, besides which there are 320 local and Post cemeteries. The largest of the Government grounds are: Arlington, Va., the former homestead of General Robert E. Lee, 15,547 graves; Fredericksburg, Va., 15,300 graves; Salisbury, N. C., 12,112 graves; Beaufort, S. C., 10,000 graves; Andersonville, Ga., 13,706 graves; Marietta, Ga., 10,000 graves; New Orleans, La., 12,230 graves; Vicksburg, Miss., 17,012 graves; Chattanooga, Tenn., 12,964 graves; Nashville, Tenn., 16,529 graves; Memphis, Tenn., 13,958 graves; Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Mo., 8,601 graves. The National Cemetery near Richmond, Va. contains 6,276 graves, of which 5,450 are of unknown dead, mostly prisoners of war. The cemeteries are kept in good condition, and are generally well sodded and planted with ornamental trees.

EX-PRISONERS AND PENSIONERS.

The following is an Appeal to Congress in behalf of the ex-prisoners of war, issued by Felix LaBaume, President of the “National Ex-Prisoners of War Association,” and I hope that the united efforts of every one of the survivors will be concentrated with an object in view which shall substantially benefit those who performed a most valuable service in putting down the rebellion, suffering horrors and privations that cannot fully be described, and for which privations and sufferings they have never been recognized in the existing pension laws.

APPEAL TO CONGRESS.

It is a historical fact that in the early part of 1864, shortly after the battles of the wilderness, certain high officials of the Federal government decided that it was more economical to stop the exchange of prisoners of war entirely.

The policy of non-exchange was understood to be based on the following facts:

That a soldier counted for more in the Confederate army then acting on the defensive; that many of the Andersonville prisoners were men whose term of service had already expired, that all of them were disabled by starvation and exposure, and unfit for further service, while every Confederate was able-bodied and “in for the war” so that an exchange would have been a gratuitous strengthening of the armies of the Confederacy, which, at the same time, would have prevented the prisoners held in the South from falling into the hands of Sherman.

August 14th, 1864, General Grant telegraphed to General Butler: “It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons, not to exchange them, but it is humane to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. If we now commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on till the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those captured, they count for more than dead men.”

In accordance with General Grant’s opinion General Butler then wrote a letter in reply to General Ould’s proposals of exchange.

In his famous Lowell speech, Butler said: “In this letter these questions were argued justly, as I think, not diplomatically, but obtrusively and demonstratively, not for the purpose of furthering an exchange of prisoners, but for the purpose of preventing and stopping the exchange, and furnishing a ground on which we could stand.” The men who languished at Andersonville and other Confederate prisons, played, in their sufferings and death, an active part in the termination of the war.

This part was not so stirring as charging on guns or meeting in the clash of infantry lines. But as the victims of a policy, dictated by the emergency of a desperate condition of affairs, their enforced, long continued hardships and sufferings made it possible for the Union generals and their armies to decide the deplorable struggle so much sooner, and to terminate the existence of the Confederacy by the surrender at Appomatox. No soldier or seaman, in this or any other country, ever made such personal sacrifices or endured such hardships and privations as those who fell into the hands of the Confederates during the late war. The recital of their sufferings would be scarcely believed were they not corroborated by so large a number of unimpeachable witnesses on both sides.

Colonel C. T. Chandler’s C. S. A. report on Andersonville, dated Aug. 5, 1864, in which he said: “It is difficult to describe the horrors of the prison, which is a disgrace to civilization,” was endorsed by Col. R. H. Chilton, Inspector General C. S. A., as follows: “The condition of the prisoners at Andersonville is a reproach to us as a nation.”

The sixty thousand graves filled by the poor victims of the several prisons, tells a story that cannot be denied or misunderstood. When we consider the hardships and privations to which these men were subjected, the wonder is not that so many died, but that any survived. We submit, it is hardly possible that any man who was subjected to the hardships and inhuman treatment of a Confederate prison for even two or three months only, could come out any other than permanently disabled. Statistics show that of those who were released, nearly five per cent. died before reaching home. In a few instances there was a roll kept of thirty to fifty of those men who, when released, were able to travel home alone, and it is now found that nearly three-fourths of the number have since died.

The roll of the Andersonville Survivors Association shows that during the year 1880, the number of deaths averaged sixteen and one-third per cent. of the total membership, showing an increase of five per cent. over the death rate of 1879.

But few of the most fortunate of these survivors will live to see the age of fifty, and probably within the next ten years the last of them will have passed away.

Congress has from time to time enacted laws most just and liberal (or that were intended to be so,) toward the men who were disabled in the late war, but a large majority of the prison survivors are excluded from a pension under these laws. This comes partly from the unfriendly spirit in which the pension department has been administered for the last six years, and partly from the peculiar circumstances surrounding their several cases.

Many paroled prisoners, on reaching the Union lines were at once sent home on furlough, without receiving any medical treatment. The most of these were afterwards discharged under General Order No. 77, dated War Department, Washington, D. C., April 28th, 1865, because physically unfit for service, and hence there is no official record whatever as to their disease.

If one of those men applies for a pension, he is called upon to furnish the affidavit of some army surgeon who treated him after his release and prior to discharge, showing that he then had the disease on which he now claims a pension. For reasons stated, this is impossible. The next thing is a call to furnish an affidavit from some doctor who treated the man while at home on furlough, or certainly immediately following his final discharge, showing that he was then afflicted with identical disease on which pension is now claimed. This is generally impossible, for many reasons.

In most cases the released prisoner felt it was not medicine he wanted, but the kindly nursing of mother or wife, and nourishing food. So no doctor was called, at least for some months after reaching home. In the instances where the doctor was called, not infrequently he cannot now be found, cannot swear that the soldier had any particular disease for the first six months after reaching home, as he was a mere skeleton from starvation, and it required months of careful nursing before he had vitality enough for a disease to manifest itself.

Then again in many cases the poor victim has never suffered from any particular disease, but rather from a combination of numerous ills, the sequence of a wrecked constitution commonly termed by physicians, “General Debility.” But the commissioner refuses to grant a pension on disease save where the proof is clear and positive of the contracting of a particular disease while in the service, of its existence at date of final discharge, and of its continuous existence from year to year for each and every year, to present date.

In most cases it is impossible for a prison survivor to furnish any such proof, and hence his application is promptly rejected. Besides these, there are hundreds of other obstacles in the way of the surviving prisoner of war who applies for a pension. One thing is, he is called upon to prove by comrades who were in prison with him, the origin and nature of his disease, and his condition prior to and at the time of his release. This is generally impossible, as he was likely to have but few comrades in prison with whom he was on intimate terms, and these, if not now dead, cannot be found, they are men without sufficient knowledge of anatomy and physiology, and not one out of a hundred could conscientiously swear to the origin and diagnosis of the applicant’s disease. Is it not ridiculous for the government to insist upon such preposterous evidence? Which, if produced in due form, is a rule drawn up by the applicant’s physican, and sworn to by the witness—“_cum grano salis_,”—and in most cases amounts to perjury for charity’s sake.

Hence, it will be seen the difficulties surrounding the prison survivor who is disabled and compelled to apply for a pension are so numerous and insurmountable as to shut out a very large majority of the most needy and deserving cases from the benefits of the general pension laws entirely.

We claim, therefore, that as an act of equal justice to these men, as compared with other soldiers, there ought to be a law passed admitting them to pensions on record or other proof of confinement in a confederate prison for a prescribed length of time—such as Bill 4495—introduced by the Hon. J. Warren Keifer, M. C., of Ohio provides for. And if this bill is to benefit these poor sufferers any, it must be passed speedily, as those who yet remain will, at best, survive but a few years longer.

This measure is not asked as a pencuniary compensation for the personal losses these men sustained, as silver and gold cannot be weighed as the price for untold sufferings, but it is asked that they may be partly relieved from abject want, and their sufferings alleviated to some extent by providing them with the necessaries of life, for nearly all of them are extremely poor, consequent on the wreck of their physical and mental powers.

LIST OF THE DEAD

The following are those who died and were buried at Andersonville, with full name, Co., Regt., date of death and No. of grave in the Cemetery at that place, alphabetically arranged by States. The No. before each name is the same as marked at the head of the graves. The list will be found to be very accurate.

ALABAMA.

7524 Barton Wm Cav 1 L Sept 1 64 2111 Berry J M, S’t “ 1 A May 17 4622 Belle Robert “ 1 A Aug 3 5505 Boobur Wm “ 1 E Aug 13 8425 Brice J C “ 1 L Sept 11 8147 Guthrie J “ 1 I Sept 8 2514 Henry P “ 1 F June 26 996 Jones Jno F “ 1 K Mar 15 4715 Mitchell Jno D 1 A Aug 4 5077 Ponders J Cav 1 H Aug 8 5763 Panter R 1 L Aug 15 6886 Patterson W D 1 K Aug 25 2504 Prett J R 1 F June 3 10900 Redman W R Cav 1 G Oct 14 4731 Stubbs W 1 I Aug 4 TOTAL 15.

CONNECTICUT.