That although Lake Erie was not one hundred yards distant, yet these prisoners were forced to drink from three holes dug in the prison bounds, surrounded by twenty-six sinks, the filth of which oozed into the water. This treatment, in no wise better than the inoculation of small-pox, and even more loathsome than that disease, caused many prisoners to contract chronic diarrhœa in a country where that disease is not common.
It is impossible for human language to portray the horrible criminality of the wicked men who inflicted these tortures upon human beings, and at the same time caused the detention of Northern prisoners in loathsome Southern prisons, through a fiendish love of suffering; and the unwillingness to have exchanges, paroles, and releases granted to the unfortunate, innocent men of both armies, unnaturally led to mutual destruction. What apology can the infidel ministry of the country offer for such crimes? And upon their head must the curse ever rest who sustained, these thieves.
J. C. Moore, son of Colonel David Moore, of the Federal army, writes that he was taken prisoner at Helena, Arkansas, July 4, 1863, with 1,750 prisoners. The poor fellows, half starved, were met at Saint Louis by a supply of apples, cakes, tobacco and money. The officer having them in charge threatened the boys with imprisonment, who extended these friendships to these unfortunate men. That he was taken to the Alton prison, where men were kept with ball and chain at work in the street, for mere peccadilloes, where the keepers shot their victims and stabbed them, with all of the indignities usual in the prisons everywhere, which seemed under control of no military, but rather governed by the instigation of the devil.
L. P. Hall and Wm. Perry, of Chico Butte, California, were arrested; had their press destroyed; were handcuffed together in Jackson, Amada county, with ball and chain attached to their legs, and driven to labor on the Public Works at Alcatross. Fifty-two others were treated in like manner. Hall and Perry were finally discharged without charges or trial. In the persons of these gentlemen, were violated all the rights of freedom of person, of the press, of speech, and finally they were starved, and released after enduring the most offensive insults at the hands of a cowardly enemy. This crime transpired in California, where war had not gone, and their imprisonment was without pretence.
T. Walton Mason, of Adairville, Logan county, Kentucky, says that he was surrendered by General Jno. Morgan, in Ohio on July 26th, 1863, and imprisoned at Camp Chase, then removed to Camp Douglas, where all of the horrors of that place were revived. In this camp Choctaw Indians were employed as guards. When money was given to the guards to buy provisions, they would pocket the money. The Indians shamed the whites for this breach of faith and petty theft. In November, 1863, seven escaped prisoners were returned, and subjected to the most cruel torture. They
