Part 67 (1/2)

Answer. The next day they took us to Atlanta, and then on to Richmond.

Question. What prison were you put in?

Answer. I was on Belle Isle five or six days and nights, and then they put me in a prison over in town.

Question. How did they treat you there?

Answer. Rough, rough, rough.

Question. What did they give you to eat?

Answer. A small bit of bread and a little piece of meat; black beans full of worms. Sometimes meat pretty good, sometimes the meat was so rotten that you could smell it as soon as you got it in the house. We were used rough, I can tell you.

Question. Did they leave you your property?

Answer. They took everything we had before ever we got to Richmond; my hat, blankets, knife. We did not do very well until we got some blankets from our government; afterwards we did better. Before that we slept right on the floor, with nothing over us except a little old blanket one of us had.

Question. What was their manner towards you?

Answer. I call it pretty rough. If a man did not walk just right up to the mark they were down on him, and not a man of us dared to put his head out of the window, for he would be shot if he did. Several were shot just for that.

Question. What is the cause of your sickness?

Answer. Nothing but exposure and the kind of food we had there. I was a tolerably stout man before I got into their hands; after that I was starved nearly to death.

Daniel Gentis, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What State are you from?

Answer. Indiana.

Question. When did you enlist, and in what company and regiment?

Answer. I enlisted on the 6th of August, 1861, in company I, 2d New York regiment.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. I was taken prisoner at Stevensville, Virginia; I was there with Colonel Dahlgren, on Kilpatrick's expedition.

Question. Were you taken prisoner at the same time that Colonel Dahlgren was killed?

Answer. I was there when he was killed, but I was taken prisoner the next morning.

Question. What do you know about the manner of his death and the treatment his body received?

Answer. He was shot within a foot and a half or two feet of me. I got wounded that same night. The next morning I was taken prisoner, and as we came along we saw his body, with his clothes all off. He was entirely naked, and he was put into a hole and covered up.