Part 72 (1/2)

By the chairman:

Question. Is not that one of the symptoms attendant upon starvation, that men are likely to become deranged or idiotic?

Answer. Yes, sir; more like derangement than what we call idiocy.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Can those men whose arms you bared and held up to us--mere skeletons, nothing but skin and bone--can those men recover?

Answer. They may; we think that some of them are in an improving condition. But we have to be extremely cautious how we feed them. If we give them a little excess of food under these circ.u.mstances they would be almost certain to be seriously and injuriously affected by it.

Question. It is your opinion, you have stated, that these men have been reduced to this condition by want of food?

Answer. It is; want of food and exposure are the original causes. That has produced diarrhoea and other diseases as a natural consequence, and they have aided the original cause and reduced them to their present condition. I should like the country and the government to know the facts about these men; I do not think they can realize it until the facts are made known to them. I think the rebels have determined upon the policy of starving their prisoners, just as much as the murders at Fort Pillow were a part of their policy.

Rev. J. T. Van Burkalow, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your connexion with this hospital?

Answer. I am the chaplain of the hospital.

Question. How long have you been acting in that capacity?

Answer. I have been connected with the hospital in that capacity ever since the 20th of October, 1862.

Question. What has been your opportunity of knowing the condition of our returned prisoners?

Answer. I have mingled with them and administered unto them ever since they have been here, night and day. I have written, I suppose, something like a hundred letters for them to their relatives and friends, since they arrived here.

Question. Have you attended them when they were dying?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And conversed with them about their condition, and the manner in which they have been brought to that condition?

Answer. Yes, sir; I have.

Question. Please tell us what you have ascertained from them.

Answer. The general story I have gotten from them was to the effect that when captured, and before they got to Richmond, they would generally be robbed of their clothing, their good United States uniforms, even to their shoes and hats taken from them, and if anything was given to them in place of them, they would receive only old worn-out confederate clothing. Sometimes they were sent to Belle Isle with nothing on but old pants and s.h.i.+rts. They generally had their money taken from them, often with the promise of its return, but that promise was never fulfilled.

They were placed on Belle Isle, as I have said, some with nothing on but pants and s.h.i.+rts, some with blouses, but they were seldom allowed to have an overcoat or a blanket. There they remained for weeks, some of them for six or eight weeks, without any tents or any kind of covering.

Question. What time of the year was this?