. Sufferings endured for a free government; . buses, andsecure to the prisoners they held, some treatment thatwould bear a feeble comparison to that accorded by ourauthorities to the prisoners in our custody. Your com-mittee, therefore, are constrained ^o say that they canhardly avoid the conclusion expressed by so many ofour released soldiers, that the inhuman practices hereinreferred to, are the result of a determination, on the partof the rebel authorities, to reduce our soldiers in theirpower by privation of food and clothing, and by ex-posure, to such a condition that those who may surviv
. Sufferings endured for a free government; . buses, andsecure to the prisoners they held, some treatment thatwould bear a feeble comparison to that accorded by ourauthorities to the prisoners in our custody. Your com-mittee, therefore, are constrained ^o say that they canhardly avoid the conclusion expressed by so many ofour released soldiers, that the inhuman practices hereinreferred to, are the result of a determination, on the partof the rebel authorities, to reduce our soldiers in theirpower by privation of food and clothing, and by ex-posure, to such a condition that those who may survive,shall never recover so as to be able to enter into effectiveservice in the field; and your committee accordingly askthat this report, with the accompanying testimony, beprinted, with the report and testimony in relation to themassacre of Fort Pillow—the one being, in their opinion,no less than the other the result of a predeterminedpolicy. As regards the assertions of some of the rebelnewspapers, that our prisoners have received at their. Private EDWARD CUNNINGHAM,Company F, 7th Ohio Cavalry, Admitted from Flag-of-truce boat, AprilISth, 1S64.—Wests Building Hospital, Baltimore, Md. CONDITION OF RELEASED PRISONERS. 57 hands the same treatment that their own soldiers in thefield have received, they are evidently but the mostglaring and unblushing falsehoods. No one can, for amoment, be deceived by such statements, who will reflectthat our soldiers who, when taken prisoners, have beenstout, healthy men, in the prime and vigor of life, yethave died by hundreds under the treatment they havereceived, although required to perform no duties of thecamp or the march; while the rebel soldiers are able tomake long and rapid marches, and to offer a stubbornresistance in the field. There is one feature connected with this investigationto which your committee can refer with pride and satis-faction ; that is, the uncomplaining fortitude, the undi-minished patriotism exhibited by our
Size: 1381px × 1810px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1865
