Andersonville Prison and Felix de La Baume

[civilwartalk]

Here is an exerpt that describes the drawing, it comes from a Doctor John Bates's testamony at the Wirz trial:

Q. Describe what kind of exhalations or odors arose from that prison.

A. There are two kinds of miasma laid down by medical writers: the kino and the ideo; one consists of exhalations from the human body in a state of disease, and the other of exhalations from vegetable decompositions and saturations generally. There were both kinds there. The miasmatic effluvia emanating from the hospital was very potent and offensive indeed.

Q. In what way would it affect the healthy?

A. If I had a scratch upon my hand - if the skin was broken or abraded in the least - I did not venture to go into the hospital without protecting it with adhesive plaster. I saw several sores originating from the infection of the gangrenous effluvia saturating the atmosphere. For this reason we were all very cautious. If a prisoner whose system was reduced by inanition, which invite and develop disease, should chance to stump his toe (some of them were barefooted) or scratch his hand, almost invariably the next report to me, so far as my charge was concerned, was gangrene, so potent was the influence.

Immediately upon the west side of the stockade, and between there and the depot, there was timber scattered; on the north side, beyond the cook-house a little, there was plenty of timer; on the south side plenty had been cut in logs and lay there, and down by the hospital there was plenty. That is a woody country and there was plenty of wood within a mile. It was fine timber, and could have been made into shingles or clapboards. I did not see any of it used to make shelter for the prisoners. A set of sheds were being erected there, as represented on the diagram, outside of the stockade and the hospital. They were in course of erection at the time of the abandonment of the place. No patients had ever ben put in them. I regret to say that the supply of wood was not sufficient to keep the prisoners from what we term freezing to death. They would not , perhaps, actually freeze to death, but a patient whose blood is thin, and his system worn down, is very susceptible to the influence of cold. In the absence of sufficient food, sufficient stimulus, and especially in the absence of fuel, many of the patients (I speak now of what I saw in my own ward) would, during the night, become so chilled that in the morning, passing round, I would remark to my steward, "Last night did the work for that poor fellow; he will die"; I cannot resuscitate him with the means in my hands, his system is so reduced." Lying upon the ground during those chilly nights, (the weather was not freezing, but sufficient to thoroughly chill the whole system,) the patient would reach a condition in which resuscitation was a matter of impossibility after he commenced going downhill from this exposure. I have seen a number die in that way. In my judgment there was sufficient timber growing in the vicinity to supply fuel for cooking and for keeping the prisoners warm, and also to furnish shelter for them, I frequently made observation while there, that there was plenty of wood to supply every demand - shingles, boards, logs to make huts, and plenty for fuel. That is a woody country; the wood is pine wood. I judged that it could be made into boards and rails from the fact that they were pretty plenty there, and from the fact that I saw the boys splitting boards for the new hospital shed that was going up. There was no deficiency of wood.

[A diagram was exhibited to witness]

I have seen that before; it was given to me in Andersonville Prison by Felix De La Baume. The tents, chimneys, fence, trees, cart and mule, etc., are correct. One sketch here of "Dr. Bates" is pretty good, but rather spindle-shanked. The great point in which it is not facsimile is that too few men are represented. If there were forty delineated where there is one it would be more correct. These men walking on their hands and knees and on crutches, some carrying their tin cups in their mouths, represent men who could not go there otherwise. They were afflicted with scurvy as a general thing. One man represented here I recognize as a man named Ison, who was a subject of dementia; he only crept along on his haunches and feet. I recognize several others whose names I never learned, but whom I frequently saw. That man with the bucket is his mouth, I frequently saw crawling up for his rations. I see one man here representing "Dr. Bates examining the character and quantity of the beef," together with the confederate surgeon and Ed. Young, boss of that cook-house. I see one man figure representing "Dr. Bates giving beef bones to the cripples." It was my prerogative as officer of the day to supervise the cooking and administration of the rations, and to attend to anything that generally belonged to the hospital. When rations were being issued I would frequently go there. Those detailed to cut up the meat would put the bones in one pile and count the rations and put them carefully in another. When I would go there from twenty to one hundred or more would ask me, some of them very imploringly, for a bone. I would say, "Yes, you can have all the bones." I see that I am represented here as handing bones to those cripples. I would hand them out as here represented. The general representation in this diagram is about correct, save that there were twenty or forty men to one represented here. They were very thick about the cook house.

[Diagram was then put in evidence.]

On entering the stockade, I would find dead prisoners. They were generally laid up at the gate under some sheds or boughs constituting a dead-house. They were first brought up to the gate and laid just inside the inner stockade; they were then carried on litters to the inside of the outer stockade, and from there they were hauled away in wagons - sometimes two-horse, sometimes four-horse wagons. They were laid in the wagons. They were laid in the wagon, I believe, head foremost, one on another, regularly along in layers. I do not know how they were buried.

The dead house of the hospital was in the southwest corner. When I first went there, what was called a dead-house consisted of some boards put up into a kind of shed. These boards were used by the inmates of the hospital or somehow else; at any rate, they disappeared. For some time the dead were laid there without any shelter. Every time I came on duty as officer of the day, which was every six days, I reported that there was no dead-house, and called the attention of the authorities to the erection of a dead-house or some place to deposit the dead, not to let them lie without shelter and exposed to the sun. This was in the hospital. They did not allow the corpse to lie long enough to cause any exhalations from putrefaction. Outside they were hauled off immediately to the graveyard; at least I saw them hauled away - I never saw the graveyard.

We needed a dead-house, so as to have some place to lay the corpses decently. At one time we got a tent erected for a dead house, but that did not last very long. Every morning when I would go in I would find a blanket or a quilt sliced off. The men would appropriate them to wrap themselves up. At fist the top commenced going, and in a few days all was gone. I remarked that it was no use to erect such dead-houses as that, except to supply the men with blankets, though I had no objection to their being erected every night, if the men could thereby get blankets. If my memory serves me right, no more dead-houses were erected. I think that tent I managed to get erected was the last.

The morning after making my first tour as officer of the day, I sat down and made a report, the language of which I do not now recollect, but the substance was based upon the condition in which I found the hospital. That report was sent up, and I being a novice in military matters, for some things which I had said in that report I received a written reprimand, signed "R. R. Stevenson, by Dr. Diller," his assistant in the office. The date of that report was about the 24th or 25th of September, two or three days after I reported. I continued to make the reports, but I think they were not heeded.

Meetings of the surgeons were held to see whether these things could not be remedied. Petitions were written and partially signed, and were then destroyed for want of proper channel by which to send them up, or some other objection. Finally there was a report made to the medical department; it was to be sent to Surgeon-General Moore or the secretary of war; I am not certain which. Dr. Eiland, Dr. McVey and some other doctors there signed it. It was not sent, as I understood. These things were talked of, and the result was a medical investigation appropriated for the Union prisoners. During the course of this investigation medical gentlemen were called upon the stand, myself among the rest, and the account current of the hospital was examined by these two medical gentlemen, who were inspectors under orders from the secretary of war. This was after Dr. Stevenson left; he was ordered, I think, to Florence. I never saw any official opinion or report emanating from Dr. Guillot or Dr. Llewellyn...


For full transcript click this link:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/proj...Wirz/xrpt1.htm

[olerebel]

In July, 2005 I visited Andersonville, which is now the National POW Museum. I sat through the video, which was quite enlightening. Due to lincoln's policy of not exchanging POWs, the prison actually "housed" four times the number of prisoners that it was originally intended to keep. The film iterated the fact that Wirz allowed a delegation of prisoners leave Andersonville and go to DC to meet with lincoln to request medications and food for their fellow prisoners. When lincoln was made aware of the reason for their visit, he refused to see them, according to the film. Located about 50 miles Southeast of Columbus, GA, take about 4 hours and enlighten yourself.

[Admiral_Porter]

Due to lincoln's policy of not exchanging POWs,

It was Grant's policy.

He didn't want to give soldiers back to the Confederacy and the CSA didn't recognize blacks in Federal uniform as legitimate POWs.

[johan_steele]

Lets not forget the CS failure to honor the exchange cartel... Grant was not amused to meet men at Chatanooga that he had captured at Vicksburg who had not been exchanged.

[cash]

Originally Posted by Admiral_Porter

It was Grant's policy.

He didn't want to give soldiers back to the Confederacy and the CSA didn't recognize blacks in Federal uniform as legitimate POWs.

Actually, the exchanges had been halted in November of 1863 over the twin issues of cheating on paroles and the treatment of black soldiers. Confederates were putting paroled prisoners back into action before being exchanged and they were not treating black soldiers and their officers as proper prisoners of war. Stanton ordered the exchanges halted as a result of this. This was well before Grant became general-in-chief.

Regards,
Cash

[nbforrest]

Lets not forget the CS failure to honor the exchange cartel...

Nor the Union's...


Grant just finished off the exchange policy. It had already been so restricted that it was rarely used. So, Grant can't really be that condemned for stopping it...or praised for depriving the South of men.

Incidentally, it should be noted that the CSA in actuality treated black troops as POW's...on paper their threatened treatment was not so good...but I have not seen evidence that would indicate widespread returns to slavery, etc.

Respectfully

[johan_steele]

Can you give me info on US troops going into action against CS troops prior to their proper exchange. I confess I am unaware of any.

[samgrant]

Mike,

I don't quite understand your post. The person referred to in the title, Felix de La Baume? According to the same web site that you cite:


Felix de la Baume

By far the most damaging testimony against Wirz was that of Felix de la Baume. De la Baume was the only witness who identified a victim by name who was alleged to have been directly killed by Wirz.

De la Baume, who claimed to be a Frenchman and descendant of Lafayette, was discovered after the trial, to actually be Felix Oeser. Oeser was born in Saxony, Prussia and lied in order to help conceal that he was a former member of the 7th New York Volunteers who had deserted during the war. He was a skilled orator and so impressed the commission that he was given a written commendation signed by all of the members regarding his testimony. He was also appointed to a position in the Department of the Interior before Wirz's trial ended. Once his true identify and status was discovered, only eleven days after Wirz had been hung, he admitted being Oeser and to having perjured himself in the testimony at Wirz's trial. Oeser subequently vanished into obscurity.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/proj...Wirz/cont1.htm

[nbforrest]

Come now, do you think that somehow only Rebs violated their paroles?

Just like with Confederates, there were many instances that Union troops did not honor their paroles. This was typical of all mass surrenders when paroles were in effect...Harpers Ferry, etc

Can you really fault a man for wanting to go back into the fight though?

Respectfully

[samgrant]

I expect conditions in the camps for Confederate POWs in the North were not much(any) better/worse (tho colder) than those in the South.

I don't think there is anything (is there?) for either side to be proud of as far as treatment of POWs during that war, or any other war before then, or up to the present.