they present literally the appearance of living skeletons,
many of them being nothing but skin and bone; some of them
are maimed for life, having been frozen while exposed to the
inclemency of the winter season on Belle Isle, being
compelled to lie on the bare ground, without tents or
blankets, some of them without overcoats or even coats, with
but little fire to mitigate the severity of the winds and
storms to which they were exposed.

"The testimony shows that the general practice of their
captors was to rob them, as soon as they were taken
prisoners, of all their money, valuables, blankets, and good
clothing, for which they received nothing in exchange
except, perhaps, some old worn-out rebel clothing hardly
better than none at all. Upon their arrival at Richmond they
have been confined, without blankets or other covering, in
buildings without fire, or upon Belle Isle with, in many
cases, no shelter, and in others with nothing but old
discarded army tents, so injured by rents and holes as to
present but little barrier to the wind and storms; on
several occasions, the witnesses say, they have arisen in
the morning from their resting-places upon the bare earth,
and found several of their comrades frozen to death during
the night, and that many others would have met the same fate
had they not walked rapidly back and forth, during the hours
which should have been devoted to sleep, for the purpose of
retaining sufficient warmth to preserve life.

"In respect to the food furnished to our men by the rebel
authorities, the testimony proves that the ration of each
man was totally insufficient in quantity to preserve the
health of a child, even had it been of proper quality, which
it was not. It consisted usually, at the most, of two small
pieces of corn-bread, made in many instances, as the
witnesses state, of corn and cobs ground together, and badly
prepared and cooked, of, at times, about two ounces of meat,
usually of poor quality, and unfit to be eaten, and
occasionally a few black worm-eaten beans, or something of
that kind. Many of your men were compelled to sell to their
guards, and others, for what price they could get, such
clothing and blankets as they were permitted to receive of
that forwarded for their use by our gove