and
sixty-three enlisted men, and one citizen on board, reached
the wharf at the Naval School hospital about ten o'clock. On
going on board, I found the officers generally in good
health, and much cheered by their happy release from the
rebel prisons, and by the prospect of again being with their
friends.

"The enlisted men who had endured so many privations at
Belle Isle and other places were, with few exceptions, in a
very sad plight, mentally and physically, having for months
been exposed to all the changes of the weather, with no
other protection than a very insufficient supply of
worthless tents, and with an allowance of food scarcely
sufficient to prevent starvation, even if of wholesome
quality; but as it was made of coarsely-ground corn,
including the husks, and probably at times the cobs, if it
did not kill by starvation, it was sure to do it by the
disease it created. Some of these poor fellows were wasted
to mere skeletons, and had scarcely life enough remaining to
appreciate that they were now in the hands of their friends,
and among them all there were few who had not become too
much broken down and dispirited by their many privations to
be able to realize the happy prospect of relief from their
sufferings which was before them. With rare exception, every
face was sad with care and hunger; there was no brightening
of the countenance or lighting up of the eye, to indicate a
thought of anything beyond a painful sense of prostration of
mind and body. Many faces showed that there was scarcely a
ray of intelligence left.

"Every preparation had been made for their reception in
anticipation of the arrival of the steamer, and immediately
upon her being made fast to the wharf the paroled men were
landed and taken immediately to the hospital, where, after
receiving a warm bath, they were furnished with a suitable
supply of new clothing, and received all those other
attentions which their sad condition demanded. Of the whole
number, there are perhaps fifty to one hundred who, in a
week or ten days, will be in a convalescent state, but the
others will very slowly regain their lost health.

"That our soldiers, when in the hands of the rebels, are
starved to death, cannot be denied. Every return of the
flag-of-