Our Exchanged Prisoners: a Youth's Companion article from 1865

This Youth's Companion article and illustration come from the January 5, 1865 edition of that newspaper.

No more touching scene has occurred during the war than that which was exhibited on the deck of the dispatch boat, when the first of our exchanged prisoners in the last exchange that was made, found themselves once more under the protection of the stars and stripes. A terrible record of suffering was written upon their livid faces, gaunt, skinny limbs and tattered clothes. No words can describe the exultation of these poor sufferers a their release. With shouting and cheering, in almost an ecstasy of happiness, they greeted the old flag, singing

"Rally round the flag, boys, 

From near and from far,

Down with the traitor, 

and up with the star!"

The condition of the released prisoners is thus described by a correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer: One poor fellow showed me his limbs. They were not larger toward the ankle than a man's thumb. It was touching as well as amusing to the bystanders to here their remarks as they came off the boat. One man, jumping up and stamping with this feet, uttered the exclamation as though it came from his very soul, "God bless the piece of land that I'm now on." Another: "Thank God I'm in His country once more." Others would utter like exclamations of joy and gratitude, such as, "O, what a blessed hour is this!" ; "Hurrah for the Union, I'm once more in it!"  "Fourteen months in Dixie, but never a day more!" An Irishman, as he walked off, said, "Sure this is the happiest day since iver I came to Ameriky." 

The information which these men give concerning their sufferings and the cruelty practiced toward them by the rebel authorities almost staggers belief. At Camp Sumter, which is the prisoner camp where they were confined at Andersonville, thirty odd thousand were held during the summer. Very few of these had any shelter from the rain or burning sun.

Their only resort was to dig holes in the ground, and at each end excavate or scoop out the earth from under, so as to afford a partial shelter. Here two would creep for a little relief. 

Their food we need not describe. It is the same old story which we hear from every one who has ever been subject to the tender mercies of the authorities in the South. Their rations were seldom, if ever cooked. Peas and corn meal, or corn meal with an occasional bit of bacon, and in very small portions, were the only articles furnished them.

The sufferings they endured can never be imagined. As I have gone around and sat by their beds in the different wards, and heard their statements of the conditions of the poor fellows who were at Camp Sumter, and at Andersonville, and Camp Lawton, at Millen, Ga., my very heart has ached, and I have had to leave that I might hear no more.

Illustration from the National Park Service

Rebel Barbarity in Southern Prisons, an article from the Youth's Companion

"Rebel Barbarity" was the caption in the newspaper

Here is an article from the Youth's Companion of December 10, 1863. It is, perhaps, mostly a propaganda piece, but, even if so, it serves as an example of how reports of southern treatment of northern prisoners spread throughout the north, even among papers like this one, which included children among its audience. Note also that this was written in December 1863, and the most notorious of all Rebel prisons, Andersonville, did not open until a couple months later, in early 1864.

    Probably all the readers of the Companion have heard of the cruel treatment received by United States' soldiers in the Libby and other prisons in and about Richmond. There is no doubt that the most harrowing accounts fall short of the reality. Stories come in to us, authenticated by the bloodless lips of famished men, portraying the horrors of rebel dungeons, and the cruel malice, born and nurtured of barbaric customs, wreaked upon defenseless prisoners, sufficient to make even the boldest rebel sympathizer blush with shame and loathing. Our noble soldiers have endured in vile Southern dens the extent of human woe. They are the real heroes of our nation.

   Our engraving this week pictures the appearance of United States' prisoners, in hospital, who have recently been released from Belle Island. With some of them life was nearly extinct; many were too far gone to understand they were at last among friends, and died unconscious of the comforts surrounding them, exclaiming, "I am too tired, - something to eat - what torment!" Others, writhing and moaning in agony, lingered on a few days, accepting gladly the longed-for food, offered too late. Their weakened systems rejected even the slightest nourishment. The death-seal was upon their brows ere they left the prison where for months they had lingered in slow torture. The sand had been their bed in sun and rain, through cold and heat. It had been their only protection, almost their only covering. Of one hundred and eighty prisoners landed at Annapolis from Richmond about a month ago, fifty-three died in less than one week, victims to ill-treatment and actual starvation endured during their imprisonment.

   Our readers may thus learn how their brothers and friends are slaughtered in Southern slave pens. No false delicacy should prevent the presentation of the whole truth. All the world should know that boasted rebel civilization is the cruelest barbarism, and that the grosest (sic) brutality must be expected of a people educated under the debasing influences of slavery


Here is a link to more information about Libby Prison and a photograph of that prison from the Library of Congress.

Another Patriotic Cover: Southern Aristocracy

Earlier this year, I made a post about a patriotic cover in my collection

Here's a copy of the one other such item I have, this one captioned "SOUTHERN ASS-STOCK-CRAZY," another unkind view of Southern culture, especially its leadership and upper-class.

The words "Southern Confederacy" are printed on the donkey, as it is tries to pull away from a post called "Union." The US Flag waves from the post, while the Confederate national flag is tied to the donkey's tail.

The publisher of this piece is unknown, but this link to the Library of Congress says this was printed in 1861. Since this was the first national flag of the Confederacy and it did exist starting in early 1861, that date seems very possible for this unused cover.