Additional Testimony by Letter of Lieutenant-Colonel Farnsworth
NORWICH, CONN., July 16, 1864
REV. TREADWELL WALDEN, Philadelphia:
Sir:¾ Your favor of the 14th inst. Received. In answer to your request for a written statement of facts, related to yon by myself in conversation, in regard to the con- duct of the guards at Richmond, Virginia, and the provision made for the sick upon Belle Isle, I submit the following:
In what is known as the “Pemberton buildings," nearly opposite the "Libby," there were confined a large number of enlisted men. Hardly a day went by that the guards did not fire upon the prisoners. I have known as many as fourteen shots to be fired in one day. They were thus subject to death if they merely came near the window to obtain fresh air. It was a very common occurrence to hear the report of a musket and then see the sergeant of the guard bring out a wounded or dead soldier.
The guards would watch for an opportunity to fire upon their prisoners, and, without warning the prisoner to leave the vicinity of the window, fire.
Lieutenant Hammond, of the Ringgold cavalry, (better known to Libbians as "Old Imboden,") was at the sink, which is constructed upon the outside of the building. From the upper part of the sides, boards are removed for the purpose of light or ventilation. The guard below caught sight of Lieutenant Hammond's hat, through this opening, and fired. The ball entered the side, far below the opening, showing that the guard was intent upon sinking his man; but a nail gave the bullet an upward turn and it passed through Hammond's ear and hat- brim. From the position he was in, there is little doubt that but for the ball striking the nail he would have been struck in die breast
The attention of Major Turner was called to it, but he only laughed and said, "The boys were in want of practice." The guard, when spoken to about it, said "He had made a bet that he would kill a damned Yankee before he came off guard." There was not the least attention paid by the commander of the Libby prison to this deliberate attempt at murder.
Lieutenant Thomas Huggins, of a New York regiment, was standing at least eight feet from a window on the second floor; the guard could just see the top of his hat. To be sure of his man, the guard left his beat and stepped into the street. Being seen, a warning cry was uttered, and Huggins stooped and the bullet buried itself in the beams above. This was the same guard that fired at Hammond.
Richard, or as usually called, Dick Turner was the inspector of the prison, and acted under the orders of the commander. There was nothing too mean for him to do. He searched you when you entered, knocked you down if you grumbled, took your blanket from you if found lying upon it after morning roll-call, never spoke of you except as damned Yankees—told you "you were better treated than you deserved."
This “high-toned Southron" was employed as the negro-whipper of the prison.
Colonel Powell, 2d Virginia cavalry, (Union,) Colonel Streight and Captain Reed, 51st Indiana, and others who had been confined in the cells, used to witness the whippings, (the cells were at one end of the cellar where the whipping-block was,) and they could hear,—even if they shut their eyes to the horrid exhibition.
Colonels Powell and Streight told me of as many as six negro women having been stripped and whipped, at one time, for having passed bread to our soldiers as they marched through the street.
The flogging of the negroes that worked at the Libby was an every-day occurrence.
These blacks were free negroes from the North, who were employed as servants, but fell into the hands of the enemy. He flogged one of them so severely that he was unable to move for two weeks, and walked lame months after. His offence was resisting a white negro-driver.
The hospital tents on Belle Tale were old Sibleys. These were not temporary hospitals, for many died in them each day; but when they could not contain all the sick some sick were removed to Richmond hospitals. These tents were awful places for human beings to be placed in —without floors, a heap of straw for a bed, logs of wood for pillows — men died with less attention than many a man pays to a favorite dog. The hospitals in Richmond were much better, being in buildings, and were furnished with bunks and straw beds—some of them with sheets. But though treated with kindness, compared with Belle Island, the want of proper medicines was visible, and many died for the want of the most simple remedies.
Upon the 25th of October, 1863, two officers, (Major Hewsten, 132d New York, and a Lieutenant 4th New York Cavalry,) escaped from the hospital. Immediately, upon its being known, all the sick who were well enough to sit up or stand, were removed from the room and placed in an empty room under our prison. Here they were kept for twenty-four hours, without food or blankets, as a punishment, it was said, for not reporting the contemplated escape of the officers named. From this treatment, Surgeon Pierce of the 5th Maryland died.
The officers in the room above, removed a portion of the floor and furnished the sick with food and drink, and shared their blankets with them. This coming to the knowledge of Major Turner, we were deprived of rations for one day — October 29th, 1863.
This was not the action of the surgeons of the Libby, for, with one exception, they were kind and attentive, and did all in their power for our comfort, but of the commander of the department, Brigadier-General Winder, and of Major Turner, commander of the prison, who, I am informed, was dismissed from West Point, by orders from the Secretary of War, having been convicted of forgery.
I was informed by men whom I knew — Ward and Winship of the 18th Connecticut and Ferris and Stone of the 1st Connecticut — that the enclosure in Belle Isle was a mass of filth every morning, from the inability of the men to proceed to the sinks after evening.
Many of the guards would fire upon the prisoners for the least violation of the rules. The men were in a miserable condition and looked sickly, worn out—starvation and exposure was expressed upon their features.
Trusting that the above will assist you in your report,
I am respectfully yours,
CHARLES FARNSWORTH,
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this
18th day, of July, A. D. 1864,
DAVID YOUNG,
Justice of the Peace.