Private GEORGE DINGMAN, sworn and examined: —
I am fifty-four years of age; I am from Michigan; enlisted in the 27th Regiment in 1862; I had always good health till captured; was taken at Strawberry Plain; taken to Richmond, thence to Belle Island about the 26th of January; had no shelter but the heavens; was taken by some one into a tent; had the rheumatism.
No shelter was provided by the authorities; some hundreds had no shelter, some had; no fire; had nothing to sleep on but them blankets I brought; had blankets when taken prisoner. (A ration produced); this was the rations I got; sometimes we got this twice and sometimes three times a day (the ration weighs two ounces of bread and three-sixteenths of an ounce of meat; both are now perfectly dry which causes a loss of weight); have had meat more than once a day.
Was at Belle Isle two weeks; think the prisoners got a little more bread on the island than at the hospital; my ration was two inches in length by two and a half inches wide, and about one inch thick, three times a day, or twice a day sometimes; suffered from hunger; could not lay in bed from rheumatism; when the hungry feeling came I got so weak I could not walk; once and a while had a little soup or beans raw ; no man could eat the soup unless he was starving; it tasted nasty and briny; I could walk when I came here, but had no strength.
1 saw the rations the rebel guards got; they were four times as much as ours: they got the same kind of bread and meat, but they could help themselves out of the bag.
There were complaints; the doctor was very kind, and did all he could.
During January the men would run all night to keep warm, and in the morning I would see men lying dead; from three to six or seven; they were frozen; this was nearly every morning I was there; the men would run to keep warm, and then lie down and freeze to death; we made an estimate and found that seventeen men died a night from starvation and cold, on an average.
If I were to sit here a week I couldn’t tell you half our suffering.
GEORGE DINGMAN.
Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 31st, 1864.
D. P. BROWN, JR.,
United States Commissioner.
Certification for statements taken May 31 and June 1, 1864 (There was only one certification in the document; however it is being included here on the web-page for each applicable statement - MpG ):
I certify that the foregoing testimony was taken and reduced to writing in the presence of the respective witnesses, and by them sworn to in my presence, at the times, places, and in the manner set forth.
D. P. BROWN, JR., United States Commissioner.
Evidence of Officers and Soldiers of the United States Army Returned after Confinement in Rebel Prisons.
Testimony taken at Annapolis, Maryland, at United Slates Army General Hospital, May 31, A.D. 1864.