TO THE YOUTH OF THE SOUTH. WHEN the charge is made, that your fathers treated their prisoners badly, read this to their false accusers: That in a country filled with supplies, and with boundless resourcess, out of five thousand and twenty-five (5,025) Confederates, imprisoned in Elmira, in the spring of 1865, thirteen hundred and eleven (1,311) died in four months, a bill of mortality, not exceeded by the "Black Hole of Calcutta." The following is official: "THE REBEL PRISONERS AT ELMIRA. "A paragraph has been going the rounds of the Republican press, as follows: "From the records of the Elmira prison, which were taken to Washington, for use in the Surratt trial, it is found that during the spring of 1865, 5,025 rebel prisoners were confined here during that time, and that only six deaths occurred in three months.' "The Elmira Gazette' corrects this statement, and gives the figures to prove its falsity. That paper has taken pains to ascertain the facts, and finds that of that number confined at that place, during the spring of 1865, viz: 5,025, there were during the three months 884 deaths -a slight discrepancy of 878! In March, the number of deaths was 495; in April, 265; in May, 124; making a total of 884. And if February was included, which gives 426 more, the total for four months will be 1,311! Much has been said concerning the mortality of Union soldiers in Southern prisons, but such a record should awaken inquiry at home."-Buffalo " Courier." Tell them that at camp Douglas, on lake Michigan, in the depth of winter, six (6) blankets were issued to one hundred and sixty (160) men, and that dogs and rats were daily eaten. Tell them, that at Point Lookout, that your fathers were guarded by Negroes, who shot at them as they would at game. That there was one stove to ten thousand (10,000) men; and many froze to death, from lying on the bare ground, without a blanket. Tell them, that at camp Douglas prisoners were tied up by the thumbs, (in one instance, that of the gallant John D. Levett, afterwards Captain Levett,) for three hours, for slight infractions of the oppressive rules of the prison. Tell them, that in all the prison pens of the North, many of the custodians of those sinks of oppression, allowed atrocities to be committed, at the recital of which the heart of civilization revolts. I append compilations, from official and other reliable data, which, I hope, every true child of the South-who love their ancestry and their heroic deeds will read carefully, and when the lying historian, of a fanatical party, speaks of the so-called horrors of Andersonville, let the youth of the South know, that it is written, to hide the cruelties, practiced by our enemies upon Confederate prisoners. In every large prison at the North, cruelty was systematically practiced for the purpose of forcing prisoners to take the oath of allegiance to the Federal government, or, in case of their refusal, of enfeebling their health to such an extent as to render them unfit for military service, on their return to the South. The treatment of some of the prisoners was so severe, that when they were taken from the cells, the blood gushed from their ears. Sometimes prisoners, thinly clad, were removed long distances from one prison to another, in the coldest weather. No provisions were taken for them, and benevolent people along the route were forbidden to give them either food or clothing. On such occasions large numbers of the wretched sufferers died in the cars; but they gained a happy release. No one can read the accounts of the treatment of Southern prisoners, in most |