‘ [419] have enough to eat. Others do cooking for persons confined in the jail, and in this way get more to eat. The men speak of the treatment in other respects as not very harsh compared with the treatment they expected.’It will be observed that the sergeant's statement of their treatment indicates less harshness towards them than has been gleaned from others' statements embodied herein. This may be explained by the fact that the ‘Liberator,’ or rather the extract in our possession, does not give the source or means by which this letter was received, and if it came through the enemy's hands, subject to their scrutiny, possibly its statements were tempered to pass the Confederate authorities. Bonham wrote that on Dec. 8, 1864, he had turned over the colored prisoners to General Jones. On or about that date they were sent to Florence. States says they were taken there about December 1. Owing to the confinement of several hundred Confederate officers by us under fire on Cummings Point, Morris Island, the Confederates removed most of the Federal prisoners from the city of Charleston by the middle of October. This we heard of Oct. 13 from a Federal officer who escaped from Charleston and reported, ‘Our prisoners, with the exception of the colored soldiers captured at Wagner, have been removed from Charleston.’ Florence Prison, Anderson County, South Carolina, was a stockaded enclosure surrounded by a ditch, comprising about twenty-three acres, some two miles from the town of Florence. Through the enclosure ran a stream of water the banks of which were bordered by a swamp. From the upper point of this stream water for drinking was obtained; the lower part carried off the filth. The prisoners had no other shelter than they themselves constructed,—generally little dirt huts partly built of wood, some covering holes in the ground. No pots or pans were provided for cooking, which was done if at all by themselves. A rough frame-work situated in the northwest corner, inside the stockade, served as a hospital. For rations, generally about a pint of corn meal, a few spoonfuls of beans, and sometimes small pieces of beef were provided. Salt was very scarce. Strong guards
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