Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 8.
Frank Moore, Ed.

Question. What is the cause of your sickness?

Answer. Nothing but exposure and the kind of food we had there. I was a tolerably stout man before I got into their hands; after that I was starved nearly to death.

Daniel Gentis, sworn and examined: by the Chairman:

Answer. Indiana.

Question. When did you enlist, and in what company and regiment?

Answer. I enlisted on the sixth of August, 1861, in company I, Second New-York regiment.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. I was taken prisoner at Stevensville, Virginia; I was there with Colonel Dahlgren, on Kilpatrick's expedition.

Question. Were you taken prisoner at the same time that Colonel Dahlgren was killed?

Answer. I was there when he was killed, but I was taken prisoner the next morning.

Question. What do you know about the manner of his death, and the treatment his body received?

Answer. He was shot within a foot and a half or two feet of me. I got wounded that same night. The next morning I was taken prisoner, and as we came along we saw his body, with his clothes all off. He was entirely naked, and he was put into a hole and covered up.

Question. Buried naked in that way?

Answer. Yes, sir; no coffin at all. Afterward his body was taken up and carried to a slue and washed off. and then sent off to Richmond. A despatch came from Richmond for his body, and it was sent there.

Question. It has been said they cut off his finger?

Answer. Yes, sir; his little finger was cut off, and his ring taken off.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. How do you know there was a ring on his finger?

Answer. I saw the fellow who had it, and who said he took it off. When they took his body to a slue and washed it off, they put on it a shirt and drawers, and then put it in a box and sent it to Richmond.

Question. How far was that from Richmond?

Answer. It was about forty miles from Richmond, and about ten miles from West-Point.

Question. How were you treated yourself?

Answer. I fared first-rate. I staid at the house of a Dr. Walker, of Virginia, and Dr. Walker told me that a private of the Ninth Virginia cavalry took off Colonel Dahlgren's artificial leg, and that General Ewell, I think it was, or some General in the Southern army who had but one leg, gave the private two thousand dollars for it, (confederate currency.) I saw the private who took it, and saw him have the leg.

By the Chairman:

Question. How do you know they received a despatch from Richmond to have the body sent there?

Answer. All the information I got about the despatch was from Dr. Walker, who said they were going to take the body to Richmond, and bury it where no one could find it.

Question. Did Colonel Dahlgren make any speech or read any papers to his command?

Answer. No, sir; not that I ever heard of. They questioned me a great deal about that. The colonel of the Ninth Virginia cavalry questioned me about it. I told him Just all I knew about it. I told him I had heard no papers read, nor any thing else.

Question. Did you ever hear any of your fellow-soldiers say they ever heard any such thing at all.

Answer. No, sir; and when I started I had no idea where I was going.

Question. Were you in prison at Richmond?

Answer. I was there for four days, but I was at Dr. Walker's pretty nearly a month and a half.

Question. During the four days you were in prison did you see any of our other soldiers in prison there?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How did they fare?

Answer. We all fared pretty rough on corn-bread and beans. Those who were in my ward are here now sick in bed.

Question. How happened it that you fell into the hands of Dr. Walker particularly?

Answer. The way it came about was this: In the morning I asked some officers of the regular regiment for a doctor to dress my wound. One of the doctors there said he could not do it. I spoke to a lieutenant, and asked him to be kind enough to get some doctor to dress it, and he got this Dr. Walker. The doctor asked me to go to his house, and stay there if I would. I told him “certainly I would go.” The colonel of the rebel regiment said that the doctor could take me there, and I staid until Captain Magruder came up there and told Dr. Walker that I had to be sent to Richmond.

Question. Where were you wounded?

Answer. In the knee.

[At this point the Committee concluded to examine no more of the patients in the hospital, as most of them were too weak to be examined without becoming too much exhausted, and because the testimony of all amounted to about the same thing. They therefore confined the rest of their investigation to the testimony of the surgeons in charge, and other persons attending upon the patients.]

Surgeon B. A. Van Derkieft, sworn and examined: by the Chairman:

Answer. I am a Surgeon of volunteers in the United States service; in charge of Hospital Division Number One, known as the Naval Hospital,