Prisoners of war and military prisons; personal narratives of experience in the prisons at Richmond, Danville, Macon, Andersonville, Savannah, Millen, Charleston, and Columbia with a list of officers (14759591741)

Identifier: prisonersofwarmi00isha (find matches)
Title: Prisoners of war and military prisons; personal narratives of experience in the prisons at Richmond, Danville, Macon, Andersonville, Savannah, Millen, Charleston, and Columbia ... with a list of officers who were prisoners of war from January 1, 1864
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Isham, Asa B. (Asa Brainerd), 1844-1912 Davidson, Henry M Furness, H. B
Subjects: United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865 Prison life
Publisher: Cincinnati, Lyman & Cushing
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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of the room was about eight feet. The num-ber of cubic feet of air in the room was, therefore, nine-teen thousand two hundred—about forty to a man. It issaid that a man consumes one hundred gallons of air perhour, equal to a little more than thirteen and one-thirdcubic feet. On this basis, the air in the room was sufli-cient to last about three hours, supposing none of it wererenewed in the meantime. Medical testimony shows, that Prisoners of War. 177 to afford this amount of air for consumption, each manrequires two hundred and six cubic feet per hour, as theminimum of supply, which w^ould require the air to be en-tirely changed in the room once in every four minutes.The only ventilation was by means of such crevices aswere in the walls and about the doors and w^indows.These latter were not allowed to be raised, but they wereoccasionally opened an inch or two, if it could be donewithout attracting the attention of the guard. The privies were constructed in the north-east corner of
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Smith axd Pembertox Prisons, Pichmond, Ya. the room, and w^ere without any door or means of securingprivacy. Water was furnished through pipes from theJames river, and was the same as was supplied to the city.The stench from the privies (each floor was the counter-part of our own), the dampness caused by the drippingwater from the hydrant, when the men drew it for drink-ing and washing purposes, together with our crowdedstate, the impurities of the atmosphere, and the insuflS.ciencyand the indigestible character of our food, rendered us del-12 178 Prisoners of War. icately susceptible to attacks of contagion and other formsof disease. The Pemberton Prison was likewise a tobacco ware-house, just south of Smith, and fronting upon the samestreet—its end being upon the Libby street. There wasjust room enough between the Smith and the Pembertonfor the guard to walk. Opposite to the Smith was the ScottPrison—also a tobacco warehouse. The height and proxim-ity of these buildino^s exclude