It will be hard to make any honest man
in Salisbury say that there was the slightest necessity for those
prisoners having to live in old tents, caves and holes half-full of
water. Representations were made to the Davis government against the
officers in charge of it, but no attention was paid to them. Promotion
was the punishment for cruelty there. The inmates were skeletons. Hell
could have no terrors for any man who died there, except the inhuman
keepers.'"
DEATH OF A PENNSYLVANIA SOLDIER
_Frank H. Irwin, company E, 93rd Pennsylvania--died May 1, '65--My
letter to his mother_--Dear madam: No doubt you and Frank's friends
have heard the sad fact of his death in hospital here, through his
uncle, or the lady from Baltimore, who took his things. (I have not
seen them, only heard of them visiting Frank.) I will write you a
few lines--as a casual friend that sat by his death-bed. Your son,
corporal Frank H. Irwin, was wounded near fort Fisher, Virginia, March
25th, 1865--the wound was in the left knee, pretty bad. He was sent up
to Washington, was receiv'd in ward C, Armory-square hospital, March
28th--the wound became worse, and on the 4th of April the leg was
amputated a little above the knee--the operation was perform' d by
Dr. Bliss, one of the best surgeons in the army--he did the whole
operation himself--there was a good deal of bad matter gather'd--the
bullet was found in the knee. For a couple of weeks afterwards he was
doing pretty well. I visited and sat by him frequently, as he was fond
of having me.
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