ROBERT B. CROW sworn:

I am a resident of Richmond and have been for forty years. I am one of the detective force under the provost-marshal or rather General Winder. Of the treatment of the prisoners at Castle Thunder I know very little except from hearsay, as my position does not require me [to go] beyond the office. I can recall an instance or two of their treatment. On one occasion I remember Captain Alexander had one of them prisoners whipped for garroting or robbing another prisoner. I did not see him whipped, but heart that he was whipped and I presume the captain gave the order to have him whipped. I do not know whether he was whipped on his bare back or not; I say I do not know it on my own knowledge, but I think he was. I know of he prisoners being turned out in the Castle yard but do not know what their offense was. It was in quite could weather and rainy and they had nothing to cover them but the clothing they had on and no roof covering to shelter them. I do not know what their offense was; do not know what rations they had while out there nor whether they had bed clothing or not. The yard is an ordinary one, walled in; do not know how large it is. I know two or three prisoners to have been killed at the Castle. One was that case of a Yankee who was shot and the other case that of the deserter (Carroll) shot the other night in trying to escape. The one that was shot last was shot lying down, dragging himself along the balcony trying to get out. I was not present at the time. Some of the prisoners are well clad and others again are very indifferently clothed. The prison room is comfortable; there is a very large stove in it.

T. G. BLAND sworn:

I am from Louisiana and was former steward of the prison hospital. I went there on the 10th of November last and was relieved from duty on the 4th of the present month. I regard to the treatment of the prisoners confined there I myself was a prisoners four months in Fort Delaware, and from experience I consider the prisoners treated well there to what they are here. I consider them most barbarously and inhumanly treated. On one occasion ten or fifteen of the prisoners in a large hall, two of them accused of stealing from the prisoners. Two out of the number brought out were not whipped; they were sick I believe, and that was the reason. I do not think the whipping was done by order of the court-martial as Captain Alexander had the men brought out himself. The prisoners were stripped and whipped on the bare back, each receiving ten or twelve lashes laid on by the strongest man in Captain Bossieux's company. The words Captain Alexander used while the whipping was doing on were, "Lay it on!" They were whipped for stealing money; and as they were all hard cases, every one of them, some of them did steal it no doubt, but none had a chance of vindication themselves. They were tied up to a post and whipped. The general treatment of the prisoners is very good but some of the officers of the prison treat the prisoners as though they were dogs instead of soldiers fighting in the common cause of the Confederacy.

Captain Alexander here suggested that the witnesses be kept separate from the witness delivering his testimony as customary in proceedings of the kind before the committee. The chairman of the committee said he judged the witnesses present were all honorable men and would not suffer their own ideas to be influenced by the testimony of a witness. He, however, yielded the point and all the witnesses except the one under investigation were sent from the committee room.

Mr. BLAND resumed:

I have heard of men being at the prison. I helped to put one in a coffin myself and sent the corpse to the undertaker. He was shot while trying to escape. I have seen hand cuffed around a large pillar and one of these I saw so punished was taken from the hospital. His offense was trying to bride the guard. Neither had irons on them. The sick man was under the surgeon's care then. he was handcuffed around the pillar between 5 and 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and when I got back to the prison at 11 o'clock the same night he was still there, and I do not know how long after that. The work characters in the prison are handcuffed and wear ball and chain; the others who are not so desperate are left to go free. Those tied up could not have been in for very serious offenses. I know the prisoners were put out in the yard and kept there for two or three days. Some of them were thinly and badly clothed and others were well clad. The citizen prisoners are generally clothed well and the soldiers poorly, having no change. Some of those exposed in the yard were brought up into the hospital afterward sick with the pneumonia, and I heard the surgeon, Doctor Coggin, say that the exposure in the yard made them ill and nothing else. Several of them died in the hospital of pneumonia. The season was in November, with cold, rainy weather. I know of the direct violation of the Army Regulation of the Confederate States and that in