of blood does the beast of a menagerie. They surged up as near the lines as they were allowed, and seemed in their eagerness about to break over. While we were on the ground a heavy rain came up, and they seemed greatly to enjoy it, coming out a puris naturalibus, opening their mouths to catch the droops, while one would wash off another with his hands and then receive from him the like kind office. Numbers get out at night and wander to the neighboring houses in quest of food.

From the camp of the living we passed to the camp of the dead - the hospital; a transition which reminded me of Satan's soliloquy:

Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;

And in the lowest deep, a lower deep,

Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide.

A few tents, covered with pine tops, were crowded with the dying and the dead, in every stage of corruption. Some lay in prostrate helplessness; some had crowded under the shelter of the bushes; some were rubbing skeleton limbs. Twenty or thirty of them die daily, most of these, as I was informed, of the scurvy. The corpses lay be the roadside waiting for the dead cart, their glassy eyes turned the heaven, the flies swarming in their mouths, their big toes tied together with a cotton string, and their skeleton arms folded on their breasts. You wold hardly know them to be men, so sadly do hunger, disease, and wretchedness change "the human face divine. " Presently came the carts. They were, carried a little distance to trenches dug for the purpose, and tumbled in like so many dogs; a few pine tops were thrown upon the bodies, a few shovelsful of dirt, and then haste was made to upon a new ditch for other victims. The burying party were Yankees, detailed for the work; an appointment which, as the sergeant told me, they consider as a favor, for they get a little more to eat, and enjoy fresh air.

Thus we saw, at one glance, the three great scourges of making - war, famine, and pestilence; and we turn from the spectacle sick at heart, as we remember that some of our loved ones may be undergoing a similar misery.

"Man's inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn. "

Soon 8,000 more will be added to their number, and where the provisions are to cone from the feed this multitude is a difficult problem. Five thousand pounds of bacon or 10,000 pounds of beef daily seems, in addition to more urgent drafts upon her, far beyond the ability of South Carolina.

The question is: Are we not going serious injury to our cause in keeping these prisoners to divide with us our scanty rations? Would it not be better at once to release them on parole?

HOWARD.

[First indorsement.]

Respectfully referred, by direction of the President, to the Honorable Secretary of War.

BURTON N. HARRISON,

Private Secretary.

[Second indorsement.]

OCTOBER 23, 1864.

Refer to Brigadier-General Winder.

By order:

J. A. CAMPBELL,

Assistant Secretary of War.

62 R R-SERIES II, VOL VII