dated headquarters Department of North Carolina, Raleigh, N. C., February 8, 1866, and of which Colonel W. W. Wheeler, Twenty-eighth Michigan Infantry, is president, was arraigned and tried-

John H. Gee, late keeper of the rebel military prisoner at Salisbury, N. C.

CHARGE I: Violation of the laws and customs of war.

Specification 1.- In this, that John H. Gee, while being, or claiming to be, a major in the rebel military service, and as such being in command and charge of the prison established and used by the rebel Government or military authorities at Salisbury, N. C., for the confinement of prisoners of war, taken and held as such from the armies of the United States of America, and being in charge of a large number of such prisoners, to wit, the number of 10,000 or thereabouts, there assembled, and as such commandant fully clothed with authority, and in duty bound to treat and care and provide for such prisoners, and while the said prisoners at said prison, and in his charge as such commandant, were in a condition of extreme want and suffering, as well as many of them ill and dying, by reason of the utter and continued insufficiency of the rations, clothing, shelter, and medical attendance, and of the cold and exposure to which they were constantly subjected, and of the small and narrow limits to which they were confined, did, willfully and maliciously, and in violation of the laws and usages of civilized warfare, utterly fail and neglect to provide, or cause to be provided, or to attempt to have provided, for the said prisoners, confined as aforesaid, and in his charge as such commandant at said prison, proper or sufficient rations, clothing, fuel, shelter, water, or hospital attendance; that by reason of such willful and malicious failure and neglect the said prisoners were never supplied with food either of a quality or quantity sufficient to preserve health or sustain life, and the food furnished being often of the most disgusting and loathsome description; also, that by reason thereof none of the said prisoners were supplied with sufficient water for culinary purposes or even for satisfying thirst, or with wood, except in very small and inadequate quantities, and this though and ample supply of water and wood could easily have been obtained in the immediate neighborhood of said prison and readily transported to the same by the prisoners themselves; also, that by reason thereof no clothing was supplied to the said prisoners, many of them being left during the severity of winter without clothes, shoes, blankets, or other adequate or suitable covering for their persons, and even without straw or other suitable thing on which to lie; also, that by reason thereof the shelter furnished said prisoners was entirely insufficient to protect them from the inclemency of the weather, a great number of whom, therefore - as well as on account of the insufficiency of clothing and wood as aforesaid - were obliged to burrow in the ground of said prison as the only means of protection; also, that by reason thereof the hospital accommodations and medical attendance furnished said prisoners when sick were so slight and inadequate that when once sent to the hospital of said prison the said sick rarely returned alive therefrom; and that by reason, further, of such will full and malicious failure and neglect a very great number of said prisoners, two it, the number of about 1,20 per month, whose names are unknown, died from disease, starvation, and exposure. All these and other wrongs to the said prisoners, confined as aforesaid, he, the said Gee, then and there did. This, at Salisbury, N. C., in or about the months of November and December, 1864.

Specification 2.- In this, that John H. Gee, while being, or claiming to be, a major in the rebel military service, and as such being in command and charge of the prison established and used by the rebel Government or military authorities at Salisbury, N. C., for the confinement of prisoners of war, taken and held as such from the armies of the United States of America, and being in charge of a large number of such prisoners there assembled, to wit, the number of 10,000 or thereabouts, and while the said prisoners at said prison, and in his charge as such commandant, were in a condition of extreme want and suffering, as well as many of them ill and dying, on account of the utter and continued insufficiency of the rations, clothing, shelter, and medical attendance furnished for them, and the cold and exposure to which they were constantly subjected, did, when sundry citizens of Salisbury, acquainted with the condition of the said prisoners as aforesaid, offered and attempted to relieve said prisoners by administering in some degree to their wants, and by slight acts of kindness and charity, which could in no manner tended to relax the discipline of said prison, cruelly, and in violation of the laws and usages of civilized warfare, prohibit said citizens from so relieving the said prisoners; and this, although he, the said Gee, as well as the said rebel Government and authorities, then and there, altogether failed and neglected to properly provide for the wants and necessities of said prisoners. This, at Salisbury, N. C., in or about the months of November and December, 1864.