3 report was -prepared, November 26th,' 1863, and sent to the President, which contained the following facts. About one thousand officers of all grades, and from both'branches of the service, are confined in Libby prison, whose walls are unplastered, thus open to the full sweep of the winter winds, or closed with boards—rendering the place dark, dreary, and loathsome in the extreme. None of the private soldiers are furnished with bedding of,any. kind. Belle Island contains six thousand three hundred prisoners, whose condition is wretched beyond all description. An insufficient number of tents to protect the men from the cold and rain, no blankets nor .bedding given them by their captors.’ Only one Surgeon was assigned to the Island, who makes but one visit a day, and then does not enter the enclosures of the men. Such as-are too sick to walk, never see him; they are hurried off to the hospital when their condition is absolutely helpless. An officer of high standing, -who visited the Island, says the men followed him in crowds, and in the most eager tones, begged- of him for bread; many literally starved to death. Some days as high as fifty died, and from no other apparent cause. Officers, for the most trivial offences, were confined for weeks in' dark, damp dungeons. Men were shot by the guards for standing near and looking out of the windows. Some were shot, others wounded, by the wanton wretches, who stood their guns on the floor beneath and fired through the floor overhead. To such extremities were these unfortunate men driven, that in one instance a dog was killed and eaten; and the prisoners on the Island were known to hunt the gutters for bones, to suck from them nutriment to appease the terrible gnawings of hunger. These are facts, derived from personal observation, transpiring in a Christian community, among “ high-toned gentlemen” but written right across the rebel Confederacy, dark as midnight and revolting as despair. “ Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities.” FORT PILLOW. The most revolting of all barbarities was that of Fort Pillow. The War Committee, after thorough inquiry into the conduct of Forest, and his murderous associates, report that the atrocities committed were not the result of passions excited by the heat of the conflict, but of a policy deliberately decided upon and unhesitatingly announced. When the women and children were crossing the river by the aid of the Union gunboats, the rebel sharpshooters, mingled- with and shielded' by them, fired upon the officers and men. Like incarnate fiends as they% are, they placed women in front of their lines as they moved upon the fort. They rushed into the fort during the time the flag of truce was flying, which is held sacred even by Turks and savages, and commenced an indiscriminate slaughter, sparing neither age nor .sex, white nor black, soldier nor civilian, men, women nor children; of the latter, those not over ten years of age were made to face their murderers, and thus. shot. The sick and wounded, while lying in their beds in the hospitals, were dragged out and butchered without mercy. Numbers of men were collected into groups or lines, and deliberately shot down, and those of the wounded near the river bank were brutally kicked into the river, where they were drowned, heaping insult and torture upon the vic-
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