Answer. They were clothed very poorly indeed, with old worn-out filthy garments, full of vermin.
Question. What was their condition and appearance as to health when they arrived here?
Answer. They looked like living skeletons—that is about the best description I can give of them—very weak and emaciated.
Question. Have you ever seen men at any time or place so emaciated as these are—so entirely destitute of flesh?
Answer. I think I have a few times, but very rarely; I have known men to become very emaciated by being for weeks affected with chronic diarrhœa, or something of that kind. But the chronic diarrhœa, and liver diseases, and lung affections, which those men now have, I understand to have been superinduced by the treatment to which they have been subjected; their cruel and merciless treatment and exposure to inclement weather without any shelter or sufficient clothing or food, reducing them literally to a state of starvation.
Question. Could any of them walk when they arrived here?
Answer. I think there was but one who could make out to walk; the rest we had to carry into the hospitals on stretchers.
By Mr. Odell:
Question. Did these men make these statements in their dying condition?
Answer. Yes, sir.