UNION AND CONFEDERATE
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE
FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO THE END.--#4
RICHMOND, January 19, 1865.
Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR:
DEAR SIR: Allow me most respectfully to call your attention to
an evil which demands immediate remedy. On yesterday I visited that part
of Castle Thunder occupied by the Yankee deserters. This gave me an
opportunity of knowing something of their situation. Permit me to say it
is one of very great discomfort--so much so that if the weather should
become colder or the present cold continue, some of them must freeze, to
say nothing of other discomforts. I am the post chaplain at Camp Lee.
Yours, very respectfully,
HENRY BROWN.
<ar121_94>
[First indorsement.]
JANUARY 20,1865.
Respectfully returned to Honorable Secretary of War.
The complaint is well founded. These men sometimes pass the night
without fire. The quartermaster of prisons is forbidden to get fuel
except through the regular channels. I have forwarded repeated
complaints without remedy. I do not doubt that there has been
considerable loss of life already at the Libby and Castle Thunder from
this cause. The fault is with those officers whose duty it was to
furnish a supply of fuel, and who have not made proper provisions.
