A Voice from Salisbury - March 1865

 Oxford Times, March 22, 1865

A Voice from Salisbury:  Mr B.F. Strickland, a soldier in Company B of the 8th Maine Regiment, who has been confined in the Salisbury, N.C., prison four months, has given us many statements of great interest relative to the brutal treatment of our brave men in that hideous place of captivity.  Mr. Strickland left Salisbury Feb. 22, in company with a very large number of other prisoners (he thinks 3,000), the party being literally turned out of the stockade by the General in charge, in view of the prevailing fear that Sherman was coming.  They were furnished with a guide to Goldsborough, and a sort of mock parole oath was administered to all that they would not attempt to escape while on the passage.  The party reached Goldsborough Feb. 27th, remained there long enough to be paroled, went to Rocky Point, N.C., and entered the Union lines.  The men were furnished with sustenance by the farmers and other people along the route, who were generally loyal, the rations provided by the Rebels being both extremely scant and poor.  The horrors of Salisbury prison are stated by Mr. Strickland to be beyond the power of human description, and no published account has yet done justice to the theme.   Robbery, starvation, cruelty of every description, and, in fact, the violation of every law and sentiment cherished by civilized human beings, made the continual and inevitable order of things.  The 8th Maine Regiment was captured Oct. 27 at Fair Oaks, and of the 71 men who were sent to Salisbury, all are now dead except twelve, and our informant is of opinion that starvation was the primary cause of this fearful mortality.  N.Y. Tribune