L. Johnson to Lorenzo Thomas, February 3, 1865

Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. O.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to forward inclosed the statement of an enlisted man of the Forty-fourth U. S. Colored Infantry, captured at Dalton, Ga., Uctober 13, 1864, who subsequently escaped and is on duty in his company now.

I have already forwarded reports* stating that although I surrendered my command at the place named above “as prisoners of war,” their treatment was not that accorded to prisoners of war generally. They were, even under my own eyes a day after their capture, forced to tear up the railroad track between Dalton and Tunnel Hill. Since, I have heard from every man who escaped captivity and returned to the regiment, that they were not only deprived of their clothing, barbarously treated, and when sick sometimes shot down, but constantly worked in a most. brutal manner that even surpassed the harshest treatment they had ever received while in bondage.

I believe it to be my duty to the officers and men under my command. to call your attention to this matter and to respectfully request you to have some measures adopted to relieve the sufferings of these unfortunate men of the Forty-fourth Regiment in captivity. The officers and soldiers who have experienced and witnessed this degrading and inhuman treatment feel it deeply, and they can only look to the Government in whose service they have volunteered, whose uniform they wear, and whieh has promised them the protection afforded to other soldiers, to avenge the insults offered and the outrages perpetrated upon them.

I am, general, most

respectfully, your obedient servant,