Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood
March 25, 1863

Hon. K. V. Whaley was in the city yesterday. He is on his way home to Wayne county. He came on from Washington with the political prisoners mentioned elsewhere.

Late From Richmond - Return Of Political Prisoners. - Mr. Isaac Bloss, a loyal citizen of Wayne county, Va., was in the city yesterday on his way home from Richmond, where he has been imprisoned since last September. He was captured during the month of September by Jenkins' Cavalry while enrolling the militia of Wayne county. Mr. Bloss is one of the one hundred and ninety-four political prisoners for whom an exchange was lately effected by our Government. The prisoners, composed principally of citizens of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee left Richmond on Friday last. Among the West Virginians who came with the party are Washington Pawley, Harrison Pawley, James Pawley, James Bragan, and George W. Turley, of Kanawha county; Benj. P. Morris, Sheriff of Putnam county; Henry K. Mason, Wm. M. Blake, and Isaac Sias, of Nicholas county; John Kelley of Ritchie county; Dr. Thacker, of Greenbrier; Norton A. Mann, Andrew M'Marrow, Charles Morrison and David Gillinan, of Pocahontas; Loyd Jarvell, of Boone county; Isaac Bloss and Henry Viers, of Wayne county.

Mr. Bloss says that no one can form the slightest conception of the misery to which he and his fellow prisoners were subjected. Quite a number of loyal Virginians are still confined in the Penitentiary at hard labor. These the authorities refuse to release, the Confederates having determined to hold them for prisoners similarly confined by our government. Mr. Bloss says that for four months, he and his companions lived upon mule and horse meat, the most of which was rotten and stunk so badly that he could smell it a square distant. He has helped to put men in the coffins who died from actual starvation. Many of his companions were so badly afflicted with the scurvy that their teeth could be easily pulled out with the fingers. Those who could not provide themselves with blankets were compelled to sleep upon the hard floor of the lousy, filthy prison. Mr. Bloss says the Confederate army is now upon quarter rations, which statement is verified by the Richmond papers. It is common talk in Richmond that the people in various sections of the State are actually starving for the necessaries of life.

Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: March 1863