From the Richmond Whig, 12/27/1862

"CASTLE THUNDER." - This establishment has come to be one of the institutions of the day, and is famous as the headquarters of the offenders throughout the Confederacy. A man who once gets in there has little disposition to try it a second time; for, however much care may be bestowed upon its management; no human effort could make a Paradise of such a place as that. The prisoners crowding its narrow limits look as though they could well and truly appreciate liberty, if the Government would only give them a chance. There are probably some cases there deserving of sympathy, though the majority are doubtless justly detained. We have been told that a man was just sent there from Staunton a week ago, whose only offense was that he was conveying a keg of brandy in his sulky to a friend's house as a Christmas gift. We may have been misinformed in regard to this, but, it is nevertheless a topic of conversation in the streets. Certainly a person sent from his home to a distant prison under such circumstances ought to have the earliest opportunity for stating his case to the authorities and regaining his liberty if possible. The hospital is in the upper story of the building, and is kept in excellent order by the surgeon of the establishment, Dr. Coggin. The sick are well attended to.

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