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NARRATIVE OF ANDERSON V1LLE, 
 
 DRAWN FROM THE EVIDENCE ELICITED ON 
 
 THE TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ, 
 
 THE JAILEK. 
 
 WITH THE ARGUMENT OF COL. N. P. CHIPMAN, 
 
 JUDGE ADVOCATE. 
 
 BY AMBROSE SPENCER. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
 1866. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
 eight hundred and sixty-six, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
 of New York. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE FEW BRAVE MEN 
 
 WHO HAVE SURVIVED THE HORRORS OF THEIR 
 
 IMPRISONMENT AT AND ER SON VILLE, 
 
 THIS IMPERFECT RECITAL OF THEIR WRONGS AND SUFFERINGS 
 IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Americus, Georgia, 18G6. 
 
 250571 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Ix placing this " Narrative" before the public, I have 
 no apology to make except for the manner in which the 
 work has been executed. It is a source of regret to me 
 that I have been unable to clothe in proper language the 
 story of the great wrongs perpetrated in the Anderson- 
 ville Prison. It is cause of still greater regret that I have 
 been forced to repeat and publish that which it would 
 have been better to bury forever from public sight. The 
 choice was not permitted me, for a true narrative required 
 a full disclosure of words as well as deeds to satisfy the 
 demand for information of what was there done. 
 
 The facts contained in these pages have been drawn 
 from the evidence elicited at the trial of Henry Wirz be 
 fore the Military Commission appointed for that purpose, 
 together with personal knowledge which a near residence 
 to the spot would necessarily give. 
 
 My object in this publication is not to minister to a 
 morbid curiosity, but to place on record how outrages and 
 murders have been committed under the fictitious plea 
 of a struggle for independence. 
 
 The entire evidence taken on the trial was too volu 
 minous to be given in detail, and I have therefore adopt 
 ed the style of narrative, through which I could better 
 condense the facts proved. 
 
Vlll PKEFACE. 
 
 It will be seen that free use has been made of the able 
 argument of the Judge Advocate upon the trial of Wirz ; 
 and the author may well express his obligations to Col 
 onel N. P. Chipman for the aid he has given him, as for his 
 argument, which he has made a part of his Narrative. As 
 to its value, it is deemed sufficient to insert here the opin 
 ion of the Hon. Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, 
 page 1004, Keport of the Secretary of War, 1865-6 : 
 
 " As it would be impossible to present, in the limits of 
 a brief official report, even an abstract of the evidence 
 upon this trial, a copy is herewith submitted of the argu 
 ment of Colonel N. P. Chipman, Judge Advocate, which, 
 while containing a lucid discussion of the questions of 
 law involved, exhibits also a most faithful summary of 
 the testimony, much of which, indeed, is set forth in the 
 very language of the witnesses. 
 
 " It is submitted whether a publication of the record 
 of this case (similar to that undertaken by private enter 
 prise in the instance of the trial of the assassins), or of an 
 abridgment of the same, prepared by some proper person, 
 may not well be authorized by Congress, not only that a 
 permanent memorial of the testimony and proceedings 
 may be preserved, but also that the facts of such testi 
 mony may be made accessible to every student of the re 
 bellion. 
 
 " A peculiar characteristic of these state trials, and that 
 which must invest them with a deep historical import 
 ance, is the fact that, while the accused were in each case 
 adjudged to have been guilty of the crimes with which 
 they were charged, the complicity in those crimes of the 
 chiefs of the rebellion was declared by the court in their 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 findings, and upon testimony which is deemed to have 
 fully warranted the conclusions reached. In each case 
 the proof justified the conviction that the prisoners be 
 fore the court were not merely personal criminals, but 
 conspirators; that they were the hirelings and accom 
 plices of the cabal of traitors, of whom Davis was the ac 
 knowledged chief; and that these traitors were in fact 
 as well as in law, equally with the accused, responsible 
 for the detestable deeds which were adduced in evidence." 
 With such authority to sustain him, the author consid 
 ers that no apology is necessary for inserting the argu 
 ment. AMBROSE SPENCER. 
 
 AMERICUS, Georgia, 18GG. 
 
 A2 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory. Anderson, Account of. Climate. The Prison and Lo 
 cation. Hovvell Cobb first suggested it. Its Architect and Build 
 er Page 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 First Prisoners. Their Reception. Curiosity of the People. Com 
 mandant of Prison. A College of Girls visit it. Episode 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Feeling of the People. Their Hostility to the Prisoners. Preachers. 
 Searches for Money and Watches. Popular Huckstering 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Change of Administration. Appointment of Winder. His Antecedents. 
 Fitness for the Place. His Staff. Son and Nephew 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Wirz the Jailer. His early History. Residence in America. His Char 
 acter. Duties as Jailer. New Orders. The Dead Line. Stringent 
 Regulations 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Increase of Prisoners. Their Condition. The Hospitals. Precautions 
 for Guarding. Winder s Disposition of Artillery to rake the Stockade. 
 Stoneman s Raiders. Their Robbery and Destitution G3 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Routine within the Prison. Escaped Prisoners. Blood-hounds. Com 
 position of the Pack. The Story of Achuff. Wirz on a Hunt. 
 Death of the Cripple " Chickamauga." The Burying-ground 75 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Kindness of Confederate Surgeons. Contributions by the Ladies. Con 
 trasts. ^Refusal of Winder to permit Aid for the Sick. A Church 
 warden s Language. Attempt to obtain an Injunction. The Re 
 sult Page 85 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Effect of the Injunction. Commission to examine the Hospitals. Re 
 port. Counter-testimony. Cumulative Evidence. Poisonous vac 
 cine Matter. Stimulants. Provisions 99 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Wire s Shooting, Beating, and Stamping. Starvation. Duncan. Story 
 of Hamilton. Twenty -fourth Hew York Battery. Exchanging 
 Meat. Did the Confederate Government know of these Things ? 
 Proof 109 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 * Result of this Treatment on the Prisoners. Moral Restraint destroyed. 
 Scenes within the Prison. Wirz afraid. Tunneling. Robbery and 
 Murder. Executions 126 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Winter of 1864. Its Rigor. Personal Experiences. Escaped Pris 
 oner. He is saved. Efforts of the Masons to relieve the Suffering. 
 Success 136 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The End at Last. Peace. Wirz in Fear. Letter to General Wilson. 
 His Apprehension and Trial. Constitution of the Court. Effect of 
 the Evidence. Findings. Order for Execution 143 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Argument of Judge Advocate. Jurisdiction of the Court. Reasons of 
 Force. Constitutional Argument 163 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Sufferings at Andersonville. The Stockado. The Cook-house. The 
 Hospital. Dr. Jones s Evidence. Dr. Hopkins s Report 184 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Colonel Chandler s Report. Colonel Gibbs s Testimony. Evidence of 
 Rebel Officers and Soldiers. Condition of the Hospital Page 208 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Charge of Conspiracy. The Law implicating Co-conspirators. Davis. 
 Seddon. Winder. Intimacy of Davis and Winder 228 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Reflections on the Argument. Findings of the Court. Confirmation 
 of the Sentence. Order of the President of the United States. The 
 Murderer s Fate. Tables of Mortality 2G5 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory. Anderson, description of. Climate. The Prison and Lo 
 cation. Howell Cobb first proposing it. Its Architect. 
 
 THE morning of the 27th of April, 1865, beamed 
 brightly over the country of Southwestern Georgia as 
 the rays of a glorious sun poured their genial warmth 
 and life into the houses and cabins of the dwellers in that 
 favored land, lighting up their hearts with a sense of final 
 release from the fears that four years had almost made 
 familiar to them. The same sun looked down upon a 
 stockade of unhewn logs, surrounding an area within 
 whose limits crouched, or crept, or staggered about ten 
 thousand living men, prisoners of war. 
 
 The chill winds of a spring night had been but indif 
 ferent companions to those whose health and constitu 
 tions had been shattered by a long confinement there, 
 while they had proved beneficent protectors of the sick, 
 the wounded, and the dying there crowded together. To 
 the first class their scanty provision of blankets and rags 
 did not avail to ward off the piercing scrutiny of the 
 northeastern airs which penetrated through their skins 
 and tingled in their flesh as they muttered curses upon 
 the authors of their unquiet. 
 
16 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 The others had often blessed the breezes of the night, 
 that bore insensibility to pain and torture, and left them 
 the luxury of senselessness, paralyzed to the conscious 
 ness of suffering ; and yet that morning light and sun 
 brought liberty to all of them life to many, and the 
 grateful alleviation of medicine and nourishment to the 
 sick and dying. 
 
 It was the morning of the day upon which Joseph E. 
 Johnston, the leader of the remnant of the rebel army, 
 had surrendered to General William T. Sherman, in com 
 mand of the United States forces. The telegraph had 
 notified the land that peace had at length dawned that 
 the boon of freedom was at last granted to the wretched 
 occupants of the prison upon which the beams of that 
 April sun were shining. The prison was at Anderson. 
 Of that stockade and its unfortunate inmates the follow 
 ing pages propose to treat. 
 
 The little hamlet of Anderson, so called from John W. 
 Anderson, Esq., of Savannah, one of the pioneers of in 
 ternal improvements in the section where it is located, re 
 ceived its name in 1853 from George W. Adams, Esq., 
 then superintendent of the Southwestern Eailroad. Its 
 original name has received an addition from the Post- 
 office Department, and is now known as Andersonvitte. It 
 is situated in about latitude 32 10 N., and longitude 7 
 20 W. from Washington, in the heart of the richest por 
 tion of the cotton and corn-growing region of Georgia, 
 upon the Southwestern Eailroad, sixty-two miles south 
 from Macon, and nine miles north of Americus, the shire- 
 town of the county of Sumter. The population, at the 
 time of locating the prison, did not exceed twenty per- 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 17 
 
 sons. The locality is healthy, being upon an elevated 
 ridge of light sandy soil, with rolling hills all around it, 
 remarkable for the dense growth of pine and different 
 varieties of oak. Throughout this immediate region, the 
 beholder is impressed with the appearance of gigantic 
 trees, towering in their symmetrical height, with their 
 closely clustering stems, which form an apparently im 
 pervious obstacle to free passage or to distinct vision. 
 The country is thickly settled by enterprising farmers 
 and planters, while the counties adjacent to Sumter are 
 noted for the fertility of the soil, as well as for the im 
 mense crops of cotton and corn which it produces. 
 
 The climate is mild, although subject to extremes of 
 botTa heat and cold, the temperature ranging, during the 
 months of May, June, July, August, and September, to 
 88 of Fahrenheit in the shade, while, with an external 
 exposure, the thermometer would indicate, in the same 
 months, 110. The coldest weather of that region is dur 
 ing December and January, when the ordinary range is 
 about 42, although the mercury has exhibited a mini 
 mum of 18, when ice of two inches in thickness has 
 been made. Eain is not exceptional here, for during the 
 year 186-1 there were one hundred and eight rainy clays, 
 during which there fell 5-1.205 inches, while there were 
 ninety-four humid or moist days. By barometrical ob 
 servations, Andersonville is three hundred and twenty- 
 eight feet above tide-water. The wells, and springs, and 
 clear streams in its neighborhood are remarkable for the 
 coolness, pleasant taste, and crystal transparency of their 
 contents, as for their abundant supply. 
 
 Here, on the 27th day of November, 1863, W. S. Win- 
 
18 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 der, a captain in the rebel army, and who was selected 
 for the purpose, came and located the grounds for a " Con 
 federate States Military Prison." The first suggestion 
 for its establishment in Southwestern Georgia is due to 
 Howell Cobb, at that time in command of the military 
 district of Georgia and Florida. 
 
 The accumulation of prisoners of war at Eichmond and 
 Salisbury was so great as to cause serious inconvenience 
 to the rebel authorities, congregated as the prisoners were 
 at and near the centre of their military operations at one 
 extremity of the Confederacy, exposed to recapture, and 
 requiring the detail of a large force for their safe keep 
 ing. The greatest disadvantage arising from the con 
 centration of so many thousand prisoners at the seat of 
 the Confederate government was the consumption of pro 
 visions destined for their army, together with the diffi 
 culty of transporting immense stores to that point, over 
 single lines of roads with insufficient capacities, and for 
 a thousand miles from the region where they were pro 
 duced. These roads were liable to be broken, as they 
 ultimately were, by the Union forces, and thus the means 
 of provisioning their army, as well as the prisoners, be en 
 tirely cut off. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it was determined to estab 
 lish military prisons at points more remote from the thea 
 tre of war. A correspondence was opened between the 
 War Department of the rebel government and Howell 
 Cobb, then having his head-quarters at Macon, Georgia, 
 which resulted in the final selection of Andersonville for 
 one depot or prison. An examination was made by W. 
 S. Winder of other localities, among them a place near 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 19 
 
 the town of Albany, in Dougherty County, where a bold 
 and abundant spring was pointed out and examined by 
 him. It is supposed, however, that the opposition of 
 those holding interests near that place, coupled with argu 
 ments of its unhealthfulness, was sufficient to prevent its 
 selection. 
 
 Another spot, singularly formed by nature for the es 
 tablishment and erection of such a strong-hold as would 
 be required for the purpose, was brought to the notice 
 of the locating officer, but rejected. Magnolia Springs, 
 twelve miles west of the town of Americus, was the place 
 indicated. Here an ever-flowing spring, discharging six 
 ty gallons of the coldest and purest water every minute, 
 in close proximity to a clear and abundant stream of 
 good water, situated within a natural amphitheatre, sur 
 rounded by gentle eminences heavily wooded, seemed to 
 offer all of the conditions required for such a purpose. 
 This, in its turn, was also declined, and, as before observ 
 ed, Andersonville received the choice as the site for the 
 future prison. 
 
 To the east of the railroad, distant about sixteen hund 
 red feet therefrom, upon the side of a red clay hill look 
 ing to the south, the first stakes to mark its limits were 
 driven. The area, thus laid out, comprised twenty-two 
 acres. At the base of the declivity there ran a small 
 stream of water, about five feet in breadth and not ex 
 ceeding six inches deep, which took its rise in a swamp 
 or morass about fifty feet farther to the east, and consist 
 ed of a matted, tangled growth of hay and swamp-myrtle, 
 with small tussocks of grass and logs of decaying wood. 
 The borders of the stream were also of a swampy, miry 
 
20 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 character, while its course was tortuous and sluggish, and 
 , its water at no time fit for use ; but, as is well known in 
 that country, the prolific parent of disease and death, 
 flowing, as it did, from a reservoir steeped in decaying 
 vegetable matter, and noisome from the taste of the 
 mould through which it was filtered. A portion of this 
 stream, with its generating marsh, was confined within 
 the limits of the prison bounds, which also extended up 
 the adjacent hill farther south, the two sides making an 
 inclination toward each other with a gradual slope, and 
 at their bases it ran out of the western side. It will be 
 well to bear in mind the localities here given, in order 
 to a correct understanding of future details, with which 
 they will be intimately connected. 
 
 When the site was definitely established, it was found 
 to be covered with a thick growth of pines and oaks, 
 which a good taste would have left in their natural state, 
 not only as an ornament to the inclosure about to be 
 erected, but as a shelter and protection to those who 
 were destined to confinement there. An appreciative 
 humanity would, it is thought, have been led to their re 
 tention under any circumstances. It was, indeed, sug 
 gested to W. S. Winder by a disinterested spectator of 
 his preliminary proceedings, but who nevertheless looked 
 forward to the possible sufferings in store for the future 
 occupants of the place, that the shade afforded by the 
 trees would prove grateful protections to the prisoners. 
 The reply was characteristic of the man and prophetic 
 of their future fate. "That is just what I am not going 
 to do ! I will make a pen here for the d d Yankees, 
 where they will rot faster than they can be sent !" He 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 21 
 
 was a son of John H. Winder, of whom more will be 
 said hereafter. The trees were leveled to the ground, 
 and the space was cleared, and the construction of the 
 prison began. 
 
 A demand was made upon the planters of the adjoin 
 ing country for a portion of their able-bodied slaves one 
 man out of every four ; agents were appointed to collect 
 and forward them, while Howell Cobb, as the general 
 commanding the district, issued orders enforcing their 
 impressment. A number amounting to about six hund 
 red was then, in a short period, gathered together, and, 
 under the requisite foremen, soon had the material ready 
 for erection. 
 
 It was determined to construct the prison in the form 
 of a parallelogram, of pickets composed of solid trees, 
 twenty-four feet in length ; these were planted close to 
 gether, in a trench five feet deep, with the earth after 
 ward thrown up around their bases ; the tops of the pick 
 ets were roughly pointed with the axe.* 
 
 Within the limits thus surrounded, no buildings, bar 
 racks, houses, or huts of any kind were built. The cano 
 py of the sky was the only covering. Not a tree was 
 left, nor a bush, to break the sameness or diversify the 
 utter dreariness of this destined and carefully - erected 
 abode for brave and intelligent men. The bare hill-side, 
 void of any encumbrance, lay exposed, awaiting the wea 
 ried tread of the thousands whom the reverses of war 
 
 * At the distance of one hundred and twenty feet, another stockade of 
 the same kind, but only twelve feet high, was erected as a protection for 
 the inner one. The prison proper was fifteen hundred and forty feet long 
 and seven hundred and fifty feet wide, after an addition had been made 
 to it, which will be noticed hereafter. 
 
22 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 * 
 
 would soon hurry upon its unsheltered space. From 
 above, the bright burning sun could look down and 
 scorch every thing its rays reached ; and as it passed in 
 slow and apparently toilsome march up and over that 
 bare red hill, its beams reflected from that barren surface, 
 little, indeed, was left within the blank inclosure that it 
 did not parch, as the cautery of its sheen blazed over the 
 utter emptiness there. 
 
 Withering as these influences would be to those who 
 were to be exposed to them, no executive foresight 
 looked forward to the providing of shelter or protection 
 from the drenching, fever -bearing rains of that region. 
 The laws which regulate civilized warfare, and demand 
 kind attention for those taken in arms which place the 
 safety, life, and comfort of a prisoner of war upon the 
 same broad footing as the honor of the people who hold 
 him, were intentionally and cruelly disregarded. The 
 heats of Georgia s suns, and the influences of its climate, 
 were left to do their work upon those who were bold 
 enough to court their power, and unfortunate enough to 
 be exposed to their influences. 
 
 And so the stockade at Andersonville was considered 
 complete, and ready for the occupation of such as the 
 fate of war should empty into its soulless confines. Its 
 architect and builder, Captain W. S. Winder, of the Con 
 federate Army, satisfied that he had erected a monument 
 of engineering skill, departed for Kichmond. He did not 
 know that he had built an exponent of cruelty, which 
 would stand, for long years after he was gone, an endur 
 ing record of malevolence and barbarity that he left 
 behind him a memorial that would be a shame to the 
 very country in which it was placed ! 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 First Prisoners. Their Reception. Curiosity of the People. Com 
 mandant of Prison. A College of Girls visit the Prison. Episode. 
 
 ON the 15th of February, 1864, the first detachment 
 of Federal prisoners were received at the " Confederate 
 /States Military Prison at Andersonville. 1 1 It was composed 
 of captured soldiers of the New Hampshire, Connecticut, 
 New Jersey, and Michigan regiments of infantry of the 
 United States Army. Among them were men from 
 other states, while some of the nationalities of Europe 
 were more or less represented. Germans, Frenchmen, 
 and Irishmen comprised the larger quota of the foreign 
 element, and were, perhaps, the most numerous as a class. 
 Among them were two Russians, old war men, who had 
 faced the storm of battle in the Crimea, and their bronzed 
 faces looked as if they could face yet other storms, while 
 their stalwart forms endured the pledge their counte 
 nances bore. 
 
 This detachment, numbering in all eight hundred and 
 sixty mei^ had been confined in the prisons of Richmond 
 from the commencement of the war, and were captured 
 at Manassas and Bull Run. Their long sojourn at the 
 seat and centre of military despotism had exhausted all 
 of the money or means that they might once have pos 
 sessed, and their clothing was rags, or patches of shreds ; 
 their shoes, or foot-covering, the impromptu suggestion 
 
24 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 of dire necessity. Few of these men had a coat, fewer 
 still had a blanket ; now and then a torn, ragged, greasy 
 overcoat might be recognized among them emblems of 
 Fortune s fickleness in that tattered crowd. Their faces 
 begrimed with smoke and dirt, their long, wiry, and un 
 combed hair, exhibited, all taken together, a picture of 
 want and filth strange and abhorrent. They betrayed no 
 emotion, however, as, shouldering their packs of wretched 
 remnants, they shuffled down from the cars that whirled 
 them to their future home. The unsubdued composure, 
 the defiant port, and the perfect silence which they dis 
 played, was in marked contrast with the shouts and jeers 
 of the crowds of gaping spectators who saluted their de 
 scent from the train. They showed themselves men, if 
 they were prisoners. 
 
 Shouldering their meagre bundles, and falling into col 
 umn two abreast, they were marched toward the gates, 
 guarded on each flank by portions of a regiment of Ala 
 bama troops, and followed by hundreds whom curiosity 
 led thither to witness their advent. The two Eussians 
 before referred to were the last of the long line. It was 
 a strange sight to see these veterans as they stalked to 
 their prison, and strange thoughts and visions of their 
 far-off land and their various fortunes crowded upon the 
 mind. Whatever these may have been, here tjiey were, 
 representatives of adventure it may be, perhaps willing 
 seekers of a change that would bear unfavorable com 
 parison with the tyranny and hardships of their own 
 country. Yet, under the flag of a Union about to be 
 broken, they had yielded to their fate, and their liberty 
 was exchanged for imprisonment. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 25 
 
 As the column passed through the gates, the veterans 
 halted and looked about, and gazed upon the dreary pros 
 pect before them. One turned to a soldier at his side, 
 and exclaimed, 
 
 "Hillo! what s this?" 
 
 "Your prison," replied the soldier, "and I reckon you ll 
 stay here a while!" 
 
 " Prison !" ejaculated the Muscovite, with scorn ; "in 
 my land they wouldn t put a hog in such a place !" 
 
 " You d better have staid there then," rejoined Con 
 federate ; " what did you come here for?" 
 
 " To teach you how to treat a prisoner of war decent 
 ly," said the Kussian, as he proudly limped by his rude 
 guardian. 
 
 The commandant of the post and prison at this time 
 was Colonel A. W. Persons, formerly of Fort Valley, 
 Georgia, and who was in temporary command of the 
 Alabama regiment then stationed as a guard. The au 
 thority of Colonel Persons, jwaa not .oLlong, .duration^ 
 but, during the continuance of his command, no special 
 complaints were made by the prisoners of cruel treat 
 ment. Ilis orders were mainly directed to the safe keep 
 ing of the prisoners and the supply of their commis 
 sariat. 
 
 He allowed the prisoners to provide themselves with 
 bushes and poles, with which they could erect arbors and 
 shelters against the weather. He permitted squads to go 
 out daily for the purpose of obtaining fuel, which was 
 abundant near the prison ; and it is believed that, as far 
 as his knowledge and experience of the requirements of 
 his position permitted, he expended all the facilities in 
 
 B 
 
26 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 his power to mitigate the condition in -which his prison 
 ers were placed. 
 
 But he did nothing more. He could not provide lum 
 ber to erect shelter and protection for those under his 
 charge, because he did not make such representations in 
 time to head-quarters of the deficiencies and necessities 
 of the post as his station and duty required. He ought 
 to have urged the erection of barracks, however rough, 
 to shield his prisoners from the elements. He did what, 
 in his experience, he conceived to be his duty he careful 
 ly fed and guarded those committed to his care. Their 
 health, their exposure, their sufferings, were not recom 
 mended to his notice in the orders which assigned him 
 to the post, nor did they enter into his understanding of 
 the obligations of a commander of a military prison. 
 Within these limits he regarded his duty as fulfilled. 
 
 The author wishes to be regarded, in the statements 
 which he makes, as impartial and unprejudiced as his 
 sentiments and near residence to the seat of the miseries 
 which he must depict will permit him to be ; and he 
 desires it may be remembered that he is actuated by the 
 same feelings of opposition to the usurping authorities 
 of the South that were well known to control him dur 
 ing the entire rebellion. But he trusts to his sense of 
 what is due to every man, the opportunity of giving his 
 own version of events that he controlled or associated 
 with, that no unjust or partial narration may prejudice 
 the minds of readers, or do injury to his humanity. 
 With this view, and an unswerving intention, which his 
 correspondence will show, he addressed a note to Colonel 
 Persons, asking him to give a statement of his adminis- 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 27 
 
 tration of the post at Andersonville, in order that he 
 might correct or modify the official accounts which the 
 author had at hand. The reply which was received, and 
 a subsequent personal interview, resulted in affording no 
 additional information to what was within the reach of, 
 and officially given to the author. He hoped that calm 
 ness and reflection would have induced a plain and unre 
 strained communication of motives and conduct, that 
 must have added to the character which Colonel Persons 
 enjoyed while in command of the prison. In default of 
 other means of information, the Narrativa will depend, 
 necessarily, upon the evidence at hand. 
 
 The arrival of this detachment of prisoners created un 
 usual excitement in the region of the prison. Daily 
 crowds rushed to the stockade to look through the 
 chinks of the pickets, and gaze on those within. Upon 
 the adjacent hills and eminences multitudes could be 
 seen staring and glowering upon the prisoners, and 
 watching each motion of the unfortunate occupants. 
 Women went there day after day ; forsaking more press 
 ing demands upon their time at home, and bearing their 
 suckling babes upon their bosoms, they might be seen 
 squatting upon the ground and gossiping, in the inter 
 vals relieving the hours with dipping snuff or nursing 
 their offspring, while they knitted socks and gloated over 
 the novel sight, or speculated upon the prospect before 
 them. 
 
 Old men and boys trudged miles to this Mecca of 
 sights to look at the "Yankees," and they loitered and 
 lounged around, while their plows stood idle in the fur 
 rows of their neglected fields, and grass was smothering 
 
28 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 their neglected but needed crops ; or, perchance, their 
 ill-fed and half-starved mules stood patiently near, await 
 ing their return to work and starvation. Negroes of all 
 sexes, ages, and appearance sauntered around and stared, 
 with eyes turned inside out, at the ragged representatives 
 of those who had marched into captivity in order to set 
 them free. They shouted, and cheered, and wrestled 
 with each other as in a holiday, in the exuberance of 
 their glee, just as if they were witnessing the sports in 
 the ring of a circus, and yelled out their choicest bits of 
 wit upon the ; wretched men they insulted. 
 
 Ladies, who made a boast of superior refinement and 
 prided themselves upon their intelligence who had ridi 
 culed the pretensions and fashions of the North, but aft- 
 erward willingly adopted them who deemed all the vir? 
 tue and patriotism of the country centred in some unde 
 fined spot, sought the charmed precincts of Anderson- 
 ville, followed by their menial attendants bearing shawls 
 and baskets, to gloat over the captured prisoners, or to 
 congratulate each other that their virtue was secure, for a 
 time at least, from those ravishing marauders who were 
 safe from their attractions. 
 
 There was a high school college it is called here in 
 the South for girls, that emptied its walls of its inno 
 cent but curious inmates, and in detachments, as the force 
 of circumstances required, some loading the cars upon 
 the railroad, others easily gliding in luxurious carriages, 
 and many lumbering along in such conveyances as could 
 be improvised, accompanied by the president and guard 
 ian professors, hurried in expectant curiosity to the cen 
 tre of attraction. When there, they chattered, flirted, 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 29 
 
 stared, and ate their sandwiches, and took notes of what 
 they saw as themes for their next weekly compositions. 
 
 Amid the throng Cupid came, the arch boy. His 
 quiver was not well filled, for volunteering and impress 
 ment had deprived the traitor of one half of his victims. 
 But his armory was not unsupplied. He shot the com 
 mandant of the post and one whom he destined as his 
 mate, and with a single shaft transfixed the two. The 
 first yielded up his arms; the other simpered, simply 
 courtesied both were captives. 
 
 With others of the crowd of curious visitors, there was 
 one, a young miss of sixteen, somewhat more forward 
 than young ladies of that tender age are supposed to be, 
 well known in the place where she lived for her strong 
 secession proclivities as well as for her fair face. Fre 
 quent pilgrimages to this shrine of loyalty had apparent 
 ly satisfied the curiosity which attracted others, for her 
 attentions seemed to be directed to other objects than 
 those within the prison bounds, and her presence there 
 was evidently a redundant offering of beauty to valor 
 and misfortune. 
 
 One day, when there was more than the usual assem 
 blage of gazers, she was observed mounting the steps 
 which led to a sentinel s platform on the outside of the 
 stockade, followed by a diminutive specimen of female 
 Africanism. The natural black of the attendant s features 
 was placed in vivid contrast with a snowy turban wound 
 around her head, which, together with her big, rolling- 
 white eyes and glittering teeth, brought out the ebony 
 of her complexion to an extraordinary degree. Beckon 
 ing the dusky satellite to her side, and looking over the 
 
30 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 top of the palisades down into the area beneath where 
 the prisoners were congregated, she cried out to the poor 
 fellows within, 
 
 " Look here, Yanks! 
 
 Startled at the fair apparition, they all gazed up at her. 
 
 "Do you see this nig?" she shouted, pointing to her 
 follower. 
 
 "Well, she s your sister; do you know it?" and ex 
 clamations of delight at this unexpected display of deli 
 cacy and wit resounded through the throng of outside 
 admirers as the refined exhibitor slowly descended from 
 her conspicuous perch. 
 
 Thus, for many days after its first occupation, the stock 
 ade was the centre of attraction for the surrounding coun 
 try. Nor did the curiosity of the people ever entirely 
 abate during the time it was inhabited, or did they cease 
 to throng about it to wonder and speculate. 
 
 The prison could now be considered as fairly initiated, 
 and the absolute wants of those first sent there were sup 
 plied in so far as food alone was concerned. But yet no 
 steps were taken to provide quarters or shelter. This 
 neglect upon the part of the rebel authorities, of the offi 
 cer who planned and erected it, and of its present com 
 mandant, can not be excused upon ordinary grounds. 
 The materials for the construction of barracks existed 
 near at hand, in the superabundant timber with which 
 the whole country was supplied. Cabins, or huts of 
 logs, such as answer the necessities and requirements of 
 many of the inhabitants of that country, and which afford 
 ample and comfortable abodes, might have been built 
 easily and expeditiously by the negroes who raised the 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 31 
 
 stockade. But there was no necessity of resorting to this 
 plan even. Mills for sawing timber were numerous in 
 the immediate neighborhood of Andersonville; one was 
 established and at work, propelled by steam, when the 
 site of the prison was determined upon, within sixteen 
 hundred yards ; another, also driven by steam^ and which 
 continued work during the entire war, was located five 
 miles from that place, upon the railroad. There were 
 four other steam saw-mills within twenty miles, also situ 
 ated upon the railroad, whose combined production of 
 lumber has been estimated at over twenty thousand feet 
 per day. 
 
 The facilities for transportation were equal to any at 
 the South, while labor, that of negroes especially, could 
 be obtained without difficulty. Material, such as nails, 
 was already in the possession of the authorities, and 
 nothing but a willingness was wanting to provide such 
 plain but necessary coverings for the prisoners as com 
 mon humanity dictated. 
 
 This was not done then nor at any subsequent period, 
 and the interior of the stockade remained, as it has been 
 already described, a vast open parallelogram, whose in 
 terior was unencumbered save by the unfortunates there 
 incarcerated, and who were destined to remain there, with 
 thousands of others subsequently added, exposed to the 
 burning suns of summer, the drenching rains of autumn, 
 and the cold blasts of winter, unprotected and uncared for. 
 
32 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Feeling of the People. Searches for Money and Watches. Preachers. 
 Popular Huckstering. 
 
 IN a narrative of all of the circumstances and events 
 connected with the treatment and abuse of the prisoners 
 of war confined at this place, it has occurred to the au 
 thor that an exposition of the sentiments of the people 
 who lived in its immediate vicinity would not be mis 
 placed. He is well aware of the tender ground upon 
 which he is about to tread, and anticipates the strictures 
 to which he will be subjected in entering upon this por 
 tion of his subject. It has long been a prevalent princi 
 ple, to which he enters his protest, that individual opinion 
 is sacred from exposure, and exempt from the test of a 
 public examination. This, in the abstract, may be true ; 
 but when that opinion operates directly so as to influence 
 momentous human interests, it is liable to inquiry, and, if 
 detrimental to these interests, it ought to be exposed to 
 censure. 
 
 It is not without reluctance, but still with a stern de 
 termination to do his entire duty, that the author has re 
 solved to record such opinion and sentiment. He will 
 not extenuate them, for that would be contrary to his 
 own sense of propriety ; he cannot exaggerate them, for 
 that would be impossible. It is proper that the world 
 should not forget or overlook the great wrong which has 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 33 
 
 been committed through the direct operation of this same 
 individual opinion, and under the sacred name of liberty. 
 It is right that the crimes which sprung from the prev 
 alence of opinions so bitter should be remembered, 
 traced to their source and pondered, and that its tyranny 
 should be guarded against. This despotism, constantly 
 growing younger as it increases in age, reproduces itself 
 at every epoch, but wears the same impassable, rigid face 
 which it has always worn, and it can not be too critically 
 examined, particularly when it paints its own portrait, 
 and when the secret operation of its influence is confessed 
 by the acts of those whom it has controlled. 
 
 It is evident that the public sentiment of the country 
 in regard to the prisoners at the Andersonville stockade 
 would produce its legitimate effects in the exact measure 
 that it operated upon the minds of the officials who had 
 them under their control, and must have a greater or less 
 influence over their fate. 
 
 It is a well known peculiarity of the human mind that, 
 however strong may be the sense of right, or however 
 powerful the restraint that law may exercise over a man, 
 there is a tendency to set aside both. When the feelings 
 of an entire population agree with those of one holding 
 almost unlimited power, it does not require an extended 
 argument to prove that the preponderance of such an in 
 fluence will be the guide. 
 
 The associations which daily intercourse between the 
 officers of the post and the people of the country engen 
 dered, the interchange of courtesies, and the unrestrained 
 communication of opinions in the streets of towns, in 
 places of business, and the free expressions uttered around 
 
 B2 
 
34 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 the firesides, could not fail to produce their fruits upon 
 the conduct of those officers. 
 
 That Hhe views of the people who resided near the 
 prison were characteristically hostile to all who savored 
 of an inclination for the Union and government of the 
 United States is too patent to demand more than its as 
 sertion. These hostile feelings, however, were carried far 
 beyond the mere fact of condemning those who opposed 
 the war of secession; they were directed with an in 
 tensity which meets no parallel against individual actors. 
 The soldiers who composed the Federal army were the 
 special objects of their animadversion. Not alone did 
 the common people indulge in expressions of hate and 
 vindictiveness toward them, but men of education and 
 intelligence, those occupying high and leading positions, 
 and especially the clergymen and preachers, availed them 
 selves of every opportunity to unleash the Nemesis of 
 their unforgiving rancor. 
 
 The captives were termed invaders, robbers, brigands, 
 highwaymen, and ravishers in their addresses, sermons, 
 and prayers. The people were invoked to cut them off 
 and slay them wherever met with, and they were held up 
 to public detestation and destruction. A Federal soldier 
 was a synonym for every thing that was vile, and heaven 
 might be approached somewhat nearer, in their estima 
 tion, by him who aided in their taking off. 
 
 Humanity exhibited to one of the proscribed class was 
 considered as disloyalty to the government they were 
 striving to erect. 
 
 One preacher of influence in his denomination, and 
 who stood forth as a shining light of religion, proved 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 35 
 
 from the Scriptures that kindness shown to a Union 
 prisoner was treason to God ! With such a state of pub 
 lic opinion, it is not surprising that the officers in com 
 mand at Andersonville should become infected with the 
 moral poison that pervaded the community. And they 
 were, as the event will prove. 
 
 For some time before the occurrences to be detailed 
 transpired, the effect of the opinions adverted to became 
 manifest, and it was not uncommon to hear suggestions 
 that the provisions which the prisoners consumed ought 
 to be saved for the use of the rebel armies ; that shooting 
 every one who attempted his escape and was caught; 
 poisoning those who were prostrated by disease, to rid 
 the Confederacy of their sustenance by food or medicine; 
 hanging those who were mutinous, and thus, after an im 
 proved supplement to the plan of Furioso, "take them 
 off in detail," and so clear the country of their presence. 
 Food of the coarsest character, such as a master would 
 be ashamed to dole out to his slaves, was begrudged 
 them ; not that its supply would detract from what was 
 required for their army, but because it was universally 
 thought that the prisoners were not fit to live. 
 
 Such was the feeling of a large, very large proportion 
 of the inhabitants living in the county and country ad 
 joining the Andersonville stockade. Its practical effects 
 will be noticed in their order in subsequent chapters. 
 
 Meanwhile more prisoners were arriving, as the casual 
 successes of the Confederate arms reaped their harvests. 
 The trains of the Southwestern Eailroad daily poured out 
 their living freight at the depot of war-worn, sick, and 
 wounded soldiers. Buildings for the accommodation of 
 
36 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 the requisite officers of the post were rising up, others for 
 store-houses of provisions and tools began to appear, and 
 the once quiet hamlet, aroused only by the daily whistle 
 of the locomotive as it passed or stopped in its current 
 travel, now quickened into life with the busy stir of the 
 multitudes that met there for trade, duty, or curiosity. 
 Extra trains were arriving, bearing from fresh fields those 
 who had fallen captives to the rebel arms, and were 
 emptied into the hands and turned over to the tender 
 mercies of their new jailers. 
 
 As the guards received them, such valuables as could 
 be found upon them stood but a poor chance from their 
 scrutinizing eyes and prying hands, as they deftly found 
 their way into the prisoners pockets. Greenbacks and 
 watches began to make an appearance where formerly 
 nothing but Confederate money or empty fobs prepon 
 derated ; and that prisoner was indeed fortunate whose 
 sagacity and cunning had contrived a secure hiding-place 
 for either. In this early history of the prison, those well- 
 conducted, nicely-contrived, and perfectly-executed sys 
 tems, which regulated like machinery all of the details 
 of search and appropriation, which were so marked a 
 characteristic of its subsequent management, were not 
 proclaimed. It was reserved for the succeeding com 
 mander to devise those refined peculations, the fruit of 
 which, instead of being generally distributed, was gather 
 ed into the private garners of its projector. Before their 
 advent, and at the period of which we now treat, there 
 was no organized plan to despoil the poor fellows des 
 tined to this prison. Carelessness, or a disregard to his 
 own personal emoluments, had not led Colonel Persons 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 87 
 
 to provide for the spoliation of the men sent to him be 
 fore they were conveyed to their prison. 
 
 The consequence was, that the guard of Confederate 
 soldiers searched for and seized whatever they could find 
 upon the persons of the new-comers, and strange scenes 
 were witnessed as the result of the scrutiny. 
 
 On the 10th day of March three trains of cars arrived 
 full of fresh captives. The platform upon which they 
 were landed, not more than sixty feet long and twenty 
 broad, was crowded. Around this, as guards, were sta 
 tioned one company of infantry ; but the curious specta 
 tor would have searched in vain for the full complement. 
 There were some men with arms at port, who made a 
 show of doing duty ; the rest could be seen intermingled 
 with the prisoners in unusual activity upon the platform. 
 
 From the dress and appearance of the captives, it could 
 be easily surmised that they were either new recruits, 
 or that but a short time had elapsed since they had re 
 ceived their pay and clothing. Their uniforms were but 
 little worn or soiled, their knapsacks were shining and 
 apparently well filled, and their feet were shod in sub 
 stantial shoes. There were three hundred and fifty in 
 all ; they had been captured from the Army of the Ten 
 nessee by Bragg during his forced retreat from Mur- 
 freesboro and across the river; and, although veterans, 
 their semi-annual allowance had been given their division 
 but two days before the engagement that resulted in the 
 loss of their liberty. It was evident that they were old 
 stagers, and had an eye to their own interests, if they 
 were prisoners. 
 
 " I see you there, Reb !" cried one ; " come out of my 
 
38 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 pocket, will you ?" grasping a hand that had obtruded it 
 self into the sacred precincts. " There s nothing there, 
 I ll swear, so come out. J 
 
 "What are you talking of? Ain t in yer pocket," 
 says Eeb. 
 
 " Yes ye are ; now jis give up that watch, will you ?" 
 
 "Hain t got nary watch leastaways none o yourn," 
 he asserted in return, as he pocketed the coveted article. 
 
 "Now, darn you!" vociferated another, "give up my 
 pocket-book ; I felt you when you took it." 
 
 " I didn t," replied the accused ; " it just fell down, so ; 
 and, sides, I hain t seen it," he muttered. " Anyways, 
 you bloody raiders hev no use er sich things here." 
 
 " If I had you the other side of Tennessee, I d show 
 you how to steal a fellow s money," rejoined the prisoner. 
 
 " Don t tell me I stole," said Confed ; " twon t be good 
 for you." 
 
 " Well, you did," replied the soldier ; " and that ain t 
 all you re so used to it down here in Dixie you don t 
 know when you do steal." But the anathema and charge 
 produced no effect, and the porte - monnaie and its con 
 tents changed hands. 
 
 " Give me back my shoes, there !" shouted a poor fel 
 low, who, seated upon the edge of the platform, was en 
 gaged in solacing his travel-worn feet, aggravated by a 
 pair of new shoes which he had received but a short time 
 before his capture, and which he had deposited tempo 
 rarily at his side. 
 
 " Give back them shoes!" he vociferated, as the depre 
 dator was wending his way out of the throng with his 
 booty under his arms. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 39 
 
 "Who s got this man s shoes?" exclaimed another. 
 
 "Yes, who s got em, I say !" shouted a third. 
 
 " Here s a pair of old uns I ll give for em !" cried one. 
 
 "I ll give one hundred dollars for those shoes," echoed 
 another, "in a horn!" 
 
 " I d like to see him find em again !" said a barefooted 
 guard, who doubtless envied the possessor of the valua 
 ble articles. 
 
 "Yes, that s just the way of you darned fools of Rebs," 
 said the despoiled one, solacing himself with his objurga 
 tion ; "you haven t seen sole-leather for so long you d 
 take it off a dead nigger s foot, I ll be bound." 
 
 " Now shut up, Yank ! none of your gas here," replied 
 one of his guardians. 
 
 "Of course not," rejoined the undismayed fellow; 
 "you ve got so much of that last article down South 
 here, you don t want any more brought in for fear of 
 spiling the trade !" 
 
 "I say, Yank I" hailed one of the guard, "two coats 
 is one more than the law allows; anyhow, it s one too 
 many for you. Loan me that ere big un for a day or 
 so?" 
 
 " Nary loan, Reb," returned he of the overcoat. 
 
 "Well, I ll tell you what, I ll just take care of it for 
 you till you want it again. You see, there s a set of 
 darned thieves up in the stockade yonder, and you ll lose 
 it sure." 
 
 "I reckon I ll keep it," said the prejudiced owner. 
 
 "No you don t," replied his banterer; and, so saying, 
 he seized upon the coveted article, and it disappeared 
 from its proprietor s sight forever. 
 
40 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Not often, however, did the greedy Confederates tarry 
 to ask for any article they wanted, or use even the sem 
 blance of a word in order to possess themselves of the 
 property of the prisoners ; and so they were deprived of 
 their money, watches, and clothing before they had fairly 
 entered upon the trials before them, either by systematic 
 pilfering or more open robbery. There could be no 
 doubt entertained of the liberality of the United States 
 government toward its soldiers in its supplies of clothes 
 and blankets, if the persons of Confederate soldiers and 
 citizens were any evidence, for the national blue of the 
 Union army was the prevailing color for negroes and se 
 cessionists every where in the neighborhood of Ander- 
 sonville. If a stranger had been suddenly thrown into 
 the midst of this people, and had tried to form an opinion 
 of the prevalence of loyal sentiment from the preponder 
 ating hue in dress, the positions of the belligerents would 
 unquestionably have been reversed, so completely had 
 the two parties changed, in so far as habiliments could 
 change them. The price in Confederate currency for a 
 pair of pantaloons, such as was provided for the Federal 
 soldiers, would have purchased an entire suit of the best 
 broadcloth before the war, and yet they were as common 
 in the country as the indigenous productions of sheep s- 
 gray or butternut jeans. This deprivation of their cloth 
 ing was a most serious loss to the prisoners in other ways 
 than through the discomfort produced, and, as the sequel 
 will show, this was no small privation. The scarcity of 
 materials in the Confederacy from which clothes could 
 be made, the high prices demanded in the worthless, dis 
 honored currency of the country, placed the means of 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 41 
 
 supplying necessities beyond the reach of most every one, 
 except those known as speculators or fire-eaters, for the 
 terms are convertible. 
 
 If the prisoners had been allowed to retain such sur 
 plus as they could conveniently spare, it would have 
 given them the means of obtaining such necessaries and 
 supplies as the greed of gain induced the people of the 
 country to sell or barter, for every day crowds of such 
 huckstering spirits might be seen with barrels and bas 
 kets of vegetables, meat, and poultry, thronging around 
 the stockade and seeking opportunities to trade. Wom 
 en, who ranked at home as ladies, and whose daintiness 
 compelled the use of a carriage to transport them ten rods 
 to a meeting-house, deprived themselves and families of 
 flour, sugar, and molasses, to make up for sale cakes and 
 pies for the Andersonville market. Their gardens were 
 stripped of their produce to supply their stock in trade, 
 and their household interests were suffered to go by de 
 fault that their servants might be sent with their contri 
 butions to this emporium. N~or did their profits disap 
 point their expectations. The troops on duty as guards 
 to the prisoners caught the spirit of speculation, and be 
 came ready purchasers, to sell again to the captives, or 
 to exchange with them for their rags and soleless shoes. 
 Thus a brisk market was opened for the mercenary trad 
 ers of the neighborhood, who only aped the example set 
 them by more expanded capitalists, and so another class 
 was added to the hungry swarm of money -loving patri 
 ots who were engaged in dissolving the Union. 
 
 It must not be inferred from a preceding remark that 
 the scarcity in clothing material extended to the States or 
 
42 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 to the Confederate government. Both of these, through 
 agents abroad, had procured and were purchasing large 
 amounts of cloth and shoes. Add to this the uncon 
 trolled resources of the government in fabricating money, _ 
 or what passed for money, the unrestrained enforcement 
 of laws for impressing, seizing, or pretended purchasing 
 granted to its agents at home, to its commissaries and 
 quarter-masters, of which every town contained enough 
 to form a company of infantry, afforded the government 
 all the supplies that it required. When this unscrupu 
 lous purchaser came into the market with his inexhausti 
 ble means and unsatisfied wants, the price of all com 
 modities rose beyond the reach of most persons, and put 
 their purchase out of their power. 
 
 To this cause was it principally owing that such great 
 anxiety was manifested by the people in obtaining the 
 clothes of the Federal soldiers for their own use; nbt that 
 the national color tallied so well with their loyalty, but 
 that the coats and pantaloons of the prisoners enabled 
 them to present a somewhat decent appearance in public. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 43 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 Change of Administration. Appointment of Winder. His Antecedents. 
 Fitness for the Place. His Staff. Son. Nephew. 
 
 TOWARD the end of the month of March, 1864, it was 
 rumored that a change in the command of the post at 
 Andersonville was to be made, and the name of John II. 
 Winder, a brigadier general in the Confederate army, was 
 associated with the report. 
 
 As over some bright plain, when the sun is passing 
 downward in his western course, the shadow of a mount 
 ain is visibly projected the precursor of its antitype, 
 which holds darkness and desolation in its hand so be 
 fore his actual advent the shadow of his influence was 
 cast from the extreme limits of the Confederacy, a spectre 
 menacing a sterner rule and a fiercer despotism, and more 
 undreamed of death than any which mere physical agen 
 cies could ever compass. 
 
 His coming was heralded to the Southwest by the 
 "Richmond Examiner" in these words: 
 
 "THANK GOD THAT RICHMOND is AT LAST RID OF 
 OLD WINDER ! GOD HAVE MERCY UPON THOSE TO 
 WHOM HE HAS BEEN SENT!" 
 
 With such a harbinger from the last theatre of his 
 service, it did not require a great amount of foresight to 
 appreciate the full value of the acquisition. He made 
 his appearance on the 10th day of April as commander 
 
M ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 of the post at Anderson ville, and of the county of Sum- 
 ter, in which it was situated. 
 
 The change thus effected was due to several causes, not 
 the least notorious of which was the fact that Winder had 
 made himself so obnoxious at Kichmond, where, in his 
 capacity of provost marshal and Superintendent of Mili 
 tary Prisons, he had transgressed and trampled down 
 every law, usurped all the authority of his office, and 
 violated every principle of official decorum. 
 
 For these acts he was repeatedly complained of and 
 reported to the Secretary of War. But he was the per 
 sonal friend and willing tool of Jefferson Davis, by whom 
 he had been appointed to office and commissioned, and 
 a pliant servant, whose constant access to his master s 
 presence permitted him to drop his crafty insinuations 
 like pebbles into his restless soul, and heap up the wa 
 ters of bitterness to their overflow ; so he held over his 
 protege his protecting hand. He was too valuable an 
 auxiliary to be dispensed with for venial offenses only, 
 and his services could not remain entirely unemployed. 
 
 Another and more potent reason for giving him the 
 appointment was, that Winder s own solicitations effected 
 what sheer necessity would have required. He sought a 
 sphere of action where, unrestrained by official inquisi- 
 tiveness or supervision, he could indulge his rapacity in 
 reaping such pecuniary harvests as a position like this 
 would afford him. 
 
 He had left his native state of Maryland, and sought 
 to better a fortune which was always bad by mixing him 
 self with the excitement that the rebellion had occasion 
 ed. Never possessing either means or position at home, 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 45 
 
 he thought to secure both by linking his fate with trea 
 son. A field so promising in its yield, and so removed 
 from officious interference as Andersonville, did not es 
 cape his avaricious eye, and the place was bestowed 
 upon him. 
 
 An examination of records shows that his early edu 
 cation was not deficient in these acquirements, which go 
 very far to aid in throwing off the restraint which law 
 and a respect for its behests demand. In the year 1818, 
 John II. Winder was a cadet of the United States Milita 
 ry Academy at West Point, and while there was engaged 
 in a meeting and joining in a combination against his 
 superior officers. He was then barely twenty-one years 
 of age, and nothing but the extreme construction ap 
 plied to his offense by John C. Calhoun, then Secretary 
 of War, saved him from the punishment due to such 
 misdeeds. 
 
 Thus early did he display that disregard of necessary 
 authority which became so marked a characteristic of 
 his subsequent and notorious career. The curious in 
 such matters will find all of the details of the case above 
 referred to in "Documents, Legislative and Executive, 
 Class V., Military Affairs, vol. ii.," published by the au 
 thority of Congress. Contemporary accounts assign to 
 him a conspicuous position in the memorable riots at 
 Baltimore, in which the same disposition to override law 
 and trample upon human rights was pre-eminently mani 
 fest under the title of a " Plug-Ugly." Such seed, plant 
 ed and nourished in boyhood, growing up into prolific 
 bearing in middle age, bore its expectant fruit at seventy 
 years of his life, at Andersonville, in 1864 ; for future his- 
 
46 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 tory must identify him with the whole infamous machin 
 ery of persecution, starvation, and death, which he either 
 originated there, or made warmly his own. 
 
 That the power which appointed him to office must, 
 from the very nature of things, have been advised of the 
 antecedents of the man, can not be denied. The well- 
 known scrutiny which Jefferson Davis exercised in all 
 of his selections the fact that Winder received his com 
 mission as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army 
 at an early period of the war ; that he never was intrust 
 ed with a command in the field at any time during the 
 rebellion ; the extreme difficulty of obtaining high ap 
 pointments from the President, all go to demonstrate the 
 fact that he was supplied with rank, without a command, 
 from his peculiar fitness for the work to be required of 
 him. It is well known that he did not disappoint his 
 master in the execution of the duties assigned to him, 
 and it is doubtful if, within the limits of the so-called 
 Confederacy, another man could be found so well fitted 
 for the performance of the mission to which he was des 
 tined. 
 
 With an exterior and countenance repulsive by super 
 annuation, and unsoftened by that suavity or courtesy 
 of manner that marks the comity of a gentleman ; with 
 a roughness of demeanor and a rudeness of speech that 
 bespoke the bear instead of the officer, his presence shed 
 around him an air of ungracious churlishness, that re 
 pelled the intimacy which his position ought to have in 
 vited. Unpolished and uncivil in his manners, his speech 
 was, if possible, more ill bred. The vocabulary of invec 
 tive might have been searched in vain for a novelty in 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 47 
 
 imprecation which was not familiar to his lips ; and, as 
 the oaths rolled from his tongue in the most ordinary 
 conversation, a listener could well be excused for the 
 manifestation of astonishment at the fertility of the gen 
 eral s language, and the varied plenitude of his maledic 
 tions. 
 
 This is no overdrawn picture of Winder ; and if the 
 shadows arc dark, and the oscuro of his character is un 
 relieved by a single line of light, to him, not to his paint 
 er s charge, be laid the defect. And yet this person, so 
 marked amid thousands, and so characterized by the spe 
 cial traits that shone around him, was courted and idol 
 ized by the men and women of the country most conspic 
 uous for their secession proclivities and their hate of the 
 Union. To such a degree was this hero-worship carried, 
 that the sacredness of a high office in the Church was 
 polluted by electing him to its functions. 
 
 In the choice for wardens and vestrymen of a newly- 
 organized congregation at Americus, the priest, w r ho con 
 trolled the election, forced him upon the members as one 
 of the wardens, observing from the altar that he had 
 seen him partake of the Holy Eucharist in an Episcopal 
 church at Eichmond. 
 
 The author of this successful attempt to link an emis 
 sary of evil with a holy cause Staley is his name has 
 lived long enough to see his efforts crowned with entire 
 triumph ; for by this act he blasted the prospects of a 
 rising congregation by thus forcing a reprobate into their 
 vestry. 
 
 I have been thus particular in the exposition of this 
 man s attributes, for to him will be traced all of the hor- 
 
48 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 rors that this Narrative will recite. It has been consid 
 ered necessary that those who favor this work with a 
 perusal may learn who the agent was, and who was the 
 principal in the nefarious outrages that will always mark 
 this spot as one excepted in all the annals of human 
 atrocity, pre-eminently superior for its unmitigated cruel 
 ty and the deaths that resulted, and for the woes endured 
 by the tens of thousands of brave men who suffered un 
 der the devilish grasp of this arch-fiend of prisons, John 
 H. Winder. 
 
 With him came his son, W. S. Winder, who was in 
 stalled as adjutant of the post; his nephew, Eichard B. 
 Winder, the quarter - master and commissary ; HENRY 
 WlRZ, " Superintendent of the Confederate States Military 
 Prison at Andersonvilk" the future jailer and executioner 
 of his orders in regard to the prisoners ; Dr. White, as 
 surgeon-in-chief, and who afterward had the management 
 of the hospitals ; James W. Duncan, of New Orleans, and 
 W. J. Humes, of Baltimore, who were selected as the ex 
 aminers of boxes, clothing, and pockets of the prisoners 
 as they arrived, together with three police detectives, 
 taken from the Richmond experts, to spy out and report 
 to him the utterances and shortcomings of the people of 
 the country. The services of these latter were in con 
 stant requisition, and they proved efficient aids. 
 
 As adjutant of the post, his son, or Sid Winder, as ho 
 was generally called, had charge of the execution of the 
 details and military orders which applied to the troops 
 on duty there as guards to the prisoners, keeping the rec 
 ords of the post, and the performance of such other duties 
 as is required by military usage and discipline. In ad- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 49 
 
 dition to this, the provost marshal was under his orders, 
 and received his instructions from him. This officer, 
 whose name was Eeid, a lieutenant in the army, a youth 
 of about twenty- two years of age, and a supple tool in 
 the hands of his superiors, may be mentioned and drop 
 ped here at the same time, as undeserving even such a 
 notice as his compeers must receive. 
 
 The adjutant was the second man in authority, because 
 his relationship with the commandant secured him an in 
 fluence which his position and rank could not have given 
 him ; he was the mouthpiece, legally as well as naturally, 
 of his father. Sid "Winder, who established and super 
 vised the erection of the prison in 1863, was about thirty- 
 five years of age, rather below the ordinary size in stat 
 ure, of no prepossessing appearance, and in many charac 
 teristics resembling his sire. 
 
 Eichard B. Winder, as quarter-master and commissary, 
 held the next important position of any other, in so far 
 as the opportunities for gain were offered. Through his 
 hands all of the supplies passed, the clothing for troops 
 and the money ; with him was the selection and appoint 
 ment of the sutlers of the post indeed, the charge of 
 every thing that related to the provisions of the troops 
 stationed there and the prisoners. To him, therefore, 
 must we look for those deficiencies in food which will be 
 hereafter shown to have been one of the chief causes of 
 suffering and death among the unfortunate men confined 
 there. 
 
 It vjas notorious that he shared a partnership with the 
 sutler of the post and the sutler of the prison, and divided 
 with them the proceeds of their gains. He fixed the 
 
 C 
 
50 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 prices of all produce, such as butter, eggs, meat, poultry, 
 vegetables, every thing that the people of the country 
 brought there to sell. He did more he allowed no one 
 to purchase what was thus offered until his sutlers had 
 obtained all that they required ; this was, most generally, 
 all that was brought to be sold. He did not fix prices 
 that should be charged upon these articles by the sutlers ; 
 that was left to their discretion, to the demand and sup 
 ply, and to the value of Confederate money at the time. 
 Butter, for instance, could not be charged more than twen 
 ty-five cents per pound, Confederate currency, by the 
 market-women who brought it there ; it was sold by the 
 sutlers at one dollar and a half. 
 
 The yield from this harvest was greatest within the 
 stockade. There the first requirement was for greenbacks, 
 provided the poor prisoners pockets had escaped exam 
 ination and robbery before they passed within the gates. 
 The same article of butter, for which his partners paid 
 twenty-five cents in Confederate money, was sold to a 
 prisoner for one dollar in greenbacks. At this time the 
 difference in value was as twenty to one ; so, what cost 
 twenty-five cents in worthless paper, was sold for twenty 
 times as much in United States currency to starving pris 
 oners of war. Collards as they are called in Georgia 
 colewort, a species of cabbage not maturing to a head, a 
 coarse kind of greens in general use at the South, were 
 put down in Quarter-master Winder s tariff at ten cents 
 per bunch of three stalks ; inside the prison fifty cents in 
 Federal money was demanded, or one dollar and a half 
 in the currency of the country. It does not require great 
 financial astuteness to estimate the profits upon such trans- 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 51 
 
 actions. All kinds of produce raised in the country was 
 thus estimated and sold. 
 
 At this period there was a law passed by the Confed 
 erate Congress prohibiting, under heavy penalties, the 
 sale, purchase, or traffic in United States money, or na 
 tional currency, " except in cases specially authorized by the 
 President} 1 It was made a test of loyalty to buy or sell, 
 and it was denounced as treason against the government, 
 to be punished by severe penalties ; yet into the hands 
 of E. B. Winder & Co. flowed thousands of this traitorous, 
 money, and, being ostracized by law and so rendered 
 worthless, their losses must necessarily have been great. 
 But the reader need not prepare his sympathies for this 
 patriotic firm he need not commence an estimate and 
 foot up the ruin that a loyal quarter-master must have 
 suffered from such transactions! He and his partners 
 had a very simple scheme by which to save themselves 
 from bankruptcy, and his incorruptible uncle, the gen 
 eral, from shame at the result of their financiering. They 
 sold the odious greenbacks to those who knew their value 
 for what their market price demanded, and by these two 
 operations cleared about one thousand per cent, upon 
 their labors. 
 
 If any unfortunate purchaser of the prohibited curren 
 cy was suspected of using it for remittance to the North, 
 to pay his debts contracted before the war, the same men 
 who had sold him the funds, and who had received their 
 pay for them, would enter a complaint in form before a 
 justice of the Superior Court of the county, who resided 
 conveniently near the post, and the unlucky operator was 
 arrested under the law, torn from his family, and turned 
 
52 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 over to the tender mercies of the provost marshal, and 
 by him imprisoned until the importunities, the security, 
 or the money of friends could release him from his con 
 finement. 
 
 Cases like this were of daily occurrence ; and if the 
 business became dull, the detectives that General Winder 
 brought out with him were set to work, and some igno 
 rant subject was inveigled into the snare which was art 
 fully contrived for him, and, while engaged in a bargain 
 for the denounced money, would be arrested and marched 
 off for punishment, by being mulcted in black mail, or 
 confinement until the next grand jury of the county met 
 to investigate his case, and probably indict him. If he 
 proved to be made of pliable stuff, and sought to escape 
 farther annoyance, he compromised the matter with W. 
 S. "Winder, the adjutant, by paying him a round sum, be 
 sides forfeiting into his lenient hands the greenbacks 
 which he had obtained from his cousin ; but if the ac 
 cused was obstinate, he was at once arrested by a warrant 
 granted by the convenient justice above referred to, and, 
 under heavy bonds, awaited the issue of his trial. 
 
 The records of the court of Sumter County yet exhibit 
 numerous indictments which were found for violating 
 this law of the Confederacy, when the defendants had 
 proved too contumacious for the manipulations of the ad- 
 jutant. 
 
 One case may be cited as an instance and proof of all 
 others. An Israelite, not entirely " without guile" on the 
 question of good money, was approached by one of these 
 detective harpies of General Winder s, and induced to go 
 up to Andersonville, where the victim was told in great 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 53 
 
 confidence that he could purchase any quantity of the 
 coveted greenbacks from the sutler. Arrived there, they 
 entered the store, the door was closed and locked, and 
 the transaction began. Twenty-five for one was asked 
 and given ; the national currency safely deposited in the 
 purchaser s pocket, the loyal money placed in the sutler s 
 till. Just at this critical moment a signal cough was 
 given, a body was projected through an open window, 
 the Jew was in the grasp of a detective, and was marched 
 off to the provost marshal s, and by him sent to the guard 
 house. For three days the prisoner suffered durance, 
 when he at last succeeded in gaining an interview with 
 Adjutant Winder. The result of the conference was 
 that he gained his liberty, but he paid into that officer s 
 hands the three thousand dollars of disloyal money which 
 he had purchased from E. B. Winder s sutler, with two 
 thousand five hundred dollars of Confederate currency in 
 addition, and then went his way to his home, a poorer 
 but certainly a wiser man. He had been taught a lesson 
 in cent, per cent, by a Gentile which excited his wonder, 
 if it did not arouse his envy at the skill displayed. That 
 this and similar transactions were "specially authorized by 
 the President" the author is not informed. 
 
 The stern integrity of General Winder was carried to 
 such an extent that any person who fell under his sus 
 picions as dealing in the contraband currency w r as ex 
 posed to the whole fury of his amiable wrath. One gen 
 tleman of high social position at Americus, esteemed for 
 his moral worth and business character, but who labored 
 under the misfortune of having been born north of Ma 
 son and Dixon s line, although he had resided for many 
 
54 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 years at the South, visited the stockade one day to satis 
 fy himself of the reports in relation to the treatment of 
 the prisoners. He was met by the general with an ex 
 pressive objurgation and query of what he was doing 
 there. The gentleman mildly replied, and told him his 
 reasons for visiting the place mildness of manner and 
 the extremest courtesy of speech was a characteristic 
 with him. He was informed, with a battery of oaths, 
 that he was not only a d d Yankee, but that he was 
 suspected of dealing in greenbacks ; that he had better 
 look out; and, with an oath that fairly made his hair 
 stand on end, was ordered to depart the charmed pre 
 cincts. 
 
 These details are considered necessary, as having an 
 important bearing upon, and connection with, this Nar 
 rative of the Andersonville Prison. They show the out 
 er life and practices of those assigned to duty there as 
 important officers and high in the confidence of the Con 
 federate authorities, and they are regarded as links in 
 the chain which bound, and ground, and cankered the 
 life and flesh of those incarcerated there. It is supposed 
 that a better insight into the characters of those intrusted 
 with such great interests will be thus given than by mere 
 statements. They are parts and parcels of the stupen 
 dous fraud and wrong which culminates in the person 
 of the jailer of the prison, HENRY WIRZ. 
 
AXDERSONVILLE. 55 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Wirz the Jailer. His early History. Residence in America. His Char 
 acter. Duties as Jailer. New Orders. The Dead Line. Stringent 
 Regulations. 
 
 THIS individual, since become so fearfully notorious as 
 one of the principals who dealt out with an unsparing 
 hand all of the horrors of disease, pollution, and death to 
 captives of war, was a native of Switzerland. lie was 
 born at Zurich in the year 1822, and emigrated to Amer 
 ica in 18-i9. When he landed in the United States to 
 seek a home among its citizens and protection under its 
 laws, he was unable to speak a word of our language, but, 
 having some knowledge of woolen manufactures, he ob 
 tained employment in a shawl factory in Lawrence, Mas 
 sachusetts. Here he remained for some years, when he 
 emigrated to Louisville, Kentucky, and became a clerk or 
 attendant to a homoeopathic physician, where he acquired 
 the information upon which he subsequently practiced. 
 From Kentucky he removed to Louisiana, and com 
 menced his career as a physician, offering his service^Ad. 
 the plantations of the section where he located. there 
 
 "When the war broke out he became a violent pare at- 
 of the rebel cause, and first turned up as a clerk of t^e. 
 Libby Prison at Richmond. Here his acquaintance with 
 John H. Winder first began, and through him he obtain 
 ed his commission as captain, and was placed on his staff 
 
56 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 as assistant adjutant general. As a deputy provost mar 
 shal, he was sent on an inspecting tour in the year 1862- 
 3 of the prisons and prisoners throughout the South. In 
 the summer of the latter year he was deputed by Jeffer 
 son Davis, at the instigation of Winder, to carry secret 
 .dispatches to the rebel commissioners, Mason in England, 
 and Slidell in France, and to the financial agents of the 
 Confederate government in Europe. He returned in Jan 
 uary, 1864, and soon after, in the train of his benefactor 
 Winder, he came to Andersonville with him, and was 
 placed in immediate charge of the prisoners there con 
 fined as "Superintendent of the Confederate States Mili 
 tary Prison at Andersonville." 
 
 The appearance and physiognomy of Wirz was neither 
 attractive or interesting save by its repulsiveness. In 
 height he was five feet eight inches, with a slender weaz 
 ened form, stooping shoulders, and emasculated gait. His 
 features were pinched and disagreeable, rendered more 
 unpleasing by a light gray eye, surmounted by a heavy 
 protruding brow, restless, unfixed, and incapable of a 
 rnanly, self-sustained look at the person with whom he 
 happened at the time to be conversing. His low, retreat 
 ing forehead, with head of small size, displayed a greater 
 amount of animal than intellectual nature, and was a fit- 
 
 ** apex to one destined hereafter to become so noto- 
 ofth 
 
 > Wirz, as superintendent, was committed the entire 
 _targe of the stockade and its inmates. His reports, 
 whenever they were made, were always to General Win 
 der, without passing through the hands or office of the 
 adjutant, while his orders were sent direct to him, with- 
 
ANDERSONV1LLE. 57 
 
 out the interposition of any other officer. Between Gen 
 eral Winder and Wirz there was always the most cordial 
 understanding ; and while there were bickerings and re 
 proaches that marked the intercourse of the commanding 
 officer and his son, the adjutant, a contrast was exhibited 
 in the steady, unruffled flow of official relations between 
 these two. 
 
 His assumption of duty was marked by a radical change 
 in the guarding, feeding, and treatment of the prisoners 
 under his charge, and a corresponding change for the 
 worse in their condition. Worse, for there was a degree 
 in human suffering and human misery yet lower than 
 they had reached that his keen appreciation had marked 
 out for them. 
 
 To the reader, sitting, it may be, surrounded by the 
 comforts and conveniences of civilized life, the idea of 
 grades in human wretchedness, where it was already re 
 duced to a grossness that was merged into bestial, is not 
 probably intelligible. When told that men bred to the 
 comprehension and enjoyment of the same comforts as 
 themselves, and who had proved their manhood amid the 
 roar and carnage of battle-fields, were penned up within 
 an open inclosure, exposed to the varying elements, with 
 out shelter, save such as burrows and holes in the ground 
 could afford, and with filthy, noisome water to drink, and 
 insufficient food to eat, it may not be conceived that there 
 was a lower degree still of human misery yet to be at 
 tained that the lowest had not been reached in the scale. 
 Such must not be surprised to learn that there were 
 within the means of Wirz a compass so immeasurably 
 below their conceptions that the index on the scale of 
 
 C2 
 
58 ANDEESONVILLE. 
 
 comfortless torture could vibrate without a check while 
 the fertile brain of the new jailer could invent plans to 
 chafe the suffering or madden the disconsolate wretches 
 there. 
 
 The first invention of his genius was the erection of 
 the dead line. Before his advent, the prisoners had been 
 permitted access tojthe sides of the stockade to converse 
 with those visitors whom curiosity or business brought 
 to the outside. In order to prevent this practice, posts 
 three feet high were planted ten feet apart, and thirty feet 
 within and from the stockade, upon which was pinned 
 a railing extending all around the inclosure. Notifica 
 tion was given the prisoners by Wirz_himself that no 
 one should pass beyond this barrier under pain of in 
 stantaneous death to him who should transgress. The 
 sentinels upon the exterior platform were imperatively 
 ordered, each time the relief was placed on duty, to be 
 vigilant in detecting and shooting, without warning, the 
 unlucky violator of this line of life and death. It was 
 not necessary to call forth the murderous bullet that the 
 entire person should be exposed or beyond the assigned 
 limits. The protrusion of an arm to dip up water from 
 Borne spot more undefiled than another, the reaching un 
 der to snatch a worthless rag which a breeze had borne 
 beyond the reach of its proprietor, or the half-exposed 
 body of a prisoner whom a struggle with his mates had 
 forced out of the prescribed limits, were enough to secure 
 the shot of the sentinel and the death of the transgressor. 
 
 With grim cunning, he had so placed the railing that 
 a portion of it crossed or intruded upon the little stream 
 which entered from one side and furnished water for the 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 59 
 
 prisoners. And this point was where the water was 
 deeper and purer than at any other part of its course, 
 and necessarily more inviting to the thirsty palates who 
 hankered for it. To reach this water the dead line must 
 be obtruded on to do this was death. 
 
 In the almost torrid heats of a Southern summer, with 
 a sun pouring down his burning rays that literally blis 
 tered the skin exposed to them, with a foul and putrid 
 stream of water to supply the demands of a thirst that 
 could not be assuaged, but almost maddened the martyr 
 to its torments, there was reserved one spot less noisome 
 than any other, and whose tempting waters beckoned to 
 their enjoyment. But the malignity of Wirz had inter 
 dicted that spot by death ! The sufferings of Tantalus 
 were real enjoyments compared with what these prison 
 ers endured, for he was cooled by the flowing tide even 
 to his throat, but they burned to their vdtals with con 
 suming thirst, and their parched bodies were uncomfort- 
 ed by even a dip into the coveted element. 
 
 At this fated spot the ghosts of many poor fellows went 
 shrieking their death-gasp away over those filthy waters 
 as their emaciated forms sought a temporary refreshment 
 nearer to their source. 
 
 The illustration conveys but a meagre idea of the 
 temptation offered, or of the heartless penalty affixed for 
 him who should risk its acceptance. 
 
 It is the proper place here to state that all of the dis 
 positions made for the guarding and safe-keeping of the 
 prisoners, the amount and kind of rations issued to them 
 every thing, indeed, which concerned those within the 
 stockade, emanated from Henry Wirz, who was responsi- 
 
60 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 ble to his superior officer for them. The reader is re 
 quested to bear this in rnind. Winder was chief of the 
 post of Andersonville. To his subordinates was allotted 
 their respective duties, under the general instructions al 
 ways issued and usually understood by military men. 
 To the subordinates of this post the same orders were 
 given, and it was understood that they would not be held 
 responsible for any dereliction, provided only that they 
 kept themselves within a liberal construction of very in 
 definite rules, but, above all, that they "looked upon the 
 Yankees like so many d d Wahoes."* 
 
 But -to Wirz special orders were given, and posted in 
 writing at the gates of the prison and at the office of the 
 provost marshal. They are as follows: 
 
 
 " Orders No. 9.- 
 
 Head-quarters, Confederate Military Prison, ") 
 
 Andersonville, April 12, 1864. 
 
 " Captain Henry Wirz is assigned to the superintend 
 ence and management of the prisoners at this post, and 
 will take charge of their custody. 
 
 " Supplies for their maintenance will be issued only 
 upon his requisition and under his orders. Passes to 
 visit the stockade will be granted by him alone, and all 
 arrangements connected with its interior will be control 
 led by him. 
 
 "Captain Wirz will report directly to these head-quar 
 ters. By order of 
 
 " JOHN H. WINDER, Brigadier General. 
 
 " W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant General." 
 
 * Winder s verbal orders to Wirz, April 15. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 61 
 
 From this it will be seen that the entire control of the 
 prisoners was devolved upon Wirz, reporting only and 
 directly to the general in command. It may be asked 
 by those more conversant with military affairs than the 
 author pretends to be, why such unlimited powers were 
 granted to one man by him who was appointed to the 
 duty by his superiors. The question can be answered 
 but by assigning as a reason the results that flowed from 
 thus transferring authority. It may be that age, which 
 was telling with unmistakable marks upon the form of 
 the superior, was willing to delegate cruelty and murder 
 to a ripe maturity which could compass both ; or, per 
 haps, the cunning that a nearer view of his grave in 
 duced wished to shift a responsibility he was unable to 
 bear. It may be that ulterior views of profit in the ad 
 ministration of his cdmmandery led him to think that 
 his time would ^ required in looking after his personal 
 interests, and in hoarding the rich harvests which son 
 and nephew would reap from such a well-cultivated field. 
 
 Whatever the intention may have been, it is certain 
 that one portion of his power was delegated, and his 
 mind was freed from the care which its duties involved, 
 and left to riot in such forms as he chose to assume. 
 
 In any event, the management and control the life 
 and death of the Federal prisoners at Andersonville were 
 committed to their superintendent and manager, Henry 
 "Wirz, who acquitted himself of his delicate charge as be 
 came the new instances that have been given, and which 
 marked his iron reign. It is not out of place to say here 
 that Wirz often asserted, during his supremacy, that he 
 alone was responsible for the management of the prison- 
 
62 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 ers, and if any blame attached he was willing to bear 
 the brunt of it. 
 
 He did bear the brunt, alas ! but in a different form 
 from what, in his assumed safety, he had boasted. His 
 ghost and the spirit of his general have doubtless com 
 mingled ere now in other spheres, and it is not unfair to 
 suppose that, if disembodied essences can feel the poign 
 ancy that tortures a mortal, repentant tears have been 
 shed by the twain enough to wash from their souls the 
 blood of more than ten thousand starving victims. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 63 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Increase of Prisoners. Their Condition. The Hospitals. Precautions 
 for Guarding. Winder s Disposition of Artillery to rake the Stockade. 
 Stoneman s Raiders. Their Robbery and Destitution. 
 
 THE month of May has now arrived a month which 
 in this latitude is especially trying upon those who are 
 unaccustomed to its peculiarly enervating influences, and 
 where the mean of the thermometer is 80 in the shade. 
 The eastern winds come laden with their burden of lan 
 guor, relaxing the energies, debilitating the strength, and 
 blunting the edge of effort even to those accustomed to 
 their effects. The sun, gathering renewed power after his 
 hibernal impotence, pours down his rays, and forces into 
 premature being the buried seeds of life and death. The 
 germs of disease, which have lurked unregarded, perhaps 
 unsuspected in the human system, are quickened into a 
 fatal growth, and in this season of almost spontaneous de 
 velopment they sprout with a rapidity unknown in high 
 er latitudes. 
 
 The prisoners felt the sickening influences, and, yield 
 ing to their empire, drooping under their grasp, they be 
 gan to surrender and die. And now, for the first time 
 since the organization of the prison, a hospital was organ 
 ized. This term is used, in the absence of any other, to 
 designate a receptacle for the sick and diseased who could 
 neither stand up nor live within the prison bounds ; but 
 
64 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 it is not intended to convey the idea of protecting shel 
 ter, comfortable cots, soft blankets, or nourishing food, 
 which are the generally understood concomitants of such 
 establishments. It was organized as the result of sheer 
 necessity, not from motives of humanity. The shelter 
 at first was heaven s canopy, subsequently pine boughs, 
 and finally ragged tents. The cots upon which emaci 
 ated and diseased forms were to repose and seek relief 
 were holes worn into the ground by the wretched pa 
 tients as they writhed in pain or rolled in the paroxysms 
 of fever ; the blankets consisted of such vermin-infested, 
 ragged clothing as the rapacity of their captors had left 
 them ; the nourishing food was a piece of bread two 
 and a half inches square, composed of corn and cow-peas 
 ground together into meal, with a small piece of fat ba 
 con. Upon such sustenance sick and dying patients 
 were nourished thus nursed and protected. And now 
 Death was busy. Deputing other agents to the superin 
 tendence of battle - fields where they gathered mighty 
 harvests, he presided at this chosen spot, and reaped the 
 fruits which inhumanity had planted for him. The hec 
 atombs which were daily offered up to the destroyer did 
 not for a moment arrest the course which his prime func 
 tionary, Wirz, had marked out and still persisted in. 
 
 Dr. Joseph White, a surgeon upon Winder s staff, had 
 control of this hospital, under command of his superior, 
 and after him Dr. E. E. Stevenson was the medical director. 
 The details of occurrences, of deaths, of filth, and of starv 
 ation in this place are too repulsively shocking to be i em 
 bodied within these pages, or to meet the public eye in 
 all their naked specifications, and the author is ready to 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 65 
 
 regret the task which he has undertaken, and to throw 
 down the pen in disgust at what is before him. A stern 
 determination, however, urges him forward as he reflects 
 that it is due to the truth of a history yet unwritten that 
 these repugnant facts should be made known, not to pur 
 vey to a morbid feeling of curiosity or a taste for the 
 horrible, but as portions that go to make up the history 
 of a momentous event. It will be the aim of the author 
 so to prune off and shape his materials as to shear the 
 loathsomeness of the details of their most offensive parts, 
 that the general reader may preserve his sensibilities 
 from too rude a shock in their perusal. 
 
 It is in evidence from every Confederate surgeon who 
 has been examined that the filth and destitution of the 
 patients was of the extremest character. Dr. John E. 
 Bates, who was on duty there, says that when he first en 
 tered a ward of the hospital he was shocked. Men were 
 lying partially naked, dirty and lousy, in the sand, wast 
 ing under gangrene, putrid from fever-sores, and literally 
 dying from starvation, crowded together in small and 
 unserviceable tents. They asked for a teaspoonful of 
 salt ; they begged for some of the siftings of meal ; they 
 even entreated to be allowed to gnaw a bone as they lay 
 in their filth, destitute of medical attendance as of every 
 thing else. They were suffering with scurvy, dropsy, di 
 arrhoea, gangrene, pneumonia, and almost the entire cat 
 alogue of diseases, while the effluvium from the hospitals 
 was sickeningly offensive; and if by any accident the doc 
 tor s hands were abraded, he refused to go into his ward 
 without properly protecting them from contagion. 
 
 The systems of the patients were so reduced by in- 
 
66 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 action and disease, that if by any mischance the hand 
 should be scratched or a wound created, gangrene would 
 immediately supervene. One of his patients, a prisoner 
 of but sixteen years of age, was down with both gan 
 grene and scurvy. He talked of and cried for his absent 
 mother, and prayed for her tender hands and gentle care 
 to soothe his anguish or dress his sores, and as he moved 
 his restless, emaciated body, seeking a repose that was de 
 nied him, the sand would rub into his sores and disfigure 
 the very pollution which was destroying him. Although 
 it was against specific orders to give the patients any food 
 or what might help their condition, yet the doctor now 
 and then smuggled into his little patient s hand a potato 
 or a biscuit to appease his ravenous hunger; but, not 
 withstanding, to use the witness s simple but heartrend 
 ing words, "his sores gangrened, and, what with the scurvy 
 and want of food, and from lice, he died!" 
 
 The scurvy was next to rottenness. Many of the pa 
 tients could not eat because there was no mastication ; 
 their teeth, were loose, and they were constantly asking 
 him for something to eat that would not cause pain. 
 The rations for the sick were less than twenty ounces for 
 the twenty-four hours not enough to keep a man alive, 
 especially if the food was " monotonous" and consisted of 
 but few articles; many starved to death on account of 
 the unwholesomeness and paucity of the rations. Dur 
 ing this enactment of horror the medical director mani 
 fested no interest in the relief of the necessitous, but, as 
 was proved, entertained his visitors at his quarters with 
 choice viands, and placed before them copious draughts 
 of the whisky that had been provided for his rotting, 
 dying patients. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 67 
 
 Dr. William Balser, an assistant surgeon at Jackson 
 ville, Florida, gave his experience of the climax of this 
 " treatment of patients" after they had been definitely re 
 leased from their prison. He attended a large number 
 of the cases from Anderson ville, and gave a graphic but 
 sickening account of their horrible condition when they 
 came into his hands. The larger portion of them were 
 mere skeletons. Of three thousand three hundred re 
 leased prisoners, there were not two hundred who did 
 not require medical treatment, and not one half of those 
 who survived would ever be fit to resume their former 
 occupations. Some of those afflicted with the scurvy 
 were idiotic, while bones had to be removed from the 
 jaws and other parts of the bodies of the sufferers. 
 
 Such is an eliminated statement of the condition of the 
 hospitals and the treatment of the inmates at this period. 
 In due chronological order we must recur, however un 
 willingly, to these receptacles again. 
 
 But Wirz, the superintendent, was not idle, for day 
 after day he could be seen riding upon his well-known 
 pony into the shambles which he controlled, or to the 
 trenches which he had ordered dug, where his victims 
 were hurriedly deposited " after life s fitful fever was 
 over," their winding - sheets a basketful of quick-lime, 
 their only requiem the oaths of the man who superin 
 tended their burial. He was, indeed, " doing more than a 
 dozen regiments at the front!" 
 
 By the end of the month the number of prisoners 
 amounted to eight thousand nine hundred and fifty, but 
 before it was expired their number was swelled up to 
 nineteen thousand. On some days the railroad would 
 
68 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 be blocked up with trains loaded with captives of war 
 destined for Andersonville. The condition in which 
 they arrived was deplorable enough. They had passed 
 the ordeal of search and plunder by their original cap 
 tors ; they had to run the gauntlet of the swarms of ra 
 pacious guards who accompanied them to their destina 
 tion ; but now they had to pass the critical examination 
 of their future jailer, whose keen scent could not well be 
 avoided, and when they left his hands his satellites as 
 sumed the privilege of picking what was left. By the 
 time they passed within the gates of their prison, a scav 
 enger would have been poorly repaid for a search among 
 what yet remained to them. 
 
 The numbers now congregated within the inclosure 
 were so great as to induce increased circumspection on 
 the part of Wirz in guarding them, because, if they had 
 been aware of the fact that the mere exercise of their own 
 unaided physical force was sufficient to have burst the 
 barriers that confined them, they would doubtless have 
 effected their liberation. Wirz was afraid of this, and 
 also afraid of mutiny, and he employed all the means that 
 his ingenuity could suggest to prevent the one or to sup 
 press the other. He instituted a system of punishments, 
 the most efficacious of which, in his estimation, were the 
 stocks and the chain-gangs. The former were a rude 
 but improved imitation of those in use more than a cen 
 tury ago. They were constructed of a heavy frame-work 
 of timber six feet in height ; at the top a two-inch plank 
 was arranged so as to be opened, with a hole, one half of 
 which was contained in the upper and the other half in 
 the lower and stationary plank, the circumference of the 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 60 
 
 hole being the size of a man s neck. The upper plank 
 being raised, the neck of the culprit was inserted, the 
 board was lowered and fastened, and the prisoner se 
 cured. If Nature had given sufficient altitude to the 
 sufferer, he could stand upon his feet without danger of 
 being choked ; but if, unfortunately, his stature was un 
 der the limit, he could only mitigate the torture of his 
 punishment by touching his toes to the ground, and thus 
 give himself some relief. 
 
 Often five and six men could be seen standing or 
 reaching through the apertures, their heads protruding 
 on the other side, and exposed to a scorching sun for six 
 hours; and frequently the poor wretches would faint 
 from exhaustion before the terms of their punishment 
 had expired, or, when released, would sink down in a 
 swoon, and be borne back to their prison. 
 
 It will scarcely be credited that one poor fellow was 
 taken from the hospital, by Wirz s orders, for some trivial 
 offense, borne by two men to the stocks, where he was 
 left until death, more merciful than his jailer, relieved 
 him from his sufferings in one hour. 
 
 The chain-gang was another contrivance to punish 
 and humiliate the manhood of his defenseless prisoners. 
 Sometimes ten men could be seen, each one with a heavy 
 chain passed around his neck, crossing behind his back, 
 and united in front to another, which was connected with 
 hand-cuffs on the wrists and by another chain, attached 
 to a thirty-two-pound iron ball, which dragged upon the 
 ground. Two and three weeks was the ordinary limit 
 of this species of punishment, the victims meanwhile 
 being exposed to sun and rain, and limited to one half 
 their usual scanty rations. 
 
70 ANUERSONVILLE. 
 
 The refinement of his cruelty in devising punishment 
 consisted in the foot-stocks, constructed somewhat similar 
 to those above described for the neck, but intended for 
 the confinement of the ankles. Seated upon the ground, 
 his limbs elevated at an angle of about forty degrees, the 
 feet were firmly locked between two boards, and the pris 
 oner was forbid to rest his wearied body by reclining at 
 length upon the ground ; if he attempted this he was pun 
 ished with stripes by the guard, or liable to a bullet from 
 the ever-ready revolver of Wirz himself, should he pass 
 by and find the sufferer in this position. 
 
 To complete his precautions for the safe-keeping of his 
 charge, or to quell any disposition to revolt, he had placed, 
 through General Winder s orders, a battery of six pieces 
 of artillery, which commanded the whole interior of the 
 prison, and which was kept charged with grape and can 
 ister, ready for instant service. The orders to the officer 
 in command were to "sweep the stockade" if there was 
 any appearance of mutiny, or any unusual crowding to 
 gether of its inmates. 
 
 The artillerists were on duty night as well as day, and 
 were relieved at their guns as regularly as were the cus 
 tomary sentinels on guard. The position of the battery, 
 upon a hill and overlooking the prison, while it com 
 manded its whole interior, was such that, if the order had 
 ever been given to fire, its hurtling grape would have 
 borne death and desolation to many thousands. 
 
 When General Kilpatrick, of the Union army, was ex 
 pected to advance in his raid as far as Andersonville, the 
 following order was issued. It is given here, out of its 
 chronological order, to show the animus of all concerned 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 71 
 
 in the administration of the government of the prison, 
 and as evidence of the precautions taken to prevent the 
 release of the prisoners: 
 
 " Orders No. 13. 
 
 "Head-quarters, Confederate States Military Prison, > 
 Andcrsonville, July 27, 1864. > 
 
 "The officer on duty and in charge of the battery of 
 * Florida Artillery at the time will, upon receiving no 
 tice that the enemyjhave approached within seven miles 
 of this post, open fire upon the stockade with grape-shot, 
 without reference to the situation beyond these lines of 
 defense. 
 
 " It is better that the last Federal be exterminated than 
 be permitted to burn and pillage the property of loyal 
 citizens, as they will do if allowed to make their escape 
 from the prison. By order of 
 
 " JOHN II. WINDER, Brigadier General. 
 
 " W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant General." 
 
 It is not out of place to remark here that, upon the 
 promulgation of this sanguinary and barbarous order, a 
 citizen of Sumter County, and an arch-secessionist, who 
 happened to be with the militia force called out by the 
 Governor of Georgia for the defense of Anderson ville, 
 remonstrated with General Winder against its inhumani 
 ty. The reply was, " Sir, I will kill the last d d Yankee 
 in that stockade before Sherman or Kilpatrick shall re 
 lease them ! God d n my soul if I would not rather 
 see those twenty thousand scoundrels blown to hell than 
 go to heaven myself!" 
 
72 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 No comment is made upon this reply except that the 
 author was extremely reluctant to transfer Winder s ex 
 act words to his pages, and only consented because they 
 exemplified so completely the spirit which actuated him 
 both as a warden in a church and a commander intrusted 
 with the fate of men of the same mould as himself. 
 
 We will return, in point of time, to an extraordinary 
 accession of prisoners which now took place. 
 
 The result of General Stoneman s efforts to penetrate 
 into Georgia, his defeat and capture, his imprisonment at 
 Macon, and his subsequent exchange, is matter of history, 
 and belongs to another recital. But with his men, or at 
 least a part of them, who composed his command, it is 
 now the duty of the author to treat. Stoneman s ad 
 vance had not only been anticipated, but it was thought 
 to be provided against ; and, strange as it may sound to 
 military men, a hastily collected, badly armed, and worse 
 drilled militia effected the capture. The news of the un 
 expected success spread like the reports of Fame of old, 
 arid eager crowds from miles around rushed to the prison 
 to witness the arrival of the captives. 
 
 Four trains of cars successively came loaded down with 
 the men who were destined to play such a conspicuous 
 part in the drama which was to be enacted at this place. 
 Especial care had been taken by the authorities to receive 
 them, and the cars were stopped some distance above the 
 usual halting -place, while extra guards were stationed 
 around the spot. 
 
 As each train arrived, squads of ten men were taken 
 into a detached building near by, where Wirz, E. B. Win 
 der, and W. S. Winder were assembled. There each man 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 73 
 
 was searched by Duncan and Humes, was stripped to his 
 shirt, if he possessed one, his shoes were closely scrutin 
 ized and the soles examined, and the shoes themselves 
 appropriated if they were found worthy ; the linings of 
 the waistbands were inspected ; of course the pockets of 
 the pantaloons were turned inside out and their contents 
 appropriated. The proceeds derived from this search 
 were turned over to Wirz for temporary deposit, after 
 ward to be divided fairly. 
 
 The squads were then turned over to the sergeants of 
 the guard, and such miscellaneous articles as their supe 
 riors did not require, or did not deign to take, were ap 
 propriated. Thence they were passed to the outside 
 guard to be marshaled into procession for the prison. If 
 these last harpies found any thing upon the persons of 
 the prisoners worthy of their regard, it was incontinently 
 taken, and, by the time the poor wretches formed into 
 column, the regiment that Falstaff once raised would have 
 shone in comparison with these. 
 
 When they at last reached the stockade and were 
 turned into the gates, the remnants that were left to them 
 by the rapacious crew through whose hands they had 
 passed were not sufficient to cover their nakedness. But 
 there was slight comfort left the poor devils in the reflec 
 tion that they were no worse off than the twenty thou 
 sand who had preceded them into this Gehenna of earthly 
 misery, and none of these could boast themselves of be 
 ing possessed of more than themselves. 
 
 The picture is but faintly drawn, as the author most 
 willingly confesses ; for there are such demands upon his 
 pencil that the hand wearies, and the natural tints that 
 
 D 
 
74 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 he has taken fresh from, the palette fail to spread them 
 selves upon his canvas at his bidding. If by one dash 
 of his brush he can depict the trophies secured on this 
 memorable occasion, he will do so by saying that two 
 carpet or traveling sacks were filled with watches, gold 
 and silver, daguerreotypes, and miniatures taken from 
 these prisoners. And, by a strange consistency of events, 
 even while the trial of one of the principals in this trans 
 action was occurring at Washington in 1865, a police de 
 tective captured from a man, a friend of E. B. Winder, 
 on board of a James Kiver steam-boat, the two identical 
 sacks with the watches therein. The amount of green 
 backs obtained will never be known ; but, if surmise may 
 be allowed its range, and judging from the brisk trade 
 that followed this foray upon the pockets of the captives, 
 it was not a small one. 
 
 If the unsuccessful raiders had accomplished nothing 
 else in their hazardous enterprise, they may now have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that their advent to Ander- 
 sonville opened a trade in disloyal currency which fully 
 satisfied the avaricious cravings of those who reaped the 
 greatest profits from the transaction. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 75 
 
 CEAPTER VII. 
 
 Routine within the Prison. Escaped Prisoners. The Blood-hounds. 
 Composition of the Pack. The Story of Achuff. Wirz on a Hunt. 
 Death of the Cripple "Chickamauga." The Bury ing-ground. 
 
 1 THE prisoners were divided into messes or squads of 
 about ninety men, under the charge of a sergeant or oth 
 er non-commissioned officer, who paraded them daily, that 
 the rolls might be called and the absent noted. The ra 
 tions for one day generally consisted of two ounces of 
 bacon, a sweet potato when in season, a piece of bread 
 two and a half inches square, composed of Corn and cow- 
 peas ground together into meal and unsifted.,, 
 
 If, at roll-call, any of the squad did not answer to their 
 names, and no satisfactory reason could be assigned for 
 their absence, particularly if any had made their escape, 
 the rest of the mess were usually deprived of their rations 
 for twenty-four hours or longer, as the case might be, 
 notwithstanding that those present were entirely inno 
 cent of the causes of their comrades absence. 
 
 The arrangements for apprehending escaped prisoners 
 were as perfect as the ingenuity of Wirz, aided by the 
 skill and interest of others, could make them. To effect 
 recaptures dogs were employed hounds. The first pack 
 was organized under the superintendence of Wesley W. 
 Turner, a citizen of Sumter County, and numbered nine. 
 For the use of his dogs and managing them, taking them 
 
76 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 to track and catch prisoners, he was paid by Wirz seven 
 hundred and fifty dollars per month. During the month 
 of May, however, the control of the hounds was trans 
 ferred to Benjamin Harris, who managed them during 
 the remainder of the time that they were required. 
 There were other volunteer packs within a distance of 
 twenty or thirty miles, whose services were occasionally 
 used by their owners, and who were paid fifteen dollars 
 a head for all captures returned to the prison. At one 
 time Harris s pack attained the number of twenty -two, 
 and among them were dogs of pure Cuban bloocL^... 
 
 The constitution of a pack of hounds is somewhat pe 
 culiar. It is requisite to assort them in such a way that 
 every advantage may be taken of their different abilities 
 and powers of endurance. Some are needed to trace the 
 steps of the fugitive and point out the course he has 
 taken ; their scent must be keen and their muscle good. 
 To supply any failure on the part of these, others are 
 needed, who will take up the scent and " keep it warm." 
 After these come the " catch dogs" the real blood 
 hounds, who, following at a more leisurely pace, keep 
 within hearing of those who head the course, and when 
 the quarry comes to bay, or "is treed," are generally up 
 in time to take the prey. These dogs are naturally very 
 ferocious, and require no other stimulus to display their 
 savage characters than a sight of the chase which they 
 have been pursuing. 
 
 Often, after an " exciting" hunt, when his horse had 
 given out from the length and severity of the ride after 
 an American citizen, the owner of the pack would come 
 upon the fugitive standing at bay, with club in hand, 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 77 
 
 vainly endeavoring to beat off the ferocious brutes, who, 
 with dripping jaws, were closely pressing upon him, or, 
 it may be, they had already succeeded in breaking in his 
 guard, and were engaged in tearing and mangling their 
 defenseless victim. Blows only could force off the rav 
 enous pack, and the exhausted, terrified fugitive would 
 be captured, and for a long time would bear about his 
 emaciated body the ghastly signs of his captor s rapac 
 ity, provided his rough treatment did not terminate in 
 death. 
 
 Joseph E. Achuff, of a Massachusetts regiment and a 
 prisoner, succeeded in making his escape one day. He 
 was one of three who had been permitted to go out under 
 charge of a guard to gather wood, and when they reached 
 the forest he suddenly jumped upon the soldier, and his 
 two companions disarmed him and tied him. The three 
 separated and made off in pursuit of their liberty. Soon 
 the deep voices of the hounds opened upon their ears, 
 and Achuff took to the swamp, thinking that his tracks 
 could be less easily followed through the water and mo 
 rass. But these were of little avail to him, and in a 
 short time the dogs and their yelling owner were upon 
 him, and he came to bay, his back against a tree, and a 
 slight, rotten stick in his hand. His only clothing con 
 sisted of a shirt and pair of pantaloons made from two 
 meal sacks, which he had secreted in the prison. Five 
 hounds attacked him, and with the first blow his weapon 
 broke ; meanwhile the two drivers came up. For ten 
 minutes this hard-beset man struggled against these suck 
 ers of his blood with his fists alone, the owner of the 
 pack urging the brutes to their fiendish work with en- 
 
78 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 couraging yells. When at last he could contend no more 
 from exhaustion, and the hopelessness of the contest un 
 nerved him, he fell, and the bloodthirsty animals tore and 
 bit him, with their frothing muzzles in his face and their 
 fangs fastened to his cheeks, until the brutal ferocity of 
 the leader was at length satisfied, and he called off his 
 hounds. The taste of blood which they had made them 
 deaf to orders, and they would not yield up their prey. 
 They were at length torn off by the hind legs, and with 
 them came, too, portions of his flaccid flesh and hard- 
 earned pantaloons. 
 
 He was bound and led back to Wirz, who punished 
 him with the stocks for thirty-six hours, exposed to the 
 sun, bloody, wounded, sore as he was, while his parched 
 throat was relieved with but two drinks of muddy, foul 
 water during that entire period. Wirz passed him once 
 during his torture ; and when he appealed to him for a 
 release, and complained of the cruel treatment to which 
 he was subjected, he was told to "dry up, or he would 
 blow his d d brains out!" This is not an isolated case; 
 it is, unfortunately, but one out of the many which were 
 of daily occurrence. 
 
 The sport of hunting escaped prisoners was regarded 
 by Wirz as a relaxation from the monotony of his tor 
 turing and daily duty, and it was no unusual thing for 
 him to " follow the hounds" in their run after human 
 game for twelve hours at a stretch. The relief which 
 this afforded from official routine was enjoyed by the 
 coursing captain with a zest which would have excited 
 the admiration of the keenest sportsman of meaner prey. 
 
 When notice was given him that a prisoner had es- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 79 
 
 caped, word was passed to Harris, and the animating 
 sounds of yelping hounds and braying horns gave signal 
 that " game was up." With canteen well filled with hos 
 pital whisky, and haversack stuffed with meat and bis 
 cuit, his pouch of tobacco dangling from a button-hole, 
 and his revolver buttoned in its holster, the jailer would 
 mount his pony and hurry away to the exciting sport. 
 Leading the dogs around the stockade with encouraging 
 words, they soon strike the scent, while the deep bay of 
 the pack proclaims that it is warm, and the rout dash off 
 with eagerness on the track. Now and then, in the dis 
 tance, can be heard the loud mouth of the leading dog, 
 signaling the rest, and showing that his unerring nose is 
 tracing out the game. 
 
 If the run is long, and the fugitive has obtained a good 
 start, and the heat and ride has wearied the captain, he 
 will, perhaps, rest for a brief space near some stream, and 
 invigorate his hopes of success with a dram, and then re 
 new the hunt with fresh energy. Toward the close of 
 clay, repeated calls upon the canteen will have diminished 
 its contents, and the haversack will have been emptied 
 of its store ; but the sight of some friendly house will 
 cheer him with the prospect of a fresh supply, that the 
 energetic huntsman may not suffer from want or weari 
 ness, and he urges on the chase. At length, through 
 swamps, over old fields, and through dense woods, the 
 loud voices of the hounds, mingled with the sounds of 
 horns, give notice from afar that the "game is treed," 
 and the persevering captain hurries up his jaded pony 
 that he may be in " at the death." There would be the 
 poor hunted wretch, throttled by the dogs and lacerated 
 
80 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 by the blood-hounds, sick unto death from his race, his 
 fright, and his wounds, the trophy of the day. Con 
 fronted with the director of the rout, wondrous oaths and 
 curses would be showered upon his head, perhaps blows 
 upon his wearied body, with threats of his revolver, and 
 he would be led back to suffer yet more in the stocks or 
 the chain-gang for his temerity in daring to escape from 
 the wretchedness that was his fate. 
 
 This is no fancy-drawn sketch; the whole country 
 around Andersonville has been often awakened by the 
 braying of the huntsman s horns, and the echoes startled 
 with the yelping cries of the hounds, as they opened upon 
 the track of a fugitive prisoner. The evidence taken be 
 fore the Military Commission was overwhelming upon 
 this point, and its recapitulation here would be but a repe 
 tition of what has been already written. The facts which 
 were given in evidence in relation to the use of hounds, 
 and the sufferings endured from them, would fill a vol 
 ume by themselves, and among the very few admissions 
 made by Wirz this was one. The simple truth is repuls 
 ive enough without drawing upon fancy to aid its effects, 
 or without copying the official reports of Wirz to Winder, 
 from one of which the foregoing epitome has been de 
 duced. 
 
 In all this time filth and misery reigned supreme within 
 the stockade, and starving wretchedness stalked around, 
 or was hauled out to its last receptacle in the trenches. 
 Twenty-seven thousand nine hundred men were now con 
 fined in the prison limits. Their destitution and misery 
 can not be conceived; their desire for some mitigation 
 of their discomforts, and their unceasing appeals for trivial 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 81 
 
 privileges, which did not invade the most unyielding in 
 humanity, were piteous. 
 
 It was deemed necessary to enlarge the area of the 
 prison bounds, so that at least standing-room might be 
 given to the prisoners, and it was, in consequence, ex 
 tended toward the north so as to include five more acres. 
 It is true that this afforded somewhat more space, but its 
 immediate occupation by the overcrowded captives seem 
 ed scarcely to diminish the press of men within the walls. 
 In the expressive words of a witness, a Confederate offi 
 cer, " the human beings there looked more like so many 
 ants, and their burrows like so many ant-hills, than any 
 thing else." 
 
 "Or say," said Wirz s counsel, "like so many bees?" 
 
 "No, sir," replied the witness, " bees are notoriously 
 clean the prisoners were offensively filthy !" 
 
 Many of the poor fellows had dug holes in the slope 
 of the hill large enough to allow about four men to lie 
 down close to each other. The dirt taken out by the 
 excavations was appropriated by others to plaster up the 
 shanties they had erected of poles and brush, and by this 
 means they were enabled to exclude the weather. Some 
 improvised temporary coverings of blankets and cloth 
 ing, under which the occupants crouched and panted in 
 the midday when the sun poured down all his rays, or 
 under their shelter sought protection from the drench 
 ing rains. 
 
 Others, whom apathy, which long-suffering had in 
 duced, and with entire disregard to comfort, however 
 poor, that weariness of life instigated, sat sullenly around 
 during the hot hours of the day, or lay down at night 
 
 D2 
 
82 ANDERSONYILLE. 
 
 wherever sleep or exhaustion overtook them, careless 
 whether the sun and the dews bred disease or not. 
 
 The continuous stir and the ceaseless movement among 
 the prisoners, the constant crossing and intermingling of 
 the thousands as they passed and repassed to and fro, 
 most naturally prompted the comparison with ants which 
 the witness made. An increasing vibration was kept up 
 among the throng, relieved from its monotonous sough 
 by the dull hum of confused voices that rose from that 
 overcrowded place, while the spectator might weary him 
 self with the vain attempt to disintegrate the, noises which 
 assailed his ears. 
 
 Now and then these sounds would be diversified by 
 the occasional thug of a musket, as some watchful senti 
 nel spied an infraction of the dead line, and sent his bul 
 let into the transgressor s brain. A shriek, a convulsive 
 twitch of the victim s limbs, a crimson stream down the 
 cheek, glaring eyes and paling lips a rush and crowd 
 of hundreds to the spot where he lay it was only one 
 more who had paid the penalty of reaching a pole with 
 cup on end to dip up some clearer water beyond that 
 fatal line. 
 
 On the 15th day of May, a poor fellow, a member of 
 the 8th Missouri Regiment, who had lost a leg at the bat 
 tle of Chickamauga, and who was named thereafter, and 
 who, in consequence of the want of good sense, was also 
 nicknamed by his fellows "Mutton-head," asked the sen 
 tinel to call Captain Wirz, for he had been so worried 
 and badgered by his mates that he must seek some escape 
 from them. Wirz came, and " Chickamauga" proffered 
 his request to be allowed to go outside on parole. Wirz 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 83 
 
 cursed him, and threatened to shoot him if he ever again 
 bothered him with such a request. In a whining, sup 
 plicatory tone, the half-witted cripple reiterated his peti 
 tion, and told him that " he would rather be shot than 
 stay there any longer the men plagued him to death I" 
 Turning to the sentinel on the platform, Wirz cried out, 
 " Shoot the one-legged Yankee devil !" The guard fired, 
 the ball shattering the man s head, and in two minutes 
 he died. His useless crutches were seized by his former 
 companions for fuel, while the crippled imbecile was 
 " hauled out by his leg," to be borne away to the quick 
 lime and the trench. 
 
 Shall we go with the wagon and its loathsome load of 
 mortality to this last receptacle of man, and see the wit 
 less "Chickamauga" placed in his grave? It is a repul 
 sive duty, but it must be, for it is part of what is doing 
 here now, and, besides, the tenants of that spot were fast 
 pressing by their numbers upon the precincts of the liv 
 ing*, and they deserve some notice at our hands. 
 
 See that great, high -bodied wagon, drawn by four 
 mules, lumbering along, and creaking under its load of 
 mortal men, on its way to the long home ! It stops for 
 a moment while two attendant negroes lift up, not rever 
 ently and silently, as is wont with the dead, what remains 
 of the shallow-brained " Chickamauga," but as one would 
 seize the carcase of a dog they grasp him by hair and 
 leg, and toss him over into the body of the wagon, and it 
 lumbers onward to the prison cemetery ! 
 
 Here, in long trenches, lay those who had preceded him 
 to their "narrow home." Some twenty have been already 
 cast in, and with the load just arrived this trench will be 
 
84: ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 filled. One by one they are roughly thrown into the 
 excavation, some in their descent falling upon the head, 
 others rolling doubled up together, and others again 
 sprawling upon their faces. The attendants threw the 
 Missouri idiot with a force that sent him seated with his 
 back resting against the side of the trench, his head hang 
 ing on one side, and his glazed, unclosed eyes glaring 
 upon the companions of his tomb. An awful sight he 
 was as he sat there in his grim wretchedness, hideous and 
 spectral, imitating the life which had left him in position 
 and vestment, but sitting there only to claim his privilege 
 of being hid away under the ground, to find the repose 
 denied him upon earth ! A striking commentary upon 
 the "deep damnation of his taking off." 
 
 With a careless kick of the foot from a negro, the limp 
 form fell prone, and was at last at rest. A few baskets- 
 ful of quick-lime were scattered over all, a few shovels- 
 ful of dirt cast upon the recumbent misery there, and 
 without a prayer, " uncofiined and unknelled," poor 
 " Chickamauga" sleeps until the last reveille shall awaken 
 him and his brother dead. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 85 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 Kindness of Confederate Surgeons. Contributions by the Ladies. Con 
 trasts. Refusal of Winder to permit Aid for the Sick. A Church 
 warden s Language. Attempt to obtain an Injunction to abate the 
 Nuisance. The Result. 
 
 WE gladly turn from the revolting details that have 
 been forced upon us to a brighter view, which falls like a 
 beam of light upon the dark shadows that have obscured 
 the pictures we have been compelled to draw. It may 
 be asked by the susceptible reader if the foregoing de 
 lineations have been given merely to excite superfluous 
 horror? If this condensed statement of what has been 
 verified under oath is not intended to keep alive the bit 
 terness which occasioned the miseries described ? 
 
 The answer is, Are the outrages committed upon de 
 fenseless prisoners of war, and the sufferings endured by 
 the obscure soldiers of the Union, to be passed over as 
 mere incidents of the rebellion ? Are the nauseating de 
 tails of their captivity, misery, and death beneath the dig 
 nity of narration ? 
 
 Perhaps it might be better to deal with oppression and 
 murder in the abstract, and not to enter into the special 
 details of their perpetration to suffer the "dead" past 
 " to bury its dead," and to cast into one oblivious stream 
 all that is repugnant to enlightened humanity, that it 
 may sink and be unrecorded to the prejudice of man 
 hood. 
 
86 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 If mere sensibility was regarded if it was sought to 
 combine the fifty thousand tragedies enacted at Ander- 
 sonville into one sentence of condemnation, and then per 
 mit them to pass into forgetfulness, perhaps it might be 
 well to follow such instigation. 
 
 But it must be remembered that these statements are 
 no inconsiderable part of the history of the great rebel 
 lion that brought them into such vivid life ; that these 
 hideous recitals furnish the clew to .that inner life and 
 motive which was the cause of the mighty movement by 
 which a vast tyranny was sought to be erected, and the 
 great republic of the world destroyed. 
 
 State documents, dignified accounts of important bat 
 tles doubtless possess great value oftentimes they are 
 hardly worth the paper upon which they are written. 
 As a connecting link between the battles fought for their 
 release from captivity and the sufferings of over fifteen 
 thousand literal victims, this narrative is given. That it 
 may be realized that the documents which have been is 
 sued from the government having reference to this pris 
 on had a value in themselves, the woes and miseries of 
 nearly forty thousand prisoners are detailed. The dig 
 nity of the accounts of battles will not be lessened, the 
 author believes, by giving, as one of their results, the res 
 cuing of twenty thousand men from horrors that almost 
 unmanned them, and by adding that, although but few 
 of them live, perhaps some may yet aid in building up a 
 state whose corner-stone shall rest upon an active hu 
 manity, drawn from the lessons of its violation at Ander- 
 sonville, and whose influence will affect the future treat 
 ment of prisoners of war throughout the world. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 87 
 
 But, aside from all such excuse, it is enough to know 
 that the government of the United States has not consid 
 ered it beneath its dignity to arraign the men who were 
 guilty of the crimes which these pages unfold, and to 
 punish them for their commission. The embodiment of 
 these offenses, with an attempt to smooth over their most 
 offensive features, is all that has been done in this Nar 
 rative, and the major violation of humanity must be 
 merged into the minor error of disclosure if it is made 
 responsible for the horrors which it jecites. 
 
 We repeat, then, that it is with unaffected satisfaction 
 that we are allowed to look upon a fairer picture than 
 has yet been painted. 
 
 Amid all the destitution and neglect which character 
 ized this place, there were some to be found who allowed 
 the simple dictates of humanity to influence them under 
 the restraints of military discipline. There were not 
 wanting in the wards of the hospital a few men whom 
 their profession as physicians had taught the secret of 
 success in the healing art. It has been observed that or 
 ders were issued prohibiting the administering of com 
 forts of any kind to the sick Union soldiers. Whether 
 these orders came from the commanding officer of the 
 post, or from the chief medical director, Dr. White, does 
 not fully appear from the evidence. 
 
 Every one, however, who testified to this fact, and there 
 were five who did so, concurs in stating that such orders 
 were issued, and it is unreasonable to conclude, under all 
 the circumstances of delegated authority which marked 
 the management of the prison and its accessories, that they 
 emanated from the medical director. Notwithstanding, 
 
88 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 it was not unusual for a very few of the surgeons to sup 
 ply from their own means simple but grateful necessaries 
 to the wretched patients under their care, and thus to a 
 very limited extent, it is true, afford some amelioration 
 of their extreme destitution and want. 
 
 Conspicuous among these surgeons was Dr. B. J. Head, 
 of Americus, Georgia, who had the management of a ward 
 in one of the hospitals, and who was 50 horrified and dis 
 gusted with the filthy condition of his future patients, 
 that at first he determined to resign his post and leave, 
 rather than face the misery and degradation that met his 
 eyes. 
 
 Dr. Head was a physician of many years practice, and 
 it was and is well known that his experience has brought 
 him among as much suffering as generally falls to the lot 
 of a medical practitioner. He had been conversant with 
 much that would shock and repel one less unaccustomed 
 than himself to human misery ; he imagined that he had 
 sounded by professional familiarity the depths to which 
 repellant foulness reached, and could look unmoved upon 
 human impurity. He overrated his powers, and was sat 
 isfied, when he entered these head-quarters of filth, that 
 there was yet something for him to learn. 
 
 He reflected that by his presence and influence he 
 might be able to mitigate the sufferings of the wretched 
 beings there, and he remained. He carried from his 
 home such food and nourishment as his weakened pa 
 tients could more easily swallow than the coarse prison 
 fare roughly given to them; his basket was daily sup 
 plied with biscuit and light bread, tea, and rice, which he 
 distributed to the most needy of his ward, as far as they 
 
ANDERSOXVILLE. 89 
 
 would go. During their season, vegetables, and especial 
 ly tomatoes, proved most grateful to his scurvy-stricken 
 patients, and these he supplied as liberally as he dare, 
 with the fear of positive orders against it before his eyes. 
 To his everlasting credit be it said, Surgeon E.D. Eland, 
 in charge of the division, connived at these violations of 
 orders, and winked at, if he did not assist in, the humane 
 deceptions of Dr. Head. 
 
 In all of these kindly efforts the doctor was most cor 
 dially and zealously seconded by his good wife, whose 
 discriminating judgment and willing assistance showed 
 how deeply her feelings were enlisted in favor of the un 
 fortunate prisoner-patients. She could not content her 
 self with such contributions as her own restricted means 
 permitted, and she was unwilling that the sweet solace 
 of knowing that humanity could be vindicated by wom 
 an should be confined to her alone. She sought to in 
 terest other ladies in the cause of relieving human woe, 
 and in the contributions of such comforts as they could 
 spare for the poor, naked, dying prisoners, and she made 
 a tour of the county, urging and soliciting their aid t 
 
 It need not surprise the reader to learn that she met 
 the usual difficulties which arise in the path of the be 
 nevolent missionary. But she faltered not in her course, 
 and was rewarded by finding a very few warm hearts 
 and ready sympathies among the women of Sumter 
 County, who eagerly responded to this call upon their 
 charities, while they poured out their offerings into a 
 common store. Old linen, clothes, stockings, were con 
 tributed, together with bread, tea, coffee, and food, while 
 the tender-hearted lady who had inaugurated the step 
 
90 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 superintended their conveyance and distribution to the 
 objects for whom they were intended. Not once only 
 was this mission successful, but often were the donations 
 of these few and most excellent women transmitted to 
 Andersonville. 
 
 Perhaps it may be thought these acts do not merit ex 
 aggerated praise ; for, although spontaneous, they were 
 only such evidences as were due from womanly sympa 
 thy for human suffering, and they should be regarded as 
 but the natural consequences which a recital of the pris 
 oners condition would produce on commiserating hearts. 
 
 It must be borne in mind, however, that many of these 
 ladies had husbands, and sons, and brothers in the war ; 
 that many hearts which were melted to pity were even 
 then bleeding for the loss of some near and dear one ; 
 that often a tear would steal forth from eyes already red 
 with weeping, and, gently trickling down, fall upon the 
 package that she made up for those, perhaps, who had 
 caused her sorrow. 
 
 It required a moral courage on the part of the ladies 
 concerned in this deed of mercy which can not be ex 
 pressed, to fortify them to stem the torrent of hatred that 
 was poured out against the Federal prisoners by nearly 
 all classes, male and female, and upon the head and 
 against the motives of their agent and leader of benevo 
 lence. Insults and aspersions from the proud, and arro 
 gant, and ignorant of her own sex ; the denial of the 
 commonest offices of humanity, and the refusal of the 
 most trifling articles which were not needed, and could 
 not be consumed by the owner; the being told that 
 vegetables should rot upon the vines before they should 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 91 
 
 go to the solace of a dying prisoner, were not uncommon 
 returns for efforts in their behalf. 
 
 And so, without exaggerating the virtues that shone so 
 brightly forth in these acts, prominence is given to their 
 insertion, and it is believed that they will be regarded as 
 the brightest beams that have been shed upon this other 
 wise dark picture. 
 
 It was at least due to that loyalty to humanity, which 
 is an ever-present excellence in woman every where, to 
 show that it did not fail them at a period and under cir 
 cumstances when its non-observance could well have 
 been excused. 
 
 Considerable circumspection had to be observed in 
 transmitting the articles thus collected to the intended 
 recipients, and negroes were generally made the medium 
 of conveyance. These could pass with their baskets with 
 out challenging much suspicion from the guards or scru 
 tiny from officious officers, and thus the stores reached 
 their destination. 
 
 One negro man was conspicuous in the assistance which 
 he rendered. He had been in the hospital before with 
 his master the doctor, and with him had been horrified 
 at the sights which there met his eyes. His simple ac 
 count of one visit that he made with a basketful of com 
 forts contains in itself all that is needed to convey an 
 idea of the misery and destitution that characterized the 
 place. 
 
 " My God !" said he, and the tears stood in his eyes as 
 he said it, "I never thought to see a white man so low 
 down as those there. Why, sir, there was one whose 
 bones were through his skin, and he was lying right on 
 
92 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 the bare ground I Yes, sir, he d made a hole where he d 
 
 turned and rolled There were two holes, sir, just 
 
 so he could roll on to one and off into the other 
 
 He didn t have more than a rag on him ; and as for the 
 lice .... When I give em what I had in the basket, 
 and after they d ate it all, one got down on the ground 
 and picked up what was scattered, like a dog !" 
 
 At length the Eev. Mr. Davies saw General Winder, 
 and told him what some of the ladies of the county had 
 done and what they wished to continue doing, and Win 
 der apparently entered cordially into their views, and 
 gave his consent that provisions and clothes could be 
 sent to the hospital patients. Two lots were sent and 
 distributed, and active exertions were made by the few 
 ladies before referred to to prepare another and a larger 
 supply. A third stock was accumulated, and several 
 ladies, with three gentlemen, proceeded up to Anderson- 
 ville with them to superintend their proper distribution. 
 The gentlemen were Dr. B. J. Head, Messrs. Stephen 
 Daniels, and Wills C. Godwin. The last named had been 
 particularly requested by the doctor to accompany him. 
 
 When they reached the post, the supplies were left in 
 the charge of Mr. Daniels to be unloaded, while the doc 
 tor and Mr. Godwin proceeded to the office of the provost 
 marshal for a permit to carry the things through the line 
 of sentinels. With an oath, Lieutenant Keed, the provost, 
 swore " he would give no pass for any such d d traitor 
 ous purpose." He was told that it was by authority of 
 General Winder. "I don t believe it," said he; "he s 
 not such a d d fool as that." Sitting in his office were 
 several rebel officers unconnected with the post some 
 
ANDEKSONVILLE. 93 
 
 prisoners of war on parole. One of these swore that the 
 doctor " ought to be hung for his Yankee sympathies, 
 and he was ready to put the rope on his neck then and 
 there." Another threatened to shoot him, as " he was no 
 better than a Yankee." 
 
 Driven from the offices by such and other menaces, 
 he proceeded to General Winder s quarters, and stated to 
 him his object and that of the ladies, and requested a pass 
 to take the things to the Federal hospital. 
 
 " I ll see you in hell first !" returned the general. "You 
 are a d d Yankee sympathizer, and all those connected 
 with you." 
 
 "You are mistaken, general," said the doctor. "You 
 know that / am no Yankee sympathizer, sir. I do sym 
 pathize with suffering humanity, and this is a mission of 
 mercy." 
 
 " God d n your mission of mercy !" cried the general. 
 "I wish that you and every other d d Yankee sympa 
 thizer, and every G d d d Yankee too, were all in hell 
 together!" 
 
 "But, general," rejoined the doctor, "we are here by 
 your express permission given to Mr. Davies." 
 
 "It s a d d lie!" replied he. "I never gave him or 
 
 any one else permission to keep the d d from 
 
 starving, and rotting too, if they choose." 
 
 " Well, general, will you allow the provisions to go in 
 this time, now that they are up here?" 
 
 "No, by God! not the first d d morsel shall go in," 
 returned the general. 
 
 At this moment the little provost marshal, Reed, en 
 tered the office hastily, and said, 
 
94 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 " General, give me an order to have these goods con 
 fiscated?" 
 
 " I don t think I ve got the power to do that, Eeed," 
 replied he, "but I have got the power to prevent the 
 d d Yankees from having them, and, by God ! they 
 sha n t." 
 
 Seeing that he could not procure the requisite pass, 
 and fearing, from the threatening language of Winder, 
 the scorching looks and oaths of other officers, that the 
 ladies and himself might be subjected to personal re 
 straint, if not to personal abuse, he reluctantly advised 
 them to give up the attempt and to return home, which 
 they did. 
 
 The load of necessaries which was carried up on this 
 occasion filled a four-mule wagon. They were taken and 
 used at the post. 
 
 The above-detailed conversation took place in the hear 
 ing of the ladies, whose presence and whose mission failed 
 to restrain the blasphemy of Winder or the curses of his 
 officers. It has been copied from the evidence, and is 
 only given in its detailed deformity that the world can 
 judge of what is requisite to constitute a good and well- 
 qualified church-warden, as well as what does not make 
 a gentleman. 
 
 After such a repulse, it is not surprising that these 
 kind-hearted women ceased in their efforts to mitigate 
 the sufferings of the patients, or were unwilling to ex 
 pose themselves to another so gross affront. The few 
 comforts which could and would have been supplied to 
 the suffering ones there were thus ruthlessly denied them, 
 and the fiat had gone forth that this receptacle, where 
 
ANDEESONVILLE. 95 
 
 no feeling or act of humanity was permitted to enter, 
 over which the dark wings of Azrael were brooding and 
 shading with death, was to be left to the tender mercies 
 of those who knew not what fellow-feeling was. 
 
 It was shown by Wirz upon his trial that during the 
 month of August he was sick and not in command of 
 this prison ; that its temporary charge was turned over 
 to one Davis, and for this period he could not be made 
 responsible for what occurred there. But it appears from 
 an official report made by Wirz himself for this month 
 to Winder, and having the indorsement of the latter 
 upon it, that "the aggregate of prisoners at that time was 
 thirty-four thousand seven hundred and fifty, out of which 
 number two thousand two hundred and ninety -three died 
 witliin the month, and twenty-five escaped prisoners were 
 taken up by the dogs. 11 From his own showing, he re 
 buts the evidence which he introduced to exculpate him 
 self from the terrible mortality of this period, and it is 
 well that there is corroborative evidence, derived from 
 the principals themselves, to substantiate what otherwise 
 human credence would be slow to receive. 
 
 By dividing the number of deaths by the days in this 
 month, it will be seen that the incredible number of sev 
 enty-four victims of relentless cruelty passed away each 
 day, or nearly two every hour ! It might be imagined 
 that a benevolent desire to mitigate human suffering, re 
 spect for one s own self, a regard for the ultimate verdict 
 of his fellow-men, and for the mighty account hereafter 
 to be rendered, would have stayed this horrible mortali 
 ty, and have shut down the flood-gates of destruction to 
 arrest the torrent which was sweeping the hospitals at 
 
96 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 such tremendous rate. We have placed before the read 
 er one series of efforts made by disinterested persons to 
 stop this flow of death ; let us turn to another attempt 
 made by a single individual. 
 
 After relinquishing, in the spring of the year, to his 
 successor, General Winder, the command of the post, Col 
 onel A. W. Persons had been isolated from any interest 
 in its management. But the complaints of residents near 
 the place of the effluvium which was wafted in every di 
 rection from it, threatening pestilence through the infect 
 ed air, whose taint could be perceived for two miles, and 
 the reports which were current through the country of 
 the destitution and death which reigned there, attracted 
 Colonel Persons s attention. His inquiries resulted in ap 
 plying for and obtaining from the judge of the South 
 western Circuit an injunction at law against the Ander- 
 sonville stockade and burying-ground as a public nuis 
 ance. He was, however, kindly warned by the judge of 
 the consequences which would accrue to him personally 
 if he persisted in demanding an inquiry and hearing. 
 
 The storm of abuse, the danger to which he would be 
 exposed, not only from those officially connected with the 
 prison, but from the people of the country, induced him 
 to pause in his humane effort, and finally to withdraw 
 his proceeding. He very properly considered that one 
 person alone would be quickly swept away by the hur 
 ricane of wrath which would be raised against him, and 
 he would not have the poor consolation of feeling that he 
 had stirred even the surface of public sentiment in his 
 vain attempt to point the finger of justice. He desisted, 
 but his motion produced some results, which will be de- 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 97 
 
 tailed in a subsequent chapter. And he might well pause 
 and reflect before he entered upon the Herculean task of 
 cleaning out such an Augean den ! 
 
 The burying-ground, to which a slight reference has 
 been made, was probably the most horrible place under 
 that name which can be well conceived. The corpses of 
 the dead were not buried ; they were only slightly cov 
 ered with loose dirt, quick-lime having been previously 
 scattered over them to insure more rapid decomposition. 
 On any day the curious visitor to this necropolis could 
 be satisfied how little was required to dispose of a mortal 
 man after his spirit had left his body. 
 
 The trenches into which the remains were cast were 
 dug not more than three feet deep, frequently not more 
 than two, and were in long lines parallel to each other. 
 Into these were thrown the bodies of the Federal soldiers 
 no box or coffin was permitted no decent shrouding 
 even in the ragged blanket was allowed. The clead-wag- 
 on, drawn by four horses, went constantly back and forth 
 from the hospital to the trenches bearing its load of death, 
 and supervised by negroes. When about twenty feet of 
 mortality was huddled side to side, lime was scattered 
 upon the bodies, and the earth carelessly thrown over all. 
 A few days of rain, or the depredations of animals, would 
 here and there have exposed some luckless limb, or arm, 
 or head of the dead ones, and, as the torrid heats of the 
 summer suns poured down their decaying powers, a taint 
 and effluvium of corruption would pervade the atmos 
 phere for miles around. 
 
 Here, over this ghastly spot, could be seen at almost 
 any time countless hosts of sluggish buzzards, now pois- 
 
 E 
 
98 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 ing themselves on untiring wing, now slowly hovering 
 over and looking down upon the festering heaps which 
 invited to their horrid repasts, as, blackening the dead 
 limbs of some distant tree, they sat and regaled their 
 sight with what their gloated appetites had already feast 
 ed on. And the legs, and arms, and skulls, which could 
 be seen protruding all over this vast grave, were the only 
 signal-marks of the last resting-places of an army of mar 
 tyrs. 
 
 On the first day of September there had been deposited 
 in this necropolis nine thousand two hundred and eighty 
 human bodies ! 
 
ANDEESONVILLE. 99 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Effect of the Injunction. Commission to examine the Hospitals. Re 
 port. Counter-testimony. Cumulative Evidence. Poisonous vac 
 cine Matter. Stimulants. Provisions. 
 
 INFORMATION had been conveyed to Ilowell Cobb at 
 Macon, then in command of the Military District of Geor 
 gia, of the movement made by Colonel Persons as to the 
 injunction against Andersonville as a public nuisance. 
 Complaints had also been forwarded to the authorities at 
 Richmond, which contained general but correct state 
 ments of the desolation which Winder and Wirz were 
 creating. Rumors throughout the country gave currency 
 to the extent of the suffering of the hordes of prisoners 
 there confined, and, in some cases, newspapers in the vi 
 cinity heralded, some with boastful pride, others with 
 reprehension, the enormous mortality which was daily 
 occurring there. 
 
 One commissioner had been sent by the War Office at 
 Richmond to examine into and report the condition and 
 treatment of the prisoners. Another was about to start, 
 under orders from General Cobb, to examine into the ar 
 rangements of the hospitals, and the provision made for 
 the care of the patients therein. Many circumstances co 
 operated to force this display of regard to the welfare of 
 the prisoners upon the officials most remote from the 
 scene, and spurred up the lagging carelessness which 
 characterized the general conduct of the rebellion. 
 
100 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 But the general in command of the military district 
 within whose limits the prison was situated knew that he 
 would be held responsible for the mismanagement, cor 
 ruption, and desolation which were being enacted within 
 sixty miles of his head-quarters. The complaints of the 
 prisoners had reached him through unofficial sources, and 
 the reports which daily came to his notice advised him 
 of gross wrong at this point ; and, it may be added, his 
 own eyes, from constant passing in view of the stockade, 
 forced upon him the necessity of at least making a show 
 of remedying the abuses which prevailed there. 
 
 He appointed one of his staff, with orders to proceed 
 to Andersonville and examine into the condition of the 
 hospitals, and report to him the result. What that report 
 was can not now be ascertained, but the conclusions which 
 the commanding general drew from it are before us in his 
 own report to the authorities at Eichmond. 
 
 He states that he had sent Surgeon Eldridge, of his 
 staff, to make an examination of the condition of the hos 
 pitals at Andersonville, and from his report he is satis 
 fied that every thing has been accomplished which could 
 be done for the comfort and medical care of the prison 
 ers; that nothing is required more than has been pro 
 vided for the treatment of patients ; and that the medical 
 director deserves especial thanks for the energy he has 
 displayed in organizing and providing the necessary 
 requisites of medicines and hospital essentials. 
 
 At the very time this examiner was discharging his 
 important duty, the following daily report was made by 
 a surgeon in this same hospital : 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 101 
 
 "First Division C. S. M. P. Hospital,) 
 
 September 5, 1864 > 
 
 "Sin, As officer of the day for the past twenty -four 
 hours, I have inspected the hospital, and find it in as good 
 condition as the nature of the circumstances will allow. 
 % A large majority of the bunks are still unsupplied with 
 bedding, while in a portion of the division the tents are en 
 tirely destitute of either bunks, bedding, or straw, the patients 
 being compelled to lie upon the bare ground. I would earn 
 estly call your attention to the article of diet ; the corn- 
 bread received from the bakery, being made up of corn 
 and cow-peas without sifting, is wholly unfit for the sick, 
 and often, as in the last twenty-four hours, upon exam 
 ination, the inner portion is found to be entirely raw. 
 The meat (beef) received by the patients does not amount 
 to over two ounces a day ; and for the past three or four 
 days no flour has been issued. The corn-bread can not 
 be eaten by many, for to do so would be to increase the 
 diseases of the bowels from which a large majority are 
 suffering, and it is therefore thrown away. All their ra 
 tions received by way of sustenance is two ounces of boiled 
 beef and the soup from it per day. Under these circum 
 stances, all the skill that can be brought to bear upon 
 their cases by the medical officer will avail nothing. 
 
 "Another point to which I feel it my duty to call 
 your attention is the deficiency of medicines. We have 
 but little more than the indigenous barks and roots with 
 which to treat the numerous forms of disease to which 
 our attention is daily called. For the treatment of 
 wounds, ulcers, etc., we have literally nothing except 
 water. Our wards, some of them, are wild with gan- 
 
102 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 grene, and we are compelled to fold our arms and look 
 quietly upon its ravages, not even having stimulants to 
 support the system under its depressing influence, the 
 article being so limited in supply that it can only be issued 
 for cases under the knife. I would respectfully call your 
 earnest attention to the above facts, in_the_hope that, 
 something may be done to alleviate the suffering of the 
 sjck. 
 
 " I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant, 
 " J. CREWS PILOT, Asst. Surgeon P. A.C.S., 
 and Officer of the Day. 
 
 "To Surgeon E. D. ELAND, in charge of First 1 
 Division C. S. M. P. Hospital." $ 
 
 To this may be appended the statement of Dr. W. A. 
 Barnes : 
 
 ^ In the month of August and September there were 
 over three thousand patients lying upon the ground, par 
 tially naked ; some had broken limbs and gangrene, scur 
 vy, and chronic diarrhoea. That the matter used for 
 vaccinations was poisonous^ and amputations almost in 
 variably resulted from its use ; and although freely and 
 constantly used in the prison hospitals and in the prison, 
 it was enjoined upon surgeons to apply for other matter 
 when Confederate soldiers were to be treated. Green 
 corn, which, was an anti-scorbutic, was taken away from 
 the patients and prisoners, the latter of whom were ar 
 rested and severely punished for buying it. In regard 
 to stimulants to support the system, there were in Sep 
 tember forty-three barrels of whisky under the order of 
 the medical director and intended for hospital uses, but 
 it was reported that visitors to Drs. White and Stevenson 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 103 
 
 had all that they did not drink themselves. The greatest 
 number of deaths in any one day was in August they 
 were two hundred and seven, or more than eight and a half 
 each hour of the day. With proper care, from 70 to 80 
 per cent, of the deaths might have been prevented !" 
 
 Dr. Eoy also testifies to entire neglect in providing 
 medicines, and said " that, with the exception of very rare 
 articles, there was no difficulty in obtaining medicines." 
 
 Dr. Head gave the same testimony, and said : " I found 
 the diseases in the hospital to result more from inatten 
 tion and improper diet than any thing else. When I 
 first went on duty there I made a thorough diagnosis of 
 all the cases in my ward, and wrote out my prescriptions 
 for them, but I did not obtain the medicines I ordered. 
 When I inquired into the reason for this neglect, I was 
 told that I must go according to a prescribed formula, 
 and ask only for such medicines as certain numbers in 
 dicated for a specified disease. For instance, I must put 
 down, for gangrene, No. 10 ; diarrhoea, No. 3, etc. This I 
 considered as taking away all discretion from the phy- 
 sician, and leaving it in the power of the medical direct 
 or, who arranged the system of practice to have given 
 bread-pills or poison, as he might choose ; the ward phy 
 sician only reporting the disease, and the director pre 
 scribing for it, but the physician who administered could 
 not know what he gave. Any body could practice with 
 that formula before him, even if he had never seen a 
 medical book, and I consequently refused to comply with 
 the instructions/ For the want of medicines, I had fre 
 quently to prescribe red-oak bark, and such other barks 
 as could be got out of the woods. Patients died for the 
 
104 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 want of stimulants, and the suffering there was well 
 known throughout the state." 
 
 Dr. Thornburg, another surgeon on duty in the hos 
 pital, coincided in his testimony with the other phy 
 sicians, but went somewhat more into details respecting 
 the stimulants, saying that "the whisky was drank by the 
 medical director and his friends ; and Dr. Stevenson was 
 reported as having embezzled the money sent for the pa 
 tients and the hospital fund to the amount of nearly 
 eighty thousand dollars" " The condition of the hospitals 
 was horrible, and the patients were in as filthy a state as 
 they could well be." 
 
 All these things, it must be remembered, were trans 
 piring at the time of the examination ordered by General 
 Cobb, and who reported, from the information given him 
 by his " examiner" that nothing was required there ! 
 
 Connected with the question of stimulants, so much 
 needed in the treatment of gangrenous cases, we refer to 
 the evidence of Benjamin B. Dykes, who was the rail 
 road agent at Andersonville during the year 1864, and 
 had been since 1861. He had his railroad books with 
 him, which contained the original entries from the freight 
 lists of goods and stores unloaded at his depot. 
 
 In the month of July there were sixty -four barrels of 
 whisky left at his agency, of which forty-three were for 
 the medical director. In August there were ninety-six 
 barrels, sixty of which went to Dr. White for hospital 
 use. In September there were thirty-six barrels, all for 
 the hospital. Here, then, in three months only, there 
 were one hundred and thirty-nine barrels of this so-much- 
 called-for stimulant deposited in the hands of the medical 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 105 
 
 director for the necessities of the hospital. What became 
 of this five thousand gallons of stimulant ? The answer 
 is to be sought in the testimony of the respectable phy 
 sicians, who suspected or knew where it went down the 
 throats of Dr. White and his friends^, 
 
 Eeferring back to Dr. Pilot s daily report to inquire 
 whether it was impossible to supply proper food for the 
 patients in those wards which he tersely characterizes as 
 "wild with gangrene," we take the testimony of Uriah 
 B. Harrold, a commissary of the Confederate government 
 stationed at Americas, and who was in court with his 
 " abstracts of shipments of provisions to Anderson ville," 
 on the requisition of the proper authorities there. 
 
 In the month of July he shipped to that place as follows : 
 
 Bacon 102,000 Ibs. 
 
 Meal G3,000 bush. 
 
 Flour 1,200 sacks. 
 
 In August: 
 
 Bacon 113,000 Ibs. 
 
 Meal 90,000 bush. 
 
 Flour 1,000 sacks. 
 
 In September : 
 
 Bacon 124,000 Ibs. 
 
 Meal 70,000 bush. 
 
 Flour 1,500 sacks. 
 
 Rice 14,000 Ibs. 
 
 Sirup 94 bbls. 
 
 Whisky 15 " 
 
 Rice 10,000 Ibs. 
 
 Sirup 131 bbls. 
 
 Whisky 20 " 
 
 Rice G,000 Ibs. 
 
 Sirup 150 bbls. 
 
 Whisky 30 " 
 
 These shipments were made by but one commissary, it 
 will be remembered, while there were fifty others to an 
 swer any requisitions upon them from the officials at An- 
 dersonville for the supply of that post and prison. The 
 commissary stores at Albany, fifty miles from Anderson- 
 ville, it was shown, were much larger than at Americus, 
 and the warehouses there were literally breaking down 
 
 E2 
 
106 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 from the weight and quantity of stores assembled there. 
 The commissaries at other points, near and easily accessi 
 ble to Andersonville, were continually sending supplies 
 to that point, as the requisitions were made upon them. 
 
 The stores shipped from Americus alone will be seen 
 to have been amply sufficient for the alleviation of that 
 want which all of the surgeons were daily deploring, if 
 they had been properly applied to the purposes for which 
 they were intended. Tl;e article of rice amounted to 
 thirty thousand pounds in ninety days, or more than 
 three hundred pounds for each day ; the flour, estimating 
 the three thousand seven, hundred sacks at fifty pounds 
 each, would make over two thousand pounds for each 
 day for the same period ; the sirup, rating the three 
 hundred and seventy-five barrels at forty gallons each, 
 would have afforded more than twenty pints per day ; 
 and the whisky would give more than three hundred 
 pints per day for the use of the patients in the hospitals. 
 
 From these facts it may fairly be gathered that there 
 was no want of supplies in the country ; and the ques 
 tion arises, What was done with those that were sent to 
 Andersonville? The testimony of Dykes will go far to 
 clear up one branch of this inquiry. He said that " he 
 knew James W. Duncan, who was in charge of the bak 
 ery and cook-house, and who was also a detective under 
 Winder. He offered to sell me some sirup, ten barrels 
 at one time, and said that Bowers, another detective, would 
 show it or bring it to me. He told me that he had a 
 large lot of flour which he wanted me to sell for him." 
 
 The question very naturally arises why the person 
 sent by General Cobb to " inquire into the condition and 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 107 
 
 treatment of the patients" in this hospital did not per 
 form his duty, and ascertain from the means within his 
 reach facts so accessible ? If stimulants were ^required, 
 why did he not ask the simple question if a requisition 
 had been made for them? He very well knew that there 
 were five distilleries in the county of Sumter alone, work 
 ing under special contract with the government, a por 
 tion of whose produce must go to its agents, to be dealt 
 out, on requisition, for hospital purposes. If the requi 
 sition had or had not been complied with, it was his duty 
 to have reported the fact to his superior. In the same 
 way he could have ascertained why no flour, or rice, or 
 sirup was provided, for the means of doing so were with 
 in reach, and his duty was plain. 
 
 The truth is, that during the whole rebellion, self-in 
 terest and self-aggrandizement, with a proportional dis 
 play of official consequence, shining in buttons and lace, 
 or riding on blooded horses, monopolized the time and 
 thoughts of most of those in authority, and especially 
 those who were removed from the dangers of the front. 
 
 The starvation, the suffering, hideous, horrible enough 
 to awaken a cry that reached from one end of the Con 
 federacy to the other, was not sufficient to turn from friv 
 olous pleasure those to whom important interests had 
 been committed, and whose duties, properly performed, 
 might have mitigated the horrors which will always rest 
 upon the civilization of the country as one of the foulest 
 blots that history records. 
 
 Favoritism, nepotism, every influence that could be 
 brought to bear to advance personal interests, were ram 
 pant, while due performance of duty was the exception to 
 
108 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 the reigning rule. "While men rotted with gangrene, the 
 surgeon^ was drinking the whisky intended to keep up 
 life ; while the scurvy loosened the teeth and decayed 
 the bones of its victim, the rice and flour provided for 
 his nourishment were made up into puddings for the 
 delectation of the surgeon s visitors ; and when a cooling 
 food or drink was needed for the fevered patient, the 
 baker was engaged in selling the sirup which would 
 have afforded it. 
 
 And so, robbed, starved, polluted by disease, denied 
 even straw to lie upon, rolling in a filth which was re 
 pugnant even to a negro s notions of cleanliness after 
 due examination of such patients and their condition, the 
 commanding general of the district reported, from in 
 formation of one of his subordinates, that every thing 
 had been accomplished which could be done for the 
 comfort and medical care of the prisoners that nothing 
 is required more than has been provided for the treat 
 ment of patients, and that the medical director deserves 
 especial thanks for the energy he has displayed in organ 
 izing and providing the necessary requisites of medicines 
 and hospital essentials ! 
 
 After this, what could be done for the wretched vic 
 tims of a policy which seemed premeditated, and which, 
 if continued, would make corpses of the last one of them? 
 
 And this place, where sick and wounded men festered 
 in their filth and degradation, was to be continued in the 
 condition and under the auspices it was, and the whisky 
 was to be drank, the money embezzled, the rice and flour 
 to be made into puddings, and the sirup sold, to the ever 
 lasting shame of those concerned, and to the detriment of 
 the fair fame of the South, its chivalry and its humanity. 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 109 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 i 
 
 Wirz s Shooting, Beating, and Stamping. Starvation. Duncan. Story 
 of Stewart. Twenty-fourth New York Battery. Exchanging Meat. 
 Did the Confederate Government know of these Things ? Proof. 
 
 MEANWHILE the crowds within the stockade had at 
 tained the highest limits as to numbers which was reached 
 during its continuance, there being in the month of Sep 
 tember thirty-six thousand four hundred and eighty in 
 all. With this increase there was a corresponding aug 
 mentation of their sufferings. The rains of the autumn 
 season, together with the constant tread of so many 
 men, converted the interior at times into one vast bed of 
 muddy slush nearly a foot deep an aggregation of semi- 
 liquid filth, through which the miserable prisoners un 
 ceasingly tramped in their unvarying round of pointless 
 existence. Then for some days the hot sun would pour 
 down upon this quagmire, feculent with putrefaction, 
 and draw from its depths vapors saturated with the fetid 
 stench that it exhaled, and which corrupted the air they 
 had to inhale. 
 
 With their faces begrimed with smoke and dirt, their 
 clothes in tatters and impregnated with vermin, shoeless 
 and hatless, now up to their knees in mud, then breathing 
 the pestilential atmosphere which a September sun had 
 evoked, the wonder is that human nature did not suc 
 cumb more rapidly and in greater numbers than the irre 
 sponsible death-registers indicated. 
 
110 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 As if all this combination of miseries for the extirpa 
 tion of human life would not suffice, Wirz personally 
 aided in the dispatch of his victims with other means. 
 
 Thomas C. Alcock testifies that u on one occasion a 
 sick man asked Captain Wirz to let him go outside for 
 some fresh air. Wirz inquired what he meant. Then 
 turning round and saying to him, Any air is too good 
 for a d d Yankee, pulled out his revolver and shot 
 him down. The man died in two hours afterward, and 
 he spoke in condemnation of this act to Wirz, who told 
 him he would put him in the same fix ; he replied that 
 he was not afraid of it. Wirz then called a corporal and 
 two guards, who put a ball and chain upon him. The 
 man who was shot was named Wright, and belonged to 
 the Eighth Missouri." 
 
 James H. Davidson also saw this deed. He says that 
 " Wright was sick, and lying upon the ground. He asked 
 Wirz to let him go out for some purpose, when Wirz 
 cursed him and shot him with his revolver, and said he 
 was killing more Yankees at Anderson ville than Lee was 
 at Richmond. 1 " 
 
 Who that witnessed it will ever forget the scene which 
 was enacted in the Court of the Military Commission 
 when a citizen was examined in relation to the shooting 
 of a prisoner at the dead-house on the outside of the 
 stockade ? This witness had been sent on to Washington 
 by General Thomas from Nashville, Tennessee, and was 
 examined the day after his arrival in the city. As was 
 his custom, Wirz was reclining upon the sofa in the court 
 room. 
 
 The judge advocate, Colonel K. P. Chipman, asked, 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. Ill 
 
 " Do you know Henry Wirz ?" 
 
 "I have seen him." 
 
 " Would you recognize him if you should see him 
 again?" 
 
 " I would, readily." 
 
 "Prisoner, stand up and confront the witness!" 
 
 With real or affected weakness, Henry Wirz slowly 
 arose from his recumbent position, and, with vacillating 
 look, stood before the witness, but cowered under his 
 gaze, while his trembling limbs seemed almost to deny 
 him support. 
 
 "Who is that man?" 
 
 " That is Henry Wirz, of Andersonville." 
 
 " Are you positive of it?" 
 
 " I am positive of it, for I have seen him riding at An 
 dersonville ; and he was pointed out to me, when I first 
 went there, as Captain Wirz." 
 
 Here Wirz made a sign for water, when a glass was 
 handed him by an attendant. 
 
 "State under what circumstances you have seen him 
 that you can identify him now." 
 
 " I have seen him often at Andersonville, but I know 
 him as the man who shot my comrade, William Stewart." 
 
 With a convulsive gesture of dissent, with both hands 
 and arms extended, his fingers spasmodically working, 
 as if they sought to grasp the witness, Wirz gurgled some 
 unintelligible words to his accuser. 
 
 " Silence, prisoner I" sternly ordered the president ; 
 " your counsel will speak for you." 
 
 His head sank upon his breast, and his arms hung 
 nerveless by his sides as he obeyed. 
 
112 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 "Look up, prisoner," said the judge advocate, "and 
 regard the witness !" 
 
 Slowly and languidly he raised his dull, glassy, deep- 
 set eyes, and vacantly looked at the witness. 
 
 " Go on and state the circumstances of the shooting." 
 
 " Stewart and I had brought a dead body out to the 
 dead-house without being ordered to do so, when Wirz 
 came up and asked what we were doing there. Stewart 
 replied that we had brought out a dead body. Wirz 
 said it was a lie ; that we were trying to make our escape. 
 Stewart said it was not so ; we had come out for the pur 
 pose he had stated ; when Wirz told him if he said that 
 again he "would blow his d d brains out. Stewart re 
 peated what he had said before, when Wirz drew his re 
 volver and shot him." 
 
 "No! no! I I " stammered the prisoner, wildly 
 throwing his arms about, as if to beat off the phantom 
 of his murdered victim that floated in ghastly form be 
 fore him, his eyes glaring and rolling in their meaning 
 less distraction, foam issuing from his quivering jaws, as 
 his trembling limbs yielded to the weight they could not 
 support, and he sank to the floor. 
 
 "Bailiffs, sustain the prisoner !" echoed the deep voice 
 of the president, as two officials, one on either side, raised 
 up his crouching form, and so supported it. 
 
 " How far off was Stewart from the prisoner when he 
 was shot?" 
 
 " About eight feet, sir." 
 
 "Where did the ball strike him?" 
 
 " In the breast." 
 
 "How long did he survive the shot?" 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 113 
 
 "Not half an hour." 
 
 "What else occurred at that time?" 
 
 "Not much more, sir;" but, from the deeply-drawn 
 breath and slow utterance of the witness, it was evident 
 he was pondering the sad episode of his comrade s slaugh 
 ter, for his voice was low. "I told him I thought that 
 was hard, when he said if I didn t look out he would 
 blow my brains out." Once more, with convulsive ges 
 ticulations and incoherent voice, the prisoner broke upon 
 the hushed stillness of the crowded court-room ; but ac 
 cusing conscience was stronger than the relaxed voice or 
 trembling frame, and he sank swooning into the bailiffs 
 arms. 
 
 "Give the prisoner some brandy. Officer, clear the 
 room. The court is adjourned for the day," ordered the 
 president ; and the crowd slowly passed out, while an at 
 tendant physician sought by restoratives to summon back 
 the ebbing spirit of the murderer Wirz. 
 
 William Ilarrington was lying upon the ground one 
 day sick, when Wirz passing by, Ilarrington asked him 
 for some materials with which to make a tent. As he 
 proffered his request, Wirz jumped upon him with his 
 heavy -heeled boots several times, and stamped upon his 
 breast, while the poor invalid screamed with agony. 
 " There, G d d n you ! ask me for tents again !" cried 
 Wirz, as blood and froth poured from the wan prisoner s 
 mouth. lie was taken to the hospital, and left it only in 
 the dead-wagon. 
 
 On another occasion, as the men were being divided 
 into squads, one of the prisoners, from extreme exhaus 
 tion, did not or could not fall in, when Wirz told him, 
 
114: ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 with the usual oath, if he did not " get into line and stay 
 there, he would beat his brains out!" The man replied 
 that he could not stand up. "Then lie there, G d d n 
 you!" and repeatedly struck him over the head and face 
 with the butt of his revolver. His skull was broken, the 
 dark tide flowing out from an aperture over the right 
 temple, and he died just where he lay. 
 
 Here let us stop. There has been too much, Heaven 
 knows, already recited to harrow up the coldest sensibil 
 ities, to satisfy the most morbid tastes in this accumula 
 tion of cold-blooded, deliberate murders. The mind sick 
 ens with the regale that such a feast affords, and the hand 
 wearies with recording the crimes. 
 
 All this time the starvation among the prisoners con 
 tinued, and their necessities became so great that resorts 
 were had to practices to obtain something to eat which 
 no false delicacy must prevent being made known. It 
 is in evidence "that men were frequently seen picking 
 up particles of food peas which had passed undigested 
 through the systems of others, washing and eating them." 
 
 Thomas Walsh, of the 47th New York, had been able 
 to retain in his possession a Testament, upon the blank 
 leaves of which and along the margins he had written 
 short terse sentences a species of diary of the events oc 
 curring of greatest moment in his dread prison life. 
 Here are some of the extracts : 
 
 "March 26, no rations to-day; March 27, rations not 
 served till three o clock; April 1, no rations issued; April 
 2, issued at five P.M., meal and mule flesh ; April 19, no 
 meat ; April 27, a man shot for getting over the line ; 
 May 2, our friend the cavalryman shot dead." Witness 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 115 
 
 explained that in this instance some boxes had been sent 
 through Richmond from the North for the prisoners, and 
 some one had thrown mouldy bread across the dead-line, 
 and the man who was shot had reached over to get it. 
 "May 15, the singular cripple, Chickamauga, shot dead 
 inside the dead line ; May 18, orders read that if any one 
 attempts to break out, the artillery will fire into the stock 
 ade indiscriminately order signed by Wirz ; the captain 
 vigorously looking out for tunnels ; the men in a most 
 deplorable condition ; never knew but one man who ever 
 returned to the stockade after being taken to the hospital. 
 July 3, no rations ; July 4, rations full of maggots, and 
 had to be thrown away ; July 13, a man shot dead at the 
 dead line ; August C, a man went to the brook, reached 
 over the line with a pole and cup, and was shot water 
 colored with his blood ; September 10, my God, why hast 
 Thou forsaken me ? September 12, no rations ; Septem 
 ber 1-1, rations served at five P.M. ; September 18, no ra 
 tions ; we have had no rations since day before yester 
 day ; September 23, the boys are starving." And so it 
 proceeds, the soiled but well-worn Gospel covered on all 
 of its margins with such jottings down of the progress of 
 starvation. It is unnecessary to quote more of this sad 
 diary, but that little book is a compendium of all the 
 horrors that all the prisons whose stories have been writ 
 ten can not equal for unmitigated and relentless bar 
 barity. 
 
 Martin G. Ilogan testified that " the men were in a 
 miserable condition as bad as possibly could be; they 
 were so thick that they could scarcely elbow their way ; 
 some lay in their filth calling for water and crying for 
 
116 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 food, but no attention was paid to them. The quality 
 of the food was miserable, and eating it produced a most 
 injurious effect, because the half-baked corn -bread was 
 sour, and the beef, whenever it was furnished, was of 
 very inferior quality, and more than half the time had 
 maggots in it. Men afflicted with the scurvy would 
 crawl upon the ground and pick up what passed through 
 others the sight was horrible; very many were with 
 out clothing, and, having no shelter, burrowed in the 
 ground." 
 
 Samuel M. Eiker, a prisoner, " was detailed to work in 
 the bake-house, and was there for some time. There 
 were great quantities of provisions there, and I never 
 knew the commissary to be empty. On one occasion 
 Captain Wirz sent down a large lot of spoiled pork and 
 had it exchanged for good pork the bad pork was is 
 sued to the prisoners ; I tried to eat some of it, and it 
 made me sick. James W. Duncan was in charge of the 
 bakery and cook-house, and was also a detective under 
 Wirz. Duncan, Bowers, and Humes were together, and 
 they used to take the provisions intended for the prison 
 ers and sell them. Duncan used to accept bribes of 
 money and watches from the prisoners to let them es 
 cape, and then would tell Wirz of their intention and 
 they would be punished. Duncan boasted that he was 
 making more money by selling provisions and sirup than 
 any one else at Andersonville." 
 
 This man, James W.Duncan, is or was in the Old Cap 
 itol Prison for murdering and inhumanly treating the pris 
 oners. He had been summoned to Washington as a wit 
 ness for Wirz, when, on his becoming known to the judge 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 117 
 
 advocate, he ordered his arrest upon the testimony which 
 follows. This scene transpired on that occasion. 
 
 Mr. Baker, Wirz s counsel, objected to any testimony 
 with regard to Duncan, unless it could be first shown 
 that he was an agent of Wirz, and acting under his orders. 
 
 General Thomas : " We are trying a conspiracy, and 
 other persons besides Wirz are charged." 
 
 Mr. Baker : " I do not lose sight of that fact, but I pay 
 no attention to that part of the first charge which charges 
 unknown persons. It was well known that it could not 
 be sustained in law, and therefore I pay no more atten 
 tion to it than I do to the idle wind." 
 
 General Wallace : " Mr. Baker, you inform us that you 
 pay no attention to this first charge. This is what we 
 are trying the case under, and, if we were disposed to be 
 curt, we may be induced to pay no attention to what you 
 say." 
 
 It was shown that on one occasion Duncan came into 
 the stockade with bread as usual. The witness who tes 
 tified was detailed to go and bring the bread for his squad, 
 with a man from a Tennessee regiment to assist him. 
 After they had received their quota of bread, and Dun 
 can was dealing out to another squad, a piece of crust 
 broke off and fell under the wagon. The Tennessee man 
 stooped to pick it up, when Duncan leaped to the ground, 
 and kicked and beat the man so severely that soon after 
 he died. Some time from that Duncan was again issu 
 ing bread, and a poor half-witted fellow was standing 
 near, looking on, but saying nothing. Duncan asked 
 him, with an oath, what he wanted there? lie replied, 
 " Nothing." " Well, here s something for you," said the 
 
118 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 ruffian, when he knocked him down and stamped upon 
 him, then threw him over the dead line, when a sentinel 
 shot and killed him. 
 
 On another occasion Duncan and Bowers seized upon 
 James Armstrong, and put him in the spread-eagle stocks 
 for saying that he* did not get his full rations of bread. 
 They robbed him of his money and a picture of his sister, 
 which Armstrong begged might be returned to him. In 
 six hours they returned and released him, when he again 
 asked for his sister s likeness, but was told by Duncan, 
 with an oath all swore there, from Winder down to the 
 negro who blacked his boots " that he might consider 
 himself d d lucky to get off with his life;" and threat 
 ened to put a ball and chain on him if he said any thing 
 more to him about it. The amount of money that Dun 
 can stole was nine dollars in greenbacks. 
 
 But perhaps the most pitiable meanness, where mean 
 nesses were so common, was a trick which this man Dun 
 can played off upon a poor, scurvy-stricken prisoner, 
 James Hamilton. It has been observed that orders were 
 issued prohibiting the purchase of any vegetables by the 
 prisoners, and if any were obtained in contravention of 
 these orders, if the transgressor could be pointed out, not 
 only were his hard-earned vegetables confiscated, but he 
 was severely punished for an infraction of the rule. 
 Hamilton was one day lying upon the ground, calling, 
 in his weariness and distress, for his mother, and begging 
 for some vegetables to eat, for his instinct told him they ; 
 would be better for him than any medicine. Just then 
 Duncan drove into the stockade with the daily rations 
 of bread, and passed near where Hamilton lay, having 
 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 119 
 
 upon him an overcoat of somewhat better appearance 
 than was usual there. Duncan inquired of him what he 
 wanted there ? He replied that he wanted some onions, 
 and would give any thing for them. Duncan told him 
 if he would give him his overcoat he would bring him 
 some, and the poor fellow eagerly accepted the offer, and 
 took off his coat and gave it him. 
 
 Duncan told "Wirz of it, and on the following day, 
 when he went in with the bread, Wirz accompanied him. 
 He threw two bunches of shalots to Hamilton, exclaiming, 
 "There are your onions; I ve done my part/ Wirz 
 stepped up and seized the vegetables, and bore them off 
 with him. But he did not stop here ; he had Hamilton 
 taken out, and, weak, exhausted as he was, placed him in 
 the foot-stocks, and kept him there for twelve hours in 
 the broiling sun. He went stark, staring mad ; and, with 
 horrid imprecations upon the robber of his coat, mingled 
 with piteous appeals to his mother in her far-off home 
 these two thoughts alone rioting in his mind, which in 
 sanity had not driven from their strong-hold thus he 
 lingered and died. Not too soon for him, alas ! for death 
 resolved all his cares and his pain, while his poor ema 
 ciated body no more needed the garment which heartless 
 rascality had deprived him of. 
 
 It has been shown that the quality as well as the 
 quantity of the rations was bad and irregular. Some 
 days the prisoners received nothing at all, on others a 
 short allowance, and again full rations, such as they were. 
 
 The squad to which Thomas II. Kellogg was attached 
 originally consisted of ninety men, and so reduced were 
 they by starvation, that when the sergeant ordered them 
 
120 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 to form into line, only thirty-two were able to stand up. 
 Their inability to do so arose primarily from want of 
 food, which had brought on scurvy and diarrhoea ; their 
 limbs were so contracted that they could not get up on 
 their feet. The stream running through the stockade 
 was as filthy as all the wash and excrement from it could 
 render it, and the surface of it was covered with grease. 
 Out of four hundred men who were captured with him 
 more than three hundred died, while the Twenty-fourth 
 New York battery, which was captured at Plymouth, 
 North Carolina, and afterward sent for imprisonment to 
 Andersonville, was nearly annihilated there through 
 starvation and disease. 
 
 It would seem to be almost incredible that such a long- 
 continued system of wrong and barbarity could be per 
 sisted in for month after month, with investigations going 
 on under orders from the Eichmond authorities, and ex 
 aminations under Cobb, without some facts becoming 
 known to the Confederate government ; that, when Con 
 federate surgeons have been sworn, where twelve thou 
 sand died, nine thousand six hundred might have been 
 saved by using the most ordinary care, some rumors of 
 such dreadful mortality must have found their way to 
 the ears of those who held the remedy in their hands. 
 
 Incredulity may rest its doubts upon this point, for all 
 was known by the authorities at Eichmond, and the suf 
 ferings that we have detailed were preconcerted there. 
 
 From an article in the Richmond Examiner of the 30th 
 of October, 1863, it would appear that the wholesale 
 slaughter of Andersonville was designed, and that the 
 Northern prisoners were to be systematically extermi- 
 
AISTDERSOXVILLE. 121 
 
 nated by their rebel jailers. That paper recommended, 
 under the above date, that " the Yankee prisoners be put 
 ichcre the cold loeather and scant fare icill thin them out in 
 accordance with the laws of nature!" This was no irre 
 sponsible utterance of wild, murderous counsels by an 
 individual fanatic, which passed as they were read, with 
 out carrying w r eight or influence with them they were 
 the foreshadowings of the mighty crime which was to be 
 perpetrated instigations to be followed of the wholesale 
 extermination of the thousands who suffered in conse 
 quence of them. 
 
 As corroborative of this, Henry S.Footc, a representa 
 tive in the Confederate Congress, has given his testimony 
 in a letter dated " Montreal, June 21, 1865." 
 
 " Touching the Congressional report referred to, I have 
 this to say : A month or two anterior to the date of said 
 report, I learned from a government officer of respecta 
 bility that the prisoners of war at Richmond and Ander- 
 sonville were suffering severely for want of provisions. 
 He told me farther that it was manifest to him that a 
 systematic scheme was on foot for subjecting these un 
 fortunate men to starvation ; that the commissary gen 
 eral, Mr. ISTorthrup (a most wicked and heartless wretch), 
 had addressed a communication to Mr. Sfiddon,, the Sec 
 retary of War, proposing to Avithhold meat Altogether 
 from military prisoners then in custody, and to give 
 them nothing but bread and vegetables ; and that Mr. 
 Seddon had _ indorsed the document containing this rec 
 ommendation affirmatively. 
 
 "I learned farther that by calling upon Mr. Ould, the 
 commissioner for exchange of prisoners, I would be able 
 
 F 
 
122 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 to obtain farther information upon the subject. I went 
 to Major Ould immediately, and obtained the desired in 
 formation. Being utterly unwilling to countenance such 
 barbarity for a moment regarding, indeed, the honor of 
 the whole South as concerned in the affair, I proceeded 
 without delay to the hall of the House of Representa 
 tives, called the attention of that strangely constituted 
 body to the subject, and insisted upon an immediate com 
 mittee of investigation." 
 
 But the evidence does not terminate here, for it is in 
 our power to show that the Confederate Secretary of 
 War, James A. Seddon, was fully and officially advised 
 of the circumstances which have been detailed in these 
 pages, and knew as well as any one else the horrible suf 
 fering that his minions were inflicting upon the wretched 
 prisoners there. 
 
 Colonel D. T. Chandler, assistant adjutant general and 
 inspector general of the rebel army, was specially detailed 
 by the War Department, under Seddon, to visit, examine, 
 and report upon the condition of the various prison-pens 
 in which captured Northern soldiers were confined. This 
 detail was made in consequence of the complaints which 
 had reached Eichmond that our prisoners were most in 
 humanly and murderously maltreated. Colonel Chand 
 ler was an officer occupying a high position and great 
 confidence in the rebel service, and in this mission acted 
 witli honor, conscientiousness, and ability. His report 
 was made through the usual military channel the office 
 of the adjutant general to the Secretary of War. There 
 can be no question that every report from so distinguished 
 an officer, serving on an inspection tour of such import- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 123 
 
 ance, must have been specially and personally submitted 
 on its receipt to James A. Seddon, the chief of the War 
 Department. 
 
 This report of Colonel Chandler is dated at Anderson- 
 ville, August 5th, 1864, and recommends/ achange in the 
 officer in command of the post, Brigadier General J. W. 
 Winder, and the substitution in his place of some one 
 who unites both energy and judgment with some feelings 
 of humanity and consideration for the welfare and comfort 
 (so far as is consistent with their safe-keeping) of the vast 
 number of unfortunates placed under his control some 
 one, at least, who does not advocate, deliberately and in cold 
 Hood, the propriety of leaving them in their present condition 
 until their number has been sufficiently reduced by death to 
 make the present arrangements suffice for their accommoda 
 tion; who will not consider it a matter for self-laudation, 
 boasting that he has never been inside the stockade a 
 place the horrors of which it is difficult to describe, and which 
 arc a disgrace to civilization the condition of which he 
 might, by the exercise of a little energy and judgment, 
 even with the limited space at his command, have con 
 siderably improved." 
 
 Such was the language of Colonel Chandler in his spe 
 cial report ; and by all who have had acquaintance with 
 the strictly formal and reticent character of official mili 
 tary documents more especially when an inferior is 
 criticising a superior officer it must be conceded that 
 language of bolder or more startling censure has rarely, 
 if ever, been employed. Not only did it give technical 
 grounds sufficient to call for and jugtify General Win 
 der s removal, but it was full of an honest and warm in- 
 
12-i ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 dignation, such as a frank soldier would feel upon wit 
 nessing the horrible misery and destitution that met his 
 eyes. It was caused by Winder s remark to Colonel 
 Chandler when the latter urged that the prison -pen 
 should be enlarged, the water purified, and sheds erected, 
 more fuel, wood, and medical stores supplied, that he, 
 General Winder, " thought it would be better to let one 
 half die, so that they could take care of the remainder 
 without trouble !" 
 
 The question recurs, what, on this report, was the ac 
 tion of James A. Seddon, the Secretary of War of the 
 rebel government? Was the monster commanding at 
 Andersonville relieved of his charge, and ignominiously 
 dismissed the service as a disgrace to humanity and to 
 the soldierly profession ? Were any measures taken to 
 check what Colonel Chandler had denounced as the pro 
 tracted murder of our prisoners "deliberately and in 
 cold blood" under a system, as he adds, "the horrors 
 of which it is difficult to describe, and which are a dis 
 grace to civilization ?" Any such thoughts were far from 
 Seddon s mind, for he was doubtless aware that Winder 
 was faithfully discharging the behests of higher author 
 ity ; and so little was the desire of removing or punish 
 ing him on this report of his atrocities, that in a few 
 weeks after as if Colonel Chandler s denunciation had 
 been accepted for a testimonial of honor James A. Sed 
 don issued an order which promoted Winder to be com 
 missary general and commander of all military prisons 
 and prisoners throughout the Confederate States ! 
 
 In the light of this evidence, it is very difficult to con 
 ceive how the commander-in-chief of the armies of the 
 
AXDERSONVILLE. 125 
 
 Confederacy could remain in ignorance of such reports 
 as that of Colonel Chandler ; how, as President of the 
 Confederate States, he could not but have known that 
 such a state of affairs existed, without applying the reme 
 dy which his position placed in his hands and made his 
 highest duty ; how, as an officer practically wielding su 
 preme power over all of the affairs of the rebel govern 
 ment, personally interfering in the details and manage 
 ment of every important concern, daily visiting and care 
 fully inspecting the reports and papers of the War Of 
 fice, this report of Colonel Chandler could have escaped 
 his scrutiny and not have come to his knowledge, will 
 challenge no weak credulity. 
 
 But, for fear that such credulity may find an excuse 
 for the Confederate authorities at Kichmond, it will be 
 sufficient to know that Colonel Chandler swore that he 
 went in person to the Secretary of ^Yar and urged that 
 his report should be taken up and acted upon, thus bring 
 ing home, without a chance of evasion, a knowledge of 
 the hellish atrocities which were in course of enactment 
 at Andersonville. 
 
 It is not a pleasing task to be compelled to enlarge 
 upon this subject, for it is humiliating to humanity to 
 know that men claiming to be civilized, boasting of a 
 chivalry and refinement beyond all the rest of the world, 
 could, in this nineteenth century, in this age and upon 
 American soil, be guilty of a barbarism such as has been 
 sketched, and which would have been a reproach to an 
 Algerine in the palmiest days of his cruelty. 
 
 The evidence is before the reader, direct and conclu 
 sive, for the facts of this odious guilt are equally proved 
 as they are confessed. 
 
126 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Effect of this Treatment on the Prisoners. Moral Restraint destroyed. 
 Scenes within the Prison. Fears of Wirz. Tunneling. Bobbery and 
 Murder. Executions. 
 
 IT will readily be supposed that, under circumstances 
 such as have been narrated, where no regard was had for 
 the comfort or health of the prisoners, and where the 
 simplest and most obvious laws of hygiene were not only 
 overlooked, but most systematically disregarded, that a 
 corresponding effect would be produced, and exhibit it 
 self in the conduct and in the minds of the prisoners. A 
 body of men, counted by tens of thousands, destitute of 
 clothing, destitute of shelter, starving, unrestrained by 
 any authority beyond what was requisite to keep them 
 penned up, except their own unregulated impulses, could 
 not be herded together for any great length of time with 
 out manifesting some of the very worst features of human 
 nature, and rapidly retrograde to the normal condition 
 of the species, and display all the characteristics of sav 
 ages. 
 
 Such, indeed, was the effect produced by the treatment 
 of these prisoners at Andersonville. The daily, hourly 
 degradation to which they were forced ; the withdrawal 
 or withholding of all moral restraint ; the filthy, grovel 
 ing life which they led, uncheered by one solitary hope 
 of amendment, slowly sunk them deeper and deeper into 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 127 
 
 despondency, turned their manhood into apathy, and de 
 based their courage into brutality. They were converted 
 into so many wild beasts, and each was animated but by 
 one purpose sought to accomplish but one object pro 
 longing their miserable lives by preying upon their com 
 rades in misfortune. 
 
 All of the restraints that education and moral training 
 had thrown around them were swept away, conscience 
 swung loose from its hold on responsibility, and they act 
 ed as if there was no more human accountability to ham 
 per the full play of every vicious tendency that might 
 impel them. There were men confined in that stockade 
 who had been well born and tenderly nurtured, who had 
 enjoyed all of the kindly influences that good example 
 and refined associations generate or suggest, whose edu 
 cations fitted them to adorn society and mingle in the 
 higher walks of life, and whose memories of pleasant 
 homes, loving mothers, and gentle sisters would even 
 there well up in their hearts, to vindicate, as it were, the 
 supremacy of their better natures. 
 
 These suffered from the contamination of grosser minds, 
 and were sunk to their level ; their integrity was sapped 
 by the treacherous effects of constant intercourse, while 
 their manliness was overwhelmed by the brutalizing re 
 sults of their imprisonment ; and it would not be too 
 harsh a judgment to pronounce the thirty-five thousand 
 men there herded together as but one degree removed 
 from absolute savages. In some respects they did not 
 reach the savage level, for he can boast of his endurance, 
 but their manhood was gone ; he can pride himself upon 
 his courage, theirs was broken by an accumulation of 
 
128 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 miseries under which the savage himself would have 
 sunk. 
 
 Wirz had carefully marked the gradual development 
 of these dangerous tendencies, and was at last satisfied 
 that they had culminated into the utter demoralization 
 of the wretched subjects which he controlled, and he be 
 gan, coward as he was, to fear their sudden exhibition to 
 ward himself. His visits to the inside of the stockade, 
 never frequent, were now Seldom made, and then with 
 extreme precautions for his own safety. He well appre 
 ciated the danger of thrusting himself into the midst of 
 these starving, maddened, reckless men, for he knew that 
 his life would not be worth a minute s purchase in the 
 hands of these unutterably wronged soldiers, and he was, 
 in consequence, seen only upon the platforms of the sen 
 tinels, outside the walls. lie was afraid of any unusual 
 assemblage of the prisoners, and his orders to the guards 
 were imperative to prevent their congregating together, 
 and to hinder any combinations for an escape. He kept 
 vigilant watch to frustrate attempts at tunneling under 
 the stockade, and patrols, armed to the teeth, made fre 
 quent explorations within the prison for that purpose. 
 
 This scrutiny was not always unrewarded, for frequent 
 ly excavations and tunnels were discovered, with chan 
 nels leading from them, in a state of completion which 
 would soon insure a free passage to the outside. One 
 such was detected more elaborately accomplished than 
 any previously attempted. The throat of the passage 
 was begun under cover of one of the shanties which 
 some of the men had erected for their dwelling. The 
 orifice was about three feet in circumference, and was 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 129 
 
 sunk nearly twelve feet perpendicularly, commencing 
 about forty feet from the side of the stockade posts, where 
 it shot off at a right angle toward the posts, with a slight 
 inclination downward. The work had advanced a dis 
 tance of nearly sixty feet, and had extended under and 
 beyond the stockade, whence it began gradually rising 
 toward the surface, and wanted but twelve feet more of 
 excavation to have brought it to a successful exit above 
 ground. The interior of the horizontal passage was 
 nearly six feet in circumference, and the earth removed 
 from it was so carefully bestowed, or used for plastering 
 up shanties, as to have escaped the watchful eyes of Wirz 
 and his sentinels. This work had been steadily progress 
 ing for nearly three months, the only tools used being 
 scraps of tin from old cups, buckets, and plates, with 
 knives and their hands. Only two men were enabled to 
 work at a time as it progressed, while others behind them 
 assisted in removing the debris to the throat, others car 
 rying it away in blankets and in the bosoms of their 
 shirts, and disposing of it to the best advantage. 
 
 When the discovery was made Wirz was furious. The 
 greater portion of the garrison was called to arms, the 
 platforms overlooking the stockade were filled with sol 
 diers, each with forty rounds of ball cartridge, while four 
 hundred were marched within the gates and drawn up 
 two deep, with arms at a ready. A squad proceeded to 
 the spot where the excavation was commenced, and ar 
 rested all of the prisoners who were near it and those 
 who occupied the shelter where it was begun, while work 
 men and teams were at once summoned to refill the hole, 
 at which they labored night and day for three days. 
 
 F2 
 
130 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 The investigation which followed failed to elicit any 
 thing more than the fact itself demonstrated ; but Wirz 
 was resolved not to be balked in his vengeance upon some 
 one for such a daring attempt to evade his grasp, and, in 
 default of finding the real executors of the work, he ar 
 rested the proprietors of the shanty, and proceeded to 
 punish them. There were six of them. Their meagre 
 rations were reduced to two ounces of bread daily, with 
 one pint of water ; nothing else was given them for twen 
 ty-one days. They were placed in the inclined stocks 
 for thirty-six hours, with no intermission for rest night 
 or day ; and for the remainder of their term of punish 
 ment, nineteen days, they were linked together with chain 
 and ball. Two of their number sank under the terrible 
 severity of the punishment and died. In order that the 
 rest of the prisoners might feel the weight of his power, 
 and at the same time be deterred from making any more 
 similar attempts, their rations were stopped for one day. 
 
 The operation of all the combined cruelty and oppres 
 sion which has been detailed in these pages so worked 
 upon the mental and physical powers of the prisoners as 
 to render a stay in the stockade dangerous even to them 
 selves. It has been remarked that there was no restraint 
 thrown around them save the restless impulses of their 
 own unregulated passions. Men who were disposed to 
 be orderly were rendered riotous by association with the 
 disorderly, while those who were habitually regardless 
 of any ruling principle were reduced to unbridled reck 
 lessness of conscience and conduct. 
 
 Scarcely an hour of the day passed at this period that 
 robberies of the most flagrant character were not com- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 131 
 
 mittcd. The stealing of food and clothes was unremit 
 ting ; nothing was secure from plunder nothing sacred 
 from appropriation. Whatever the voracity, of the out 
 side thieves had spared was doomed to another spoliation 
 at the hands of their miserable, half-famished companions 
 within the stockade ; and when cunning failed to secure 
 any coveted article, force was resorted to to obtain it. 
 
 Toward the close of the year 186i several murders 
 were committed in the prison by an organized band of 
 reckless men, who spread terror even among these de 
 spairing, broken-hearted prisoners by their wild outrages. 
 To such a pitch had their conduct proceeded, that it be 
 came necessary for the better -disposed class to adopt 
 some course by which a stop might be put to excesses 
 which threatened to convert the prison into a pandemo 
 nium, and from the danger of which no one felt himself 
 free ; they therefore appealed to Wirz for protection. 
 
 lie responded by giving them permission to punish 
 the aggressors themselves and in their own way, charac 
 teristically suggesting that " if they would hang a thou 
 sand or two he wouldn t care, as it would save him the 
 trouble !" 
 
 A court was therefore organized by the prisoners by 
 selecting three judges, appointing a prosecutor for the 
 republic of wretchedness, and impanneling a jury of 
 eighteen to try those accused of the crimes specified. 
 Four men were seized and brought before this extem 
 porized court for trial. It was proved that these four 
 were the ringleaders in all the murders and robberies 
 which had been committed indeed, were the actual crim 
 inals whose hands were stained with the blood of their 
 
132 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 starving companions. There was but one course left for 
 the court to pursue : the guilty ones could not be turned 
 out of the stockade, for Wirz would not permit that, and 
 it would have been no punishment to give them liberty ; 
 they could not be subjected to the ordinary penalties 
 which Wirz inflicted, because he reserved for himself the 
 luxury of using his own engines to punish those who re 
 belled against his authority they must not be monopo 
 lized for the protection of the prisoners against their own 
 members ; they could not consistently and safely be 
 turned loose again after having been convicted of such 
 heinous crimes, for this would be making a mockery of 
 the justice which their fellows had invoked; it was there 
 fore adjudged that they should be hung! 
 
 The day came upon which those miserable men were 
 to expiate the crimes of which they had been proven 
 guilty. Wirz had ordered a rough gallows to be erected 
 within the stockade, and in the presence of all the pris 
 oners, with the sentinels platforms crowded by soldiers, 
 and the adjoining hills lined with curious spectators, ea 
 gerly watching the scene, these four wretched, debased 
 men were executed, maintaining to the last their prefer 
 ence for death, even such a death as that, to living such 
 a life as they had led in that prison. 
 
 It is a problem for the ethical philosopher to solve 
 whether justice had been fairly meted out in this in 
 stance whether these four were more guilty before 
 heaven than he who had brought them by persistent cru 
 elty to the degradation which forced crime upon them? 
 
 In answering it, that man may be considered fortunate 
 who is permitted to look upon crime as committed only 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 133 
 
 within the spheres of enlightened communities, and to 
 weigh the influence of the slight temptations which led 
 to it. The conclusions to which he must come are un 
 avoidable, and his judgment must go against the trans 
 gressor. But place the same individual upon the stand 
 point that the judges and jury in this case occupied, from 
 which he Las to regard crime as instigated, forced upon 
 one, not by the slow growth of an immedicable perversi 
 ty, but by the delinquency and transgression of every 
 law by one who controls the very life of the criminal, 
 and who has urged its commission almost as a means of 
 maintaining life, and he will be perplexed how to decide 
 upon the propriety of this act. 
 
 However this may be, the effect of this summary vin 
 dication of personal rights was plainly evident from this 
 time forth, and a greater degree of safety for person and 
 property began to be felt in the prison. But nothing 
 could soften the hard heart of the jailer of Andersonville, 
 or force him to change his policy toward his luckless 
 prisoners. Gaunt famine stalked more ghastly within 
 and around that pen ; disease continued with increasing 
 strides to claim its victims, while the shouts and impreca 
 tions of miserable maniacs harried the ears of the discon 
 solate men who pined away there and foreshadowed their 
 own fate. It would be impossible to say how many were 
 insane, or how few there were whose intellects were not 
 disordered by the treatment they received. 
 
 The recollection of the sights in that prison will haunt 
 the mind years after its last post shall have rotted away, 
 and grass has grown upon the graves of its humble dead. 
 The sight of one whose light of reason has been extin- 
 
134 ANDERSON VILLE, 
 
 guished is sad at any time, but sadder far is it when the 
 mind is forced to an eclipse through cruelty, starvation, 
 and disease. 
 
 Within the limits of that twenty-seven acres of peo 
 pled life they could be seen, with idiotic stare and drivel 
 ing simper, wandering about, or gazing in listless apathy 
 around; now shouting an insane defiance to some im 
 agined foe ; now stealthily hiding in tattered garments 
 some well-polished, often-gnawed bone ; now sitting aloof 
 while insensate tears glided down their expressionless 
 cheeks as some ray from their far-off home lightened up 
 their darkened minds, or weakly summoned memory 
 back ; now tramping to and fro in gloomy haggardness, 
 while they raved with incoherent curses, or laughed with 
 maniacal glee at a misery which made strong men weep. 
 All this and more could be witnessed here day after day, 
 until the sights almost became familiar, and ceased to 
 awaken the horror their exhibition would otherwise 
 suggest. 
 
 To this condition were the prisoners at length reduced. 
 Starvation, nakedness, cruel treatment had done their 
 worst, and these were the results upon brave and heroic 
 men. For they were brave men all ; and they were he 
 roes too, who had taken their lives in their hands their 
 once young and happy lives, bright with the dreams of 
 anticipated success, joyous with tender loves who had 
 been calm amidst the roar of musketry, quiet when the 
 shrieks of the wounded and dying arose around them on 
 the battle-field who had faced honorable death with a 
 smile. 
 
 But here they are, martyrs to a fate which the wildest 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 135 
 
 imagination had not pictured, with no soothing encour 
 agement but the empty consolation of deserted homes 
 and broken hearts, to which they return in memory, to 
 find all the beauty, all the fragrance, all the song depart 
 ed forever, while they wait here in lonely trust until the 
 Kest comes to them at last. 
 
136 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Winter of 18G4. Its Rigor. Personal Experiences. Escaped Pris 
 oner. He is saved. Efforts of the Masons to relieve the Suffering. 
 Success. 
 
 As the months of winter approached, other misfortunes 
 began to gather around the occupants of that pen, and 
 more misery was ready prepared to aid in thinning out 
 their already attenuated ranks. The first frost of the 
 year occurred on the 25th of September, as a foretaste of 
 what was in store as the winter advanced. On the 3d 
 and 4th of December the season had clearly marked it 
 self by two days of extreme cold, accompanied with cut 
 ting, freezing winds, while during the nights thick ice 
 was made over the surface of still and exposed waters. 
 From this period, through January, the severest weather 
 was experienced that had ever visited that region of 
 country. With all the care and appliances that ingenu 
 ity could suggest or devise, it was utterly impossible for 
 the prisoners at Andersonville to maintain themselves in 
 any comfort, or shield themselves from the cold, which 
 threatened the lives of even the strongest among them. 
 
 The long confinement, the scanty food, poor and unre- 
 freshing, had reduced their systems to such a degree that 
 the blood within them coursed in feeble, fitful throbbings, 
 scarcely bearing life in its limpid secretions. Haggard 
 and naked, they were unfit subjects for the rigors of that 
 memorable winter, which made strong men draw their 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 137 
 
 garments closer around them, or seek the friendly shelter 
 and warmth of glowing fires. Yet, with all their hag- 
 gardness and nakedness, those shrunken forms must en 
 dure the frosts and the chilling blasts with what re 
 sources they best could, upon the exposed and unshel 
 tered hill-side where they were confined. 
 
 With forests of great extent, within whose limits the 
 woodman s axe had scarcely made its mark, at a distance 
 of but a few hundred feet from the stockade, Nature had 
 provided an unlimited supply of fuel of the very best 
 character. Nothing was required but the permission of 
 Wirz to the prisoners, when they could have supplied 
 themselves with that which would in some measure have 
 mitigated the terrors of that season. This permission 
 was withheld, or, if granted, was accompanied with such 
 restraints as to render it a worthless boon when the terms 
 were accepted. 
 
 A few men only at a time were allowed to go outside 
 to gather wood. The time of these was limited, while 
 no tools or axes were provided with which the timber 
 could be cut or brought in. Such refuse and decaying 
 wood as could be gathered on the ground was all that 
 was allowed them, and, as successive parties made their 
 daily excursions, so the scanty supply became by degrees 
 exhausted in the immediate neighborhood of the prison, 
 and necessitated a wider range and a longer time to ob 
 tain the needed fuel. 
 
 The greater the distance to which they were compelled 
 to go, the smaller the loads with which they returned, 
 and at last it became difficult to procure wood enough to 
 suffice for the slender cooking which they required. Day 
 
138 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 after day that shrunken, pallid crowd might be seen 
 standing in shivering groups over exhausted embers, 
 which failed to impart warmth or comfort to their freez 
 ing bodies, while they wistfully gazed at the towering 
 trees, which seemed to mock their misery, at a stone s 
 throw from them. Wirz was literally carrying out the 
 edict of the Richmond Examiner of just one year before, 
 and he was permitting " the cold weather to thin them out 
 in accordance with the laws of Nature!" They were thin 
 ned out, poor fellows ! for the dawn of every morning 
 would display them lying close huddled together for 
 warmth, with here and there the stiffened, frozen form of 
 one out of whose attenuated body the breath of life had 
 passed, hugging his neighbor, who breathed unconscious 
 of the dead mass beside him. 
 
 Wood could have been provided with no expense and 
 no trouble. It did not require a printed form of requisi 
 tion upon a quarter-master to obtain it, for even bounte 
 ous Nature had lavishly reared the trees at hand. The 
 man who boasted in his defense that he was always ani 
 mated by " an angelic influence" in his treatment of these 
 prisoners withheld what the yielding earth had offered, 
 and the " angel" looked grimly on as he saw the bodies 
 of his frozen victims borne forth, unawakened from their 
 last sad sleep. 
 
 And so the winter passed on, the strongest and most 
 hopeful breasting the cold and nerving themselves to the 
 endurance of what they could neither escape or alle 
 viate. 
 
 Now and then one did escape, preferring the risk of 
 the sentinel s bullet or the hound s fangs, of death itself 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 139 
 
 outside the prison, to the slow, lingering, but certain ex 
 tinction which awaited him if he remained there. 
 
 One case of successful escape from the prison fell un 
 der the personal notice of the author, and will be im 
 pressed upon his memory as long as it lasts. 
 
 The night of the 5th of January, 1865, was marked as 
 one of the coldest that had been experienced in that 
 country for many years. The ground was frozen solid, 
 ice covered the standing water, while the biting blasts of 
 a north wind penetrated the houses, and sent a chill to the 
 hearts of all who listened to its wild meanings amid the 
 pine-trees that bowed to its power. The mercury showed 
 16 above zero soon after the sun had sunk to his lurid 
 couch. The constant lowing of cattle, with the plaintive 
 bleatings of sheep, and the restless voices of the huddled 
 swine, gave token that the ice king was forth as he is sel 
 dom seen in that region. The North had in reality vis 
 ited and subjugated the South, a forerunner of what was 
 to come when its real power should be manifest in its 
 armies. 
 
 Midnight had arrived, when a voice was heard, as if in 
 distress, asking aid and admittance to shelter. Upon in 
 quiry, it was found to proceed from a Union prisoner, 
 who had made his escape from Andersonville three days 
 before. In a few moments he was seated by the side of a 
 blazing fire, whose heat hardly sufficed to penetrate the 
 chilled form which shivered in its glow. He proved to 
 be a soldier from Lexington, Kentucky, and who had 
 been recaptured once since making his escape, but had 
 again freed himself while being returned to his detested 
 prison. lie had heard the far-off baying of the hounds 
 
140 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 that had been put upon his track often during that day, 
 but Fortune favored his efforts, and he succeeded in elud 
 ing their scent. A friendly negro man whom he en 
 countered divided his pone of corn-bread and bacon with 
 him, and gave him directions to the author s house. 
 
 "He s a Yankee from de Norf, and he ll sist you sure!" 
 said Isham to the wearied, hound-hunted man. 
 
 "Won t he be afraid to help me?" queried the doubt 
 ing fugitive. 
 
 " Bless you t not he. Dere s no one bout here he s 
 feared of. I tell you, boss, he s a real Yankee, an no mis 
 take." 
 
 And to that Yankee s house the tracked man at last 
 came, and found what he feared would be denied him 
 sympathy and material aid. 
 
 The kind-hearted wife exerted herself to provide sub 
 stantial food and hot coffee for her exhausted guest, who 
 sat once more at a table, and refreshed himself with the 
 comforts of refined life. So long time had he been de 
 prived of the use of knives and forks, that it demanded 
 some exertion before he could manipulate to advantage 
 with them. But hunger is a master of all formalities, as 
 the encouraging smile and moistened eye of the attentive 
 hostess urged the soldier to eat, and proved his aptitude 
 to learn. 
 
 Not here did she terminate her ministrations to his 
 wants, but with keen foresight, such as none but "the 
 kind of heart" possess, the good wife and sympathizing 
 lady made provision for the soldier s future needs. From 
 the smoke-house ample supply of bacon was brought, 
 and corn-bread prepared by her own hands, and the hav- 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 ersack was filled. Tobacco, matches, and money was 
 given to solace his lonely tramp beyond the lines of dan 
 ger, or to aid in procuring his necessary food. 
 
 And then the gentle eyes scanned the worn, patched 
 suit of blue flannel so worn, indeed, that it would have 
 served for a summer s dress from its tenuity, but ill 
 adapted to the rigors of that wintry night. Over all was 
 fitted the warm clothing of a soldier son, while thick 
 stockings and sound shoes were given to protect the soil- 
 worn feet. With a well-replenished fire, the wearied man 
 laid down to a short rest, and soon sunk into profound 
 slumber deeper, perhaps, than any he had enjoyed since 
 he left his Kentucky home. 
 
 Before the dawn of day he was aroused, and his way 
 to St. Mark s, Florida, was pointed out, while he was cau 
 tioned to travel only by night. With a God speed, he 
 stepped manfully forth into the shadows of the forest, 
 lighter of heart and better prepared to stem the troubles 
 that were before him until his liberty should be secured. 
 
 When that excellent woman at last returned to her 
 rest, an invocation was heard from her pure lips to Him 
 who watches over the helpless that the soldier-prisoner 
 might be under his protection in his lonely bivouac as 
 in his eternal sleep. 
 
 The attention of several masonic bodies in Georgia was 
 directed to the destitute condition of brethren of the or 
 der who were confined at Andersonville, and correspond 
 ing means were taken to relieve their wants and minis 
 ter to their sufferings. The Lodges at Thomasville and 
 
 O O 
 
 Albany were conspicuous in their efforts to seek out and 
 aid the masons in prison and hospital. Delegations from 
 
142 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 these bodies went to Andersonville, and, not without dif 
 ficulty, found the names of many who required their fra 
 ternal assistance. Money, clothing, and food was pro 
 vided by the Albany Lodge, and the destitute brothers 
 were cheered by the kind attentions of their friends, re 
 lieved by their bounty, solaced by their care, or buried 
 with the mystic ceremonies of the order. The Lodge at 
 Macon contributed clothing, and rendered such other 
 services as their means permitted, while individual mem 
 bers of other Lodges exerted themselves in the cause of 
 humanity, and rescued many from their undeserved suf 
 fering. 
 
 It is pleasant to be permitted to record such acts of un 
 selfish benevolence ; for, although the total of those who 
 were thus relieved was small in comparison with the vast 
 amount of destitution there exhibited, it nevertheless goes 
 to swell the aggregate of that noble band who will be 
 cheered with the divine salutation, "Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it to one of these." 
 
ANDEKSONVILLE. l-3 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The End at Last. Peace. Wirz in Fear. Letter to General Wilson.-^ 
 His Apprehension and Trial. Constitution of the Court. Effect of 
 the Evidence. Findings. Order for Execution. 
 
 AND thus the thirteen months of the existence of this 
 abode of wretchedness and death wore wearily on. to their 
 close as the great events of the war reached their culmina 
 tion. 
 
 Changes had occurred in the internal administration 
 of the prison, and others assumed the positions which 
 their predecessors had vacated. The arch-director of 
 prisons had met with a change of mor.e momentous im 
 portance to himself than to any whom he had left be 
 hind him. 77/5 commission icas revoked. John II. Win 
 der was no longer a brigadier general in the Confederate 
 army. He had been summoned to answer for his crimes 
 before a court whose jurisdiction could not be questioned, 
 and whose judgment was irrevocable. He was dead 
 dead, with all the hideous accumulation of unrepented 
 sins which he had scored up against himself there at 
 Andersonville. His record was made out by his own 
 hand, and he died too soon for human justice, too late 
 for divine mercy. His name will go down forever linked 
 with the terrible but just censure of Colonel Chandler as 
 one u-lio advocated murder deliberately and in cold Hood, 
 and with the enduring execrations of every man of sen 
 sibility who ever had an hour s intercourse with him. 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 > 
 
 The author does not subscribe to the paganism which 
 forbids censure of the bad because no good can be uttered 
 of the dead, nor will he be misled by the drivel of 
 "magnanimity" when he sums up the character of a de 
 liberate torturer and slayer of helpless prisoners of war. 
 He accepts the rule as laid down by Carlyle: "Above 
 all things, let us rid ourselves of cant;" and, in dismiss 
 ing the man Winder to the infamy which must ever be 
 his, he bids farewell to the leading subject in a panorama 
 of public horror, which will rival the most revolting of 
 Dante s conceptions, because the pictures from his hand 
 were real and conceivable. 
 
 The weary months at last reached April in their re 
 curring order, when the sun of the twenty-seventh shone 
 down upon the exhausted, degraded remnant who yet 
 peopled that filthy stockade. Peace had at length come 
 to them, but not in her poetical garb of purity. Her gar 
 ments were defiled as she passed through that inclosure, 
 where a holocaust of corruption had been offered up for 
 thirteen months; her smile was changed to sadness as 
 she gazed upon the wrecks of humanity whose feeble 
 voices welcomed her approach. But she bore them the 
 tidings of freedom, and from that moment they felt their 
 manhood return to them again they were free at last ! 
 
 The jailer Wirz had continued his residence near the 
 stockade with his family, and there the peace found him, 
 terrified, trembling at the future that he saw before him. 
 His occupation was gone ; his companions in crime had 
 left him the sole occupant of the theatre of his past atroci 
 ties, to confront by himself the scorn and vengeance of 
 an outraged nation. He quailed before the terrors of the 
 
ANDEKSONVILLE. 145 
 
 storm he bad invoked, and the haughty, cruel lord of 
 thirty thousand lives sank into the whining suppliant for 
 grace to his trebly forfeited, worthless carcase. He ad 
 dressed a letter to General James II. Wilson, command 
 ing at Macon, and sought his protection from the justly 
 exasperated prisoners whom he had tortured. He plead 
 that he had acted under orders, and should not be held 
 accountable for the results. Upon the reception of this 
 letter, General Wilson ordered his arrest by Captain 
 Noyes, United States Army, and his transference to Ma- 
 con, lie was shortly afterward removed to Washington, 
 and confined in the Old Capitol Prison, and there de 
 tained. 
 
 In due course the following order was issued : 
 
 Special Orders, No. 453. 
 
 "War Department, Adjutant General s Office,^ 
 Washington, August 23, 1865. j 
 
 "3. A special Military Commission is hereby appoint 
 ed to meet in this city at 11 o clock A.M. on the 23d day 
 of August, 1865, or as soon thereafter as practicable, for 
 the trial of Henry Wirz, and such other prisoners as may 
 be brought before it. 
 
 "Detail for the Commission : 
 " Major General L. Wallace, U. S. Volunteers. 
 " Brevet Major General G. Mott, U. S. Volunteers. 
 "Brevet Major General J. W. Geary, U. S. Volunteers. 
 " Brevet Major General L. Thomas, Adjutant General IT. 
 
 S. Army. 
 
 " Brigadier General Francis Fessenden, U. S. Volunteers. 
 " Brigadier General E. S. Bragg, U. S. Volunteers. 
 
 G 
 
146 ANDERSONVTLLE. 
 
 "Brevet Brigadier General John F. Ballier, Colonel 98th 
 
 Pennsylvania Volunteers. 
 " Brevet Colonel T. Allcock, Lieutenant Colonel 4th New 
 
 York Artillery. 
 
 "Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Stibbs, 12th Iowa Volunteers. 
 "Colonel 1ST. P. Chipman, additional aid -de-camp, Judge 
 Advocate of the Commission, with such assistants as 
 he may select, with the approval of the Judge Advo 
 cate General. 
 
 " The Commission will sit without regard to hours. 
 " By order of the President of the United States. 
 "E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General." 
 
 Before this court, which was acknowledged to be, be 
 yond cavil, the most talented that had ever been assem 
 bled, and as to rank above exception, the jailer, whose 
 current crimes have been delineated, was brought for 
 trial. The charges and specifications were read to him. 
 It is not considered necessary to give any explanation 
 of them, as the reader can judge for himself. They are 
 as follows : 
 
 CHARGE 1. 
 
 Maliciously, willfully, and traitorously, and in aid of 
 the then existing armed rebellion against the United 
 States of America, on or before the first day of March, 
 A.D. 1864, and on divers other days between that day 
 and the tenth day of April, 1865, combining, confedera 
 ting, and conspiring together with John EL Winder, Rich 
 ard B. Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Ste 
 venson, and others unknown, to injure the health and de- 
 
ANDERSONV1LLE. 147 
 
 stroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the 
 United States, then held and being prisoners of war with 
 in the lines of the so-called Confederate States and in the 
 military prisons thereof, to the end that the armies of the 
 United States might be weakened and impaired, in vio 
 lation of the laws and customs of war. 
 
 Specification. 
 
 In this, that he, the said Henry Wirz, did combine, 
 confederate, and conspire with them, the said John II. 
 Winder, Kichard B. Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Win 
 der, E. E. Stevenson, and others whose names are un 
 known, citizens of the United States aforesaid, and who 
 were then engaged in armed rebellion against the United 
 States, maliciously, traitorously, and in violation of the 
 laws of war, to impair and injure the health and to de 
 stroy the lives by subjecting to torture and great suffer 
 ing, by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quar 
 ters, by exposing to the inclemency of winter and to the 
 dews and burning sun of summer, by compelling the use 
 of impure water, and by furnishing insufficient and un 
 wholesome food of large numbers of Federal prisoners, 
 to wit, the number of thirty thousand, soldiers in the mil 
 itary service of the United States of America, held as 
 prisoners of war at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, 
 within the lines of the so-called Confederate States, on or 
 before the first day of March, A.D. 1864, and at divers 
 times between that day and the tenth day of April, A.D. 
 1865, to the end that the armies of the United States 
 might be weakened and impaired, and the insurgents en 
 gaged in armed rebellion against the United States might 
 
148 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 be aided and comforted : And he, the said Henry Wirz, 
 an officer in the military service of the so-called Confed 
 erate States, being then and there commandant of a mili 
 tary prison at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, lo 
 cated by authority of the so-called Confederate States for 
 the confinement of prisoners of war, and as such com 
 mandant fully clothed with authority, and in duty bound 
 to treat, care, and provide for such prisoners held as 
 aforesaid as were or might be placed in his custody, ac 
 cording to the law of war, did, in furtherance of such 
 combination, confederation, and conspiracy, and incited 
 thereunto by them, the said John H. Winder, Eichard B. 
 Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Winder, E. E. Stevenson, 
 and others whose names are unknown, maliciously, wick 
 edly, and traitorously confine a large number of such 
 prisoners of war, soldiers in the military service of the 
 United States, to the amount of thirty thousand men, in 
 unhealthy and unwholesome quarters, in a close and 
 small area of ground, wholly inadequate to their wants 
 and destructive to their health, which he well knew and 
 intended ; and while there so confined, during the time 
 aforesaid, did, in furtherance of his evil design, and in aid 
 of the said conspiracy, willfully and maliciously neglect 
 to furnish tents, barracks, or other shelter sufficient for 
 their protection from the inclemency of winter and the 
 dews and burning sun of summer ; and with such evil 
 intent did take and cause to be taken from them their 
 clothing, blankets, camp equipage, and other property of 
 which they were possessed at the time of being placed in 
 his custody ; and with like malice and evil intent, did re 
 fuse to furnish or cause to be furnished food, either of a 
 
AXDERSONVILLE. 149 
 
 quality or quantity sufficient to preserve health and sus 
 tain life ; and did refuse and neglect to furnish wood suf 
 ficient for cooking in summer, and to keep the said pris 
 oners warm in winter, and did compel the said prisoners 
 to subsist upon unwholesome food, and that in limited 
 quantities entirely inadequate to sustain health, which he 
 well knew ; and did compel the said prisoners to use un 
 wholesome water, reeking with the filth and garbage of 
 the prison and prison guard, and the offal and drainage 
 of the cook-house of said prison, whereby the prisoners 
 became greatly reduced in their bodily strength, and ema 
 ciated and injured in their bodily health, their minds im 
 paired, and their intellects broken ; and many of them, to 
 wit, the number of ten thousand, whose names are un 
 known, sickened and died by reason thereof, which he, 
 the said Henry Wirz, then and there well knew and in 
 tended ; and so knowing and evilly intending, did refuse 
 and neglect to provide proper lodgings, food, or nourish 
 ment for the sick, and necessary medicine and medical 
 attendance for the restoration of their health, and did 
 knowingly, willfully, and maliciously, in furtherance of 
 his evil designs, permit them to languish and die from 
 want of care and proper treatment ; and the said Henry 
 Wirz, still pursuing his evil purposes, did permit to re 
 main in the said prison, among the emaciated sick and 
 languishing living, the bodies of the dead, until they be 
 came corrupt and loathsome, and filled the air with fetid 
 and noxious exhalations, and thereby greatly increased 
 the unwholesomeness of the prison, insomuch that great 
 numbers of said prisoners, to wit, the number of one 
 thousand, whose names are unknown, sickened and died 
 
150 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 by reason thereof: And the said Henry Wirz, still pur 
 suing his wicked and cruel purpose, wholly disregarding 
 the usages of civilized warfare, did, at the time and place 
 aforesaid, maliciously and willfully subject the prisoners 
 aforesaid to cruel, unusual, and infamous punishment upon 
 slight, trivial, and fictitious pretenses, by fastening large 
 balls of iron to their feet, and binding large numbers of 
 the prisoners aforesaid closely together, with large chains 
 around their necks and feet, so that they walked with the 
 greatest difficulty ; and, being so confined, were subject 
 ed to the burning rays of the sun, often without food or 
 drink for hours and even days, from which said cruel 
 treatment large numbers, to wit, the number of one hund 
 red, whose names are unknown, sickened, fainted, and 
 died : And he, the said Wirz, did further cruelly treat 
 and injure said prisoners by maliciously confining them 
 within an instrument of torture called "the stocks," thus 
 depriving them of the use of their limbs, and forcing 
 them to lie, sit, and stand for many hours without the 
 power of changing position, and being without food or 
 drink, in consequence of which many, to wit, the number 
 of thirty, whose names are unknown, sickened and died : 
 And he, the said Wirz, still wickedly pursuing his evil 
 purpose, did establish and cause to be designated within 
 the prison inclosure containing said prisoners a "dead 
 line," being a line around the inner face of the stockade, 
 or wall inclosing said prison, and about twenty feet dis 
 tant from and within said stockade ; and having so es 
 tablished said dead line, which was in many places an 
 imaginary line, and in many other places marked by in 
 secure and shifting strips of boards nailed upon the top 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 151 
 
 of small and insecure stakes or posts, he, the said Wirz, 
 instructed the prison guard stationed around the top of 
 said stockade to fire upon and kill any of the prisoners 
 aforesaid who might touch, fall upon, pass over, or under, 
 or across the said "dead line." Pursuant to which said 
 orders and instructions, maliciously and needlessly given 
 by said Wirz, the said prison guard did fire upon and 
 kill a large number of said prisoners, to wit, the number 
 of about three hundred. And the said Wirz, still pur 
 suing his evil purpose, did keep and use ferocious and 
 bloodthirsty beasts, dangerous to human life, called blood 
 hounds, to hunt down prisoners of war aforesaid who 
 made their escape from his custody, and did, then and 
 there, willfully and maliciously suffer, incite, and encour 
 age the said beasts to seize, tear, mangle, and maim the 
 bodies and limbs of said fugitive prisoners of war, which 
 the said beasts, incited as aforesaid, then and there did, 
 whereby a large number of said prisoners of war who, dur 
 ing the time aforesaid, made their escape and were recap 
 tured, and were by the said beasts then and there cruelly 
 and inhumanly injured, insomuch that many of said pris 
 oners, to wit, the number of about fifty, died : And the 
 said Wirz, still pursuing his wicked purpose, and still 
 aiding in carrying out said conspiracy, did use and cause 
 to be used, for the pretended purpose of vaccination, im 
 pure and poisonous vaccine matter, which said impure 
 and poisonous matter was then and there, by the direc 
 tion and order of said Wirz, maliciously, cruelly, and 
 wickedly deposited in the arms of many of said prison 
 ers, by reason of which large numbers of them, to wit, 
 one hundred, lost the use of their arms, and many of 
 
152 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 them, to wit, about the number of two hundred, were so 
 injured that they soon thereafter died : All of which he, 
 the said Henry Wirz, well knew and maliciously intend 
 ed, and in aid of the then existing rebellion against the 
 United States, with the view to assist in weakening and 
 impairing the armies of the United States, and in fur 
 therance of the said conspiracy, and with the full knowl 
 edge, consent, and connivance of his co-conspirators afore-/ 
 said, he, the said "Wirz, then and there did. 
 
 CHARGE 2. 
 Murder, in violation of the laws and customs of war. 
 
 Specification 1. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the eighth day of July, AJD. 1864, then and there 
 being commandant of a prison there located by the au 
 thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, willfully, and of 
 his malice aforethought, did make an assault, and he, the 
 said Henry Wirz, a certain pistol called a revolver then 
 and there loaded and charged with gunpowder and bul 
 lets, which said pistol the said Henry Wirz in his hand 
 then and there held, to, against, and upon a soldier be 
 longing to the army of the United States, in his, the said 
 Henry Wirz s, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
 is unknown, then and there feloniously, and of his malice 
 
AXDERSONVILLE. 153 
 
 aforethought, did shoot and discharge, inflicting upon the 
 body of the soldier aforesaid a mortal wound with the 
 pistol aforesaid, in consequence of which said mortal 
 wound, murderously inflicted by the said Henry Wirz, 
 the said soldier thereafter, to wit, on the ninth day of 
 July, A.D. 1864, died. 
 
 Specification 2. 
 
 In this, that the said Ilenry Wirz, an officer in the mil 
 itary service of the so-called Confederate States of Amer 
 ica, at Andersonville, iu the State of Georgia, on or about 
 the twentieth day of September, A.D. 1864, then and 
 there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
 authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, willfully, and of 
 his malice aforethought, did jump upon, stamp, kick, 
 bruise, and otherwise injure with the heels of his boots, 
 a soldier belonging to the army of the United States in 
 his, the said Ilenry Wirz s, custody as a prisoner of war, 
 whose name is unknown, of which said stamping, kick 
 ing, and bruising, maliciously done and inflicted by the 
 said Wirz, he, the said soldier, soon thereafter, to wit, on 
 the twentieth day of September, A.D. 186-1, died. 
 
 Specification 3. 
 
 In this, that the said Ilenry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the thirteenth day of June, A.D. 1864, then and 
 
 G2 
 
154 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
 authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did make an assault, and he, the said Henry 
 Wirz, a certain pistol called a revolver then and there 
 loaded and charged with gunpowder and bullets, which 
 said pistol the said Henry Wirz in his hand then and 
 there had and held, to, against, and upon a soldier be 
 longing to the army of the United States, in his, the said 
 Henry Wirz s, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
 is unknown, then and there feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did shoot and discharge, inflicting upon the 
 body of the soldier aforesaid a mortal wound with the pis 
 tol aforesaid, in consequence of which said mortal wound, 
 murderously inflicted by the said Henry Wirz, the said 
 soldier immediately, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 
 
 Specification 4. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so - called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the thirtieth day of May, A.D. 1864, then and there 
 being commandant of a prison there located by the au 
 thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did make an assault, and he, the said Henry 
 Wirz, a certain pistol called a revolver then and there 
 
ANDEKSONVILLE. 155 
 
 loaded and charged with gunpowder and bullets, which 
 said pistol the said Henry Wirz in his hand then and 
 there had and held, to, against, and upon a soldier be 
 longing to the army of the United States, in his, the said 
 Henry Wirz s, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
 is unknown, then and there feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did shoot and discharge, inflicting upon the 
 body of the soldier aforesaid a mortal wound with the 
 pistol aforesaid, in consequence of which said mortal 
 wound, murderously inflicted by the said Henry Wirz, 
 the said soldier, on the thirtieth clay of May, A.D. 1864, 
 died. 
 
 Specification 5. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the twentieth day of August, A.D. 1864, then and 
 there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
 authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did confine and bind within an instrument 
 of torture called "the stocks," a soldier belonging to the 
 army of the United States, in his, the said Henry Wirz s, 
 custody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, in 
 consequence of which said cruel treatment, maliciously 
 and murderously inflicted as aforesaid, he, the said sol 
 dier, soon thereafter, to wit, on the thirtieth day of Au 
 gust, A.D. 1864, died. 
 
156 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Specification 6. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the first day of February, A.D. 1865, then and there 
 being commandant of a prison there located by the au 
 thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did confine and bind within an instrument 
 of torture called " the stocks," a soldier belonging to the 
 army of the United States, in his, the said Henry Wirz s, 
 custody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, in 
 consequence of which said cruel treatment, maliciously 
 and murderously inflicted as aforesaid, he, the said sol 
 dier, soon thereafter, to wit, on the sixth day of Februa 
 ry, A.D. 1864, died. 
 
 Specification 7. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the twentieth day of July, A.D. 1864, then and 
 there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
 authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did fasten and chain together several per- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 157 
 
 sons, soldiers belonging to the army of the United States 
 in his, the said Henry Wirz s, custody as prisoners of war, 
 whose names are unknown, binding the necks and feet 
 of said prisoners closely together, and compelling them 
 to carry great burdens, to wit, large iron balls chained to 
 their feet, so that, in consequence of the said cruel treat 
 ment inflicted upon them by the said Henry Wirz as 
 aforesaid, one of said soldiers, a prisoner of war as afore 
 said, whose name is unknown, on the twenty -fifth day of 
 July, A.D. 186-1, died. 
 
 Specification 8. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the fifteenth day of May, A.D. 1864, then and there 
 being commandant of a prison there located by the au 
 thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, willfully, and of 
 his malice aforethought, did order a rebel soldier whose 
 name is unknown, then on duty as a sentinel or guard to 
 the prison of which said Henry Wirz was commandant 
 as aforesaid, to fire upon a soldier belonging to the army 
 of the United States in his, the said Henry Wirz s, cus 
 tody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown ; and 
 in pursuance of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously 
 and murderously given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel 
 soldier, did, with a musket loaded with gunpowder and 
 bullet, then and there fire at the said soldier so as afore- 
 
158 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 said held as a prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mor 
 tal wound with the musket aforesaid, of which he, the 
 said prisoner, soon thereafter, to wit, on the day afore 
 said, died. 
 
 Specification 9. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the first day of July, A.D. 1864, then and there be 
 ing commandant of a prison there located by the author 
 ity of the said so-called Confederate States for the con 
 finement of prisoners of war taken and held as such from 
 the armies of the United States of America, while acting 
 as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice afore 
 thought, did order a rebel soldier, whose name is un 
 known, then on duty as a sentinel or guard to the prison 
 of which said "Wirz was commandant as aforesaid, to fire 
 upon a soldier belonging to the army of the United 
 States, in his, the said Henry Wirz s, custody as a pris 
 oner of war, whose name is unknown ; and in pursuance 
 of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously and murderous 
 ly given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel soldier, did, with 
 a rnusket loaded with gunpowder and bullet, then and 
 there fire at the said soldier so as aforesaid held as a 
 prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mortal wound with 
 the said musket, of which he, the said prisoner, soon there 
 after, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 
 
 Specification 10. 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 159 
 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the twentieth day of August, A.D. 186-i, then and 
 there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
 authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
 aforethought, did order a rebel soldier, whose name is un- 
 kno wn, then on duty as- a sentinel or guard to the prison 
 of which said Wirz was commandant as aforesaid, to fire 
 upon a soldier belonging to the army of the United 
 States, in his, the said Henry Wirz s, custody as a pris 
 oner of war, whose name is unknown ; and in pursuance 
 of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously and murderous 
 ly given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel soldier, did, with 
 a musket loaded with gunpowder and bullet, then and 
 there lire at the said soldier so as aforesaid held as a 
 prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mortal wound with 
 the said musket, of which he, the said prisoner, soon there 
 after, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 
 
 Specification 11. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so - called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the first day of July, A.D. 1864, then and there be 
 ing commandant of a prison there located by the author 
 ity of the said so-called Confederate States for the con 
 finement of prisoners of war taken and held as such from 
 the armies of the United States of America, while acting 
 
160 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice afore 
 thought, did cause, incite, and urge certain ferocious and 
 bloodthirsty- animals called bloodhounds to pursue, at 
 tack, wound, and tear in pieces a soldier belonging to the 
 army of the United States in his, the said Henry Wirz s, 
 custody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, 
 and in consequence thereof the said bloodhounds did 
 then and there, with the knowledge, encouragement, and 
 instigation of him, the said Wirz, maliciously and murder 
 ously given by him, attack and mortally wound the said 
 soldier, in consequence of which said mortal wound he, 
 the said prisoner, soon thereafter, to wit, on the sixth day 
 of July, A.D. 1864, died. 
 
 Specification 12. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wire, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the twenty-seventh day of July, A.D. 1864, then 
 and there being commandant of a prison there located 
 by the authority of the said so-called Confederate States 
 for the confinement of prisoners of war taken and held 
 as such from the armies of the United States of America, 
 while acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his 
 malice aforethought, did order a rebel soldier, whose 
 name is unknown, then on duty as a sentinel or guard to 
 the prison of which said Wirz was commandant as afore 
 said, to fire upon a soldier belonging to the army of the 
 United States, in his, the said Henry Wirz s, custody as a 
 prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, and in pursu 
 ance of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously and mur- 
 
AXDERSONVILLE. 161 
 
 derously given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel soldier, did, 
 with a musket loaded with gunpowder and bullet, then 
 and there fire at the said soldier so as aforesaid held as a 
 prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mortal wound with 
 the said musket, of which said mortal wound he, the said 
 prisoner, soon thereafter, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 
 
 13. 
 
 In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
 military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
 about the third day of August, A.D.1S64, then and there 
 being commandant of a prison there located by the au 
 thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
 confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
 from the armies of the United States of America, while 
 acting as said commandant, feloniously, and.of his malice 
 aforethought, did make an assault upon a soldier belong 
 ing to the army of the United States, in his, the sak] 
 Henry Wirz s, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
 is unknown, and with a pistol called a revolver, then and 
 there held in the hands of the said Wirz, did beat and 
 bruise said soldier upon the head, shoulders, and breast, 
 inflicting thereby mortal wounds, from which said beat 
 ing and bruising aforesaid, and mortal wounds caused 
 thereby, the said soldier soon thereafter, to wit, on the 
 fourth day of August, A.D. 1864, died. 
 
 By order of the President of the United States. 
 
 K P. CHTPMAX, Colonel and A. A.D.C., 
 Judge Advocate. 
 
162 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 To the above charges the prisoner put in pleas in bar 
 to the effect, 
 
 1st. That he had been offered protection by General 
 J. II. Wilson, and that he should not be held a prisoner. 
 The accused accepted the offer, and claims to have been 
 since held in violation of his personal liberty. 
 
 2d. He denied the jurisdiction of the court to try him. 
 
 3d. That the war being ended and civil law restored, 
 there is no military law under which he could be tried. 
 
 4th. He moved to quash the charges for vagueness as 
 to time, place, and manner of the offenses. 
 
 5th. That he had been on the 21st of August put upon 
 trial to these charges, and that the court had been broken 
 up without his agency or consent. Having once been 
 put in jeopardy, he can not now be arraigned as before, 
 but is entitled to an acquittal. 
 
 6th. He claimed a discharge, because as an officer in 
 the Confederate army he was entitled to the terms agreed 
 to between Generals Sherman and Johnston upon the 
 surrender of the latter. 
 
 These several pleas, except as to the jurisdiction of the 
 court, were overruled, and the prisoner then put in the 
 plea of " Not Guilty." 
 
 To sustain the charges there were examined one hund 
 red and seven witnesses. The trial was concluded on 
 the 4th of November, having continued for seventy-three 
 consecutive days. 
 
ANDERSCXNTILLE. 163 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Argument of Judge Advocate. 
 
 Nay it please the Court : 
 
 Deeply sensible of the importance and solemnity with 
 which you have clothed this trial, and quickened, as I 
 know you are, to a high sense of duty by the obligation 
 you have taken to " well and truly try and determine, 
 according to the evidence, the matter now before you be 
 tween the United States of America and the prisoner to 
 be tried, and to duly administer justice according to your 
 conscience, the best of your understanding, and the cus 
 tom of war," no word of mine is needed to increase the 
 impressiveness of this occasion. 
 
 In many of its aspects and bearings this trial presents 
 features more startling, more extraordinary, and more 
 momentous than are found in the whole annals of juris 
 prudence. The charges and specifications here laid ac 
 cuse this prisoner and other persons, named and un 
 named, with having " maliciously, traitorously, and in vio 
 lation of the laws of war, conspired to impair and injure 
 the health, and to destroy the lives, by subjecting to tor 
 ture and great suffering, by confining in unhealthy and 
 unwholesome quarters, by exposing to the inclemency 
 of winter, to the dews and burning sun of summer, by 
 compelling the use of impure water, and by furnishing 
 insufficient and unwholesome food, of large numbers of 
 
164 ANDEESONVILLE. 
 
 soldiers in the military service of the United States, held 
 as prisoners of war at Anderson ville, Georgia, by the so- 
 called Confederate States of America, to the end that the 
 armies of the United States might be weakened and im 
 paired, and the insurgents engaged in armed rebellion 
 against the United States might be aided and com 
 forted." 
 
 I invoke, gentlemen, your calm deliberation, your most 
 dispassionate and humane judgment, while I unfold the 
 proofs of guilt. 
 
 In a field so broad, presenting so many issues and in 
 volving so many persons, it has been a question of grave 
 thought with me how to present the argument in this 
 case, my desire being only to give to the Court a per 
 spicuous and faithful analysis of the testimony, nothing 
 extenuating, and setting down naught in malice. 
 
 With this view, I have thought it best to notice, 
 
 1st. Such legal objections as have been made to the 
 Commission as a judicial tribunal, and such other objec 
 tions as may be deemed worthy of notice touching the 
 manner in which the case has been tried. 
 
 2d. To present a truthful analysis of the testimony, 
 without regard to the responsibilities of the parties, for 
 the purpose of ascertaining, as nearly as language can 
 portray them, the horrors of Andersonville, that we may 
 be prepared to appreciate fully the fearful responsibility 
 of those inculpated by the evidence. 
 
 3d. To examine charge first, alleging conspiracy ; in 
 this connection showing the extent of the conspiracy, its 
 purposes, and the criminality of each of the conspirators ; 
 and, 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 165 
 
 4th. To show the guilt of the prisoner at the bar under 
 charge second, alleging murder in violation of the laws 
 of war. 
 
 JURISDICTION OF THE COURT. 
 
 Among the numerous special pleas filed by the coun 
 sel denying the right of the court to try the prisoner, 
 there is but one, I believe, which has not been abandoned : 
 this is the plea to the jurisdiction. 
 
 I can hardly suppose that any member of this Com 
 mission entertains a doubt on this point, yet I do not feel 
 at liberty to pass unnoticed a question so seriously made, 
 and about which honest and loyal men differ. If there 
 be neither law, safe precedent, nor right upon which to 
 base this proceeding, then it is a serious assumption of 
 power, and alike dangerous to yourselves and the pris 
 oner, and one in the exercise of which the order of his 
 excellency the President will not protect you. While I 
 have yet to read the adverse opinion of a single lawyer 
 given outside the court-room who speaks from the stand 
 point of one who knows from the teachings of experience 
 how strong has been, and is still, the necessity of check 
 ing and punishing crimes against the laws of war com 
 mitted in rebellious districts during and in aid of rebel 
 lion against the government, yet it must be conceded 
 that there is color of reason in the argument, and it is 
 because with great persistency your right to proceed is 
 denied that I shall presume to address myself to this 
 question. 
 
 As we recede from a state of actual war and approach 
 a condition of profound peace, we doubtless travel away 
 
166 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 from the corner-stone upon which the Military Commis 
 sion as a judicial tribunal rests; but that your right to 
 try the case before you is disturbed by a mere suspension 
 of hostilities on the part of rebels in the field, while the 
 spirit of rebellion is still rampant, I do not for a mo 
 ment suppose, and in a very brief resume of the argu 
 ment on the subject I hope to make it so appear. As I 
 view this question of jurisdiction, it is one of both law 
 and fact, to determine which each case must rest upon 
 its own merit. 
 
 It involves a question of law in determining whether 
 a court of this kind can be legally constituted, and a 
 question of fact as to whether the present case can be 
 thus tried ; for a military court may be properly consti 
 tuted, yet the case brought before it not properly triable 
 by it. 
 
 If this be true, the subject may be disposed of in the 
 examination of the following questions : 1st. Has the 
 President of the United States the constitutional power 
 to convene a Military Commission for the trial of milita 
 ry offenses committed in time of war? 2d. Is the case 
 triable by a Military Commission ? 
 
 I believe it is not claimed by any that the power as 
 sumed by the President in Convening this Commission 
 for the purpose named in the order dwells in him except 
 in time of war and great public danger, or during insur 
 rection or rebellion. 
 
 Your jurisdiction is a special one, resting upon no 
 written law, but derived wholly from the war powers of 
 the President and Congress, which are themselves deriv 
 able from the Constitution. If it can be shown to safely 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 167 
 
 rest upon these, you become invested not only with a 
 right, but a high duty to sustain it in due obedience to 
 the proper order of your commander-in-chief. On an 
 examination of the opinions expressed against the right 
 claimed, you will discover the argument rests upon the 
 negative declarations or prohibitory clauses of our funda 
 mental law, denying to Congress the exercise of certain 
 powers, as, for example, " no person shall be held to an 
 swer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on 
 presentment or indictment of a grand jury," etc. ; " in all 
 criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right 
 of a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury," etc. 
 (Articles Y. and VI, Amendments to the Constitution) ; 
 "the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, 
 shall be by jury," etc. (Art. II., Sect. 2, Constitution). 
 
 Whatever else may be brought into the argument, 
 these and kindred clauses are the real source of com 
 plaint whence a misguided loyalty, a supertechnical judg 
 ment have found reason for withholding this approval 
 of the measures adopted by the government to the Mili 
 tary Commission to aid in suppressing a rebellion for its 
 overthrow. 
 
 And hence you are told gravely the act of the Presi 
 dent is a usurpation of power this court without a legal 
 existence your proceedings a nullity. For a moment 
 let us try and ascertain the purpose of those who framed 
 the Constitution, and by fair interpretation arrive at the 
 true meaning of that great chart of liberty. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton wrote at the time the Constitu 
 tion was being canvassed before the people for final 
 adoption, {{ The circumstances that endanger the safety 
 
168 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 *of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitution 
 al shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which 
 
 the care of it is committed This is one of those 
 
 truths which, to a correct and unprejudiced mind, carries 
 its own evidence along with it, and may be obscured, but 
 can not be made plainer by argument or reasoning. The 
 means ought to be proportioned to the end; the person 
 from whose agency the attainment of any end is expect 
 ed ought to possess the means by which it is to be at 
 tained." Federalist, No. 23. 
 
 Mr. Madison, in speaking of the impossibility of antici 
 pating the exigencies which might arise, and the futility 
 of legislating for what could not be anticipated, at the 
 same time that the powers as granted to the President 
 and Congress are now ample for every emergency, sa}^s, 
 "It is vain to impose constitutional barriers to the im 
 pulse of self-preservation. It is worse than in vain, be 
 cause it plants in the Constitution itself necessary usur 
 pations of power." Ibid., No. 41. Many years later, and 
 after its adoption, with such light flooded upon it as the 
 great minds of those early days could shed, Mr. Adams, 
 in unequivocal phrase, enunciated the same idea. In 
 speaking of the authority of Congress in time of war, he 
 says, " All the powers incident to war are by necessary 
 implication conferred upon the government of the United 
 States There are, then, in the authority of Con 
 gress and of the executive, two classes of powers, alto 
 gether different in their nature, and often imcompatible 
 with each other the war power and the peace power. 
 The peace power is limited by regulations and restricted 
 by provisions prescribed within the Constitution itself. 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 169 
 
 The war power is limited only by the laws and usages 
 of nations. 
 
 "This power is tremendous : it is strictly constitution 
 al, but it breaks down every barrier so anxiously erected 
 for the protection of liberty, of property, and of life." 
 
 These are bold words, uttered when civil war was not 
 impending, when a powerful rebellion to overthrow this 
 great nation could hardly have been anticipated the 
 opinion of a great mind and a pure patriot, with judg-/ 
 ment free from tyranny of partisan clamor, they come to 
 us with all the force of law itself. 
 
 Do you find difficulty in reconciling these constitu 
 tional incompatibilities? Your statute punishes assault 
 and battery ; yet a law underlying the statute, not ex 
 pressed, says you may resist force with force, and this 
 well -grounded rule will allow you to defend yourself 
 even to the slaying of your antagonist. Necessity knows 
 no law inadequate to its demands, and self-preservation 
 antedates all laws. 
 
 Who shall say that a government in whose perpetua 
 tion rest the hopes of the world ; a Constitution broad 
 enough and liberal enough to protect the rights of all 
 over whom it reaches ; a people whose confidence in the 
 perfection of this form of government four years of in 
 ternecine war have not shaken who shall say that 
 these are denied nature s first law ; no, those lawgivers 
 and wise men of olden and modern times spoke truly 
 when they laid the doctrine down that the principle of 
 self-preservation belongs to nations no less than to indi 
 viduals, and that it is not in the power of a nation to 
 cede away this right. 
 
 II 
 
170 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States has in nu 
 merous decisions declared that Congress and the execu 
 tive possess the right to do whatever the public safety 
 may require to suppress rebellion or repel invasion (4 
 Wheaton, 420 ; 12 Wheaton, 119-128 ; 8 Cranch, 15). 
 
 This opinion was entertained by the fathers of the Con 
 stitution, and is found embodied in Congressional legisla 
 tion as early as 1792, reiterated in 1795 and 1807, which 
 seem to have been statutes made to meet just such an 
 emergency as this war brought upon us. (In statutes at 
 large, vol. ii., p. 264, 424 ; vol. iv., p. 419.) 
 
 In 12th Wheaton (Martin vs. Mott), Mr. Justice Story, 
 in an opinion sustaining the constitutionality of these 
 laws, says : " The President is the exclusive judge of the 
 exigency, and his action must be conclusive of the exi 
 gency," thus taking from the Supreme Court the right 
 to impeach the President s judgment. This same opinion 
 is sustained in Luther vs. Borden (Howard, 42, 43). 
 
 I suppose it will not be denied that war changes the 
 relations of all parties brought into antagonism as bellig 
 erents by it. No one can attack me without forfeiting 
 his right for redress if I injure him by proper resistance 
 without resorting to the forms of law to make him keep 
 the peace, and no one can levy war upon our govern 
 ment without placing himself beyond the protecting aggis 
 of the Constitution. 
 
 It must be remembered, when objection is made to the 
 
 ^ exercise of this necessary power by the President, that 
 
 what might be a good plea for a loyal citizen who has 
 
 committed a civil offense against the criminal statutes of 
 
 the land, is not a good plea for a traitor who is on trial 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 171 
 
 for the commission of a military offense against the laws 
 of war. 
 
 As we are endeavoring to determine whether the 
 President can by right exercise the power to organize a 
 court for the trial of military offenses committed by those 
 not in the military service, it may not be necessary to 
 pursue this line of argument farther. Let me, however, 
 place by antithesis some things expressly prohibited in 
 the Constitution, but which is generally conceded may 
 be done in time of war. 
 
 "The United States shall guarantee to every state a 
 republican form of government. . . . and shall protect 
 each of them against invasion" (Constitution, Article 
 IV., Section 4) ; yet the whole power of the government 
 has been concentrated in one grand invasion of the South 
 for four years. 
 
 " The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
 houses, papers, etc., against search, etc., shall not be vio 
 lated, and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause 
 supported by oath," etc. (Amendment to the Constitu 
 tion, Article IV.) ; yet I suspect an action of trespass 
 would not lie against the officer who broke open certain 
 escritoirs, bringing to light the proofs of conspiracies en 
 tered into by leading rebels South and North to poison, 
 burn, assassinate. 
 
 "JSTo soldier, in time of war, shall be quartered in any 
 house without the consent of the owner but in a manner 
 to be prescribed by law" (Amendment to the Constitu 
 tion, Article III.) ; yet it was hardly expected that our 
 generals in an enemy s country would consult the stat 
 utes "in such case made and provided." 
 
172 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 " The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall 
 not be infringed" (Ibid., Article II.) ; yet that general or 
 executive who would, fearing to violate this right, permit 
 the Knights of the Golden Circle or any other hostile 
 combination to organize and menace the government, 
 could hardly defend himself before his country. 
 
 "The freedom of speech shall not be abridged" (Ibid., 
 Article II.); yet who would hesitate to say that the in- 
 citer of treason by speech is no less a traitor than he who 
 raises his hand against his government? 
 
 "Private property shall not be taken without just 
 compensation" (Ibid., Article Y.) ; yet during the rebel 
 lion millions of dollars worth have been seized and used 
 for military purposes without any process of law what 
 ever, and millions more have been libeled under the Con 
 fiscation Act of Congress, and converted to public use 
 without just compensation. Who so bold as to deny the 
 principle upon which this has been done ? 
 
 Article IV., Section 11, of the Constitution provides 
 for the recapture of slaves escaping to free states ; and the 
 Supreme Court of the United States has also pledged 
 the Federal government to protect the right thus se 
 cured to slaveowners ; against and in violation of which 
 rises like a pillar of fire the Proclamation of Freedom, 
 apotheosizing its author the crowning glory of his ad 
 ministration the highest proof that our cause is ap 
 proved in the Forum conscientioe. How can there be such 
 antagonism in our Magna Charta ? How are these things 
 defensible? They are the incompatibilities of which Mr. 
 Madison speaks. 
 
 We see here the harmony, at the same time the con- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 173 
 
 flict, between the war powers and the peace powers of 
 which Mr. Adams speaks; and there is presented in 
 strong light the adaptation of means to ends which Mr. 
 Hamilton insists upon; and, above all, that inherent 
 power which spurns all barriers, and grounds itself upon 
 great first principles; dwells always with the source of 
 all power, and is inseparable from it the people ; and 
 declares as fearlessly as it battles that, in times of war, 
 of great public danger, laws and constitutions are silent 
 if they stand in the way of the nation s life. 
 
 But it is said that Congress may have the power to 
 create Military Commissions ; yet, as it has not done so, 
 or conferred that right upon the President, it is therefore 
 an unwarrantable assumption. 
 
 It seems to me that, as the Constitution expressly con 
 fers no power of this kind upon Congress, it matters little 
 whether Congress or the President exercise it; and if 
 one can do so, with equal right can the other. 
 
 The whole question still rests upon necessity, to meet 
 which the neglect of one will not excuse the other. Still 
 inquiring whether this can be done in any case, let us 
 recur a moment to opinions contemporaneously with the 
 Constitution. 
 
 We began our struggle for independence under the 
 Articles of Confederation, and it is well known that the 
 colonies reserved all rights to themselves not expressly 
 delegated to the Confederacy. 
 
 Then, as now, there were traitors, whose crimes, par 
 taking of the nature of military offenses, were made pun 
 ishable by military courts. If you will examine the 
 legislation of the country, it will be found that, from 1775 
 
174 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 down to the present time, authority has been conferred 
 upon military courts to try civilians for the commission 
 of certain offenses. (See Acts of Congress, 7th Novem 
 ber, 1775 ; 17th June, 1776 ; 27th February, 1778 ; 23d 
 April, 1800 ; 10th April, 1806 ; 13th February, 1862 ; 
 17th July, 1862.) Congress conferred this jurisdiction 
 on both courts-martial and Military Commissions, until 
 during this war, however, resorting to the court-martial. 
 
 Now it has been frequently decided by the Supreme 
 Court that a court-martial is a tribunal provided for in 
 the rules and articles of war, but with a jurisdiction lim 
 ited to military persons as well as military offenses, so 
 that it is as much a usurpation to try a civilian by court- 
 martial as before a Military Commission. Admitting 
 this, we find ourselves strongly fortified by these early 
 enactments, especially in the light of the decision of the 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 Stewart vs. Laird (2 Cranch, 299) decides that " a con 
 temporary exposition or construction of the Constitu 
 tion, acquiesced in for a period of years, fixes it beyond 
 the reach of doubt;" and we are compelled to conclude 
 that the power assumed grows out of a necessity of which 
 Congress or the President must judge at the time. 
 
 Many things are proper to be done in time of peace 
 which in time of war become high crimes. No criminal 
 code and no civil criminal tribunal can reach these ; they 
 are incident to, and grow out of, a state of war. 
 
 Every student of history, whether or not he may have 
 studied law, understands this. It is a timid loyalty, a 
 yielding to doubtful and hasty clamor, that during this 
 war questioned a practice sanctioned by all nations, and 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 175 
 
 begun on this continent contemporary with the Consti 
 tution. 
 
 But, again, a declaration of war institutes a code of 
 laws for the government of the belligerents known as 
 the law of nations. Arid this is true of an insurrection 
 as well as of foreign war, so that we are to look more to 
 the customs of nations than to our own Constitution for 
 our guides. We have enumerated some of our constitu 
 tional guarantees intended to protect all persons, but it 
 will hardly be pretended that rebels, war-traitors, assas 
 sins in aid of rebellion, banditti, guerrillas, and spies 
 could plead them, or derive any immunity by them. The 
 true guide and the highest law is the law of war and the 
 customs of civilized nations. From a recent opinion of 
 the present attorney general, given in support of the com 
 mission for the trial of the President s assassins, taking 
 this view, I extract the following: " A military tribunal 
 exists under and according to the Constitution in time 
 of war. Congress may prescribe how all such tribunals 
 are to be constituted, what shall be their jurisdiction and 
 mode of procedure. Should Congress fail to create such 
 tribunals, then, under the Constitution, they must be con 
 stituted according to the laws and usages of civilized 
 warfare, and they may take cognizance of such offenses 
 as the laws of war permit. 
 
 " That the law of nations constitute a part of the laws 
 of the land is established from the face of the Constitu 
 tion upon principle and by authority." (See also Opin 
 ions of Attorney General, vol. i., page 27 ; 5th "Wheaton, 
 153.) 
 
 He there proceeds to show that an army has to deal 
 
176 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 with two classes of enemies, one of which is the open, 
 active belligerent or soldier in uniform, who observes the 
 laws of war ; the other is a violator of the laws of war 
 and usages of civilized nations, who, when caught, may 
 be shot down as an enemy to the human race, or tried 
 by military courts, and subjected to such punishment as 
 the laws of war authorize. Here, as before, we see that 
 the only safe rule is to place in the hands of the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army, or his subordinates acting 
 under proper orders, full and exclusive discretion as to 
 the means to be used to protect the existence of his army, 
 subject only to be held responsible for the abuse of the 
 discretion so conferred. 
 
 And whether he resort to a Military Commission, 
 court-martial, drum -head court, summary and instanta 
 neous execution, right reason and wise public policy must 
 sustain him so long as he keeps within the code of civ 
 ilized nations. I do not think it necessary to notice the 
 distinction made between martial law and military law, 
 your guide being, as I conceive it, the law of nations 
 rather than either. 
 
 I might remark, however, that military law is a part 
 \ of the law of the land in times of peace and war; but 
 martial law is an incident of war, and may or may not 
 be declared. I do not rest your right, however, to sit 
 as a Military Commission upon the action of the Presi 
 dent in this particular. He may not have declared mar 
 tial law to be in force, still your existence be legal. He 
 may not have suspended the writ of habeas corpus, still 
 your jurisdiction be undisturbed. To declare martial 
 law is one act of war power, to suspend the writ of 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 177 
 
 habeas corpus another, to order this court to try the pris 
 oner before it another. 
 
 It is an error to suppose there must be an enemy men 
 acing you pendente lite, a declaration of war, a suspen 
 sion of trial by civil tribunal, before you can proceed. 
 The civil courts may be in never so complete operation, 
 the enemy in a remote part of the country, and the place 
 of trial in the midst of a peaceful portion of the land ; 
 still, if there be a necessity, and the offense be properly 
 punishable by the laws of war, the duty at once falls 
 upon the proper officer to meet that necessity as the pub 
 lic safety may require. I believe this view to be sus 
 tained by the best military writers, and a legitimate se 
 quence of the argument in support of Military Commis 
 sions. 
 
 The practice of European powers confirms this opinion, 
 the right having never been seriously questioned, but its 
 abuse being provided for by bills of indemnity. If far 
 ther precedent be required, it is amply presented in the 
 action of President Washington during the "Whisky In 
 surrection" of 179-i and 1795, of President Jefferson dur 
 ing the "Burr Conspiracy" of 1806, of General Jackson 
 in 1814 at New Orleans, and afterward in Florida; in all 
 of which cases, though of infinitely less moment com 
 pared with the exigencies growing out of the present 
 war, it was enunciated that whatever the existing neces 
 sity demands must be done. (See Halleck, Internation 
 al Law, page 371, 380, and cases cited.) 
 
 SECOND. Having presented sufficient reason for con 
 cluding that the President has usurped no authority and 
 violated no law in constituting you a military court for 
 
 112 
 
178 ANDEESONVILLE. 
 
 the trial of military offenses, it remains to notice whether 
 the present case comes within the scope of your jurisdic 
 tion. Here, I think, we will have less difficulty, as it is 
 more a question of fact than law. 
 
 This prisoner is charged with the perpetration of of 
 fenses, many of them unknown to common law or statute 
 law ; they were committed by a belligerent in his own 
 territory, in the exercise of a commission assigned him 
 by the enemy, and given in violation of the laws of war, 
 the execution of the orders of his superiors. The gov 
 ernment he served never did or can try him ; no civil 
 "tribunal is possessed of power ; the duty, then, as I think, 
 devolves upon you. But it is said the war is over ; there 
 is no longer any necessity of military tribunals ; and how 
 ever proper in times of war and public danger to assume 
 the functions of civil courts, there is now no reason for 
 doing so. 
 
 If it were necessary, I would traverse the fact. The war 
 is not over. True, the muskets of treason are stacked, 
 the armies of the rebellion are dissolved, some of the 
 leaders are in exile, others are in prison, but by far the 
 largest portion, sullen, silent, vengeful, stand ready to seize 
 every opportunity to divide the loyal sentiment of the 
 country, and, with spirit unbroken and defiant, would 
 this day raise the standard of rebellion if they dared 
 hope for success. This opinion of the war still existing 
 is not mine alone. The attorney general, in his return 
 to Judge Wylie s writ of habeas corpus issued for the sur 
 render of the body of Mrs. Surrat, spoke of it in that 
 sense. 
 
 Congress, in many of its enactments, provided for a 
 
ANDEESONVILLE. 179 
 
 state of war after a cessation of hostilities. The whole 
 policy of the government toward the Southern States 
 sustains this idea. 
 
 The President, by suspending Judge Wylie s writ in 
 the Burch case on the 16th of September, since this trial 
 began, adherence to President Lincoln s proclamation of 
 martial law, and his declining to take any action that 
 might be construed into a proclamation of peace, all show 
 beyond doubt that the time of public danger has not 
 passed. 
 
 But, however this may be, with the fact you have noth 
 ing to do. The President, by constituting you a court to 
 try this prisoner, has by that act alone declared the pres 
 ence of a public danger, and that a necessity exists to 
 still cling to military tribunals for the punishment of 
 military offenses, and it is beyond your power to dispute 
 his judgment. You may, perhaps, pass upon the ques 
 tion as to whether you are a court, but as to the emerg 
 ency requiring you to try and punish this prisoner, if 
 guilty, the President is the sole judge. The Supreme 
 Court has so decided, as we have before seen. 
 
 I hope then, gentlemen, you may find it not against 
 your consciences or judgment to proceed to a final ver 
 dict in this case, and that you may illustrate the wisdom 
 expressed in the judicial opinion of one of our most emi 
 nent jurists, given in 4 Wheaton, 316 : " The government 
 of the Union is a government of the people ; it emanates 
 from them, its powers are granted by them, and are to be 
 exercised for their benefit; and the government which 
 has a right to do and act, and has imposed upon it the 
 duty of performing the act, must, according to the dictates 
 of reason, be allowed to select the means." 
 
180 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Having thus disposed of the question of jurisdiction, I 
 ask indulgence a moment to notice some of the objec 
 tions which have been made by the counsel for this pris 
 oner during the progress of the trial. 
 
 I am not prepared to believe that this court would 
 stultify itself by declaring that their action, after argu 
 ment pro and con as to admissibility of evidence, over 
 ruling of motions or pleas, or sustaining the same, was 
 wrong, and that they now desire to correct it ; however, 
 as the conduct of the case has been somewhat criticised, 
 and as the counsel who declined to argue the defense in- 
 tirnated that a large part of his address would have been 
 directed to those objections, and has asked that they be 
 not wholly overlooked, I think it not entirely out of 
 place to review at this time very briefly the points of 
 objection. It has been frequently asserted in court by 
 counsel that the whole power of the government was 
 concentrated upon the prosecution of this prisoner, and 
 that he, single-handed and without the aid of the govern 
 ment, has been conducting his defense. It is well known 
 that witnesses for the defense receive a per diem and 
 their actual expenses in coming to the court and return 
 ing to their homes. The record of this court will show 
 that every subpoena asked for has been given except in 
 the cases of a few rebel functionaries, who, for reasons 
 stated at the time, were not subpoenaed. Of this, how 
 ever, there should be no complaint, as the facts which 
 those witnesses were expected to establish were shown 
 by other witnesses, and as a proposition was made by 
 the judge advocate to admit that those witnesses thus 
 excluded would testify here to the same facts a propo- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 181 
 
 sition which was declined by the counsel. The records 
 of this court will also show that there have been one 
 hundred and six witnesses subpoenaed for the defense, of 
 whom sixty-eight reported. Of these, thirty-nine, many 
 of them soldiers of our army and sufferers at Anderson- 
 ville, were discharged without being put upon the stand, 
 the counsel, for reasons only known to himself, declining 
 to call them. Besides this, the government has, without 
 a precedent, furnished, at great expense, to the prisoner a 
 copy of the record from day to day during the progress 
 of the trial. The government has also given his coun 
 sel the benefit of its clerical force, and, in short, shown 
 the prisoner indulgences which should forever close the 
 mouth of one whose treatment of its soldiers was in such 
 striking contrast that he must have felt the more deeply 
 his guilt. 
 
 Again, it has been frequently complained of during 
 the trial that the Court has excluded the declarations of 
 the prisoner made in his own behalf, and has refused to 
 allow him, in other instances, to show what he did. I 
 think the Court will remember that in every case the 
 whole of any particular transaction has been given for 
 and against the prisoner, and that the res gestce, properly 
 so called, has never been excluded. All the prison rec 
 ords in the possession of the government which could 
 throw any light upon the case are in evidence. 
 
 The prisoner has been allowed to show acts of kind 
 ness wherever they could with any legal propriety be 
 given, as, for instance, the taking of drummer-boys out 
 of the stockade because of their youth ; the allowing 
 Miss Rawson to administer to the wants of one soldier : 
 
182 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 the giving of passes to ministers of the Gospel to enter 
 the stockade; his letters and reports with reference to 
 the wants of the prison ; his kindness to the prisoners 
 whom he detailed for duty outside the stockade, and 
 many other things, all of which we shall show hereafter, 
 are not incompatible with the idea of his guilt. But, 
 even admitting more than is claimed or proved for the 
 prisoner in regard to his urging Winder and the rebel 
 authorities to do certain things, the law is clear that if a 
 party remain m a conspiracy, though protesting against 
 it, and seeking to escape from it, or if he continue in an 
 unlawful enterprise, insisting that he does not mean to 
 do harm, yet, if harm results, or serious and criminal con 
 sequences follow, he is nevertheless responsible. If, in 
 the course of one year s pursuit- of an illegal business, a 
 stupendous crime indeed, the perpetrators could show 
 less than this prisoner has shown in his favor, he would 
 not be entitled to the human name. 
 
 It would be strange, indeed, if this record of five thou 
 sand pages, of thirty-eight days of weary, laborious trial, 
 presented no wrong rulings, no improper exclusion or 
 admission of evidence in a greater or less degree perti 
 nent to some issue made ; but I assert with all confi 
 dence, and with honest belief, that the interests of this 
 prisoner have not been and can not be affected injurious 
 ly by such action in any instance that can be named. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, and to this I call the special 
 attention of the counsel and of the Court, that nowhere 
 in this record can there be found the exclusion of a scin 
 tilla of evidence bearing on the defense to the charge of 
 murder, and to which this prisoner is more especially 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 183 
 
 called to answer. There is another fact to which I would 
 also call the attention of the counsel and the Court, and 
 it is this : that if, after a careful examination of the evi 
 dence, there be sufficient legal proof legally spread upon 
 the record, you must proceed with your finding without 
 regard to any illegal evidence, and not, as the counsel 
 would insist, declare the whole record vitiated. This is 
 sustained by reason and by law, wherever it comes up to 
 the true standard, which, after all, is but the perfection of 
 human reason. The only instances in which appellate 
 courts remand cases for new trial is where, from the bill 
 of exceptions presented, they can not determine whether 
 the jury were or were not misled by the evidence im 
 properly admitted ; but where they find that the errors 
 complained of were not material, or where the verdict is 
 sustained after disregarding the errors, no court will sub 
 ject the parties to a second trial, or interpose to save the 
 complainant. 
 
 Out of place as this may be in the order of my argu 
 ment, I have deemed it just to say thus much. 
 
184 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Sufferings at Andersonville. 
 
 2d. WE corne now to notice the evidence spread upon 
 the record with regard to the sufferings of Union prison 
 ers at Andersonville. 
 
 CHARACTER OF TESTIMONY. 
 
 It is argued that the evidence presenting the horrors 
 of Andersonville is not of that class which is entirely re 
 liable; that those who were in the rebellion have been 
 brought here forcibly by the government, and made to 
 testify in anticipation of reward by pardon, or through 
 fear of being themselves punished ; and that the evidence 
 of soldiers who were sufferers at Andersonville was high 
 ly colored, testifying as they did under a sense of the in 
 juries inflicted upon them while prisoners, and warmed 
 to enthusiasm in the enumeration of their wrongs. 
 
 I need only say in reply that the careful observer of 
 this trial must have discovered how utterly powerless 
 has been the language of witnesses to describe the real 
 condition of affairs at Andersonville ; that where science 
 has spoken through her devotees, where inspectors have 
 tried to convey a correct idea, where the artist has sought 
 to delineate, or the photographer to call the elements to 
 witness, they have all uniformly declared that, with all 
 these appliances, nothing has presented in their true light 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 185 
 
 the horrors of that place. The evidence before you is 
 of the highest character. It consists of many kinds, from 
 many directions : from persons speaking in the interest 
 and for the good of the rebel government ; from persons 
 under a strong sense of the wrongs done these miserable 
 wretches ; from disinterested observers neither in the one 
 nor in the other army ; and from the injured themselves. 
 And yet there is a most striking concurrence in all this 
 testimony, all agreeing that history has never presented 
 a scene of such gigantic human suffering. If I can suc 
 ceed in presenting to your mind a faithful picture of An- 
 dersonville as it was, or make such an analysis and group 
 ing of the testimony as to show to the civilized world, in 
 a tithe of its horrors, the suffering endured, I shall have 
 accomplished all I can hope, and shall have done more 
 than I fear I am able to do. 
 
 THE STOCKADE. 
 
 The stockade at Andersonville was originally built, as 
 we learn from many sources, with a capacity for ten thou 
 sand, its area being about eighteen acres. It continued 
 without enlargement until the month of June, 1864, when 
 it was increased about one third, its area then, as shown 
 by actual survey, being twenty-three and a half acres. 
 The prison, as described by Dr. Joseph Jones, a surgeon 
 of the rebel army, in his official report to the surgeon 
 general, consisted of a strong stockade in the form of a 
 parallelogram, twenty feet in height, formed of strong 
 pine logs firmly planted in the ground, with two smaller 
 surrounding stockades, one sixteen and the other twelve 
 feet high, these latter being, as he says, " intended for 
 
186 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 offense and defense. If the inner stockade should at any 
 time be forced by the prisoners, the second forms an 
 other line of defense ; while, in case of an attempt to de 
 liver the prisoners by a force operating upon the exte 
 rior, the outer line forms an admirable protection to the 
 Confederate troops, and a most formidable obstacle to 
 cavalry or infantry" (Record, page 4328). To show more 
 clearly the strength of this stockade, I quote again from 
 Dr. Jones s Eeport : " The four angles of the outer line 
 are strengthened by earth-works upon commanding em 
 inences, from which the cannon, in case of an outbreak 
 among the prisoners, may sweep the entire inclosure" 
 (Record, pages 4328 and 4329). 
 
 On the outside of the inner stockade were erected 
 thirty-five sentry-boxes or watch-houses overlooking the 
 area within, which were so constructed as to protect the 
 sentries from the sun and rain. From Colonel Chand 
 ler s Inspection Report, dated August 5th, 1864, 1 quote 
 the following : 
 
 "A railing around the inside of the stockade, and about 
 twenty feet from it, constitutes the dead line/ beyond 
 which prisoners are not allowed to pass. A small stream 
 passes from west to east through the inclosure, about one 
 hundred and fifty yards from its southern limit, and fur 
 nishes the only water for washing accessible to the pris 
 oners. Bordering this stream, about three quarters of an 
 acre in the centre of the inclosure are so marshy as to be 
 at present unfit for occupation, reducing the available 
 present area to about twenty-three and a half acres, which 
 gives somewhat less than six square feet to each pris 
 oner ;" and, he remarks, " even this is being constantly 
 reduced by the additions to their number." 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 187 
 
 From the beginning to the close, the only shelter in the 
 prison, was such as the ingenuity of the prisoners could 
 devise, all the standing timber and undergrowth having 
 been cut away ; and, with the exception of a small shed, 
 covered but not inclosed, stretching across a portion of 
 the north end of the stockade, nothing whatever existed 
 to protect the prisoners from the inclemency of the weath 
 er or the intolerable heat of that climate. 
 
 The prison was entered by two gates, called the north 
 and south gates ; the first situated a short distance north 
 of the bakery, the other a short distance from the south 
 west corner, and on the west side. 
 
 THE COOK-HOUSE. 
 
 Immediately above the stockade, and on the stream 
 passing through it, was situated an immense cook-house, 
 at which all the rations provided for the prisoners, if 
 cooked at all, were prepared. The drainage and offal of 
 this bakery passed immediately into the stream running 
 through the prison. Still above, and on the same stream, 
 were located, at distances varying from five hundred 
 yards to half a mile, several rebel encampments. These 
 washed into the stream,- and their sinks were located 
 on it. 
 
 THE HOSPITAL. 
 
 The hospital, which was erected some time in June, 
 1864, prior to which time the sick were treated under 
 the shed already referred to inside the stockade, was a 
 stockade inclosure similar to the prison, situated on the 
 south side of the prison, about four hundred yards from 
 
188 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 the southeast corner, and containing five and a half acres. 
 A stream of water passing through its southeast corner 
 emptied itself into the stream crossing the stockade a few 
 yards from the east side of the stockade. Within this 
 inclosure were erected for hospital buildings long sheds 
 constructed of poles, with roofs made of pine boughs, and 
 in some instances of planks, without any siding or other 
 protection. In some cases wall and fly tents, much worn 
 and in very bad condition, were used. This constituted 
 the shelter furnished the sick. 
 
 THE DEAD-HOUSE. 
 
 The dead-house was a building similar to one of the 
 hospital sheds, except that it was partially inclosed by 
 boards and puncheons nailed on its sides. To this place 
 the dead were conveyed upon litters, blankets, stretchers, 
 and by such other means as the prisoners could devise, 
 and were conveyed thence in army wagons, about twenty- 
 five in each load, piled up "like cord-wood," or "as a 
 "Western farmer hauls his rails," as one of the witnesses 
 told you, to the burying-ground, which was situated a 
 few hundred yards northwest of the stockade. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE STOCKADE. 
 
 Having thus given an outline of the stockade, the hos 
 pital, and their surroundings, let us inquire into the con 
 dition of each of these places, taking first the stockade. 
 It will be remembered that the testimony is drawn from 
 many sources. I present, 
 
 1st. The opinions of medical officers in the service of 
 the rebel government on duty at Andersonville and else- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 189 
 
 where at the time these sufferings are alleged to have 
 been endured. 
 
 2d. The opinions of rebel officers assigned to the spe 
 cial duty of investigating the condition of affairs at An 
 derson ville, together with the records of the prison. 
 
 3d. The opinions and observations of officers and sol 
 diers of the rebel army on duty at Andersonville. 
 
 4th. The observations of persons residing in the vicin 
 ity during this period, and who paid frequent visits to 
 Andersonville; and, 
 
 5th. The testimony of the prisoners themselves. 
 
 I shall endeavor to present the subject in the order 
 above mentioned. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF MEDICAL OFFICERS. 
 
 Among the earlier official inspections given to this 
 prison was that of Surgeon E. J. Eldridge, who made a 
 report pursuant to instructions of Major General Howell 
 Cobb, and which accompanied the report of that general 
 made upon the same subject to the adjutant general of 
 the rebel government for the information of the War 
 Department, and which reached that department May 
 21st, 186-1. (See Exhibit 15, A.) He says:- I found the 
 prisoners, in my opinion, too much crowded for the pro 
 motion or for the continuance of their health, particularly 
 during the approaching summer months. The construc 
 tion of properly-arranged barracks would, of course, al 
 low the same number of men to occupy the inclosure 
 with material advantage to their comfort and health. At 
 present their shelter consists of such as they can make of 
 the boughs of trees and poles covered with dirt. The 
 
190 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 few tents they have are occupied as a hospital I 
 
 found the condition of a large number of the Belle Island 
 prisoners on their arrival to be such as to require more 
 attention to their diet and cleanliness than the actual ad 
 ministration of medicine, very many of them suffering 
 from chronic diarrhoea, combined with scorbutic disposi 
 tion, with extreme emaciation as the consequence. The 
 hospital being within the inclosure, it has been found im 
 practicable to administer such diet and give them such 
 attention as they require, as, unless constantly watched, 
 such diet as is prepared for them is stolen and eaten by 
 the other prisoners." 
 
 He then proceeds to urge upon the authorities in Eich- 
 mond the necessity of removing the hospital. On this 
 point he says, "I consider the establishment of a hospi 
 tal outside of the present inclosure as essential to the 
 proper treatment of the sick, and most urgently recom 
 mend its immediate construction." And to meet an ob 
 jection which he says was made at Eichmond to do this, 
 because additional guards would be required, he says, 
 "Nurses could be detailed with such discretion that but 
 few would attempt to escape, and, with frequent roll- 
 calls, they would not be absent but a few hours before 
 detected, and would be readily caught by the dogs, al 
 ways at hand for that purpose." 
 
 Up to this time no baking for the prisoners existed, 
 their rations being issued to them raw, as will appear 
 from the following paragraph in the report: "The bak 
 ery just being completed will be a means of furnishing 
 better prepared food, particularly bread, the half-cooked 
 condition of which has doubtless contributed to the con- 
 
ANDERSON V1LLE. 191 
 
 tinuancc of the bowel affections." The mean strength 
 of prisoners at the date of this report, as shown by the 
 journal kept by the prisoner, was about fourteen thou 
 sand. 
 
 - -Thus we see that the sufferings at Andersonville were 
 anticipated as early as May, and the rebel government 
 duly warned. Of that question, however, hereafter. 
 
 Without pretending to analyze the evidence of each 
 particular medical gentleman who has testified upon this 
 subject, as they all concur in the general facts in relation 
 to the condition of the stockade, I select the report of 
 one of the most intelligent of their number, quoting him 
 somewhat fully. The gentleman who speaks through 
 the report I am about to give is Dr. Joseph Jones, Pro 
 fessor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Georgia, a 
 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and a man 
 of eminence in his profession. lie went to Anderson 
 ville under the direction of the surgeon general of the 
 Confederacy, pursuant to an order dated Richmond, Vir 
 ginia, August 6th, 186-1, in which the surgeon general 
 uses the following language : 
 
 " The field of pathological investigation afforded by 
 the large collection of Federal prisoners in Georgia is of 
 great extent and importance, and it is believed that re 
 sults of value to the profession may be obtained by a 
 careful investigation of the effects of disease upon the 
 large body of men subjected to a decided change of cli 
 mate and the circumstances peculiar to prison life" (Rec 
 ord, pp. 4321: and 4325). From this it will be seen there 
 was authority from a high source for his proceedings, 
 certifying a knowledge of the condition of things at An- 
 
192 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 \ 
 
 dersonville, in the surgeon general s office, if it does not 
 especially commend the humanity of that office. 
 
 After making some remarks in regard to the char 
 acter of the soil, the internal structure of the hills, and 
 so forth, Dr. Jones proceeds to give a table illustrating 
 the mean strength of prisoners confined in the stockade 
 from its organization, February 24, 1864, to September, 
 1864. 
 
 This computation, I may remark, is only approximate 
 ly accurate, and is arrived at by adding together the 
 number of prisoners at the first, middle, and the last of 
 each month, and dividing the result by three. His table, 
 however, shows the following as the mean result : 
 
 March 7,500 
 
 April 10,000 
 
 May 15,000 
 
 June 22,291 
 
 July 29,030 
 
 August 32,899 
 
 He says: " Within the circumscribed area of the stock 
 ade the Federal prisoners were compelled to perform all 
 the offices of life, cooking, washing, urinating, defecation, 
 
 exercise, and sleeping The Federal prisoners 
 
 were gathered from all parts of the Confederate States 
 east of the Mississippi, and crowded in the confined space, 
 until, in the month of June, the average number of 
 square feet of ground to each prisoner was only 33.2, or 
 less than four square yards" (Record, p. 4331). 
 
 " These figures," he says, " represent the condition of 
 the stockade in a better light even than it really was, for 
 a considerable breadth of land along the stream. flowing 
 from west to east, between the hills, was low and boggy, 
 and was covered with the excrement of the men, and 
 thus rendered wholly uninhabitable, and, in fact, useless 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 193 
 
 for every purpose except that of defecation" (Record, 
 pp. 4331 and 4332). 
 
 It will be remembered that besides this swamp must 
 be excluded the space between the dead line and the 
 stockade, which, together with the bog, must be taken 
 from the whole area. Colonel Chandler, in his official 
 report, makes a computation showing that the actual 
 space allowed to each prisoner was only six square feet, 
 there being scarcely room for the prisoners all to lie 
 down at the same time. Dr. Jones s report continues : 
 
 " With their characteristic industry and ingenuity, the 
 Federals constructed for themselves small huts and caves, 
 and attempted to shield themselves from the rain, and 
 sun, and night-damps, and dew. But few tents were dis 
 tributed to the prisoners, and those were in most cases 
 torn and rotten. In the location and arrangement of 
 these tents and huts no order appears to have been fol 
 lowed ; in fact, regular streets appeared to be out of the 
 question in so crowded an area, especially, too, as large 
 bodies of prisoners were from time to time added sud 
 denly, without any previous preparation The po 
 lice and internal economy of the prison was left almost 
 entirely in the hands of the prisoners themselves, the du 
 ties of the Confederate soldiers acting as guards being 
 limited to the occupation of the boxes or look-outs ar 
 ranged around the stockade at regular intervals, and to 
 the manning of the batteries at the angles of the prison" 
 (Record, pp. 4333 and 4334). 
 
 Again: "Even judicial matters pertaining to them 
 selves, as the detection and punishment of such crimes 
 as theft and murder, appear to have been in a great 
 
 I 
 
194 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 measure abandoned to the prisoners. A striking in 
 stance of this occurred in the month of July, when the 
 Federal prisoners within the stockade tried, condemned, 
 and hanged six of their own number who had been con 
 victed of cheating, and of robbing and murdering their 
 fellow -prisoners. They were all hung upon the same 
 day, and thousands of prisoners gathered around to wit 
 ness the execution. The Confederate authorities are said 
 not to have interfered with these proceedings. In this 
 collection of men from all parts of the world, every 
 phase of human character was represented. The stron 
 ger preyed upon the weaker, and even the sick, who were 
 unable to defend themselves, were robbed of their scanty 
 supplies of food and clothing. Dark stories were afloat 
 of men, both sick and well, who were murdered at night, 
 strangled to death by their comrades for scant supplies 
 of money and clothing. I heard a sick and wounded 
 Federal prisoner accuse his nurse a fellow-prisoner of 
 the United States Army of having stealthily, during 
 his sleep, inoculated his wounded arm with gangrene, 
 that he might destroy his life, and fall heir to his cloth 
 ing 
 
 "The large number of men confined within the stock 
 ade soon, under a defective system of police and with 
 imperfect arrangements, covered the surface of the low 
 grounds with excrement. The sinks over the lower 
 portions of the stream were imperfect in their plan and 
 structure, and the excrement was in large measure de 
 posited so near the borders of the stream as not to be 
 washed away, or else accumulated upon the low boggy 
 ground. The volume of water was not sufficient to wash 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 195 
 
 away the fasces, and they accumulated in such quanti 
 ties in the lower portion of the stream as to form a mass 
 of liquid excrement. 
 
 " Heavy rains caused the waters of the stream to rise, 
 and, as the arrangements for the passage of the increased 
 amounts of water out of the stockade were insufficient, 
 the liquid fosces overflowed the low grounds, and covered 
 them several inches after the subsidence of the waters. 
 
 "The action of the sun upon this putrefying mass of 
 excrement, and fragments of bread, and meat, and bones, 
 excited most rapid fermentation, and developed a horri 
 ble stench. Improvements were projected for the re 
 moval of the filth and for the prevention of its accumu 
 lation, but they were only partially and imperfectly car 
 ried out. 
 
 "As the forces of the prisoners were reduced by con 
 finement, want of exercise, improper diet, and by scurvy, 
 diarrhoea, and dysentery, they were unable to evacuate 
 their bowels within the stream or along its banks, and 
 the excrement was deposited at the very doors of their 
 tents. 
 
 " The vast majority appeared to lose all repulsion to 
 filth, and both sick and well disregarded all the laws of 
 hygiene and personal cleanliness. 
 
 " The accommodations of the sick were imperfect 
 and insufficient" (Eecord, pages 4333, 4334, 4335, 4336). 
 Again he says: "Each day the dead from the stockade 
 were carried out by their fellow-prisoners, and deposited 
 upon the ground under a bush arbor, just outside of the 
 southwestern gate. From thence they were carried in 
 carts to the burying-ground, one quarter of a mile north- 
 
196 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 west of the prison. The dead were buried without cof 
 fins, side by side, in trenches four feet deep. 
 
 " The low grounds bordering the stream were covered 
 with human excrement and filth of all kinds, which in 
 many cases appeared to be alive with working maggots. 
 
 "An indescribable sickening stench arose from the 
 fermenting mass of human dung and filth" (Record, p. 
 4339). 
 
 And again : " There were nearly five thousand seri 
 ously-ill Federals in the stockade and Confederate States 
 Military Prison Hospital, and the deaths exceeded one 
 hundred per day ; and large numbers of the prisoners, 
 who were walking about, and who had not been entered 
 upon the sick report, were suffering from severe and 
 incurable diarrhoea, dysentery, and scurvy I vis 
 ited two thousand sick within the stockade, lying under 
 some long sheds which they had built at the northern 
 portion for themselves. At this time only one medical 
 officer was in attendance, whereas at least twenty medi 
 cal officers should have been employed" (Record, pp. 
 4340 and 4341). 
 
 By comparing two very interesting tables of statistics 
 given in this connection by Dr. Jones, it will be observed 
 that, although the number of sick in the stockade was 
 the same as that in the hospital, while the number of sur 
 geons in attendance in the stockade was greatly below 
 that in the hospital, the deaths occurring were about the 
 same in each; or, in other words, the prisoners died as 
 rapidly with treatment as without it. This is confirmed 
 by the opinions of several surgeons, among them Dr. 
 Roy, Flewellen, Head, Rice, and others, who have stated 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 197 
 
 that medicines were of little use, and that more could 
 have been done by dieting. 
 
 Again Dr. Jones says: " Scurvy, diarrhoea, dysentery, 
 and hospital gangrene were the prevailing diseases. I 
 was surprised to find but few cases of malarial fever, and 
 no well-marked cases of typhus or typhoid fever. The 
 absence of the different forms of malarial fever may be 
 accounted for in the supposition that the artificial atmos 
 phere of the stockade, crowded densely with human be 
 ings and loaded with animal exhalations, was unfavora 
 ble to the existence and action of the malarial poison. 
 The absence of typhoid and typhus fevers among all the 
 causes which are supposed to generate these diseases ap 
 peared to be due to the fact that the great majority of 
 these prisoners had been in captivity in Virginia, at Belle 
 Island, and in other parts of the Confederacy, for months, 
 and even as long as two years, and during this time they 
 had been subjected to the same bad influences, and those 
 who had not had these fevers before either had them 
 during their confinement in Confederate prisons, or else 
 their systems, from long exposure, were proof against 
 their action" (Record, p. 4343). 
 
 A most striking fact is here presented, which illus 
 trates, perhaps, in as strong a light as is possible, the ter 
 rible condition of our prisoners. The report shows that, 
 in a region of country favorable to malarial fevers, per 
 sons lying in the open air, on the border of a swamp, 
 without shelter, drinking unwholesome water in short, 
 with every surrounding conducive to malaria, still the 
 poison of that atmosphere, made so by peculiar circum 
 stances, overcame all those influences, and rendered the 
 
198 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 place comparatively free from fevers of a malarial na 
 ture. 
 
 After describing at some length the effects of scurvy 
 and hospital gangrene, the report proceeds: "The long 
 use of salt meat, oftentimes imperfectly cured, as well as 
 the almost total deprivation of vegetables and fruit, ap 
 peared to be the chief causes of the scurvy. 
 
 "I carefully examined the bakery and the bread fur 
 nished the prisoners, and found that they were supplied 
 almost entirely with corn -bread from which the husk 
 had not been separated. This husk acted as an irritant 
 to the alimentary canal, without adding any nutriment 
 to the bread" (Record, p. 4346). 
 
 After speaking of the sheds used for the sick in the 
 stockade, which were open on all sides, he says: "The 
 sick lay upon the bare boards, or upon such ragged 
 blankets as they possessed, without, as far as I observed, 
 any bedding or even straw. Pits for the reception of 
 fasces were dug within a few feet of the lower floor, and 
 they were almost never unoccupied by those suffering 
 with diarrhoea. The haggard, distressed countenances of 
 these miserable, complaining, dejected living skeletons, 
 crying for medical aid and food, .... and the ghastly 
 corpses, with their glazed eyeballs staring up into va 
 cant space, with the flies swarming down their open and 
 grinning mouths and over their ragged clothes, infested 
 with numerous lice, as they lay among the sick and dy 
 ing, formed a picture of helpless, hopeless misery which 
 it would be impossible to portray by words or by the 
 brush" (Record, p. 4348). 
 
 It would hardly seem necessary, if indeed it were pos- 
 
AXDERSONVILLE. 199 
 
 sible, to add coloring to the picture here drawn. I can 
 not refrain, however, from noticing farther the condition 
 of these prisoners, as we learn it from the same class of 
 testimony. Dr. Amos Thornburg, a rebel surgeon on 
 duty at Andersonville from the 14th of April until the 
 prison was finally broken up, fully confirms every thing- 
 said by Dr. Jones. After speaking of the terrible mor 
 tality among the prisoners, and in reply to the question, 
 "To what do you attribute it?" he says, "I attribute it 
 to the want of proper diet ; the crowding together of too 
 many men in the prison and in the hospital; the lack of 
 shelter and fuel, and consequent exposure. While I pre 
 scribed at the stockade, after the hospital was moved out 
 side, the number of sick who could not be admitted into 
 the hospital became so great that we were compelled to 
 practice by formulas for different diseases, numbering so 
 that, instead of a prescription, a patient was told to use 
 Kb. " (Record, p. 2321). 
 
 Manifestly improper as this method of treating diseases 
 must appear to every one, it did not escape the criticism 
 of the more conscientious even of those at Andersonville. 
 Dr. Head, persisting in giving a prescription in each case, 
 as he thought his duty as a conscientious physician re 
 quired, and not willing to accept a number prepared for 
 all stages of any one disease, was told, on asking why he 
 could not be permitted to pursue the safe course, " That 
 he was not to practice in that way ; that he had to prac 
 tice according to the formulas and numbers that they 
 had" (Record, p. 2500). 
 
 In reply to the question, ""Why did you object to it?" 
 he says, "Because I could not prescribe properly for my 
 
200 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 patients, I looked upon it as utter quackery ; any body, 
 whether he had ever read medicine or not, could prac 
 tice according to the formulas. It was often doubtful 
 whether a prescription would suit a case in its present 
 condition. The doctors, however, had to take that or 
 nothing." 
 
 Dr. GK L. B. Kice, another surgeon on duty there, speak 
 ing on the same point, says: "I commenced prescribing 
 as I had been in the habit of doing at home, but was in 
 formed that I would not be allowed to do that. I was 
 handed a lot of formulas and numbers from one up to a 
 certain point, and we had to use those. My opinion was 
 that we could do very little good with that kind of pre 
 scription. It was very unsafe practice. I knew noth 
 ing about the ingredients in them, and had no means of 
 knowing it ; I made complaints, but the chief surgeon 
 would not allow a change" (Kecord, p. 3604). 
 
 The testimony of Dr. Thornburg, and other surgeons 
 who prescribed at the stockade, shows that after the hos 
 pital was moved outside, patients were not treated in the 
 stockade at all, but only those who were able to crowd 
 their way through that living mass to the south gate, or 
 could induce their companions to carry them there, or, 
 as happened in rare instances, could have medicines sent 
 in to them, received any medical attendance whatever. 
 Hundreds and thousands, as appears from the concur 
 rent testimony of all the witnesses, sickened, languished, 
 and died in that terrible place, without any medical at 
 tendance whatever. Horrible as this may appear, the 
 hospital register bears indubitable proof of its truth. 
 
 Let me, in this connection, refer to an exhibit show- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 201 
 
 ing certain computation made from that register. The 
 phrase " died in quarters" in the column of remarks, Dr. 
 Thornburg says, describes those cases just alluded to, 
 and they are shown to have amounted to the frightful 
 number of 3727. 
 
 These dead, as we learn from Dr. Thornburg s testi 
 mony, after being brought out, were examined, and, as 
 far as possible, the diseases from which they died were 
 entered on the hospital register for a purpose so diaboli 
 cal that one shudders at the thought, and which I shall 
 hereafter notice. Others, the causes of whose deaths 
 could not even be guessed at, or, as Dr. Jones describes 
 it, morbi varii, were marked on the register " unknown." 
 Prisoners would often die on their way to the sick-gate, 
 or while waiting their turns at the gate, or on the way 
 from the gate to the hospital ; and although in some cases 
 such men might have been prescribed for, they could 
 not afterward be identified, but had to be carried to the 
 grave-yard and buried among the nameless. To prevent, 
 if possible, this utter annihilation of memory, name, and 
 fame, Dr. Thornburg instituted a system of placards, by 
 which he sought to prevent, if possible, this reckless wip 
 ing out of all traces of the dead, and which prevented its 
 occurrence, he thinks, after June, 1864 ; but there had al 
 ready gone to their last home, as Captain Moore, who re- 
 interred the dead at Andersonville, tells us, four hundred 
 and fifty-one of our brave soldiers. Who they are the 
 Andersonville register tells not, but there is a register 
 where they are all recorded in letters of light, and one 
 by one will these unknown rise in judgment against 
 those who are responsible for their deaths. 
 
 12 
 
202 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Another frightful feature brought out by the testimo 
 ny of Dr. Thornburg and others, and confirmed by near 
 ly every soldier who testified before this court, is this, 
 that only the worst cases were allowed to enter the hos 
 pital; and so closely was the line drawn discriminating 
 against these supplicants, that often prisoners who had 
 been refused admission into the hospital died on their 
 way back to their quarters. I will not stop now, as I 
 am not inquiring into the responsibility of parties, to no 
 tice the ineffable cruelty of compelling the sick to remain 
 in the stockade until they were in a dying condition, as 
 some of the witnesses say, before they were eligible to a 
 space as large as their own persons in what was falsely 
 termed a hospital. 
 
 Nor did the rigors and sufferings of this prison cease 
 till its very close. Their shelter continued the same 
 no more ; while the treatment in and out of the stockade 
 was not perceptibly better. From a temperature rang 
 ing during the summer up to near 150 Fahrenheit in 
 the sun, as Dr. Thornburg tells you, during which there 
 were many cases of sun-stroke, it fell in the winter to a 
 temperature much below the freezing-point, nothing be 
 ing left these miserable creatures with which to resist the 
 inclemency of the weather but diseased and emaciated 
 bodies, and ragged, worn-out clothing. Dr. Thornburg 
 says that during the winter there was weather sufficient 
 ly severe to have frozen to death men with the scanty 
 supplies these prisoners had, and in their emaciated con 
 dition ; and Dr.Eice, after stating that the prisoners were 
 exposed more or less during the whole winter, says, "I 
 knew a great many to die there who I believed died from 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 203 
 
 hunger and starvation, and from cold and exposure" (Rec- 
 ord, p. 2606). This is more than confirmed also by Dr. 
 Bates (Record, p. 164:). And to the eternal infamy of the 
 man who registered it, and of the heartless wretches who 
 caused it, let it be spread before the world that on the 
 hospital register there appears this entry: "T. Gerrity, 
 106th Pennsylvania, frozen to death ; admitted January 
 3d; died January 3d died in the stockade;" showing 
 that he not only froze to death in the stockade without 
 medical treatment and without shelter, but that he was 
 admitted into the hospital after death for a purpose which 
 I shall hereafter show. 
 
 Wishing only to get at the truth of these things, and 
 desirous particularly that the parties responsible shall be 
 judged, as far as possible, out of their own mouths, I 
 must trespass upon the patience of the court for a mo 
 ment to notice the evidence of Dr. G. G. Roy, a rebel sur 
 geon who was on duty from the 1st of September until 
 the close of the prison. In response to the question, 
 " What was the condition of the men sent to the hospi 
 tal from the stockade ? Describe their diseases and ap 
 pearance," he says, " They presented the most horrible 
 spectacle of humanity that I ever saw in my life : a good 
 many were suffering from scurvy and other diseases; a 
 good many were naked ; a large majority barefooted ; a 
 good many without hats ; their condition generally was 
 almost indescribable." And he goes on to say, "I at 
 tribute this condition to long confinement, want of the 
 necessaries and comforts of life, and all those causes that 
 are calculated to produce that condition of the system 
 where there is just vitality enough to permit one to live. 
 
204 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 The prisoners were too densely crowded; there was no 
 shelter, except such as they constructed themselves, which 
 was very insufficient ; a good many were in holes in the 
 earth, with their blankets thrown over them; a good 
 many had a blanket or oil-cloth drawn over poles ; some 
 were in tents constructed by their own ingenuity, and 
 with just such, accommodations as their own ingenuity 
 permitted them to contrive ; there were, you may say, no 
 accommodations made for them in the stockade" (Rec 
 ord, pp. 485 and 486). 
 
 Speaking of the east side of the stockade, along the 
 stream, he says : "It is composed of marsh, and was 
 blocked with trees, which had been cut down, acting as 
 an obstruction to all deleterious animal and vegetable 
 matter that passed after heavy weather through this 
 stream ; it accumulated and became very noxious, and 
 was a very fruitful source of malaria." 
 
 He then speaks of the large quantities of insects and 
 vermin which resulted from a decay of animal or vege 
 table matter, and to such an extent was this place a 
 breeder of insects, that he says musquitoes rarely heard 
 of in that vicinity so filled the air " that it was danger 
 ous for a man to open his mouth after sundown." He 
 speaks also of the multitude of fleas there, and says "the 
 fleas were as bad as musquitoes, and several weeks after 
 the evacuation of the stockade they emigrated, and came 
 up to the private houses in the vicinity, so that the occu 
 pants had to leave on account of them." 
 
 When we remember the facts brought out in such 
 bold relief by the elaborate report of Dr. Jones as to the 
 effect of slight abrasions of the skin on men under the pe- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 205 
 
 culiar condition of body that most of these prisoners la 
 bored under, it would seem to have been almost useless 
 for them to have attempted to resist the destroyer. Far 
 ther along in his testimony Dr. Koy says, " This marshy 
 place I spoke of was just in thej:ear of the hospital, and 
 the winds, of course, blew the odors from there across 
 the hospital, and it was not until late in the winter, if at 
 all, that any attempt was made to drain it." Still pur 
 suing our inquiries in this direction, I desire to quote 
 from a report made by Dr. Gr. S. Hopkins and Surgeon II. 
 E. Watkins, addressed to General Winder, and which was 
 made pursuant to his suggestion, as embracing in a con 
 cise form many of the causes of the disease and mortality 
 at Anderson ville. 
 
 CAUSES OF DISEASE AND MOETALITY. 
 
 " 1st. The large number of prisoners crowded together. 
 
 "2d. The entire absence of all vegetables as diet, so 
 necessary as a preventive of scurvy. 
 
 " 3d. The want of barracks to shelter the prisoners 
 from sun and rain. 
 
 "4th. The inadequate supply of wood and good water. 
 
 " 5th. Badly-cooked food. 
 
 " 6th. The filthy condition of the prisoners and prison 
 generally. 
 
 " 7th. The morbific emanations from the branch or 
 ravine passing through the prison, the condition of which 
 can not be better explained than by naming it a morass 
 of human excrement and mud." 
 
206 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 
 
 " 1st. The removal immediately from the prison of not 
 less than 15,000 prisoners. 
 
 " 2d. Detail on parole a sufficient number of prisoners 
 to cultivate the necessary supply of vegetables ; and, un 
 til this can be carried into practical operation,- the ap 
 pointment of agents along the different lines of railroad 
 to purchase and forward a supply. 
 
 "3d. The immediate erection of barracks to shelter the 
 prisoners. 
 
 "4th. To furnish, the necessary quantity of wood, and 
 have wells dug to supply the deficiency of water. 
 
 "5th. Divide the prisoners into squads; place each 
 squad under the charge of a sergeant ; furnish the nec 
 essary quantity of soap, and hold these sergeants respon 
 sible for the personal cleanliness of his squad; furnish 
 the prisoners with clothing at the expense of the Confed 
 erate, and, if that government be unable to do so, candid 
 ly admit our inability, and call upon the Federal govern 
 ment to furnish them. 
 
 " 6th. By a daily inspection of bake-house and baking. 
 
 " 7th. Cover over with sand from the hill-sides the en 
 tire morass, not less than six inches deep; board the 
 stream or water-course, and confine, the men to the use 
 of the sinks, and make the penalty for the disobedience 
 of such orders severe." 
 
 I will not stop now to notice with what flippancy and 
 recklessness the practical suggestions made by these sur 
 geons were put aside and totally disregarded both by 
 General Winder and Chief Surgeon White. 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 207 
 
 I can hardly think that farther proof, inasmuch as the 
 proof is already made cumulative from this class of wit 
 nesses, is needed. There have been examined, with re 
 gard to the condition of the stockade and hospital, over 
 seventy witnesses, and an examination of their testimony 
 will, as I before stated, show a complete and perfect con 
 currence. 
 
208 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 Colonel Chandler s Report. Colonel Gibbs s Testimouy. Evidence of 
 Rebel Officers and Soldiers. Condition of the Hospital. 
 
 IN July there seems to have been some correspondence 
 between the rebel adjutant general and General Winder, 
 who was then on duty at Andersonville. From a letter 
 written by General Winder to Adjutant General Cooper, 
 dated July 21st (see Exhibit No. 17), I extract the follow 
 ing: u You speak in your indorsement of placing the 
 prisoners properly. I do not comprehend what is in 
 tended by it. I know of but one way to place them, and 
 that is to put them in the stockade, where they have be 
 tween four and five square yards to the man. This in 
 cludes streets, and two acres of ground about the stream." 
 
 It will be observed that General Winder was very 
 careful not to mention the strip twenty feet wide cut off 
 by the " dead line." At the close of this month, from 
 what motive we can only conjecture, Colonel D. T. Chand 
 ler, of the Eebel War Department, was sent to inspect 
 the prison at Andersonville, and on the 5th of August, 
 1864, he made a full report. This report is no stronger 
 than others from which we have already quoted, but, as 
 it is destined to figure extensively in this case at other 
 points in the argument, I beg to make a few extracts 
 from it. He says : 
 
 " A small stream passes from west to east through the 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 209 
 
 inclosure, furnishing the only water for washing accessi 
 ble to the prisoners. Some regiments of the guard, the 
 bakery, and the cook-house, being placed on rising 
 ground bordering the stream before it enters the prison, 
 renders the water nearly unfit for use before it reaches 
 
 the prisoners From thirty to fifty yards on each 
 
 side of the stream the ground is a muddy marsh, totally 
 unfit for occupation ; being constantly used as a sink since 
 the prison was first established, it is now in a shocking 
 condition, and can not fail to breed pestilence. No shel 
 ter whatever, nor materials for constructing any, have 
 been provided by the prison authorities, and the ground 
 being entirely bare of trees, none is within the reach of 
 the prisoners." 
 
 Again : " The whole number of prisoners is divided 
 into messes of two hundred and seventy, and subdivi 
 sions of ninety men, each under a sergeant of their own 
 number ; and but one Confederate States officer, Captain 
 Wirz, is assigned to the supervision and control of the 
 whole. In consequence of these facts, and the absence 
 of all regularity in the prison grounds, and there being 
 no barracks or tents, there are and can be no regulations 
 established for the police, consideration for the health, 
 comfort, and sanitary condition of those within the in 
 closure, and none are practicable under existing circum 
 stances There is no medical attendance furnished 
 
 within the stockade." 
 
 He says farther: "Many twenty yesterday are cart 
 ed out daily who have died from unknown causes, and 
 whom the medical officers have never seen. The dead 
 are hauled out daily by wagon-loads, and buried without 
 
210 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 coffins, their hands in many instances being first mu 
 tilated with an axe in removal of any finger-ring they 
 may have. The sanitary condition of the prisoners is 
 as wretched as can be, the principal causes of mortality 
 being scurvy and chronic diarrhoea, the percentage of 
 the former being disproportionately large among those 
 brought from Belle Island. Nothing seems to have been 
 done, and but little, if any effort made to arrest it by 
 procuring proper food Kaw rations have been is 
 sued to a very large proportion who are entirely unpro 
 vided with proper utensils, and furnished with so limited 
 a supply of fuel that they are compelled to dig with their 
 hands in the filthy marsh before mentioned for roots, etc." 
 
 Surgeon Isaiah H. White, chief surgeon at the prison, 
 in a report to Colonel Chandler, which was made an in- 
 closure of his report to Kichmond, says : 
 
 " The lack of barrack accommodations exposes the 
 men to the heat of the sun by day and the dews by 
 
 night, and is a prolific source of disease The 
 
 point of exit of the stream through the wall of the stock 
 ade is not sufficiently bold as to permit the free passage 
 of ordure when the stream is swollen by rains. The 
 lower portion of this bottom-land is overflowed by a 
 solution of excrement, which subsiding, and the surface 
 exposed to the sun, produce a horrible stench." 
 
 EVIDENCE OF EEBEL OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS. 
 
 I turn now to the evidence of rebel officers and sol 
 diers on duty at Andersonville. 
 
 Colonel Alexander W. Persons, of the rebel army, the 
 first commandant of the post, who remained there until 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 211 
 
 the latter part of May, says that after he was relieved he 
 returned there again and drew a bill for an injunction, 
 and when called upon to explain for what reason, re 
 plied, " To abate a nuisance : the grave-yard made it a 
 nuisance ; the prison generally was a nuisance from the 
 intolerable stench, the effluvia, the malaria that it gave 
 up, and things of that sort." 
 
 The view here presented must strike the court as 
 graphic indeed, when, without the question of humanity 
 or inhumanity involved, persons living in the vicinity of 
 Andersonville could gravely begin a legal proceeding to 
 abate the prison as a nuisance on the ground mainly that 
 the effluvia arising from it was intolerable ! 
 
 Colonel George C. Gibbs, who afterward commanded 
 the post, gives evidence on this point no less important. 
 He was assigned to duty in October, 1864, and, although 
 the number at that time was greatly diminished, he 
 speaks of the prisoners being badly off for clothing and 
 shelter, and in other respects destitute. Prior to this 
 time some time in July he had visited the stockade, 
 and he uses this language in regard to its appearance then: 
 
 "I rode around it on three sides, I think, and could see 
 into it from the batteries that commanded it. I never 
 saw so many men together in the same space before ; it 
 had more the appearance of an ant-hill than any thing 
 else I can compare it to" (Eecord, p. 84). 
 
 Nazareth Allen, a rebel soldier on duty at Ander 
 sonville during the summer of 1864, fully corroborates 
 these opinions ; and farther, in relation to the location of 
 troops above the stockade, and its effects upon the pris 
 oners, says : 
 
212 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 " The cook-house was above the stockade, and a good 
 deal of washing was done up the branch, consequently a 
 great deal of filth went down. Some of the troops were 
 encamped on the stream above, on the side of the hill, 
 and the rain would wash the filth of the camps and sinks 
 into the stream, which would carry it to the stockade. I 
 have seen the prisoners using it when it was in this filthy 
 
 condition The stench was very bad. I have 
 
 smelt it when I was at our picket camps, about a mile in 
 a straight line. It was so bad that it kept me sick pret 
 ty nearly all the time I was around the stockade. The 
 soldiers preferred picket duty to sentry duty on that ac 
 count." 
 
 William Williams, another rebel soldier on duty at 
 the time, fully confirms this. He was on duty both on 
 parapet and on picket, and had opportunity of observa 
 tion. In reply to a question as to the condition of the 
 stockade, he says, 
 
 " It was as nasty as a place could be. On one occasion 
 I saw a man lying there who had not clothes enough on 
 him to hide his nakedness. His hip bones were worn 
 away. He had put up two sticks, and fastened his coat 
 over them, to keep the sun off his face. There were a 
 good many lying down sick, and others waiting on them. 
 The crowded state of the men and the filthiness of the 
 place created a very bad odor. I have smelt it at the 
 depot, about a mile from the stockade" (Eecord, p. 801). 
 
 Again he says: "The stream that passed through the 
 stockade ran down between the 1st and 2d Georgia regi 
 ments and Furlow s battalion, and passed the bake-house. 
 All the washings from the bake-house went right through 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 213 
 
 the stockade, and also the washings from the camps. 
 The pits used by the men were not five feet from the 
 stream. Sometimes when it was rainy it was thick with 
 mud and filth from the drainings of the camps inside the 
 stockade." 
 
 Calvin Honeycutt, another rebel soldier, on duty from 
 April, 1864, to April, 1865, who was on duty on the 
 stockade and also on picket, corroborates the testimony 
 of his comrades. 
 
 James Mohan, a rebel private, afterward made a lieu 
 tenant, who was on duty at Andersonville for about five 
 months during the summer of 1864, gives similar testi 
 mony; and John F. Heath, regimental commissary with 
 the rank of captain, on duty from May till October, 1864, 
 fully confirms the testimony upon this point already 
 
 EVIDENCE OF RESIDENTS OF GEORGIA. 
 
 Samuel Hall, a prominent gentleman residing in Ma- 
 con, Georgia, whose sympathies, he tells us, were from 
 the beginning with the rebellion, and who held a high 
 civil official position, says, " When first I saw it (the pris 
 on) in the month of August, it was literally crammed and 
 packed ; there was scarcely room for locomotion ; it was 
 destitute of shelter, as well as I could judge, and at that 
 time there was a great mortality among the prisoners" 
 (Record, p. 864). 
 
 Rev. William John Hamilton also gives important tes 
 timony as to the condition of the stockade, which he vis 
 ited in the capacity of a priest. He was there in May, 
 and at different periods subsequently. He says : 
 
214 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 " I found the stockade extremely crowded, with a great 
 deal of sickness and suffering among the men. I was 
 kept so busy administering the sacrament to the dying 
 that I had to curtail a great deal of the service that Cath 
 olic priests administer to the dying ; they died so fast, I 
 waited only upon those of our own Church, and do not 
 
 include others among the dying The stockade 
 
 was extremely filthy, the men all huddled together and 
 covered with vermin. The .best idea I can give the 
 court of the condition of the place is perhaps this: I went 
 in there with a white linen coat on, and I had not been 
 in there more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour 
 when a gentleman drew my attention to the condition of 
 my coat : it was all covered over with vermin, and I had 
 to take it off and leave it with one of the guards, and 
 form my duties in my shirt-sleeves, the place was so fil 
 thy" (Record, p. 1969). 
 
 Again, giving an illustration of the sufferings of the 
 prisoners, and especially of the intense heat of the sun, 
 he says, " I found a boy not more than sixteen years old, 
 who came to me for spiritual comfort, without jacket or 
 coat, or any covering on his feet, suffering very much 
 from a wound in his right foot. The foot was split open 
 like an oyster, and on inquiring the cause I was told it 
 was from exposure to the sun in the stockade, and not 
 from any wound received in battle. On returning to the 
 stockade a week afterward I learned that he stepped 
 across the dead line and requested the guard to shoot 
 
 him He had no medical treatment, nor had any 
 
 others, so far as I could see, to whom I administered the 
 sacrament in the stockade." 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 215 
 
 Again he says : " On my second visit, I was told there 
 was an Irishman at the extreme end of the stockade who 
 
 was calling out for a priest I tried to cross the 
 
 branch to reach him, but was unable to do so, as the men 
 were all crowding around there trying to get into the 
 water to cool themselves and wash themselves, and I had 
 
 to leave the stockade without seeing the man 
 
 The heat was intolerable. There was no air at all in 
 the stockade. The logs of which the stockade was com 
 posed were so close together that I could not feel any 
 fresh air inside, and with a strong sun beaming down 
 upon it, and no shelter at all, of course the heat must 
 have been insufferable ; at least I felt it so. The priests 
 who went there after me, while administering the sacra 
 ment to the dying, had to use an umbrella, the heat was 
 so intense" (Record, p. 1981). 
 
 Ambrose Spencer, a gentleman of prominence in his 
 state, residing near Andersonville during the war, and a 
 frequent visitor to that place, gives us a graphic picture 
 of the prison which I can not refrain from quoting. 
 
 He says, " I had frequent opportunities of seeing the 
 condition of the prisoners, not only from the adjacent 
 hills, but on several occasions from the outside of the 
 stockade, where the sentinel s grounds were." 
 
 And in reply to a question asking him to describe the 
 condition of the prisoners, he says, " I can only answer 
 the question by saying that their condition was as 
 wretched as could well be conceived, not only from ex 
 posure to the sun, the inclemency of the weather, and the 
 cold of winter, but from the filth from the absolute deg 
 radation which was evident in their condition. I have 
 
216 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 seen that stockade after three or four days rain, when 
 the mud, I should think, was at least twelve inches deep. 
 The prisoners were walking or wading through that mud. 
 
 The condition of the stockade can, perhaps, be 
 
 expressed most accurately by saying that, in passing up 
 and down the railroad, if the wind was favorable, the 
 odor of the stockade could be detected at least two 
 miles" (Record, p. 2455). 
 
 There are others of this class who testify upon this 
 point, but it would seem useless to give farther extracts. 
 
 It is not my purpose, in this connection, to enter into a 
 detail of the sufferings, the acts of cruelty inflicted, and 
 the inhuman treatment they received, or to inquire by 
 whom these things were done. Reserving that for its 
 proper place in the argument, I shall simply refer to this 
 testimony to assist us in ascertaining more certainly the 
 horrors to which these brave men were subjected. 
 
 Dr. A.W. Barrows, hospital steward of the 27th Massa 
 chusetts Regiment, and acting assistant post surgeon at 
 Plymouth, North Carolina, arrived at Andersonville on 
 the 28th of May, and remained there six months. Owing 
 to his knowledge of medicine and efficiency, he was pa 
 roled by the prisoner, and assigned to duty in the hos 
 pital. His testimony is important, as showing the con 
 dition of the hospital mainly ; but he has also given some 
 material evidence with regard to the stockade, and from 
 it I make the following extract : 
 
 "I remember when there have been as many as sev 
 enty-five to one hundred who died during the day in the 
 stockade, and who were never taken to the hospital. 
 That was in the month of August." 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 217 
 
 Eobert II. Kellogg entered the prison on the 3d of 
 May, 1864, and remained there until the following Sep 
 tember. He says : 
 
 u We found the men in the stockade ragged, nearly 
 destitute of clothing, totally unprovided with shelter ex 
 cept that which tattered blankets could afford. They 
 looked nearly starved. They were skeletons covered 
 with skin. The prison seemed very crowded to us, al 
 though there were thousands brought there after that. 
 .... They were in a very filthy condition indeed, 
 there were but two issues of soap made while I was there. 
 .... When we first went there the nights were very 
 cold. That soon passed away as the season advanced, and 
 during the summer it was intensely hot. There were 
 twenty-one rainy days in the month of June. Our supply 
 of fuel was not regular nor sufficient. We were allowed 
 to go several times under guard, six men from a squad 
 of ninety, to bring in what we could find in the woods on 
 our shoulders; but the greater part of the time we had 
 to rely upon our supply of roots, which we dug out of 
 the ground or grubbed for in the swamp pitch-pine 
 roots Kations were issued raw, many times with 
 out fuel to cook them. The squad of ninety, of which I 
 was sergeant, went from the 80th of June to the 30th of 
 August without any issue of wood from the authorities" 
 (Record, pp. 361 and 362). 
 
 Again he says : " The quality of the rations was very 
 poor; the quantity greatly varied. There were days 
 when we got nothing at all. I made a note of at least 
 
 two such days There were other days when wo 
 
 got but very little ; other clays enough, such as it was. 
 
 K 
 
218 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 When my regiment went there the men were healthy. 
 They gradually sickened, until, I remember, one morning 
 at roll-call, out of my ninety there were thirty-two who 
 were not able to stand up. This resulted principally 
 from scurvy and diarrhoea. This was on the 21st of Au 
 gust, a number of the men of my squad having died up 
 to that time. The mass of the men had to depend on 
 the brook for their water. It at many times was exceed 
 ingly filthy. I have seen it completely covered with 
 floating grease, and dirt, and offal. After the prisoners 
 had been there some time they dug some wells, and there 
 were some springs along the south side of the prison, on 
 the edge of the hill by the swamp, but the supply from 
 that source was entirely inadequate; they supplied the 
 
 wants of a few Of the four hundred men captured 
 
 with me, more than three hundred are dead ; they died 
 in prison, or a few days after being paroled, and that is a 
 larger percentage of living than there is in many regi 
 ments. The 24th New York Battery, which was cap 
 tured at Plymouth, was nearly annihilated" (Record, p. 
 367). 
 
 This is the simple unvarnished narrative of perhaps 
 as intelligent a witness as has been upon the stand. He 
 has written a book, entitled " Life and Death in Southern 
 Prisons," which has been used extensively by counsel 
 for the accused. 
 
 I do not want to burden the record with a recapitu 
 lation of all that these witnesses have testified to, but I 
 think it can be safely said that not one word of Robert 
 II. Kellogg s has been or can be disproved. There are 
 many of his comrades who fully confirm him, without 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 219 
 
 adding any special facts that would tend to elucidate this 
 point. These I shall omit in this connection. There are 
 others, however, who give additional facts bearing on this 
 subject, and I beg your indulgence while I refer to them. 
 
 Boston Corbett s testimony brings out some facts to 
 which I first will call your attention. Speaking of the 
 heat, he says, " It was so great that I have the marks 
 upon my shoulders yet" (Record, p. 425). Of the brook, 
 and the swamp bordering it, he says, "It was a living 
 mass of putrefaction and filth ; there were maggots there 
 a foot deep ; any time we turned over the soil we could 
 see the maggots in a living mass. I have seen the sol 
 diers wading through it, digging for roots to use for fuel ; 
 I have seen around the swamp the sick in great num 
 bers, lying pretty much as soldiers lie when they are 
 down to rest in line after a march ; in the morning I 
 could see those who had died during the night; and in 
 the daytime I could see them exposed to the heat of the 
 sun, with their feet swelled to an enormous size in many 
 cases large gangrene sores, the sores filled with maggots 
 and flies which they were unable to keep off; I have 
 seen men lay there in an utter destitution, not able to 
 help themselves, lying in their own filth. They gener 
 ally chose that place (near the swamp), those who were 
 most offensive, because others would drive them away, 
 not wanting to be near those who had such bad sores. 
 They chose it because of its being so near to the sinks. 
 In one case a man died there, I am satisfied, from the 
 effects of lice ; when the clothes were taken off his body, 
 the lice seemed as thick as the garment a living mass." 
 
 Again : " The water in the stockade was often very 
 
220 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 filthy. Sometimes it was middling clear. At times I 
 would go to those who had wells dug ; sometimes they 
 would give me a drink, sometimes they would not ; they 
 used such rough language to me that I turned away 
 parched with thirst, and drank water from the stream 
 rather than beg it from the men who had wells" (Ecc- 
 ord,p.437). 
 
 Again: "The minds of the prisoners were in many 
 cases so affected that the prisoners became idiotic" (Rec 
 ord, p. 439). 
 
 On page 452 of the Record, he says, "I have taken 
 food given me to the stream and washed the maggots 
 from it. I have seen them in the sores of soldiers there, 
 and I have seen them in such a way that it is hardly fit 
 to describe in this court." 
 
 Too terrible for belief as this may seem to be, it stands 
 confirmed by at least fifty witnesses. 
 
 Martin E. Hogan is a witness whom the court will 
 remember as among the more intelligent, and, at the 
 same time, truthful and candid. His observations were 
 confined mainly to the hospital, but I feel impelled to 
 make a brief extract from his testimony in regard to the 
 stockade. 
 
 He says: " At the time of my arrival there (speaking of 
 the stockade) it was very much crowded, so much so that 
 you could scarcely elbow your way through the crowd 
 in any part of the camp. I noticed a great many men 
 lying helpless on the ground, seemingly without care, 
 without any body to attend to them, lying in their own 
 filth ; a great many of them calling for water ; a great 
 many crying for food ; nobody apparently paying any 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 221 
 
 heed to them ; others almost destitute of clothing, so nu 
 merous that I could not begin to say how many" (Rec 
 ord, p. 515). 
 
 Then follows testimony similar to that of Boston Cor- 
 bett in regard to the swamp and vermin in it. 
 
 Andrew J. Spring, who went to Andersonville in May, 
 1864, says that, upon entering the stockade, "I found the 
 prisoners destitute of clothing ; I could not tell, in many 
 cases, whether they were white men or negroes." 
 
 On the 2 7 tli of the same month he was detailed for 
 duty outside. After being outside the stockade about six 
 weeks, he says, "I applied to the lieutenant of the guard 
 at the gate, and gave him twelve dollars in greenbacks 
 to let me go in and stay an hour to see our boys. I went 
 in, and spent an hour inside the stockade. A great many 
 of the boys were very poor. They were some of my own 
 best friends, whom I could not recognize till they came 
 and shook hands with me, and made themselves known ; 
 even then I could hardly believe they were the same 
 men. I have seen men, acquaintances of mine, who 
 would go around there, not knowing any thing at ail- 
 hardly noticing any thing ; I have seen men crippled up 
 so that they had scarcely any life in them at all ; they 
 would lie on the ground, to all appearance dead ; I went 
 up to several who I thought were dead, but I found they 
 had a little life in them." 
 
 James II. Davidson (Record, p. 936-J-), speaking of the 
 condition of the stockade, says, " I have seen men who 
 had the appearance of being starved to death. I have 
 seen men pick up and eat undigested food that had passed 
 through other men all through the camp. It came from 
 
222 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 men who were not able to go to the slough, and they 
 would find it all through the camp." This, it will be re 
 membered, is testified to by very many. 
 
 Daniel W. Burringer says, "I have seen men eat un 
 digested food that had passed through #ther men ; they 
 would wash it and eat it pick it up from the sinks" 
 (Record, p. 1125). 
 
 CONDITION OF THE HOSPITAL. 
 
 It is not proposed to enter as fully into the condition 
 of the hospital as might be done from the reports and 
 evidence before us. Sufficient will be given, however, 
 to warrant the conclusion that it was very little better 
 than that of the stockade itself; and, in view of the dis 
 crimination which the surgeons were directed to make in 
 the admission of men from the stockade into the hospital, 
 we can readily understand why the prisoners almost uni 
 formly bade their comrades farewell when they were 
 taken from the stockade to the hospital. The evidence 
 which I shall bring to your recollection will also justify 
 the remark made by one of the surgeons, who says that 
 it really was no hospital. 
 
 Here, also, we have recourse to the official report of 
 Dr. Joseph Jones, in which we find his remarks upon the 
 condition of the hospital quite as lucid and elaborate as 
 those in reference to the stockade. 
 
 After speaking of the stream running through one cor 
 ner of the hospital stockade, and stating that its upper 
 portion was used for washing by the patients, and the 
 lower portion as a sink, he remarks : 
 
 "This part of the stream is a semi-fluid mass of hu- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 228 
 
 man excrement, and offal, and filth of all kinds. This 
 immense cess-pool, fermenting beneath the hot sun, emit 
 ted an overpowering stench North of the hospital 
 
 grounds, the stream which flows through the stockade 
 pursues its sluggish and filthy course. The exhalations 
 from the swamp, which is loaded with the excrement of 
 the prisoners confined in the stockade, exert their delete 
 rious influences on the inmates of the hospital." 
 
 Within the hospital inclosure, less than five acres, he 
 says, " The patients and attendants, near two thousand, 
 are crowded, and are but poorly supplied with old and 
 ragged tents. A large number of them are without any 
 bunks in the tents, and lay upon the ground, oftentimes 
 without even a blanket. No beds or straw appear to 
 have been furnished." 
 
 The tents extended to within a few yards of the small 
 stream, which, as he before observed, was used as a privy, 
 and was loaded with excrement. 
 
 {i l observed," he says, "a large pile of corn-bread, 
 bones, and filth of all kinds, thirty feet in diameter, and 
 several feet in height, swarming with myriads of flies, in 
 a vacant space near the pots used for cooking. Millions 
 of flies swarmed over every thing, and covered the faces 
 of the sleeping patients, crowded down their mouths, and 
 deposited their maggots upon the gangrenous wounds of 
 the living and the mouths of the dead. Musquitoes in 
 great numbers also infested the tents, and many of the 
 patients were so stung by these pestiferous insects that 
 they resembled those suffering with a slight attack of 
 measles. The police and hygiene of the hospital was de 
 fective in the extreme" (Record, pp. 4350-4351). 
 
224 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Again : " Many of the sick were literally incrusted 
 with dirt and filth, and covered with vermin. When a 
 gangrene wound needed washing, the limb was thrust out 
 a little from the blanket, or board, or rags upon which 
 the patient was lying, and water poured over it, and all 
 the putrescent matter allowed to soak into the ground 
 
 floor of the tent I saw the most filthy rags, which 
 
 had been applied several times and imperfectly washed, 
 used in dressing recent wounds. Where hospital gan 
 grene was prevailing, it was impossible for any wound 
 to escape contagion under the circumstances" (Record, 
 p. 354). 
 
 Of the treatment of the dead, he says, "The manner of 
 disposing of the dead is also calculated to depress the al 
 ready despondent spirits of these men .... The dead- 
 house is merely a frame covered with old tent-cloth and 
 a few bushes, situated in the southwestern corner of the 
 hospital grounds. When a patient dies, he is simply laid 
 in the narrow street in the front of his tent until he is re 
 moved by the Federal negroes detailed to carry off the 
 dead. If the patient dies during the night, he lies there 
 until morning ; and during the day, even, the dead were 
 frequently allowed to remain for hours in these walks. 
 In the dead-house the corpses lay on the bare ground, 
 and were in most cases covered with filth and vermin" 
 (Kecord, p. 4355). 
 
 Farther on he says, " The cooking arrangements are 
 of the most defective character. Two large iron pots, 
 similar to those used for boiling sugar-cane, appeared to 
 be the only cooking utensils furnished by the hospital 
 for the cooking of near two thousand men, and the pa- 
 
ANDERSOISTVILLE. 225 
 
 tients were dependent in a great measure on their own 
 
 miserable utensils The air of the tents was foul 
 
 and disagreeable in the extreme, and, in fact, the entire 
 grounds emitted a most noxious and disgusting smell. I 
 entered nearly all the tents, and carefully examined the 
 cases of interest, and especially the cases of gangrene, 
 during the prosecution of my pathological inquiries at 
 Andersonville, and therefore enjoyed every opportunity 
 to judge correctly of the hygiene and police of the hospi 
 tal (Record, p. 4357). 
 
 To show that this frightful condition of affairs did 
 cease after a great portion of the prisoners were removed, 
 Dr. Jones observes: "The ratio of mortality continued 
 to increase during September; for, notwithstanding the 
 removal of half the entire number of prisoners during 
 the early portion of the month, seventeen hundred and 
 fifty-seven deaths were registered from September 1st to 
 the 21st, and the largest number of deaths upon any one 
 day occurred during this month, on the 16th, viz., one 
 hundred and nineteen. 
 
 Afterward, remarking upon the causes of the great 
 mortality among the Federal prisoners, he says, " The 
 chief causes of death were scurvy and its results, bowel 
 affections, and chronic and acute diarrhoea, and dysen 
 tery. The bowel affections appeared to have been due 
 to the diet and habits of the patients, the depressed, de 
 jected state of the nervous system and moral and intel 
 lectual powers, and to the effluvia arising from decom 
 posed animal and vegetable filth" (Record, p. 4372). 
 
 He says also : "Almost every amputation was followed 
 finally by death, either from the effects of gangrene, or 
 
 K 2 
 
226 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 from the prevailing diarrhoea and dysentery So 
 
 far as my observation extended, very few of the cases of 
 amputation for gangrene recovered" (Record, p. 4378). 
 
 The evidence of Dr. John C. Bates is important as 
 showing the condition of the hospital. He was a rebel 
 surgeon, on duty at Andersonville from the middle of 
 September, 1864, to the last of March, 1865, embracing a 
 period when it is claimed the sufferings were much light 
 er than they had been. This, we have already seen by 
 Dr. Jones s report, was not true, even after thousands of 
 the prisoners had been sent away, and we shall see from 
 the testimony of Dr. Bates that it is wholly incorrect. 
 He says : 
 
 "Upon going to the ward to which I was assigned, I 
 was shocked at the appearance of things. The men were 
 lying partially nude, and dying, and lousy ; a portion of 
 them in the sand, and others upon boards which had 
 been stuck up on little props, pretty well crowded ; a ma 
 jority of them in small tents I would go to other 
 
 parts of the hospital when officer of the day. The men 
 would gather round me and ask for a bone. I would 
 give them whatever I could find at my disposition with 
 out robbing others. I well knew that an appropriation 
 of one ration took it from the general issue ; that when I 
 appropriated an extra ration to one man, some one else 
 would fall minus. I then fell back upon the distribution 
 of bones. They did not presume to ask me for meat at 
 all. So far as rations are concerned, that is the way mat 
 ters went along for some time after I went there 
 
 They could not be furnished with any clothing except the 
 clothing of the dead, which was generally appropriated to 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 227 
 
 the living. There was a partial supply of fuel, but not 
 sufficient to keep the men warm and prolong their exist 
 ence. As medical officer of the clay, I made examinations 
 beyond my own ward, and reported the condition. As 
 a general thing, the patients were destitute, filthy, and 
 partly naked. The clamor all the while was for some 
 thing to eat" (Record, p. 125). 
 
 Dr. G. Gr. Roy, whose testimony was before referred to, 
 in speaking of the hospital, says, " I found it in a very 
 deplorable condition. There was no comfort attached to 
 it whatever. Many of the tents were badly worn, torn, 
 and rotten, and, of course, permitted the water to leak 
 through. The patients were not furnished with bunks, 
 or bedding, or bedclothing, or any thing of that sort" 
 (Record, p. 480). 
 
 He speaks, as did all the other medical officers on duty 
 there, of the great dearth of medicines, but also concurs 
 with most of them in the opinion that medicine was not 
 so much needed as proper diet; and he confirms gener 
 ally the description given by Dr. Jones. 
 
 On the 26th day of September, Dr. Amos Thornburg, 
 assistant surgeon, in a report to Dr. Stevenson, the sur 
 geon in charge (see Exhibit No. 30), calls special atten 
 tion to the very bad sanitary condition of the hospital. 
 He reports " that patients are lying on the cold ground 
 without bedding or blankets ; also, that we have a very 
 scanty supply of jnedicines, and that the rations are not 
 of the proper kind, and not issued in proper quantity." 
 
228 ANDEBSONVILLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 Charge of Conspiracy. The Law implicating Co-conspirators. Davis. 
 Seddon. Winder. Intimacy of Davis and Winder. 
 
 THE CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY. 
 
 WE come now to the consideration of the third branch 
 of the subject. Having presented a faithful representa 
 tion faithful, because the witnesses themselves have 
 given it of the condition of the stockade and the hos 
 pital, we shall proceed to unfold the extent of the con 
 spiracy, the purposes of the conspirators, and the cruel 
 and devilish means resorted to to accomplish their ends. 
 
 I confess to you, gentlemen, that I enter upon this 
 branch of the argument with regret and reluctance. I 
 confess that, to a greater or less extent, our nationality 
 and the good name we bear are involved in the issue ; 
 but I do not fear to present to the world on this account 
 this great conspiracy of treason, this confederation of 
 traitors, though it shock the moral sentiment of the uni 
 verse ; for, however much we may deplore the fact that 
 at its head and front were Americans, once prominent in 
 the councils of the nation, they have forfeited all rights 
 they have ceased in any way to represent the true 
 spirit of Americanism they are outlaws and criminals, 
 and can not, by their crimes, attaint our fair escutcheon. 
 It is the work of treason, the legitimate result of that sum 
 of all villainies, and which, by many, very many proofs 
 during the past four years, has shown itself capable of 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 229 
 
 this last one developed. When we remember that the 
 men here charged, and those inculpated, but not named 
 in the indictment, are some of them men who were at 
 the head of the late rebellion from its beginning to its 
 close, and, as such chiefs, sanctioned the brutal conduct 
 of their soldiers as early as the first battle of Bull Run 
 who perpetrated unheard-of cruelties at Libby and Belle 
 Island who encouraged the most atrocious propositions 
 of retaliation in their Congress who sanctioned a guer 
 rilla mode of warfare who instituted a system of steam 
 boat burning and firing of cities who employed a sur 
 geon in their service to steal into our capital city infected 
 clothing who approved the criminal treatment of the 
 captured garrisons at Fort Pillow, Fort Washington, and 
 elsewhere who were guilty of the basest treachery of 
 sending paroled prisoners into the field who planted tor 
 pedoes in the paths of our soldiers who paid their emis 
 saries for loading shells in the shape of coals, and inter 
 mixing them in the fuel of our steamers who ordered 
 an indiscriminate firing upon our transports, and vessels, 
 and railroad trains, regardless of whom they contained 
 who organized and carried to a successful termination a 
 most diabolical conspiracy to assassinate the President of 
 the United States: when we remember these things of 
 these men, may we not, without hesitancy, bring to light 
 the conspiracy here charged ? 
 
 Before, however, entering into a discussion of the evi 
 dence, let me present the law governing in cases of con 
 spiracy. I quote from the very able argument of Hon. 
 John A. Bingham, delivered for the prosecution in the 
 trial of the conspirators for the assassination of President 
 
230 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Lincoln, whose law propositions and authorities given can 
 not be gainsaid. 
 
 " If the conspiracy be established as laid, it results that 
 whatever was said or done by either of the parties there 
 to in the furtherance or execution of the common design, 
 is the declaration or act of all the other parties to the 
 conspiracy ; and this, whether the other parties, at the 
 time such words were uttered or such acts done by their 
 confederates, were present or absent." 
 
 The declared and accepted rule of law in cases of con 
 spiracy is that, " where several persons are proved to 
 have combined together for the same illegal purpose, any 
 act done by one of the party in pursuance of the original 
 concerted plan and in reference to the common object, is, 
 in the contemplation of law as well as of sound reason, 
 the act of the whole party, and therefore the proof of the 
 act will be evidence against any of the others who were 
 engaged in the same general conspiracy, without regard 
 to the question whether the prisoner is proved to have 
 been concerned in the particular transaction" (Phillips on 
 Evidence, p. 210). 
 
 The same rule obtains in cases of treason : " If several 
 persons agree to levy war, some in one place and some 
 in another, and one party do actually appear in arms, 
 this is levying of war by all, as well those who were not 
 in arms as those who were, if it were done in pursuance 
 of the original concert, for those who made the attempt 
 were emboldened by the confidence inspired by the gen 
 eral concert, and therefore these particular acts are in 
 justice imputable to all the rest" (1 East, Pleas of the 
 Crown, p. 97 ; Roscoe, 84). 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 231 
 
 In ex parte Bollman and Swartwout, 4 Cranch, 126, 
 Marshal], chief justice, rules, "If war be actually levied 
 that is, if a body of men are actually assembled for the 
 purpose of effecting by force, for treasonable purpose, all 
 those who perform any part, however minute, or howev 
 er remote from the scene of action, and who are actually 
 leagued in the general conspiracy, are to be considered 
 as traitors." 
 
 In the United States vs. Cole et al, 5 McLean, 601, Mr. 
 Justice McLean says: "A conspiracy is rarely, if ever, 
 proved by positive testimony. When a crime of high 
 magnitude is about to be perpetrated by a combination 
 of individuals, they do not act openly, but covertly and 
 secretly. The purpose formed is known only to those 
 who enter into it. Unless one of the original conspira 
 tors betray his companions, and give evidence against 
 them, their guilt can only be proved by circumstantial 
 
 evidence It is said by some writers on evidence 
 
 that such circumstances are stronger than positive proof. 
 A witness swearing positively, it is said, may misappre 
 hend the facts or swear falsely, but that circumstances 
 
 can not lie The common design is the essence of 
 
 the charge ; and this may be made to appear when the 
 defendants steadily pursue the same object, whether act 
 ing separately or together, by common or different means, 
 all leading to the same unlawful result. And where pri- 
 ma facie evidence has been given of a combination, the 
 
 acts or confessions of one are evidence against all 
 
 It is reasonable that where a body of men assume the at 
 tribute of individuality, whether for commercial business 
 or the commission of a crime, that the association should 
 
232 ANDERSONVILLE, 
 
 be bound by the acts of one of its members in carrying 
 out the design." 
 
 "It is the rule of law, not to be overlooked in this 
 connection, that the conspiracy or agreement of the par 
 ties, or some of them, to act in concert to accomplish the 
 unlawful act charged, may be established either by direct 
 evidence of a meeting or consultation for the illegal pur 
 pose charged, or, more usually, from the very nature of 
 the case, by circumstantial evidence" (2 Starkie, 232). 
 
 Lord Mansfield ruled " that it was not necessary to 
 prove the actual fact of a conspiracy, but that it may be 
 collected from collateral circumstances" (Parsons s Case, 
 1 W. Blackstone, 392). 
 
 "If," says a great authority on the law of evidence, 
 "on a charge of conspiracy, it appears that two persons 
 by their acts are pursuing the same object, and often by 
 the same means, or one performing part of the act, and 
 the other completing it for the attainment of the same 
 object, the jury may draw the conclusion there is a con 
 spiracy. If a conspiracy be formed, and a person join in 
 it afterward, he is equally guilty with the original con 
 spirators" (Roscoe, 415). 
 
 " The rule of the admissibility of the acts and decla 
 rations of any one of the conspirators, said or done in 
 furtherance of the common design, applies in cases as 
 well where only part of the conspirators are indicted and 
 upon trial. Thus, upon an indictment for murder, if it 
 appear that others, together with the prisoner, conspired 
 to commit the crime, the act of one, done in pursuance 
 of that intention, will be evidence against the rest" (2 
 Starkie, 237). " They are alike guilty as principals" 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 233 
 
 (Commonwealth vs. Knapp, 9 Pickering, 496 ; 10 Picker 
 ing, 477 ; 6 Term Reports, 528 ; 11 East, 584). 
 
 Let us see what the evidences are of a common design 
 to murder by starvation these hapless, helpless wretches. 
 First, then, who are the officers, high and low, civil and 
 military, whom the evidence implicates in this great 
 crime ? As I shall show you by the testimony, there are 
 associated in this conspiracy, as directly implicated and 
 as perpetrators, the prisoner at the bar, Brigadier General 
 John II. Winder, Surgeon Josiah II. White, Surgeon R R. 
 Stevenson, Dr.Kerr, Captain R. B. Winder, Captain W. S. 
 Winder, Captain Reed, James II. Duncan, W. W. Turner, 
 and Benjamin Harris. Remote from the scene, but no 
 less responsible than those named nay, rather with a 
 greater weight of guilt resting upon them, are the leader 
 of the rebellion, his war minister, his surgeon general, his 
 commissary and quartermaster general, his commissioner 
 of exchange, and all others sufficiently high in authority 
 to have prevented these atrocities, and to whom the 
 knowledge of them was brought. 
 
 Chief among the conspirators and the actual participa 
 tors in the crime, the immediate tool first and last of the 
 rebel government, we shall see, was General Winder. It 
 is proper, therefore, that we should know who he was, and 
 the precise relations he bore to the government which 
 he represented. 
 
 We learn from many sources that he had for a long 
 time prior to the organization of the Anderson ville pris 
 on been at the head of the military prisons in and around 
 Richmond, holding also the position of provost marshal 
 of that important centre of the rebellion. 
 
234 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 We learn from the witness J. B. Jones (Record, p. 
 2531) that his rule as provost marshal was almost a 
 reign of terror ; that his authority was so great he could 
 arrest men indiscriminately even in distant states, and 
 that he was constantly sustained and supported by Jef 
 ferson Davis, and his confidential adviser and premier, 
 Mr. Benjamin. 
 
 The witness Cashmeyer (Record, pp. 2840-41), the con 
 fidential detective and constant companion of General 
 Winder till the close of the rebellion, says, " Their rela 
 tions (those of Davis and Winder) were very friendly 
 indeed, and very confidential ; I often heard General 
 Winder say so ; I often saw him go there and come from 
 there." About the time General Winder s reign of ter 
 ror was at its climax, and there was great opposition felt 
 and expressed toward him both in and out of the rebel 
 Congress, a combined effort was made to have him re 
 lieved and sent away, Generals Bragg and Ransom being 
 prominent in the movement. 
 
 At this time Cashmeyer says, "President Davis was 
 his (Winder s) especial friend ; when the order relieving 
 General Winder came from the War Department, he 
 took it and went up to Mr. Davis. President Davis in 
 dorsed on it, as well as I can recollect, that it was en 
 tirely unnecessary and uncalled for. " Some time after 
 this it was thought wise by the rebel authorities to or 
 ganize the Andersonville Prison, and the whole matter 
 was placed in the hands of General Winder by orders is 
 sued from the War Department for that purpose. Gen 
 eral Winder himself did not go to Andersonville until 
 about the 1st of June, but he sent forward, as we learn 
 
ANDERSOXVILLE. 235 
 
 from the testimony of Cashmeyer (Record, p. 23-12), of 
 Spencer (Record, p. 24:5-1), of Colonel Persons (Record, p. 
 600), of Captain Wright (Record, p. 790), and others, his 
 son Captain W. S. Winder, of his staff, as his special ex 
 ecutive officer, and, as we learn from the testimony of 
 Colonel Persons (Record, p. 613), " with absolute discre 
 tion in the location of the prison." This was in the lat 
 ter part of December, 1863. 
 
 Shortly after, another staff officer of General Winder s, 
 a nephew of his, Captain R. B. Winder, a quarter-master, 
 arrived at Andersonville, and assumed the duties of his 
 office. Captain Wright, in speaking of him (Record, p. 
 2-li7), says : "He told me that he had no orders to report 
 to any quarter-master at all ; that he reported directly to 
 Richmond, and received his instructions from Richmond." 
 Subsequently, in the month of March, 1864, General Win 
 der sent still another of his staff officers, the prisoner at 
 the bar, who, as we learn from his report, made May 8th 
 (see Exhibit No. 16), was assigned to the command of 
 the prison on the 27th of March. 
 
 Of him Colonel Persons says (Record, p. 602 and fol 
 lowing), "He came direct from Richmond my under 
 standing was, by order of General Winder. I saw an offi 
 cial order to that effect. I received a communication, 
 about the time Captain Wirz reached there, from General 
 Winder. It stated that Captain Wirz was an old prison 
 officer, a very reliable man, and capable of governing 
 prisoners, and wound up that I would give him com 
 mand of the prison proper." 
 
 From the return of staff officers made by General Win 
 der after he had himself arrived at Andersonville, and 
 
236 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 who, lie says, were acting under orders of Brigadier Gen 
 eral John H. Winder, commanding the post at Anderson- 
 ville, Georgia, commanding the camps and stockade con 
 taining Federal prisoners of war, and the guard troops 
 for the same, the prison of Federal prisoners of war at 
 Macon, etc., etc., we find that Dr. Isaiah H. "White, also 
 on his staff, was assigned to duty at Anderson ville, by 
 orders of the War Department at Eichmond, as chief 
 surgeon in charge of the prison hospital. He arrived at 
 Andersonville about the same time as the two Captains 
 Winder. 
 
 This comprises the original corps of officers sent from 
 Eichmond to carry out the hellish purposes of the rebel 
 government, and which, as we shall see as we advance, 
 was most faithfully done by them. Can there be any 
 doubt as to what the original purpose of the rebel 
 government was ? Let us go to the very origin of the 
 prison. 
 
 You will remember that when Colonel Persons was on 
 the stand, he told you that, assuming to do what the law 
 and the army regulations made it the duty of the quar 
 ter-master to do, and which, in his case, Captain Winder 
 had wholly neglected to do, he sent to the different saw 
 mills along the line of the railroad for lumber, moved, as 
 he tells you, by a feeling of humanity, and a desire to 
 alleviate, in some way, the sufferings of the prisoners. 
 He says (Eecord, p. 608): "I had concentrated there, I 
 suppose, about five or six train-loads of lumber ; I sup 
 pose nearly fifty car-loads." I quote farther from the 
 Eecord the following : 
 
 " Q. Were you permitted to erect a shelter? 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 237 
 
 " A. I was in the act of doing so was just carrying 
 the lumber, when I was relieved. 
 
 " Q. By whom? 
 
 11 A. By General Winder. 
 
 " Q. Had he arrived on the same day? 
 
 " A. He arrived there about that time. 
 
 " Q. Was your plan carried out? 
 
 " A. I went into the stockade several times after I was 
 relieved from duty, and I saw no shelter there. I saw 
 forty or fifty houses springing up outside of the grounds. 
 The lumber disappeared in that way." 
 
 At this time the journal of the prison shows there 
 were over nineteen thousand prisoners in the stockade. 
 This was the first official act of General Winder on his 
 arrival. It was the third time Colonel Persons had given 
 mortal offense, and he was no longer to be tolerated. 
 What could more strongly present the unmitigated dia 
 bolism of that friend of President Davis that man, upon 
 the order relieving whom the rebel chief wrote, "It is 
 entirely unnecessary and uncalled for?" This was the 
 man who found a ready advocate in the rebel premier, 
 Mr. Benjamin, and who was not only sustained from the 
 first to the last by his chief, but was rewarded for official 
 conduct that will place his name among those of the most 
 infamous of any age or clime. General Winder s second 
 act was to establish himself comfortably, and at a respect 
 ful distance from the prison, where he remained from the 
 first of June until early in the fall. 
 
 Notice now, as we advance, how the sufferings of this 
 prison increased how every thing from which torture 
 and death could result was resorted to how all those 
 
238 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 methods of inhuman punishment instituted by the pris 
 oner were approved and sanctioned by General Winder, 
 and that, during the whole period of his command, not a 
 single act is recorded which does not prove him to have 
 been not only "a brutal man," as Mr. Spencer says he 
 was, but that he was the chief instrument in the hands 
 of a wicked, treasonable conspiracy to murder the pris 
 oners of war in his custody. He came there with author 
 ity unlimited, with discretion to do whatever circum 
 stances required to carry out the purpose of his com 
 mand. In an appeal published by him to the citizens of 
 the surrounding counties (see Exhibit No. 29), he calls 
 for " two thousand negroes, properly supplied with axes, 
 spades, and picks, and supported by the requisite num 
 ber of wagons and teams," for the purpose of rendering 
 more hopeless the imprisonment of our soldiers, holding 
 over the people of that vicinity the terrors of impress 
 ment, which, in this appeal, he claims to have authority 
 to make. Yet, with all this power, with all these appli 
 ances at hand, and within reach of his call, not a single 
 shelter did he ever erect not a ditch did he dig to drain 
 that horrible cesspool below the stockade and within it 
 not a tithe of the wood absolutely necessary did he cause 
 to be taken into the stockade not once did he visit that 
 place over which he had supreme control not a well did 
 he cause to be dug within it not one order did he issue 
 to abate one jot or tittle of the frightful rigors of that 
 prison-pen not a kindly or humane sentiment is he 
 shown, during that whole time, to have uttered toward 
 these prisoners in his custody. On the contrary, he scat 
 tered to the four winds, as we have seen, that immense 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 239 
 
 pile of lumber accumulated by Colonel Persons for the 
 purpose of erecting shelters in the stockade ; he approved 
 all that had been done by his subordinate, the prisoner, 
 even recommending him for promotion ; he legalized the 
 detail of Turner, who was a Confederate soldier, to take 
 command of a pack of hounds to run down prisoners, 
 and afterward permanently detached him from his regi 
 ment for that purpose ; he authorized and ordered the 
 hanging of six prisoners of war within the stockade, 
 which, by all the laws of war, was no more nor less than 
 murder, so far as he was concerned ; he brutally refused 
 the philanthropic ladies of Americus twice in their at 
 tempts to render assistance to the sick at the hospital, 
 even intimating on one of those occasions to those ladies 
 of the highest respectability that a repetition of their hu 
 mane efforts would bring upon them a punishment too 
 infamous to be named. Is it still contended that there 
 was no conspiracy; that these things evinced no com 
 mon design to destroy ; that of all these things the Eich- 
 mond government was in blissful ignorance ? Let us see. 
 On the 21st of July, 186-1, General Winder addressed a 
 letter to the War Department at Richmond (see Exhibit 
 No. 17), dated Andersonville, in which he uses the fol 
 lowing language, before quoted : " You speak in your 
 indorsement of placing the prisoners properly. I do not 
 exactly comprehend what is intended by it. I know 
 of but one way to^place them, and that is to putjthem 
 into the stockade, w-here they -hav-e four or five square 
 yards .to. ihs-man." 
 
 Is it possible that he did not comprehend what was 
 intended by the War Department? Can it be that he 
 
240 ANDEESONVILLE. 
 
 knew of but one way to place those prisoners prop 
 erly? 
 
 His government did not dare to speak more definitely, 
 nor was it necessary to such a man as General Winder, 
 occupying the position he did, and with the letter of 
 "Robert Ould in his private desk, written as early as 
 March, 1863 a private letter written by himself, and in 
 dorsed by his own hand. The one way was the way 
 given by his original instructions; it was the way un 
 derstood by W. S. Winder when he said it was the inten 
 tion to kill more Yankees at Andersonville than they did 
 at the front ; it was the way meant and well understood 
 by General Winder when he said to Mr. Spencer that, for 
 his own part, he would as lief the damned Yankees 
 would die there as any where else ; that, upon the whole, 
 he did not know that it was not better for them (Record, 
 p. 2467), and which he afterward disclosed to Colonel 
 Chandler in the remark, " It is better to leave them in 
 their present condition until their number has been suffi 
 ciently reduced by death to make the present arrange 
 ments suffice for their accommodation ;" it was the way 
 well understood by the rebel government when, in the 
 teeth of the protests of humane officers, and in the face 
 of the official reports of the mortality of that place, they 
 continued to forward prisoners train-load after train-load 
 to an already overcrowded prison ; it was the way dic 
 tated to the agent of that government, Eobert Ould, and 
 revealed by him in his letter to Winder (see Exhibit No. 
 ), when he declares, speaking of exchanges, " Tlie ar 
 rangement I have made works largely in our favor; we get 
 rid of a set of miserable wretches, and receive in return some 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 241 
 
 of the best material I ever saw ;" adding, " This, of course, is 
 between ourselves" 
 
 It was the way understood perfectly by General Howell 
 Cobb when, in a speech at Andersonville, he pointed with 
 terrible significance to the grave-yard, remarking, " That 
 is the way I would care for them." 
 
 It was the way well understood by the prisoner at the 
 bar, who is shown to have uttered sentiments similar to 
 those expressed by W.S. Winder on more than one hund 
 red occasions ; it was the way, and the only way, ever 
 indicated by the chief of the rebel government and his 
 Secretary of War, else why did he, with this frightful pic 
 ture before him, deliberately fold General Winder s letter, 
 indorsing it " Noted file. J. A. S. ?" 
 
 Let us advance another step in the evidence connect 
 ing the Richmond government with these atrocities. 
 Colonel D. T. Chandler, of the rebel War Department, 
 pursuant to an order of his chief of July 25th, 186-1, di 
 recting him to make an inspection at Andersonville and 
 other places in the Confederacy, submitted a report dated 
 Andersonville, August 5th, 1864, and which reached the 
 War Department August 17th, 1864. This officer, from 
 whose report we have already quoted, gives a graphic 
 description of the sufferings of the prisoners of war, and 
 in earnest terms beseeches his government that no more 
 be sent forward to that place, and that immediate steps 
 be taken to relieve the sufferings of those prisoners al 
 ready there, making many practical suggestions for their 
 comfort which he thought could be readily carried out. 
 In a supplemental report, also dated August 5th, and 
 which was received with the report first named, he says, 
 
 L 
 
242 ANDEKSONVILLE. 
 
 " My duty requires me respectfully to recommend a 
 change in the officer in command of the post, Brigadier 
 General John II. Winder, and the substitution in his 
 place of some one who unites both energy and good 
 judgment with some feelings of humanity and consider 
 ation for the welfare and comfort (so far as is consistent 
 with their safe-keeping) of the vast number of unfortu 
 nates placed under his control some one, at least, who 
 does not advocate, deliberately and in cold blood, the pro 
 priety of leaving them in their present condition until 
 their number has been sufficiently reduced by death to 
 make the present arrangements suffice for their accom 
 modation, and who will not consider it a matter of self- 
 laudation and boasting that he has never been inside the 
 stockade a place the horrors of which it is difficult to 
 describe, and which are a disgrace to civilization the 
 condition of which he might, by the exercise of a little 
 energy and judgment, even with the limited means at his 
 command, have considerably improved." 
 
 In his examination touching this report, Colonel Chand 
 ler says, " I noticed that General Winder seemed very 
 indifferent to the welfare of the prisoners, indisposed to 
 do any thing, or to do as much as I thought he ought to 
 do to alleviate their sufferings. I remonstrated with him 
 as well as I could, and he used that language which I re 
 ported to the department with reference to it- the lan 
 guage stated in the report when I spoke of the great 
 mortality existing among the prisoners, and pointed out 
 to him that the sickly season was coming on, and that it 
 must necessarily increase unless something was done for 
 their relief; the swamp, for instance, drained, proper food 
 
ANDEESONVILLE. 243 
 
 famished and in better quantity, and other sanitary sug 
 gestions which I made to him. lie replied to me that it 
 was better to see half of them die than to take care of 
 the men." 
 
 And to show that he can not be mistaken in what he 
 avers, Colonel Chandler speaks of Major Hall, his assist 
 ant, having first reported to him similar language used 
 by General Winder to him, and remarks, "I told Major 
 Ilall that I thought it incredible that he must be mis 
 taken ; he told me no ; that he had not only said it once, 
 but twice ; and, as I have stated, he subsequently made 
 use of this expression to me." 
 
 Xow let us see what the rebel government had to do 
 with this report. As I before remarked, it reached llicli- 
 mond on the 17th day of August. Immediately on its 
 reception, as we learn from Captain C. M. Selph, of the 
 rebel War Department, it was carefully briefed, and ex 
 tracts made and sent to the heads of the different bu 
 reaus, the commissary general and the quarter -master 
 general ; a report of Dr. White, an inclosure of Colonel 
 Chandler s report, being sent to the surgeon general. 
 The entire report was then laid before the Secretary of 
 War, Mr. Seddon, and, there can not be the shadow of a 
 doubt, was immediately, and fully, and seriously consid 
 ered ; nor can there be any doubt that Mr. Davis and his 
 war minister conferred together with regard to this sub 
 ject. 
 
 Captain Selph, speaking of a conversation between 
 himself and Colonel Woods, a staff officer of Jefferson 
 Davis, in regard to the prison at Andersonville, says, 
 "During that conversation I obtained that impression 
 
2-M ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 that President Davis had some knowledge of it" (Record, 
 p. 1565). " This," he says again, " was subsequent to the 
 receipt of Colonel Chandler s report." To the question, 
 " Would a paper of this kind, on a subject of this magni 
 tude, find its way to the President of the so-called Con 
 federate States in the ordinary way of proceedings?" he 
 answered, " Yes, sir, I think it would." 
 
 It will not do to say that this report was buried among 
 the multitude of papers that arrived daily in the War 
 Office, or that it lay upon Mr. Seddon s table unnoticed. 
 
 Mr. J. B. Jones, private secretary of Mr. Seddon, says 
 (Record, p. 2836) that he remembers when the report 
 was received, but only read the headings, enough to see 
 the purport of it, and adds that he thinks it was sent for 
 by the Secretary of War. 
 
 Mr. K. I. H. McKean, Chief of the Bureau of War, says 
 that he saw it lying on the secretary s table. He also 
 speaks of a conversation between himself and the assist 
 ant secretary of war, Judge Campbell, and in which the 
 report was spoken of, and in which Judge Campbell, 
 speaking of the fearful mortality, remarked, "This looks 
 very bad." Captain Selph also testifies that the report 
 excited general excitement in the department. 
 
 But we are not left with this evidence alone. This 
 report was not sent in like ordinary inspection reports, 
 but especial attention was drawn to it by three officials. 
 On the day of its receipt it was submitted to the Secre 
 tary of War, as the following indorsement proves beyond 
 all doubt : 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 245 
 
 "Adjutant and Inspector General s Office, i 
 August 18th, 1864. $ 
 
 " Eespcctfully submitted to the Secretary of War. The 
 condition of the prison at Andersonville is a reproach to 
 us as a nation. The Engineer and Ordnance Department 
 were applied to, and authorized their issue, and I so tele 
 graphed General Winder. Colonel Chandler s recom 
 mendations are coincided in. 
 
 " (Signed) By order of GENERAL COOPER. 
 
 " E. E. CHILTON, A. A. and I. G." 
 
 The report passed through the hands of B. B. Wellford, 
 a confidential clerk employed in the War Department for 
 his legal abilities, who also made a brief analysis strong 
 ly seconding Colonel Chilton, Mr. Wellford s analysis be- 
 in again indorsed, and the whole laid before the sec- 
 
 o o / 
 
 retary by J. A. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, 
 with the following indorsement : 
 
 "These reports show a condition of things at Ander 
 sonville which call very loudly for the interposition of 
 the department, in order that a change be made. 
 
 " (Signed) J. A. CAMPBELL, Ass. Sec. of War." 
 
 What more could have been needed, or what more 
 done, to bring authoritatively and strongly before the 
 proper authorities at Kichmond the subject of the An 
 dersonville sufferings ? Here were an intelligent inspect 
 ing officer of high rank, Colonel Chandler ; the chief of 
 the inspecting bureau, Colonel Chilton; the chief of the 
 bureau of war, McKean ; a confidential clerk, Mr. Well- 
 ford ; and the assistant secretary of war, Judge Camp- 
 
246 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 bell, all pressing in the strongest terms the necessity of 
 an immediate interposition by the department, and not 
 hesitating to declare the prison at Andersonville " a re 
 proach to them as a nation." These appeals might have 
 moved hearts of stone ; but, addressed as they were to 
 these representatives of a government based upon wrong 
 and injustice, that had its origin in a treasonable conspir 
 acy to overthrow the best government on the face of the 
 earth, however much they may have moved the hearts 
 of those representatives as individuals, they seem to have 
 still felt it their duty to adhere to a purpose so cruelly 
 and wickedly begun, and thus far so faithfully carried 
 out; and they dared not, or would not abandon, even 
 then, this atrocious conspiracy. 
 
 McKean says he is not aware the report was ever acted 
 upon. Captain Selph says the same ; and we learn from 
 the testimony that the report remained with the secre 
 tary, never having come back to the Inspector General s 
 Department, where it properly belonged, till about the 
 time Mr. Breckinridge succeeded Mr. Seddon, some time 
 in 1865, when Colonel Chandler having returned and de 
 manded that some action should be taken on the report, 
 or he would resign, it was brought to light and laid be 
 fore Mr. Breckinridge, who would have acted upon it, as 
 Captain Selph thinks, but for the rapid change of affairs 
 in the Confederacy, and the dissolution of their govern 
 ment soon after. 
 
 And here let us diverge a moment, and follow a por 
 tion of this remarkable report to the Surgeon General s 
 Office. We find indorsed upon Exhibit No. 24 the fol 
 lowing : 
 
ANDEESONVILLE. 247 
 
 " Surgeon was authorized some time since to send his 
 requisitions for supplies directly to the medical purvey 
 ors. Not having supplies is his own fault; he should 
 have anticipated the wants of the sick by timely requisi 
 tions. It is impossible to order medical officers in place 
 of the contract physicians. They are not to be had at 
 present. S. P. MOORE, Surgeon General." 
 
 
 
 This is the flippant indorsement of the surgeon gen 
 eral, and the only evidence showing his notice of the 
 condition of things at Andersonville, and that is all that 
 he seems to have done in the matter while Dr. White 
 was allowed to remain in charge of the hospital, which, 
 as described by the surgeons who were on duty with 
 him, seems to have been little less than a dead-house 
 this Dr. White, whose recklessness, brutality, and crime 
 are so closely interwoven with that of General Winder, 
 the prisoner at the bar, and his associate staff officers, 
 that it is hard to discriminate between the cruelty of the 
 one and that of the others. It is strange, truly, that the 
 surgeon general passed over this matter with so slight a 
 notice of it, when we remember that several weeks pre 
 viously it is shown that he had the whole matter before 
 his office, and took action upon it, which makes him no 
 less culpable than the others we have mentioned. lie 
 had called into his counsels an eminent medical gentle 
 man, of high attainments in his profession, and of loyalty 
 to the rebel government unquestionable. Amid all the 
 details in this terrible tragedy, there seems to me none 
 more heartless, wanton, and void of humanity than that 
 revealed by the surgeon general to which I am about to 
 
248 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 refer. I quote now from the report of this same Dr. 
 Joseph Jones, which he says (Record, p. 4384) was made 
 "in the interest of the Confederate government for the 
 use of the Medical Department, in the view that no eye 
 would ever see it but that of the surgeon general." 
 
 After a brief introduction to his report, and to show 
 under what authority it was made, he quotes a letter from 
 the surgeon .general, dated " Surgeon General s Office, 
 Richmond, Virginia, August 6th, 1864." The letter is 
 addressed to Surgeon J. Ii. White, in charge of the hos 
 pital for Federal prisoners, Andersonville, Georgia, and 
 is as follows : 
 
 " SIR, The field of pathological investigation afforded 
 by the large collection of Federal prisoners in Georgia is 
 of great extent and importance, and it is believed that 
 results of value to the profession may be obtained by 
 careful examination of the effects of disease upon a large 
 body of men subjected to a decided change of climate 
 and the circumstances peculiar to prison life. The sur 
 geon in charge of the hospital for Federal prisoners, to- 
 L gether with his assistants, will afford every facility to 
 Surgeon Joseph Jones in the prosecution of the labors 
 ordered by the surgeon general. The medical officers 
 will assist in the performance of such post-mortems as Dr. 
 Jones may indicate, in order that this great field for path 
 ological investigation may be explored for the benefit of 
 the Medical Department of the Confederate States armies. 
 " S. P. MOORE, Surgeon General." 
 
 Pursuant to his orders, Dr. Jones, as he tells us, pro- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 249 
 
 ceeded to Andersonville, and on September 17th received 
 the following pass : 
 
 "Andersonville, September 17, 1864. 
 
 " CAPTAIN, You will permit Surgeon Joseph Jones, 
 who has orders from the surgeon general, to visit the sick 
 within the stockade that are under medical treatment. 
 Surgeon Jones is ordered to make certain investigations 
 which may prove useful to his profession. 
 "Very respectfully. 
 
 " By order of GENERAL WINDER. 
 "W. S. WINDER, A. A. G-. 
 
 "Captain II. Wirz, Commanding Prison." 
 
 When we remember that the surgeon general had been 
 apprised of the wants of that prison, and that he had 
 overlooked the real necessities of the prison, shifting the 
 responsibility upon Dr. White, whom he must have 
 known was totally incompetent, it is hard to conceive 
 with what devilish malice, or criminal devotion to his 
 profession, or reckless disregard of the high duties im 
 posed upon him I scarcely know which he could sit 
 down and deliberately pen such a letter of instructions 
 as that given to Dr. Jones. Was it not enough to have 
 cruelly starved and murdered our soldiers ? Was it not 
 enough to have sought to wipe out their very memories 
 by burying them in nameless graves ? Was it not enough 
 to have instituted a system of medical treatment the very 
 embodiment of charlatanism ? Was not this enough, with 
 out adding to the many other diabolical motives which 
 must have governed the perpetrators of these acts this 
 scientific object, as deliberate and cold-blooded as one 
 
 L2 
 
250 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 can conceive ? The surgeon general could quiet his con 
 science, when the matter was laid before him through 
 Colonel Chandler, by indorsing that it was impossible to 
 send medical officers to take the places of the contract 
 physicians on duty at Andersonville, yet he could select 
 at the same time a distinguished gentleman of the med 
 ical profession, and send him to Andersonville, directing 
 the whole force of surgeons there to render him every 
 assistance, leaving their multiplied duties for that pur 
 pose. Why ? not to alleviate the sufferings of the pris 
 oners ; not to convey to them one ounce more of nutri 
 tious food ; to make no suggestions for the improvement 
 of their sanitary condition for no purpose of this kind, 
 but, as the letter of instruction itself shows, for no other 
 purpose than "that this great field of pathological inves 
 tigation may be explored for the benefit of the Medical 
 Department of the Confederate armies !" 
 
 The Andersonville Prison, so far as the surgeon gen 
 eral was concerned, was a mere dissecting-room, a clinic 
 institute, to be made tributary to the Medical Department 
 of the Confederate armies. 
 
 But let me return from this digression. One can hard 
 ly believe all these things of a government pretending to 
 struggle for a place among civilized nations, yet, horrible 
 as it seems, the facts can not be resisted. 
 
 Do I do injustice to the leaders of the rebellion ? Have 
 I drawn inferences that are unwarrantable ? Is it indeed 
 true that these men, high in authority, are not responsi 
 ble ? I think not. Motives are presumed from actions, 
 and actions are louder than words. "What was the action 
 of Mr. Davis and his war minister upon these reports ? 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 251 
 
 The papers were pigeon-holed in the secretary s office, 
 not even being dignified by being placed upon the regu 
 lar files in the proper offices, while General Winder, the 
 chief accomplice, instead of being removed immediately 
 and broken of his commission, and tried for a violation 
 of the laws of war, for cruelty, inhumanity, and murder 
 instead of being held up by that government as a warn 
 ing to others, giving a coloring of justice to their cause, 
 was promoted, rewarded, and given a command of a 
 wider scope and greater power, but still in a position to 
 carry out the purposes of his government toward pris 
 oners of war. History is full of examples similar in 
 character, where a government, carrying out its ends, has 
 selected as tools men not unlike General Winder, and 
 history, faithful in the narrative of the facts, is faithful 
 also in fixing upon the government who employed such 
 persons, and sustained and rewarded them, the responsi 
 bility for the acts of their agents. James II. had his 
 Jeffreys; Philip II. his Duke of Alva; Louis XIY. his 
 Duke de Louvois; the Emperor of Austria his Ilaynau; 
 and Jefferson Davis his Winder. 
 
 The closest scrutiny of the immense record of this trial 
 will show that, up to the very close of that prison, there 
 were no steps taken by the rebel government, by Gener 
 al Winder, or by any of the officers of his staff clothed 
 with proper authority, to alleviate in any material partic 
 ular the great sufferings of that place. You will remem 
 ber the uniform testimony of the medical officers, as well 
 as of the prisoners who remained there during the winter 
 of 1864-5, that there was no perceptible change in the 
 condition of the prison, and an examination of the hos- 
 
252 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 pital register will show that the mortality even was great 
 er during that period, in proportion to the number of 
 prisoners confined, than it was during the months of its 
 most crowded condition. From the prison journal, kept 
 by the prisoner himself, we find that in September, the 
 mean number of prisoners being seventeen thousand, the 
 deaths were two thousand seven hundred; in October, 
 the mean strength being about six thousand seven hund 
 red, the number of deaths was one thousand five hundred 
 and sixty nearly one out of every five ; in November, 
 the mean strength being two thousand three hundred, the 
 deaths were four hundred and eighty -five ; while those 
 who remained to the very close till the prison was 
 broken up, are described by General Wilson and others 
 as having been "mere skeletons" "shadows of men." 
 Nor must it be forgotten that the marks of this cruelty 
 were so indelibly stamped upon its victims, that thou 
 sands who survived are yet cripples, and will carry to 
 their graves the evidence of the horrible treatment to 
 which they were subjected. The surgeons of our army 
 who treated these shadows of men when they arrived 
 within our lines at Jacksonville and Hilton Head tell you 
 of hundreds who died before they could be resuscitated ; 
 of others permanently disabled ; of others, on their par 
 tial recovery, being started upon their way homeward, 
 and being treated again at Annapolis. 
 
 Dr. Yanderkieft, of our army, speaks of the condition 
 of those prisoners while under his treatment at that place. 
 He says: "They were reduced, suffering from chronic di 
 arrhoea and scurvy ; some of them in a dying condition ; 
 some of them died a few days after they arrived, and 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 253 
 
 those who did recover were obliged to remain a long 
 time in hospital before they were able to return to their 
 homes" (Eecord, p. 505). 
 
 And with that certainty with which science reasons 
 from effect to cause, oftentimes after describing the con 
 dition of the men, as it has been brought out in this tes 
 timony, he concludes, " The symptoms and condition of 
 the patients presented cases of starvation." 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten, in the summing up of the cu 
 mulative proof of the Andersonville horrors, that numer 
 ous photographs of returned prisoners were introduced 
 here, and identified by Drs. Yanderkieft, Balser, and oth 
 ers, as representing cases no worse than hundreds and 
 thousands they had seen. So impressive, indeed, and so 
 strong seemed this evidence of rebel cruelty, that the 
 counsel for the prisoner sought in his cross-examination 
 to show that they were fancy sketches. Are we told 
 that these were improbable, and can not be believed, be 
 cause it is said Mr. Davis is a good man not capable of 
 such cruelty? Are we told that no direct order of his is 
 shown, and therefore, notwithstanding all these facts and 
 circumstances narrated, he must be acquitted of all blame? 
 The law governing cases of conspiracy does not require 
 us to show a direct order; circumstances from which 
 guilt may be inferred are sufficient. The rebel chief did 
 not find it necessary to issue direct instructions, nor, in 
 deed, could it reasonably be expected. He was too wary, 
 too sagacious for that. 
 
 Michelet relates an anecdote of Louis XY. not mala 
 propos. " The illustrious Quesnay, physician to Louis 
 XY., who lived in the house of the latter at Yersailles, 
 
254: ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 saw the king one day rush in suddenly, and felt alarmed. 
 Madame Du Haurret, the witty femme - de - chambre, in 
 quired of him why he seemed so uneasy. * Madame, re 
 turned he, whenever I see the king, I say to myself there 
 is a man who can cut my head off. Oh, said she, he is 
 too good. 111 The ladies maid thus summed up in one 
 word the guarantees of monarchy. The king was too 
 good to cut a man s head off; " that was no longer agree 
 able to custom ; but he could with one word send him to 
 the Bastile, and there forget him. It remains to be seen 
 whether it is better to perish with one blow, or to suffer 
 a lingering death for thirty or forty years." 
 
 Mr. Davis was not capable of being the instrument of 
 death ; he was too good to be the keeper of a prison, and 
 withhold from starving men their scanty rations, but he 
 could send them out of his sight, away from the prison 
 in plain view of his residence, into the dense forests of 
 Georgia, and there forget them. If Jefferson Davis be 
 ever brought to trial for his many crimes and may 
 Heaven spare the temple of justice if he is not it will 
 not do for him to upbraid and accuse his willing tools, 
 Winder and Wirz, as King John did Hubert for the death 
 of Prince Arthur; they will turn upon him and say, 
 
 " Here is your hand and seal for all I did, 
 And in the winking of authority 
 Did we understand a law." 
 
 Before advancing farther in the argument, let me de 
 fine briefly the laws of war, which, it is alleged by the 
 government in its indictment against this prisoner and 
 his co-conspirators, have been inhumanly and atrociously 
 violated. One would suppose that an enlightened con- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 255 
 
 science would not consult the opinions of writers upon 
 laws or ethics to determine the violation of rules govern 
 ing civilized warfare with sufficient certainty to con 
 demn the treatment of prisoners at Anderson ville ; yet, as 
 the averment is traversed by the prisoner, and it is insist 
 ed that no violation of the humane principles governing 
 nations in war is shown, I must trespass upon the court 
 a moment before proceeding. In the forum of nations 
 there is a higher law a law paramount to any rule of 
 action prescribed by either of them, and which can not 
 be abrogated or nullified by either. Whatever the pe 
 culiar forms or rights of this or that government, its sub 
 jects require no control or power other than is sanction 
 ed by the great tribunal of nations. We turn, then, to 
 the code international, where the purest morals, the high 
 est sense of justice, the most exalted principles of ethics, 
 are the corner-stones, that we may learn to be guided in 
 our duty to this prisoner. 
 
 Grotius derived the jus gentium from the practice of 
 nations ; and, living in an age when the greatest cruelties 
 were practiced in the operations of warfare, his rules, as 
 laid down, often seem to have been the inspiration of 
 barbarity itself rather than law which should govern 
 nations ; yet even he, in Books three and four, insists 
 that all acts of violence, which have no tendency to ob 
 tain justice or determinate the war, are at variance both 
 with the duty of the Christian and with humanity it 
 self. 
 
 Manning, an author of great force and clearness, says, 
 (p. 164), " At the present day a mild and humane treat 
 ment exists with regard to prisoners of war, which is, 
 
256 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 perhaps, in some degree, attributable to the deference 
 paid to the writing of Yattel, who appears to have been 
 the first author who established the true principle upon 
 which prisoners should be treated. He says that as 
 soon as your enemy has laid down his arms and surren 
 dered his person, you have no longer any right over his 
 life, unless he should give you such right by some new 
 attempt, or had before committed against you a crime de 
 serving death. Prisoners of war, 7 he says, may be se 
 cured, but can not be made slaves unless for personal 
 guilt which deserves death ; nor slain, unless we be per 
 fectly assured that our safety demands such a sacrifice. " 
 
 After having discussed at some length this subject, he 
 sums up the whole question thus (p. 165) : 
 
 "It may be remarked, in conclusion, that the same 
 principles which have been appealed to in the preceding 
 chapter afford also a clew to the right treatment of pris 
 oners of war. The usages of former ages proceeded upon 
 the supposition that any violence was allowed in warfare, 
 and that the right of the victor upon the vanquished 
 was unlimited ; and that, having the right to deprive his 
 antagonist of life, the captor had a right to impose any 
 treatment more lenient than death upon his prisoner. 
 But we have seen that, so far from the rights of the bel 
 ligerent being unlimited, the law of nature strictly limits 
 them to such violence as is necessary ; that thus, when an 
 antagonist no longer resists, there can be no longer any 
 right to use violence toward him, and that whenever 
 purposes of warfare are not frustrated by the granting of 
 quarter, the belligerent can not refuse to give quarter 
 without a direct violation of the law of nations, which 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 257 
 
 warrant no farther hardship toward prisoners than is re 
 quired by the purpose of safe custody and security." 
 
 Another author remarks : " Prisoners of war are in 
 deed sometimes killed ; but this is not otherwise justifi 
 able than as it is made necessary either by themselves, if 
 they make use of force against those who have taken 
 them, or by others who make use of force in their behalf, 
 and render it impossible to keep them ; and as we may 
 collect from the reason of the thing, so it likewise ap 
 pears from common opinion, that nothing but the stron 
 gest necessity will justify such an act, for the civilized 
 and thinking part of mankind will hardly be persuaded 
 not to condemn it till they see the absolute necessity of 
 it" (Rutherford s Institutes, p. 525). 
 
 Kent, in speaking of the barbarous usages of war, 
 kicked and done away with by the progress of civiliza 
 tion, says : 
 
 "Public opinion, as it becomes enlightened and refined, 
 condemns all cruelty, and all wanton destruction of life 
 and property, as equally useless and injurious, and it con 
 trols the violence of war by the energy and severity of 
 its approaches. Grotius," he says, " even in opposition 
 to many of his own authorities, and under a due sense 
 of the obligations of religion and humanity, placed bounds 
 to the ravages of war, and mentioned that many things 
 were not fit and commendable though they might be 
 strictly lawful, and that the law of nature forbade what 
 the law of nations (meaning thereby the practices of na 
 tions) tolerated. Montesquieu," he says, "insisted that 
 the laws of war give no other power over a captive than 
 to keep him safely, and that all unnecessary rigor is 
 
258 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 condemned by the reason and conscience of mankind. 
 Vattel," he says, " has entered largely into the subject, 
 and he argues, with great strength, and reason, and elo 
 quence against all unnecessary cruelty, all base revenge, 
 and all mean and perfidious warfare; and he recom 
 mends his benevolent doctrine by the principles of ex 
 alted ethics and sound policy, and by illustrations drawn 
 from the most pathetic and illustrious examples." 
 
 To the same effect writes Wheaton (p. 586) and Hal- 
 leek (p. 425 et sequitur). 
 
 So strongly did the principles here laid down impress 
 themselves upon our government, that, during General 
 Jackson s administration, Mr. Livingston, then Secretary 
 of State, instructed Mr. Buchanan, our minister in Eussia, 
 to insert in the treaty proposed to be negotiated stipu 
 lations, " in order to restrain citizens or subjects of the 
 one or the other of the high contracting parties respect 
 ively from infringing any of the known rules of modern 
 warfare;" and, among other things, mentions, "for inju 
 ries offered to the bearers of flags of truce ; for the mas 
 sacre of prisoners who have surrendered ; for the mutila 
 tion of the dead ; for other breaches either of this treaty 
 or of the laws of nations ; for preserving peace or lessen 
 ing the evils of war." 
 
 The object of this, Mr. Livingston said, was " to ex 
 press a national reprobation of the doctrine which con 
 siders a state of war as one .of declared hostilities between 
 every individual of the belligerent nations respectively. 
 .... To massacre an unresisting and unarmed enemy, 
 to poison his provisions and water, to assassinate a pris 
 oner, and other similar acts, are universally acknowledged 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 259 
 
 to be breaches of international law, and to justify retali 
 ation and an increase of the horrors of war" (Ex. Doc., 
 No. Ill, 1st Sess. 33d Congress, II. Rep.). 
 
 It would seem that these teachings, so long recognized, 
 so long practiced by civilized nations, ought to have 
 found some advocate even among the councils of trea 
 son. Whatever the form of government may have been 
 to which the leaders of the Confederacy so-called aspired, 
 whatever of wrong and injustice they sought to embody 
 in their system, with whatever of oppression and tyran 
 ny they might grind down their subjects, the moment 
 they asked a place among nations they were bound to 
 recognize and obey those laws international, which are, 
 and of necessity must be, applicable alike to all. With 
 what detestation, then, must civilized nations regard that 
 government whose conduct has been such as characterized 
 this pretended Confederacy? An ordinary comprehen 
 sion of natural right, the faintest desire to act on princi 
 ples of common justice, would have dictated some hu 
 mane action, would have extorted from some official a 
 recognition of international rules of conduct. 
 
 It was not retaliation, for they had the example of our 
 government in sending to their homes on parole whole 
 armies that had been captured ; it was not punishment, 
 for these unfortunate prisoners had been taken in honor 
 able battle ; it was not ignorance of the law, for they had 
 constantly with them all those great rights just quoted; 
 and if these failed to convince, they could have found 
 recorded back of these, "If thine enemy hunger, feed 
 him ;" and still farther back they might have found an 
 example worthy of imitation which I can not refrain from 
 
260 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 here giving. A large number of Syrians had been, by 
 a cunning piece of strategy, taken captives, and became 
 prisoners of war, whereupon the following dialogue oc 
 curred : " And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when 
 he saw them, My father, shall I smite them ? shall I 
 smite them ? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite 
 them : wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken 
 captive with thy sword and with thy bow ? Set bread 
 and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and 
 go to their master. And he prepared great provisions 
 for them ; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent 
 them away, and they went to their master" (2 Kings, 
 ch. vi.). 
 
 No, gentlemen, it was neither retaliation, punishment, 
 nor ignorance of the law; it was the intrinsic wickedness 
 of a few desperate leaders, seconded by mercenary and 
 heartless monsters, of whom the prisoner before you is a 
 fair type. 
 
 I have thus, without regard to the evidence under 
 Charge First, presented the evidence under Charge Sec 
 ond as spread upon the record, showing that this ac 
 cused, while acting as commandant of the prison at An- 
 dersonville, deliberately, wantonly, and maliciously de 
 stroyed the lives of eighteen prisoners of war in his cus 
 tody. I confess myself too much overcome with the 
 melancholy details of this trial and its frightful disclo 
 sures to dwell longer on so sad a theme. 
 
 If this accused still answer that, admitting the facts 
 charged, he did these things in the exercise of authority 
 lawfully conferred upon him, and that what he did was 
 necessary to the discipline and safety of the prisoners, I 
 
ANDEKSONVILLE. 261 
 
 answer him in the language of Lord Mansfield in an im 
 portant case, 
 
 "In trying the legality of acts done by military officers 
 in the exercise of their duty, particularly beyond the 
 seas, where cases may occur without the possibility of 
 application for proper advice, great latitude ought to be 
 allowed, and they ought not to suffer for a slip of form 
 if their intention appears by the evidence to have been 
 upright. It is the same as when complaints are brought 
 against inferior civil magistrates, such as justices of the 
 peace, for acts done by them in the exercise of their civil 
 duty. There the principal inquiry to be made by a court 
 of justice is hoio the heart stood, and if there appear to be 
 nothing wrong there, great latitude will be allowed for 
 misapprehension or mistake. But, on the other hand, if 
 the heart is wrong, if cruelty, malice, or oppression ap 
 pear to have occasioned or aggravated the imprisonment, 
 or other injury complained of, they shall not cover them 
 selves with the thin veil of legal forms, or escape under 
 the cover of justification the most technically regular 
 from that punishment which it is your duty to inflict on 
 so scandalous an abuse of public trust" (Wall vs. Mac- 
 namara). 
 
 May it please the Court, I have hastily analyzed and 
 presented the evidence under Charge Second. If we had 
 not traveled through the history of those long, weary 
 months of suffering, torture, starvation, death, and be 
 come familiar with each day s roll of those who passed 
 away, the mind could not contemplate this last though 
 briefer roster of the dead without feelings of the utmost 
 horror. Mortal man has never been called to answer be- 
 
262 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 fore a legal tribunal to a catalogue of crime like this. 
 One shudders at the fact, and almost doubts the age we 
 live in. I would not harrow up your minds by dwelling 
 farther upon this woeful record. The obligation you 
 have taken constitutes you the sole judge of both law 
 and fact. I pray you administer the one and decide the 
 other, meting out to those involved in this crime of the 
 universe all justice, without fear, favor, or partiality, and 
 without regard to position, high or low, of those proved 
 guilty. 
 
 NOTE FROM THE JUDGE ADVOCATE. 
 
 Washington, D.C. 
 AMBKOSE SPENCER, Esq., Americus, Ga. : 
 
 DEAR Sin, I am in receipt of your note requesting for publication 
 a copy of the argument submitted to the military court convened for the 
 trial of Henry Wirz, and which you propose to incorporate in your "Nar 
 rative of Andersonville." 
 
 Permit me to say, in cheerfully acceding to your request, and as a rea 
 son for so doing, the public have as yet but a very imperfect idea of rebel 
 cruelties perpetrated at Andersonville, Ga. These can never be known 
 entirely to those not sufferers ; but a grouping of the evidence, preserving 
 the language of the witnesses as far as possible, will do much to correct 
 as well as deepen the popular impression. The address asked by you is 
 not so much an argument as it is an analysis of testimony, and for this 
 reason, it is hoped, will contribute to the object of your book in the point 
 mentioned. 
 
 Again : While the evidence adduced convicts Wirz of contributing di 
 rectly to the death of over TEN THOUSAND UNION SOLDIERS, and with his 
 own hand and by his direct order committing THIRTEEN individual mur 
 ders, the evidence also presents the horrible fact that he was but an in 
 strument in the hands of Jefferson Davis, James A. Seddon, and other 
 prominent rebels ; and while Wirz suffered deservedly, there are those yet 
 unpunished richly worthy an ignominious death. These are, some of 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 263 
 
 them, solemnly indicted by the commission who sentenced Wirz, and the 
 paper you ask presents a part of the evidence upon which that indictment 
 rests. 
 
 Again : If to convict Wirz of murder had been the only object, the 
 court need not have sat a fortnight. As I conceived the purpose of the 
 commission, however, a wider range of inquiry was intended, and hence 
 the wearisome details of horror spread upon five thousand folios, implica 
 ting many, and presenting a continuous scene of suffering which Dante s 
 Inferno nowhere equals. 
 
 But for your book, the lessons of Andersonville would pass away and 
 be forgotten. As I am informed, every effort to secure the publication 
 of the record or the argument you now ask, either as a private enterprise 
 or in any other way, has hitherto been unavailing. A copy of the argu 
 ment was made a part of the annual report of the Judge Advocate Gen 
 eral, and its publication, together with an abbreviation of the record, ur 
 gently recommended, yet it was omitted, through some influence, from 
 the published report of that officer. In giving to the world this history, 
 you are performing a duty which the country has failed to discharge, but 
 which it owes to the survivors and the slain of Andersonville, while you 
 are also erecting an enduring monument to the infamy of their murderers. 
 
 If the paper asked can contribute to this end, you are at liberty to use 
 it. 
 
 You will remember that after the trial began I was ordered to strike 
 from the charges the names of certain high rebel functionaries, and I was 
 severely rebuked by the press, North and South, for presuming to connect 
 these personages with the cruelties at Andersonville. I say to you now 
 that those names were placed in the indictment upon evidence in my pos 
 session at the time, and the finding of the court replacing them as con 
 spirators is my vindication. 
 
 You will remember, too, that during the trial I was subjected to the 
 most mendacious assaults by certain papers, North and South, for mani 
 festing undue zeal in the case and for other reasons. And especially was 
 I denounced as "unworthy my high office" for having expressed in open 
 court the wish " that every man, woman, and child in the South had been 
 vaccinated with poisonous matter and had died" this in connection with 
 the evidence touching Wirz s guilt in using poisonous vaccine matter. I 
 hope I will be pardoned for this personal allusion ; but justice to myself 
 and friends many of whom were shocked to see such a monstrous senti- 
 
264 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 meat attributed to me demands that I deny squarely the infamous im 
 putation. I have the certificate of the whole court to its fabrication. 
 
 I may have, and did, perhaps, prosecute the case with zeal. I felt the 
 wrongs perpetrated upon Union prisoners not more, however, than did 
 some who were Wirz s associates. I would have been less than human 
 and more than satanic to have gone through that trial with stoical indif 
 ference. I was warmed to unusual interest by taking the preliminary 
 evidence, and confess to no abatement during the trial ; but so far from 
 perverting or abusing my position, or exhibiting such a spirit as was 
 charged by the slanderous statements above, the record is full of acknowl 
 edgments, both from the prisoner and his counsel, of my uniform fairness 
 and professional courtesy. 
 
 Believing that your book will have a historic value in perpetuating 
 
 the proofs of guilt, and at the same time will absolve the mass of the 
 
 South from a participation in one of the most stupendous crimes of which 
 
 any age and any time furnishes a record, I wish it and you every success. 
 
 Very truly your friend, 
 
 N. P. CHIPMAN. 
 
ANDEKSONVILLE. 265 
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 Tlie Findings of the Court. Notice of the Argument. Order of the 
 President of the United States. The Murderer s Fate. Tables of 
 Mortality. 
 
 THE argument of the judge advocate, Colonel N. P. 
 Chipman, as here introduced, pays but a poor compli 
 ment to the intellectual ability or legal talent displayed in 
 its preparation. The author has assumed a liberty that 
 admits of but one apology insufficient for the advocate, 
 he is willing to acknowledge the want of space to give 
 the whole. In curtailing it, however, he has omitted 
 nothing except what is contained in the Narrative, a rep 
 etition of which might weary the already tired attention 
 of the reader. 
 
 It may not be improper to say that the effort was pro 
 nounced by competent judges one of the ablest that has 
 been given by an officer of the government since the com 
 mencement of the rebellion, in any case arising from it. 
 
 The portions omitted were only abstracts of the evi 
 dence given at the trial of Wirz, and which, if introduced, 
 would only recall what has been recited. The legal 
 points have been retained as delivered. These will de 
 mand the careful consideration of those who question 
 either the right or the power of government to punish 
 men who have placed themselves under the control of 
 military law by the operation of that law. The argu- 
 
 M 
 
266 ANDERSON VILLE. 
 
 ment upon the jurisdiction of the court removes any 
 doubts that may have been entertained as to its powers. 
 
 " General Court-martial. Orders No. 607. 
 
 "War Department, Adjutant General s Office,) 
 Washington, November 6, 1865. ) 
 
 " Before a Military Commission which convened at 
 Washington, D. C., August 23, 1865, pursuant to para 
 graph 3, Special Orders No. 453, dated August 23, 1865, 
 and paragraph 13, Special Orders No. 524, dated Octo 
 ber 2, 1865, War Department, Adjutant General s Office, 
 Washington, and of which Major General Lewis Wallace, 
 United States Volunteers, is President, was arraigned and 
 tried Henry Wirz. 
 
 " FINDING. The Commission, having maturely consid 
 ered the evidence adduced, find the accused, Henry Wirz, 
 as follows : 
 
 " Of the specification to Charge I., ( GUILTY, after 
 amending said specification to read as follows : In this, 
 that he, the said Henry Wirz, did combine, confederate, 
 and conspire with them, the said Jefferson Davis, James A. 
 Seddon, Howell Cobb, John H. Winder, Eichard B. Win 
 der, Isaiah H. White, W. S. Winder, W. Shelby Eeed, K. 
 E. Stevenson, S. P. Moore, Kerr, late hospital stew 
 ard at Andersonville, James Duncan, Wesley W. Turner, 
 Benjamin Harris, and others, whose names are unknown, 
 citizens of the United States aforesaid, and who were 
 then engaged in armed rebellion against the United 
 States, maliciously, traitorously, and in violation of the 
 laws of war, to impair and injure the health, and to de 
 stroy the lives by subjecting to torture and great suffer- 
 
ANDERSON VILLE. 267 
 
 ing, by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quar 
 ters, by exposing to the inclemency of winter and to the 
 dews and burning sun of summer, by compelling the use 
 of impure water, and by furnishing insufficient and un 
 wholesome food of large numbers of Federal prisoners, 
 to wit, the number of about forty -five thousand soldiers 
 in the military service of the United States of America, 
 held as prisoners of war at Andersonville, in the State of 
 Georgia, within the lines of the so-called Confederate 
 States, on or before the 27th day of March, A.D. 1864, 
 and at divers times between that day and the 10th day 
 of April, A.D. 1865, to the end that the armies of the 
 United States might be weakened and impaired, and the 
 insurgents engaged in armed rebellion against the United 
 States might be aided and comforted. 
 " Of Charge I, GUILTY. 
 " Of Specification first to Charge II., GUILTY/ 
 " Of Specification second to Charge II., GUILTY. 
 " Of Specification third to Charge II., GUILTY. 
 " Of Specification four to Charge II., Not Guilty} 
 11 Of Specification five to Charge II, GUILTY. 
 " Of Specification six to Charge II., GUILTY. 
 " Of Specification seven to Charge II., GUILTY. 
 "Of Specifications eight and nine to Charge II., 
 4 GUILTY. 
 
 " Of Specification ten to Charge II., 1 Not Guilty: 
 " Of Specification eleven to Charge II., GUILTY. 
 11 Of Specification twelve to Charge II., GUILTY. 
 " Of Specification thirteen to Charge II., Not Guilty. 
 "Of Charge II., GUILTY. 
 " SENTENCE. And the Commission does therefore sen- 
 
268 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 tence him, the said Henry "Wirz, to be hanged by the 
 neck till he be dead, at such time and place as the Presi 
 dent of the United States may direct, two thirds of the 
 court concurring therein. 7 
 
 "II. The proceedings, findings, and sentence in the 
 foregoing case having been submitted to the President 
 of the United States, the following are his orders : 
 
 " Executive Mansion" November 3, 1865. 
 
 " The proceedings, findings, and sentence of the court 
 in the within case are approved, and it is ordered that 
 the sentence be carried into execution by the officer com 
 manding the Department of Washington on Friday, the 
 10th day of November, 1865, between the hours of 6 
 o clock A.M. and 12 o clock noon. 
 
 " ANDKEW JOHNSON, President. 
 
 " III. Major General C. C. Augur, commanding the De 
 partment of Washington, is commanded to cause the fore 
 going sentence in the case of Henry Wirz to be duly ex 
 ecuted in accordance with the President s order. 
 
 " IV. The Military Commission, of which Major Gen 
 eral Lewis Wallace, United States Volunteers, is Presi 
 dent, is hereby dissolved. 
 
 " By command of the President of the United States. 
 " E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General." 
 
 On the 10th of November, 1865, Henry Wirz suffered 
 the penalty due to his crimes at Andersonville. 
 
 The expiation thus made does not necessarily shield 
 the character of the jailer of that prison from investiga- 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 269 
 
 tion and censure, but it would be ascribing too great im 
 portance to his name or position to dwell upon it at great 
 er length than has been already done. Above his igno 
 minious grave will ever float the remembrance of his 
 thousand crimes, to mark the resting-place of a willing 
 tool and murderer, while his memory will be handed 
 down pre-eminent among the bad men of the world, but 
 especially notorious as the Jailer of Andersonville. 
 
270 
 
 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Exhibit from Hospital Register, Andersonville Prison Records. 
 
 Whole Num 
 ber of Deaths 
 as shown by 
 Hospital Reg 
 ister. 
 
 Total Num- 
 ber of Deaths 
 in Hospital. 
 
 Total Num 
 ber of Deaths 
 in Stockade. 
 
 Cases re 
 turned from 
 Hospital to 
 Stockade. 
 
 Per Cent, of 
 Deaths to 
 Number ad 
 mitted to 
 Hospital. 
 
 Proportion of 
 Deaths for 
 each Month of 
 the 13 during 
 which the Pris 
 on existed. 
 
 12,462 
 
 8735 
 
 3727 
 
 3469 
 
 ttif 
 
 958 
 
 Diseases and Number of Deaths resulting from each Disease. 
 
 Diarrhosa 
 
 3952 
 
 Constipation 
 
 5 
 
 Scurvy . . . 
 
 3574 
 
 Ophthalmia (Eye) 
 
 5 
 
 Dvsenterv 
 
 1648 
 
 Nephritis (Kidneys) 
 
 4 
 
 Unknown . 
 
 1268 
 
 Vaccine Ulcers 
 
 4 
 
 Aiinscu Cii (General Drop-"} 
 
 
 Laryngitis (Throat) 
 
 4 
 
 sv^ ... i 
 
 377 
 
 Icterus (Liver) .... 
 
 3 
 
 Typhoid Fever 
 
 229 
 
 Ictus Solis (Sun-stroke).... 
 
 3 
 
 
 221 
 
 
 3 
 
 Debility 
 
 198 
 
 Asthma/ . . . 
 
 3 
 
 Intermittent and Remit- f 
 
 
 Scrofula 
 
 3 
 
 
 177 
 
 
 3 
 
 Gun-shot Wounds 
 
 149 
 
 Dyspepsia 
 
 2 
 
 
 109 
 
 Home Sickness 
 
 2 
 
 Bronchitis 
 
 93 
 
 Fistula 
 
 2 
 
 Rheumatism 
 
 83 
 
 Diabetes 
 
 ] 
 
 
 63 
 
 
 1 
 
 Catarrh 
 
 55 
 
 Paralysis ... 
 
 1 
 
 Ulcers 
 
 51 
 
 Fever and Ague 
 
 1 
 
 Phthisis 
 
 36 
 
 Hydrocele. or Dropsy of) 
 
 
 Ascites, or Abdominal) 
 
 
 Testicles ) 
 
 1 
 
 Dropsy \ 
 
 24 
 
 Consumption 
 
 1 
 
 Erysipelas 
 
 11 
 
 Hemorrhoids (Piles) .... 
 
 1 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 1 
 
 JV"- 
 
 Asphyxia . ... .... 
 
 7 
 
 Stricture .. 
 
 1 
 
 Jaundice 
 
 6 
 
 Gangrene 
 
 63 
 
 Wounds 
 
 6 
 
 Total 
 
 12,462 
 
ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 271 
 
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 jo 
 
 joquinx oioq.w. oj 
 smuaci jo "iuao aa 
 
 IVJ IH H H 
 
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 5 
 
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 q:juoTC uo3 
 
 UOBUJ UI OSt TIO 
 
 g s 
 
 OOOOOOrHrHOOOOO 
 
 CHIJ smanp ABQ 
 
 JOCl 61DU3Q JO 
 
 tQ pm? X 
 
 ana X 
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 ono Xau nostjj 
 
 f98I qiC isngny 
 900 88 
 
 JO 
 
 nOK 8^ Snunp 
 
 s 
 
 JO 
 
 mnoK aq? Snunp 
 aaqranx 
 
 S^ 1 CO <M <M O O 
 Ci-^O-^OOO 
 O t> <M t- O t- O 
 
 O O O 00 <M 
 
 OO^ -HCO 
 f-H IM i-( r-i 
 
 L^ O 
 
 ^CO 
 
 OOOOOtOO^C5 
 
 1 1 O -1 O -* >O r-< 
 
 NdCOb-OOOCO 
 
 uf u-f co" 
 
 jo 
 
 B P9AI903I SJ3 
 
 -uosijjjo aaqran 
 
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 OOr^OO<M-* 1O b- O rH O 
 
 co"cTcTt> 1 co co" r-T cT 
 
272 
 
 ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 The following Table, compiled from Official Records, gives the Number of 
 British Soldiers killed in Action, or who jterishedfrom Wounds. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Battles. 
 
 Total Strength 
 engaged. 
 
 Estimated 
 Deaths. 
 
 1809 
 1811 
 1812 
 1813 
 
 1815 \ 
 
 1854 
 1815 
 
 
 22, 100 
 9,000 
 30,500 
 
 I 49,900 
 G,000 
 
 1,445 
 1,358 
 770 
 
 3,245 
 
 4,595 
 625 
 
 .Albuera ... . 
 
 Salamanca 
 
 Vittoria 
 
 Xjicnv 
 
 **wj ^V 
 
 Quatre Bras 
 
 Waterloo 
 
 \Vavre ... 
 
 Crimea 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 Total number of deaths from wounds 12,928 
 
 The official records of the British army show that but 
 2755 men and officers were killed in action during the 
 whole Crimean War. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 writer are among the highest and rarest. Nonconformist (London). 
 
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 tone, and his generous enthusiasm, we heartily commend him, and bid him good 
 speed for the remainer of his interesting and heroic narrative. Saturday Review. 
 
 The story is a noble one, and is worthily treated. * * * Mr. Motley has had the 
 patience to unravel, with unfailing perseverance, the thousand intricate plots of 
 the adversaries of the Prince of Orange ; but the details and the literal extracts 
 which he has derived from original documents, and transferred to his pages, 
 give a truthful color and a picturesque effect, which are especially charming. 
 London Daily News. 
 
 M. Lothrop Motley dans son magnifique tableau de la formation de notre R6- 
 publique. G. GBOEN VAN PKINSTEKEE. 
 
 Our accomplished countryman, Mr. J. Lothrop Motley, who, during the last 
 five years, for the better prosecution of his labors, has established his residence 
 in the neighborhood of the scenes of his narrative. No one acquainted with the 
 fine powers of mind possessed by this scholar, and the earnestness with which he 
 has devoted himself to the task, can doubt that he will do full justice to his im 
 portant but difficult subject. W. H. PRESOOTT. 
 
 The production of such a work as this astonishes, while it gratifies the pride 
 of the American reader. N. Y. Observer. 
 
 The "Rise of the Dutch Republic" at once, and by acclamation, takes its 
 place by the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," as a work which, wheth 
 er for research, substance, or style, will never be superseded. N. Y. Albion. 
 
 A work upon which all who read the English language may congratulate 
 themselves. New Yorker Handels Zeitung. 
 
 Mr. Motley s place is now (alluding to this book) with Hallam and Lord Ma- 
 hon, Alison and Macaulay in the Old Country, and with Washington Irving, 
 Prescott, and Bancroft in this. N. Y. Times. 
 
 THE authority, in the Fjnglish tongue, for the history of the period and people 
 to which it refers. .V. Y. Courier and Enquirer. 
 
 This work at once places the author on the list of American historians which 
 has been so signally illustrated by the names of Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, and 
 Hildreth. Boston Times. 
 
 The work is a noble one, and a most desirable acquisition to our historical lit 
 erature. Mobile Advertiser. 
 
 Such a work is an honor to its author, to his country, and to the age in which 
 it was written. Ohio Farmer. 
 
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