SCSF * ^*^s l^s 1 i : (EmrtttU llmttrcs-ffc} library BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUEST OF iUill.ii £1 3?iske LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1083 I905 ft.as-ysrqk - L>~|«ntfc. E612.A5 C54 e "l9iT Si,y Ubrary Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030910719 The Tragedy of Andersonville TRIAL OF CAPTAIN HENRY WIRZ THE PRISON KEEPER BY GENERAL N. P. CHIPMAN Judge Advocate of the Military Court Lt. Co. H, and Major 2d Iowa Inf'y; Col. and Adj't A. D. C. U S. Vol Brevet Brig. Gen'l Published by the Author 1911 Copyright August, 1911 By N. P. Chipman THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE. Frontispiece — The Author. Members of the Court , 29 Judge Advocates 36 Group — Wirz Monument, Captain Wirz, Jefferson Davis 43 Plan of Stockade 56 Prison Grounds 57 Map of Georgia 71 Plan of Bakery 71 Prison Grounds and Stockade 113 Scene at the North Gate — Issuing Rations 142 View of South Gate from Outside 167 Dividing Squad Rations by Numbers 167 Prison Relies Gathered by Clara Barton 203 Burying the Dead in Trenches ' 215 Prison and Surroundings, and Scenes Enacted. Sketched by Thomas O'Dea, a Prisoner 245 A Typical Soldier — Figure Surmounting the Connecticut Monument 269 Monument Erected by Massachusetts 301 Group of Views in Cemetery 315 Monument Erected by Michigan 327 Indiana 335 Wisconsin 343 Rhode Island 355 New Jersey 365 Iowa 371 Ohio 384 Pennsylvania 408 Connecticut 439 Maine , 455 Monument to Lizabeth Turner 465 Tablet of Woman's Relief Corps 471 Providence Spring 473 Group — Entrance to Prison Grounds and to Cemetery ; Views within Cemetery and Jas. M. Bryant, Superintendent 483 Group — Members of Woman's Relief Corps; Committee on Transfer of Prison Grounds to the Government 489 Group — Members of Woman's Relief Corps; Board of Managers of Prison Grounds 495 LOSING OUR STANDARDS. ONE IS TEMPTED TO ASK OF WHAT USE ARE STANDARDS OP ANT KIND. "Why SEEK TO have ant, either private or public, if IN A FEW TEARS THEY WILL DISSOLVE IN A FLUX OF GOOD FEELING ? If THERE EVER WAS A WAR FOUGHT ON BEHALF OF DEMOCRACT, OF INDI- VIDUAL LIBERTT, OF SUBSTANTIAL ChRISTIANITT, IT WAS THE AMERICAN Civil War. Both sides cannot have been right; nor is it true that both were readt to spill blood merelt because of a consti- tutional question. to insist now that there was no difference in the ideals and purposes of the two forces of 1861 is to reduce . histort to the plane of the moving-picture shows, to make light of the greatest sacrifices ever offered in this or ant countrt for PRINCIPLE OR PATRIOTISM. It IS TO DECRY THE MEN THAT SAVED THE Union if we declare that there was only a chance difference between their views and those of their opponents, or to assert that time has wiped out all the principles for which lincoln and his followers stood. to take such a position is to sat that there is nothing steadt in our political firmament, that there are no fixed stars of moralitt bt which human beings must steer. — The Nation, New York. PREFACE "O ECENT- events, to which I shall call attention in the opening chapter of this volume, imperatively demand the publication of the evidence taken at the trial of Captain Henry Wirz, the keeper of the rebel prison at Andersonville, Georgia, to place before the world the facts upon which his conviction and sentence to death were founded. A monument has been erected to his memory, close by the scenes of the crimes with which he was charged, avowedly intended to pro- claim his innocence ; to condemn those who participated in his trial ; to discredit the proceedings themselves as illegal ; to denounce the witnesses as having given false testimony; and to declare that the Federal government was responsible for the terrible sufferings of the Union prisoners at Andersonville. The erection of this monument has opened a chapter in the history of the Rebellion upon which the public now demands that the light of truth be thrown. Happily for the realization of this demand, the history of this one of the many rebel prisons was laid bare by •judicial investigation, in the trial of Captain Wirz, and that inquest was so full, and the character of the proof so indisputable, that the faithful historian need never hesitate in portraying the sufferings of Union soldiers, or of fixing the responsibility where it rightfully belongs. Ever since the inauguration of the "Wirz monument movement, I have been urged to publish a fuller report of the evidence adduced at the trial than has heretofore reached the public, especially as the in- scriptions engraven upon the monument renew the misleading and un- supported charges made by Jefferson Davis in his lifetime, as will hereinafter appear. Finally, at the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, at Atlantic City, having received the following letter, I resolved, in obedience to it, to undertake the task; and I offer this volume in vindication of the verdict rendered in this remarkable case, and as the record of sufferings such as no prisoners of war in any civilized country, at any modern period, were ever called upon to endure : Forty-fourth National Encampment, Grand Army of the Republic, Atlantic City, New Jersey, September 19, 1910. Gen. N. P. Chipman, Sacramento, California. Comrade: In the passing years since the close of the Civil War an endeavor has been made to create the belief in the public mind that Captain Henry Wirz, C. S. A., commander of the Andersonville Rebel Prison, who was tried and convicted by a military commission of which you were Judge Advocate, for cruel and inhuman treatment of Union prisoners, in violation of the laws of war, was innocent of the charges laid against him, and suffered an ignominious death through false and exaggerated testimony, sacrificing his life rather than make a defense which would fix the guilt upon officers of the Confederacy higher in authority; that in fact there were no preventable cruelties or suffer- ing at that prison, and that the thirteen thousand Union dead who lie in the Andersonville Cemetery perished of disease and climatic causes wholly unavoidable. Recently, in line with this studied effort to falsify what we believe to be the truth of history, the organization known as the "Georgia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy" has challenged the facts as they were recorded in the trial of "Wirz ; has proclaimed him a martyr, and, in sight of the cemetery where repose the bodies of our noble dead, has erected a lasting monument to his memory. We deem it just and right that the world should know the truth disclosed at this important trial, for the evidence, as we understand the findings of the court, not only justified the verdict against Wirz, but implicated and held responsible some of the Confederate officers high in authority, in the execution of a policy which made a charnel- house of the Andersonville Prison. In justice to the memory of the brave and unhappy Union soldiers who perished miserably through the enforcement of that inhuman policy, we call upon you to place within the reach of the public the facts relating to this trial ; and we trust that, in the volume that you may publish, you will make it so complete in its presentation of the evidence that the truth may be vindicated and the falsity of the inscriptions placed upon the Wirz monument be made clearly to appear. Yours in F. C. & L., Harry White, Commander of the National Association of Union Prisoners of War. Joseph C. Killgore, President, Robert B. McCully, Secretary, National Society of Andersonville Prisoners. J. H. Stibbs, 12th Iowa Infantry, Brevet Brigadier-General; Member of Wirz Military Commission. The necessity at the present time for an honest statement regard- ing the Wirz trial seems to be paramount, and we believe no one more fitted to perform this duty than yourself. Louis Wagner, Past Commander-in-Chief. Thos. J. Stewart, Past Commander-in-Chief. S. S. Burdett, Past Commander-in-Chief. Eobt. B. Beath, Past Commander-in-Chief. Leo. Eassieurs, Past Commander-in-Chief. S. R. Van Sant, Commander-in-Chief. C. Mason Kinne, Past Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief . John McElroy, Past Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief. Wm. James, Junior Vice-Commander-in-Chief Elect. Chas. C. Royce, Past Vice-Commander-in-Chief. E. L. Hawk, Department Commander, Department of Cali- fornia and Nevada. CHAPTER I. Motive Shown fob the Publication of the Evidence Taken at the Trial of Wirz — Charges Made by Jefferson Davis in 1890— The Revival of these Accusations by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, in 1905, that Wirz Was "Judicially Murdered" and Died a Martyr after Conviction upon Charges of Which He Was Innocent — Erection of Monument to Wirz in 1909 at Andersoville — False and Misleading In- scription on the Monument — Protest of the Grand Army of the Re- public — Proceedings at National Encampment in 1906 at Minneapolis. ' I v WENTY years ago I was urged to write the story of the Ander- -*- sonville Rebel Prison, as disclosed by the evidence at the trial of Captain Henry Wirz, its keeper. It had seemed to me that this was one of the chapters of the Rebellion better kept closed. As an illustration of the horrors of war it will always stand unparalleled. As furnishing a study of human suffering upon a stupendous scale, and as showing that modern civilization has not mitigated the cruelties to which a professedly Christian people may resort, the past century has exhibited nothing like it. But even this seemed not to justify the portrayal at a time when the healing processes after national disrup- tion might, presumably, be doing their perfect work. It was left for Jefferson Davis to furnish the motive for recalling the true story of Andersonville and to induce me to publish at that time a small volume in reply to his statements, to which wide publicity had been given. "Whatever of responsibility there then was for opening this ghastly wound to bleed afresh, rested upon the head of the late Confederacy, for he not only invited reply, but he imperatively challenged it. And now after twenty years the whole grim and gruesome story of the Andersonville Rebel Prison is revived and a fresh challenge thrown down, carrying with it the reiteration of the charges made by Mr. Davis as published in 1890, and demanding their refutation. Upon leaving the cars at Andersonville, Georgia, the visitor who goes to pay a tribute of love or respect to the memory of the Union dead who lie in the National Cemetery nearby must first pass by an 12 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. enduring monument erected near the station, to the memory of Cap- tain "Wirz, by the "Georgia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy." Some facts which should be given touching the erec- tion of this monument will confirm the opinion, widely expressed, that the time is opportune for the publication of the evidence adduced at the Wirz trial. In the Confederate Veteran for October, 1906, published at Nash- ville, Tennessee, is an article from which I quote as follows: Initial movement for Wirz monument. Mrs. A. B. Hall, of Savannah, Ga., on Dec. 5th, 1905, sent a greeting to the Chapters of the Georgia Division, IT. D. C, and published the following proceedings: the resolutions of Mrs. L. G. Young, of Savannah, read at the convention of the Georgia Division, TJ. D. C, held in Maeon, Oct. 25, 1905, were as follows: "Whereas, Captain Henry Wirz, commandant of the stockade prison at Ander- sonville, Ga., was judicially murdered under false charges of cruelty to prisoners; and whereas, after an interval of forty years, these false charges are reiterated on signboards in public places, from the pulpit, and on monuments; therefore, be it resolved: That the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Georgia use their influence to obtain the necessary funds to place a suitable memorial to Captain Wirz in Andersonville, Ga., upon which a statement of facts shall be engraved in enduring brass or marble, showing that the Federal government was solely re- sponsible for the condition of affairs at Andersonville." "Committees to carry out the resolutions were appointed, — on selection of site, on inscription, on designs, — and an advisory board and a treasurer were appointed." When this movement came to be generally known, a universal protest was evoked in all parts of the North, and in many parts of the South it was strongly condemned. The surviving Union veterans of the Civil War, of whom there still remain more than half a million, were vehement in their expressions of indignant disapproval, and, in their organized capacity as members of the Grand Army of the Eepublic, they voiced their feelings with burning emphasis. Commander-in-Chief Tanner, at the National Encampment at Minneapolis, in August, 1906, made it one of the subjects of his annual address. 1 He said: In the course of the last few months I have received quite a number of com- munications concerning the proposition to erect at or near Andersonville a monu- ment in honor of Captain Wirz, who was in charge of Andersonville Prison. Most of these communications were appeals addressed to me as Commander-in-Chief, imploring me to take steps to prevent the erection of such a monument, urging me, if necessary to that end, to lay the matter before Congress, or to bring it to the attention of the President. 1 Proceedings at Minneapolis, 1906, p. 109. THE TRIM, OF CAPTAIN WIRZ. 13 After pointing out that he had no power to comply with the re- quest, he continued: Since the manuscript was placed in the hands of the printer I have been reliably informed that the plot of ground upon which to place the Wirz monument has been purchased. The veterans of the Confederate army are not to any appreciable degree interested. I first learned of the monument early in the year and quietly and earnestly canvassed the matter with quite a number of prominent ex-Confed- erates, for I recognized on the first meeting thereof that such a matter carried out would do more to interrupt the flow' of good feeling between the North and the South, and would roll back more effectively the waves of reconciliation, than any other one matter of which the mind of man can conceive. A good many of them [ex-Confederates] had no hesitation in privately telling me that they agreed with me that the erection of the memorial to such a character could have no practical result except to smirch to a greater or less degree every memorial erected throughout the South to the real representatives of valor in the Confederate army. The subject is one which I deprecate extremely the necessity of calling to public attention. It is a matter I would have preferred that the hallowing efforts of time might wipe from the memory of man; but under the circumstances, standing as I do, I have felt it would be cowardly not to make mention of this matter as I have. The committee on resolutions, to which this and other subjects dealt upon by the Commander-in-Chief were referred, recommended that the matter be passed over to the incoming Council of Administration. General Ketcham, of Indiana, presented a minority report, as follows: 1 Commander and Comrades: The Wirz monument movement is in the air. It cannot be overlooked or ignored. Prisoners of War Associations have passed resolutions on the subject, Department Encampments have discussed and acted on it, and the Commander-in-Chief has called the attention of this encampment to it. Under these circumstances we cannot close our eyes nor hide our heads in the sand and say we know naught of it. To pass it by silently is to leave it open for the suggestion that the Grand Army of the Republic is either tacitly acquiescing in the movement or fears to take a stand in regard to it. ,On behalf,, thereof, of the minority of your committee, and in obedience to the wishes of the Department of Indiana and its delegates in this encampment, I beg leave to submit the following memorial and resolution : "We learn with deep regret and profound sorrow of the intention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to build a monument to the memory of Captain Wirz in the vicinity of Andersonville National Cemetery and Andersonville Prison, now the property of the Woman's Relief Corps. We are told that this action is taken by the ladies in a spirit of equity; believing he was unjustly hanged, and feeling it just that the world should know the Confederacy's treatment of prisoners of war was conducted on humane principles. 1 Proceedings at Minneapolis, 1906, p. 182. U THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. "We are wholly at loss to perceive how a supposed spirit of equity could be subserved by seeking to keep alive the darkest blot in the history of the Rebellion. "Captain Wire was tried by a commission of just men, of high character and lofty patriotism; competent and capable to hear and weigh the evidence and determine the law and the facts. It had jurisdiction beyond question; its per- sonnel was of the highest character; the trial covered a. period of nearly two months, and the testimony of the witnesses, some one hundred and forty in number, including the witnesses called on his behalf, covered some five thousand pages of written matter, and a synopsis of it covers some six hundred printed pages. "It is now too late to attempt to revise, reverse, or discredit the findings and judgment of that commission. Its conclusion will stand through the ages as the verdict of history. "We had hoped in this, the dawning of the new century, when the bitterness and animosities of the century that is dead and gone ought to be buried in oblivion, that a newer, brighter, loftier spirit of patriotism would have grown in thai; sec- tion of the country that over forty years ago found itself in armed rebellion against the power and authority of the nation. Time has softened if not effaced the physical effects of the bitter strife; the moral effects, we regret to see, largely remain. "The intelligent lover of his country — the whole country — can only view the proposed monument as symbolizing the old spirit of the Rebellion, and as com- memorating the prowess of a convicted and executed felon, whose title to fame rests upon his success in destroying the armies of his country by cruel and barbarous atrocities inflicted upon helpless prisoners committed to his custody, by which thirteen thousand of the country's defenders were sent untimely to their long homes, and other thousands suffered beyond the pen of man to describe or the thoughts of men to conceive. "A monument to him will represent not honor but infamy; will belittle the meed of praise bestowed by monuments to the real soldiers who accomplished great deeds in a great way, although in a misguided cause; will detract from their just fame and glory, and constitute not only an affront to the conscience and patriotism of the land we love, but a reproach to the quickened and enlightened spirit of the age. "We wish to go on record in solemn and deliberate protest against such a cruel and wanton affront to the ideals represented by this Grand Army of the Republic, and by the patriotic citizens of the nation throughout its entire length and breadth. "Resolved, That the Commander-in-Chief communicate with General Stephen E. Lee, Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate "Veterans' Association, and express to him the hope and wish of the Grand Army of the Republic that the association of which he is commander would in such manner as may to it seem proper express its disapproval of the proposed action." Respectfully submitted, William A. Ketcham, Of the minority of the Committee on Resolutions. A comrade asked General Ketcham what evidence he had that these women intended erecting the monument or could build it. Comrade Ketcham said: THE TRIAL OF CAPTAIN WIEZ. 15 "I wrote to Miss Alice Baxter, Secretary of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, to know what the fact was and I have her letter here as follows: Replying to your letter, I take pleasure in sending you the enclosed artieles. These artieles with reference to the building of the monument, the steps that are being taken, the subscriptions that are being made, and the papers that are being written in the public schools telling how atrocious was the conduct of the Union officials, and how humane and just was the conduct of the Confederate officials. Please return when you are through. We propose erecting the monument to Captain Wirz in a spirit of equity, believing that the world should know that the Con- federacy's treatment of prisoners of war was conducted on humane principles. I note you are a lawyer. Perhaps if you study both sides of this question you will come to see there are two sides to the question. We were much pleased with Corporal Tanner when he was South. We do not desire to stir up bitterness, but we are unwilling for the South to remain under false charges. Sincerely yours, Auce Baxter. Past Department Commander Ketcham supported the minority re- port in a vigorous and eloquent speech. Past Commander-in-Chief Torrance followed in advocacy of the majority report. He said: Dp not let us open up Pandora's box of evils. Let us quietly suffer the indig- nity, if it is an indignity. And what will the monument be when erected? When you present yourself before a monument the question arises, What is it, and in whose honor is it erected ? When you come in front of the Wirz monument it will not be to a soldier, not to a man who gained distinction on the battlefield, but one whose only claim to recognition is that he was hanged as a murderer, just as a thousand of other criminals have been hanged in this country. And I will tell you, my comrades, that neither the Daughters of the Confederacy nor the men of the Confederacy, nor the men nor the women of the North and South, nor all com- bined, can erect a monument in memory of any one that will live an hour unless the monument rests upon a noble life and represents a living truth and principle. Commander-in-Chief Tanner then took the floor and, among other things, said : My good friend Torrance has just said that the best thing to do is to keep silence. If we keep silent we will be with the comrades who were murdered in Andersonville. They are silent ; they have been silent all these years. Before my mind's eye to-day there comes a picture of the horrors of that awful time, when they stripped the dead and chucked their corpses in wagons and dragged them out and chucked them in a ditch, and there comes to me an hour when I walked the wards at Annapolis going up and down looking for comrades of my own regi- ment, and behind me came my name in a faint voice. I looked about me and none of the emaciated faces could I recognize. I turned back to the third bed and said, My poor fellow did I ever know you? With a sob in the throat he 16 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. answered. Don't you know Billy Moore? He was one of the stalwart men of my own company. The mother of the boy would not hare recognized him. Tou can all recall such instances as that. To get down to the concrete matter here, I did know last January that this thing was being talked of. When I went South in March to attend Joe Wheeler's funeral at Atlanta every moment that I could spare I was conferring with Con- federates of high and low degree. Not one had a word in favor of the monu- ment. It is the women — and we cannot get into a warfare with women; but we can stand up for conscience and right, if we are men, without getting into a war- fare with women. Finally, last night, or this morning at one o'clock, it came to this, that those who feel as I do would voice this matter in a dignified appeal from the Grand Army of the Eepublic, that appeal to be prepared by your incoming Commander-in-Chief and such as he may see fit to call to his aid, that appeal to be addressed to that splendid gentleman Stephen D. Lee, one of the few surviving lieutenant-generals of the Confederate army, the present chief of the Confederate Veterans, and with that an appeal to him to use his influence to prevent this out- rage from being perpetrated. I came into this encampment to-day caring not what was done so that it might be done dignifiedly and be true to the truth of history, but if you take no action then I tell you that your silence will be seized upon, and in every chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy it will be said that you felt that you could not consistently protest and that you were afraid to meet the issue that they raised. I say that my friend the distinguished attorney-general of Indiana never put more strength and conservatism in any document in all his brilliant career than when he appeared before you with that memorial culminating as it did in a plain, simple, dignified resolution asking of the Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Veterans, on the part of the Grand Army of the Eepublic, that he use his influence to prevent the erection of the monument. It is no time to keep silent. It is time to speak out man-fashion in a dignified way, and let the country know that the Grand Army of the Eepublic makes its dignified protest against the exaltation of the man who sent to horrible death so many of our comrades and who caused such inexpressible anguish in the hearts of the people of the North. With all my heart and soul I second the resolution offered by Comrade Ketcham. On motion the previous question was ordered, and, the main ques- tion being put, the minority report and resolution were adopted. "Whatever may have been the opinion of individual ex-Confeder- ate soldiers or individual citizens of the South, it is quite certain that no serious effort was made to prevent the erection of this monument with all that was proclaimed in its justification and with all its false implications. In reviewing the matter in an extended article, the Confederate Veteran concludes: The purpose of this article is not to antagonize our friends, the enemy. Indeed it is not to condemn them, as from their point of view many of them honestly think such a monument should not be erected; but the opportunity by these issues THE TRIAL OF CAPTAIN WIEZ. 17 is improved to make fresh record of the deeds of that ill-fated Confederate officer. As Americans honor the French officer Lafayette, the Southern people should ever specifically honor the name of Captain Henry Wirz. Our Grand Army friends are not so bad as many believe them to be. Men here actually opposed the Wirz mon- ument movement through a misconception of the facts. ... I am attempting the delicate and difficult task of rescuing a wronged man's memory. They never fail who die in a great cause. Let the monument be built.'' On the title page of this magazine is printed the following: "Offi- cially represents : United Confederate Veterans ; United Daughters of the Confederacy ; Sons of Veterans and other organizations ; Confed- erate Brethren Memorial Association. The Veteran is approved and indorsed by a larger and more elevated patronage than any other pub- lication in existence." If it be true, as Miss Baxter wrote as late as in 1905, that papers were being written in the public schools telling "how atrocious was the conduct of the Union officials, and how humane and just was the conduct of the Confederate officials," and if the Confederate Veteran, with its large and "elevated patronage," in advocating the erection of this monument, expressed a widespread sentiment, can there be any doubt that behind the movement was the purpose to revive and reassert the charges which Mr. Davis, among the last acts of his life, defiantly published to the world ? Can it be wondered at that there is a fresh demand for the means of obtaining the evidence upon which he was found guilty of conspiracy with Wirz in the commission of the awful crime for which Wirz suffered? Is the revered name of Lafayette to have no higher place in the hearts of the Southern people than the name of Wirz ? Are the por- traits of the noble Marquis and Captain Wirz to hang side by side equally honored in Southern homes? Past Commander-in-Chief Torrance gave expression to a commend- able sentiment, when he said that the men and women of the North and South combined can never "erect a monument in memory of any one that will live an hour unless the monument rests upon a noble life and represents a living truth and principle." It has never been claimed, and never will be claimed, by the authors of the Wirz monument that it "rests upon a noble life" or that it "represents a living truth or principle." Captain Wirz was not a citizen of Georgia; he had no military record of consequence; his residence in Andersonville was that of a soldier in camp for the time only ; he did not fall in honorable battle. 18 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Witnesses at his trial testified that he boasted that he was destroy- ing more ' ' Yankee soldiers than General Lee was killing in the Wilder- ness"; and it is true that under his ministration more prisoners were killed, through causes into which we are now to inquire, than were killed in action in the Union ranks in the combined battles of the Second Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilder- ness, and Appomattox. What, then, was the motive, what the true significance, of this shaft erected at that particular place ? The services which the monument was meant to signalize, and for which Wirz was to be immortalized, were performed at Andersonville, but their commemoration at that place has a deeper meaning. The Wirz shaft was to be a perpetual interrogation — "Why this awful slaughter?" To which the inscriptions give answer: That the Federal government was alone responsible; that Wirz was falsely accused, illegally tried, and condemned upon charges of which he and the Confederate government were alike innocent and that — "To res- cue his name from the stigma attached to it by embittered prejudice this shaft is erected by the Georgia Division of the Daughters of the Confederacy." The most important feature of the record of this trial, however, is its exposure of the policy of the Confederate government and its guilty participation in the crime of Andersonville. And it is this fact that will always attach historic value to the evidence taken at this remarkable trial, which it is now proposed to lay before the world. CHAPTER II. Jefferson Davis and Andersonville — His Published Article Briefly Out- lined and Its Specific Charges Noted and Examined — Some Gross Mis- statements Corrected — His Accusations Revived and Reasserted by the United Daughters of the Confederacy by Inscription on the Wirz Monument. TN Belford's Magazine for January and February, 1890, are two *■ articles contributed by Mr. Jefferson Davis, entitled "Andersonville and Other War Prisons." In the opening article Mr. Davis says: ' ' Some eminent citizens of the North, who are furthest removed from the class known as Southern sympathizers during the war between the States, but who desire to know the whole truth, have requested me to write an article, to appear in some periodical published in the North, on the subject of the prison at Andersonville, Ga. The invita- tion is accepted, both as to the subject and place of publication, from the wish to vindicate the conduct of the Confederacy, and because the proposed channel is that which will most assuredly reach those who have generally seen but one side of the discussion." 1 The history of Mr. Davis's article is not without interest. It was originally prepared for the North American Review, through the urgent request of Mr. Charles Redpath, who, as the managing editor of that periodical, visited Mr. Davis. Mr. Allen Thorndike Rice, the editor, whose death occurred soon thereafter, from political motives postponed the publication. Meanwhile the Review had published an article by Lord Wolseley reflecting somewhat upon Mr. Davis, and the latter was asked by Mr. Rice's successor to reply. This he did, but his contribution was severely pruned by the editor, which so incensed Mr. Davis that he withdrew his article on Andersonville, and among one of the last acts of his life, turned it over to Belford's for publica- tion. The article must therefore be considered as premeditated ; it had been under examination for over a year, and finally went before the public, by Mr. Davis's request, without alteration or abridgment, and as a last message in defense of his beloved Confederacy. 1 Belford's Magazine, January, 1890. 20 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Mr. Davis's long public service, his high position in the Confeder- acy, his intimate knowledge of all its movements as the head of the Eebellion, his generally conceded character for honesty and integrity gain for his statements of fact prima facie acceptance in the minds of many. I think, however, that before the unprejudiced reader has reached the final chapter of this book he will have concluded that neither Mr. Davis's statements nor his method of dealing with this grave matter can be received as at all satisfactory or reliable. He first charges that Andersonville became necessary as a prison because of the Federal violation of the cartel for the exchange and parole of prisoners. But the admitted failure or refusal of the Federal authorities to observe the cartel furnishes no justification for cruel and unusual treatment and starvation of prisoners in his power. If, as he claims, the prisons at Richmond had become so overcrowded as to make the stockade at Andersonville a necessity, or if after its estab- lishment the number greatly exceeded any possibility of adequate or humane care, still its enlargement was but the obvious demand of humanity, and should have been made. Mr. Davis characterizes it as ' ' offensive ' ' to make inquiry why this overcrowding was not provided against and he scorns to make answer. "We shall see, as we progress with the evidence, how simple a mat- ter this expedient would have been; how ready and willing hands besought and were refused the privilege of enlarging the boundaries of their prison pen and relieving its congestion. The alleged violation of the cartel is wholly irrelevant as a defense for violating the usages of civilized warfare. It was so decided by the military court which tried "Wirz, and all writers on civil or military law support that decision. There is, however, a full and satisfactory defense of the Federal action in this matter which will be made the subject of a chapter of this volume, but in no event can it be allowed that the fact that Mr. Davis had more prisoners than he wished to feed relieved him from the duty of feeding them. He informs us that Andersonville, Ga., was selected after careful investigation for the following reasons : " It was in the high pine wood region ; in a productive farming country, and had never been devastated by the enemy; was well watered, was near Americus, a central depot for collecting the tax in kind and purchasing provisions for the armies." 1 Much evidence was adduced at the trial of Wirz, as we shall see, confirming the very important fact here admitted, for it bore 1 Belford Magazine, January, 1890. JEFFERSON DAVIS AND ANDERSONVILLE. 21 directly upon the issue whether short rations resulted from any scarcity or physical inability to supply sufficient food. Mr. Davis seems to have assumed that because an abundance of food was avail- able it must logically follow that it was furnished to the prisoners, properly prepared for consumption and in proper quantities. But here was the very issue being tried. In this high pine wooded region prisoners perished for lack of shelter and fuel; in this productive farming country they wasted away to skeletons and died of starvation ; in this well watered region was enacted the tragedy of the Ancient Mariner : "Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink." Having satisfied his conscience with the statement that food, fuel, water, and pure air abounded, he adds : "It was not starvation, as has been alleged, but acclimation, unsuitable diet and despondency which were the potent agents of disease and death. These it was not in our power to remove. The remedy demanded alike of humanity and good faith was the honest execution of the cartel." Mr. Davis seems to have been obsessed with the idea that the cartel was the cause of all this suffering. Is it true that these potent agencies of disease and death were beyond his power to remove ? Let me not anticipate too much the proofs that are to be marshalled in proper sequence, from the lips of eye-witnesses, many of them having been in the rebel service. We shall see as we advance whether the cartel or starvation was the more potent agent of disease and death at that fateful place; whether it is conceivable that the failure to exchange prisoners, in the face of the terms demanded by the rebel government, can acquit that government of its culpability in the treatment of prisoners; and whether it was not in the power of the Confederacy to have properly fed and cared for these brave men. These were all matters of legitimate inquiry at the trial, and it is my purpose to make known the evidence, that the world may judge between unsupported statements and conclusions and the sworn testi- mony of the witnesses of the harrowing scenes in this tragic chapter of the Civil War. If human testimony, subjected to all the tests of its credibility known to the law, can be believed, there will be laid before the reader such an array of proofs as to place beyond the realm of reasonable doubt that not less than seventy-five per cent of the thirteen thousand 22 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. who perished at Andersonville and the two thousand who died on their way to their homes or shortly after reaching them, died from the effects of starvation and other preventable causes — chiefly, however, from simple undoubted starvation, or causes directly induced thereby. To show the nature and character of the alleged facts assumed to have come to the surface since the trial, and upon which rest the conclusions to which Mr. Davis would lead his reader, something should be said. As an example, he quotes from an anonymous letter published in the New York News of August 5, 1865, and to give it weight he attributes the authorship to an officer on General Sheridan's staff. This writer was one Martin S. Harris, private of the 5th New York Artillery, and never had any relations with Sheridan. He was a witness for the defense at the trial and testified at great length. His testimony will be noticed in its proper place. Mr. Davis speaks of Wirz as the unhappy victim of a misdirected popular clamor, and says he was denied the favorable testimony of those who came as witnesses in his behalf, and "died a martyr to a cause through adherence to truth." He cites as an instance of the unfairness of the trial the case of the Rev. Father Peter Whelan, who was a witness for the prisoner. He quotes this gentleman as saying that, upon reporting at Washington, the Judge Advocate of the court found out what he knew and dismissed him without allowing the prisoner to call him as a witness. So glaring a perversion of fact as Mr. Davis is here guilty of should excite grave doubt as to his veracity in other particulars, and shows with what reckless abandon Mr. Davis came to the defense of Andersonville. The fact is that Father Whelan was called by the defense and testified at great length. 1 His testimony will not be overlooked in subsequent pages. Mr. Davis quotes from General Imboden, as showing "that after the bulk of the prisoners were removed, leaving in the fall of 1864 about five thousand, who could not bear transportation, by renovation of the post the premises were much improved ; that at one time it was thought by the medical officer nearly all the sick would die, but by the use of vegetables in such quantities as could be procured and an acid beer made from corn meal and sorghum molasses, the death rate fell from about three thousand in August to one hundred and sixty for the month of December. ' ' The inquirer after the truth in reading this paragraph could not fail to conclude that the physical condition, 1 Record, p. 426. JEFFERSON DAVIS AND ANDEESONVILLE. 23 of these five thousand unfortunates must have been low indeed if they could not stand the fatigue of being moved in cars, and that the con- dition of the sick was such as to indicate their speedy death. Appar- ently some were sick unto death and the remainder were too sick to bear transportation — i. e. all were grievously sick, but impending death did not threaten all. But mark how adroitly this report of General Imboden is woven into the defense — "the death rate fell from three thousand in August to one hundred and sixty in December." Why? Because resort was had to a very simple expedient. But in August there were over thirty-two thousand prisoners in that same enclosure, while in December there were about five thousand. In August the country abounded in vegetables of all kinds; corn meal and sorghum molasses were equally available from which to make acid beer. We shall see how insistent was the demand for resort to the simple means used by General Imboden to preserve these precious lives. Mr. Davis nowhere suggests that acid beer and vegetables could not be had in August. The evidence is full and conclusive on the point. It may not be doubted that to this humane officer many of the hapless prisoners owe their lives. But what shall be said of the policy pursued previous to December and of those responsible for its execution ? Colonel Robert Ould, Confederate Commissioner of Exchange, is quoted by Mr. Davis as having said that he was subpoenaed for the defense, but that the prisoner was denied the privilege of calling him. Here is told but a half truth, manifestly as a reflection on the fairness of the trial. Colonel Ould was subpoenaed by the defense to testify to matters relating to the exchange of prisoners. After discussion, upon the objection of the Judge Advocate, the court held the testimony to be irrelevant, and Colonel Ould was discharged by request of counsel for the prisoner. Perhaps the most glaring departure from the truth to be found in Mr. Davis's article is the statement, based upon what Mr. Davis understood Colonel E. H. Chilton to have written, that Colonel D. H. Chandler, assistant adjutant-general and inspector-general of the Con- federate army, testified to the single fact that his report was never seen by Mr. Davis, and that this officer was asked no other question. Col- onel Chandler's report, made August 5, 1864, will be laid before the reader. His oral testimony will "also be given, showing a condition at the prison which he reported to the secretary of war, Mr. Seddon, to be a "disgrace to the Confederacy." Evidence will be given from which the court was fully justified in finding that this report was 24 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. traced to Mr. Davis, and from which the inference was plainly dedue- ible that the rebel authorities at Eiehmond supinely ignored Colonel Chandler's recommendations and permitted the shocking slaughter of innocent men to proceed — at that time dying at the rate of over one hundred per day. Mr. Davis closes his first article by the remarkable charge, based upon a letter received by him from a fellow-prisoner of Wirz, that a night or two before his execution three men came to Wirz's cell and had some conversation with him ; that Wirz told his fellow-prisoner, after the visitors had departed, that they offered him his liberty if he would testify against Mr. Davis. This instance has no especial bearing upon the justness of the verdict of the Wirz trial. The story has grown into historical proportions by its iteration and reiteration, and was finally adopted by the Daughters of the Confederacy as one of the inscriptions to be placed on the Wirz monument. If it found credence sufficient to warrant its so bold use, it must mean that Wirz preferred death to committing a breach of fidelity to his chief, and thus showed himself a brave and worthy subordinate if not an innocent man. This story, coming from an unnamed and unknown fellow-prisoner of Wirz, itself based upon a statement of Wirz, the United Daughters of the Confederacy have engraved upon the Wirz monument in the follow- ing form : "He indignantly spurned a pardon proffered him on condition that he would incriminate President Davis and thus exonerate himself from charges of which both were innocent." But history is not made of such unsubstantial figments of the imagination as came secondhand to Mr. Davis in this unconfirmed and anonymous manner. In truth, the government needed the support of no such witness as Wirz would have been. No human being, under the circumstances surrounding him, would have believed Wirz's testi- mony. Besides no such confession was necessary. Wirz had claimed at his trial that he was obeying the orders of his superiors, and that the Eiehmond authorities were responsible and not he, as will appear in the course of this volume. It is unbelievable that so dastardly a proposition came from Federal authority, and it finds place in this publication only because it apparently has some believers and because Mr. Davis had the audacity to give it currency by his public indorse- ment. Mr. Davis was himself a prisoner at Fortress Monroe at that time. He was not being held as a murderer or common malefactor. The crime with which he was to have been tried was high treason, as JEFFERSON DAVIS AND ANDEESONVILLE. 25 defined by the Constitution, and not for specific incidents occurring during the war, however much he might be responsible for them. And he was finally so indicted but never tried. Not to overlook the single remaining item to which Mr. Davis de- voted his attention in his first Belford article, 1 he makes passing men- tion of the charges that bloodhounds were used to capture prisoners, but dismissed the subject with a mere statement that "he had been informed that some fox and deer hounds were used to track prisoners, and that no bloodhounds were used." The evidence will be given upon this point, and it will show that ferocious dogs were employed and were the means of several deaths. This pack of dogs was part of the force under Wirz's direction, and was in charge of an enlisted man by the name of Wesley W. Turner. We shall hear much of these dogs and the part they played in the Andersonville horror. I have thus sketched the points made by Mr. Davis on the general subject of the treatment of prisoners; also, the data on which he would have the public rely in reaching its conclusions. The true facts are to follow as narrated by witnesses subject to the pains and penal- ties of perjury, and in part from unimpeachable official reports of rebel officers and agents, recounted under circumstances and at a time when, if there was a motive to color the record, it was a motive to minimize rather than exaggerate what they saw and wrote down. Mr. Davis's second article 2 is exclusively devoted to the cartel of which I have already spoken and will be given consideration in a chapter on that subject, although it formed no part of the case for or against Wirz. So great stress, however, has been laid on its alleged violation by the Federal authorities, as the chief cause of the suffering of our soldiers, that it must not be ignored. One of the inscriptions on the Wirz monument reads: "It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. At this particular time to release all rebel prisoners would insure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here. — Ulysses S. Grant, Aug. 18, 1864." This unexplained statement confronts every visitor at Ander- sonville, and the plain implication is that when he enters the National Cemetery his eyes are to behold the resting place of thirteen thousand 1 Belford' s Magazine, January, 1890. 2 Belford' s Magazine, February, 1 890. 26 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Union soldiers who perished through the neglect of their government, and who could have been saved only, as Mr. Davis charged, by "an honest execution of the cartel." Can we marvel at the indignation aroused among the victorious men who followed Grant from Belmont and Fort Donelson to Appo- mattox, when they see emblazoned on the Wirz shaft this atrocious perversion of history — this impeachment of the honor of a great name and the wisdom, justice, and humanity of a great nation ? With the issues thus clearly denned by the defenders of Wirz and the Confederacy, we now approach the blackest page anywhere to be found in the annals of war among civilized nations in recent times — a page, too, written amid internecine strife, on the one side to preserve the Union of states believed to be the most beneficent in existence ; on the other avowedly, by its constitution, founded on the righteousness and rightfulness of human slavery. The one was fundamentally right and the other was fundamentally and eternally wrong. It was in this struggle that the tragedy of Andersonville became possible. CHAPTER III. |Sqme Hitherto Unpublished Facts^-Organization; of the Court — The Charges and Specifications — Special Pleas Interposed — Jurisdiction of the Court — Once in Jeopardy — Right of Parole Claimed — Argument — Pleas ' Overruled — Facts as to Wirz's Arrest • — • Wirz Pleads Not Guilty— Rules of Procedure — Circumstances of Wirz's Arrest — Wirz's Military Status — His Place of Burial — The True Significance of the Trial. , . . , ; . , . • ; . y I v HE trial of Henry "Wirz in many respects brought to light the >. -*■ most startling (page in the history of the Rebellion. Some inter- esting facts relating to that trial were not known to the public at the ^time; other facts of the greatest significance were brought out by the -record, such as, for example, those implicating, the rebel government. These were buried out of sight by the universal demand that the pris- oner, who was regarded as immediately responsible, should not escape punishment; and, with his execution, the secondary, but really the most important, result of the trial was overshadowed by the rapidly recurring political movements of that eventful period. It is now pro- posed to give the true history and exact results of that trial. I was at the time on duty at the "War Department at "Washington, and at times had been assigned to try cases as Judge Advocate of courts-martial and military commissions. The Andersonville horror had made so deep an impression upon the nation that when it was known that "Wirz, the keeper of that prison, was under arrest, his trial became imperative. He was lodged in the old Capitol Prison, in Washington, and I was directed by Secretary of "War Stanton, upon -the recommendation of Judge Advocate-General Holt, to prepare the case for trial. It was known that the mortality had been great, yet few persons at the North, not even the prisoners themselves, were aware that over 13,000 had died miserably at that horrible place, and few had any conception that a great crime had been committed. "While Secretary of War Stanton and Judge Advocate-General Holt, and probably some other high officials, as well as President John- son, suspected that the heads of the rebel government were largely 28 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVILLB. responsible for the awful suffering, it was not until I had spent some months in searching out proofs, and arranging the facts, that this sus- picion deepened into conviction. By August, 1865, the evidence had been marshalled, charges and specifications were prepared and served upon the prisoner, and the military commission constituted to try him. The arraignment of Wirz upon these charges and specifications, then for the first time published to the world, sent a thrill of horror throughout the United States. Mr. Davis was a prisoner confined in Fortress Monroe. The ques- tion as to what proceedings should be taken against him as the leader of the Eebellion was before the cabinet and was a serious problem. His complicity and that of some of his cabinet officers in the crime of Andersonville was for the first time charged. It was thought unde- sirable for many reasons to furnish any pretext for bringing the ex- president to the capital. But to proceed against Wirz with Davis named as a co-conspirator presented a question of some moment. The nature of the charges was known to Secretary Stanton, and I had reason to believe that he was familiar with the form and sub- stance of the specifications, although it is quite probable that neither the president nor other members of the cabinet had such knowledge. "Wirz had pleaded not guilty and the court had adjourned until the next day. Upon reassembling a package was placed in my hands from the War Department which proved to be an order dissolving the court. Wirz was remanded to prison, and I was ordered to report immediately to the War Department, while the members of the court went their way in the greatest perplexity, and in utter ignorance of the meaning of so abrupt a termination of the trial. This proceeding, as we shall see later on, formed the basis of a special plea interposed by Wirz. I have never been informed of the reason that impelled this extraor- dinary and precipitate action by the secretary of war, for of his knowledge of every step taken in the case, I had every assurance, and yet he appeared to be unusually disturbed at the coupling of Davis's name and other high rebel functionaries with that of Wirz. The result of it all was that I was directed to prepare new charges and specifica- tions, leaving out the names of Davis, Seddon, and others of Davis's cabinet, and proceed against Wirz. General Holt alone knew, for I had talked much with him, of the extent and character of the evidence I had gathered in support of the The Military Commission that Tried Captain Wirz, Keeper of the Andersonville Prison. 30 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. conspiracy charge. He was in full sympathy with my view, that the trial should be made the means of bringing to light and giving the history and the whole truth as to this prison, and not simply to submit evidence to convict Wirz, which was of comparatively small conse- quence and the work of only a few days. It was finally concluded to retain the charges and specifications in their then form, omitting the names mentioned, and substituting certain persons of less note who had been connected with the prison, adding the words "and others unknown," and in that form of pleading submit all the evidence touching upon the alleged conspiracy. To this course the secretary of war consented, and the court was again constituted as before. Wirz was again arraigned and pleaded not guilty, after interposing certain pleas in bar which were overruled, as will later appear, and the trial began. It opened August 23, 1865, and closed October 24, 1865, lasting sixty-three days. The court was composed of officers who had seen much service, and some of them were men of national reputation. In its personnel the court .was unimpeachable, and its findings must chal- lenge respect and confidence. The facts appearing in the following pages, except as otherwise indicated, are taken from the record of the Wirz trial, published in Executive Document No. 23, 40th Congress, 2nd Session. The intro- ductory page explains when and by what authority it was published and how the evidence was prepared. It comprises a volume of 850 closely printed pages, including a very complete index. Where refer- ence is made to this publication it will be designated "Eeeord." In quoting from the testimony and official reports such portions will be used as will present the substance of the evidence, omitting immaterial details. ORGANIZATION OP THE COURT. Letter from the Secretary of War Ad Interim, 1 in answer to a resolution of the House of April 16, 1866, transmitting a sum- mary of the trial of Henry Wirz. December 7, 1867. — Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed. 1 Record, p. i. FACTS AND RESULTS OF TEIAL. 31 War Department. Washington City, December 5, 1867. Sir: In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives, dated April 16, 1866, I have the honor to send herewith a summary of the proceed- ings, &c, of the trial of Henry Wirz. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. Grant, Secretary of War ad interim. Hon. S. Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives. THE TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ. [Prepared in the office of the Adjutant General United States army, in ac- cordance with the following resolution of Congress] : THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS— FIRST SESSION. Congress op the United States, In the House of Representatives, April 16, 1866. On motion of Mr. Garfield, 1 Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to have prepared for pub- lication the proceedings of the trial of Henry Wirz, in which shall be em- braced, as nearly as practicable in the language of the witnesses, a summary of the testimony given, and the decisions, findings, and sentence of the court, to- gether with the address of the judge advocate, and that made in defence of the prisoner. Attest: Edward McPherson, Clerk. The order convening the court and the charges and specifications were as follows: 2 War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, August 23, 1865. [Special Orders No. 453.] [Extract.] 3. A special military commission is hereby appointed to meet in this city at 11 o'clock a. m., on the 23d day of August, 1865, or as soon thereafter as prac- ticable, for the trial of Henry Wirz, and such other prisoners as may be brought before it. detail for the commission. Major General L. Wallace, United States volunteers. Brevet Major General G. Mott, United States volunteers. Brevet Major General J. W. Geary, United States volunteers. Brevet Major General L. Thomas, Adjutant General United States army. Brigadier General Francis Fesseden, United States volunteers. Brigadier General E. S. Bragg, United States volunteers. 3 Brevet Brigadier General John F. Ballier, colonel ninety-eighth Pennsyl- vania volunteers. Brevet Colonel T. Allcock, lieutenant colonel fourth New York artillery. Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Stibbs, twelfth Iowa volunteers. Colonel N. P. Chipman, additional aide-de-camp, judge advocate of the commission, with such assistants as he may select, with the approval of the Judge Advocate-General. The commission will sit without regard to hours. By order of the President of the United States: E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General. 1 Afterwards President of the United States. 2 Record, p. 2. 3 General Bragg was relieved on account of illness and did not participate in the findings. Record, p. 511. 32 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. On August 23, 1865, in Washington, D. C, all the members named in the foregoing order and the judge advocate being present, the com- mission proceeded to the trial of Henry Wirz, who, having been brought before the commission, and having heard the order convening it read, was asked whether he had any objection to any member named therein, to which he replied in the negative. The judge advocate then laid before the commission the correspond- ence requesting the services of Major A. A. Hosmer as assistant judge advocate, and the approval of the Judge Advocate-General of such selection. The members of the commission were then duly sworn by the judge advocate, and the judge advocate and assistant judge advocate were duly sworn by the president of the commission respectively in the presence of the accused. Henry G. Hayes, D. Wolfe Brown, and William Hinks were duly sworn by the judge advocate as reporters to the commission. The accused was then duly arraigned on the following CHARGES AND SPECIFICATIONS. Charge I. Maliciously, wilfully, and traitorously, and in aid of. the then ex- isting armed rebellion against the United States of America, on or about the first day of March, A. D. 1864, and on divers other days between that day and the tenth day of April, 1865, combining, confederating, and conspiring together with John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Stevenson, and others unknown, to injure the health and destroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the United States, then held and being pris- oners of war within the lines of the so-called Confederate States and in the mil- itary prisons thereof, to the end that the armies of the United States might be weakened and impaired; in violation of the laws and customs of war. Specification.— In this: that he, the said Henry Wirz, did combine, confed- erate, and conspire with them, the said John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Stevenson, 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 destroy the lives, by subjecting to torture and great suffering, by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quarters, 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 unwholesome food, of large numbers of federal prisoners, to-wit, the number of thirty thousand, soldiers in the military service of the United States of America, held as prisoners of war at Ander- sonville, 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 FACTS AND RESULTS OP TEIAL. 33 armies of the United States might be weakened and impaired, and the insur- gents engaged in armed rebellion against the United States might be aided and comforted : and he, the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the military service of the so-called Confederate States, being then and there commandant of a military prison at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, located by authority of the so-called Confederate States, for the conflnment of prisoners of war, and as such commandant, 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, according to the laws of war, did, in furtherance of such combination, confederation, and conspiracy, and incited thereunto by them, the said John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Stevenson, and others whose names are unknown, maliciously, wickedly, 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, wilfully 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 refuse to furnish or cause to be furnished food, either of a quality or quantity sufficient to preserve health and sustain life; and did refuse and neglect to furnish wood sufficient for cooking in summer, and to keep the said prisoners 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 unwholesome 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 emaciated and injured in their bodily health; their minds impaired and their intellects broken; and many of them, to-wii, the number of ten thousand, whose names are unknown, sickened and diet! by reason thereof, which he, the said Henry Wirz, then and there well knew and intended; and so knowing and evilly intending, did refuse and neglect to provide proper lodgings, food or nourishment for the sick, and necessary medi- cine and medical attendance for the restoration of their health, and did know- ingly, wilfully, 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 remain in the said prison, among the emaciated sick and languishing living, the bodies of the dead, until they became corrupt and loathsome, and filled the air with foetid and noxious exhalations, and thereby greatly increased the unwholesomeness of the prison, insomuch that great numbers of said prisoners, to-wit, the num- ber of one thousand, whose names are unknown, sickened and died by reason thereof; and the said Henry Wirz, still pursuing his wicked and cruel pur- 34 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. pose, wholly disregarding the usages of civilized warfare, did at the time and place aforesaid maliciously and wilfully subject the prisoners aforesaid to cruel, unusual and infamous punishment upon slight, trivial, and fictitious pretences, 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 subjected 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 hundred, 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 enclosure containing said prisoners, a "dead-line," being a line around the inner face of the stock- ade or wall enclosing said prison, and about twenty feet distant from and within said stockade; and having so established said dead-line, which was in many places an imaginary line, and in many other places marked by insecure and shifting strips of boards nailed upon the tops 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 pris- oners, 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 bloodhounds, to hunt down prisoners of war aforesaid, who made their escape from his custody, and did then and there wilfully and maliciously suffer, incite, and encourage 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 during the time aforesaid made their escape and were recaptured, and were by the said beasts then and there cruelly and inhumanly injured, insomuch that many of said prisoners, 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 purposes of vaccination, impure and poisonous vaccine matter, which said impure and poisonous matter was then and there, by the direction and order of said Wirz, maliciously, cruelly, and wickedly deposited in the arms of many of said prisoners, by reason of which large numbers of them, to-wit, one hundred, lost the use of their arms, and many of 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 intended, and in aid of the then existing rebellion against the United States, with a view to assist in weakening and impairing the armies FACTS AND KESULTS OF TEIAL. 35 of the United States, and in furtherance of the said conspiracy and with the full knowledge, consent, and connivance of his co-conspirators aforesaid, he the said Wirz then and there did. Charge II. — 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, 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 confinment of prisoners of war, taken and held as such from the armies of the United States of America, while acting as said commandant, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, did make an assault, and he, the said Henry Wirz, a certain pistol, called a re- volver, then and there loaded and charged with gunpowder and bullets, which said pistol the said Henry Wirz, in his hand there and then had and held, to, against, and 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 un- known, 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, mur- derously inflicted by the said Henry Wirz, the said soldier thereafter, to-wit, en the ninth day of July, A. D. 1864, died. [Then follow twelve other specifications charging murder of prisoners in his keeping, namely; second, by jumping upon and stamping to death; third, by shooting with a revolver; fourth, by shooting with a revolver; fifth, by confine- ment in the stocks; sixth, by confining in the stocks; seventh, by binding the necks and feet with iron balls and chains; eighth, by ordering a sentinel to shoot a prisoner; ninth, by ordering a sentinel to fire upon and killing a pris- oner; tenth, by the same means; eleventh, by ferocious dogs in the pursuit of prisoners; twelfth, by ordering a sentinel to shoot a prisoner; thirteenth, by beating a prisoner upon the head with a revolver.] (Signed) : By order of the President of the United States. N. P. Chipman, Colonel and A. D. C. Judge Advocate. After full argument and deliberation, the court found Wirz guilty of the first charge and its specifications, striking out the word "blood- hounds" and inserting "dogs" in lieu thereof, and restoring the names of Jefferson Davis and all others originally named as co-conspirators, except General Lee. Upon the second charge the court found the prisoner guilty of eleven distinct murders out of the thirteen charged, and of three murders by use of the dogs, not charged but shown by the evidence. 1 While the verdict was not a conviction of the conspirators other than Wirz, it was the equivalent of an indictment found against them for the wholesale and needless mortality charged. 1 Record, p. 305. 36 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Colonel N. P. Chipman, Judge Advocate, 1863. General N. P. Chipman, 1906. Colonel A. A. Hosmer, Ass't Judge Advocate, 1863. The evidence was of a most convincing character, for the findings rested largely upon the official reports of rebel officers, made alone for the eye of their superiors at Richmond. Much of the testimony was given by rebel officers who had been on duty at the prison, and there were called as witnesses nearly one hundred of the surviving prisoners. Messrs. Hughes, Denver, and Peck, a prominent law firm of Wash- ington, represented the prisoner to this point of his arraignment, but withdrew from the case, and Messrs. Louis Schade and 0. S. Baker entered their appearance for the prisoner, who, being called upon to plead, interposed the following pleas: PLEAS INTERPOSED. That he was protected from punishment because he was included in the convention entered into, on April 26, 1865, between Major-Gen- eral William T. Sherman and General Joseph E. Johnston, on the surrender of the latter. Also, because he was at Andersonville, Georgia, when arrested, in the full enjoyment of his liberty, and that he was promised, upon giving such information as might be required of him concerning said prison, that "he should have safe conduct going FACTS AND RESULTS OF TRIAL. 37 and returning to his home, and should not be arrested as a prisoner. ' ' Also, that the military commission was without jurisdiction to try him. Also, that he was once in jeopardy and pleaded not guilty, and the commission was without authority to again arraign and put him upon his trial. Also, that the charges and specifications do not charge any offence punishable under the laws of war. These pleas presented questions going to the legality of the pro- ceedings and to the jurisdiction of the court, and as they have been put forward at this late day as showing that Wirz was "judicially murdered," i. e. that he paid the penalty of his life by reason of a trial unknown to the laws of war, and in violation of all law, it becomes important to set forth the argument which was addressed to the court after which the pleas were overruled. ARGUMENT ON SPECIAL PLEAS. The Judge Advocate said that he did not consider it necessary to discuss the motion to quash the charges and specifications, on the ground of insuffi- ciency and indefiniteness. That question had already been decided by the court, at one stage of its proceedings. The court would, no doubt, be able to determine, by an examination of the charges and specifications, whether they were sufficiently definite to meet the requirements of the law. The next question was that raised by the plea setting out the fact that a court, consisting of the same members as this, has already taken cognizance of this case, had had the prisoner arraigned before them upon charges similar to those now preferred, and that the prisoner had pleaded "not guilty." It is alleged by the counsel that, by that proceeding, the prisoner has once, accord- ing to the contemplation of the Constitution, been put in jeopardy for the offences charged, and that, therefore, this court cannot proceed to try the prisoner. In answer to this objection, the judge advocate said he did not deem it necessary to do more than read the following official opinion, given by the chief of the Bureau of Military Justice, the expounder, so far as the army is concerned, of all questions relating to military law: Judge Advocate General's Office, October 23, 1864. Major: Your letter of the 17th instant has been received. In reply, I have to state that a party who has been arraigned before a court-martial on charges and specifications to which he has pleaded, should not, in the sense of the eighty-seventh article of war, be regarded as having been tried upon them, unless the government had pursued the case to a formal acquittal or con- viction. Under the constitutional provision which declares that no person "shall be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb," it has been held that "the jeopardy spoken of can be interpreted to- mean nothing short of the acquittal or conviction of the prisoner, and the judgment of the court thereon." (4 Wash. C. C. R., 409.) To the same effect are the opinions of McLean, J., in United States vs. Shoemaker, 2 McLean R., 38 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. 114, and of Story, J., in United States vs. Perez, 9 Wheaton, 579. The courts of Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Kentucky and Mississippi fully sustain this view. If anything less than a formal acquittal or conviction cannot he treated as having even put the party "in jeopardy," a -fortiori, it cannot be held as amounting, within the meaning of the eighty-seventh article of war, to a "trial." A withdrawal of any charge may be made by the judge advocate, with the assent of the court; and upon such charge, if the interests of public justice re- quire it, the party may be again arraigned. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. Holt, Major J. M. Willett, Judge Advocate General. Judge Advocate. The Judge Advocate remarked that under this decision the question raised might be considered as res adjudieata. He then continued his argument as follows : Laying aside for the present the discussion of the plea to the jurisdiction, 1 which may be properly taken up at any time during the trial, there seem to be but two questions seriously urged by counsel for the present consideration of the court. These are: First. Shall this court dismiss the case at bar because Captain Noyes, a staff officer of Brevet Major-General Wilson, violated, as is alleged, a promise made to this prisoner to grant him safe conduct to General Wilson's headquarters and back again to his home? And second, admitting that the prisoner com- plied with the terms exacted of rebel soldiers and officers by the Sherman and Johnston convention, does the agreement made by those generals absolve this prisoner from responsibility for offences and crimes committed in violation of the laws of war? Supposing the promise and the circumstances under which it was given to be such as alleged by counsel, of which we as yet have no proof, the first point raised by the counsel seems to me to present simply a violation of compact or contract entered into between the prisoner and a staff officer of General Wilson, with which this court can have nothing to do. If a promise made by that officer to grant the prisoner a safe conduct to and from any point has been violated, his remedy is upon General Wilson; and the circumstance ought not to be pleaded before this court in excuse of crimes previously committed by him. If General Wilson sent for the prisoner for any purpose whatever, prom- ising him a safe return, and afterwards discovered that he was guilty of hav- ing committed most atrocious crimes, he was fully justified in revoking the safeguard by himself given, and taking immediate steps to bring the criminal to justice. A general always has the right to rescind his own order; and I think General Wilson" would have found it difficult to answer to his superior officers if he had released from arrest, and allowed to return to his home, so great a criminal as the prisoner at the bar stands charged with being, rather than violate the promise set out in the plea. General Wilson had no power (and it is not alleged that he had) to absolve the prisoner from the responsi- „ bility attaching to his crime. 1 The question of jurisdiction will be found fully argued, Record, p. 723 ; in this book, chap. XIV; also the law and facts discussed under the conspiracy charge. FACTS AND RESULTS OF TRIAL. 39 The books tell us of four special pleas in bar, which are good, if proved. These are former acquittal, former conviction, attainder, and pardon. Attain- ■ der, however, is, I believe, not known to the practice in this country. ; But I nowhere find that a special plea in bar is good when it simply alleges the viola- tion of a promise by one who is not pretended to have possessed power to do more than offer a safeguard, and which he was at any time at liberty to revoke. I suppose the gentlemen will not insist jthat a promise of safe conduct works a general pardon or condonement of all . past crimes. It sometimes happens that criminals turning "State's evidence," as* it is called, are, by a sort of implied pledge made to them by the government, allowed to go unpun- ished, though, even in a case of this character, the government may, at its dis- cretion, violate its pledge. But the plea involving the point now under discus- sion has not for its basis even an implied pledge of the government. It simply presents a case analogous to one where a police officer, arresting a criminal, says to him, "Come with me to the magistrate's office, and I will see that you are not injured"; the magistrate, upon an investigation, discovers the crime, and, as in duty bound, pays no regard whatever to the promise of the police officer, but at once takes steps for the proper trial and punishment of the offender. In such a case, would any court entertain seriously a plea that the prisoner should be discharged without trial because of the promise made to him by the officer who, in the first instance, made the arrest? It is not alleged that Captain Noyes acted upon instructions given him by the President of the United States, nor is it shown that he acted upon Instructions even of General Wilson; but assuming the latter to be true, the case is similar to the illustration just given. I insist, therefore, that the plea is not good and should be overruled. The second point and objection made by the counsel seems to present a ques- tion of more difficulty, yet, so far as the rights of this prisoner are concerned, it is quite as easily disposed of. The court must bear in mind that this plea, which is in the nature of a plea in bar, must contain one of the three elements already referred to. Former acquittal is not assumed, nor former conviction. There remains, then, only the plea based upon pardon, and I suppose it is under this head that the counsel hope, if at all, to secure a lodgment for their plea. If members will turn to Archibold's Criminal Pleading, page 87, they will discover that a plea in bar of this class must set out in terms the pardon granted, which the plea here filed does not pretend to do; and on page 357, Wharton's Criminal Law, it will be found that the pardon must correctly recite the offence, and a misrecital will render it inoperative. The plea, therefore, is bad. But I suppose counsel will insist that the agreement entered into between General Sherman and General Johnston may be construed to be in the nature of a general amnesty or pardon. It is not necessary for this court to deter- mine the precise legal interpretation of the agreement cited. It will be quite enough if the court satisfy itself that that agreement does not affect its right to hold the prisoner at bar to answer for the crimes alleged. It is very certain from the action of the government contemporary with that agreement, and from the subsequent action of the chief executive, and the opinion of the attorney-general, officially expressed, that neither a treaty of peace, nor a 40 THE TKAGEDY OF ANDEKSONVILLE. general amnesty or pardon, nor a universal absolution of crimes committed by rebels during war, entered into the terms of the capitulation required by General Grant of General Lee, and later, by General Sherman of General Johnston. It will be remembered that in the first convention between Gen- erals Sherman and Johnston, a certain plan of settlement was agreed upon by them and forwarded to the president for his approval, and upon this plan General Sherman proposed to declare peace from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.' It will be remembered, too, with what promptness the government disapproved the plan; and one of the chief objections was that the terms worked a general amnesty or pardon, and made the punishment of treason and treasonable offences impossible. One of the reasons assigned for the dis- approval of that convention was in these words: "It practically abolishes" the confiscation laws and relieves rebels of every degree, who have slaughtered our people, from all pains and penalties for their crimes." No language could more clearly show that the government had no intention to grant an implied pardon for such offences as those charged against this prisoner. It will be remembered, too, that later, and since the war in the field prac- tically ended, the chief executive has issued his amnesty proclamation, every paragraph of which demonstrates that he does not regard the agree- ment made by Generals Grant and Lee and by Generals Sherman and John- ston, as working the pardon of any person coming within the terms of the agreement; and as the result of the president's interpretation, we know that the executive mansion is daily foeseiged from morning till night with appli- cants for pardon, embracing all ranks and grades of society, the enlisted soldier and the major-general of the late rebel army, as well as the private citizen. It will be recollected, also, that a United States judge for the district of Virginia has, since the date of the agreement set out in the plea, charged the grand jury that it was their right and duty, notwithstanding that agree- ment, to inquire into the offence of treason committed by any person who had been engaged in rebellion against the United States government. It may be mentioned, also, that in a recent proceeding before the criminal court of this district, the attorney-general of the United States pronounced his official opinion that the Rebellion is still existing. With these very clear in- dications of the view taken by the government, I submit that this court should proceed with the trial of the prisoner, overruling the plea. Let me, however, illustrate the great danger there would be in giving to the agreement cited the latitude of construction insisted upon by counsel. Sup- pose that a private soldier of General Johnston's army had been the chief actor in the conspiracy which resulted in the assassination of the late Presi- dent, (and I believe that one of the conspirators was shown to have been a rebel soldier,) and that having accomplished his purpose — having deprived the nation of its leader, and the army of its commander-in-chief — he had escaped, and returned, as he might have done, to General Johnston's army in time to be included in the terms of surrender; is it to be supposed that the terms of that capitulation would exempt the assassin from apprehension and trial for his atrocious crime? With just as little reason does the prisoner now before this court claim exemption from trial on the charges here pre- FACTS AND RESULTS OF TRIAL. 41 ferred. He is charged with having engaged in wholesale murder, by starva- tion and other inhuman treatment, such as will shock the moral sensibilities of the civilized world — crimes of which neither General Sherman nor the president, at the time of the agreement cited, could have had any knowledge, and which could not therefore have been condoned by that agreement. And is it now to be said, when these atrocities have been fully brought to light since the date of the agreement, that the perpetrator of them is to be dis- charged from custody, and allowed to take his place again in society, with the right to demand the protection of the laws of the country? The proposition is too monstrous for serious consideration. The most that could, with any plausibility, be claimed is that all acts of war committed by this prisoner as a belligerent and coming within the usages of civilized warfare may be considered as pardoned, but it cannot be admitted for one moment that anything short of a special pardon by the president of the United States, setting forth precisely the offences pardoned, can give exemption from trial for acts in violation of the laws and customs of civilized warfare, especially when they involve crimes so enormous and atrocious as those charged upon the prisoner here arraigned. Mr. Baker said, that, in the first place, the court must consider the fact that the prisoner was until recently an humble servant of the so-called "southern confederacy"; and it was in that capacity that he had charge of the Union prisoners. It must be considered also that the prisoner is before the court not as a con- victed criminal, but simply as a person charged with crime. It is not to be assumed that he is guilty of the atrocious acts cited by the judge advocate — acts which may never be proved, and which, in the opinion of counsel, would never be proved. The prisoner had been simply one of the instruments of an atrocious rebel- lion; and would any member of the court maintain that any lieutenant, or colonel, or major-general in the United States service should be held account- able for every murder in violation of the laws of war, committed in his command (unknown perhaps to him), during the last four years? Counsel was ready to admit that if the prisoner were guilty of one-half the crimes charged upon him, he should suffer at the hands of a proper tribunal the penalty of the law. The prisoner, if counsel had been correctly informed, had been invited to come within the Union lines, under a promise that he should have a safe con- duct going and returning. His arrest, under such circumstances, was a viola- tion of good faith and of the laws and usages of civilized war. The judge advocate had said that a commanding general had the right to revoke or set aside his own orders at any time; but would this court consider that a major- general in the service of the United States would be deserving of his stars, if he should entice within his lines an humble servant of the so-called "con- federacy," under a promise that he should be allowed to return safely, and should then, in violation of that promise, hold him as a prisoner and try him for murder? Surely the position of the judge advocate could not be sustained by any authorities which would be recognized by this court; therefore this prisoner is now held wrongfully. 42 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. As to the judge advocate's illustration of a criminal committed by a magis- trate, in violation of a promise, the case was not analogous to the one here presented, because, in the first place, a magistrate would have no authority to make such a promise, and, in the second place, he would have no right to discharge a criminal brought before him. But a commanding general, under the circumstances cited in the plea, would have the right to make a promise of the kind described, and when made, it would be his right and his duty to keep it. As to the plea alleging the unconstitutionality of the present proceeding, on the ground that the prisoner has already been once arraigned and has pleaded, counsel did not deem it necessary to consume time in discussion of that question. Nor would he prolong the argument on the motion to quash the charges and specifications, as he had had no time to examine them critically. He would leave the decision of the question to the discretion of the court. The court was cleared for deliberation; and when the doors were reopened, the decision of the court was announced, sustaining the motion of the judge advocate. The prisoner then pleaded not guilty to each of the several charges and specifications. The following rules, adopted by the commission for the govern- ment of its proceedings, were read : I. The commission will hold its sessions in the following hours: Convene at 10 a. m., sit till 1 p. m., and then take a recess of one hour. Resume business at 2 p. m. II. The prisoner will be allowed counsel, who shall file evidence of having taken the oath prescribed by act of Congress, or shall take said oath before being admitted to appear in the case. III. The examination of witnesses shall be conducted, on the part of the government, by one judge advocate, and by one counsel on the part of the prisoner. IV. The testimony shall be taken in shorthand by reporters, who shall first take an oath to record the evidence faithfully and truly, and not to communi- cate the same, or any part thereof, or any proceedings on the trial, except by authority of the presiding officer. V. The argument of any motion will, unless otherwise ordered by the court, be limited to five minutes, by one judge advocate, and one counsel on behalf of the prisoner. Objections to the testimony will be noted on the record and decided upon argument, limited as above, on motion. When the testimony is closed, the case will be summed up by one counsel for the defence, and the argument shall be closed by the judge advocate. VI. The lieutenant in charge of the guard will have the prisoner in attend- ance during the trial, and be responsible for his security. Counsel may have access to him in the presence but not in the hearing of the guard. The Picture of the Wirz Monument, the Two Pictures of Captain Wirz and the Picture of Jefferson Davis at the Bottom of the Group Were Taken from the "Confederate Veteran," Published at Nashville, Tenn. 44 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDEBSONVILLE. VII. The counsel for the prisoner will immediately furnish the judge advo- cate with a list of the witnesses required for the defence, whose attendance will be procured in the usual manner. As we have seen, it was claimed at the trial that Wirz was arrested and tried in violation of his parole, and this alleged fact, too, is made the subject of one of the tablets on the Wirz monument. His counsel submitted no evidence in support of his plea. The Judge Advocate, unwilling to allow so grave a matter to pass without a record of the facts being made, submitted the proofs which here follow : TESTIMONY OF MAEK D. EOBINSON. Am employed as a clerk to this commission. The first time I met Captain Wirz was last Sunday, at the Old Capitol Prison. [A letter, dated Andersonville, Georgia, May 7, 1865, signed "Hy. Wirz, captain C. S. A.," was here handed to witness.] I have seen that document. I showed it to him at that interview and asked him if that was the letter which he had written to General Wilson, or a copy. He said that it was the letter which he had sent; and he went on to explain that he wrote a letter and had it copied; that that was the copy, and that he sent it instead of sending the original. He said that was the letter that was sent at his direction. The prisoner did not read all of the letter; he sketched over it pretty carefully. I requested him three times to read it, so as to be sure. [The judge advocate offered the letter in evidence. Counsel for the accused objected to its reception, on the ground that the original document must be produced or its absence satisfactorily accounted for, and that the evidence showed this letter to be a copy. The court overruled the objection. The following letter was then read and put in evidence ; ] i Andersonville, Ga., May 7, 1865. General: It is with great reluctance that I address you these lines, being fully aware how little time is left you to attend to such matters as I now have the honor to lay before you, and if I could see any other way to accomplish my object I would not intrude upon you. I am a native of Switzerland, and was before the war a citizen of Louisiana, and by profession a physician. Like hundreds and thousands of others, I was carried away by the maelstrom of excitement and joined the southern army. I was very seriously wounded at the battle of "Seven Pines," near Richmond, Virginia, and have nearly lost the use of my right arm. Unfit for field duty, I was ordered to report to Brevet Major-General John H. Winder, in charge of federal prisoners of war, who ordered me to take charge of a prison in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. My health failing me, I applied for a furlough and went to Europe, from whence I re- turned in February, 1864. I was then ordered to report to the commandant of the military prison at Andersonville, Georgia, who assigned me to the com- mand of the interior of the prison. The duties I had to perform were ardu- ous and unpleasant, and I am satisfied that no man can or will justly blame me for things that happened here, and which were beyond my power to con- trol. I do not think that I ought to be held responsible for the shortness of rations, for the overcrowded state of the prison, (which was of itself a prolific 1 Record, p. 17 et seq. FACTS AND RESULTS OF TRIAL. 4S source of fearful mortality,) for the inadequate supplies of clothing, want of shelter, &c, &c. Still I now bear the odium, and men who were prisoners have seemed disposed to wreak their vengeance upon me for what they have suffered — I, who was only the medium, or, I may better say, the tool in the hands of my superiors. This is my condition. I am a man with a family. I lost all my property when the Federal army besieged Vicksburg. I have no money at present to go to any place, and, even if I had, I know of no place where I can go. My life is in danger, and I most respectfully ask of you help and relief. If you will be so generous as to give me some sort of a safe con- duct, or, what I should greatly prefer, a guard to protect myself and family against violence, I should be thankful to you; and you may rest assured that your protection will not be given to one who is unworthy of it. My intention is to return with my family to Europe, as soon as I can make the arrange- ments. In the mean time I have the honor, general, to remain, very respect- fully, your obedient servant, Hy. Wiez, Captain C. S. A. Major-General J. H. Wilsow, U. S. A., Commanding Macon, Georgia. Cross-examined by counsel: The prisoner was in the Old Capitol Prison when I had this conversation with him. I was sent there to serve on him a copy of the charges and specifi- cations last Sunday afternoon. I took the letter there to ascertain if it was a copy of the original. The judge advocate gave it to me. The prisoner did not read all of the letter; he just sketched over it very carefully. By that I mean he would read a few lines, and then skip a few lines. I supposed he was read- ing it; he looked at it, but did not read it aloud. I cannot swear positively that he did anything more than simply look at it; but to the best of my knowledge I think he read parts of it. TESTIMONY OF CAPTAIN HENBY E. NOYES. Am captain, United States cavalry, aide-de-camp to Major-General Wilson. [The letter of Wirz to General Wilson was here handed to the witness.] I have seen it before at the headquarters of General Wilson. It did not come to those headquarters in regular course of mail. An officer was sent from headquarters to Andersonville, and he brought back this paper, which was found among the papers of Captain WIrz's office. This is the signature of General Wilson on the indorsement. The Judge Advocate stated that he had recalled the witness for the pur- pose of examining him as to a matter set out in a plea filed by the counsel who first appeared for the defence, and reiterated by the counsel who now represented the accused: that was the allegation that the government had pledged its faith to the prisoner that he should not be prosecuted nor injured if he would go to Macon, to General Wilson's headquarters. He (the judge advocate) wished to explode that idea now, and that was his only purpose in calling the witness. The Witness. I was on duty at Macon from the 20th of April, 1865, till about the 20th of May, when I came to Washington with Captain Wirz and the records of the Andersonville Prison. I returned to Macon, arriving there in July, and I have come back here in answer to a subpoena. About the first or second of May, 1865, I was ordered by General Wilson to Alabama to take the news of the repudiation of the Sherman armistice to 46 THE TKAGEDY OP ANDEKSONVILLE. our forces in Alabama, the nearest command being that of General Grierson, at Eufaula.' On my way there I passed through Andersonville, where the train, a special one, stopped to wood and water. I got out of the train there and walked around. I noticed a crowd collected, and saw a number of our men who had been prisoners there, very sick. They were evidently preparing to go to Macon, where General Wilson had ordered all the sick to be brought. I saw a number of officers and soldiers in confederate uniform, some of them appearing to have authority. Two or three of them had pieces of paper which they were presenting to the sick men to sign. That first attracted my attention casually. Finally I got upon the train, and, as it was about to start, I heard a remark that attracted my attention. It was to this effect: "Hurry up and sign these paroles, or you'll die here anyhow." I looked out of the window and saw Captain Wirz. I could not swear that he made the remark which I heard, but I have heard his voice since, and I think it was his voice. As neither Captain Wirz nor anybody at Andersonville could have known that the armistice was repudiated, and as it was evident that they were paroling our sick men, I was on the point of getting out of the cars to remonstrate on the subject, when the whistle blew and the train started eft. The sick men there were mostly so sick that they had to have men supporting them on each side. Very few of them, if any, could write their names, but simply touched the pen as the paper was presented to them. When I got back to Macon, I reported to General Wilson what I had seen, who told me I must go there again and arrest Captain Wirz. I left that day or the next, about the 6th of May, and took a party of men with me. As I had to stay over night, and as there were no accommodations at Anderson- ville, I went on to Americus, about ten miles beyond, where I remained over night, coming back to Andersonville on a freight train next morning. There I accomplished my mission, that is, I arrested Captain Wirz, and gathered together all the records which I thought important, excepting the hospital records. These I did not take because Dr. Roy said they were not yet complete, and that if I would send him down some clerks he would see that they were completed. This I agreed to do. The immediate circumstances of Captain Wirz's arrest were these: I went to his house and saw him there; the family were about him, that is, his wife and two daughters. It is a very hard thing to take a man from his family, and particularly so in that case, as Mrs. Wirz and one of the daughters at least were crying and having considerable trouble. To pacify them and to do the thing as quietly as I could, I told Mrs. Wirz, and also told the captain, that they need not distress themselves at all; that on his arrival at Macon, if General Wilson was satisfied that he had done no more than his duty, and had simply acted in accordance with his orders, he would probably be released. That was the sum and substance of the conversation. General Wilson did not direct me to make any promise to the prisoner, or to give him any safe conduct, and I do not consider that I did. He was conveyed to Macon under guard, and remained there under guard; he was not on parole at all. I have no doubt that my conversation might L This is the Sherman-Johnston convention referred to in the prisoner's plea. FACTS AND KESULTS OF TRIAL. 47 have been construed, by those who were very anxious that it should be so, into a promise that he would be returned, but I had no doubt in my mind that General Wilson would hold him as a prisoner. I intended to convey to him no promise of safe return, but merely intended to pacify his family and himself; he was very much excited. These are all the circumstances which I remember, particularly connected with the arrest. He remained under our headquarter guard until about the 20th of May, when I was ordered to convey him to Washington, with all the Andersonville records, including the hospital records, which General Wilson had sent an officer for, and the flags which General Wilson had captured in his campaign through Alabama and Georgia. I had trouble all the way till we came north of the Ohio River, on account of our men who had been at Andersonville recognizing the prisoner. I have read in the newspapers that I endangered my life to protect him. There is a misconception on that point, but I do not think the prisoner could have got here alive if there had not been an officer in charge of the party. At Chattanooga, where I was stopping temporarily, I sent him to the post prison to be taken care of, as I knew that outside of that he would collect a great crowd. He had on good, fair-looking con- federate clothes, and a hat, and was pretty decently dressed generally. When I saw him again I hardly knew him; all his clothes were stripped off him, lie had only a part of his hat, no eoat, a very dirty shirt, a portion of a pair of pants pretty badly torn, and shoes. Whenever I got him where there were any of our soldiers I had to hurry him off and get him under a strong guard in order to save him. I had trouble in getting Mm on board the boat at Nashville. I think that but for the guard I had, and my personal pres- ence, they would have taken hold of him there, and if they had got hold of him I do not suppose he would ever have reached Washington. He was afterwards disguised. At Louisville he still had his extremely dilapidated appearance, which, if there was nothing else, would have attracted attention. He said that he had some friends there. Between those friends and myself we succeeded in getting a complete suit of black and a beaver hat. He also had his face shaved clean, which entirely altered his appearance, so much so that we were not troubled at all after that. I do not think he was recognized after that, although a good many soldiers must have seen him, particularly at Cincinnati. TESTIMONY OF MAJOR GENERAL J. H. WILSON. 1 The circumstances connected with the arrest of the prisoner were simply these: On arriving at Macon, as a matter of course, inquiry was at once made as to the condition of the Andersonville Prison, and who were responsi- ble for its condition. I sent officers down there to investigate the matter, and among others Lieutenant Rendelbrook, Fourth United States Cavalry, and one of my staff officers, Captain Noyes, now Major Noyes. They made a trip there and returned, reporting to me that the man Wirz who had been in charge of the prison was still there. I immediately ordered Noyes to return 1 Record, p. 269 et seq. 48 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. to the prison, arrest him, and bring him to Macon. He brought him to Macon, and I do not know how long he was kept there; several days, how- ever. The first party who went to Andersonville brought hack the paper — whether sent by Wirz or not I do not know — which has been produced in court; a letter addressed to me asking protection, among other things, on which I made an indorsement recommending the trial of Wirz. Afterwards when he was brought forward himself I simply remanded him to prison and wrote a letter to the secretary of war, requesting that he might be brought to trial, in order that the matter might be thoroughly investigated. No pro- tection was ever guaranteed to him by me. I ordered his arrest for the purpose of bringing him to trial, and for no other purpose, and with the special intention that he should not have the benefit of the amnesty or armistice between Sherman and Johnston, so far as I could prevent it. [A paper was here handed to witness.] That is the letter to which I refer. That is my signature to the indorsement. The statement of the escaped prisoner referred to in the indorsement is the statement of, I think, three or four men whom I requested to make statements to accompany this paper, with the expectation that an investigation would be made. Before sending for Captain Wirz I had no information that he wanted my protection, except that document which came up with the first party. I had received it before I sent for him; that is my impression; I cannot positively say in reference to it, however. I sent Captain Noyes, now Major Noyes, and Lieutenant Rendelbrook for him. Captain Noyes reported to me his presence at Andersonville, and the fact that he was generally believed to be responsible for what had been done there. When I sent those parties I had no thought or knowledge that Captain Wirz was there. I had not supposed that any man who was responsible for so much would have stayed. I may have heard there was such a man as Wirz and that he had command of the prison, but I did not think of it then. My object in sending the first time was to in- vestigate matters connected with the Andersonville Prison, and the atrocities alleged to have been perpetrated there. As a matter of course if Captain Wirz, or anybody else, was there, they were one of the principal objects aimed at, though not specified in my orders to the officers or in my own mind. I cannot remember what they reported to me about Captain Wirz when they returned, more than that he was there, and that sick and wounded soldiers, of whom there were some two hundred, and some of whom had been brought up, had sworn that he was the author of their condition and their misery. He was living there; I do not know if it was in a house. There were Union prisoners there. There were some two hundred and fifty shadows of soldiers, men who could not possibly have been moved without endangering their lives. A great many of those men died after they were brought to my hospitals. My impression is that the letter was brought by Lieutenant Rendelbrook; it was brought by the party who went down. The letter, together with the representations of the officers that he was there, and that they believed he was the responsible party, first called my attention to Captain Wirz. I think the officers went back very soon afterwards. I know that I issued orders immediately for his arrest — verbal instructions to Cap- tain Noyes. FACTS AND RESULTS OF TRIAL. 49 Captain Noyes when he returned to me made no report more than that he had brought the man and had him confined under guard. Captain Noyes spoke of the family crying and expressing great fear that he was going to be hanged or made away with. He brought the books and papers upon the' first trip; that is my impression. Those books and papers were sent by Captain Noyes, at the time the prisoner was transmitted, to the Adjutant General of the United States army at Washington. He brought me, I think, a receipt for the books and papers. I did not give, or cause to be given, to the prisoner any assurances as an in- ducement for him to deliver himself up. Nor was any such assurance authorized. The officer whom I sent being an officer of discretion and prompt obedience, I don't think he ever intended to give the prisoner any assurances of any kind, except that he should not be hurt just upon the ground at the time. He probably gave him some assurance of that kind, that he should not be killed or handled roughly, so as to quiet his family. That is my interpretation of the whole matter. I know that Captain Noyes had no jurisdiction to give any other sort of assurance of protection. His simple object in going there was to arrest Wirz, and we had special instruc- tions to parole no person in Georgia, and to give no protection to any one except from the military authority. There were no prisoners paroled in Georgia except upon that condition. When I had Captain Wirz brought to my headquarters I did not" offer him any safe conduct of any kind in return- ing, except that the guard were instructed to protect him and deliver him safely into such hands as the secretary of war might direct. My officers reported to me that they risked their own lives in protecting him. At Chattanooga he was attacked by the troops, and but for the personal inter- position of Captain Noyes he would have been disposed of. Captain Noyes disguised him in some way or another and managed to get him through. Congress, on March 9, 1906 (Stat. L, 56), passed a law authorizing the secretary of war to ascertain the location and condition of all the graves of soldiers of the Confederate army and navy, who died in Federal prisons and military hospitals in the North and were buried near their place of confinement, with power to acquire and control the ground. The judge advocate-general of the army, on January 29, 1910, made a report on the status of Captain "Wirz : That he did not form a part of any of the Confederate armies that surrendered at different times between April 9 and 26, 1865, as his command was exercised under the direct control and supervision of a bureau of the Confed- erate war department at Richmond. For that reason he was not included in the armistice agreed upon between the commanding generals of the Union and Confederate forces at Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 26, 1865. As the prison at Andersonville was not an integral part of General Johnston's command, it was the opinion 50 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDEBSONVILLE. of the judge advocate-general, that Captain Wirz was not included within the operation of the clause of that agreement requiring each officer and man to give his individual obligation in writing not to take up arms against the government. As Captain Wirz did not die in a prison camp or hospital and never occupied the status of a prisoner of war, but was executed in pursuance of the approved sentence of a military commission, upon conviction of offenses in violation of the laws of war, and as his remains were given decent burial, the opinion held that his ease is not within the operation of the statute of March 9, 1906. It further appears, that his body was interred by the side of Atze- rodt x in the arsenal grounds of Washington City ; that his remains were subsequently removed, under cimcumstances not known to the de- partment, to the Olivet Cemetery, 2 where they now rest, the grave being marked by a small marble block inscribed with the name Wirz on the upper face. 1 One of President Lincoln's assassins. 2 Near Washington City. CHAPTER IV. Location of Andebsonville Prison — Description of the Prison Pen — Wirz Assigned to Its Command — Early Cpndition of the Prisoners Deplorable — Official Eeports of Rebel Officers. TO give an adequate description of the prison pen and the suffer- ings of the unhappy inmates during the fatal summer of 1864 would be impossible. The evidence to which the reader's attention will first be directed will, in large degree, be taken from the reports and testimony of those least likely to exaggerate, — namely, those in the service of the Confederacy. The issues were clearly drawn by Mr. Davis, and have been reopened and reasserted by the inscriptions placed on the Wirz monument, that the sufferings of Union prisoners at Andersonville were not unusual, nor, such as they were, were they pre- ventable, and that no criminal liability attached to any one for the management of the prison. It may be confidently asserted that the case of the prosecution will find ample support of the general charges of conspiracy, in the evidence solely furnished by those who were in the rebel service. The testimony of the surviving prisoners in their de- scription of the horrors through which they passed will be found to be confirmed and corroborated by those who either purposely or unavoid- ably were compelled by the fate of war to become witnesses to, or were participators in, the crime unfolded at the trial. The stockade at Andersonville was originally built in the winter of 1863-4, and was first occupied by prisoners in the latter part of Feb- ruary, 1864. It was intended to have a capacity for 10,000 prisoners and contained about eighteen acres. It continued without enlargement until June 18, 1864, when it contained 22,000 prisoners. It was then increased about one-third, its actual inner area being about twenty-four acres. The following description of the prison pen is given by Dr. Joseph Jones, an ex-surgeon of the rebel army, and to whom Mr. Davis refers in his Belford articles as eminent in his profession and of great learning and probity. He made an official report to Surgeon-General Moore, which was produced in evidence and identified by Dr. Jones 52 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. himself, who was a witness. This report will follow in a subsequent chapter, as furnishing indubitable proof of conditions at Andersonville. He thus described the enclosure: The stockade was in the form of a parallelogram 20 feet high, formed of strong pine logs firmly planted in the ground, with two small stockades surrounding the prison — one sixteen, the other twelve, feet high, these latter being intended for offense and defense. If the inner stockade should at any time be forced by the prisoners, ' the second proved another line of defense, while in case of an attempt to deliver the prisoners by a force operating upon the exterior, the outer line forms an admirable protection to the Confederate troops, and a most formidable obstacle to cavalry or infantry. Earthworks on eminences surmounted by cannon swept the entire enclosure.! Colonel D. T. Chandler, to whom reference has already been made, in his report, which will also be given, further described the interior : 2 A railing around the inside of the stockade about twenty feet from it con- stitutes the dead-line, beyond which prisoners are not allowed to pass. A small stream passes from west to east through the enclosure and furnishes the only water for washing accessible to the prisoners. Bordering this stream, about three and one-quarter acres near the center of the enclosure are so marshy as to be at present [August, 1864] unfit for occupation, reducing the available area to about twenty-three and one-half acres, which gives somewhat less than six square feet to each prisoner, there being scarcely room enough for all the prisoners to lie down at the same time. The interior was entirely denuded of trees or other shelter, and no barracks or buildings of any kind placed inside. It was simply a large human corral into which prisoners were turned like so many cattle, and, as we shall see, without the care or attention ordinarily given to domes- tic animals. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander W. Persons, 55th Georgia Volunteers, was assigned to command the troops at Andersonville Prison some time in February, 1864, and remained until some time in May. His testi- mony relates to the inception of the prison, bears upon its origin and early conditions, and approximates the date of Wirz's command there. TESTIMONY OP LT.-COL. ALEXANDER W. PERSONS. 3 I have been employed for the last four or five years in the Confederate States army. I was lieutenant-colonel of the 55th Georgia Volunteers. I was on duty at Andersonville from some time in February, 1864, till about the last of May, 1864. I was sent there to command the troops. Subsequently I was advanced 1 Record, p. 620. 2 Record, p. 224. 3 Record, p, 99 et seq. THE PE1S0N PEN AND ITS COMMANDEE. 53 to the command of the post and remained in the character of post commander until I was relieved — which was some time in May or June. Directly after my command was captured at Cumberland Gap, I went to Richmond and reported directly to the secretary of war for duty. He gave me instructions to report to Gen- eral Winder. General Winder instructed me to report at Andersonville. He stated that at that post there were three separate and distinct departments ; one was known as the officer commanding the troops, another as the officer commanding the prison, the other as the officer commanding the post. He assigned me to duty as the officer commanding the troops. I think there was no prison officer there when I first went there. The first prison commander proper was Captain Wirz. He assumed control of the prison the latter part of February or some time in March, 1864. He came direct from Richmond, my understanding was, by order of General Winder. I saw an official order to that effect. I received a communication about the time Captain Wirz reached there; whether he brought the communication or not, I do not know; I received it by hand about the time he came. That communication was from General Winder. The letter merely stated that Captain Wirz was an old prison officer, a, very reliable man and capable of governing prisons, (that is about the substance of it,) and it wound up by saying that I could give him command of the prison proper. I don't recollect the date; it was the last of February, I think, or about the 1st of March — not later than the middle of March. I don't remember who was the ranking officer in charge of the guards and sentinels on duty at that time; he was perhaps a captain of my regiment. The control of the prison and prison- guards was assumed by Captain Wirz pretty soon after he reported. Captain Wirz had control of the sentinels after they were put on duty — after guard-mounting. Under the instructions I had, a requisition was made upon me for troops to guard the prison. I was under instructions to make an order or requisition upon the officer commanding the troops for the number required by the officer commanding the prison. They were then immediately detailed; guard-mounting was gone through with and they were ordered to the prison, where Captain Wirz, command- ing the prison, had jurisdiction and control of them. He had control of the prison, and of the guards after they passed into his hands. That continued to be the rule while I was there. The prison was laid out by Captain W. Sidney Winder, by order of General Winder. The original capacity of the prison was for ten thousand; so he told me. I reached there just before they completed the work on the prison; they had one-half of a side to finish when I reached there. I suppose they had some fifteen or twenty negroes at work there. I know the stream that passes through the stockade, above and below the stockade. About one to three miles from there there is a stream five or six times the size of the stream upon which the prison is located. It occurred to me that that would have been a preferable place to the one where the prison was located. I suggested that to W. S. Winder — I believe I recollect distinctly that it was one of the Winders — about the time I went there — about the time the prison was built. W. S. Winder told me that he had absolute discretion in the location of the prison; that he examined a great many places in southwestern Georgia. 54 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. I knew General Winder; he relieved me, I think, some time about the last of May or 1st of June. He was, as I understand, in command of all the prisoners; had control over everything. W. S. Winder was a son of General John H. Winder. I knew Richard E. Winder; he was a quartermaster at that prison. He had the duty of quartermaster, such as furnishing transportation. I think the bake- house was under him; also the furnishing of fuel; all the duties devolving upon a quartermaster fell to him. The Winders seemed to act in concert; they worked together. While there I took steps to erect shelter for the prisoners inside the stockade. When I was there, the railroad upon which the prison was located was worked to its greatest possible capacity in feeding Lee's and Johnston's armies, and it was with the greatest difficulty that I could get transportation on that road. Perhaps in ten or twenty days they would give me one train. I held constant communica- tion with the superintendent of the road, and every time I could get a train I would have that train loaded with lumber and brought through. During my stay, I had concentrated there, I suppose, about five or six train-loads of lumber. I suppose there were six, eight, or ten cars in a train. There were altogether about fifty carloads. I was in the act of erecting shelter, was just carrying the lumber, when I was relieved by General Winder. He arrived there about the same day I was relieved. 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. I suppose there were between fifteen and twenty thousand prisoners in the stockade at the time I was relieved. INJUNCTION TO RESTRAIN THE REBEL AUTHORITIES FROM CONTINUING THE PRISON. Some time in the latter part of that summer, after he was relieved from duty at Andersonville, Colonel Persons was employed to bring a bill for an injunction to abate the nuisance caused by the prison. He prepared the case for trial and was on the point of appearing before the judge of the district court, when he received a communication from General Howell Cobb, as to which he testified -, 1 I was interested in a proceeding to enjoin the rebel authorities from further continuing the prison at Andersonville. In the character of counsel, I drew a bill for an injunction to abate the nuisance. The graveyard made it a nuisance, and the military works, fortifications, etc., made it highly objectionable to the property-holders there, and the prison generally was a nuisance, from the intol- erable stench, the effluvia, the malaria that it gave up, and things of that sort. After I drew the bill, I went to see the judge of the district court; I read the bill to him, and asked him for the injunction. He simply said that he would appoint a day on which he would hear the argument in chambers. He appointed a day; I made preparations for trial, went down, or was in the act of going, when 1 Record, p. 101. THE PBISON PEN AND ITS COMMANDEE. 55 I received an official communication from General Howell Cobb, of Georgia, in which he asked me if I was going to appear. [Mr. Baker objected to witness stating the contents of the communication.] I expect I destroyed that official correspondence; I have no recollection whether I destroyed it or put it away. I have not thought of it since. General Cobb asked me if that bill was to be charged to me, the bill against my govern- ment, as he termed it. In reply to his communication, I wrote Mm that I drew the bill, and that it could be charged to me. He replied, through his adjutant- general, Major Harrit, that he deemed it inconsistent with my duty as a Con- federate officer to appear in a case like that, of a bill against the government; and he therefore ordered me out of the case, and I obeyed the order. General Cobb at that time commanded the department of Georgia and the reserve force of Georgia. I said that he ordered me out of the case. Let me be more ex- plicit on that point. He wanted to know if I drew the bill; I said that I did; I discovered by the tenor of his communication that I would be treated by court-martial, or something of that sort, and, to stave the matter off, I said to him that if he deemed what I had done in the matter unofficerlike, I would retire from the case. He said he did deem it that way, and would be glad if I would retire without being driven from it. UPON WHOM THE RESPONSIBILITY FOB OVERCROWDING THE PRISON RESTS. Of the conditions which led to the attempt to abate the nuisance, Colonel Persons testified : That camp was a nuisance to all intents and purposes. The first reason was that the dead were buried so near the surface of the ground that it gave out an intolerable stench. A swarm of green flies spread like locusts over that seetion of the country. Then the filth of the camp, arising from different causes, necessarily concentrated there. That, with divers other causes, made it a terrible nuisance. I could not have had it otherwise if I had been in command there. If I had ordered it otherwise, I do not think the order could have been carried out, for this reason: when that prison was in its very infancy, in its very inception, and when the officers were instructed not to build accommodations for more than 10,000, there were 40,000 prisoners sent there. Captain Wirz was not to be blamed for that. The authorities were responsible' for that ; I cannot say who. The great blunder on the part of the government was the concentration of so many men at one place without preparations being made to receive them. The authorities were notified of the fact, but to no advantage. I think that some of the higher officials were responsible, but who they were I cannot say. I sent notifications through General Winder that the prison was worked beyond its capacity, that it was a vast, un- wieldy thing, and to send no more prisoners; but they kept coming. After I left there, there came over 40,000; no man on earth could have abated the rigors of that prison except the man who wielded the power over them. I do not know that man. General Winder was in advance of me, and several others were in advance of him. Who was responsible I cannot say. About that time an order was issued from the office of the adjutant and inspector-general putting General Winder in command of all the prisoners east of the Mississippi, giving him absolute control 56 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. » «■♦**'-«♦» ' '•%"► f.;f..'. . «.:*> •9-1*' ^* i-V ** * 4 X = f> '*»<&#. ' [From a sketch made in August, ly.-i I PLAN OF STOCKADE AND SURROUNDINGS AT ANOERSOtWILLE Tlie outlines of the f 082 Total 34,760 1 Record, p. 147- 64 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Died during the month of August 2,993 Sent to other parts 23 Exchanged 21 Escaped 30 3,067 Remaining on hand 31,693 Of which there are on the 31st of August — In camp 29,473 In hospital 2,220 — - 31,693 The same complaint has been made again against the carelessness and insuffi- ciency of the guard of the thirty prisoners. Eleven escaped while on parole of honor not to escape as long as they would be employed to work outside. The balance of nineteen escaped, some on bribing the sentinel with greenbacks, some simply walking off from the guard while returning from the place where the tools are deposited at night that are used, in the stockade in daytime. Perhaps twenty-five more escaped during the month, but were taken up by the dogs before the daily return was made out, and for that reason they are not on the list of escaped nor recaptured. That only four were recaptured is owing to the fact that [neither] the guard nor the officers of the guard reported a man escaped. The roll-call in the morning showed the man missing, but he was too far gone to be tracked. As we have no general court-martial here, all such offenses go unpunished, or nearly so. The worthlessness of the guard forces is on the increase day by day. H. Wikz, Captain Commanding Prison. [Indorsed:] Consolidated return for Confederate States military prison for the month of August, 1864. Respectfully forwarded to General S. Cooper, adjutant and inspector- general. September 5, 1864. Jno. H. Winder, Brigadier- General. It thus appears that in August, there were 34,760 prisoners in con- finement, of whom 2,993 died. It will be remembered that Surgeon Eldridge spoke in his report, as does Captain Wirz, of dogs being used to "take up" escaped prisoners. We shall see that these animals were not used alone to track escaped prisoners, but that they were per- mitted and encouraged to attack and rend them. CHAPTER V. Condition op the Prison Continued — Sufferings of Prisoners Depicted— Eeport of Colonel D. T. Chandler — Eeport of Dr. Joseph Jones — Causes of Sickness and Death Shown — Responsibility Fixed — Confederate Authorities at Richmond Had Pull Knowledge — Colonel Chandler's Testimony — Testimony of Dr. Jones — Six Feet Square to the Man — Scarcely Room to Comfortably Lie Down — Inadequate Police Control — Prisoners Try, Condemn, and Hang Six of Their Number — Prisoners Murdered by Their Fellow-Prisoners for Their Clothing and Food — The Bodies of the Dead Mutilated — Reports by Surgeon Stevenson, Surgeon White, and Surgeon Thornburo. WHILE Captain C. M. Selph was on the witness-stand, he was called upon to identify the report of Colonel D. T. Chandler and other documents, which will now be laid before the reader. It must be conceded by any one who will read the report of Colonel D. T. Chandler that it was of supreme importance in the inquiry. Colonel Chandler was assigned to the duty of inspecting this prison and of reporting thereon. He was an officer of high standing in his department and was a graduate of West Point. It was of first import- ance also to show that this report and its enclosures reached Eichmond, and had the attention of the proper officers of the rebel government. And it was of no less importance to ascertain what action, if any, was taken upon the report. Upon these points the testimony found in the record makes it clear that the Richmond authorities had full knowl- edge of the facts. That such is beyond dispute, and that nothing was done to carry out the recommendations of Colonel Chandler or to ameliorate the sufferings at the prison by those who had ample power to act, when so strongly urged, appears indisputably throughout the record. The significance of this report from every standpoint justifies its publication with but little abbreviation. I quote from the record : x [Another paper, being a report from Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler to R. H. Chilton, was here handed to witness.] This document bears the signature of Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler, assistant adjutant and inspector-general in the same department as mine. It is marked as being received August 17, 1864. [The paper was read and put in evidence. The following is a copy.] 1 Record, p. 224 et seq. 66 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Anderson, July 5, 1864. i Colonel: Having, in obedience to instructions of the 25th ultimo, carefully inspected the prison for Federal prisoners of war and post at this place, I re- spectfully submit the following report: The Federal prisoners of war are confined within a stockade 15 feet high, of roughly hewn pine logs, about 8 inches in diameter, inserted 5 feet into the ground, enclosing, including the recent extension, an area of 540 by 260 yards. A railing around the inside of the stockade, and about 20 feet from it, constitutes the "dead- line," beyond which the prisoners are not allowed to pass, and about 3% acres near the center of the enclosure are so marshy as to be at present unfit for occupation — reducing the available present area to about 23% acres, which gives somewhat less than 6 feet square 2 to each prisoner. Even this is being constantly reduced by the additions to their number. A small stream passing from west to east through the enclosure, at about 150 yards from its southern limit, furnishes the only water for washing accessible to the prisoners. Some regiments of the guard, the bakery and cook-house, being placed on the rising grounds bordering the stream before it enters the prison, render the water nearly unfit for use before it reaches the prisoners. This is now being remedied in part by the removal of the cook-house. Under the pressure of their necessities the prisoners have dug numerous wells within the enclosure, from which they obtain an ample supply of water to drink, of good quality. Excepting the edges of this stream, the soil is sandy and easily drained, but from 30 to 50 yards on each side of it the ground is a muddy marsh, totally unfit for occupation, and having been constantly used as a sink since the prison was first established, it is now in a shocking condition and cannot fail to breed pestilence. An effort is being made by Captain Wirz, commanding the prison, to fill up the marsh and construct a sluice — the upper end to be used for bathing, etc., and the lower end as a sink, but the difficulty of procuring lumber and tools very much retards the work, and threatens soon to stop it. No shelter whatever nor material for constructing any has been provided by the prison authorities, and the ground being entirely bare of trees, none is within reach of the prisoners, nor has it been possible, from the overcrowded state of the enclosure, to arrange the camp with any system. Each man has been permitted to protect himself as best he can, stretching his blanket, or whatever he may have, above him on such sticks as he can procure, thatches of pine or whatever his ingenuity may suggest and his cleverness supply. Of other shelter there is and has been none. The whole number of prisoners is divided into messes of 270, and subdivisions of 90 men, each under a sergeant of their own number and selection, and but one Confederate States officer, Captain Wirz, is assigned to the supervision and con- trol of the whole. In consequence of this fact, 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 of the health, comfort, and sanitary condition of those within the enclosure, and none are practicable under existing circumstances. In evidence of their condition, I would cite the facts that numbers have been found murdered by their comrades, and that recently, in their desperate efforts to provide for their own safety, a court organized among themselves by authority of General Winder, commanding the post, granted on their own application, has tried a large number of their fellow-prisoners, and sentenced six to be hung, which sentence was duly executed by themselves within the stockade, with the sanction of the post commander. His order in the case has been forworded by him to the war department. There is no medical attendance provided within the stockade. Small quantities of medicines are placed in the hands of certain prisoners of each squad or division, and the sick are directed to be brought out by sergeants of squads daily, at "sick call," to the medical officers who attend at the gate. The crowd at these times is so great that only the strongest can get access to the doctors, the weaker ones b eing una ble to force their way through the press; and the hospital aceommoda- ■The true date was August 5th, as appears further along. 2 The original report reads 6 feet square, which is an evident error. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDEEATES. 67 tions are so limited that though the beds (so-called) have all or nearly all two occupants each, large numbers who would otherwise be received are necessarily sent back to the stockade. Many — twenty yesterday — are carted out daily, who have died from unknown causes and whom the medical officers have never seen. The dead are hauled out daily by the wagonload, and buried without coffins, their hands in many instances being first mutilated with an axe in the removal of any finger rings 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. The ration is Vs pound of bacon and 1% pound unbolted corn meal, with fresh beef at rare intervals, and occasionally rice. When to be obtained — very seldom — a small quantity of molasses is substituted for the meat ration. A little weak vinegar unfit for use has sometimes been issued. The arrangements for cooking and baking have been wholly inadequate, and though additions are now being completed it will still be impossible to cook for the whole number of prisoners. Raw rations have to be issued to a very large proportion who are entirely unprovided with proper utensils and furnished so limited a supply of fuel they are compelled to dig with their hands in the filthy marsh before mentioned for roots, etc. No soap or clothing has ever been issued. After inquiring, I am confident that by slight exertions, green corn and other anti-scorbutics could readily be obtained. I herewith hand two reports of Chief Surgeon White, to which I would respectfully call your attention. The present hospital arrangements were only intended for the accommodation of the sick of 10,000 men, and are totally insufficient, . both in character and extent, for the present needs; the number of prisoners being now more than three times as great, the number of cases requiring medical treatment is in an increased ratio. It is impossible to state the number of sick, many dying within the stockade, whom the medical officers never see or hear of until their remains are brought out for interment. The rate of death has been steadily increased from 37 4-10 per mil. during the month of March last to 62 7-10 per mil. in July. Of the medical officers, but ten hold commissions; nearly all of the others are detailed from the militia, and have accepted the position to avoid serving in the ranks, and will relinquish their contracts as soon as the present emergency is passed and the militia is dis- banded. But little injury would result from this, however, as they are generally very inefficient. Not residing at the post, only visiting it once a day at sick call, they bestow but little attention to those under their care. The small-pox hospital is under the charge of Dr. E. Sheppard, P. A. C. S. More than half the cases in it have terminated fatally. The management and police of the general hospital grounds seem to be as good as the limited means will allow, but there is pressing necessity for at least three times the number of tents and amount of bedding now on hand. The supply of medicines is wholly inadequate, and frequently there is none, owing to the great delays experienced in filling the requisitions. It is believed no other point in the State offers the same advantages of healthy location and facilities for safe-keeping of the prisoners, that is not more accessible to raids. Nor can I learn that any advantage can be gained by removal to any other part of the State. I am decidedly of opinion that not over 15,000 prisoners should be kept at this point, the running water not being sufficient for more than that number, and because it is impossible for one man to exercise a proper super- vision over them, and that all over that number should be sent elsewhere. At my request a survey of the grounds has been made by Colonel Harkie, Fifty-fifth Georgia Regiment, and civil engineer, with a view to drainage. His report is herewith submitted, with a recommendation that his plan be carried out by the engineer department, that being the only one authorized to impress the necessary labor. The necessity for it is urgent. I also recommend that a supply of clothing be furnished for issue to the prisoners, and that soap and anti-scorbutics be regu- larly issued to them. Attention is specially invited to the report of Chief Surgeon White, relative to the construction of barracks, and the supply of additional tents for hospital use, and I would respectfully suggest that commissioned officers of the 68 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. medical staff be sent to replace the contract physicians and doctors detailed from the militia, and that they be required to reside at the post. The transportation of the post is entirely insufficient, and authority is needed by the quartermaster to impress wagons and teams and saw-mills, when not employed by the government or railroads and Icept diligently occupied, and instructions given to the quarter- master in charge of transportation to afford every facility practicable for trans- porting lumber and supplies necessary for prisoners. Bake-pans, or sheet-iron for making them, should at once be furnished. The telegraph line should be continued from Fort Valley to Andersonville, thirty-one miles. Attention is respectfully called to the accompanying copy of an order issued by Brigadier-General Gardner, to convert all moneys belonging to prisoners, in the hands of the quartermaster at Richmond, into Confederate currency, and at the prices established by government, without consulting the wishes of the prisoners on the subject. It will be seen by the account book forwarded with this, that some of these claim considerable amounts. The injustice of compelling them to receive our currency against their consent is apparent. In conclusion I beg leave to recommend that no more prisoners be sent to this already overcrowded prison, and that at the two additional localities selected by General Winder under instructions from General Bragg — the one near Milan, Georgia, the other some point in Alabama south of Cahawba — arrangements be at once made for the excess over 15,000 at this post, and such others as may be captured. Since my inspection was made, over 1,300 prisoners have been added to the number specified in the reports herewith. With a view of relieving to some extent this point as soon as possible, I respectfully suggest that 2,000 of those who most need the change, especially the Belle Isle prisoners, be at once sent to Macon, to occupy the quarters vacated by the Federal officers, that being the greatest number that can be properly accommodated with shelter at that point. It is' absolutely necessary that the regulations for the government of the pris- oners be legibly painted on boards and exposed in conspicuous places, say by nail- ing on the sutler's shop and on the inner face of the stockade at various points. Those established by Captain Wirz, herewith submitted, are approved, with the exception of paragraph 4th, which it is recommended shall be stricken out. I am, colonel, your obedient servant, D. T. Chandler, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-General. Colonel R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-General. Colonel Chandler made a supplemental report on August 5, 1864, which went forward with the principal report. In it he commends Captain "Wirz as an efficient officer, and closes with the following recommendation as to General Winder : My duty requires me respectfully to recommend a change in the officer in command of the post, Brigadier-General J. H. Winder, and the substitution in his place of some one who unites both energy and good judgment with some feeling 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 who at least will not advocate deliberately and in cold blood the propriety of leaving them in their present condition until their number has been sufficiently reduced by death to make the present arrangement suffice for their accommodation; who will not consider it a matter of self -laudation and boasting that he has never been inside of the stockade, a place the horrors of which it is difficult to describe, and which is a disgrace to civilization ; the condi- tion of which he might, by the exercise of a little energy and judgment, even with the limited means at his command, have considerably improved. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 69 In obedience to instructions, I shall next proceed to the headquarters of the army of Tennessee, and request that any communications for me be forwarded there to the care of the chief of staff. I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, D. T. Chandlee,i Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-General. Col. R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-General, C. S. A., 'Richmond, Va. [Another paper being exhibited to witness, he identified it as another enclosure of the report previously read. It was offered in evidence. The following is a copy:] Consolidated Return for Confederate States Military Prison at Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia, for the Month of July, 1864. Prisoners on hand on 1st of July, 1864, in camp 25,005 in hospital 1,362 26,367 Prisoners received during the month from various places 7,064 recaptured 12 7,076 Total 33,443 Died during the month 1,742 Escaped 20 Sent to other posts 3 1,765 Total on hand 31,678 Of which there are in camp 29,998 Of which there are in hospital 1,680 The number escaped from stockade and not recaptured, from the 1st of April up to date, is 27 men. Average number of prisoners each day 29,030 Average number of dead each day 56% H. Wirz, Captain Commanding Prison. There was a consolidated report submitted by Wirz for the week ending July 31, 1864, which shows that 529 died in that week, 96 having died on July 31st. On that day 1,776 were reported in hos- pital and the deaths daily were 5.4 per cent. At this rate, in 18y 2 days the entire 1,776 would be in their graves. I think the reader should learn from the witness and the official papers just what became of this damning record of the tragedy being enacted at Andersonville, and what action, if any, it evoked : 2 1 Record, p. 227. 2 Record, d. 230 et sea. 70 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. Witness. When these papers were submitted to the department they were forwarded to the secretary of war with indorsement, immediately on their Teeeipt by Colonel Chilton, inspector-general. [A paper was here shown to the witness.] That is Colonel Chilton's signature; that is his indorsement made at the time. [The paper was then offered in evidence. The following is a copy:] Adjutant and Inspector-Genekal's Office, August 18, 1864. Respectfully submitted to the secretary of war. The condition of the prison at Andersonville is a reproach to us as a nation. The engineer and ordinance departments were applied to for implements, autho- rized their issue, and I so telegraphed General Winder. Colonel Chandler's recommendations are concurred in. By order of General S. Cooper : R. W. Chilton, A. A. Sr I- G. Q. This reads, "respectfully submitted to the secretary of war, etc." Was the report so submitted? A. Yes, sir. Q. In whose handwriting is the name "Mr. Wellford" on this paper (Exhibit 23)? A. It is in the handwriting of Judge Campbell, assistant secretary of war. Q. Who is Mr. Wellford? A. He was the attorney for the war department. Q. [Another paper being shown to witness.] Whose indorsement is that? A. That is the indorsement of Judge Campbell to the secretary of war. Q. [The attention of witness being directed to another part of the same paper.] Whose writing is that? A. Mr. Wellford's writing. Q. What wasTVTr. Wellford's duty? A. To examine the papers, to make an analysis of them, and submit them to the secretary of war with his opinion. [The paper was then offered in evidence. The following is a copy:] Secretary of War : These reports show a condition of things at Andersonville which calls very loudly for interposition of the department in order that a change may be made. J. A. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War. Beport of Inspection of military prison at Andersonville, Georgia — (18 enclosures.) 1 D. T. Chandler, Lieutenant-Colonel, etc. This report discloses a condition of things imperatively demanding prompt and decisive measures of relief. The discomforts and sufferings of the prisoners seem almost incredible; and the frightful percentum of mortality, steadily increasing until in the month of July it had attained the extent of 62 and 7-10 per thousand, appears to be only a necessary consequence of the criminal indifference of the authorities charged with their care and custody. No effectual remedy for all the evils seems available so long as the numbers are in such large excess over that for which the prison was designed; but some things can be ... at once to ameliorate the con . . . Colonel Chandler, whose recommend . . . are approved by Colonel Chilton, suggests the relief of General Winder and substitute . . . some other com- mander. The state . . . things disclosed in the reports cannot — 1 This indorsement is given as fully as its mutilated condition made possible. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 71 PLAN AT OF T=RISON BAKERY IDE RSONV1LLE GA. Maf of Georgia. Witness. These indorsements show the report was laid before the secretary of war. I do not know of any action taken on the report by the secretary of war. General Winder was assigned to the command of all the prisoners about two weeks afterwards, I think. He was assigned as commissary-general of prisoners. An analysis of the report was made and extracts were sent to the surgeon-general, the quartermaster-general, the commissary-general; in fact all the bureaus of the war department. I have no evidence that this report went before Jefferson Davis. I have no positive evidence at all that it ever went to Mr. Davis. Q. Did you learn from a staff officer of Jefferson Davis that this report was laid before him; and if so, in what way did you receive the intelligence? [Mr. Baker objected to the question on the ground that the charges and specifica- tions embraced no charge against Jefferson Davis. The Court, after deliberation, overruled the objection.] A. I cannot say that I did. It is mere inference that it was so laid before him, and I would hardly be authorized in stating that inference. Q. Can you recollect the language made use of by the officer referred to? Me. Baker. We object. The President. Cannot the witness state the facts on which the inference is founded? Witness. I have a very indistinct recollection of the conversation with the aide of Jefferson Davis. [Mr. Baker objected to the witness stating the facts on which his inference is founded. The Court, after deliberation, overruled the objection.] 72 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Witness. As I said before, 1 will not hazard a statement of the conversation that I had. My recollection is so indistinct that I am not willing to hazard my own inference. The question of the judge-advocate was doubtless suggested by a remark which I made to him yesterday, though I stated at the time that I would not hazard it as testimony. Consequently I cannot Btate any facts on which I base the inference. By the Court : The conversation was between Colonel Woods and myself in regard to the Andersonville Prison, and during that conversation I obtained the impression that President Davis had some knowledge of it; but I am not willing to hazard that as testimony, for I have a very indistinct recollection. The inference to which I allude was formed at the time of this conversation, I recollect that that was my inference. By the Judge Advocate: It was subsequent to these reports. I don't recollect how long after; it must have been very shortly afterwards. Colonel Woods was John Taylor Woods, a lieutenant in the navy, and aide to President Davis. I think a paper of this kind, on a subject of this magnitude, would find its way to the president of the so-called Confederate States, in the ordinary course of proceedings. Extracts were made and sent to the quartermaster and commissary departments about the time the report was handed in. [Exhibit 19 was here shown to witness.] These words, "Extract made for C. S. General," are in my handwriting. [Exhibit 18 was here shown to witness.] These words, "Extracts from within report have been sent to the different bureaus, and directions to General Winder for correction and remedy of the evils, etc.," are in my handwriting. [A paper was here exhibited to witness.] The endorsement upon that paper is by the surgeon-general. The paper was an enclosure of Colonel Chandler's report. S. D. Moore was the surgeon-general of the Confederate army. [The paper was then offered in evidence. The following is a copy : ] Chief Surgeon's Office, August 2, 1864. Colonel: I have the honor to submit the following report of the sanitary con- dition of the Confederate States military prison : The number of sick on morning report is one thousand three hundred and five (1,305) in hospital, and five thousand and ten (5,010) in quarters. The total number of deaths from the organization of the prison, (February 24, 1864,) up to date, is 4,585. The following table exhibits the ratio per one thousand (1,000) of mean strength during the different months: Mean Ratio per 1,000 Month. strength. Deaths. of mean strength. March 7,500 283 37.4 April 10,000 576 57.6 May 15,000 708 47.2 June 22,291 1,201 53.87 July 29,030 1,817 62.7 There is nothing in the topography of the country that can be said to influence the health of the prison. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDEEATES. 73 i The land is high and well drained, the soil light and sandy, with no marshes or other source of malaria in the vicinity, except the small stream within the stockade. The densely crowded condition of the prisoners, with the innumerable little shelters irregularly arranged, precludes the enforcement of proper police, and prevents free circulation of air. The lack of barrack accommodation exposes the men to the heat of the sun during the day and to the dew at night, and is a prolific source of disease. The margins of the stream passing through the stockade are low and boggy, and having been recently drained, have exposed a large surface covered with vegetable mould to the rays of the sun, a condition favorable to the development of malarious diseases. It is the design of the commandant of the prison to cover the surface with dry sand, but the work has been unavoidably retarded. The absence of proper sinks (and the filthy habits of the men) have caused a deposit of fecal matter over almost the entire surface of this bottom land. The point of exit of the stream through the walls of the stockade is not suffi- ciently bold to permit a 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, produces a horrible stench. Captain Wirz, the commandant of the prison, has doubtless explained to you the difficulties which have prevented these, with other projected improvements, in the way of bathing and other arrangements for cleanliness. Respectfully submitted : Isaiah H. White, Colonel Chandler. Chief Surgeon Post. [Indorsed : ] Andersonville, Ga., August 4, 1864. Respectfully submitted with inspection report. D. T. Chandler, A. A. & I. G. [Remarks in pencil:] Surgeon Cooney has been ordered to inspect and report on hospital accommodations for prisoners. Surgeon White was authorized some time since to send his requisitions for sup- plies direct to the medical purveyors. Not having supplies is his own fault ; he should have anticipated the wants of the sick by timely requisitions. All requisi- tions are approved by the medical directors. It is impossible to order medical officers in place of the contract physicians. They are not to be had at present. S. D. Moore, Surgeon-General. Colonel Chandler testified as a witness at great length and explained in much detail the character of his inspection and from what data his report was made. As we have the result of his investigations in his report, it is not necessary to set out his testimony at length. Among other things, he said: I have no retraction to make in regard to the condition of the prison at Ander- sonville, as represented in my report. ... I noticed that General Winder seemed indifferent to the welfare of the prisoners, indisposed to do anything, 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 reported to the department. 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 furnished them, and in better quantity; and other sanitary suggestions which I made to him — he replied to me that he thought it was better to let half of them die than to take care of the men. I would like to state 74 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVTLLE. to the court that before he used this language to me, my assistant, who was with me, Major Hal], had reported to me that he had used similar language to him, made use of similar expressions. I mention this to show the court that I am not mistaken; that my recollection is clear. I told him (Major Hall) I thought it incredible; that he must be mistaken. He told me no; that he had not only said it once, but twice, and, as I have stated, he subsequently made use of the same expression to me. Colonel Chandler points out some things that might easily have been done : that the prison pen might, with little labor, have been drained to a stream a few hundred yards off on lower ground ; that more wood might have been furnished; that the cook-house should have been moved from the stream above the stockade, as also should the gar- rison camps; that green corn should have been purchased, of which he saw plenty, also cabbages and other vegetables ; that a large number of the prisoners should be sent elsewhere, or the stockade much en- larged ; that in its crowded condition, six feet square, as he estimated, being available to the man, it was not possible to erect shelter or bar- racks. Of Wirz he said : "Facts have come to my knowledge in rela- tion to Captain Wirz of which I had no suspicion at the time I recom- mended him as an efficient officer." Of the prison rules he said : I cannot speak positively as to my recollection of paragraph 4 of the rules sub- mitted by Captain Wirz, which I did not approve. My impression now is that it had reference to punishing men who attempted to escape. I remember having a conversation with General Winder on this subject and calling his attention to the fact that it was the duty of a soldier to his country to escape if he could, and that it was his duty to keep him, to prevent escape, but not to punish him for doing his duty, and he concurred in that. We shall see how inhumanly and recklessly Wirz enforced his rule in disregard of this plain injunction. Speaking of his report, Colonel Chandler testified : On my return to Richmond in October, I spoke to Colonel Chilton, chief of the bureau, with reference to my report, and he told me that it had not been acted upon. The former secretary of war had been relieved and General Breckinridge appointed secretary. At my instance Colonel Chilton urged the department to take the matter up, for the reason that General Winder had rather decried the correct- ness of some statements that I had made, and I made a counter report, furnishing evidence of the accuracy of my report. I went myself to Judge Campbell and asked him to take it up, and he promised that he would do so. I do not believe it was ever taken up; that is to say, I do not think it was ever decided. Judge Campbell might have been considering it at the time of the evacuation. If it seemed incredible to Colonel Chandler that General Winder should recommend so atrocious a policy as that of starving the pris- CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 75 oners to death or killing them off by exposure, in order to relieve the congestion, what must we think of the Eichmond authorities who, knowing what was transpiring at Andersonville, not only lifted not a hand to stay the slaughter, but promoted Winder to larger powers in his command over the prisons? Incredible as it may seem, we yet have the proof that with knowl- edge of the fact that General Winder proposed to relieve the crowded condition of the prison by a process which meant death to thousands, the Richmond authorities promoted him and increased the scope of his opportunities for further enforcing his diabolical policy. Further evidence was introduced to show what was done with this report. TESTIMONY OF E. T. H. KEAN. 1 I was employed as a private soldier for some eight or ten months in 1861, in the army of Northern Virginia, then commanded by General Johnston. From Febru- ary, 1862, till April, 1862, I was assistant adjutant-general of the brigade com- manded by Brigadier-General George W. Randolph. In April, 1862, when Mr. Bandolph became secretary of war, I was appointed chief of the bureau of war at Richmond, and remained so until April of the present year. I know Mr. Seddon's handwriting. The words "Noted, filed, J. A. S," on General Winder's report, are, I believe, his handwriting. I am familiar with the handwriting of the assistant secretary, Judge Campbell. The indorsement signed "J. A. Campbell, A. S. W.," on Colonel Chandler's report, is in his handwriting. The brief is in the handwriting of R. B. Welford, who was a clerk in the war office. He was an intelligent lawyer, and his duties were chiefly of a legal character. When legal questions were to be investigated they were referred to him for evisceration, and bulky documents were frequently referred to him and he digested and briefed them; he would sometimes at the same time express an opinion on the contents. I remember that a report was made by Colonel Chandler with regard to the Andersonville prison. I was on duty there as chief of bureau of war. ... It was laid before the secretary of war, Mr. Seddon, I think, by the assistant secretary, Judge Campbell. Judge Campbell and myself had some conversation about it. I am not quite certain whether it was before or after it was submitted to the secretary, but I think it was on the day the report was received in the war office from the adjutant-general's office. After I had got through with the press of my own duties I glanced over it hastily, not having time to read it very deliberately, and it was the subject of some conversation between Judge Campbell and myself, the conversation being some comments on matters stated in the report. The conversation on the part of Judge Campbell is very well indexed by this indorsement. I do not remember to have had any conversation with him about the report after it was submitted to the secretary. ... I do not know that the report was acted upon by the secretary of war. I think I should have known it if it had been. I do not mean to say that I knew all the action the secretary of war took by a great deal, but it would probably have been in my way ' Record, p. 309 et seq. 76 THE TEAGEDT OP ANDERSONVILLE. to know it if action had been taken upon it. I am unable to say how long it lay upon his table. . . . The matter was subsequently called to his attention. About the 1st of February, I think, a day or two before his resignation, after his resigna- tion was sent in and before it was accepted, Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler, the officer who made the report, was in Richmond for the purpose of desiring some action upon it. A controversy had grown up between him and General Winder in reference to the subject-matter of the report, which had resulted in an issue of veracity between them. That, as Colonel Chandler stated to me, and as Colonel Chilton, the inspector-general, adjutant-general's office, stated to me, rendered it very desirable to Colonel Chandler that some disposition should be made of the paper. I do not know that any action was ever taken upon it. None was taken at that time. As I stated, the resignation was pending at the time, and he went out of office on the 7th of February. General Breckinridge came into office on the 8th, and gave very little attention to the papers from that time. The indorsement on this paper was made by me and that is my signature. I was at that time acting chief of the bureau of war. This indorsement was in relation to the same report, and was the same matter in controversy between Colonel Chandler and General Winder. I was in the habit sometimes of presenting such matters to the secretary with a verbal statement; at other times when it was difficult to speak to him, I would put the paper on his table, with a memorandum of this kind, not intended as an official document, but as a memorandum, merely to accompany the paper into his hands and draw attention to it, and then it was of no further use. This is a paper of that character. [The paper, of which the following is a copy, was submitted in evidence by the judge advocate and is appended to this record : ] Honorable Secretary of War: These papers involve a painful personal issue between the inspecting officer and General Winder. Colonel Chilton, acting inspector-general, has requested, for this reason, that aetion be taken on them, so as to relieve one or the other of the parties. Respectfully, R. T. H. Kean, February 6, 1865. Chief of Bureau of War. From the way in which Judge Campbell spoke of this report at the time referred to just now, I think it excited special interest on his part. That was the first and only conversation I distinctly remember. Throughout the history of Andersonville, it will be found that Gen- eral Winder was the moving spirit of evil. It was he who suggested to Colonel Chandler that it was better to let the prison relieve its conges- tion by death than by enlargement, — a sentiment in harmony with the policy pursued by his faithful subordinate Wirz. The removal of Winder was urged by Colonel Chandler, but he was not only not removed but was promoted. The testimony of J. B. Jones and Philip Cashmyer will explain Winder's hold at the source of all power in the Confederacy : They testified : CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 77 TESTIMONY OF J. B. JONES. 1 I was a clerk in the rebel war department during the past four years. I received from the mails all the letters addressed to the secretary of war; they were brought to me from the post-office by messengers. It was my duty to open them and read them. I made a brief synopsis of the contents and sent them to the secretary. The report of Colonel Chandler in relation to the Andersonville Prison was a report that should have gone to the adjutant-general, but that document was sent to my office by mistake. I turned it over and looked at it ; I did not pretend to read it. I read a few heads of paragraphs, and it was either sent by me immediately to the secretary, or possibly, probably it was sent for by the secretary, because he may have expected it. I did not read lengthy reports; indeed they did not come there. I was in the office after Mr. Seddon took charge of the war department. I remained there till the evacuation, this spring. I cannot be positively certain about his. custom with regard to laying business before the president, but he had frequent. conferences with the president, almost daily when they were both well. I have seen him going there, taking his papers himself. TESTIMONY OF PHILIP CASHMYER.* For the last four years I was detective officer under General Winder. I was with General Winder from the time he commenced his duties as provost marshal until he died. I was his special confidential detective. Well, my duties were, any important matters such as detectives have to attend to I attended to for him, such as examining prisoners and making reports upon them and matters of that sort. I was admitted into his family also. The relations existing between him and Mr. Jefferson Davis were very friendly indeed, very confidential. I often heard General Winder say so. I often saw him go there and come from there. I remember when an effort was made by Generals Bragg and Ransom to have him removed, Mr. Davis — President Davis — was his special friend then. When the order relieving General Winder came from the war department he took it and went up to Mr. Davis. The order was relieving him from duty in Richmond. He took it and went over and saw President Davis, and he indorsed on it, as well as I can recollect, "that it was entirely unneces- sary and uncalled for." After that General Winder was sent to Goldsboro, North Carolina, to take the field; he was there a week or two, and an order then came for him to go to Andersonville and take command there. His powers were not extended for some months after that. They were then. They made him commis- sioner-general, commissary-general of prisoners. They called him commissioner- general. I still continued with him till he died in my tent at Florence, South Carolina. As well as I can recollect, the order sending W. S. Winder to Anderson- ville to lay out the prison came from the war department. General Winder desired to send him, and the war department sanctioned it. I saw the son go with the general down to the war department and come from there. There are certain indisputable facts established by the Chandler report and its history which can never be explained away nor changed 1 Record, p. 4'9- 2 Record, p. 421. 78 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. nor affected by inscriptions upon monuments to Wirz or to any or all others implicated in the crime of Andersonville. Early in May, as we have seen, the situation was brought home to heads of departments at Richmond; they were warned that the very fate which later befell the unhappy prisoners would surely overtake them unless remedial measures were promptly taken; they were not only not taken, but every movement at Richmond aggravated the existing conditions and made more certain the deadly result. And when Chandler arrived upon the scene his quickened sense of justice and humanity revolted at the picture spread out before him. Soldier- like and manlike, he laid the facts in their true light before his supe- riors at Richmond. A hundred Union veterans were dying daily in a pen not fit for occupancy by dumb animals. Half -fed with indigestible food, without shelter, many of the sick without medical attendance, and none of the sick with adequate care or attention, this mass of human beings was crowded into an open space, with but six feet square to the man, — a picture of human wretchedness and neglect unpar- alleled ! The record traces this picture, faithfully drawn, through the hands of high officials, bearing indorsements which left no doubt of the importance of the document. On its face it pointed out the inhuman sentiment uttered by the man Winder, who was the guiding spirit at Andersonville, recommending his removal and the appointment of some one who would not deliberately say that it was better to let the men die and thus relieve the survivors. On this document as it passed along to the secretary of war and to the President, Adjutant-General Cooper, by his assistant. Colonel Chilton, indorsed his opinion as follows : The condition of the prison at Andersonville is a reproach to us as a nation. Colonel Chandler's recommendations are concurred in. Assistant Secretary of War Campbell made this indorsement : These reports show a condition at Andersonville which calls loudly for inter- position of the department in order that a, change may be made. The evidence : was that the secretary of war took no step to better conditions at Andersonville. General Winder was promoted to a sphere of enlarged authority over prisons. The papers bear the mark : "Noted. File. J. A. S.," which were known to be the indorsement of Secretary of War Seddon. As late as February 6, 1865, the chief of the bureau of war makes the following indorsement: CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 79 Honorable Secretary of War: These papers involve a painful personal issue between the inspecting officer and General Winder. Colonel Chilton, acting inspector-general, has requested, for this reason, that action be taken on them, so as to relieve one or other of the parties. February 6, 1865. R. T. H. Kean, Chief of the Bureau of War. By this time the policy of "Winder had been fully executed, and nearly thirteen thousand hapless, helpless defenders of the Union had perished miserably. In the volumes of the War of the Rebellion some light is thrown upon the action of the rebel war department. The following letter written by Major Hall will be read with interest : Wytheville, November 22, 1864. 1 Colonel R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-General, Mchmond. Colonel: I am surprised to see that Captain Wirz, commanding prison at Andersonville, Ga., in his report of 27th of September, makes me responsible for the following: "Major Hall remarked that it, the prison at Andersonville, was about on par with the Federal prison on Johnson's Island." I did not express any such opinion, nor did I ever use any language, which the utmost ingenuity could pervert into such a misrepresentation of my conviction. The report of inspection of the post and prison at Andersonville forwarded by Colonel Chandler, assistant adjutant and inspector-general, 5th of August ultimo, was made by notes taken by both of us on the spot. He consulted with me while preparing it, and as you will perceive, the fair copy is in my handwriting. I fully concur in it. Colonel Chandler's communication to you of this date is also in accordance with my observation of the facts and the statements in which reference is made to me and with my full knowledge and consent. My recollection of General Winder's language, quoted by Colonel Chandler and Captain Wirz, relative to the issue of peas, rice, fuel, etc., is clear and distinct. No vestige remained of the 1,000 posts to which Captain Wirz refers and no allusion to them was made. The only hut or other building in the stockade was a small frame house used exclusively as a sutler's shop. On each of my visits of inspection to the interior of the stockade, I noticed a large number of men digging in the marsh for roots and learning their purpose, called Colonel Chandler's attention to the fact. At my request, Captain Wirz went with me to the stockade on one occasion specially to attend "sick call," as I desired to obtain accurate information in regard to the manner of conducting it. I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. Carvel Hall, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. This letter was sent to the war department at Richmond, at its request, for an explanation of the damaging report made by Colonel Chandler in August. It seems that the war department was busying itself to discredit Colonel Chandler's report and him personally, when it ought to have been putting forth every possible effort to relieve the conditions at Andersonville which were pronounced a "disgrace to the Confederacy" by official reports. The carnival of death was allowed 'War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series z, p. 1156. 80 THE TKAGEDY OF ANDEKSONVILLE. to proceed unchecked, in pursuance of the policy announced by Gen- eral Winder to Colonel Chandler, that it was better to let the con- dition of congestion in the prison be relieved by death than by any of the means recommended. Major Hall reiterates the fact that he saw many men digging in the swamp for roots for fuel. Remembering what a disgusting and offensive place this swamp had become, saturated as it was with human excrement, we may understand the meaning of the lack of fuel to cook the raw rations issued to the prisoners, when men would resort to such a place for what existed in abundance within sight of the prison and the prisoners begging for the privilege to go after it. By far the most comprehensive report made of the prison conditions at Andersonville was made by Dr. Joseph Jones, who tells us that while on a visit to Richmond, in August, 1864, "hearing of the unusual mortality among the Federal prisoners at Andersonville, he expressed to the surgeon-general, S. P. Moore, C. S. A., a desire to visit Camp Sumter, with the design of instituting a series of inquiries upon the nature and causes of the prevailing diseases." It will be seen that he was sent by the surgeon-general, not to devise methods to alleviate any suffering which he might find to exist among the prisoners, but "in order that this great field for pathological in- vestigation may be explored for the benefit of the medical department of the Confederate army.'' Surgeon-General Moore confessedly knew at that time the conditions there existing and his letter of introduction is dated August 6, 1864. It is true, as will appear, that Dr. Jones's report never reached Surgeon-General Moore, as explained by Dr. Jones, but the facts recorded by him are none the less important or significant in the inquiry we are making, and were known at Richmond through other sources. 1 This report is valuable to the medical pro- fession, but for our present purpose it furnishes indubitable proof that the horrors of Andersonville have not been overdrawn, and it corroborates in many particulars the report of Colonel Chandler; in fact, for graphic and soul-harrowing description of human suffering, it excels anything spoken by witnesses who were themselves victims. Surgeon Jones testified that he went to Andersonville about Septem- ber 16, 1864, and that after examining the prison hospital he entered the prison pen. His permit is dated September 17, 1864, and he says that he spent three weeks in his examination of the sick in the hospital 1 But see preliminary report by Dr. Jones, infra. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 81 and in the stockade, going so far in his investigations, as he testified, to make "some score of post-mortem examinations." With this intro- duction to this important evidence, let the record speak. 1 TESTIMONY OF DE. JOSEPH JONES. By the. Judge Advocate : Q. Where do you reside? A. In Augusta, Georgia. Q. Are you a graduate of any medical college? A. Of the University of Pennsylvania. Q. How long have you been engaged in the practice of medicine? A. Eight years. Q. Has your experience been as a practitioner, or rather as an investigator of medicine as a science? A. Both. Q. What position do you hold now? A. That of medical chemist in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta. Q. How long have you held your position in that college? A. Since 1858. Q. How were you employed during the Rebellion? A. I served six months in the early part of it as a private in the ranks, and the rest of the time in the medical department. Q. Under the direction of whom? A. Under the direction of Dr. Moore, surgeon-general. Q. Did you, while acting under his direction, visit Andersonville, professionally? A. Yes, sir. Q. Eor the purpose of making investigations there? A. Eor the purpose of prosecuting investigations ordered by the surgeon-general. Q. You went there in obedience to a letter of instructions? A. In obedience to orders which I received. Q. Did you reduce the results of your investigations to the shape of a report? A. I was engaged at that work when General Johnston surrendered his army. [A document being handed to witness.] Q. Have you examined this extract from your report and compared it with the original? A. Yes, sir; I have. Q. Is it accurate? A. So far as my examination extended, it is accurate. [The document just examined by witness was offered in evidence, and is as follows : ] Observations upon the diseases of the Federal prisoners, confined in Camp Sumter, Andersonville, in Sumter County, Georgia, instituted: with a view to illustrate chiefly the origin and causes of hospital gangrene, the relations of continued and malarial fevers and the pathology of camp diarrhoea amd dysentery, by Joseph Jones, surgeon P. A. C. S., professor of medical chemistry in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta, Georgia. 1 Record, p. 618 et seq. 82 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Hearing of the unusual mortality among the Federal prisoners confined at Andersonville, Georgia, in the month of August, 1864, during a visit to Biehmond, Virginia, I expressed to the surgeon-general, S. P. Moore, Confederate States of America, a desire to visit Camp Sumter, with the design of instituting a series of inquiries upon the nature and causes of the prevailing diseases. Smallpox had appeared among the prisoners, and I believed that this would prove an admirable field for the establishment of its characteristic lesions. The condition of Peyer's glands in this disease was considered as worthy of minute investigation. It was believed that a large body of men from the northern portion of the United States, suddenly transported to a warm southern climate, and confined upon a small portion of land, would furnish an excellent field for the investigation of the relations of typhus, typhoid, and malarial fevers. The surgeon-general Confederate States of America furnished me with the fol- lowing letter of introduction to the surgeon in charge of the Confederate States military prison at Andersonville, Georgia: Confederate States or America, Surgeon-General's Office, Richmond, Virginia, August 6, 1864. Sm: The field of pathological investigations 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 a careful investigation of the e.ffeets of disease upon the large body of men subjected to a decided change of climate and the circumstances peculiar to prison life. The surgeon in charge of the hospital for Federal prisoners, together with his assistants, will afford every facility to Surgeon Joseph Jones, in the prosecution of the labors ordered by the surgeon-general. Efficient assistance must be rendered Surgeon Jones by the medical officers, not only in his examinations into the causes and symptoms of the various diseases, but especially in the arduous labors of post mortem examinations. The medical officers will assist in the performance of such post mortems as Surgeon Jones may indicate, in order that this great field for pathological investiga- tion may be explored for the benefit of the medical department of the Confederate army. S. P. Moore, Surgeon-General. Surgeon Isaiah H. White, In charge of hospital for Federal prisoners, Andersonville, Georgia. In compliance with this letter of the surgeon-general, Isaiah H. White, chief surgeon of the post, and R. R. Stevenson, surgeon in charge of the prison hospital, afforded the necessary facilities for the prosecution of my investigations among the sick outside of the stockade. After the completion of my labors in the military prison hospital, the following communication was addressed to Brigadier-General John H. Winder, in consequence of the refusal on the part of the commandant of the interior of the Confederate States military prison to admit me within the stockade upon the order of the surgeon-general: Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia, September 16, 1864. General: I respectfully request the commandant of the post of Andersonville to grant me permission and to furnish the necessary pass to visit the sick and medical officers within the stockade of the Confederate States prison. I desire to institute certain inquiries ordered by the surgeon-general. Surgeon Isaiah H. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 83 White, chief surgeon of the post, and Surgeon R. R. Stevenson in charge of the prison hospital, have afforded me every facility for the prosecution of my labors among the sick outside of the stockade. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Joseph Jones, Surgeon P. S. C. S. Brigadier-General John H. Winder, Commandant, Post Andersonville. In the absence of General Winder from the post, Captain Winder furnished the following order: Camp Sumter, 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 treat- ment. Surgeon Jones is ordered to make certain investigations which may prove useful to his profession. By direction of General Winder: Very respectfully, W. S. Winder, A. A. G. Captain H. Wirz, Commanding Prison. Description of the Confederate States Military Prison Hospital at Andersonville. Number of Prisoners, Physicial Condition, Food, Clothing, Habits, Moral Con- dition, Diseases. The Confederate military prison at Andersonville, Georgia, consists of a strong stockade, 20 feet in height, enclosing 27 acres. The stockade is formed of strong pine logs, firmly planted in the ground. The main stockade is surrounded by two other similar rows of pine logs, the middle stockade being 16 feet high, and the outer 12 feet. These are intended for offence and defence. If the inner stockade should at any time be forced by the prisoners, the second forms another line of defence; while in case of an attempt to deliver the prisoners by a force operating upon the exterior, the outer line forms an admirable protection to the Confederate troops, and a most formidable obstacle to cavalry or infantry. The four angles of the outer line are strengthened by earthworks upon commanding eminences, from which the cannon, in case of an outbreak among the prisoners, may sweep the entire enclosure; and it was designed to connect these works by a line of rifle-pits, running zig-zag, around the outer stockade; .these rifle-pits have never been com- pleted. The ground enclosed by the innermost stockade lies in the form of a parallelogram, the larger diameter running almost due north and south. This space includes the northern and southern opposing sides of two hills, between which a stream of water runs from west to east. The surface soil of these hills is composed chiefly of sand, with varying admixtures of clay and oxide of iron. The clay is sufficiently tenacious to give a considerable degree of consistency to the soil. The internal structure of the hills, as revealed by the deep wells, is similar to that already described. The alternate layers of clay and sand, as well as the oxide of iron, which forms in its various combinations a cement to the sand, allow of extensive tunneling. The prisoners not only constructed numerous dirt huts with balls of clay and sand, taken from the wells which they have excavated all over those hills, but they have also, in some cases, tunneled extensively from these wells. The lower portions of these hills, bordering on the stream, are wet and boggy from the constant oozing of water. The stockade was built originally to accommodate 84 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. only 10,000 prisoners, and included at first 17 acres. Near the close of the month of June, the area was enlarged by the addition of 10 acres. 1 The ground added was situated on the northern slope of the largest hill. The following table presents a view of the density of the population of the prison, at different periods: Table illustrating the mean number of prisoners in the Confederate States military prison at Andersonville, Georgia, from its organization, February $4, 1864, to September, 1864, and the average number of square feet of ground to each prisoner. Mean strength Area of Average number of of Federal stockade in square feet allowed prisoners. square feet. to each prisoner. March, 1864 7,500 740,520 98.7 April, 1864 10,000 740,520 74 May, 1864 15,000 740,520 49.3 June, 1864 22,291 740,520 33.2 July, 1864 29,030 1,176,120 40.5 August, 1864 32,899 1,176,120 35.7 Within the circumscribed area of the stockade the Federal prisoners were com- pelled to perform all the offices of life — cooking, washing, urinating, defecation, exercise, and sleeping. During the month of March the prison was less crowded than at any subsequent time, and then the average space of ground to each prisoner was only 98.7 feet, or less than seven square yards. The Federal prisoners were gathered from all parts of the Confederate States east of the Mississippi, and crowded into 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. These figures represent the condition of the stoclcade 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 for every purpose except that of defecation. The pines and other small trees and shrubs, which originally were scattered sparsely over these hills, were in a short time cut down and consumed by the prisoners for firewood, and no shade tree was left in the entire enclosure of the stockade. "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 distributed to the prisoners, and those were in most eases torn and rotten. In the location and arrangement of these tents and huts no order appears to have been followed; 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 suddenly without any previous preparations. The irregular arrangement of the huts and imperfect shelters was very unfavorable for the main- tenance of a proper system of police. The police and internal economy of the prison was left almost entirely in the hands of the prisoners themselves; the duties of the Confederate soldiers acting as guards being limited to the occupation of the boxes or lookouts ranged around the stockade at regular intervals, and to the manning of the batteries at the angles of the prison. Even judicial matters pertaining to themselves, as the detection 1 Other reports and most of the authorities say the stockade was enlarged about one-third. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 85 and punishment of such crimes as theft and murder, appear to have been in a great measure abandoned to the prisoners. A striking instance of this occurred in the month of July, when the Federal prisoners within the stockade tried, con- demned, and hanged six (6) of their own number, who had been convicted of stealing and of robbing and murdering their fellow-prisoners. They were all hung upon the same day, and thousands of the prisoners gathered around to witness 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 stronger 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 clothing or money. 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 clothing. The large number of men confined within the stockade soon, under a defective system of police, and with imperfect arrangements, covered the surface of the low grounds with excrements. The sinks over the lower portions of the stream were imperfect in their plan and structure, and the excrements were in large measure deposited 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 away the feces, and they accumulated in such quantities in the lower portion of the stream as to form a mass of liquid excrement. Heavy rains caused the water 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 feces 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 excrements and fragments of bread and meat and bones excited most rapid fermentation and developed a horrible stench. Improvements were projected for the removal of the filth and for the prevention of its accumulation, but they were only partially and imperfectly carried out. As the forces of the prisoners were reduced by confine- ment, 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 excrements were 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 for the sick were imperfect and insufficient. From the organization of the prison, February 24, 1864, to May 22nd, the sick were treated within the stockade. In the crowded condition of the stockade, and with the tents and huts clustered thickly around the hospital, it was impossible to secure proper ventilation or to maintain the necessary police. The Federal prisoners also made frequent forays upon the hospital stores and carried off the food and clothing of the sick. The hospital was, on the 22nd of May, removed to its present site without the stockade, and five acres of ground covered with oaks and pines appropriated to the use of the sick. 86 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. The supply of medical officers has been insufficient from the foundation of the prison. The nurses and attendants upon the sick have been most generally Federal prisoners, who in too many cases appear to have been devoid of moral principle, and who not only neglected their duties, but were also engaged in extensive robbing of the sick. From the want of proper police and hygienic regulations alone it is not wonder- ful that from February 24 to September 21, 1864, 9,479 deaths, nearly one-third the entire number of prisoners, should have been recorded. I found the stockade and hospital in the following condition during my pathological investigations, instituted in the month of September, 1864: At the time of my visit to Andersonville a large number of Federal prisoners had been removed to Millen, Savannah, Charleston, and other parts of the Con- federacy, in anticipation of an advance of General Sherman's forces from Atlanta, with the design of liberating their captive brethren; however, about 15,000 prisoners remained confined within the limits of the stockade and Confederate States military prison hospital. In the stockade, with the exception of the damp lowlands bordering the small stream, the surface was covered with huts, and small ragged tents and parts of blankets and fragments of oilcloth, coats, and blankets stretched upon sticks. The tents and huts were not arranged according to any order, and there was in most parts of the enclosure scarcely room for two men to walk abreast between the tents and huts. I observed men urinating and evacuating their bowels at the very tent doors and around the little vessels in which they were cooking their food. Small pits, not more than a foot or two deep, nearly filled with soft offensive feces, were everywhere seen, and emitted under the hot sun a strong and disgusting odor. Masses of corn-bread, bones, old rags, and filth of every description were scattered around or accumulated in large piles. If one might judge from the large pieces of corn-bread scattered about in every direction on the ground, the prisoners were either very lavishly supplied with this article of diet, or else this kind of food was not relished by them. 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 the southwestern gate. From thence they were carried in carts to the burying ground, one-quarter of a mile northwest of the prison. The dead were buried without coffins, side by side, in trenches four feet deep. The low grounds- bordering the stream were covered with human excrements and filth of all kinds, which in many places appeared to be alive with working maggots. An indescribable sickening stench arose from these fermenting masses of human dung and filth. There were nearly 5,000 seriously 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 reports, were suffering from severe and incurable diarrhoea, dysentery, and scurvy. The sick were attended almost entirely by their fellow- prisoners, appointed as nurses, and as they received but little attention, they were compelled to exert themselves at all times to attend to the calls of nature, CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 87 and hence they retained the power of moving about to within a comparatively short period of the close of life. Owing to the slow progress of the diseases most prevalent, diarrhcea, and chronic dysentery, the corpses were as a general rule emaciated. I visited two thousand sick within the stockade, lying under some long sheds which had been built at the northern portion for themselves. At this time only one medical officer was in attendance, whereas at least 20 medical officers should have been employed. I found no record of the sick in the stockade previous to September 14, 1864. It appears that previous to this date no record was preserved of the diseases treated within the stockade; and the following includes all the medical statistics which I was able to collect within the prison walls proper : Morning reports of Acting Assistant Surgeon F. J. Wells, in charge of Federal sick and wounded in stockade. Date. u o a, a> t~i 03 C8 bo a '.a a i EQ a M as Eh 'm "as o EH O bo a ■3 00 ■ iH "3 .•s p< 0Q o A "3 § bo o -*» -*> a -, , a IS a T3 "3 DQ 'on o o CO u . Date. ft . CO jj 5* CI ft 6B a -u • K r/J CD O -u co a o u «H CD a CD 18 S o <& 13 'EL CO O ja a i — i OS .24 u o ^J CO o n3 CD a H3 Ph ai O a o 0^ r-T ■(apB3po;s) 'jCjnp o% panin^ag; CO CO CD rH LTJ CD b- rH CO -^o^co^ rn'cD^io" •a;BS3jS3y 3,061 9,605 10,590 ■q^noui Snxinp i[Ois najpjj, O lO CO OS CO »'£ 3 o a p< 03 as ph a! "3 D 03 S> *h -u 93 a «s rsl Wl O OS co as ooo os"c CO ^ bo 4 94 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEKSONVILLE. We will examine first the consolidated report of the sick and wounded Federal prisoners. During six months, from the 1st of March to the 31st of August, 42,686 cases of diseases and wounds were reported. No classified record of the sick in the stockade was kept after the establishment of the hospital without the prison. This fact, in conjunction with those already presented relating to the insufficiency of medical officers and the extreme illness and even death of many prisoners in the tents in the stockade, without any medical attention or record beyond the bare number of the dead, demonstrates that these figures, large as they appear to be, are far below the truth. During this period of six months no less than 565 deaths are recorded under the head of morbi vanie. In other words, those men died without having received sufficient medical attention for the determination of even the name of the disease causing death. During the month of August, 53 cases and 53 deaths are recorded as due to marasmus. Surely this large number of deaths must have been due to some other morbid state than slow wasting. If they were due to improper and insufficient food, they should have been classed accordingly, and if to diarrhoea or dysentery or scurvy, the classification should in like manner have been explicit. We observe a progressive increase of the rate of mortality, from 3.11 per cent in March to 9.09 per cent of mean strength, sick and well, in August. The ratio of mortality continued to increase during September, for notwithstanding the removal of one-half of the entire number of prisoners during the early portion of the month, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven (1,767) deaths are registered from September 1st to 21st, and the largest number of deaths upon any one day occurred during this month, on the 16th, viz: 119. The entire number of Federal prisoners confined at Andersonville was about 40,611; and during the period of near seven months, from February 24th to September 21st, nine thousand four hundred and seventy-nine (9,479) deaths were recorded; that is, during this period near one-fourth, or, more exactly, one in 4.2, or 23.3 per cent, terminated fatally. This increase of mortality was due in great measure to the accumulation of the sources of disease, as the increase of excre- ments and filth of all kinds, and the concentration of noxious effluvia, and also to the progressive effects of salt diet, crowding, and the hot climate. CONCLUSIONS. 1st. The great mortality among the Federal prisoners confined in the military prison at Andersonville was not referable to climatic causes, or to the nature of the soil and waters. 2nd. The chief causes of death were scurvy and its results, and bowel affections — chronic and acute diarrhoea and dysentery. The bowel affections appear to have been due to the diet, the habits of the patients, the depressed, dejected state of the nervous system and moral and intellectual powers, and to the effluvia arising from the decomposing animal and vegetable filth. The effects of salt meat, and an unvarying diet of corn-meal, with but few vegetables, and imperfect supplies of vinegar and syrup, were manifested in the great prevalence of scurvy. This disease, without doubt, was also influenced to an important extent in its origin and course by the foul animal emanations. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 95 3rd. Erom the sameness of the food and form, the action of the poisonous gases in the densely crowded and filthy stockade and hospital, the blood was altered in its constitution, even before the manifestation of actual disease. In both the well and the sick the red corpuscles were diminished; and in all diseases uncom- plicated with inflammation, the fibrous element was deficient. In cases of ulcera- tion of the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, the fibrous element of the blood was increased; while in simple diarrhoea, uncomplicated with ulceration, it was either diminished or else remained stationary. Heart clots were very common if not universally present in the cases of ulceration of the intestinal mucous mem- brane, while in the uncomplicated cases of diarrhoea and scurvy, the blood was fluid and did not coagulate readily, and the heart clots and fibrous concretions were almost universally absent. From the watery condition of the blood, there resulted various serous effusions into the pericardium, ventricles of the brain, and into the abdomen. In almost all the cases which I examined after death, even the most emaciated, there was more or less serous effusion into the abdominal cavity. In cases of hospital gangrene of the extremities, and in cases of gangrene of the intestines, heart clots and fibrous coagula were universally present. The presence of those clots in the cases of hospital gangrene, while they were absent in the cases in which there were no inflammatory symptoms, sustains the conclusion that hospital gangrene is a species of inflammation, imperfect and irregular though it may be in its progress, in which the fibrous element and coagulation of the blood are increased, even in those who are suffering from such condition of the blood, and from such diseases as are naturally accompanied with a decrease in the fibrous constituent. 4th. The fact that hospital gangrene appeared in the stockade first and origi- nated spontaneously without any previous contagion, and occurred sporadically all over the stockade and prison hospital, was proof positive that this disease will arise whenever the conditions of crowding, filth, foul air, and bad diet are present. The exhalations from the hospital and stockade appeared to exert their effects to a considerable distance outside of these localities. The origin of hospital gangrene among these prisoners appeared clearly to depend in great measure upon the state of the general system induced by diet, and various external noxious influences. The rapidity of the appearance and action of the gangrene depended upon the powers and state of the constitution, as well as upon the intensity of the poison in the atmosphere, or upon the direct application of poisonous matter to the wounded surface. This was further illustrated by the important fact that hospital gangrene, or a disease resembling it in all essential respects, attacked the intestinal canal of patients laboring under ulceration of the bowels, although there were no local manifestations of gangrene upon the surface of the body. This mode of termination in cases of dysentery was quite common in the foul atmosphere of the Confederate States military hospital, in the depressed, depraved condition of the system of these Federal prisoners. 5th. A scorbutic condition of the system appeared to favor the origin of foul ulcers, which frequently took on true hospital gangrene. Scurvy and hospital gangrene frequently existed in the same individual. In such cases, vegetable diet, with vegetable acids, would remove the scorbutic condition without curing the hospital gangrene. From the results of the existing war for the establishment of 96 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDEESONVILLE. the independence of the Confederate States, as well as from the published observa- tions of Dr. Trotter, Sir Gilbert Blane, and others of the English navy and army, it is evident that the scorbutic condition of the system, especially in crowded ships and camps, is most favorable to the origin and spread of foul ulcers ,and hospital gangrene. As in the present case of Andersonville, so also in past times when medical hygiene was almost entirely neglected, those two diseases were almost universally associated in crowded ships. In many cases it was very difficult to decide at first whether the ulcer was a simple result of scurvy or of the action of the prison or hospital gangrene, for there was great similarity in the appearance of the ulcers in the two diseases. So commonly have those two diseases been combined in their origin and action, that the description of scorbutic ulcers, by many authors, evidently includes also many of the prominent characteristics of hospital gangrene. This will be rendered evident by an examination of the observations of Dr. Lind and Sir Gilbert Blane upon scorbutic ulcers. 6th. Gangrenous spots followed by rapid destruction of tissue appeared in some cases where there had been no known wound. Without such well-established facts, it might be assumed that the disease was propagated from one patient to another. In such a filthy and crowded hospital as that of the Confederate States military prison at Andersonville, it was impossible to isolate the wounded from the sources of actual contact of the gangrenous matter. The flies swarming over the wounds and over the filth of every kind, the filthy, imperfectly washed and scanty supplies of rags, and the limited supply of washing utensils, the same wash-bowl serving for scores of patients, were sources of such constant circulation of the gangrenous matter that the disease might rapidly spread from a single gangrenous wound. The fact already stated, that a form of moist gangrene, resembling hospital gangrene, was quite common in this foul atmosphere, in cases of dysentery, both with and without the existence of the disease upon the entire surface, not only demonstrates the dependence of the disease upon the state of the constitution, but proves in the clearest manner that neither the contact of the poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the direct action of the poisonous atmosphere upon the ulcerated surface, is necessary to the development of the disease. 7th. In this foul atmosphere amputation did not arrest hospital gangrene; the disease almost invariably returned. Almost every amputation was followed finally by death, either from the effects of gangrene or from the prevailing diarrhcea and dysentery. Nitric acid and escharotics, generally, in this crowded atmosphere, loaded with noxious effluvia, exerted only temporary effects; after their applica- tion to the diseased surfaces, the gangrene would frequently return with redoubled energy; and even after the gangrene had been completely removed by local and constitutional treatment, it would frequently return and destroy the patient. As far as my observation extended, very few of the cases of amputation for gangrene recovered. The progress of these cases was frequently very deceptive. I have observed after death the most extensive disorganization of the structures of the stump, when during life there was but little swelling of the part, and the patient was apparently doing well. I endeavored to impress upon the medical officers the view that in this disease treatment was almost useless, without an abundant supply of pure fresh air, nutritious food, and tonics and stimulants. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 97 Such changes, however, as would allow of the isolation of the cases of hospital gangrene appeared to be out of the power of the medical officers. 8th. The gangrenous mass was without true pus, and consisted chiefly of broken-down, disorganized structures. The reaction of the gangrenous matter in certain stages was alkaline. 9th. The best, and in truth the only, means of protecting the large armies and navies, as well as prisoners, from the ravages of hospital gangrene, is to furnish liberal supplies of well-cured meat, together with fresh beef and vegetables, and to enforce a rigid system of hygiene. 10th. Finally, this gigantic mass of human misery calls loudly for relief, not only for the sake of suffering humanity, but also on account of our own brave soldiers now captives in the hands of the Federal government. Strict justice to the gallant men of the Confederate armies, who have been or who may be so un- fortunate as to be compelled to surrender in battle, demands that the Confederate government should adopt that course which will best secure their health and comfort in captivity; or at least leave their enemies without a shadow of an excuse for any violation of the rules of civilized warfare in the treatment of prisoners. Q. You have made some estimates based upon what you term the "mean strength"; will you explain to the court what you mean by that? A. The mean strength for a month in an army is generally taken by choosing three points in the month, the first, the middle, and the latter part of it, adding them together and dividing the total number. Q. The total of the three added? A. Yes, sir. I do not know exactly how it was done at Andersonville. This was taken from the records there entitled "mean strength." Q. Continue your explanation of how the estimate was made, and then you can make any qualifications with regard to it. You say you divided the number of prisoners at the first of the month, the middle of the month, and the last of the month by three; then what did you do? A. That would give you the mean strength, the average number present during the month — that is in armies. Q. That cannot always be accurate, can it? A. No, sir ; it is not accurate in armies. I do not know exactly what course they adopted with the prisoners, but presume it was done in the same way. Two or three thousand might have been received and two or three thousand sent away, and in that way the whole number during the month would be pretty much un- changed. In the Confederate service it was not a truly accurate number. Q. You used the term "Confederate States military hospital"; does that refer always to the Federal prisoners' hospital? A. There was a Confederate States military hospital there, that went by the name of Sumter hospital. Q. In the returns you include only hospitals containing Federal prisoners? A. Yes; I think I always used the term "Confederate States military prison hospitals." Q. "When did you forward your report or complete it? 98 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. A. I will state to the court t*hat I was engaged in the preparation of that report in the month of September, 1864. I went from Andersonville to the hospitals connected with the Army of Tennessee, and labored there until Novem- ber; I then returned to Augusta, just about the time that General Sherman com- menced his march from Atlanta. I was then cut off from the reception of answers to numerous inquiries I had made of officers at Andersonville and with the Army of Tennessee, and set about preparing the report for the surgeon-general. I had just completed the report which I placed in the hands of the judge advocate under orders from the government when the Confederacy went to pieces. That report never was delivered to the surgeon-general, and I was unaware that any one knew of its existence at all until I received orders from the United States government to bring it and deliver it to this court in testimony. I make this state- ment to relieve myself of the charge of turning state's evidence, as it were, against those with whom I was formerly associated; it was done in obedience to an order from the government. Q. Have your sympathies been with the Rebellion during the war? A. Entirely so. Q. Then your report was made out in the interest of the Confederate govern- ment. A. 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. I beg leave to make a statement to the court. That portion of my report which has been read is only a small part of the report. The original report contains the excuses which were given by the officers present at Andersonville, which I thought it right to embody with my labors; it also contains documents forwarded to Richmond by Dr. White and Dr. Stevenson and others in charge of the hospitals. Those documents contained important facts as to the labors of the medical department and their efforts to better the condition of things. Q. Are your conclusions correctly stated in this extract? A. Part of my conclusions are stated; not the whole. A portion of my con- clusions and also my recommendations are not stated. Q. Touching the subject of exchange? A. Yes, sir; the general difficulties environing the prisoners and their officers. Q. But the condition of things at Andersonville you have correctly described in the report of which this is an extract? A. I endeavored to do so in that report so far as my means of investigation would allow. I would also state that the results of my examination of gangrene, scurvy, and other diseases have been omitted from the report. They were very extended. I was there for three weeks and made some score of post-mortem examinations. I endeavored, in this report to the surgeon-general, to condense the results of all those labors; in fact that was the end and aim of the investigation. The following preliminary report made by Dr. Jones, found in the records of the War of the Kebellion, is important as showing that he had added his testimony to that of Colonel Chandler as to existing conditions at Andersonville. This report follows: CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 99 Macon, Ga., October 19, 1864.1 Surgeon-General S. P. Moore, Confederate States Army, War Department, Richmond, "Va. Sir: I have the honor to give the following brief outline of my labors, con- ducted in accordance with the orders of the surgeon-general: Immediately after the brief report upon hospital gangrene, forwarded to the surgeon-general, I repaired to Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Ga., and instituted a series of investigations upon the diseases of the Federal prisoners. The field was of great extent and extraordinary interest. There were more than 5,000 seriously sick in the hospital and stockade, and the deaths ranged from 90 to 130 each day. Since the establishment of this prison on 24th of February, 1864, to the present time, over 10,000 Federal prisoners have died; that is — near one-third of the entire number have perished in less than seven months. I instituted careful investigations into the condition of the sick and well and performed numerous post-mortem examinations. The medical topography of Ander- sonville and the surrounding country was examined, and the waters of the streams, springs, and wells around and within the stockade and hospital carefully analyzed. Diarrhoea, dysentery, scurvy, and hospital gangrene were the diseases which have been the main cause of this extraordinary mortality. The origin and character of the hospital gangrene which prevailed to so remarkable a degree and with such fatal effects amongst the Federal prisoners, engaged my most serious and earnest consideration. More than 30,000 men, crowded upon twenty-seven acres of land, with little or no shelter from the intense heat of a Southern summer, or from the rain and from the dew of night, with coarse corn bread from which the husk had not been removed, with but scant supplies of fresh meat and vegetables, with little or no attention to hygiene, with festering masses of filth at the very doors of their rude dens and tents, with the greater portion of the banks of the stream flowing through the stockade a filthy quagmire of human excrements alive with working maggots, generated by their own filthy exhalations and excretions, an atmosphere that so deteriorated and contaminated their solids and fluids that the slightest scratch and even the bites of small insects were in some cases followed by such rapid and extensive gangrene as to destroy extremities and even life itself. A large number of operations have been performed in the hospital on account of gangrene following slight injuries and mere abrasion of the surface. In almost every case of amputation for gangrene the disease returned, and a large proportion of the cases have terminated fatally. I recorded careful observations upon the origin and progress of these cases of gangrene, and examined the bodies after death and noted the pathological changes of the organs and tissues. The results of these observations will be forwarded to the surgeon-general at the earliest practicable moment. After concluding my labors among the Federal prisoners, I moved to Macon and instituted a series of inquiries and investigations upon the hospital gangrene which 1 War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series i, p. 1012. 100 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. has prevailed to so great an extent in the Army of the Tennessee during the recent disastrous campaign, and especially since the evacuation of Atlanta. These active labors in the field will eDgage my attention for one or two months longer, and immediately after the close of the investigation (if Providence permit) I will prepare my full report upon hospital gangrene, which will embody the results of my investigations upon this disease in various parts of the Confederacy, in the general hospitals in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, and will embrace also the more recent investigations at Andersonville, Macon, and Columbus, Ga. I will spare no effort and no expenditure of time and labor in the preparation of this report, with the hope that it may prove of value to the medical department of the Confederate Army and worthy of the consideration of the surgeon-general. If favored, I hope to be able to place this report in the hands of the surgeon- general about the 1st of next May or June. Joseph Jones, Surpeon, Provisional Army, C. S. Surgeon Jones was mentioned by Jefferson Davis, in his Belford articles, as a man of "great learning and undoubted probity." He was sent, as Dr. Jones and Mr. Davis both tell us, purely in the interest of science and not to devise methods of better treatment. Mr. Davis says that Dr. Jones's report was made for the eye of the surgeon-general alone, and he intimates that it was perfidious to use it against the rebel government for that reason. It will be remembered that when Dr. Jones was on the witness stand he testified that the report had been finished but had not been sent forward when the war closed. Much was made of this fact as reliev- ing the rebel authorities at Eichmond from the responsibility which this report would, if received, have imposed. The knowledge of the Richmond authorities abundantly appears through other means. But we now see that Dr. Jones by this prelim- inary report gave those authorities information about Andersonville Prison shortly after his investigation. It will be observed here as in other evidence that the bodies of our dead were frequently used "in the interest of science." How many were thus violated and their identity destroyed we do not know. Nor can we wonder that where so little regard was given for human life, less regard was shown for the bodies of the dead. Dr. Jones points out that the prisoners died as rapidly in the stockade as in the hospital. He gives the total deaths in the stockade, to September 21st, as 3,254, and in the hospital, for the same period, as 6,225 ; a total of 9,479. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 101 He further says : J During the period of six months no less than 565 deaths are recorded under the head of morhi vanie. In other words, the men died without having received sufficient medical attention for the determination of even the names of the disease causing death. During the month of August, 53 cases and 53 deaths are recorded as due to marasmus. 2 Surely this large number of deaths must have been due to some other morbid state than slow wasting. If they were due to improper and insuffi- cient food, they should have been classed accordingly. We observe a progressive increase of the rate of mortality, from 3.11 per cent in March, to 9.09 per cent of mean strength, sick and well, in August. Dr. Jones then points out that the ratio of mortality continued to increase during September. He continued: The entire number of Federal prisoners at Andersonville was about 40,611; and during the period of near seven months, from February 24 to September 21, nine thousand four hundred and seventy-nine (9,479) deaths were recorded; that is, during this period one-fourth, or, more exactly, one in 4.2 or 23.3 per cent, terminated fatally. He then sums up the causes, which he had already elaborately pointed out, as follows: This increase of mortality was due in great measure to the accumulation of the sources of disease; as the increase of excrements and filth of all kinds, and the concentration of noxious effluvia, and also to the progressive effects of salt diet, crowding and hot climate. A glance at the "sources of disease" which he enumerates will show how easily most of them could have been avoided by remedial agencies within reach. Captain Wirz made a report of date November 1, 1864, which was forwarded through proper channels to Adjutant-General Cooper on November 8th. 3 This report shows that on October 1st, the number remaining in prison was reduced to 8,662. Of these, at that date 2,071, and at the end of the month 2,479, were reported in hospital. There died in hospital during the month 1,560, or 34.2 per cent of all the sick. There were sent away 2,866. The mean strength for the month was about 6,100. It thus appears that as late as November 1st, over 25 per cent of the mean strength died and over 34 per cent of those reported in hospital. 1 Record, p. 637. 2 A wasting of flesh without fever or apparent disease. — Webster. s War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series 2, p. 1082. 102 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. Surgeon White made the following report in November, 1864: Office Chief Sdegeon, Confederate States Military Prisons, Georgia and Alabama. Camp Lawton, Ga., November 9, 1864. Surgeon R. R. Stevenson, In charge Post, Andersonville, Ga.i Sir: . . . We have been quite busy for the last two days in selecting the sick to be exchanged. After getting them all ready at the depot, we were notified by telegraph not to send them and had to take them back to the stockade. Many of these poor fellows already broken down in health, will succumb through despair. I. H. White, Chief Surgeon. Confederate States of America.2 Surgeon-General's Office. Richmond, Va., . — , 186 — . Beport of the Sanitary Condition of the Confederate States Military Prisons at Camps Sumter and Lawton, Georgia, by Surgeon Isaiah E. White. The law of Congress creating a hospital fund to provide for the comfort of the sick and wounded is completely abrogated by the commissary department fail- ing to fill requisitions for funds. The authority granted in your telegram of September 22, to divide the excess of funds at Andersonville among the new prisons, has been thwarted by the com- missary at that post failing to supply funds. A large excess of funds at Ander- sonville will be turned over to the treasury because the commissary at that post has failed to supply himself with funds to meet requisitions while thousands of sick, both at this post and Andersonville, are in a state of suffering that would touch the heart of even the most callous. Will not the commissary-general supply the funds even after the monthly statement of hospital fund has been forwarded? Isaiah H. White, Surgeon, Provisional Army, C. S. This report bears an indorsement of Surgeon-General Moore, No- vember 15, 1864, referring it to the commissary-general. Surgeon White had pointed out that thousands of the sick prisoners were "in a state of suffering that would touch the heart of even the most callous." The commissary-general on November 18th made an indorsement complaining that his bureau had not been supplied with money. "When the indebtedness of this bureau is relieved," he said, "and funds fur- nished in addition, to procure supplies for the armies in the field, it is hoped that enough will be found to meet the regular demands of the hospital. This bureau scarcely expects to realize such a healthful condition of the country, and can take no action in conflict with the law, which is conclusive on the subject." On November 20th, Surgeon-General Moore indorsed the document : "Respectfully submitted to the secretary of war to know what can be done under the circumstances." 1 War of Rebellion, vol. VII. series 2, p. 1114. 2 War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series 2, p. 11 30. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 103 As was the case with most of the reports that went forward to the Richmond authorities, suggesting needed relief at Andersonville, this one slumbered in pigeonholes and nothing was done. Andersonville, Ga., September 16, 1864. Office of the Surgeon in Charge 1 C. S. Military Prison Hospital, Surgeon-General S. P. Moore, C. S. Army, Richmond, Va. : Sir: I have the honor to report to you that I have been assigned to duty by Surgeon I. H. White, chief surgeon post, in charge of C. S. military prison hospi- tal. In assuming the responsibilities of so important a position and before enter- ing upon my duties I deem it necessary to make the following statement of the sanitary condition of the hospital and appliances for the comfort of the sick and wounded. The topography, climate, and prevalent diseases of the country have been given you in former reports by my predecessor. I shall confine myself prin- cipally to the following: 1. Nature of Barrack Accommodations. — The stockade (in the shape of a paral- lelogram) includes twenty-seven acres of ground. A considerable stream of water passes through it, running east and west. In this space of ground from 30,000 to 40,000 prisoners have been crowded; no protection whatever from the burning rays of the sun, except such as could be made from blankets or dirt hovels. Along the banks of the stream the ground is quite boggy, and water is continually oozing from the low banks. Recently four sheds have been built inside the stockade. These were the beginning of a series of barracks capable of accomodating 270 men each. A temporary structure is erected on the banks of the stream and is used as a privy. All the inmates of the prison use this humid cesspool of excre- nrentitious matter as a privy except the sick, and they are compelled to dig small holes near their hovels and use them for the deposit of feces. The stream that flows through the stockade overflowed its low swampy banks in the early part of the season, and the amount of fecal matter deposited a short distance from the outside of the stockade is enormous. At all times of the day and night a most noisome stench arises from the decomposing excrementitious matter deposited in the prison and hospital grounds. Prom 3,000 to 4,000 sick and wounded men are inside the stockade. The number of medical men is entirely inadequate for the demands of the sick. At present writing only four medical officers are on duty, whereas to take the proper care of the sick and wounded there should be not less than twenty-five efficient medical officers constantly on duty in the stockade, in order to meet the wants of the sick and keep the proper register and reports. Under the present regime hundreds die in the stockade and are buried whose names and diseases are unknown. This can be remedied by no other means than by a sufficient corps of medical officers. All the medical officers who have been on duty here are detailed men from the militia and contract physicians, and as a matter of course are very inefficient. 2. Nature of Hospital Accommodations. — The hospital is situated near the southwest corner of the stockade, covering about five acres of ground, enclosed by a frail board fence. A sluggish stream of water flows through the southern part of this lot. The ground is sloping and facing the southeast. On the south- 1 War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series 2, p. 830. 104 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. west side of the enclosure is a swamp about 300 yards in width and on the north- west side the stream which flows through the stockade, the banks being very low and subject to overflow. Prom these swamps arise putrid exhalations at times almost insupportable. It will be seen by the accompanying drawing " A" that the hospital is but a short distance from the confluence of the branch and the creek, and although on rolling tableland it is much lower than the surrounding country, and very near where the branch disembogues from the stockade, occupying a position that all the surrounding depressing agencies would seem to center in the hospital, as well as the stockade. The number of medical officers is deficient, with a few exceptions being composed of men who are either detailed or under contract. On examining the roster I find that twenty-four medical officers are charged to the hospital, and yet but twelve are on duty. The rest either by order of General Brown (at their own request) are off on sick leave or leave of indul- gence. In order to attend to the wants of the sick and wounded not less than thirty efficient medical officers should be on duty in the hospital. Confusion will necessarily occur without this number. From 1,800 to 2,500 patients are crowded into this space. Tents of a very inferior quality are the only means of protection, a majority of them being the small A tents. Temporary bunks are erected in most of them by driving forks into the ground and placing small poles or boards to lie on. A great number of patients are compelled to lie on the ground in consequence of the smallness of the tents. The cooking arrangements are very deficient; two large kettles erected on a furnace are nearly all the vessels that are used. The bread is baked outside of the hospital in the stockade enclosure. The bread is of the most unhealthy character, being made of coarse, unbolted corn- meal. This, of itself, under the most favorable circumstances, must prove a source of great irritation to the bowels. Scurvy, gangrene, and bowel affections are prevailing at present to an alarming extent. Frequent issues of green corn, peas, molasses, vinegar, rice, flour, and sweet potatoes are being made, and under suitable hospital accommodations the condition of the sick could be greatly ameliorated. The purveyor's department has been able to supply nearly all the necessary medi- cines. The indigenous remedies are being extensively used with much good effect. The medical officers in charge of the different wards and divisions are all diligent and seem willing to discharge their duties, although laboring under many and great disadvantages. Great efforts have been made to make the stockade secure and prevent the escape of prisoners, and but little attention paid to the hygienic and sanitary condition of the sick. Surgeon I. H. White, chief surgeon post, in- formed me that timely requisitions have been made on the quartermaster's de- partment for the necessary materials to make the sick and wounded comfortable, but thus far he has been unable to procure scarcely anything. The means of transportation being very limited, both by railroad and teams, has proved a source of great annoyance. I would respectfully suggest that the necessary steps be taken to secure transportation for hospital material over all other stores except ammunition. This would at once remedy a great evil. The greatest amount of confusion seems to have prevailed in consequence of soliciting attaches for the hospital from Federal prisoners in place of disabled Confederate soldiers. Great waste in property, medicines, and provisions has been the result. This I shall endeavor to correct as speedily as possible. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 105 I would respectfully request that an efficient quartermaster and commissary be ordered to report to me for special hospital duty, with full power from the war department to provide for the comfort of the sick and wounded Federal prisoners. Without an arrangement of this kind I very much fear the hospital department in C. S. military prison will continue to be neglected. Hoping that this communication may meet with favorable consideration, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, B. B. Stevenson, Surgeon in Charge. This report was sent to the surgeon-general late in September, while Dr. Jones was pursuing his investigations. Over a month had elapsed since Colonel Chandler's report had reached the surgeon-general and other officers at Richmond. Surgeon Stevenson is the person who has published a book in defense of the administration of the Andersonville prison, entitled "The Southern Side," and yet he himself reported a condition almost paralyzing in its shocking details. "What can be said in palliation of a situation which warranted the statement — "Under the present regime hundreds die in the stockade and are buried, whose names and diseases are unknown." Into this stockade, he tells his chief, "30,000 to 40,000 prisoners have been crowded; no protection what- ever from the burning rays of the sun, except such as could be made from blankets or dirt hovels." * Such was that stockade. Of the hospital he speaks but little more favorably ; so situated "that all the surrounding depressing agencies would seem to center in the hospital, as well as in the stockade." He says further: "Great efforts have been made to make the stock- ade secure and prevent the escape of prisoners, and but little attention paid to the hygienic and sanitary condition of the sick." He adds : "Surgeon I. H. "White, chief post surgeon, informs me that timely requisitions have been made on the quartermaster's department for the necessary materials to make the sick and wounded comfortable, but thus far he has been unable to procure scarcely anything." On October 31, 1864, Surgeon Stevenson made a report, through Surgeon "White, to General Winder, 1 in which he reports : Bemaining in hospital, October 1 1970 Admitted for treatment during month 1943 Total under treatment during month 3913 Died : 1595 1 War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series 2, p. 1075. 106 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. This report shows that nearly 41 per cent of those under treatment died in the month of October. Is it not remarkable that no steps were taken, such as had been "frequently suggested" as necessary, to reform the death-dealing policy and methods ? What must have been the con- dition previously if Surgeon Stevenson could truthfully say there had been "a marked improvement in the health of the prisoners" in October, when 41 out of every 100 in hospital died 1 1 First Division C. S. Military Prison Hospital^ Surgeon E. D. Eiland, September 5, 1864. In Charge First Division C. S. Military Prison Hospital: Sir: As officer of the day for the past twenty -four hours I have inspected the hospital and found it in as good a condition as the nature of the circumstances will allow. A majority of the bunks are still unsupplied with bedding, while in a portion of the division, the tents are entirely destitute of either bunks, bedding, or straw, the patients being compelled to lie upon the bare ground. I would earnestly call your attention to the article of diet. The corn bread received from the bakery, being made up without sifting, is wholly unfit for the use of the sick, and often, as in the last twenty-four hours, upon examination, the inner portion is found to be perfectly raw. The meat (beef) received by the patients does not amount to over two ounces per day, and for the last three or four days no flour has been issued. The corn bread cannot 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 then that is re- . ceived by way of subsistence is two ounces of boiled beef and a half pint of rice soup per day, and under these circumstances all the skill that can be brought to bear upon their cases by the medical officers will avail nothing. Another point to which I feel it my duty to call your attention is the deficiency of medicines. We have little more than indigenous barks and roots with which to treat the numerous forms of disease to which our attention is daily called. For the treat- ment of wounds, ulcers, etc., we have literally nothing except water. The wards, some of them, are filled with gangrene, 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 influences, this 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 sufferings of the sick. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. Crews Pelot, Assistant Surgeon, Provisional Army C. S., Officer of the Day. These medical officers were on duty at Andersonville Prison when Colonel Chandler made his inspection and report. The document 1 1 do not find this report in Dr. Stevenson's book. It would illy support his volume entitled "Southern Side." 2 War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series 2, p. 773. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 107 above given was a report a month later and shows that no improve- ment followed Colonel Chandler's inspection and recommendations. Eliminating the impossible com bread, "wholly unfit for the use of the sick," we have here the evidence that "two ounces of boiled beef and a half pint of rice soup" constituted the daily ration. Let us contrast this dietary with the dietaries furnished by the British in the war of 1812 to their prisoners, and ours furnished to the rebel prisoners. In the Dartmoor Prison in England, our men taken pris- oners were allowed for the first five days in the week 24 ounces of coarse brown bread, 8 ounces of beef, 4 ounces of barley, one-third ounce of onions, one-third ounce of salt, and 16 ounces of turnips daily (or more than 50 ounces of solid food) ; and for the remaining two days the usual allowance of bread was given with 16 ounces of pickled fish. At the Melville Island Prison, at Halifax, the prisoners were given 16 ounces of bread, 16 ounces of beef, and one gill of peas ; the American agent furnishing coffee, sugar, potatoes, and tobacco. The United States allowed to the rebel prisoners held by us 38 ounces of solid food at first; but afterwards, in June, 1864, the ration was reduced to 34% ounces per day. 1 Confederate States of America, Surgeon-General's Office. Richmond, Va., , 186 — . Beport of the Sanitary Condition of the Confederate States Military Prisons at Camps Sumter and Lawton, Georgia, by Surgeon Isaiah H. White* Having been ordered to this post, I am lending my aid to the surgeon in charge in the construction of hospital accommodations. Temporary sheds are being constructed sufficient in number and capacity to accommodate 2,000 sick. Great difficulty is experienced in procuring from the quartermaster's depart- ment the necessary tools for the advancement of the work. Any number of laborers can be obtained among the prisoners, and with the necessary tools the work eould soon be completed. The law of Congress creating a hospital fund to provide for the comfort of sick and wounded is completely abrogated by the commissary department failing to fill requisitions for funds. The authority granted in your telegram of September 22, to divide the excess of funds at Andersonville among the new prisons, has been thwarted by the com- missary at that post in failing to supply funds. Thus we are crippled and em- barrassed by the quartermaster's and commissary departments, the one failing to furnish on requisition those things which should be furnished by the quarter- master's department, and the other to furnish funds with which to purchase them in the market. 1 Martyria, A. C. Hamlin, Dakin and Metcalf, Cambridge Press, 19, 1866, p. 81. 2 War of Rebellion, vol. VII, series 2, p. 1137. 108 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. A large excess of funds at Andersonville will be turned over to the treasury, because the commissary at that post has failed to supply himself with funds to meet requisitions, while thousands of sick both at this post and Andersonville are in a state of suffering that would touch the heart of even the most callous. Will not the commissary-general supply the funds, even after the monthly state- ment of hospital fund has been forwarded? Humanity and the fame of the government demand that the extreme suffering among the prisoners should be alleviated. Isaiah H. White, Surgeon, Provisional Army, C. S. [First indorsement:] Surgeon-General's Office, November 17, 1864. Respectful- ly referred to the secretary of war for information as to the relative responsibility of the several departments for the actual condition of the sick and wounded pris- oners of war at this camp. S. P. Mooke, Surgeon-General, C. S. Army. [Second indorsement:] November 20, 1864. Commissary-general and quarter- master-general for prompt attention and report. J. A. S., Secretary of War. This cry of humanity had been going up to Richmond for seven or eight months with the uniform result — no action. Even now, in No- vember, when 41 per cent per month of the sick were dying, the Richmond authorities were satisfied with indorsements on the appeals which finally ended in pigeonholes and nothing done. The appeal to "humanity" and to the "fame" of the government was futile. SURGEON THORNBURG'S REPORT. Dr. Amos Thornburg, surgeon at Andersonville, testified fully. His testimony will be found in subsequent pages. He made a report to Dr. Joseph Jones from which I make some excerpts as further illus- trating the frightful conditions against which our soldiers had to contend. 1 In order to show you the kind of material we have to work on it will be neces- sary to first give you a list of the most prevalent diseases among the prisoners, consequent on great mental and nervous depression, from long confinement in over-crowded and badly arranged prisons, seclusion from society, long-defeTred hope, a lack of cleanliness, insufficient supply of nourishing food, a want of proper exercise, of both body and mind, and from breathing an atmosphere so much vitiated by idio miasma as to be insufficient to produce the proper degree of oxygenation of the blood, a condition so necessary to both mental and bbdily soundness. This depraved blood then affords an imperfect stimulus to the brain and nervous system, and as a result we have languor and inactivity of the menial and nervous functions, with a tendency to headache, syneope, hypochondriasis, and hemeralopia. The diseases most commonly met with are diarrhoea, dysentery, 1 War of Rebellion, series 2, vol. VIII, p. 625. CONDITIONS AS DESCRIBED BY CONFEDERATES. 109 intermittent and remittent fever, with continued, or camp, fever, as many term it. We also have catarrhal affections, with occasional pneumonia, and plueritis, and, above all, scorbutus. As it so rarely happens in the course of a long experience of the medical prac- titioner or surgeon that he has an opportunity of witnessing this most formidable and loathsome disease in all its aggravated forms, it might not be amiss to in- troduce in this place a detailed account of that fearful disease, as it has pre- vailed and is still prevailing in this prison. But as that would be a work of supererogation and lead us too far from our subject, we will not attempt the task. Out of 30,000 prisoners who have been confined at this place during the past spring and summer, perhaps not less than one-half have suffered from this disease in some of its various forms. As a sequel to the above-named diseases we have oedema, anasarca, ascites, hydrothorax, anKmia, and ulcers of nearly every variety and form. These ulcers are» produced from the slightest causes imaginable. A pin scratch, a prick of a splinter, a pustula, an abrasion, or even a mosquito bite are sufficient causes for their production. The phagedenic ulcer is the most common variety met with among the prisoners, and usually commences from some of the causes enumerated above, or from wounds or injuries of a more serious nature. When from any of these causes an ulcer forms, it speedily assumes a phagedenic appearance and extends over a large extent of surface, and presents irritable, jagged, and everted edges, and slowly destroys the dead tissues down Jo the bone. The surface pre- sents a large ash-colored or greenish yellow slough and emits a very offensive odor. After the slough is removed by appropriate treatment, the parts beneath show but little tendency to granulate. Occasionally, however, apparently healthy gran- ulations spring up and progress finely for a time, and again fall into sloughing, and thus, by an alternate process of sloughing and phagedenic ulceration, large portions of the affected member or large masses of the body are destroyed. In this condition gangrene usually sets in, and if not speedily arrested soon puts an end to the poor sufferer's existence. Early in the spring smallpox made its appearance in the prison, and as a prophylactic measure we were ordered to vaccinate "all who could not show a, healthy scar." Consequently we went to work, and in a week or ten days 2,000 or 3,000 were vaccinated. Out of these nearly every man who happened to be affected with scurvy was attacked with ulceration of the pustule. These small ulcers soon began to slough and extend over a large extent of surface. These sloughs would become detached, the parts beneath suppurate, as in the case of other ulcers in a sloughy condition, until at last the ulcer would become phage- denic and destroy every structure in its track for a considerable extent. In this condition gangrene would set in, and if the disease be not speedily arrested by powerful eseharotics, emollient poultices, and the proper vegetable diet, amputa- tion became necessary, or the poor wretch would sink under the irritation; diar- rhoea or dysentery would supervene and speedily destroy the patient. The next and most common form of ulcers with us are what we call the scorbutic ulcer. In severe cases of scurvy we have the upper and lower extremities covered with blue or livid spots, varying from the size of a millet seed to three or four inches 110 THE TKAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. in diameter, or the whole leg may be of a dark livid or copper color. These blotches become painful, open and ulcerate. This condition continues for a time, and finally slough, destroying whole toes, feet, and even arms and legs, apparently without there being sufficient energy or vitality in the system to set up inflamma- tory action. He submits a table of cases treated in ward five, second division of the hospital, for July, August, September, and to October 5, 1864. He expresses regret that he cannot give the statistics of other wards. He says : "It will be seen by the above statement that we have treated, in a little over three months, 325 patients, and out of that number 208 have died." I quote further : We will close this paper, lest we weary you with dry and uninteresting matter, by giving a short description of our so-called hospital. We have from 1,600 to 2,000 patients, besides nurses and attendants, crowded together in small and almost useless tents erected on less than three acres of ground. The hospital is erected on a narrow tongue of land between two small creeks, on each side of which are swamps forty and fifty yards in width; on the west and up these creeks from the hospital are the camps and stockade. Now, all the debris from over 30,000 human beings has to pass along the small brook on the north of the hospital grounds and within a stone's throw of patients' tents. A large portion of this filth is deposited on the marsh and produces a most sickening stench. Our patients are carried from the stockade and placed in the tents by the attendants. We put in the common small A tent four patients, in the large wall tent eight, and in the common fly from six to eight. About one- third have bunks or scaffolds and the remainder have to lie on the ground with- out straw or anything else to protect them from its dampness. Those who are not fortunate enough to have a blanket are compelled to lie on the damp ground with no covering but their clothing, which in many instances they have worn for six months without washing. The diet is of the coarsest kind, consisting of boiled beef, rice, molasses, and coarse corn bread baked without sifting, and from one to two ordinary-sized bis- cuits. To this we sometimes have added a small allowance of vegetables, such as peas, potatoes, and collards. These vegetables are generally issued raw and the patients are compelled to hire their comrades to cook them in some sort of style and pay them out of their scanty allowance. With these facts before you, you will not wonder at the fearful mortality pre- sented in our report and in the tabular statement from our ward, presented above. Peeling we have done our whole duty, both in the eyes of God and man, we leave the matter to rest with those whose duty it was to furnish supplies and build up a hospital that might have reflected credit on the government and saved the lives of thousands of our race. Who were the persons to whom Dr. Thornburg refers? The answer stands out in all these pages. They could by means at hand have "saved the lives of thousands of our race." Why did they not do it? CHAPTEE VI. Conditions at the Prison (continued); — Reports and Testimony op Surgeons on Duty at the Prison, namely: Dr. Amos Thornburg; Dr. F. T. Castlen; Dr. G. S. Hopkins; Dr. G. LeB. Rice; Dr. John C. Bates; Dr. R. G. Roy; Dr. B. J. Head — Testimony op Dr. William Balser, who had Occasion to Treat a Large Number op Prisoners from Andersonville on Their Way to Freedom prom Prison Life — They were Living Skeletons — Area op Prison Computed. TT may be said that Colonel Chandler and Dr. Jones had not the ■*- means of fully informing themselves, and that they based their eon- elusions upon a superficial examination of existing conditions. Colonel Chandler's high official rank repels all suggestion of wilful misrepre- sentation. He must be presumed to have reported only what he saw or learned from reliable sources. Dr. Jones's personal character and professional standing have, as we have seen, the indorsement of Mr. Davis, and Dr. Jones tells us that his record was made for the eyes of the Confederate authorities alone. He, therefore, wrote with entire freedom. It seemed not to have occurred to him that he was furnish- ing important evidence which some day would most convincingly show that a great crime had been committed at Andersonville, and that he was forging the links in the chain of proofs which would tend to fix the guilt on the officials who sent him on his mission. But the evidence does not depend alone on the two important re- ports found in the preceding chapter, corroborated as they are by the other reports quoted. There were several surgeons called as wit- nesses who were on duty at Andersonville at different times during the entire period of the prison's existence. It is to this evidence I shall now turn.. TESTIMONY OF DE. AMOS THORNBURG. 1 Dr. Amos Thornburg, whose report appears in the preceding chap- ter, was assigned to duty there on April 14, 1864, and remained until the prison was closed. He testified: My commission bears date October 29, 1862. I served a little over two years in the field, except what time I was a prisoner. On the 10th of March, 1864, 1 Record, p. 332. 112 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. I was relieved from field duty on account, of my health and sent back to a hospital at Oxford, Georgia. I stayed there two or three weeks, and was then ordered to Andersonville to report to the commander of the prison there. I reported there on the 14th of April, 1864. I reported to Colonel Persons, who was in command of the post. He sent me to Dr. White, the surgeon of the post, and Dr. White assigned me to duty in the stockade. I prescribed in quarters theTe for two or three months, and was then assigned to duty at the hospital outside the stockade by Surgeon White. He was the surgeon in charge of the prison as well as the hospital. I then remained in the hospital until the post was brokajk up, about the 5th of May, 1865, as well as I recollect. I think the hospital was removed outside the stockade in June or in the latter part of May. I remained prescribing in quarters part of the time inside the stockade, and the remainder of the time at the gate, I suppose till the latter part of June. I have no data to fix the time when I was sent to the hospital for duty. From the time I went there until I left, Captain Wirz was in command of the prison. While I was on duty in the hospital I frequently made reports to Surgeon White in regard to the condition of the hospital, when I was officer of the day, which would happen generally about once or twice a week. [A paper was here handed to the witness.] That is a copy of one of my reports. I think it is a true copy. I also made reports to Dr. Stevenson; this report was made to Dr. Stevenson. I found Dr. White in charge when I went there on the 15th of April, and he remained till about the time the prisoners were removed to Camp Lawton. I think he went with General Winder. That was in the beginning of September. Surgeon E. B. Stevenson succeeded him, and continued chief surgeon until the latter part of the month of September, 1864; I think about the 25th. Surgeon H. H. Clayton succeeded Dr. Stevenson, and continued in charge until the place was captured by General Wilson or the post was abandoned. [The paper shown to witness, and of which the following is a copy, was then placed in evidence:] C. S. M. P. Hospital, Andersonville, Georgia, September 26, 1864. Sir: I would most respectfully call your attention to the very bad sanitary condition of the second division, as well as the whole hospital, to the immense quantity of filth accumulating in the streets, and to the filthiness of the tents and patients, and to the fact that it cannot be otherwise until we are furnished* with the means with which to work; patients lying on the cold ground without bed or blanket; and also that we have a very scanty supply of medicines, and that the rations are not of the proper kind and not issued in proper quantity. Hoping that the proper steps may be taken to remedy these defects, I am, sir, your obedient servant, A. Thornburg, Assistant Surgeon, P. A. C. S. R. R. Stevenson, Surgeon in Charge. When Dr. White was in charge I made similar reports to him. This was not the only report I ever made to Dr. Stevenson on the subject ; not by a great many. There was a quantity of hospital clothing, bed sacks, sheets, &c, sent there, I think a short time before Dr. White left the post. I do not know the number, but TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SUKGEONS. J 13 PLAN »rp R i SOM GROUNDS ANOLRSONVILLE,GA. there were several bales. "When Dr. Stevenson was in charge I was in charge of the surgical ward in the second division, generally known as the gangrene ward. I had for that ward some scaffoldings fixed up for bunks, and I fre- quently made application for bed sacks, sheets, &c. I got a few bed sacks, but they would soon become dirty and I would send them off to be washed, and perhaps not see them any more. The next thing I would see would be some prisoner with a pair of pantaloons on made out of a bed sack, and I would make application for more. I knew that the prisoners needed the things, being desti- tute of clothing, and I made no complaints about their taking them. I very seldom got anything that I made requisition for. Dr. Stevenson never offered me any excuse. Sometimes, when I would talk to him in person, he would tell me that he aimed to have a hospital constructed, when he could use these things and have them better cared for, but that if they were issued in there they would be made way with, and it would be a clear loss to the government. That time did not come while I was in charge. The only hospital we had at that time was a tent. After Dr. Clayton took charge, about the first of January, 1865, he began for the first time to construct a hospital, and he had it pretty well on towards completion at the time the post was broken up. It was not entirely completed. It was used. We got all the sick out of the tents into those sheds that were built for the purpose of making a hospital. The food that was issued was such as the other prisoners and the soldiers outside could get from the commis- sary, mostly bacon, beef, or pickled' pork. The bacon was generally very good; the beef sometimes was rather poor. The pickled pork that came in was very 114 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. frequently partly spoilt; it smelt badly, was hardly fit for use, and we had at times condemned it and sent it back. The meal that was issued was very coarse, and at first was not sifted even for the hospital. That was under Dr. "White. There were very few vegetables issued during his administration. Sometimes we would get a few collards, and tomatoes, and sweet potatoes, &e., but in very small quantities. That was under Dr. White. It was a little better under Dr. Stevenson; but very little was issued — not enough to supply the demands of the sick. The cooking department was also very bad; we had to cook in large kettles, such as is used in boiling sorghum, and the things could not be cooked as they should have been. The vegetables were sometimes issued raw and divided out among the prisoners, and the quantity was very small. They had sometimes to get their comrades to cook them, and they generally charged a portion of the articles for cooking them. They complained to me that what few vegetables they did get did them no good, which I knew to be a fact, and so reported in some of my reports. The supply of medicines was generally insufficient. The surgeon in charge would generally make a requisition for medicine to have it on the first of the month, but it was usually the 10th before we got the supply, and when we did get it, such articles as opium, quinine, and other valuable medicines, which were very scarce in the Confederacy, would be exhausted in the course of ten or twelve days, and we would have to rely on such indigenous remedies as were furnished by the medical purveyor. We had large quantities of them, but we had no laboratory to prepare them properly. They were generally put up in decoctions and infusions by the hospital steward. The prevailing diseases were scorbutus, gangrene, diarrhoea, dysentery, intermittent and remittent fever, typhoid and typhus fever. Proper provisions were the remedy that was needed for scorbu- tus, gangrene, and kindred diseases; it was a waste of medicine. What medicine we gave I considered thrown away, because we did not have proper diet for the patients, and consequently the medicine did no good; yet they were very anxious to get medicine to relieve them, and we would prescribe what we had and have it administered to them, but I looked upon it as a waste of medicine, because we did not have proper diet. I regard diet as the main thing in the treatment of most of the diseases we had to contend with. We had a great deal of hospital gangrene at one time. I never knew much about the hospital fund. 1 only knew that there were orders from the war department, the assistant inspector-general's office, that the prison hospital should be on an equal footing with the Confederate hospitals, and that the surgeon in charge should be allowed to draw the same fund. A por- tion of the time the fund was a dollar a day for each patient, and after a while it got to be two dollars and two and a half dollars a day. I think it amounted to that towards the last, but I did not see the order. I know of no reason why it could not have been drawn at Andersonville. It was generally drawn at other hospitals. The fund was sufficient to buy vegetables for the Confederate hospi- tals, and sometimes large amounts of the fund were turned over to other and more needy hospitals. My understanding was — and I had a little knowledge of it, too — that if they did not use all the hospital fund for that purpose, they were allowed to use it for other purposes, such as fitting up the hospitals. There TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SURGEONS. 115 was an order issued from Richmond directing that the surplus fund be turned over to the quartermaster at the end of each month. I do not remember the date of the order. I saw the weekly account current one time in the hands of the hospital steward, Mr. Kerr. I had made complaints to him about the condition of the patients and the condition and the amount of the rations that came in and the amount of vegetables and other nourishing diet that was to be bought with the hospital fund. Mr. Kerr, to convince me that these things were sent in, showed me the weekly statement for that week. In looking at it I remarked that those things never came into the hospital — at least, that no con- siderable part of them had come in, and I made some little complaint about it to the other surgeons, and we began to talk about having an investigation of the matter. We called on Mr. Kerr after that for the book, but he remarked that Dr. Stevenson had it in his charge, and we were not allowed to see it. I never saw it after that until Dr. Stevenson left and Dr. Clayton took charge. At that time, myself and three or four other surgeons went up and asked Dr. Clay- ton to let us see the account current. He showed it to us, and on examination we found that large quantities of things which appeared by the book to have been bought had never come into the hospital. We made a statement of the facts to the surgeon-general and forwarded it by mail. A few days afterwards Dr. Eiland was ordered to Montgomery. He had taken an active part in this investigation, and we requested him as he went through to Montgomery to stop at Columbus, Georgia, and make a statement to the medical director. He did so. At the time he made that statement, Dr. Gilliard, one of the surgeon-gen- eral's assistants, happened to be at Columbus, in the office of the medical director. He and Dr. Flewellen came down immediately and investigated the case, and found that there had been some errors in regard to the hospital fund. Dr. Stevenson went to Columbia, South Carolina, and was there the last news I had from him. The mortality was generally great while I was at Andersonville. I attribute it to the want of proper diet and the crowding together of too many men in the prison and in the hospital. There was too small a space of ground for the number of prisoners we had there. There was a great lack of shelter and » lack of fuel. I think that was also a cause of mortality. I believe that is all the causes I can recollect just now. The worst cases that were in the stockade were brought generally to the hos- pitals for treatment. While 1 prescribed there, for the first few months the hospitals outside were very much crowded, and they could not make room for all the patients that ought to have been sent out. I would sometimes prescribe while at the stockade gate for five hundred patients in a day. In order to do that we had to prescribe by formulas; to make out formulas for different diseases and number them, and then just examine » man and set down the num- ber of the prescription that he was to take opposite his name, with directions. Frequently there would be no vacancies in the hospital at all. Some days we could not send any to the hospital. At other times perhaps fifty, sixty, or a hundred men would have died during the day previous and there would be that many vacancies, and we would be allowed to send in a pro rata number to fill those vacancies. There were generally some ten or twelve surgeons and assistant 116 TEE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. surgeons prescribing at the stockade gate, and each one would be allowed to send in a certain number to fill the vacancies. Some days we would send in one, two, three apiece, sometimes ten apiece, and some days, when the hospital would be enlarged, as high as thirty or forty apiece. One day we sent three or four hundrd among us out of the stockade to the hospital. I presume there were a good many in the stockade that could not come out, and if they did not have friends to carry them out in their blankets or upon their backs, they would perhaps not get prescriptions. Sometimes the sergeants who drew the rations and had charge of the squads would represent to the surgeons the cases of men who were not able to come out, and had requested them to get certain medicines; and if the diseases were such as we could prescribe for, we would very frequently set the name of such a man down and the number of the prescription that he should have, and that medicine was then issued to the sergeant, and he delivered it to the man, I suppose. Deaths occurred in the stockade frequently. . I suppose some died that never had got prescriptions. Sometimes there would be a very sick man brought from the stockade, and he would be marked in the sur- geon's book for admittance to the hospital; he would have to remain at the gate until all the surgeons got through prescribing, so that the men who carried them to the hospital could discriminate and take the proper ones. It generally took us from eight o'clock in the morning till twelve o'clock noon before we would get through prescribing, and sometimes very bad cases would die while waiting there to be carried to the hospital. I had charge of so many divisions in the stockade, and frequently when a man from one of my divisions would die in that way, the clerk who kept the death register would ask me the man's rank and regiment and name, and the squad to which he belonged. Several men might have died at my post when I was prescribing and I could not recollect anything about any particular one. There would be two or three dead, and we could not identify them. After that I adopted the plan of writing the name, rank, regiment, and disease of each man on a piece of paper and pinning it to the breast of his coat or some part of his clothing. It worked very well, and I recommended Dr. White to issue an order requesting all the surgeons who pre- scribed at the stockade gate to adopt the same plan. He did issue such an order, and the system was adopted June, 1864. Up to that time there were more or less of these imperfect records. Very frequently men died in the stockade who could not be identified by any person in there, because men suffering from scurvy would frequently fall dead in the streets. It was also not unfrequently the case that a man was murdered in there, and murdered perhaps away from his friends, and he would be carried out of the stockade gate and nobody could identify him. So far as the names of the men and the diseases that they had, the hospital register was kept with great accuracy. If a man came to me I would diagnose his case, and send him to the hospital with a statement of the disease which I considered that he had. That was generally entered upon the register, but, perhaps, he would have half a dozen supervening diseases after he went into the hospital. The supervening diseases were hardly ever entered on the register, but generally only the disease with which he went from the stockade. I do not know what entry was made on the register when a man was shot in the stockade. I suppose the cause of death would be called "minus sclopeticwm" ; that is the technical name for gunshot wound, and I suppose that would be the entry. Such TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SUEGEONS. 117 an entry might be in the case of a man who had received wounds on the field of battle somewhere. Q. If a man in the stockade had been shot in the stockade, and the hospital register showed that he died of scorbutus, what would be the fact in that case? A. I do not suppose the register would show that, unless the man so shot was a patient, and under treatment for scorbutus at the time. Q. Examine the register now handed you, and examine it with some care, and state whether you recognize it, and whether it has any appearance of having been tampered with or changed since you saw it at the hospital. [Objected to by Mr. Baker until the book was proved, and objection overruled.] A. I recognize the book as being the hospital book kept at Andersonville. I see no marks that would indicate that it had been tampered with, except some pencil marks on the margin, which I suppose are check marks. [The witness pointed out the marks referred to.] [The hospital register was offered in evidence and accompanies the record.] F. M. Tryon, clerk to the commission, a witness on the part of the prosecution, being duly sworn, was examined as follows : Q. Examine the register and state what the pencil marks are. A. This book was given to me by Colonel Chipman to prepare an exhibit of the number of deaths, &c, which I did; and, in taking off the number of deaths I made the check marks referred to by the witness. [The examination of Dr. Amos Thornbtjrg was then resumed.] Q. Examine the three indexes of the hospital register handed to you and see if you recognize them? A. I do; and, so far as I can see, they are all correct. [The books were put in evidence by the Judge Advocate, and accompany this record.] Q. I notice in this register very many entire columns representing that a patient was admitted, for instance, August 8, and died August 8, and in the column of remarks, "died in quarters," and again admitted August 9, died August 9, "died in quarters," and so on all through the book; what does the remark "died in quarters" mean? A. I think Dr. Stevenson, perhaps, would have to make a report of those cases, and they would have to be reported as having died of something, and as having died in hospital. I think, perhaps, there was an order that caused him to report them on the death register in hospital, and yet in the remarks they are put down "died in quarters"; that means in the stockade. I never knew how he fixed up that difficulty. There were a great many things in reference to the hospital that I never could understand, and this was one of them. I suppose "unknown" would be the entry in cases where the surgeon could not make out a proper diagnosis of the case. Those six men that were hung were marked as having died of "asphyxia." I do not recollect the date those men were hung, but I know they were all marked as having died of asphyxia. I asked the clerk in the hospital how he had entered those cases, and he referred me to the book, and showed me that he had marked them "asphyxia." 118 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. The Judge Advocate. On page 110 of the hospital record there are given the names of six men who died of asphyxia, and in the column of remarks, "Tried by court-martial, and executed inside the prison;'' that is the record. Witness. Those are no doubt the men who were hung. Q. I notice on examining this register that a large proportion of the patients recorded as having been admitted died in hospital, many of them the day they were admitted, or immediately after, and that a few seem to be recorded as "returned to the stockade." Will you state to the court what your observation was with regard to the proportion that were returned to the stockade after being treated in the hospital? A. Well, I have no data from which I can state how many were returned to the stockade. The proportion, however, was small. Sometimes a, man would come to the hospital and be treated there and relieved of his disease, but in the meantime some of the surgeons would become acquainted with him, and, per- haps, would have him detailed as a nurse, or, perhaps he would be detailed out- side the stockade for some other business, and hence he was not returned to quarters. The proportion actually returned to quarters was very small. I never met among my own patients — those I had treated myself — any eases where I was unable to give a diagnosis of the cause of death, and where I had to report the disease as "unknown." I have met with patients after they were dead where I could not tell the cause of death. I have frequently seen men brought out of the stockade dead, and I did not know what they died of. My idea is that a large proportion could have been saved by proper diet and proper quarters, perhaps one-half. I will say that one-half might have been saved if we had had proper nourishing diet and the proper kind of hospital accommodations. Q. Remembering the condition of these prisoners, and the scanty supply of fuel they had, was there weather there that would have killed them — frozen them to death? A. Yes, sir; I suppose there was, in their emaciated condition. I do not know of any cases of that kind. I cannot give the temperature in summer in that climate. I think I have not seen a thermometer since I have been in that country. Last summer, I suppose, the hottest day we had would not have gone over 96 degrees or 98 degrees in the shade. In the summer of 1865 I should think it went up to 108 degrees in the shade. It was pretty hot in the sun. I could not tell how many degrees in the sun. • The Judge Advocate. I call the attention of the court to page 337 of the hospital register, where I find this record: "T. Gerrity, 106 Penna., frozen to death; admitted January 3; died January 3; died in the stockade." Witness. I cannot give the temperature under the rays of the sun in summer. It would be mere guess-work. A man who had to ride in it, as I have had to do, would think it was almost up to boiling-point. I suppose it would run up to 150 degrees in the sun. I never saw it tried, but I would think so. In that remark I refer to the summer of 1865. It was not so high at any_time during the summer of 1864, because that was a wet summer. Q. Would the heat be somewhere in that neighborhood? A. I think that would be a fair proportion. When the thermometer was over TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SURGEONS. 119 one hundred in the shade, I think it would stand a great many degrees higher in the sun. TESTIMONY OF DR. P. G. CASTLEN. Dr. F. G. Castlen was on duty as regimental surgeon of the Third Georgia Reserves. He testified as to some matters not properly bear- ing upon the question to which the evidence is now more particularly being directed. The testimony will be given here, but should be con- sidered in connection with subsequent chapters. He testified :* I have been in the Confederate army during the last two years. From May until September, 1864, at Andersonville ; the remaining portion of the time in South Carolina. I was surgeon of the Third Georgia Reserves while at Andersonville. I occasionally had opportunities of observing the prisoners in the stockade at Andersonville. Their condition was deplorable; language could not express the condition in which I saw them at that time. The stench was intolerable. It sometimes came up to my camp, a half a mile distant. It was only during an east wind that I was troubled with the stench arising from the stockade. I saw negroes at work there at one time. I do not know in what numbers; twenty or thirty, I suppose. It was a pine country about there. Farms were carried on there. I have seen cucumbers, squashes, cabbages, potatoes, collards, and melons in market. I was at market frequently. I saw different kinds of vegetables there at different times — not all I have mentioned at the same time. I don't suppose my regiment procured their vegetables from the market; they generally got them from their homes. I have seen vegetables in the camp at different times. I do not know that they purchased them at market. At one time my regiment was very unhealthy. That was in June, I think. They were in a very healthy condition afterwards. I had no difficulty in getting medicines that I wanted. I have seen the prisoner, Captain Wirz. I do not know what his duties were officially at Andersonville. I saw acts of cruelty committed by Captain Wirz on one or two occasions. At one time the prisoners were being removed, I think to Savannah. One prisoner was out of the ranks; Captain Wirz jerked and struck him, I think, once or twice; don't remember how many times, but I think once or twice. I saw one man who had been bitten by the dogs. I saw the dogs bite him. I saw the dogs running down the swamp below my camp. I went down, and when I reached the brow of the hill, I heard the dogs baying; going down, I saw this man up the tree. I heard some one order him down. I don't know who it was. He came down, and I saw the dogs seize him. Captain Wirz was there with the hounds. TESTIMONY OP DR. G. S. HOPKINS. Dr. G. S. Hopkins was sent by General "Winder to make a report on the prison, and remained there from some time in July, 1864, until September of that year. His report of August 1, 1864, to General 1 Record, p. 108 et seq. 120 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. Winder, is embodied in his testimony. It shows in concrete form the causes of disease and mortality ; the preventive measures suggested for relieving the stockade and the hospital. It reaches beyond mere cor- roboration of Colonel Chandler's report and more than confirms Dr. Jones's statements. He testified : 1 TESTIMONY OF DE. 6. S. HOPKINS. I reside in Thomasville, Georgia, about one hundred or one hundred and ten miles from Andersonville. I have resided in the South during the Rebellion. I was at Andersonville during the summer of 1864. In July, 1864, an order was issued by the governor of the State of Georgia putting the physicians into the militia service. He claimed that they were liable to the militia service, though exempt by Confederate law. I went to Macon then and had my choice either to go into the medical department or to go into the trenches. I did not feel able to shoulder the musket. I was assigned to duty at Andersonville, and ordered to report to Chief Surgeon White on the 22d of July, 1864. I remained there until September 8, when I was ordered to report to the commanding officer at Camp Lawton, the new prison at Millen. I graduated as a physician in March, 1845. I there received orders to make a thorough inspection of the Federal prison and hospital at that place, and report, if I possibly could, the causes of disease and mortality among the Federal prisoners, and to make such suggestions as I deemed necessary to prevent further sickness and mortality. Chief Surgeon White and Acting Assistant Surgeon Watkins were on the committee with me under this order. On the 29th of July we made a thorough inspection of the prison and hospital in obedience to that order. I haye my report here. [The paper which was exhibited to witness, of which the following is a, copy, was offered in evidence, and is attached to this record:] Andersonville, Georgia, August 1, 1864. General: In obedience to your order of July 28th requiring us to make a careful examination of the Federal prison and hospital at this place, and to ascertain and report to you the cause of disease and mortality among the prisoners, and the means necessary to prevent the same, this has been complied with, and we respectfully submit the following: Causes of Disease and Mortality. 1. The large number of prisoners crowded together. 2. The entire absence of all vegetables as diet, so necessary as a preventive of scurvy. 3. The want of barracks to shelter the prisoners from sun and rain. 4. The inadequate supply of wood and good water. 5. Badly cooked food. 6. The filthy condition of prisoners and prison generally. 7. The morbific emanations from the branch or ravine passing through the prison, the condition of whieh cannot be better explained than by naming it a morass of human excrement and mud. Preventive Measures. 1. The removal immediately from the prison of not less than 15,000 prisoners. 2. Detail on parole a sufficient number of prisoners to cultivate the necessary 1 Record, p. 376. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SURGEONS. 121 supply of vegetables, and until this can be carried into practical operation, the appointment of agents along the different lines of railroad to purchase and forward a supply. 3. The immediate erection of barracks to shelter the prisoners. 4. To furnish the necessary quantity of wood, and have wells dug to supply the deficiency of water. 5. Divide the prisoners into squads, place each squad under the charge of a sergeant, furnish the necessary 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 Confederate government, and if the government be unable to do so, candidly admit our inability and call upon the Federal government to furnish them. 6. By a daily inspection of bake-house and baking. 7. Cover over with sand from the hillsides the entire ''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 disobedience of such orders severe. For the Hospital. We recommend — 1st. The tents be floored with planks; if planks cannot be had, with puncheons; and if this be impossible, then with fine straw, to be frequently changed. 2d. We find an inadequate supply of stool-boxes, and recommend that the num- ber be increased, and that the nurses be required to remove them as soon as used, and before returning them see that they are well washed and limed. 3d. The diet for the sick is not such as they should have, and we recommend that they be supplied with the necessary quantity of beef soup with vegetables. 4th. We also recommend that the surgeons be required to visit the hospitals not less than twice a day. We cannot too strongly recommend the necessity for the appointment of an efficient medical officer to the exclusive duty of inspecting daily the prison hos- pital and bakery, requiring of him daily reports of their condition to headquarters. We have the honor to remain, general, very respectfully, T. S. Hopkins, Brigadier-General John H. Winder. Acting Assistant Surgeon. [Indorsed:] Inspection report of Andersonville Prison, July, 1864. The name of H. E. Watkins, acting assistant surgeon, is also attached to this report. I submitted the report to Chief Surgeon White. I waited two days, sup- posing that he would hand in his report. As that did not make its appearance, I called on him at his headquarters. He asked me "if I had written out my report." I told him that I was waiting for him, but that I had written out some suggestions. I read them. He approved them, saying I had written the truth. He told me to take my report to the Sumter Hospital, have it copied, getting Dr. Watkins to sign it with me, and then send it to his headquarters, and he would send it to General Winder. I did so. Several days elapsed. I heard nothing of the report until the field-ofBcer, Colonel Harkey, of the Fifty-fifth Georgia, who was messing with me, told a gentleman in my presence that two medical reports had been submitted to him and other officers for inspection to report upon them. I asked him if he had mine. He said he had. They were to decide, I think, which report was to be received. The chief surgeon did not sign our report, but made another one. His report was rather different; he did not make altogether the same recommendations that I did. When I read him my report he approved it, and told me that he would sign it if I had it copied and sent to him. I did have it copied, and sent it up immediately. I know that he did not sign it, because I saw the report after- 122 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVTLLE. ward, and I saw his report, which was different. I was assigned to the engineer department. The engineer officer in charge told me that he had from 1,000 to 1,200 negro men on the works. I was the surgeon assigned to that department. None of my cases died, except one man, who went away and died after he got home. Those men were under my charge from July 22, 1864, till, I think, the 8th of September, when I left, having been ordered to Millen. 1 went down with a portion of them. Q. Did you find, by your examination, that Captain Wirz was in any degree the cause of the ills complained of — the overcrowding of the prisoners, etc.? A. I do not know at whose door the fault lay; but the facts were evident. Captain Wirz's sign at his office designated him as the "commandant of the interior of the prison." I could not see any great difficulty in carrying out those sugges- tions I made. I think I could have had it done without much trouble. I cannot say if Captain Wirz was responsible for the overcrowded condition of the prison; I don't know who was responsible for it. Q. In your opinion was Captain Wirz responsible for the evils existing when you made your report? Did you discover anything which led you to believe that he was in any degree guilty in that respect? A. If I am compelled to answer that question, I must state, unhesitatingly, that it was the implicit confidence which General Winder had in Captain Wirz that caused that state of things to exist; otherwise, the general would certainly have visited the prison, and seen for himself its condition. General Winder did not visit the prison while I was there, that I ever knew of. I never heard of his going to the prison. He might have gone there without my knowledge ; I cannot say that he did not visit the prison. This report was made a few days before Colonel Chandler came upon the scene. Let me ask the reader to examine the seven causes, here set down by Dr. Hopkins, of the great mortality at the prison, and ask himself whether there is a single one of these causes which might not have been removed. Look at the preventive measures sug- gested. Were they not practical ? Do we not know from the evidence already given that it was within the power of the prison management to have carried out every one of the seven preventive measures recom- mended? Here were thirty -odd thousand human beings for whose health and comfort and lives the rebel government had assumed the responsibility. They were starving for want of food; suffering for so simple and abundant a thing as water; exposed in their nakedness to the burning sun by day and the chill and dews and storm of the night; breathing foul air from the morass and dying at the rate of a hundred a day, and the sick with grossly inadequate medical attendance ! TESTIMONY OF DR. G. L,. B. RICE. Dr. Jones came along in September, and from him we learn that there had been no abatement of the horrible conditions which Dr. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SUEGEONS. 123 Hopkins had pointed out and which might easily have been remedied. And we shall see that these conditions were not improved until near the time when the prison was closed and comparatively few remained. Dr. G. L. B. Eice was on duty at the prison from August 1, 1864, until about the middle of March, 1865. He testified to some facts which are given here, relating more particularly to Wirz, but should be remembered when the conduct of Wirz is being shown. He tes- tified t 1 I was on duty at Andersonville from about August 1, 1864, until March 10, 1865, I think. I was ordered to report to Dr. White, and he assigned me to duty at the stockade to attend the siek prisoners. We prescribed outside the stockade; I have forgotten the length of time; it was three or four weeks, more or less; after that I was sent to the hospital; a few days after I got there I was ordered to go into the stockade and report as officer of the day. I did so, and I found the stockade in a deplorable condition. I saw a great deal of suffering, filth, and everything that was bad and unpleasant. We prescribed by formulas or numbers. I commenced prescribing as I had been in the habit of doing at home; but I was informed that I would not be allowed to do that, that they had not the medicines. I was handed a list of the medicines that we had to use; they were in formulas and numbers from one up to a certain point. — I have forgotten what; we had to use those; it was a new thing to me; I was not accustomed to it, and my opinion was that we could do very little good with that kind of prescription ; I regarded that as a very unsafe method of practice. On some of those formulas which I had, the ingredients, I think, were put down; I know that they were toward the last; I did not analyze any of those potions to ascertain whether the report made on the label was true ; I had to take their word for it. I complained of that method of practice among the surgeons. I asked them if there was no chance to do better. They said there was not; that some of them had gone to the chief sur- geon and complained, and they said there was no other chance, and I concluded that if they could not do any better, I could do no better, and I did not make the attempt. . . . I knew a great many to die there who I believe died from hunger and starvation and from cold and exposure. I think it was the 10th of March, 1865, when I left the prison. The rigors of the prison did not cease or lighten during the winter; the prisoners were exposed more or less all that time. If all the surgeons had been sent away, and if the prisoners had got the vegetables which they should have had, and more room, a great many more men could have been saved. They needed the right kind of diet more than medicine. They needed also additional room. I made verbal suggestions to Dr. Stevenson in relation to the wood of the stockade — that it was entirely inadequate — and the great necessity for having a larger supply of vegetables for the stockade and hospital. I mentioned to him one day that I had a good many vegetables at home — more than we needed — that they were rotting, and that if he would allow me to go home for a few days, I would bring those vegetables down for the prisoners without any charge; or if he could 1 Record, p. 381 et seq. 124 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. not do that he eould send some man to get them; that they were all going to waste and doing nobody any good, and that, if they were brought to the prison and used properly, they might save some men's lives. He observed that he would like to have them, and turned off and said no more about it. They were not sent for. Q. Do you know anything about the investigation of the conduct of Dr. Stevenson? A. I was there when a couple of surgeons came on. He was tried for making away with the money that was sent there for the use of the hospital, so I heard. That was the understanding. There was an investigation had. I think he was found guilty. I was called into the room where they were carrying on the inves- tigation, and was asked a few questions by the committee. I do not know the amount of money Dr. Stevenson embezzled. I heard it was from $100,000 to $150,000. I don't know whether it was so or not. I saw the hounds at Andersonville almost every day. I know that at one time when I was living in a little tent I lost my pocket-book; the hounds were brought and put on the track; that was a few days after I got there. I saw them there nearly every day after that. I one day saw a man who was torn by them; I forget the date; I have no idea of the time. He was knocked up very badly. His skin was not torn, but you could see the blue marks of the prints of the dogs' teeth. I happened to be passing Captain Wirz's headquarters about the time they brought the man up, and I asked some one what was the matter with him. He could hardly walk, and seemed to be bent over from the effects of scurvy, I presumed. I soon found that he had made his escape the night previous, and had been brought in by this man who had the dogs — had been caught by them. I saw the marks of teeth on the man's flesh. I have no idea what month that was. The man was nearly naked; he had nothing on but a shirt, I think. They told me that his clothes had been torn off by the dogs; that he attempted to climb a tree and that the dogs pulled him down. I saw two dead bodies there during the time I was there on duty — one in the stockade and one in the hospital. The one in the hospital was shot through the breast. I walked in there one morning to attend to my duties, and T heard that a man had been shot that night by the sentry. I walked around to where he was and inquired of some prisoners how it happened, and they told me that he was a. poor crippled man, (I think he had crutches lying by him,) who had walked up near the paling and the sentry had shot him. That case was in the hospital. I saw the other in the stockade near the south gate. I do not know how the entry was made in those cases in the hospital register. The bad condition of the hospital and stockade continued all the time until I left, which was, I think, the 10th of March, 1865. I saw a great many die in the hospital from starvation, as well as in the stockade. I don't know whether Captain Wirz had anything to do with the rations in the hospital. I know that the chief surgeon had something to do with the rations. I did not speak with Dr. Stevenson again after I had told him once about the vegetables at my house. I never spoke of that matter to him any more. I frequently spoke to him. I several times told him about other things that they needed — straw, bunks, etc., to keep them from lying on the ground. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDEEATE SURGEONS. 125 Dr. John C. Bates went to Andersonville on duty in September, 1864, and remained on duty until the latter part of March, 1865. One cannot read the descriptions given by this witness without feelings of infinite pity for the unhappy creatures whose sufferings he por- trays. His testimony shows conclusively that nothing was done to improve the conditions, notwithstanding all the reports that had gone forward to the Richmond authorities. The witnesses whom I am now quoting speak first hand, and their testimony comes to us with all the more force since they make us see the prison in all its horror. Be it remembered, too, that these witnesses were in the rebel service, and that nothing but the sacredness of their oaths to "testify to the truth and nothing but the truth" would ever have impelled them to make these damning disclosures. TESTIMONY OF DR. JOHN C. BATES. 1 I have been residing for the past four or five years in the State of Georgia. I am a practitioner of medicine, and have been engaged in that profession since 1850. I have been on duty at the Andersonville Prison as acting assistant surgeon. I was assigned there on the 19th of September, 1864; reported for duty on the 22d, and left there on the 26th of March, 1865. [A paper was here handed to wit- ness.] I think I have seen that before. It is a pass given me by Captain Wirz to enter the stockade. [The pass was then put in evidence.] I was ordered by Medical Director Stout to report to I. H. or J. H. White, surgeon in charge. He having been hurt by some railroad accident, I reported to Dr. B. R. Stevenson. I reported to Dr. Stevenson, who assigned me to. the third division of the military prison hospital, under Dr. Sheppard; I was assigned to the fifteenth ward, as then designated. Upon going to the hospital I went immediately to the ward to which I was assigned, and, although I am not an over-sensitive man, I must confess I was rather 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 together, » majority of them in small tents, looking to be tents that were not very serviceable at best. I went around and examined all that were placed in my charge. That was the condition of the men. By and by, as I became familiarized with the condition of affairs, the impressions which were at first produced upon me wore off, more or less. I be- came familiar with scenes of misery and they did not affect me so much. I inquired into the rations of the men; I felt disposed to do my duty; and after the men found that I was inclined to aid them so far as I could in my sphere of action, they frequently asked me fer a teaspoonful of salt, or an order for » little siftings that came out of the meal. I would ask them what they wanted the sif tings for; some of them wished them to make some bread. I would inquire 1 Record, p. 27 et seq. 126 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. into the state of their disease, and if what they asked for would injure them, I would not allow them to have it. I would give them an order for sifted meal where I found that the condition of the patient required something better than siftings. They would come at times in considerable numbers to get these little orders for an extra ration, or if not a, ration, whatever portion they could get. I spent a considerable portion of my time in writing orders, and I did it very laconically. I had three words that constituted a bona fide order, which should be respected by the head cook or baker. We commonly called him Bob — his name was Allen; he was from Illinois. The order would read in this way: "Bob — meal — Bates." If any more words were attached to it, it was not a genuine order. I used that discrimination in order to favor the sickest of them, so that they might get what they could, at the expense, perhaps, of those who could get along better without it. These orders were constantly applied for, and I would sign them till my patience was almost worn out. The meat ration was cooked at a different part of the hospital; and when I would go up there, especially when I was medical officer of the day, the men would gather around me and ask me for a bone. I would grant their requests so far as I saw bones. I would give them whatever I could find at my disposition without robbing others. I well knew that an appro- priation 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 upon that ration. 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 about the way matters went along for some time after I went there. Clothing we had none; they could not be furnished with any clothing, except that the clothing of the dead was generally appropriated to the living. We thus helped the living along as well as we could. Of vermin or lice there was a very prolific crop there. I got to understand practically the meaning of the term "lousy"; I would generally find some upon myself after retiring to my quarters ; they were so numerous that it was impossible for a surgeon to enter the hospital without having some upon him when he came out, if he touched anybody or anything save the ground, and very often if he merely stood still any considerable length of time he would get them upon him. When I went to the hospital I found the men destitute of clothing and bedding; there was a partial supply of fuel, but not sufficient to keep the men warm and prolong their existence. Shortly after I arrived there I was appointed officer of the day. I learned that the officer of the day was in supreme command of all per- taining to the hospital, and that it was my duty as such to go into the various wards and divisions of the hospital and rectify anything that needed to be cared for. In visiting the hospital I made a pretty thorough examination. As a general thing, the patients were destitute ; they were filthy and partly naked. There seemed to be a disposition only to get something to eat. The clamor all the while was for something to eat. They asked me for orders for this, that, and the other — peas or rice, or salt, or beef tea, or a potato, or a biscuit, or « piece of corn bread, or siftings, or meal. Medicines were scarce; we could not get what we wished. We drew upon the indigenous remedies; they did not seem to answer. We gathered up large quan- tities of them, but very few served for medicines as we wished. We wanted the TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SURGEONS. 127 best and most powerful anti-scorbutics, as well as something that was soothing and healing, especially to the lining membrane of the alimentary canal, and such things as were calculated to counteract a dropsical disposition and a gangrenous infection. Those were prominent things in the hospital. We had not at all times the proper remedies to administer, and the indigenous remedies did not serve us, and could not serve us in those complaints. "We were obliged to do the best we could. There was in my ward a boy of fifteen or sixteen years, in whom I felt a par- ticular interest. My attention was more immediately called to him from his youth, and he appealed to me in such a way that I could not well avoid heeding him. He would often ask me to bring him a potato, a piece of bread, a biscuit, or something of that kind, which I did; I would put them in my pocket and give them to him. I would sometimes give him a raw potato, and as he had the seurvy, and also gangrene, I would advise him not to cook the potato at all, but to eat it raw, as an anti-scorbutic. I supplied him in that way for some time, but I could not give him a sufficiency. He became bed-ridden upon the hips and back, lying upon the ground; we afterwards got him some straw. Those bed-ridden sores had become gangrenous. He became more and more emaciated, until he died. The lice, the want of bed and bedding, of fuel and food, were the cause of his death. I was a little shy. I did not know that I was allowed to take such things to the patients; and I had been so often arrested that I thought it necessary to be a little shy in what I did, and keep it to myself. I would put a potato in my pocket and would turn around and let it drop to this man or others. I did not wish to be observed by anybody. When I first went there, I understood that it was positively against the orders to take anything in. I can speak of other cases among the patients; two or three others in my ward were in the same condition; and there were others who came to their death from the bad condition of things and the lack of necessary supplies. That is my pro- fessional opinion. I had occasion to visit the entire hospital occasionally, and so far as I saw its condition was generally the same as I have been describing. At the time I went there, I think, from the best observations I could make, there were, perhaps, 2,000 or 2,500 sick in that hospital. We had cases of chilblains or frost-bitten feet. Most generally, in addition to what was said to be frost-bite, there was gangrene. I did not see the sores in the original chilblains. I do not think I can say if there were any amputations or any deaths resulting from sufferings of that character, not having charged my mind as to whether the amputations were in consequence of chilblains, or because, from "accidental abrading of the surface, gangrene set in. But for a while ampu- tations were practiced in the hospital almost daily, arising from a gangrenous and scorbutic condition, which, in many cases, threatened the saturation of the whole system with this gangrenous or offensive matter, unless the limb was am- putated. In cases of amputation of that sort, it would sometimes became neces- sary to reamputate, from gangrene taking hold of the stump again. Some few successful amputations were made. I recollect two or three which were successful. I kept no statistics; those were kept by the preseription clerks and forwarded to 128 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVILLE. headquarters. I did not think at the time that the surgeon-in-chief did all in his power to relieve the condition of those men, and I made my report accordingly. In visiting the wards in the morning I would find persons lying dead; sometimes I would find them lying among the living. I recollect on one occasion telling my steward to go and wake up a certain one, and when I went myself to wake him up he was taking his everlasting sleep. That occurred in another man's ward, when I was officer of the day. Upon several occasions, on going into my own wards, I found men whom we did not expect to die, dead from the sensation of chilblains produced during the night. This was in the hospital. I was not so well acquainted with how it was in the stockade. I judge, though, from what I saw, that numbers suffered in the same way there. The effect of scurvy upon the systems of the men as it developed itself there was the next thing to rottenness. Their limbs would become drawn up. It would manifest itself constitutionally. It would draw them up. They would go on crutches sideways, or crawl upon their hands and knees or on their haunches and feet as well as they could. Some could not eat unless it was something that needed no mastication. Sometimes they would be furnished beef tea or boiled rice, or such things as that would be given them, but not to the extent which I would like to see. In some cases they could not eat corn bread; their teeth would be loose and their gums all bleeding. I have known cases of that kind. I do not speak of it as a general thing. They would ask me to interest myself and get them something which they could swallow without subjecting them to so much pain in mastication. It seemed to me I did express my professional opinion that men died because they could not eat the rations they got. I cannot state what proportion of the men in whose cases it became necessary to amputate from gangrenous wounds, and also to reamputate from the same cause, recovered. Never having charged my mind on the subject, and not ex- pecting to be called upon in such a capacity, I cannot give an approximate opinion which I would deem reliable. In 1864, amputations from that cause occurred very frequently indeed; during the short time in 1865 that I was there, amputations were not frequent. I cannot state with any certainty the proportion of prisoners treated in the hospital who recovered and were sent back to the stockade. There were clerks appointed to keep all those accounts, and I tried to confine myself strictly to my own duty, and did not interest myself in any statistical enumeration of facts or data. The prisoners in the stockade and the hospital were not very well protected from the rain; only by their own meager means, their blankets, holes in the earth, and such things. In the spring of 1865, when I was in the stockade, I saw a shed thirty feet wide and sixty feet long — the sick principally were in that. They were in about the same condition as those in the hospital. As to the prisoners generally, their only means of shelter from the sun and rain were their blankets, if they carried any along with them. I regarded that lack of shelter as a source of disease. Eiee, peas, and potatoes were the common issue from the Confederate govern- ment; but as to turnips, carrots, tomatoes, and cabbage, of that class of vege- tables, I never saw any. There was no green corn issued. Western Georgia is generally considered a pretty good corn-growing country. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDEKATE SUKGEONS. 129 [Mr. Baker objected to the line of examination that was being pursued by the judge-advocate, on the ground that it was taking too wide a range, and that the evidence elicited was not connected in any way with the defendant. The court, after deliberation, overruled the objection. The witness resumed.] Green corn could have been used as an anti-scorbutic and as an antidote. A vegetable diet, so far as it contains any alterative or medical qualities, serves as an anti-scorbutic. The ration issued to the patients in the hospital was corn meal, beef, bacon — pork occasionally but not much of it; at times, green corn, peas, rice, salt, sugar, and potatoes. I enumerate those as the varieties served out. Potatoes were not a constant ration; at times they were sent in, perhaps a week or two weeks at a time, and then they would drop off. The daily ration was less from the time I went there in September, through October, November, and December, than it was from January till March 26th, the time I left. I never made a calculation as to the number of rations intended for each man ; I was never called to do that. So far as I saw, I believe I would feel safe in saying that, while there might have been less, the amount was not over twenty ounces for twenty-four hours. From January to March the rations were better than they had been before. The surgeon of the post had been changed. Dr. Stevenson was superseded by Dr. Clayton, who, I thought, interested himself very much to relieve the sufferings of the prisoners there. While Dr. Stevenson was director of the hospital, I never saw much interest manifested on his part to relieve the necessities of the prisoners. Q. What number of ounces of healthy nutritious food is necessary to support life and health? A. Upon one unvaried diet, confining a man to any one article or any one set of articles for a length of time, I do not know but that » man would starve to death upon plenty. That is a physiological question. The various secretions of the system demand a multifarious diet for the proper feeding of the system. If you were to confine a man to a single article of diet or four or five articles of diet for one year, I am inclined to say that he could not live. It is a nice physiological point. The monotonous diet issued from September till January, which continued afterward, though in larger quantities, was such as the men, without varying it, could not have lived upon without very bad effects, upon the nervous system especially. These are physiological points which I did not expect to be asked about. The diet was monotonous, consisting of corn meal, peas of not very good quality, sometimes sweet potatoes, sometimes tolerably good beef, at other times not so; sometimes good bacon, at other times raw bacon, which was not good. It is my opinion that men starved to death in consequence of the paucity of the rations, especially in the fall of 1864, the quality not being very good and the quantity deficient. Q. Did you ever examine the question sufficiently to state the number of ounces of nutritious food necessary to sustain life and health? A. I had a little discussion with Dr. Clayton upon that. It was after the first of January when he took charge. I was ordered to make a particular and especial report of every article that was issued, taking the number of patients then in the hospital and the attendants. I went to the commissary myself, and saw the provisions loaded up, carried in, and weighed. I took those figures and the 130 THE TKAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVTLLE. figures of the attendants in the hospital. The calculations which I made there were that sixteen ounces of meal would make twenty-eight ounces of bread, and sixteen ounces of flour would make twenty-two ounces of bread. I gave the prisoners in that calculation the benefit of the increase. In reference to the meat, I did not make any calculation for the bones, because they were generally dis- posed of by the prisoners, who were glad to get them. By the first definite calcu- lation which I made, the patients received thirty-two and some tenths ounces, and the attendants received thirty or thirty-one ounces. This was after Dr. Clayton got charge. These facts were stated in my first report to him. Sir days afterward I was called upon to make a similar report, and I think then the attendants got thirty-two ounces, and the patients got twenty-eight ounces of this monotonous food. I am not prepared to say how long life could be sustained upon a monot- onous diet. Q. Did you think that the food served out was sufficient in quantity? A. After January, 1865, the quantity was sufficient if it could have been varied. Dr. Clayton and myself concluded that thirty to thirty-three ounces for the sick was a sufficiency at that time. Many of the sick did not consume all that was issued to them, but appropriated it otherwise. There was great trading and bargaining going on all the time. I know that the patients in the hospital greatly improved after the change of administration from Dr. Stevenson to Dr. Clayton. I know that they got more provisions and were better cared for. I never made a report to Dr. Clayton as medical officer of the day but he heeded every point, and when I pointed out any deficiency he would ask me to interest myself personally and remedy it, and he would do anything that could be done. Q. Was that the fact before Dr. Clayton took charge? A. I cannot say that it was. An altercation took place there between Dr. James and Captain Wirz. Upon going into the hospital one morning I learned my chief clerk was arrested, and had been ordered to be bucked and gagged; I did not see him gagged; I saw him bucked; he was sitting outside of the gate of the hospital. Upon inquiry, I found that he had by some means or other neglected to report a man that was missing; and it was a question whether the duty of reporting this man belonged to the Confederate sergeant, whose duty it was to call the roll of the sick, or to this clerk. Dr. James wrote a letter to Captain Wirz, or some other man; I saw that letter; Dr. James read it to me. I am not positive as to whom it was addressed to ; but he spoke of Captain Wirz's tyranny in the punishment of this man, as he was very faithful in doing his duty. Dr. James rather felt outraged at the manner in which the man had been treated, and he made a demurrer. Q. Describe what kind of exhalations or odors arose from that prison. A. There are two kinds of miasma laid down by medical writers: the kino and the ideo; one consists of exhalations from the human body in a state of disease, and the other of exhalations from vegetable decompositions and saturations gen- erally. There were both kinds there. The miasmatic effluvia emanating from the hospital was very potent and offensive indeed. Q. In what way would it affect the healthy? A. If I had a Bcratch upon my hand — if the skin was broken or abraded in the least — I did not venture to go into the hospital without protecting it with adhesive TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SUEGEON8. 131 ter. I saw several sores originating from the infection of the gangrenous effluvia saturating the atmosphere. For this reason we were all very cautious. If a prisoner whose system was reduced by inanition, which would invite and develop disease, should chance to stump his toe (some of them were barefooted) or scratch his hand, almost invariably the next report to me, so far as my charge was con- cerned, was gangrene, so potent was the influence. Immediately upon the west side of the stockade, and between there and the depot, there was timber scattered; on the north side, beyond the cook-house a little, there was plenty of timber; on the south side plenty had been cut in logs and lay there, and down by the hospital there was plenty. That is a woody country, and there was plenty of wood within a mile. It was fine timber, and could have been made into shingles or clapboards. I did not see any of it used to make shelter for the prisoners. A set of sheds were being erected there, as represented on the diagram, outside of the stockade and the hospital. They were in course of erection at the time of the abandonment of the place. No patients had ever been put in them. I regret to say that the supply of wood was not sufficient to keep the prisoners from what we term freezing to death. They would not, perhaps, actually freeze to death, but a patient whose blood is thin, and his system worn down, is very susceptible to the influence of cold. In the absence of sufficient food, sufficient stimulus, and especially in the absence of fuel, many of the patients (I speak now of what I saw in my own ward) would, during the night, become so chilled that in the morning, passing round, I would remark to my steward, "Last night did the work for that poor fellow; he will die"; or, "This one will die; I cannot resus- citate him with the means in my hands, his system is so reduced." Lying upon the ground during those chilly nights, (the weather was not freezing, but sufficient to thoroughly chill the whole system,) the patient would reach a condition in which resuscitation was a matter of impossibility after he commenced going downhill from this exposure. I have seen a number die in that way. In my judgment there was sufficient timber growing in the vicinity to supply fuel for cooking and for keeping the prisoners warm, and also to furnish shelter for them. I frequently made observation while there, that there was plenty of wood to supply every demand — shingles, boards, logs to make huts, and plenty for fuel. That is a woody country; the wood is pine wood. I judged that it could be made into boards and rails from the fact that they were pretty plenty there, and from the fact that I saw the boys splitting boards for the new hospital shed that was going up. There was no deficiency of wood. [A diagram was exhibited to witness.] I have seen that before; it was given to me in the Andersonville Prison by Felix De La Baume. The tents, chimneys, fence, trees, cart and mule, etc., are correct. One sketch here of "Dr. Bates" is pretty good, but rather spindle-shanked. The great point in which it is not facsimile is that too few men are represented. If there were forty delineated where there is one it would be more correct. These men walking on their hands and knees and on crutches, some carrying their tin cups in their mouths, represent men who could not go there otherwise. They were afflicted with scurvy as a general thing. One man represented here I recognize as a man named Ison, who was a subject of dementia; he only crept along on his haunches and feet. I recognize several others whose names I never learned, but 132 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. whom I frequently saw. That man with the bucket in his mouth, I frequently saw crawling up for his rations. I see one man here representing "Dr. Bates examining the character and quantity of the beef," together with the Confederate surgeon and Ed. Young, boss of that cook-house. I also see one figure representing "Dr. Bates giving beef-bones to the cripples." It was my prerogative as officer of the day to supervise the cooking and administration of the rations, and to attend to anything that generally belonged to the hospital. When rations were being issued I would frequently go there. Those detailed to cut up the meat would put the bones in one pile and count the rations and put them carefully in another. When I would go there from twenty to one hundred or more would ask me, some of them very im- ploringly, for a bone. I would say, "Yes, you can have all the bones." I see that I am represented here as handing bones to those cripples. I would hand them out as here represented. The general representation in this diagram is about correct, save that there were twenty or forty men to one represented here. They were very thick about the cook-house. [Diagram was then put in evidence.]! On entering the stockade, I would find dead prisoners. They were generally laid up at the gate under some sheds or boughs constituting a dead-house. They were first brought out to the gate and laid just inside of the inner stockade; they were then carried on litters to the inside of the outer stockade, and from there they were hauled away in wagons — sometimes two-horse, sometimes four-horse wagons. They were laid in the wagons. They were laid in the wagon, I believe, head fore- most, one on another, regularly along in layers. I do not know how they were buried. The dead-house of the hospital was in the southwest corner. When I first went there, what was called a dead-house consisted of some boards put up into a kind of shed. These boards were used by the inmates of the hospital or somehow else; at any rate, they disappeared. For some time the dead were laid there without any shelter. Every time I came on duty as officer of the day, which was every six days, I reported that there was no dead-house, and called the attention of the authorities to the erection of, a dead-house or some place to deposit the dead, not to let them lie without shelter and exposed to the sun. This was in the hospital. They did not allow the corpse to lie long enough to cause any exhalations from putrefaction. Outside they were hauled off' immediately to the graveyard; at least I saw them hauled away — I never visited the graveyard. We needed a dead-house, so as to have some place to lay the corpses decently. At one time we got a tent erected for a dead-house, but that did not last very long. Every morning when I would go in I would find a blanket or a quilt sliced off. The men would appropriate them to wrap themselves up. At first the top commenced going, and in a few days all was gone. I remarked that it was no use to erect such dead-houses as that, except to supply the men with blankets, though I had no objection to their being erected every night, if the men could thereby get blankets. If my memory serves me right, no more dead- houses were erected. I think that tent I managed to get erected was the last. 1 This sketch and many other exhibits originally in the record have disappeared. I caused a search to be made for them, but none can be found. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SURGEONS. 133 The morning after making my first tour as officer of the day, I sat down and made a report, the language of which I do not now recollect, but the substance was based upon the condition in which I found the hospital. That report was sent up, and I being a novice in military matters, for some things which I had said in that report I received a written reprimand, signed "R. R. Stevenson, by Dr. Diller," his assistant in the office. The date of that report was about the 24th or 25th of September, two or three days after I reported. I continued to make those reports, but I think they were not heeded. Meetings of the surgeons were held to see whether these things could not be remedied. Petitions were written and partially signed, and were then destroyed for want of a proper channel by which to send them up, or some other objection. Finally there was a report made to the medical department; it was to be sent to Surgeon-General Moore or the secretary of war; I am not certain which. Dr. Eiland, Dr. McVey and some other doctors there signed it. It was not sent, as I understood. These things were talked of, and the result was a medical inves- tigation was ordered to be made by Dr. Llewellyn and Dr. Guillot. They were to inquire how the ' hospital fund had been used — the hospital fund that was appropriated for the Union prisoners. During the course of this investigation medical gentlemen were called upon the stand, myself among the rest, and the account current of the hospital was examined by these two medical gentlemen, who were inspectors under orders from the secretary of war. This was after Dr. Stevenson left; he was ordered, I think, to Florence. I never saw any official opinion or report emanating from Dr. Guillot or Dr. Llewellyn. [A paper was exhibited to witness.] Q. Do you recognize the handwriting in that document? A. It was written before I went to the Andersonville Prison, but I recognize it as the handwriting of Dr. Pelot, so far as I recolleet his handwriting. I frequently saw him write; we made our morning report together. Q. Were you familiar with his handwriting? A. Tolerably so. [The paper purporting to be a morning report, made by Dr. Pelot as medical officer of the day, was offered in evidence. Mr. Baker objected to its admission, on the ground that it was not in any way connected with the prisoner. The court, after deliberation, overruled the objection. The following report was then put in evidence:] FmsT Division, 0. S. M. P. Hospital, September 5, 1864. Sir: As officer of the day, for the past twenty-four hours, I have inspected the hospital and found it in as good condition as the nature of the circumstances will allow. A majority of the bunks are still unsupplied with bedding, while in a portion of the division the tents are entirely destitute of either bunks, bedding or straw, the patients being compelled to lie upon the bare ground. I would earnestly call attention to the article of diet. The corn bread received from the bakery being made up without sifting, is wholly unfit for the use of the sick; and often (in the last twenty-four hours) upon examination, the inner portion is found to be perfectly 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 cannot 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 rations received by 134 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. way of sustenance is two ounces of boiled beef and half pint of rice soup per day. Under these circumstances, 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 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, &c, we have literally nothing except water. Our wards — some of them — are filled with gangrene, 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 influences, this 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 sufferings of the sick. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. Crews Pelot, Assistant Surgeon C. S. and Officer of the Day. Surgeon E. D. Eiland, In charge First Division G. . M. P. Hospital. Q. What effect had the treatment you have described upon the mental con- dition and moral sensibilities of the prisoners? A. There was among them generally an enervation of the nervous system, which ran down in consequence of this scarcity of supplies. The nervous system must of course sink under such pressure. I have seen the effect manifested in idiocy, dementia, and other mental weaknesses. I have seen several instances of that; not a great many; four or five, perhaps, came under my immediate observation. Morally, I would have expected that such abject circumstances would have produced deep humiliation and resignation, but the effect was other- wise. The moral feeling of the prisoners gradually evaporated. Instead of having a healthy influence upon their morals, it had a contrary effect. Men seemed to abandon themselves. It seemed to me at times that no man interested himself further than "I"; a well man would sometimes steal from a sick man; and if a sick man could steal anything from a well man, or anybody else, he would do so. It seemed to me that all lived for themselves, having no regard for anybody else. I judged this to be superinduced by the paucity of the rations — the starving condition of the men. Q. From your observation of the condition and surroundings of our prisoners — their food, their drink, their exposure by day and by night, and all the circum- stances you have described — state your professional opinion as to what propor- tion of deaths occurring there were the result of the circumstances and surround- ings which you have narrated. A. I feel myself safe in saying that seventy-five per cent of those who died might have been saved, had those unfortunate men been properly cared for as to food, clothing, bedding, etc. Andersonville is nothing more than a railroad station. There were but a few houses there until the military shanties were put up. There were commissary stores there. There was one private store there; I think a dry-goods store. There was no grocery store while I was there. The prisoners could not obtain anything for their comfort or convenience without going into the country and foraging. They were not allowed to do that. Some of the paroled men used to do it, sometimes. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SURGEONS. 135 I have quoted the testimony of Dr. Bates at some length because it sets forth the phases of prison life at Andersonville in a way to bring home to the reader the reality of the struggle for existence which the prisoners were compelled to undergo, and fully explains why the mortality was unprecedented. We need have no hesitation in believing him when he says that "seventy-five per cent of those who died might have been saved, had those unfortunate men been properly cared for as to food, clothing, bedding, etc." Do the apologists for Wirz and his co-conspirators think that the American people will ever become reconciled to the erection of a monument to "Wirz whose only claim for such honor is the record of the charnel-house of Andersonville? Is it reasonable to ask the sur- viving Union soldiers and their friends and sympathizers to remain silent in the face of the gravely untrue inscriptions placed upon the Wirz monument? Dr. G. G. Roy was assigned to duty at the prison on September 1, 1864, and remained until the last of April, 1865. Of the prisoners in the stockade he said : "They presented the most horrible spectacle of humanity that I ever saw in my life. A good many were suffer- ing from scurvy and other diseases ; a good many were naked ; a large majority were barefooted; a good many without hats; their condition generally was almost indescribable." But let the record speak of what he saw: 1 TESTIMONY OF DR. G. G. ROT. I was on duty at Andersonville; I was ordered to report there for duty on the first of September, 1864, by the medical director of the army of Tennessee, Dr. Stout; I mean the rebel army. Surgeon Isaiah H. White was chief surgeon in charge of the post at Ander- sonville when I went there; I do not know that there was any one particularly who was the surgeon in charge of the medical department of the stockade; so far as the chief surgeons were concerned, there were two there; Surgeon White acted as post surgeon, and confined himself to the administrative duties of the post; Dr. Stevenson was acting as chief surgeon in charge of the hospital, and of the medical department of the stockade; when I got there I found the hos- pital in a very deplorable condition; it was composed of tents of all sizes; I cannot say that it was laid off with any particular regularity; 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 anything of that sort; when I reported for duty I was under the immediate charge of Dr. Stevenson; I was sent to Andersonville under peculiar circumstances, under positive orders to Dr. White to have organized a division, and for six days I was not put on 1 Record, p. 91 et seq. 136 -THE TRAGEDY OP ANDEESONVILLE. duty, because it took about that time to organize a division out of the divisions that were there, which were then three in number; I then took charge of the fourth division, the last that was formed; there were very few cases of gangrene coming under my treatment while I was there; I got there after most of the surgery had been done, consequently there were very few cases of gangrene; we never got vegetables sufficient while I was there; my duty was to make requisitions on the chief surgeon, as he was called, Dr. Stevenson; I did so and failed to get them; after Dr. Clayton took charge of the hospital we had fewer patients, and were pretty well supplied with food and medicine; I think that would be the decision of every prisoner that was there. I was told that there were from 30,000 to 35,000 prisoners in the stockade when I went on duty at Andersonville. They presented the most horrible spec- tacle 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 bare- footed; a good many without hats. Their condition generally was almost in- describable. I attributed that condition to long confinement and the 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 per- mit one to live. In the first place, at Andersonville, the prisoners were too densely crowded. In the next place 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 oilcloth thrown over poles; some were in tents constructed by their own in- genuity, and with just such aeeommodations as their own ingenuity permitted them to contrive. Q. Who had control of the hospital so far as its discipline was concerned? Who had command of the guards stationed about it? A. There was always a sergeant at the gate who was under the control of Captain Wirz. Q. Had Captain Wirz any command over you surgeons, other than that of stationing the guards about you and giving you passes to the hospital? A. Under his orders, which I had occasion to see once, I think his power was almost absolute. [Mr. Baker objected to witness stating the contents of the orders.] Q. Had Captain Wirz other command over you than that of allowing you to go back and forth to the hospital on his passes? Had he control over the admin- istration of your duties? A. He did not exercise that control, but his orders gave him such power. [Mr. Baker objected to witness stating anything contained in the orders. The court, after deliberation, sustained the objection.] Q. Did the prisoner ever state to you that he had command over your action in the administration of your duties? A. He did. Q. State the circumstances. A. At one time, in consequence of a. difficulty between one of my assistants and Captain Wirz, we had occasion to call for these orders and the orders were presented; Assistant Surgeon Dr. James had written a communication to me TESTIMONY OF CONFEDERATE SURGEONS. 137 about the punishment of one of the hospital attendants of his division by Captain Wirz, which communication I indorsed and sent to Dr. Clayton, who was then senior surgeon; he forwarded it to Colonel Thurlow, who was then commandant of the post at Andersonville, and it was referred to Captain Wirz for remarks; when the paper was returned to Colonel Thurlow I am not able to say, but it never came back to me; no indorsement was put upon the paper, but a reply was made in a communication from Captain Wirz, which reply made it necessary for Dr. James to find out what were the orders; in other words, it made it necessary for us, as medical officers, to know the relations which we held with the officers of the post; we found from the orders that we held no power, that we had, you may say, no rights, and that if Captain Wirz felt disposed to do anything in the hospital which his orders allowed him to do, (and they gave him almost absolute power,) he could do it without consulting a medical officer. Q. From whom did he get that authority? A. From Brigadier-General John H. Winder. Q. What was General Winder's status there at that time? A. He was not there at that time. Q. Where was he? A. I do not know; he made his headquarters at Millen; I do not recollect where he was then, whether at Columbia, Florence or Savannah. Q. Do you know anything of the prisoner putting men of the hospital in stocks, or exercising his command over attendants at the hospital? A. I saw one instance, and I am fully convinced in my own mind of another. Q. Give the instance you saw. A. That was the case of the young man to whom I have just alluded, the chief clerk of Dr. James, who was bucked; he was sitting outside the gate as I rode up to the hospital one morning; I inquired the cause, and was told Cap- tain Wirz had ordered it. Q. Do you know the reason why the man was bucked? A. I knew it from that communication which I have mentioned. I understood that there was a dead-line around the hospital; the understand- ing I had of it was that prisoners passing it should be shot; one of my patients was shot somewhere about the latter part of 1864, or the first of 1865; I don't remember exactly; the man was killed; he lived hardly three minutes; he was shot through the heart; I examined him afterwards; I did not see him shot; it happened before I arrived at the hospital in the morning. 1 TESTIMONY OF DR. B. J. HEAD. 2 I was assigned to duty when I first went there, but was sick and did not attend to it. I remained sick for several days. As soon as I recovered sufficiently I went and reported again to Dr. White for duty. He assigned me a division of the hospital, and I attended to that while I remained there. I found that the sufferings of the men there were very great, resulting from the diseases they were suffering under and from the want of the proper kind of dieting, remedies, 1 This testimony should be considered in connection with the specific acts of cruelty by Wirz. 2 Record, p. 362 et seq. 138 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. etc. I think I could have done more, indeed I know I could, with proper diet- ing than I could with the medicines that we had. When first I went there, I think for two days, not more, I examined each individual case, made my own diagnosis, and wrote out my own prescriptions accordingly. I found that the medicines had not been supplied; I asked the reason why, and they said to me I was not to practice in that way; that I had to practice according to the num- bers and formulas that they had. I said, "I know nothing of these formulas and numbers and care nothing for them, and I am not going to practice in any such way." Then I went my rounds, and diagnosed the cases again and made out a prescription for each case. It was very laborious; I had a good many under my charge. I sent up the prescriptions and they were again refused, and my clerk, who was what we down South call "a Yankee," told me that it was useless for me to make out these prescriptions. Q. Explain what these formulas and numbers meant. A. They commenced with one and, perhaps, ran up to thirty-odd. "No. 1" was good, perhaps, for diarrhcea; "No. 2" for dysentery; "No. 3" for scorbutus; "No. 4" for something else, and so on. It was taking the discretion entirely away from the prescribing physician himself. I was informed after I left that that system was abandoned. I objected to it beeause I could not prescribe properly for my patients. I looked upon it as utter quackery. Anybody, whether he had ever read medicine or not, could practice medicine according to the fomulas, if he could only diagnose the cases and find out what was the matter with the patients, but it was often doubtful if the prescription would suit a case in its present condition. The doctors, however, had to take that or nothing. Part of the time there was not even that, and they had nothing in the world to give their patients but a little red-oak bark as an astringent and other barks that we could get out of the woods. Frequently men would die for want of a stimulant. I could not get it; I would make requisition for it and sometimes I would get some and sometimes I would not. Here is the testimony of a group of professional men, seven in number, which is entitled to every presumption of reliability and truthfulness. No reasonable hypothesis can be advanced which can shake the conclusions of this evidence. It is incredible that all these men would swear falsely against the government they had served. Besides, their testimony, while brought more nearly to us because of the personal contact of the witnesses with the facts narrated, is but confirmatory of Colonel Chandler's and Dr. Jones's and other reports made alone for the eye of the Richmond authorities and impartial beyond all question. Further confirmation is found in the appearance of the prisoners who were rescued by our victorious armies, and were brought out of their confinement, restored to freedom, to pure air, and wholesome food, by their sympathetic and horrified comrades in arms. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDEKATE STJKGEONS. 139 TESTIMONY OF DR. WILLIAM BALSEE. Dr. William Balser had occasion to treat a large body of prisoners who were on their way to freedom from prison life in April and May, 1865. His testimony deals with their condition shortly after leaving Andersonville. He testified: 1 My position is acting assistant surgeon, contract surgeon. I was stationed at Hilton Head, South Carolina, twenty-seven months. I had occasion to treat the prisoners returned from Andersonville at Jacksonville, Florida, from the 1st to the 26th of May. I was ordered there on the 28th of April. There arrived at Jacksonville on the first of May 3,250 prisoners, and the same day that I arrived 50 more arrived. They were in a most horrible condition, nearly naked. If they did have anything on it was only rags. They were covered with filth and lice. They had sores all over them, and a great many of them were living skeletons. The most prominent disease among them was scurvy and diarrhoea. The diarrhoea seemed to be a symptom of the scurvy, not the ordinary camp diarrhoea that we see in our army. The men got better as soon as they got better treatment and fresh vegetables. Fresh vegetables generally increased our ordinary diarrhoea. A great number of the prisoners had their arms and legs swelled up three or four times their natural size and actually black with extravasated blood. They had ulcers three or four inches in diam- eter on their arms and calves of their legs. Some of them, from the effects of the scurvy, had necrosis of the jaws, so that I was obliged to pull out pieces of bone nearly an inch long. Some of them had lost the eye from ulceration of the anterior portion of the cornea. Some of them were totally blind, no doubt from extravasation of blood as well as from fluid in the posterior parts of the eye. A good many were idiotic and demented from softness of the brain, resulting, no doubt, from long suffering. Bad nourishment and exposure to the weather would cause that. There were 3,300 at Jacksonville altogether, and I do not believe there were 200 who did not require treatment, more or less. From the 1st of May to the 26th of May, when the last of them were taken away, there had died between 80 or 90. The 3,300 were not there all the time. On the 9th of May between 1,300 and 1,400 were taken away, part to the hospital at Hilton Head and part to Annapolis. On the 15th or 16th of May there was another batch taken away, so that on the 26th of May, when the hospital steamer Cosmopolitan came to take off the balance, there were only from 250 to 300 men left there. I know from the records that between 40 and 50 died at the hospital at Hilton Head. I do not believe that one-half of them will ever again be fit for their former occupations. I take it for granted that they were mostly mechanics and farmers. I do not believe that they will ever be strong enough to perform the same amount of work. [Four photographic pictures, one of them being already in evidence, and the others being subsequently put in evidence, were here shown to the witness.2] 1 have seen cases similar to those; I have seen numbers of them, not individual cases, but, I might say, by the dozen. Long-continued, improper, and insufficient i Record, p. 151 et seq. 2 These photographs, sent up with the record to the War Department, have with other exhibits disappeared. 140 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. food, and exposure to the weather, produce this condition of things among these prisoners; to the sun as well as to the cold and rain storms. I also saw several cases of gangrene, produced no doubt by exposure to cold and (in the latter part of April) to the sun. Prom the history given by the men, their feet commenced to blister and all vitality left their limbs. I do not meet with these peculiarities of disease in treating the soldiers of our army. I have been in the service three years and eight months, and during that time I have only seen one case of seurvy in our army, and I have been where there was a chance for men to get it, on the peninsula. I did not find it necessary to make amputations in treating these returned prisoners; they were too far gone. They died three or four days after they came to Jacksonville. I made no amputations on the survivors. I was educated as a physician in New York city. I am a regular graduate of medicine. I had been in practice two or three months before going to Jack- sonville. I was in the hospital as surgeon about twenty-three months before these prisoners came to me. Those thirty-three hundred prisoners arrived between the 28th of April and the 1st of May, 1865. I knew they came from Anderson- ville from the statement of nearly every one of them, and from the official lists of the provost marshal general of the department of the south; official reports are sent with them. I know that all these 3,300 came from there. I know noth- ing about Andersonville myself, thank God. Witnesses varied in their statements of the interior of the prison. Colonel Chandler reported the actual fact to have been that the pris- oners had about six feet square to the man — scarcely enough for all to lie down at once. He probably deducted the unavailable ground. Dr. Jones estimated the area as 33.2 square feet to the man, which he said represented "the condition of the stockade in a better light even than it really was ; for a considerable breadth of land along the stream was low and boggy and useless for any purpose except that of defeca- tion." He makes no mention of the dead-line space taken out, or of the necessary passageways for admitting supplies, or space occupied by improvised shelter. Captain James M. Moore, in his official report to the war department, gave the dimensions of the prison as 1,540 feet long by 750 feet wide. This was, no doubt, by actual measurement. He gave the strip taken off by the dead-line as 17 feet, which reduced the prison to 1,506 feet by 716 feet, or 1,078,296 square feet. The evi- dence showed that the swamp covered about two acres and the neces- sary passageways another acre, or 131,880 square feet, which would leave 946,416 square feet. At times there were 35,000 prisoners at Andersonville Prison, each of whom had 27 square feet, or a space 3 by 9 feet. When there were 30,000 the space would be 31 feet, or 5 by 6.2 feet. It is not difficult to understand why these miserable creatures died as rapidly in the stockade as outside in the hospital. TESTIMONY OF CONFEDEEATE SUBGEONS. 141 Let the reader picture this compact mass of human beings, ragged, hatless, shoeless, many of them stark naked, moving about and neces- sarily jostling each other as they sought a change of position — the sun beating down on their devoted heads, or the rain pelting upon them, making the earth under their feet a sea of mud, as some witnesses de- scribed it. Add to this scene the physicial condition of these men, reduced to skeletons by starvation and ■wasting disease, and then try- to realize the horrors of this death-pit ! In this narrow space the prisoner was obliged to protect himself as he might and in this 3 by 9 feet he was forced to cook most of his scanty ration's and practically to live night and day. It seems incredible that men could withstand such a life for months and survive. All the witnesses, rebel and prisoners, concurred in the belief that one of the potent causes of death was the crowded condition of the prison, and out of all the causes of the mortality this was the least difficult of removal. The men stood ready to work their way to pure air and greater freedom of movement; the rebel authorities resolutely re- fused them this privilege. CHAPTER VII. Conditions at Andersonville Continued — Testimony op Eev. Father Hamil- ton — Testimony op Citizens Living in the South — Publicity op the Suf- fering op Prisoners — Supplies Were Obtainable and Sufficient to Have Sustained the Prisoners — Prisoners Might Have Been Sheltered — The Prison Might Have Been Enlarged — Means op Transportation Available — Supplies Sent by Sanitary Commission. TO EV. WILLIAM JOHN HAMILTON, a Catholic clergyman, vis- ■*^- ited the prison in May, 1864. He resided in the South, at the city of Macon, Georgia, and voluntarily went to Andersonville in pursuit of his priestly office. What he saw and experienced is confirmatory of what has already been shown. It is especially important as describing the condition in which he found the prisoners as early as May, 1864. It shows that long before the frightful and dreadful sufferings and death of July and August the prisoners were passing through a like ordeal. He testified: TESTIMONY OF EEV. WM. JOHN HAMILTON. I am pastor of the Catholic church in Macon, Georgia. 1 I visited Anderson- ville three times. It was one of the missions attached to my church. I went there, I think, in the month of May, 1864, and spent a day there. The follow- ing week I went and spent three days there among the prisoners, and then re- turned and wrote a report on the condition of the hospital and stockade to my bishop, in order that he might send the requisite number of priests to visit the prisoners there; and I visited it again after the prisoners had been removed from Andersonville to Thomasville. I do not remember the month that occurred. It was in the beginning of this year, in the month of February or March, 1865. Q. State to the court in what condition you found the stockade when you first visited it, and subsequently, and all the time while you were there. A. The first time I visited the stockade I only had about three or four hours to spend there. I merely went to see what the condition of the place was. My principal object was to find out, if possible, the number of Catholics who were prisoners there, in order that we might induce the bishop to send a sufficient number of priests. I did not pay much attention to what I saw or heard there then. The following week I returned, and spent three days. I visited the stockade and the hospital, discharging my duties as a priest of the Catholic church. On this my second visit to the stockade, I found, I think, about 23,000 1 Record, p. 287 et seq. 144 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. prisoners there; at least the prisoners themselves told me there were that num- ber. I found the place 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 'Catholic priests administer to the dying, for the reason they were so numerous — they died so fast. I waited only upon those of my own ehurch; they were the only persons who demanded my ministrations. When I speak of the number dying, I mean among those of my own church, and do not include others. Q. Give the court some idea of the condition of the stockade. A. I found the stockade 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 my coat off and leave it with one of the guards, and perform my duties in my shirt-sleeves, the place was so filthy. Q. State to the court any particular case which came under your notice that would help to illustrate the condition of things there. A. That is about the only idea I can give of the stockade. Q. State any particular case you observed showing the destitution of the prisoners. A. The first person I conversed with, on entering the stockade, was a coun- tryman of mine, a member of the Catholic church, who recognized me as a clergyman. I think his name was Parrel]. He was from the north of Ireland. He came over towards me, and introduced himself. He was quite a boy; I do not think, judging from his appearance, that he could have been more than six- teen years old. I found him without a hat,, and without any covering on his feet, and without jacket or coat. He told me that his shoes had been taken from him on the battle-field. I found the boy suffering very much from a wound on his right foot; in fact the foot was split open like an oyster; and, on inquir- ing the cause, they told me it was from exposure to the sun in the stockade, and not from any wound received in battle. I took off my boots, and gave him a pair of socks to cover his feet, and told him I would bring him some clothing, as I expected to return to Andersonville the following week. I had to return to Macon to get another priest to take my place on Sunday. When I returned, the following week, on inquiring for this man Parrell, his companions told me he had stepped across the dead-line, and requested the guards to shoot him. He was not insane at the time I was conversing with him. It was three or four days after that when I was asking for him. I think it was the latter part of May, 1864. To the best of my recollection his name was Earrell. I do not know to what company or regiment he belonged. I did not ask him. When I speak of administering the sacrament of the church to those dying, I refer to those in the stockade, and in the hospital also — in both places. I spent two days in the stockade and one in the hospital during my second visit to Andersonville. This case that I have spoken of occurred in the stockade. He had no medical treatment at all. None of those who died in there, and to whom I administered the sacrament, received any medi- cal treatment at all, so far as 1 could see. When I went in the hospital I found TESTIMONY OF CLERGYMEN AND OTHERS. 145 it almost as crowded as the stockade was. The men were dying there very rap- idly, from scurvy, diarrhfea, and dysentery; and, as far as I could observe, I could not see that they received any medical treatment whatsoever, or received any medicines at all. Q. How were they situated as to beds or bedding? A. They were all in tents; the hospital was composed of tents arranged in avenues, and I did not see that they had anything under them at all except the ground; in some cases I think that they had dried leaves that they had gathered together. In my ministration while at the hospital, I saw one surgeon there — the surgeon in charge there at that time, Dr. White. Q. State the circumstances. A. I was attending an Irishman, I think, by the name of Connor, who was captured at the night assault made on Fort Sumter; at least I think he told me so. He was captured in Charleston harbor, and he was in the last stage of dysentery. He was so bad that I had to hear his confession and give him the rites of the church sitting upon a stool. While I was hearing the man's confes- sion, Surgeon White passed) through the hospital, and seeing me whispering to the prisoner and not knowing, I suppose, who I was, ordered the guard to bring me up to his quarters under arrest. I went up there and he apologized for having done so; he having in the mean time inquired of Captain Wirz who I was, and the captain having told him that he had given me the necessary pass. I conversed with Dr. White with regard to the condition of the men, and he told me it was not in his power to do anything for them; that he had no medi- cine and could not get any, and that he was doing everything in his power to help them. That was the only time I ever met a surgeon there. Captain Wirz gave me the pass. I first called upon Colonel Persons, who was the officer in command at Andersonville, and he referred me to Captain Wirz, and Captain Wirz gave me a pass and gave me every facility in his power to visit those men. He walked down to the stockade with me and showed me the entrance. That pass held good only for that day. That was the first day I went there. It was renewed afterwards by Captain Wirz. It continued for the three days I was there. I did not have it renewed afterwards. I did not visit Andersonville again until the prisoners had been removed to Thomasville. That was the be- ginning of this year. Q. Was Captain Wirz in command? A. I did not see him. I have a mission below Andersonville, at a placed called Americus, and I was going down there to give the people an opportunity of per- forming their religious duties. I stopped at Andersonville, intending to pass the night there if there were any prisoners still left there, but was told at the depot that the prisoners had all been removed, so I did not go up to the stockade. I do not know if there were any prisoners there or if Captain Wirz was there. Q. What did you observe with regard to shelter in the stockade and the suf- fering of the meh from heat there? A. When I visited the stockade there was no shelter at all so far as I could see, except that some of the men' who had their blankets there had put them up on little bits of roots that they had abstracted from the ground; but I could not see any tents or shelter of any other kind. I got the names of several prisoners 146 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. who had relatives living in the south and wrote to their friends when I returned to Macon, and I had some tents introduced there; they were sent down, and the men received them. Q. Can you illustrate to the court the condition of the prison, by stating any instance where you tried to make your way through the crowd to a prisoner who was dying? A. Yes, sir; during my second visit to the prison, I was told that there was an Irishman over at the extreme end of the stockade who was calling out for a priest. I suppose he had heard that I had visited the prison the day before, and he was very anxious to see a priest, and was calling for one all over the stockade. There is a branch that runs right in the center of the stoekade, and I tried to cross the branch, 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. I could not get over the branch, and had to leave the stoekade without seeing the man. The heat there was intolerable; there was no air at all in the stockade. The logs of which the stockade was composed were so close together that I could not feel any fresh air inside; and with a strong sun beaming down on it and no shelter at all, of course the heat must have been insufferable; at least I felt it so. Q. How did it affect the priests on duty there? A. 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. Some of them broke down in consequence of their services there. In the month of August, I think, we had three priests there constantly. We had a priest from Mobile who spoke three or four languages, inasmuch as you could find every nationality inside the stoekade, and two from Savannah, and we had one from Augusta at another time. One of the priests from Savannah came to Macon, where I reside, completely prostrated, and was sick at my house for several days. There were saw-mills in that vicinity along the railroad. I do not remember if they were near to Andersonville. I used to visit Albany, which I suppose is thirty or forty miles below Andersonville, once every month. It was my duty to go there that often, and I used to see saw-mills along the railroad in operation. I have heard that the prisoners proposed to cut wood for themselves. I have heard prisoners say so themselves. I did not keep an account of the dying men I used to attend per day to administer the last sacrament, but judging from the hours I was engaged and what I know to be the length of the service, I suppose I must have attended from twenty to thirty every day; sometimes more and sometimes less. That was about the average number — between twenty and thirty. Q. Can you speak more particularly as to the bodily condition of those inside the stockade, their clothing and the appearance of the men? A. Well, as I said before, when I went there I was kept so busily engaged in giving the sacrament to the dying men that I could not observe much- but of course I could not keep my eyes closed as to what I saw there. I saw a great many men perfectly naked, walking about through the stockade "perfectly nude; they seemed to have lost all regard for delicacy, shame, morality, or TESTIMONY OF CLERGYMEN AND OTHERS. 147 anything else. I would frequently have to creep on my hands and Tcnees into the holes that the mem had burrowed in the ground and stretch myself out along- side of them to hear their confessions. I found them almost living in vermin in those holes; they could not be in any other condition but a filthy one, because they got no soap and no change of clothing, and were there all huddled up together. I never at any time counted the number of dead bodies being taken out of the stockade in the morning. I have never seen any dead carried out of the stockade. I have seen dead bodies in the hospital in the morning. In the case of the man in the hospital of whom I was speaking a, while ago, after I had heard his con- fession, and before I gave him the last rites of the church sacrament in "extreme unction,'' as we call it, I saw them placing the night guards in the hospital, and knew that I would not be able to get out after that. I told him that I would return in the morning and give him the other rites of the church, if he still lived. I was in there early the next morning, and in going down one of the avenues I counted from forty to sixty dead bodies of those who had died during the night in the hospital. I had never seen any dead bodies in the stockade. I have seen a person in the hospital in a nude condition, perfectly naked. They were not only covered with the ordinary vermin, but with maggots. They had involun- tary evacuations, and there were no persons to look after them. The nurses did not seem to pay any attention whatever, and in consequence of being allowed to lie in their own filth for some hours, vermin of every description had got on them, which they were unable to keep off. This was in the latter part of May. I never noticed in the stockade the men digging in the ground, and standing in the sand to protect themselves from the sun. I did not see any instance of that kind. I have seen them making little places from a foot to a foot and a half deep, and stretching their blankets right over them. I have crawled into such places frequently to hear the confessions of the dying. They would hold from one to two; sometimes a prisoner would share his blanket with another, and allow him to get under shelter. When I returned from the stockade after my second visit to it, at the latter end of May, I represented these things to General Cobb. I wrote to our bishop and told him that these men were dying in large numbers; that there were many Catholics there, and that they required the services of a priest, and he sent up Father Whelan. Father Whelan expressed a desire to see General Cobb before he went down to the stockade. I called upon General Cobb and told him that I had been there, and gave him a description of the place as well as I could, and he asked me what I would recommend to be done, as he intended to write to Richmond with regard to the condition of that place. After I found out from his conversation that nothing more could be done for the bodily comfort of the men, owing to the stringency of the blockade, and so forth, I advised him to parole those men upon their own word of honor, and take them down to Jackson- ville, Florida, and turn them into the Federal lines. Whether that recommenda- tion was acted on or not I do not know; he asked my opinion and I gave it. At that time, when I told him of the condition in which I found things there, it was known to the whole country, for it was published in the newspapers in the South. T do not know about its being common talk and rumor throughout the 148 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Confederacy. I am only speaking about Maeon and southwestern Georgia. The whole of southwestern Georgia is included in my mission, and I know that the condition of the prison was well known in Macon and throughout southwestern Georgia. I do not remember that I made any suggestion with regard to shelter at the time I had this conversation with General Cobb; it is very probable that I did. I cannot recollect whether he said anything about it or not. Q. Do you remember whether he stated that he had written to Richmond or that he was about to write to Richmond to represent the condition of things at Andersonville ? A. When he asked me to give him a description of the condition of the place, he remarked, I think, that he was going to write and wished to have some infor- mation from me on the point. He remarked also that he would like me to give j him a description, because he knew the relations that existed between the Cath- olic priest and the members of his church, and that they would be more unre- i served in communicating with me than with others. . . . I saw Captain Wirz the first time I went there. He received me with all kindness and politeness, and seemed to be pleased at my going there when I stated my purpose. I had never seen him before. I had no introduction to him more than I made myself. I told him who I was — that I was a Catholic priest come there to visit the prisoners, to find out if possible the number of Catholics there, and that I had been directed to call on him by Colonel Persons. I called on him the same as any other stranger might call on him. As well as I can remember, he said he was very well pleased to see me, and that he had expected priests would have gone there before that time. I think he had said something to the effect that he was anxious to have care and attention given to the prisoners. His action towards me showed that, and if I am not mistaken he told me so. The only time I ever conversed with Captain Wirz or saw him was when I went for my pass. . I had two passes and went to Captain Wirz for them on both occasions, and those were the only times that I either saw him or conversed with him. I never met him inside the stockade or was with him there. I met him always in his office. There was no restriction upon me whatever in regard to my taking with me anything I chose into the stockade. I could take anything at all, money, clothing, or anything of that sort. I did not while I was there hear of any restrictions placed upon others to prevent them from tak- ing in anything they chose for the relief of the prisoners. . . . Of course I could only offer my opinion to the court as to the causes of the death of those prisoners that I saw dying in such numbers. I did not see any die from long-standing wounds either in the stockade or the hospital. I do not remember that I attended any who died from wounds. I have seen them dying from scurvy, but not from gunshot wounds. I have seen them dying from diarrhoea and from dysentery — from no other complaints or causes. Those were the prevailing complaints among the prisoners while I was there. I know only the case I mentioned, of any one being shot or dying from wounds recently received, the case of Parrel, and I did not see him shot. All I know about that is, some one said he was shot. Q. Give us the names of the priests who attended at Andersonville besides yourself. TESTIMONY OF CLERGYMEN AND OTHERS. 149 A. Father Whelan was there, a priest from Savannah, and Father Clavreul, a French clergyman from Savannah; also Father John Kirby, of Augusta, and Father Hosannah, a Jesuit from the Spring Hill College, near Mobile. Father Kirby, of Augusta, remained there two weeks, I think. They did not remain most or all of the time during the summer months. Father Whelan remained there for four months constantly, and the others left after a stay of two or three weeks. . . . I think there are three papers published at Macon, or were there at that time. I remember reading articles in them relating to the Andersonville Prison, par- ticularly in reference to it, describing the condition of the place. I do not think those articles appeared very frequently; I have read at least two, perhaps three. They gave an idea or correct impression to the public of what I really found there myself. It was an accurate description of the place, so far as I could judge from what I had seen myself. They gave the condition of everything. . . . The design or object of the articles seemed to be to excite the sympathy of the people, I should think. I could not say what time in May those articles ap- peared — before I went to Andersonville and after I returned; one article ap- peared before I went there and one or two after I returned. My interview with General Cobb took place about the 1st of June. I went with Father Whelan, to introduce him to General Cobb. That was not before I went to Andersonvi'le the first time; I had been there twice. I think it was about the 1st of June that Father Whelan came up to go to Andersonville. General Cobb expressed no determination to have the state of things remedied immediately. I do not think he had power to do so; in fact Father Whelan went to him for the purpose of obtaining a document stating who he was. General Cobb said he could not give him any such pass as that, but he would give him a letter of introduction to General Winder, which he did; he wrote the letter in our presence. I do not know if this was about the time General Cobb went to Andersonville himself; I know he had not been there at that time. j Is it true, as was stated by the vice-president of the United Daugh- ters of the Confederacy to General Ketcham, noted in a former chap- ter, that "the Confederacy's treatment of prisoners of war was con- ducted on humane principles" ? Can one read the experiences of this holy man of God and discover in the treatment of prisoners witnessed by him any semblance of Christian principles? Picture Father Ham- ilton in his ministrations, moving about among these ragged, naked, starving, dying men. See him crawling into their burrows in the ground to give to them the consoling thought that they died with the hope which the Christian religion mercifully extends to the penitent. May not these skeletons of men have justly cried out as did Brutus at the murder of Caesar: "O judgment ! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason!" 150 THE TKAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. TESTIMONY OF AMBROSE SPENCER. Ambrose Spencer was a citizen of Sumter County, and resided near Americus, not far from Andersonville. His testimony is that of an intelligent man, speaking from personal knowledge and from re- liable sources of information. His testimony discloses a phase of the character of Winder and Wirz which should bring the blush of shame to their apologists. Here is what he says : 1 I reside near Americus, Sumter County, Georgia. My plantation is about nine miles from Andersonville. I have resided there for the last five years. I visited Andersonville during its occupation as a prison very frequently. I have seen the prisoner, Captain Wirz, very frequently. I was there nearly every month, I think, during the time it was a prison. I doubt whether a month elapsed in which I was not there while it was in its crowded condition — every month except, perhaps, during March, 1865. I was there in April, 1865. I was at Andersonville constantly; nearly every month, as I have remarked. 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 stock- ade where the sentinels' grounds were. I had opportunities of talking at differ- ent times with the prisoners, not only at Andersonville, but after they escaped, in several instances, when they came to my house. I can only answer the ques- tion by saying that their condition was as wretched and as horrible as could well be conceived, not only from exposure to the Bun, the inclemency of weather, and the cold of winter, but from the filth, from the absolute degradation which was evident in their condition. I have seen that stockade after three or four days' rain, when the mud, I should say, was at least twelve inches deep on both the hills; the prisoners were walking or wading through that mud. The con- dition of the stockade perhaps can be expressed most aptly by saying that in passing up and down the railroad, if the wind was favorable, the odor from the stockade could be detected at least two miles. I believe I am familiar with the surrounding country. That section of south- western Georgia is well supplied with mills, both grist-mills, flour-mills and saw- mills. Between Andersonville and Albany (the distance by railroad being I believe, fifty miles — there is railroad communication) there are five saw-mills. One of them, a large one, is owned by a gentleman named Drew. There are four others of considerable capacity; there is one saw-mill at a distance of six miles from Andersonville, owned by Mr. Stewart; that goes by steam. There is another saw-mill about five miles from Andersonville that goes by water. There are saw-mills on the road above Andersonville. As for grist-mills there are five in the neighborhood of Andersonville, the farthest off being at a dis- tance, I should think, not exceeding ten miles. There were two at Americus, the one farthest off being about twelve miles distant. Of these mills the water- mills are run nearly the entire year, except occasionally in the summer months; in the months of July and August they may be temporarily suspended owing to the want of water, but not for any length of time. 1 Record, p. 355 et seq. TESTIMONY OF CLERGYMEN AND OTHERS. 151 It is a very heavily timbered country, especially in the region adjoining An- dersonville; it may be termed one of the most densely timbered countries in the United States. As for its fertility, southwestern Georgia, I believe, is termed the garden of America; it was termed the garden of the Confederacy, as having supplied the greater part of the provisions of the rebel army. Our section of Georgia, Sumter County, is perhaps not as rich as the counties immediately con- tiguous. The land is of a lighter quality, but still it produces heavily. I sup- pose that the average of that land would be one bale of cotton to the acre; the wheat would average about six bushels to the acre. The average of corn throughout the county, I suppose, would be about eight bushels to the acre. I am stating the general average of the whole number of acres in the county. We have land in that county that will produce 35 bushels of corn to the acre; I am stating the general average. It struck me that there was an uncommon supply of vegetables in 1864. Heretofore, at the south, there has been but little attention paid to gardens on a large scale; but last year a, very large supply of vegetables was raised, as I understood, for the purpose of being disposed of at Andersonville. . . . I know of lumber having been used at Andersonville. I was there during June and July, very frequently, at the time when Governor Brown had called out the militia of the State. The militia of southwestern Georgia were stationed at Andersonville, and their tents were all floored with good lumber, and a good many shelters of lumber were put up by the soldiers. I noticed a good many tents that were protected from the sun by boards. There seemed to be no want of lumber at that time among the Confederate soldiers. I did not take regular thermometrical observations during the summer of 1864 and the winter of 1864-65; but I had a thermometer, and every day, some- times two or three times a day, I examined it. I generally made it a rule to look at it when I got up in the morning, again about noon, and then in the evening. So far as I remember, the range of the thermometer during the summer of 1864 was very high. I think I have seen it as high as 110 degrees in the shade. Once, and only once, I put the thermometer out in the sun on an extremely hot day in June, 1864. It ranged then, if my memory serves me aright, 127 to 130 degrees that day. Last winter, according to my experience during more than twenty-five years' residence in Georgia, was the coldest winter we have ever had there. I have seen the thermometer as low as 20 and 22 degrees above zero — from 8 to 10 degrees below the freezing-point; one night it was eolder than that; it was the night of the 4th of January. It is very distinctly impressed on my memory. During the night I was waked up by my wife, who told me that somebody was calling in front of my house. I opened the side window (it was excessively cold) and asked who was there. A voice replied, "A friend." I answered that I had no friends at that time of night, and very few anyhow in that country. He said that he was a friend of mine and wanted to come near the fence to speak to me. I told him my dog would bite him if he came to the fence; he then approached and said he was an Andersonville prisoner, and asked me, calling me by name, if I lived there. I told him that I was the man and to wait a moment. I dressed myself, went out and chained my dog, and brought the prisoner in. He was nearly frozen; he could hardly !52 THE TBAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVILLE. stand; he had on only one shoe, and that was a poor one, and had a stocking upon the other foot. He was clad in the thin army flannel of the United States, badly worn. He had on a pair of light blue pantaloons which were badly worn. This was on a Wednesday morning; and he told me that he had made his escape from Andersonville on the Saturday previous, that he had been apprehended and taken to Americus, where he had made his escape from the guard the night before, and was directed to my house by a, negro. I asked him if he was not nearly frozen; he said he was. I looked at the thermometer then and it was eighteen degrees above zero. This was about two o'clock in the morning — be- tween one and two o'clock. I know that efforts were made by the ladies of my county to relieve the prisoners at Andersonville; at one time a general effort was made. All that I know is, that a gentleman named Mr. Davies, a Methodist presiding elder, ex- erted himself to induce the ladies to contribute clothing and provisions to the Federal hospital at Andersonville. A large amount of provisions was collected, some three or four wagonloads, if I am not mistaken, and sent up there. I believe that the effort failed. First, the provost marshal refused a pass to carry the provisions to the hospital; and when application was made by Dr. Head, who acted as the spokesman for the ladies, to General Winder, it was positively refused to them. I had a. conversation with General Winder three days afterward The same matter then came up. General Winder stated, accompanied with an oath, that he believed the whole country was becoming "Yankee," and that he would be damned if he would not put a stop to it ; if he couldn't one way he would in another. I remarked that 1 did not think it was any evidence of "Yankee" or Union feeling to exhibit humanity. He said there was no humanity about it; that it was intended as ckade in the manner I have described, and was purchased by these traders and them exposed for sale. . . . Q. Did you ever at any time while you were at Andersonville complain to any e of your comrades with regard to the fearful mortality — the great suffering, stitution and sickness among the prisoners in the stockade? A. Yes, sir; it was a frequent subject of conversation; in fact the only sub- 3t of conversation we had was that, and anticipating the time when we would released. Q. And yet when you came home, among the first things you found it necessary do was to enter into a defense of Captain Wirz? A. What I wrote was this: not denying the horrors of Andersonville, but cribing them to what, in my opinion, was the proper cause. I never denied em. Q. You do not to-day deny any of the horrors that have been depicted at adersonville? A. Not a particle. Q. The only question you gave any opinion on was with regard to the sponsibility of the parties, and that you state now as positively as you do any- ing? A. Yes, sir. Q. You state that you have not anything to diminish with regard to the horrors Andersonville as depicted by your comrades here? A. Nothing at all regarding the facts. Q. Nothing excepting on the question of responsibility? A. Yes, sir. 4 By the President: Q. On whom, in your opinion, is the responsibility? A. In my opinion General Winder was responsible, and also the prisoners emselves, by their conduct toward each other; the prisoners were responsible 1 This is the point where several prisoners were shot in reaching for water. '■ This statement is in conflict with the testimony of nearly all the witnesses. 'If there was salt for sale, why was it not furnished to the prisoners? 1 This man received favors at the hands of Wirz. A sense of gratitude may have made him over-zealous witness. 228 THE TBAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. themselves in a great many cases for their horrible sufferings there. I never did in any instance treat any of my comrades or any of the sufferers in the stockade improperly; I treated them with as much kindness as lay in my nature. I suppose I am about the average as a kind man. I made a remark to different parties after I was exchanged, that I lived first-rate while I was with the rebel officers and had plenty to eat and plenty to drink. I made that remark at home in Brooklyn. People asked me how I fared down South, and I told them how I fared at Andersonville and how at Millen; and that was the idea I conveyed. Six prisoners comprised the whole force at Camp Lawton last winter. My ex- perience South was diversified. Q. I want to know whether you ever at any time remarked in the presence of any persons that while you were a prisoner in the South you had plenty to eat and plenty to drink? A. I remarked that during a portion of my imprisonment I did live well. Q. Did you ever make that remark to anybody with regard to your living at Andersonville? A. No, sir; I could not do it; it was not the fact. Q. Were cooked rations sometimes issued to the sick that were not fit for them to eat? A. That was merely a matter of taste. Q. Then those men who died preferred to die as a matter of taste to eating those rations? A. The sick, those who had sore mouths, could not eat the corn bread and Q. "What made their mouths sore? A. Scurvy. Q. And they preferred to die as a matter of taste? A. They preferred to abstain from that part of the ration altogether. Q. You use the word "abstain" as you preferred to use the term "delayed" instead of "stopped" in regard to the rations? A. It is hardly a parallel case ; they abstained from the food because it only aggravated their disease. The result of their abstaining from food was that they became greatly emaciated, and in a gTeat many cases death ensued; death resulted from their abstinence from food, from the nature of their food, not from starvation arising from the lack of food. I said salt was thrown over the stock- ade in quantities to suit purchasers. At the time the salt was thrown over the stockade, the number of prisoners was estimated at 33,000; salt was a luxury at Andersonville; I consider anything a luxury which is very scarce; salt was very scarce at Andersonville; it could only be obtained by purchase; all those who could afford it purchased salt; I cannot tell how many could afford it; there was a great many in the stockade who could afford it, a great many who had money; I suppose about one-third of the prisoners had money. Each one would purchase according to his ability; men who possessed money could pur- chase enough for daily consumption ; each would consume a spoonful perhaps ; those who had money had to be economical; a spoonful of salt would be sufficient for each purchaser; that was the daily purchase; there were more than ten thousand spoonfuls of salt thrown over the stockade daily; I say that I have seen salt thrown over the stockade daily; I pretend to know of my own knowl- TESTIMONY FOE DEFENSE. 229 sdge about this traffic; I know about this because I have been occasionally walk- ing in the evenings down on the west side of the stockade, and I have seen this ;raffic going on; I presume it was going on all the time; I do not know except from what I have seen occasionally; I know where the salt came from, it came Erom the bake-house. Q. You say that when the sergeant came in there, at the time the sick and )thers were removed, about the 31st of October, they informed the sick that they night remain, if they desired to do so, and they did remain? A. They did remain. Q. Preferring to stay in the Andersonville stockade to being exchanged? A. Yes, sir. Q. You state it as a fact that the Andersonville stockade was regarded by ;hem as preferable to an exchange? A. Preferable to another stockade unknown to them. Andersonville at that ;ime was comfortable comparatively to what it had been. This was after the itockade was cleared out; some of the prisoners stayed, preferring that stockade o one that they knew nothing of; some were unable to be removed, but some to ay own certain knowledge preferred to remain there — some of my own detach- nent; they preferred to bear the ills they had; Andersonville was preferable n their view to an exchange of stockade; I do not mean to convey the idea hat Andersonville in their opinion was preferable to coming home here in he North; the idea those men had was that they would rather stay there than ;o to another stockade, of the horrors of which they knew nothing. TESTIMONY OF EDWARD WELLINGTON BOATE. 1 I was in the service of the United States; in the 42d New York Volunteers. was a prisoner at Andersonville from February 24, 1864, till August 7, 1864; was taken prisoner October 14, 1863. I was first taken to Belle Island. The fare at Andersonville was about three times the quantity, both in meat and leal, that it was at Belle Island; in other respects it was better — better at Lndersonville than, Belle Island. I had meat at Belle Island the last month before left twice, with an interval of a fortnight between the two times. At Belle sland we got quarter rations — a quarter of a loaf of bread, with a small bit of leat about that size, [about five inches by three]. My first rations at Andersonville were about a pound of beef, salt and fresh nd two sanitary cups of meal; no coffee. We got beans at the same time. We ot sweet potatoes the day of our arrival. The rations diminished. Instead f two sanitary cups of meal, we received sometimes a cup and a half. The itions got smaller as the prisoners increased. I arrived there at night, and the ext morning Sergeant Duncan gave to each squad about six skillets, so far as remember, for cooking our rations, stating that as soon as the cook-house and akery were completed, we would receive cooked rations. The cook-house at lat time was in course of completion. I think it must have been in the month E April that I got cooked rations. Our own men did the cooking at the bake- suse. The bread cooked there was bad; it was burned on the outside, and iw on the inside; this was not always the case, but generally it was; it was 1 Record, p. 687 et seq. 230 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. badly baked. The prisoners sometimes ate the rations, and sometimes they could not eat them and threw them away; I speak now with regard to the bread. Q. Do you know anything about efforts to get prisoners to enlarge the stock- ade, and what was said and done on that occasion? A. I remember Captain Wirz having a number of men brought out — I was then detailed to go out with them; I did not go out with them. I was in Dr. White's department at the time. A number of prisoners came before Captain Wirz; he had sent for them; he said, "Now, that stockade below is too crowded for you, and I have no labor to increase the size of it; all the black labor is engaged on farms, and I have hardly enough men, in fact, to guard you; I ask you to come out; I will give you axes; come out and increase the stockade to any extent that is necessary for you.'' The reply was, "Captain Wirz, we do not want to come out to work, for we have been told by recent prisoners who have arrived in the stockade, that if we go to work for rebels our pay will be stopped, and we will be tried and probably sent to the Dry Tortugas." [To the Court : ] I heard this conversation myself. Captain Wirz said, "Your government are not such rascals or such fools as to blame or punish you if I can give you ten feet of room instead of four, if you come out and work for it."i There was an average of a barrel of whiskey a day sent to the hospital and stockade for the prisoners. Eggs were sent to the hospital, not the stockade. Tea, sugar, and matters of that kind were sent to the hospital daily. 2 I know that eggs were selling at Andersonville around there at $3.50 per dozen. I will not speak in regard to the eggs, but I will speak in regard to the vegetables. Dr. White, not Captain Wirz, gave the order, "Bring all you can find of these things and I will pay you any price." They came in very limited quantities, but I heard Captain Wirz offer to pay any price that they demanded, and tell them to bring him all the articles of that character that they could find round the country. I know that there was a very bad smell through the camp. I would not offer an opinion advisedly upon it. I have expressed an opinion in reference to that swamp that it was unhealthy. I said it was "filled with untold impurities." That was true. I said that the food there was "unfit for human beings." That was true at the time I was referring to. At the time I understood so from my companions who came out of the stockade and who joined me in the commission referred to here. They told me that the food was bad, not fit for human beings. I know myself that the bread baked there was unfit for human beings. That is so, That was my opinion and I repeat it. I have said that that stoekade was "without shelter of any kind." Using the phrase "from the fierce tropical sun and the heavy rains." That is partially true. There were several hundreds in that stockade without shelter. I used the expression that their clothes were "miserable" and "insufficient even for the pur- poses of common decency." That was true. 1 The testimony is that the prisoners helped to enlarge the stockade. 2 The surgeons at the hospital testified that there were not stimulants enough for case! under the knife. Dr. Bates testified that the cry of the patients was for food. TESTIMONY FOE DEFENSE. 231 Q. Did you ever make use of the expression "the confinement of 35,000 human beings within an area of some 17 acres, with a pestilential swamp running through the camp"? A. That should be 27 acres. I wrote it so in figures, and the printer made the mistake. With that change it is true. I wrote this expression: "Our sick when removed to hospital being utterly devoid of any sort of accommodation, and often three weeks at a time without a particle of medicine." That is not fully true. There is a slight exaggeration in it. They were not three weeks altogether at a time without medicine; but they might be a week. With that change it is true. I used this expression, "the despair, the mental imbecility, the madness which have been the result to so many of those unhappy prisoners." It is literally true. I lost my health at Andersonville. My eyesight was im- paired. I did not lose it at Andersonville; I lost it at Belle Island, from the suffering endured there lying out without shelter. Q. Was it contributed to at Andersonville 9 A. Yes, it was not benefited. Question repeated. A. Yes. When I arrived at New York I had an attack of my lungs, I pre- sume arising from my confinement in the South. I made that statement believing it to be true. In speaking of my sight being impaired, I made use of the ex- pression "only one degree removed from total blindness" ; at a certain time my sight was so bad that that was true. Q. Did you use this expression in regard to it: "all the result of eleven long weary months spent in the bull pens of the Southern Confederacy?" A. I referred to that. [Mr. Baker claimed that the whole sentence on which the witness was being questioned should be read to him.] Witness. I admit the whole document. I admit that I wrote that letter. Every line of it is true with the exceptions I have named. TESTIMONY OF BENJAMIN F. DILLY. 1 I reside in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I was in the service of the United States for three years and seven months, in Company F, 54th Pennsylvania. I was taken prisoner on the 2d of February, 1864; I was carried to Belle Island, Richmond. I remained there until the 16th of March, 1864; I was then taken to Andersonville; I was there one year. I went there on the 23d of March, 1864, and came away on the 23d of March, 1865. I was in the stockade at Anderson- ville for three weeks. I was allowed to go in and out of the stockade until August. I was detailed as a clerk at the headquarters of Captain Wirz; X was admitting clerk. ... I was connected with the hospital department from the latter part of August till the 23d of March, 1865. Every man traded who had means. Hams, fresh pork, bacon, flour, meal, peanuts, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, thread and needles, cigars, tobacco, and anything of that kind were traded in. That was going on both inside and out- side. Articles were bought outside and taken into the stockade. I know about trading over the stockade between prisoners and rebels; prisoners would walk 1 Record, p. 672 et seq. 232 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. up to the dead-line and ask some of the guards if he had anything to trade; if he had he would show it, and the prisoner would throw up the money on the end of a string and the guard would let down the article. There were a number of small wells inside the stockade while I was there — there were no large ones while I was in the stockade. I suppose there were 75 or 100 on the south side. The number increased, but the men who owned the wells would not allow their comrades to drink from them. Very good water was in the wells, better water than we had outside. That water would not supply more than one-fifth the wants of the stockade, I suppose. . . . The creek water when I was inside the stockade was very bad, excepting some portions of it — the upper end of it, and even there the water was bad ; the water was good enough except for the grease on it that came from the cook-house. Captain Wirz made an effort to impress 500 slaves to enlarge the stockade. He could not get the slaves, and he sent to Richmond for orders in regard to it; he also sent into the stockade for men — the men refused to come out. The excuse was that they would compromise themselves in the eyes of their government. The sick men could not do it, and the well men refused to do it; at last they got some men out — some 150. I understood that Captain Wirz's orders were to place the men three deep if they did not come out. He placed so many men in the stockade that they were forced to come out at last. Captain Wirz said that that rice and corn meal were not fit for niggers; that he would not feed his slaves on them, and that the man who sent that corn meal to Andersonville should be court-martialed — that he was robbing the Confeder- ate government. I do not know anything about the conduct of cooks in the cook-house in reference to rations, more than that they traded the rations off to the slaves for vegetables. Captain Wirz's detectives found fifteen bags of hams and bacon in the woods. The slaves were men whom I saw working around on the fortifications. There were some 500 slaves working on the fortifications at Andersonville. I saw suffering inside the stockade certainly; they all suffered more or less. They could not eat the food; it was not fit to eat. It would be hard for any man to eat the corn bread they had there. There were plenty of siek men in there. I saw plenty of men dying in there. I never saw anybody naked in there, although their clothes were good for nothing — nothing but rags. I saw men there without hats, without shoes, and without pants; but I have never seen them without all these things at one time. I have seen men without pants. August Gleich was called for the defense. He belonged to the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry; was at Andersonville from March until No- vember, 1864. He entered the stockade March 10th and was paroled and went to work for Wirz April 8th. He testified that Wirz was absent sick the whole of August and this was the principal fact brought out by him. He also testified that he "never heard that Cap- tain Wirz shot or injured a man so that he died. I heard it spoken of while I was at Andersonville. All I can tell is that he would curse a man for nothing at all hardly ; that is about all he would do." 1 1 Record, pp. 585, 587. TESTIMONY FOR DEFENSE. 233 TESTIMONY OF FREDERICK GTJSCETTI. Frederick Guscetti was called for the defense. He belonged to the 47th New York Kegiment and arrived at Andersonville March 28, 1864, and remained there until August, when he was paroled for work outside. He tells of a desperate attempt made to escape which pre- sumably was brought out to show the kindness of Wirz in overlook- ing it. 1 I attempted to escape once on the 4th of July; they did not give us anything to eat, and in the evening I told some of my friends to tie me up in a blanket and I would go out as a dead man; they put me in a blanket, put a cloth over my face and carried me into the hospital; in the hospital they put No. 61 on my breast; they put me into the dead-house and kept me there until the last wagon came that night; they then took me away during the night; I knew that the orders were to carry away twenty-five bodies at a time, I counted so many dead and placed myself so as to be about the twenty-fourth or twenty- fifth; the next morning the men came in to carry away the dead; they counted out twenty-four and then it came to my turn; a negro, named "Abe," lifted me up and threw me on the wagon — a canvas-covered wagon like a tent — to go to the dead-house; when I was carried to the dead-house the negroes took my clothes off, so that I had nothing on but a pair of drawers, and I had no chance to get away; they carried me out in a wagon too near the kitchen; I had not eaten the whole day before, and did not feel strong enough to go away; I slipped down from the wagon with the intention of waiting until night, and then going to some farmers near by and getting clothes somehow; I was lying down when about ten o'clock I saw Turner with the dogs run around the stock- ade; I was afraid of him, of course ;> I then saw him go away; he was going to headquarters; afterwards I saw him with Captain Wirz on horseback; I heard afterwards that their object was to discover a hole which had been made the night before; in passing around there the dogs found me out and jumped to- wards me; I did not move; I knew that they would not bite me if I did not run away. Captain Wirz came up and said: "What the hell are you doing here?" I told him I was trying to run away; he asked me if I thought I could run away without any clothes on; I then told him all about how it was; he took me down to the hospital and asked the steward, or some one of the men in the hospital, to give me some clothes; he then put me into the stockade; he said that he had a mind to put a ball and chain on me for it; but after all he sent me back into the stock- ade. That was my first attempt to run away; I do not think a great many of the prisoners liked to pass off for dead, but many were running away all the time — as often as they could. On the fourth of July rations were stopped for a whole day. I cannot say why they were stopped. I think the prisoners would have died if the rations had been stopped two or three days in succession. Rations were stopped inside the stockade on the 4th July. They were not stopped altogether at any other time; they were stopped from some squads. I 1 Record, p. 513 et seq. 234 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. onee saw that they did not bring anything at all inside; that was the 4th of July. No one at the south gate certainly got anything that day. On other days I know that some squads or messes did not get their rations; they were squads who could not find men who were absent. Sometimes a man would be found sick in his tent who had not received any rations for one or two days. The camp police often found men so, and often bucked and gagged sergeants for allowing it. I have known some men to be without rations for two days. On that 4th of July I got nothing to eat; I rail away because I did ont like the prison; there was very poor eating in the prison. I could stand it myself, because I was always very healthy. Out of ninety-one countrymen of mine only four died. We were healthy and used to that kind of living, but I know that a great many other men died. Q. Did you allow yourself to be put into the dead-wagon, laid along with corpses, and left in the dead-house all night for the purpose of escaping from a place where you got enough to eat? A. Yes; that dead-house was a horrible place. I was lying alongside of dead bodies; some of them had gangrene, and some had their legs off. Q. And you subjected yourself to all that suffering merely to escape from a place where you got enough to eat? A. I told you that I did not have enough to eat, but I could stand it. It appeared that the witness was very much interested in behalf of the prisoner and this interest was shown as tending to discredit him. He was shown a clipping from a New York paper and ad- mitted that it was written and sent by him for publication. The record shows the following 1 To the Editor of the New York News: Captain Henry Wirz, at present on trial before a military commission at Wash- ington, is a poor man, having a wife and three children depending on the charity of friends for their support. He is entirely without the means of defraying those expenses which are unavoidable for a person who must singly and alone defend himself against the prosecution of the government. The sentiment in favor of a fair and perfectly just trial of any and all the state prisoners is so universal, that some of the personal friends of Captain Wirz take this method of appealing to all such as may feel interested in knowing that the accused has not wanted a fair and full opportunity for presenting the whole of his case in its true aspect before the tribunal charged with deciding his fate. Hence they ask for contribu- tion of funds for that purpose, to be sent to the editor of. this paper, to be by him forwarded to the consul-general of Switzerland at Washington. It is hoped that the countrymen of Captain Wirz, and the adopted citizens generally, will feel it a duty devolving upon them especially, without allowing other considerations to prejudice his case. All acquainted with facts in the case, and willing to testify for Captain Wirz, are requested to forward their names and address to L. Schade, Esq., attorney at law, Washington, D. O, with a statement of what they can testify to. F. Guscetti. (Western papers please copy.) Q. How did you happen to take such extraordinary interest in this case? A. I was always, myself, treated well by Captain Wirz, and when I wrote 1 Record, pp. 525-7. TESTIMONY FOR DEFENSE. 235 this article, or had it written, I was in company with several other men who had been treated well by Captain Wirz. They said they could not come here as witnesses for him. I implicated nobody in the letter, but stated what I wished to see, that he should be tried justly. The remaining witness of this class was George Washington Fecht- ner. I think any one who may read the extraordinary story he nar- rated will conclude that he should have been named Ananias instead of George Washington. Counsel for the prisoner would gladly have checked this glowing account of the modern bazaar and commercial emporium he made out of the prison pen. Recalling the report of Colonel Chandler and the graphic de- scription given by Dr. Jones of this prison and the numerous wit- nesses who depicted the horrors of that dreadful place, the story of Fechtner reads like the outpourings of a disordered brain. 1 TESTIMONY OF GEORGE W. FECHTNER. I was in the Union army in September, 1862; I was taken prisoner on the 15th of September, 1862, by Colonel Jesse, a Confederate colonel; I was held as a spy, having been identified by one of his men as such; I was taken to Knoxville, East Tennessee, and from there to Grenada, Mississippi; I was held in that coun- try nine months for trial; finally I made my escape but was recaptured by the Mississippi home guard, and taken to Columbus, Mississippi, and from there I was sent to Eichmond, under the name of Charles W. Boss; I gave another name for the purpose of saving my life; I had been on trial as a spy; I arrived at Andersonville the first of June, 1864; none of my comrades who were captured with me were punished as spies, except one who was hung. When I arrived at Andersonville I was put in the stockade. Q. What did you do in the stockade? A. I was prison sutler part of the time, and I was chief of regulators and magistrate for the southwest part of the camp. My duty as magistrate was to punish men for stealing; 1 punished some by flogging, some by setting them to work, and some by sentencing them to be washed. They were so very dirty that they had to be washed once in a while, and it was a punishment to them. The Judge Advocate. I must object to this course of testimony as immaterial and irrelevant. Mr. Bakek. You will find that this witness will give a new complexion to matters inside the stockade; that instead of all the horrors we have heard of, he will show that it was a little more comfortable and agreeable. The Judge Advocate. Very well, I will not object to that. Q. State what you did as a magistrate. A. In the southwest part of the camp all the men guilty of stealing were brought before me for trial; they were prosecuted by the men from whom they had stolen; they would steal tin cups, clothing, food and anything they could get their hands on. The police there were organized for the defense of the 1 Record, p. 557 et seq. 236 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. camp; they were composed of companies, thirty men to a company. (To the Court.) They were organized for the regulation and defense of the men in the camp; the system of robbing men in the streets gave rise to the regulators; this system of robbing was carried on by a number of men who had banded themselves together for the purpose of taking by force that which was not their own, money, watches, clothing, and anything they took a fancy to. The police were first organized by a number of men, who were prominent in the camp, going round and secretly taking the names of able-bodied men who were willing to take part in putting down the robbers. After they were sufficiently strong it was done openly; the raiders then tried to put down the regulators; they styled themselves "the regulators." This led to an outbreak; assistance was called for from Captain Wirz, which was furnished immediately; and the raiders were taken out; eleven of them were tried, six were hung, and five sentenced to wear a ball and chain. There were sixteen companies of police; they were organized by the chief of police; a man named Keese was the first chief; he was appointed by the regulators themselves; the regulators elected their own cap- tains, and these captains elected the chief; complaints were made daily concern- ing robberies; I would dispose of them to the best of my ability. For stealing a tin cup, if the man was healthy, he was flogged; if he was not healthy he was made to sit in a tent all day long, or he was taken down to the creek and washed; the men of the regulators executed my orders — the police. There were quite a number of storekeepers of different kinds there; I would be safe in saying there were a thousand of different kinds in the stockade ; i they would keep their stores in their tents; they dug holes in the ground to put them in; they got the stores from the post adjutant — the rebel sutler; they got the largest part of them from him; they got a good many stores through the hospital, and by paying the guards at the gate' $5 or such matter for leave to go into the country to buy them. All kinds of trades that are calculated to make men comfortable were carried on there, such as shoemakers, tailors, watchmakers, &c. There were two watchmakers there, five or six shoemakers, and five or six tailors. The streets were full of soup jobbers; there were about thirty eating-houses there; they consisted of tables made out of rough boards and long benches; coffee, tea, ham and eggs, biscuit, butter, and honey could be got there; there were at least five hundred bakers in the stockade; they would bake biscuit, bread, pies, cakes. They would get the flour from the post-adjutant and from the cook-house and through the hospital; it would be smuggled in from the cook-house on wood wagons; it would be concealed below the wood and brought in. When the wood would be unloaded the flour would be taken out and delivered to the men it was sold to; it was always sold previously to being taken in; the bakers would manage to carry on their business very easily; there was always plenty of wood for sale and plenty of flour to be had, and plenty of saleratus ; ' I had a 50-pound keg of that; I had a store after I had been there a while, styled "the novelty store." I had a greater variety to sell than any other man in the camp; some of the articles I had for sale were potatoes, onions, peas, beans, apples, peaches, grapes, pears, plums, chickens, watermelons, saleratus, flour, red and black pepper, honey, butter, and beer; I had sorghum, about a barrel. 1 Thus there was a storekeeper for every 25 or 30 men. TESTIMONY FOE DEFENSE. 237 I had to pay for a barrel of sorghum $1,300 of Confederate money; that would be $325 in greenbacks* I had to pay $70 of Confederate money per pound for tea. We got the apples from the post adjutant; they cost us at the rate of $60 a bushel, potatoes the same, onions the same; flour cost us $70 a sack of 98 pounds; I had large quantities of tobacco; it was generally in 25-pound boxes, which would sell at $22.50; we got ale from the post adjutant; we bought it directly from him; he always came inside with loads of these goods; I had ginger and capsicum, and different kinds of roots and herbs in my store; I would buy them from the paroled men detailed in the hospital; I would get apples, grapes, and watermelons sometimes from the post adjutant; sometimes from the men who were on working squads; they would get them when out at work and would bring them in and sell them to the traders inside; we could get outside whenever we wanted to by giving the sergeant at the gate $5, generally to take us out to the country to a house where those articles were kept for sale; it was about five miles outside the limits; have very often helped sick prisoners, acquaint- ances of mine; I would give them medicine for scurvy and diarrhoea; a dose of medicine there for diarrhoea would cost about $1.25 in greenbacks; they would come around there to my tent every day when I told them to do so. There were clothing merchants there; there were only two that I particularly know of; but there were a great many on the streets selling clothing of different kinds, shirts, pants, shoes, -overcoats, caps and hats. Clothing was very cheap there ; a good pair of army shoes could be got for 75 cents or a dollar; a very good overcoat for $4; pants for $2; shirts were about the dearest things there were there, they averaged about $3. There were quite a number of money brokers there; they would buy and sell State money, Confederate money, gold and silver; there were about 50 of that class there; they would also deal in bounty certificates and watches, and would buy and sell bank checks. There were bank checks to buy and sell; they would be brought in by new prisoners; they would buy these bounty certificates at a great discount and run the risk of getting their pay on them; there was no place there for paying those bounty certificates; they would risk getting their pay when they returned North; it was not known there whether the certificates were genuine or not; most of them were on the State of Massachu- setts; they gave about 50 per cent for bounty certificates. I should judge there was half a million of greenbacks circulating there when the Plymouth prisoners were brought in; Confederate money was brought in in any quantity. There were a number of barber shops there where men could get shaved, their hair cut and whiskers dyed, and some of them carried on the doctoring business. Only one carried on the doctoring business that I know of personally. They would buy their dyeing articles to work with, their soap and other things, from new arrivals. Those things were brought in in large quantities. During the month of June there was an arrival of fresh prisoners nearly every day, who were brought from the neighborhood of Petersburg and Eichmond. There were quite a number of arrivals in July; not so many in August. Those who were brought in in those months were generally able-bodied men, very healthy, well clothed, and had plenty of greenbacks. They had also a number of little articles which soldiers wear. There were two watchmakers there that I know of. They repaired watches and jewelry. I have been at their shops. I saw upwards of 50 watches in one 238 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. man's shop, and a number of articles, such as breastpins and rings, left to be repaired. This man kept a journeyman ; the work was too heavy for himself. They had a full set of tools. They had a tent to work in. The tents were gen- erally made of blankets stretched upon poles. Those poles were brought into camp by working parties. There were pole merchants there. I should say there were about 30 pole merchants. The working squads brought poles in — men who were taken out every morning to work and who were sent into camp in the even- ing; they would bring in such things as they could secure every day, fence rails, poles, and boards. The bakers could carry on their baking business very easily; everything that was needed to carry it on was to be had in the camp. Wood was for sale in large quantities. They constructed ovens of mud, some very large and others very small. They would buy the wood from wood merchants and also from the messes in camp. I cannot say how many wood merchants were there; they were passing around on the streets all the time. A common-sized cord stick was worth two dollars in greenbacks. There were about five hun- dred bakers there. The tailors had the business of making pants out of corn- sacks taken from the commissary wagons. There were a number of tailors — five or six I was acquainted with. They were always busy making pants for men who wanted a clean pair of pants to put on once in a while, to make them- selves feel like being at home. They stole the sacks out of the commissary wagons. I had a store. I first bought a lot, and erected a shanty on it. I dug a cel- lar at the bottom of the tent, which was made of boards. In the night-time I would keep my goods in the cellar and in the day-time I would display them on the street. I would buy the boards from men who belonged to the working parties ; they would bring them in when they came in at night. There were about three thousand tents or buildings of that sort inside the stockade, as near as I can judge. About half of the area outside the dead-line was covered with tents. We had real estate owners there ; every man owned the ground his tent was on. There were some real estate agents for the purpose of buying and sell- ing lots. They would buy lots whenever they could find them for sale, and pay for them according to the locality. I bought a lot on a side street, six feet square, and gave a dollar for it. I bought another on a principal street, also six feet square, for which I gave five dollars. There was not anything on it. I erected a shanty in both places. I bought the boards, which were for sale there every clay. There were lumber merchants there. I occupied the shanties. I occupied them for stores and for dwelling both. There were gamblers there; quite a number of them. They would deal faro, honest John, euchre, seven uyi, and poker. There was an organized gang of gamblers there; also some detached gamblers who would make use of tents during the day-time to gamble in, and who would have runners hunting out men who wanted to gamble. There was a great deal of money won and lost every day; there were a good many "chuckle-up" dealers, men who had a little board with numbers on, and boxes of dice. There was money there, so that that could be made profitable; I should judge there were a hundred "chuckle-up" dealers on the main street, and they had a crowd around them at all hours of the day. TESTIMONY FOE DEFENSE. 239 There was a great deal of suffering there on account of exposure to the weather. I cannot say that anybody suffered from hunger. The rations that I got when I first went there were sufficient for me to live on; after the first week I did not eat the rations at all. If anybody had money there he could get what he wanted to eat. There were about a thousand dealers, stores and such like, there I think. [To the Court.] The adjutant's name was Selman; he was a Confederate officer. He belonged outside; he had a, board shanty erected inside, and had two Federal prisoners to take charge of it. That was the sutler's storehouse. He would have large quantities of flour, tobacco, beans, and peas, salt and rice, and small quantities of onions, potatoes, apples, and such things. Things that were liable to spoil would be brought in in small quantities, and anything not liable to spoil would be brought in in large quantities. I would obtain grapes by the quart every day. There were at least four hundred wells and springs in the camp. The water was always plentiful. The water was very clear and good until the month of June. During June the water was very muddy. Q. How did they get water out of the wells? A. There were strings and ropes in the camp, and bqot-legs were cut up and leather strings made. There were buckets; six buckets were issued to each squad of ninety men, and there were also buckets for sale. All the buckets that were wanted could be obtained for money. There was one man there who made bogus green- backs; followed it as a business; he made a living at it; he had men to pass them off at so mvich a dollar. Those greenbacks would be thrown over the stockade to the guards in exchange for goods. He manufactured them with a green and a red pencil and paper. I have seen some of them; I had one passed on myself, a ten-dollar bill. None of these men were ever tried or punished. The making of them was countenanced because it was for the benefit of the prisoners. It is hardly necessary to look back over the testimony of these twelve witnesses. Most of them were in some way favored by their keeper and showed a willingness to shield him so far as they could. The reader, however, will fail to find in their testimony, any facts diminishing the force of the evidence which unerringly described the actual conditions surrounding the prisoners and located the responsi- bility for these conditions. No one can attach the slightest credence to Fechtner's testimony. It is at variance with all the evidence and describes an utterly impossible condition in the prison. It must strike the reader as remarkable that counsel would submit to the court an account so grotesque and unbelievable. CHAPTER X. Treatment or Prisoners (Continued) — Cruel and Inhuman Punishments Inflicted — Balls and Chains Used as Means of Punishment — Prisoners Confined in the Stocks and Left Exposed to the Weather — The "Dead- Line" and Its Attendant Perils — Ferocious Dogs "Used to Hunt Down Escaping Prisoners — Prisoners Torn and Mutilated by These Dogs — Prisoners Die from Effects — Impure and Deadly Vaccine Matter Used for Vaccination of the Prisoners, Causing Many Horrible Deaths— Wirz Boasts of His Service to the Rebellion in Slaying Prisoners — Re- volting Manner of Handling and Burying the Dead — Testimony of Rebel Witnesses Confirms Testimony of Wntz's Cruelty to Prisoners. r T N the preceding chapters evidence has been presented bearing upon *■ the charge of conspiracy, more particularly in respect to the general management of the prison. Attention will next be given to the more personal treatment of prisoners by Wirz. It serves to emphasize the guilt of the persons responsible for retaining him in control, when, as we shall see, such treatment consisted of cruel and inhuman pun- ishment inflicted for light and trivial causes and in violation of the laws and customs of civilized warfare. The system of control and discipline of the prison, in its entirety, must be the measure by which guilt or innocence is to be adjudged. I have endeavored to show upon what evidence the court found the parties named in charge 1, to be guilty as charged; of "conspiring to destroy the lives and injure the health of Union soldiers, by confining the prisoners in unhealthy and unwholesome quarters, by exposing them to the inclemency of the winter and to the dews and burning sun of summer; by compelling the use of impure water, by furnishing insufficient and unwholesome food; by neglecting to furnish tents, barracks or other shelter for their protection from the inclemency of winter or the burning rays of the sun in summer; by neglecting to provide proper lodging, food or nourishment for the sick, or necessary medicines and medical attend- ance for the restoration of their health, and permitting the sick to languish and die for want of proper care and treatment ; by permitting the bodies of the dead to remain in the prison among the emaciated sick and languishing living, until the said bodies became loathsome CRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 241 and filled the air with fetid and noxious exhalations, thereby greatly increasing the unwholesomeness of the prison." The reader is to judge whether, in the foregoing chapters, these specifications have been proved. Evidence will now be given in support of the further speci- fication to charge 1, namely — -"That the prison keeper, in pursuance of the general design, subjected the prisoners to cruel and unusual punishment upon slight and trivial pretenses, by fastening large balls of iron to their feet, and binding large numbers of the prisoners closely together with large chains about their necks and feet, and being so confined subjecting them to the burning rays of the sun ; that he con- fined them in stocks, often without food or drink, for hours and even days, by reason whereof many sickened and died; that he established a dead-line within the stockade about twenty feet from the inner face thereof, which was marked by insecure and shifting stakes and strips of boards, and at places an imaginary line, and gave orders to the guards to shoot any persons who might touch, fall upon, or under, or cross said dead-line, by reason of which many persons were killed ; that he used and kept ferocious dogs, dangerous to life, to hunt down prisoners who made their escape and encouraged said beasts to seize, tear and mangle the bodies of fugitive prisoners, whereby many were slain; that he used poisonous vaccine matter for the vaccination of said prisoners, whereby many died." Reserving for the present the summing up of the evidence, a phase of the case is approached, less sweeping in its resultant mortality, but none the less significant of the prevailing spirit and apparent motive which actuated the perpetrators of the crimes charged against them. It will not be found practicable to group the evidence as to any particular form of cruelty or punishment to which prisoners were subjected by Wirz or by his orders, nor can the witnesses be con- veniently classified. Neither will attempt be made to give all the evidence introduced by the prosecution, embracing the subject we are now to consider. Enough testimony will be shown, however, — much of it by witnesses who were in the rebel service, — to support the specifica- tions above alluded to. Some of the witnesses who will be quoted testified on other matters as already shown. TESTIMONY OF COLONEL GIBBS. Colonel Gibbs, of the Confederate army, whose previous testimony will be remembered, testified i 1 1 Record, p. 22 et seq. 242 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDERSON VILLE. Q. Did you ever know him [Wirz] to interfere in any way with the hospital? A. I never knew him to interfere with the medical treatment of the prisoners in the hospital. The only instance of interference I have ever known was the punishment of a paroled man, employed as a nurse, I think, who had failed to report the escape of a prisoner. Q. What did Captain Wirz do with him? A. The man was put in the "stocks" for a little while, till Dr. James inter- fered and demanded his release. I know of there having been established a dead-line at the prison. I do not know if Captain Wirz had anything to do with the construction of it. Its ob- ject was to keep the prisoners from approaching the stockade. I cannot tell what Captain Wirz's orders were in regard to it. I presume there were orders, but do not know what they were. I never heard them. I never gave any, and I never heard Wirz give any. The existing regulation at all the military prisons I know of was that any one crossing the dead-line was to be shot; I believe that was the regulation at Andersonville. I know that there were dogs kept at the prison. They were intended, on the escape of prisoners, to track them, so that they could be recaptured. They were used in that way. I do not know how they were subsisted, except in this; that after the prison became almost empty of prisoners, when there were none left but a few sick, the dogs were subsisted by corn meal furnished by the commissary. I heard they were mustered into the Confederate service as horses, but I do not know of my own knowledge that they were. A man named Turner had them in charge; I do not know his given name, or what became of him. I have seen at the prison an instrument called "the stocks." The prisoner did not tell me anything about the use of them; he never spoke to me about them at all. I do not know of any man being put in them, except the one of whom I spoke. The prisoner never told me about any other instrument of torture or discipline used for the purpose of enforcing discipline. There was a ball and chain at the place. 1 have heard him speak of an instrument called the "chain-gang." He said there had been such a gang at Andersonville. Q. Do you know who was in the habit of giving orders in that prison for executing any sentence? A. I do not know of any sentence having been pronounced. Q. Do you know who put in the stocks the man you spoke of? A. It was done by order of Captain Wirz; I know he was not ordered to do it by any superior officer. The hounds were in charge of a man named Turner; they were certainly not bloodhounds according to my understanding of what bloodhounds are; I think they were ordinary plantation dogs, a mixture of hound and cur, and anything else — the ordinary plantation dogs; I think there were about six or seven kept there; they were not kept in the prison, but about an eighth of a mile from it, in a building which had been used as soldiers' quarters; I believe they were a part of the discipline of the prison ; I do not know by whose order the dogs were kept there; I do not know who established them there at all. CRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 243 Q. Did you ever know of Captain Wirz giving any orders in reference to them? A. Mr. Turner was under the orders of Captain Wirz. Q. Would he not have been under the orders of any other person who was in Captain Wirz's place I A. That I cannot say; I could not say under whose orders he might have been before I went there. Q. You never knew of Captain Wirz using them at all? A. I never knew of his using them himself; I know that Mr. Turner, who kept them, was under Captain Wirz's orders. Q. Was Mr. Turner a person in the employ of the prison? A. He was a detailed soldier. Q. How large dogs were they? A. They were of various sizes, little and big. Q. Were they ferocious dogs or were they harmless? A. I do not think they were harmless dogs. Q. Were they dangerous dogs? A. I do not know about that. Q. Were they anything more than the ordinary farm dog? A. They were the ordinary plantation dog. Q. Not all ferocious or dangerous? A. Well, I do not know about that. TESTIMONY OF DR. BARROWS. Dr. A. V. Barrows, a paroled prisoner, detailed for duty in the hospital, testified: 1 I had in my ward eases of vaccination. I had what I call vaccine sores; they were in the arms usually; sometimes in the axilla. They were the result of vaccination, and had every symptom of "secondary" syphilis, in my opinion. A person can be impregnated with that disease by inoculation; it is so put down in medical history. I should say I have seen two or three hundred cases of that description in the course of my stay there. The sores were as large as my hand, and were produced by vaccination. In my opinion, the matter used must have been impure. I considered it as poisonous, judging from the effects and results; there was every appearance of "secondary'' syphilis in the sores. Ampu- tations were necessary from that cause, and I do not remember of one living; there may have been, but I do not remember such a case at the present time. I have seen men die from the effects of that vaccination in the months of June, July, and August; more particularly, 1864. I have had conversations with the surgeons about that matter, and some of them have admitted that, in their opin- ion, it was poisonous matter. I do not know that I called Dr. White's attention to it specially. I was not considered as a privileged character there, and had not opportunities to report. He had means of knowing it, and must have known it; he visited the hospital very often. The "stocks" is a frame about six feet high, with boards that shut together, leaving just room enough for a man's neck, and arranged so that his arms are 1 Record, p. 45 et seq. 244 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. fastened at full length each way, and his feet just touch the ground. I have seen cases where the men could have the privilege of standing on their feet with their whole weight on the feet; and I have also seen them where they could merely touch the ground with their toes. I have seen men punished with the stocks both ways. There was a different kind of stocks from those I have de- scribed. There was one kind for putting the men's feet in the stocks, and balls and chains on their hands, with their feet elevated. The men would be lying, or I do not know but they might sit up. I do not remember any other descrip- tion of stocks but that. I have seen six men in the chain-gang, and I remember seeing eighteen men in it at one time; a heavy chain ran from one to the other, and round their necks, chaining them all together in a circle as it were. They were connected with handcuffs on their hands, and balls and chains to their feet, and those chains running from their feet connected in some way with the circular chain that ran from one to the other. That is as near as I can describe it. A 32-pound ball was attached to the chain, or a smaller ball, perhaps ten or twenty pounds. I am not able to state the exact size. The prisoners were confined in the chain- gang at all hours of the day. I have known of some men being there for a week, and some two weeks, at different times. The time would vary. The men would have to be there as long as Captain Wirz saw fit to let them remain there. They were without shelter in the sun or rain. The effect upon the men at best must be to weaken them — reduce their strength. I cannot testify that I saw any prisoners die from being confined in the chain-gang. I have no doubt of the fact, although I did not see the men die. I have seen the hounds used at the prison. I think the first time I saw them was in the forepart of the month of June, 1864. At that time some one had made his escape from the hospital. They were brought to the hospital and taken round the hospital to see where the man went away, and they took the trail, and caught the man, and he was brought back and put into the stocks. I have seen Captain Wirz on horseback with the party who were running the hounds. I could not say that he was running them. Turner had command of them, and I have seen Wirz order the men off; — I mean the men who had charge of the hounds. I have heard him give orders to Sergeant Smith, I think his name was, to start the hounds, as some one had got away from the hospital, or something to that effect, at a good many different times. I remember a man making his escape from the hospital in July, and being- overtaken by the hounds; a large portion of his ear was torn off, and his face mangled, and he was afterwards brought into the hospital. That man got well.. This was in July or August, 1864; I do not remember the exact date. I re- member, also, that, at the end of August, or in September, 1864, a man who had 1 been bitten badly by the dogs in trying to make his escape, was brought into my ward and died. The wound took on gangrene and he died. He was a Union prisoner. I am not certain whether he was trying to escape from the- stockade or the hospital. I cannot state the exact date when he died. It was. either the last of August or the forepart of September. If my memory serves me right, I should say he died four or five days after he was torn by the dogs. I know the wound took on gangrene and he died. I do not think he died di- 246 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. rectly from the effects of the wound. I think he did indirectly — it was from the effects of the gangrene. The gangrene was manifested in the wound, and in no other part. He was bitten through the throat on the side of the neck, and gan- grene set in, and he died. The gangrene was the result of the bite, in my opinion. I have often heard Captain Wirz tell the guard at the hospital, that if any of those "Yanks" tried to get away to shoot them. We had no dead-line estab- lished there. I remember one of our soldiers being shot in the hospital. He was a man from my ward; I don't remember his name. It was in August, 1864. He was cold. There was a fire inside the enclosure on the south part of the hospital. It was swampy there, and there was no ground for the guard to stand pn, and they were stationed inside the hospital at one portion of it. Where this shooting happened the board fence came down to the swamp, and there the guards were on the other side. This was a patient in my ward. He got up to go warm himself by this fire beside the fence, perhaps five or six feet from it. A Confederate soldier put his gun barrel through the fence and shot him, break- ing his thigh. His limb was amputated by Dr. White. Within five to seven days he died. He was shot inside of the hospital. This happened some time in August, 1864, I think. I remember once, when we were expecting a raid from Kilpatrick, I was up at Captain Wirz's headquarters; he was standing by t,he battery; I heard him give orders to the gunners if the prisoners huddled together in a heap in the stockade to fire the artillery upon them; that was at the time of Sherman's march, about the time he took Atlanta; there was a good deal of excitement in the stock- ade as well as out; tie troops were drawn up in line around the stockade all the time; there were from 33,000 to 36,000 prisoners there at that time, as I under- stood; it was difficult for the prisoners to avoid being huddled together; there were so many that when they lay down at night they would cover every foot of the ground; that, I believe, was before the stockade was enlarged; it was enlarged some two acres ; I will not be positive whether it was before or after ; but previ- ous to its enlargement, the stockade was terribly crowded, so that the prisoners, when they lay down, would cover the whole space, I think. I know about rations being cut off from prisoners in the stockade. I remember being at the bake-house or cookery when I heard of it. Some of the men had been trying to tunnel out. I think the whole thirty thousand prisoners were deprived of rations until these men could be found out. They were twenty-four hours without rations at that time, and there was a great deal of disturbance in relation to it. When I first went there, the dead were carried from the hospital over to the outer gate of the stockade, where they were laid, lying in a row, three or four rods from the front entrance. Those who died in the stockade during the night were brought out the next morning, and from there they were hauled to the burying ground. I cannot tell you exactly how long the bodies were al- lowed to remain there. They were not hauled away immediately. For instance, if dead bodies were taken out at night they remained there over night till the next morning. As to the dead-house at the hospital, I remember at one time some dead bodies lying there some three days. I made a complaint to Dr. CRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 247 Cridelle, who commanded the division in which my ward was, and he made a complaint to higher authorities, I do not know to whom, and the bodies were hauled away. The stench was terrible; worse than any dissecting room I was ever in. It was in August, and was very hot weather. I could plainly dis- cover the effect of it upon the atmosphere of my tent, which was ten or fifteen rods from the dead-house. I called the attention of a number of surgeons to it, Dr. Kilpatrick, Dr. Cridelle, and others. I think Dr. Cridelle entered the complaint to higher authorities. I think that is the only time I ever knew dead bodies to remain there such a length of time. I have known of persons who died in my ward in the night and were not found perhaps till next morning. Often in making my morning call through my ward I have found men dead, lying beside a comrade asleep. It was a very common occurrence in the hospi- tal. I do not know how it was in the stockade. I remember when there have been as many as from seventy-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. These men died without coming outside the stockade. There were surgeons who went to the outer gate, and who were called stockade surgeons. Those who were able to come out to that gate received medical treatment, as far as the medical officers would give it to them. At the time when they were removing the prisoners from Andersonville to Savannah, I suppose, and other places, I was up at Captain Wirz's headquarters one day; they were taking the prisoners from the stockade to the railroad; I don't remember the month; there was one man who was sick, unable to walk, and he fell back; I could not hear Captain Wirz's language to him, but I saw Captain Wirz knock him down and stamp on him; I think it was in September, 1864; he had a revolver, but 1 could not say whether he struck him with his revolver or his hand; I was perhaps four rods from him. I remember hearing Captain Wirz make the remark that he was of more service to the Confederate Government, by being in command of that prison, than any four regiments at the front. TESTIMONY OP BOSTON COEBETT. Boston Corbett, a Federal prisoner, testified i 1 I observed outside the stockade some forts, some guns near the headquarters, and around the building near the headquarters I noticed several men with heavy balls and chains. They were exposed to the heat of the sun. The heat was so great that I have the marks upon my shoulder yet. I have seen the stocks when I went to help to carry a comrade to sick-call, but I do not recollect seeing any one put in them. They were exposed to the sun so that any one in them would have to be exposed to the heat of the sun. I know of hounds having been kept there for hunting and recapturing prisoners who tried to escape. In the month of October, 1864, we were allowed in certain instances to go outside the stockade, under rebel guard to bring in wood for fuel. For some months previously we had not been allowed such a privilege. I told some of my comrades that the first time I got outside the stockade I should try to escape. Being one of a party of twenty who went out in that way, after going 1 Record, p. 72 et seq. 248 THE TEAGBDY OF ANDERSONVILLB. some short distance from the stockade, perhaps half a mile (more or less), 1 watched an opportunity and made my escape from the guards. I got some short distance and secreted myself. While I was there they came in pursuit of me, but my hiding-place was sufficiently secure, and they could not find me, although I heard my name called and heard men passing close by me. I lay there perhaps an hour or two, when I heard the yelping of dogs in the distance. The man with the hounds evidently thought that I was further off, and he had taken them to a considerable distance. I heard them in the distance; then nearer and nearer, till they finally approached me, and one actually rubbed his nose against my face. I was ready for a spring, and intended to grapple with him ; but the dogs, instead of tearing me, made a circle and kept running about me until the hunter came. He immediately called the dogs off and told me that I would have to go back with him. He put up his pistol and talked pretty clever to me. He said, "The old captain told me to make the dogs tear you, but I have been a, prisoner myself and know what it is to be a prisoner, and I would not like to do that." Speaking kindly to me, he took me back to headquarters. The first question of Captain Wirz was, "Why did you not make the dogs bite him?" evidently showing that he had given the order which the man had told me he got. The answer of the man showed me that he was under the command and inferior to Captain Wirz. He replied, "I guess the dogs hurt him enough," and that seemed to satisfy Captain Wirz, who ordered me to be taken back to the stockade. That dead-line was a slight wooden railing, about the height of this railing, [some three feet] ; it was on little upright posts, running inside of the stockade, about twelve or fifteen feet from it, as I thought then; but I have heard since that it was further than that — that it was twenty feet; I judged myself that it was from twelve to fifteen feet. At the place where the stream entered the stockade the dead-line was broken down for some weeks, and during that time there were several men shot there. I have seen several carried away from there who were said to have been killed in that way. The horrors of that prison were so great that one man went over the line, and refused to leave it until he was shot dead. So great was the horror and misery of that place that I myself had thoughts of going over that dead-line to be shot in preference to living there. But it immediately occurred to my mind that it was a Christian's duty to bear whatever was thrown upon me, otherwise I should have undoubtedly gone over — preferring death to life. I think that in every case of shooting I knew of they were men who had to go to that place to get water. The nearer to the stockade the clearer the water was, consequently men would go in search of it as far as they dared to go to get clear water; and, in some cases, they would get on the line without knowing it, because there was no actual line on the spot, and they would have to look to the right or to the left to see where the line ought to be. I believe that, in many eases, new prisoners who had not been warned about the dead-line crossed it, and were shot without knowing where the dead-line was, as no warning would be given except, as I have said, by our own men. I used to make it a particular portion of my business when new prisoners came to show them the dead-line, be- cause when I went there at first myself I would have been shot if one of our own men had not dragged me back. GRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 249 I have been within hearing of the sentinels who shot men on that line or passing it. I never heard them halt a man, or give him any intimation. The instance that occurs to my mind is this : one of the rebel sentinels had just shot one of - our men; one of the other prisoners seeing it, remonstrated with him, threatening re- taliation if ever he got a chance; the rebel hastily reloaded his piece, took aim at the man, and told him if he heard another word out of his head he would shoot him dead; whereupon, of course, the man said no more. I do not recollect ever hear- ing the sentinels say anything in reference to their orders. I do not know the number of prisoners I have seen killed or shot by the sentinels on duty. I often, very often, heard the report of a musket. I knew by what was said that a man was shot, but I did not see it; but I saw several cases myself. It was a very common occurrence. TESTIMONY OP MARTIN E. HOGAN. Martin B. Hogan, of the 1st Indiana Cavalry, testified: 1 I saw hounds that were used about there; I have been captured myself and brought back by them — not, however, by the hounds used in that hospital — I was brought back by an outside pack of hounds. They were patrols of hounds around the stockade for eighteen miles. The pack there I saw every morning. They were under the charge of a man named Turner. I have seen the prisoner when they were trying to strike the trail of escaped prisoners, riding around on his gray mare and assisting. I escaped from the prison about the 8th of October, and was captured about two days afterwards and brought back. After some of the most profane abuse from Captain Wirz that I ever heard from the lips of man, I was ordered into the stocks. I was fastened at the neck and ankles and left for sixty-eight hours with- out any food. I got food, but I heard him give the order that I should not have any. Comrades who were paroled stole the food to me. I have seen very many in the stocks. There were three comrades with me when I tried to escape, and they were fastened in the stocks at the same time that I was. I have seen men in them for various offenses. I have seen one man put into the stocks for being abused by a Confederate, and because he had manhood enough to assert his rights. I did not see any chain-gang there; that was before I arrived there. TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH D. KEYSEE. Joseph D. Keyser, 120th New York, a prisoner from February, 1864, testified : 2 I have seen Captain Wirz at his office. I have frequently heard him give orders to the guard to shoot anybody who passed over the dead-line. I have seen men immediately after they were shot. I have seen the sentinels who shot them im- mediately after they had shot them. My reason for supposing they had shot them was, because I knew of no fire-arms being in the hands of our prisoners around where the men lay who were shot. In one instance — I think it was in April or May, 1864 — we had received our express-boxes from the North, and some of the 1 Record, p. 88 et seq. 2 Record, p. 95. 250 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. men had thrown out under the dead-line pieces of mouldy bread and cake. This man had one hand on the dead-line, and was reaching under to obtain some of those pieces of mouldy bread or cake to eat, and was fired on by the guard and shot through the head. He was killed instantly. He was on the, north side of the stockade; his body lay partly under the dead-line after he was shot. In the other case I did not see the man shot, but I saw him immediately after he was shot. He was brought to the hospital; he had been shot by one of the guard, it was said. I did not see him shot. I did not see him on the ground before he was taken up — not until he was taken to the hospital. I have seen a pack of hounds at that prison. I have seen Captain Wirz and a man named Turner bring them down to the hospital and start them round it, to see whether they could find the trail of any prisoner who had escaped during the night previous. I never saw them attack any prisoner — I never saw any person who had been bitten by them. As a general thing I thought that Captain Wirz was rather overbearing, and very profane and abusive in his language toward our men, on the slightest provoca- tion. I never saw him buck any man — 1 have seen men bucked by his orders. I heard the orders given. I have heard orders given for men to be bucked. Dr. F. G. Castlen, a rebel surgeon on duty at the prison, testified :* I saw one man who had been bitten by the dogs. I saw the dogs bite him. I saw the dogs running down the swamp below my camp. I went down, and when I reached the brow of the hill, I heard the dogs baying; going down, I saw this man up the tree. I heard some one order him down. I don't know who it was. He came down, and I saw the dogs seize him. Captain Wirz was there with the hounds. The prisoners were being removed to Savannah in August or September. I don't know which. It was the last part of August, or the first part of September, I think. The prisoners, at the time of this assault, were standing in front of Captain Wirz's headquarters. There was not a large crowd around the prisoners. I did not see a large crowd; there were a good many prisoners. There was no disturbance that I saw, except this man falling out of ranks. I was at that spot half an hour, I suppose. Captain Wirz struck the man with his right hand. I do not know whether Captain Wirz was or was not to blame for the awful condition of the prison. I never saw any other acts of violence by Captain Wirz, excepting what I have described. I never knew of any other. It was about the first of August that I saw Captain Wirz pursue a prisoner with the hounds. He was between quarter and half a mile from the prison. I did not see him set those dogs on that man. I don't know who set them on. I did not see him in the water up to his knees trying to prevent the dogs from biting that man. I did not see him making any attempts to keep the dogs from biting that man. I did not see him seize that dog. I was from twenty to thirty feet from him, I suppose. It was woody in the swamp, but not outside. The man was in the swamp. When he came down from the tree the dogs seized him, and they bit him after he came out of the swamp. I do not know that Captain Wirz set the dogs on him after he came out. I do not know that the biting of the dogs was 1 Record, p. 108. CEUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 251 accidental. I just saw them bite him. The doga were common fox-hounds. There were some five or six in that pack, I believe. I don't think I ever saw that pack but once; that was the only time. I know of no other pack but that one. I have seen the prisoner, Captain Wirz. I do not know what his duties were officially at Andersonville. I saw acts of cruelty committed by Captain Wirz on one or two occasions. At one time the prisoners were being removed, I think to Savannah. One prisoner was out of the ranks; Captain Wirz jerked and struck him, I think, once or twice; don't remember how many times, but I think once or twice. TESTIMONY OF ANDREW J. SPRING. Andrew J. Spring, private in the 16th Connecticut Volunteers, was taken to Andersonville in May, 1864. s He testified i 1 I saw the hounds exercised; I saw them several times when they were taking men's trails, but I saw them one time when they caught a man; I think it was about the last of August or the first of September that I saw a man who had been brought in by Captain Wirz, and this man Turner, who had charge of the dogs. The man was bitten very badly. Captain Wirz went over the hill. The man was brought around by the bakery. I was well acquainted with the guard, at least by sight, and I asked him where the man was caught. He said he was caught over here by Captain Wirz and Turner, the man who had charge of the hounds; that the man was in a tree and was shaken down out of it. I saw a chain-gang there; I have seen them every day; there were thirteen of them in it at one time; they were in two ranks; each man had a chain and shackle around each ankle, a chain going from the front side of the ankle to the next one before him, both legs shackled so that they could step but eight or ten inches at a time. The men had to keep step with each other. Each man had a small ball (I do not know the weight of it) outside the leg, which he had to carry in his hand when he traveled, and also a 64-pound ball to every four men. There was a large shackle around the neck with a large chain, much larger than that fastened to the legs, around their necks, reaching around the circle. I have known one man to be reduced so low that he was taken from there and sent to the hospital; I cannot tell his name; I cannot tell what date; he was taken to the hospital and soon after died. I should think this was some time about the middle of August. These men were put in the chain-gang for trying to make their escape. I saw a man shot there. I never saw the prisoner give orders to shoot men. There was one man shot there on the 15th of May, from the first sentry-box next the south gate. The man who was shot was inside the dead-line, or I suppose he was. I saw the man shot and I saw him after he was shot. I was on the north side of the stockade. I saw the smoke of the gun and went directly over. The man lay inside the dead-line. About the time I got over there Captain Wirz was in the sentry-box with the guard. Directly after that Captain Wirz came inside the stockade. He drew out his revolver and swore he would shoot all the men there if they did not get away from the gate, and the men scattered. I do not know that I saw any communication between Captain Wirz and the 1 Record, p. 112 et seq. 252 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. sentinel. When he stood in the sentry-box he was close to the sentinel; the sentry-box was not more than four feet square. I saw another man shot there. A short time after that — perhaps six or eight days — there was a man who was asleep under his blanket in the middle of the day. The stockade being so crowded, he had to lie near the dead-line. This man, while he was asleep rolled over under the dead-line. As soon as he rolled under it he was shot. That was in May, I think, from the 20th to the 25th. The ball went into his back and killed him instantly. I do not think he knew what hurt him. I do not know his name. I did not see the prisoner at that place then. The ball struck the first man I spoke of in the temple and went down into his breast. He was taken off to the hospital, which was then inside the stockade, and he died on his way to the hospital. He was not a sound man; he was a. cripple, a one-legged man. I have seen our darky prisoners hauled up there and receiving from fifty to seventy-five lashes a number of times; [to the Court:] I mean our negro soldiers. I can speak of one of them in particular; one of them was sick and refused to go to work. The man who had charge of the gang at that time — I forget his name — reported the matter to Captain Wirz. Captain Wirz came along ,and ordered the negro to be taken up to the stocks and whipped; I forget the number of lashes the man got; I saw them given to him. I believe that the man who whipped him was named Humes; he was generally called quartermaster, but was nothing but a private soldier, as I understood, to issue rations from the bakery to our men in the stockade. He used to go in with the wagon and issue the rations. TESTIMONY OP NAZARETH ALLEN. Nazareth Allen, a rebel soldier on duty at Andersonville, testi- fied: 1 I have seen the stocks, and seen men in them; I have seen several put in the stocks, and some ten or twelve in the chain-gang; I know that one prisoner died in the chain-gang or stocks; I won't be certain which, but I think in the stocks; I think it was some time in August, 1864; I do not know what his sickness was; he appeared to be sick when I saw him; I saw him only once or twice, and afterwards I saw him dead; I don't recollect how long afterwards; I was passing there almost every day for several days; I cannot say how long he was confined in the stocks; there were several in the stocks; I do not know why this man was placed in the stocks; I think it was for trying to escape. The stocks were between Captain Wirz's headquarters and the stockade, on the road you would take in going to the stockade. Once I saw a prisoner step out from the ranks to speak to Captain Wirz for an exchange into a mess, when they were counting them out; he had made an agreement with one of his fellow prisoners to go into the other mess. He lacked one or two of getting to him, and he stepped out to speak to him. Captain Wirz ordered him back and threatened to shoot him. He did not shoot him; he threatened to shoot and he eursed him. 1 Record, p. 117 et seq. CRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 253 I don't know how many hounds there were; I have seen about eight at a time. They were common plantation hounds; they are hounds trained to run people; I guess these dogs were trained to run people; they ran them. I did not see them trained; they were common-sized dogs, about half as high as this railing [about four feet high]. They were common hounds, such as you find on all the plantations of the South; I think they were nothing more or less. They did not appear to be particularly ugly or savage, more than a common hound, so far as I saw. I never saw them pursuing any one; I have heard them at it; heard them crying in the woods. They made a noise like a hound; I cannot exactly imitate it. I have seen a hound pursue game. I have never heard them cry in the same way when they were not pursuing game as they do while pursuing it. There is a particular sound when they are pursuing; I cannot describe that particular sound; it is a more ferocious sound than when they are pursuing in sport. I never saw a man bitten by those dogs. TESTIMONY OF CAPTAIN HEATH. John F. Heath, a rebel officer, testified: 1 I reside in Macon, Georgia. I have been in the Confederate service. In 1861 I was in the 20th regiment Georgia Volunteers. I was commissary, with the rank of captain. In April, 1864, I was in the Georgia Reserve Corps. I was on duty at Andersonville from May till October, 1864. I know the prisoner; I have seen him at Andersonville. I understood that he commanded the prison at Andersonville. I never received any orders from him directly. I was never on duty at the prison but one day.- There were thirteen prisoners sent over from headquarters to be ironed. I think it was in August; I was officer of the day. They were sent over to me from the provost marshal's office, to have them ironed; they were not ironed on that day; I think on the second or third day afterwards twelve of them were ironed. The men were sent over under guard, with an order from Captain Wirz. There was one man chained in the gang of twelve, who was sick at the time he was chained. I could not say to my certain knowledge what became of him. I know that I saw him several days afterwards very sick; every man who was chained with him objected to it. The man had the diarrhoea; I should judge so from the looks of his clothes, and he was very lousy; I could see from a, distance the lice crawling over him. His comrades objected to being chained with him, because of his condition. Their objections were not heeded; he was chained with them. I do not know that their complaint ever went to Captain Wirz; they objected to being chained by the side of such a man. He was the last of them I think that was chained. They had to all travel at the same time and for all purposes. I cannot say to my certain knowledge what became of the sick man. I think this took place in the month of August, 1864. At the time that these thirteen men were to be ironed, one of them got away; we called him "Little Frenchy" ; a hound was put upon his track. I ran down to the little swamp, between a quarter and a half mile off. Just as I got to the swamp I heard a shot from a pistol, and I saw the man in a tree. Captain Wirz came up and ordered the man to come down. The man begged the dogs should not be let hurt him. He made the man come down, and with that the 1 Record, p. 121 • 254 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVILLE. dogs rushed at him. I could see the dogs run up and grab him by the legs. Captain Wirz did not try to keep the dogs off from the man; he could have done so. I do not know who fired the pistol ; I only heard the report. The prisoner was sent with a gang two days before to be chained. He was not chained after- wards. I saw him two or three days afterwards in the guard quarters, without the chains upon him; I saw him sitting and walking about in there, as I passed. I did not notice his wounds; I was not near enough to him to see whether he had wounds or not. I have seen Captain Wirz kick two or three prisoners. I cannot tell for what reason, except that he got a, little excited. At one time, I think it was when they were moving from Andersonville, I saw him kick a prisoner. To the best of my recollection it was the case of a man who was trying to get out of a squad to which he did not belong. I think it was in September, 1864. TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM DILLARD. William Dillard, a rebel soldier on duty at Andersonville, testified :* I guarded twelve prisoners in the chain-gang one day and night. One of them was sick and very low, and had to run out every five or ten minutes, and the others were wanting him turned out of the gang because he wanted to run out so much. I think he was taken out about dark. I cannot say how long he had been in the chain-gang. I know he was in from the morning when I went on guard. He was in a sick condition all that day. I cannot say what sort of a day it was. It was in August. I cannot say what became of the prisoner, except from hearsay. I do not know where he was taken after he was released from the chain- gang. It was all the man could do to stand alone when he was taken away from there. I never saw him after that. I heard what became of him from some of the boys next day. Hounds were kept there to catch prisoners trying to make their escape and our own men also. I saw them catch a man called "Frenchy.'' I was walking my post and I suppose some 300 yards off. I saw Captain Wirz and Eeid, the provost marshal, and the man with the dogs, hunting up and down before they started on the man's track. After a time the dogs got on the trail and treed the man, and after that I saw Captain Wirz come down and heard a pistol or gun fired and saw the smoke rise. I was more than 300 yards from where they were with the dogs. I heard the men halloo and the dogs making a fuss. I saw the smoke rise from the gun. I could not tell from what person the smoke seemed to rise. It was in the bushes and I could not see. I could not say whether the man was hurt by the dogs only from hearsay. I saw the dogs running down the branch before they treed him. I did not see them when they were at him at all. I have seen several men in the stocks. I have seen some fastened by their feet and lying exposed to the heat of the sun and to the rain. I saw one man fastened by the neck and with his arms extended, who had no hat on; I do not know how long he was in there. I never saw any one in the stocks when they were sick, that I know of. 1 Record, p. 124. CRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 255 TESTIMONY OF CALVIN HUNEYCUTT. Calvin Huneycutt, a rebel soldier, testified i 1 I reside in Bibb County, Georgia; I was in the Confederate service from April, 1864, till April, 1865; I was on duty at Andersonville about five months, I reckon; I went there in May, 1864, and stayed until September or October, I believe. I know Captain Wirz; I have heard him abuse the prisoners and draw his pistol to shoot them; but I never saw him shoot any one. I have seen him kick them, in July, I believe, for not standing lip in ranks, when Captain Wirz was counting them off; the man was sick; he looked like it; I do not know what was the reason he did not stand up only that; he was not trying to escape. 1 have heard Captain Wirz threaten to shoot prisoners at the time he drew his pistol; it was when they were brought there to be put into the stockade; he was counting them off. There was one who did not stand up in the ranks, and the captain drew his pistol and said he would shoot him if he did not stand upright ; he kicked him a little, not much; the soldier looked sick; I do not know what was the matter with him. I recollect the man they called "Frenchy" trying to escape; he was caught by the hounds; I saw him after he was caught; he was torn by the hounds pretty badly, in the leg; I think it occurred in August; I do not know whether he was put in irons; I saw him when he was brought up to Captain Wirz's head- quarters. Captain Wirz was with him, as well as I can recollect, and the man who kept the hounds; I saw where the hounds tore the man; it had the appearance of a dog-bite. I guarded the prisoners in the chain-gang for one or two days and nights; I do not know how long the men were kept in the chain-gang without being relieved; they were in there every time I saw them; I do not know that they were exactly the same men; I do not know how long any one man was kept in the chain-gang; I have no idea; they were kept there while I was on guard; I was on guard twice a day and a night at a time; they were in there during that time; they were not changed during the time; I know of an instance where one of them became very sick in the chain-gang; I know that the rest of the men who were chained to him complained of his being sick and wanted him loosed, he bothered them so much in going out; I do not know now long he was kept in the chain-gang, nor what became of him. I did not see the chains taken off; I do not recollect any others confined in the stocks or chain-gang who were sickly; I think that one of them had six men in it and the other had twelve in it; I recollect that they cut the chains off one prisoner and he got away one night and he escaped, but they caught him and brought him back ; I mean the man himself cut off the chains; I do not know of any instance when the rebel authorities had to cut off the chains by reason of their affecting the prisoner. I saw one of the prisoners whipped; I did not count the strokes, but to the best of my knowledge it was about twenty-five or thirty. I do not know who it was that was whipped; he was a white man, a prisoner of war; I saw a man come from Captain Wirz's headquarters, who took him out and whipped him; 1 Record, p. 127 et seq. 256 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. I do not know his name; he waB an officer; the whipping commenced right straight away after he came out; the officer walked down and carried the man off with a couple of guards; I did not hear the officer say anything at the time. He did not say by whose order the man was to be whipped; I was not close to him; I was about thirty yards away; the man was stripped and whipped on the bare skin, right upon his back; he was not tied up; he was whipped with a common size hickory, about four feet long; I do not know whether it was green or seasoned; they afterwards carried the man back and put him in the stocks; I never knew what they did with him after that; the man had blackened himself and tried to escape with the darkies when they went in carrying rations; I do not know of anything that was said at that time. The prisoners who died were buried in a trench, side by side, with the dirt thrown over them, with no covering, without any box; I should judge the trench was about two or three feet deep; I was standing on post one day when they were taking bodies out; they had been there so long that when they were brought out and put in the wagon they burst, something broke inside, and ran out of their mouths and noses and smelled very badly. TESTIMONY OF JAMES MOHAN. James Mohan, a rebel soldier, testified i 1 I have been in the Confederate service only as a private. I was afterwards elected a second lieutenant in the 3d Georgia Reserves. I was on duty at Ander- sonville for about five months — May, June, July, August, September, and up to, I believe, the 13th of October, 1864. I was not much around the stock- ade. I was appointed assistant provost marshal for a time, and my business was with my own men, running up and down the trains, examining passports, etc. I had nothing to do with the prison except sending over prisoners J that arrived there, and prisoners that had escaped and were caught and brought to the provost marshal's office. I would send my guard over to Captain Wirz's headquarters with the prisoners by order from the provost marshal. I did not receive any orders at all in regard to the treatment of prisoners. The disposi- tion of them was to turn them over to Captain Wirz; that he had sole charge of them. I received orders on that subject from the provost marshal. He was under General Winder. Captain Wirz was then commander of the inner prison; he had charge of all the prisoners that came down there. I had something to do with putting chains on prisoners. The prisoners were brought from Captain Wirz's headquarters to the provost marshal's office by a guard. The provost marshal ordered me to take charge of the guard up to the blacksmith's shop. I went up there with the prisoners to take charge of the guard, and to see also that the prisoners got their irons on. There was a verbal order on that subject. A sergeant of Captain Wirz came over with the prisoners from his office. It was to see that these men had balls and chains put on them and linked together with a sort of a collar around their neck and a chain attached to it. I took over thirteen men. The collars were not ready that day and I sent the men over again to Captain Wirz's quarters. I told a lieutenant under me to take them over and to state to Captain Wirz that the irons were not ready. Those were 1 Record, p. 130 et seq. CKUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 257 the orders I received from the foreman of the shop — to tell Captain Wirz that the irons were not ready. The next day the men were sent over there, but I did not take them. I saw them coming down the hill with balls and chains on them, linked together. . When I was sending the prisoners over to Captain Wirz's headquarters a young man whom they called "Erenchy" escaped. He was not put in the gang afterwards. The gang consisted of twelve men. In the evening "Frenchy" was recaptured. When this lieutenant who was under me carried the men over it was found that there were only twelve men. Wirz got on his horse and rode over. He said: "that damned Erenchy has escaped again; send for the dogs." The dogs came and got on the trail of him and recaptured him in the woods, or rather by the stream that ran by the stockade. Captain Wirz did not ride oft with the dogs; he got off his horse and walked. He went alongside the dogs; that is, when the dogs got down across the stream, the dogs went one way and he went another, along with Captain Eeed, the provost marshal, searching for this man. I was standing on a platform at the depot and I saw where he stood, and heard the howling of these dogs around the tree. It seemed as if the prisoner was up there. I did not see him. I looked around again to see where Captain Wirz was and I heard the report of a pistol and saw the flash. I should judge the flash came from Captain Wirz. After firing, they captured the prisoner and took him to the guard tent. I know that he was injured. I saw him a day or two afterwards. His pantaloons were torn on the leg and he looked sickly. I don't know whether his flesh was torn; I did not see. I cannot tell why he was not put in the chain-gang. I heard he was badly bitten from some of my brother officers there, after the affair happened, when we were talking about it. The dogs were common hounds. I believe ^there were a. couple of them called catch- dogs; the others were hounds. The technical name is fox-hound. They call some of them track-hounds there. I believe there are track-hounds and catch-dogs; I am not much acquainted in the dog line. One is very vicious by nature. I don't think the other is very dangerous. The catch-dog is vicious. I very frequently heard Captain Wirz remark that he wished the prisoners were all in hell and he with them. Sometimes they would offend him or some- thing like that in his office — he would say it if any prisoners would make him angry around his quarters or around the stockade, or anywhere else where he was. There were a large lot of paroled prisoners outside — four or five hundred, I presume. I did not hear him make use of any other remark. I was officer of the guard when I first went down there. That was before my assignment as assistant provost marshal. I received instructions from Captain Wirz's adjutant at the stockade. He read the instructions to the guard and turned the papers over to me, or when I was relieved the next morning, to the officer who relieved me. The instructions in regard to the dead-line were that we were not to allow any of the prisoners to cross it; that if they crossed it they were to be fired on by the sentinels. That was the substance of the instruc- tions. I did not have occasion to observe the condition of the prison very well while I was on duty there; it was a place I never liked to go into. 258 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. TESTIMONY OP O. S. BELCHER. 0. S. Belcher, private 16th Illinois Cavalry, was a prisoner from March until September. He testified: 1 I heard Captain Wirz say that he eould kill more Yankees there than they were killing at the front. I suppose he was excited and angry with some of the men who had said something to him. He got so at the last that he dare not come over on our side of the prison at all. He could not come unless he had 300 or 400 men with him. I saw men shot on the dead-line or crossing it; I have seen a number of men shot. I have seen 25 or 30 killed in that way, shot in different places around the stockade; some were over the dead-line, and some were shot who were not near it. TESTIMONY OF JAMES K. DAVIDSON. James K. Davidson, 4th Iowa Cavalry, was a prisoner at Anderson- ville from March, 1864. 2 Many prisoners died in the stockade. The hospital was then within the stock- ade; the dead men were carried on stretchers out to the gate, and from there they were hauled to the graveyard in wagons. Part of the time I was employed outside the stockade chopping wood, and part of the time driving a wagon from the hospital to the graveyard; I drove a wagon to the graveyard a little over a week; not two weeks, I think; there were two teams of us driving; we would each have from 50 to 75 men per day; we would throw them in the wagon just as we would wood; sometimes there were 20 or 25 at a load; we drove the same wagons back to the stockade loaded — sometimes with wood for the prisoners, sometimes with rations. We would go by way of the depot sometimes and get rations in the same wagon in which we carried dead bodies; those were the orders, I believe, from the quartermaster or the man who had charge of the teams ; I believe his name was Duncan ; I think he was an officer ; he had charge of the cook-house. I have heard Captain Wirz say that he was killing more damned Yankees there than Lee was at Richmond. That was said in August; he was in my wagon at the time; I had been to the graveyard with the dead men. I have seen men who were starved to death, thousands of them, inside the stockade; I saw men eating food that they took from the ground; I have seen men pick up and eat undigested food that had passed through other men; they would find it all through the camp; it came from men who were not able to go to the slough, and they would find it all through the camp. I saw the chain-gang; I have seen from twelve to fourteen men in the chain- gang; it was a common thing to see the men in the chain-gang; I never saw men in the chain-gang under a tent; they were kept out in the hot sun; I saw one man die in the chain-gang; I believe he was buried with the iron collar round his neck; this was in August, I think, the first part of the month; I do not know the man's name. 1 Record, p. 136. 2 Record, p. 140 et seq. CRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT. 259 I saw hounds there; there were six to nine that I saw every morning; they were used for catching prisoners, I suppose; they had them after t'Y OF ANDERSONVILLE. there [pointing to the prisoner]. I have no doubt of his identity. I should know him anywhere. The prisoners commenced to move from there from the 5th to the 8th of September, 1864, and this occurred inside of a week from that time. It was some time in the early part of September. I cannot say within two or three days what date it was. The following proceedings took place and will explain themselves i 1 Upon the meeting of the court on the 30th of August, General Thomas stated that the prisoner, as he had been informed by his- counsel, had last night been confined with handcuffs which had injured his wrists. While he (General Thomas) was well aware that the court had no control or responsibility with regard to the treatment of the prisoner outside of the courtroom, yet, as the prisoner while in prison might need to write for the purpose of preparing his defense, it might be worthy of consideration by the court whether such rigorous treatment as con- finement with handcuffs might not be dispensed with. The Judge Advocate stated that the treatment referred to had been resorted to as a matter of precaution and at the suggestion of one of the counsel of the prisoner (Mr. Baker), who had stated on the evening of his proposed retirement from the case that he believed there was great reason to apprehend that the pris- oner might commit suicide before the next morning. It was not unusual for prisoners charged with offenses such as are alleged against Captain Wirz to be kept in close confinement and with handcuffs. The court was responsible for the treatment of the prisoner only while he was in the presence of the court, and could not with propriety direct the nature of his treatment while in custody of the prison-keeper. The government did not propose to apply the lex talionis. Doubtless, if the court desired it, Colonel Colby would exempt the prisoner from any such treatment in the future. If the prisoner's wrists had been injured by the handcuffs, it was no doubt unintentional, and was altogether unknown to Colonel Colby. Genera!!, ' Thomas. I mentioned this matter simply because it had been sug- gested to me by one of the prisoner's counsel. I distinctly stated that the court had nothing to' do with the prisoner while not in its presence. Mr. Baker said that on the evening referred to, the prisoner was in a state of mind so distracted that it was a matter of grave apprehension as to what he might be tempted to do, as he at that time said to his counsel that if they left him then, he would never again come into the presence of the court. Counsel had stated this at the time to the Judge Advocate, and had added that he did not know but that it was necessary to confine the prisoner closely. But that suggestion was intended to be limited to that particular time, and probably ought not to have been made at all. The prisoner made no complaint himself of any harsh treatment; the guards and others in charge of him had been uniformly kind. The fact that he had been injured last night by the handcuffs was doubtless one of those accidents for which no 'one was to blame. But for the sickly condition of the prisoner the handcuffs would not have injured him. He (Mr. Baker) was sorry that his colleague had brought the matter to the attention of the court. He presumed that the same thing would not occur again. 1 Record, p. 98. 336 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. The Judge Advocate. The government must take its own course with regard to its prisoner. Mr. Bakek. It will not occur as a consequence of any suggestion of mine. The Judge Advocate. Certainly not. TESTIMONY OF 0. S. BELCHER. 0. S. Belcher testified -, 1 I have been in the military service of the United States; in the 16th Illinois Cavalry. I was a prisoner at Andersonville from the -8th March to the 8th Sep- tember, 1864. I saw Captain Wirz order one man shot there one day, and the guard shot him; I did not see him do it, but I heard him. It was a. man that was a cripple and went on a crutch. Captain Wirz was in the stockade and this man went up to him, and wanted him to take him outside. Captain Wirz would not do it, and finally this cripple went over the dead-line, and said he would rather he shot than stay there, and begged the guard to shoot him. The guard would not shoot him, and Captain Wirz went outside the stockade. There was a large crowd inside the stockade; pretty soon I heard Wirz halloo to the sentry on the post. He was outside the stockade in a little kind of canal which they used to drive into the stockade. I heard him tell him if the man did not go back over the dead-line, the guard was to shoot him. The guard told the man to go back; he did not, and was shot. The ball took effect in the jaw and passed down through the breast. A few minutes after Wirz eame on the top of the stockade and threatened that if we did not go to our quarters, he would fire upon us and shoot some more of us. The man that was shot was called "Chickamauga." That happened at the south gate. I do not exactly remember the month. I think it was some time in June. We never paid any attention to such things there in regard to dates. It was hard for us to tell whether we were going to live to get out. The crippled man had lost one of his legs; he went on a crutch. I saw Captain Wirz use his revolver. After he took command, we were called up and counted off in hundreds. I was sergeant of a hundred! There was a man belonging to my hundred who had got away. Captain Wirz had threatened that if any man left the ranks, he would shoot him. This man left the ranks. He was sick, and was not able to stand up. They kept us standing there in the hot sun all day, and would not allow any of us to go to get water or anything else. This man started to go out of the ranks and Wirz pulled out his revolver and fired at him. The ball went through the top of his hat, but did not hit him. James K. Davidson's testimony has already been given upon sev- eral matters, including the shooting of prisoners by the guard, and the boast of Wirz that he was "killing more Yankees than Lee was at Richmond." He testified further: 2 I saw Captain Wirz shoot a man; it was about the first of April, I think, shortly after he took command there; Captain Wirz was coming in the south gate 1 Record, p. 135. 2 Record, pp. 142, 146. TESTIMONY AS TO MURDER. 337 one day; a sick man, as I took him to be, a lame man, asked Captain Wirz some- thing, and Captain Wirz turned round and shot him; the man died. Captain Wirz shot this man that I have spoken of on the south side of the branch, up pretty near the gate, on the inside of the stockade. I think it was in April. I don't think it was later than the 10th of April. Captain Wirz had not been there a great while. He shot the man with a revolver. I cannot tell the man's name, nor to what company or regiment he belonged. I never saw the man before that. I saw him after he was shot, when they were carrying him out of the gate. He was dead. Captain Wirz had on white clothes then. I would not call it a Confederate uniform; I would call it a citizen dress. He had on his head a gray cap. I never saw him wear anything else. His coat was not made in uniform style. I believe he had brass buttons on his coat; I am not certain. It had a turndown collar. I never saw Captain Wirz shoot more than one man, and that was near the south gate, inside the stoekade. He was not within the dead-line. TESTIMONY OP OLIVER B. FAIRCLOUGH. Oliver B. Fairclough testified: 1 I was in the military service of the United States; in the 9th New York Cavalry. I was taken prisoner October 10, 1863. I was first taken to Libby Prison, Richmond. I remained there until some time in February, 1864. I was then taken to Andersonville. My treatment in Libby Prison was better in every respect than at Andersonville. I was in the stockade at Andersonville all the time. Captain Wirz took command about six weeks after I went there, and he was in command there all the time afterwards, from that time until the time I left. He attended roll-call when he first went there, until the number of prisoners became too great for one man to superintend the roll-call. His manner at roll-call was very overbearing and abusive. He generally saluted the prisoners by calling them "damned Yankee sons of bitches." He often abused the prisoners. It was of frequent occurrence. I know a person whom he kicked. He was my father. One morning Captain Wirz came to roll-call when my father was lying in a helpless condition. He was affected with scurvy. His legs were drawn up so he could not straighten them, and also his arms. While he lay in that condition Captain Wirz came up to him several times and told him he wished him to fall in at roll-call or he would kick him. He did finally sick, him, and abuse him in lan- guage most shamefully. He said, "You God-damned Yankee son of a bitch, if you don't fall in at roll-call I will not give you anything to eat for a week." He stopped my father's rations. On such occasions as I have referred to twenty-four hours was the longest period at one time. The kicking caused my father to have a very severe pain in his side. I saw him beat other prisoners; I saw him knock a man down with his pistol for entering a complaint about the rations being so poor. My father died while in prison, about a month after the occurrence I have narrated. I have a statement of his made at the time of his death. He made a verbal statement to me at the time he died. He called me by name and said he died from sheer starvation, and asked me not to tell my mother, 1 Record, p. 154. 338 THE TBAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. his wife, the awful condition in which he was compelled to die. After he had spoken those words I wrote them down, and held his hand upon the paper, and he signed his name. I did not guide the pencil, I merely placed his hand upon the paper. He was perfectly rational until the last. [A paper being exhibited to the witness, he identified it as the one just referred to in his testimony. The Assistant Judge Advocate proposed to offer it in evi- dence. Mr. Baker objected.] The Court. How long before he died did your father sign that paper? A. He did not live, I think, ten minutes after he signed it. [The court, after deliberation, overruled the objection, and the paper was ad- mitted in evidence. The following is a copy:] Camp Sumter, Andersonville, August 27, 1864. Oliver, I die from sheer starvation, and don't for the world tell your mother of the awful condition I am compelled to die in. Bichard Fairclough. 1 saw a man shot who was lying in his tent near the dead-line. The sentinel who shot him fired at another man and missed him, and shot this man who was lying in his tent. I saw the sentinel when he shot. I immediately went to the tent where the man was lying and saw him lying there, and afterwards saw him die. I went directly to where the sentinel was and asked why he did not halt men before shooting, as there were a great many in camp who did not understand the meaning of the dead-line. He told me that Captain Wirz held out as an inducement to them a thirty days' furlough to every man who would shoot a Yankee. I said no more to him. TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM WILLIS SCOTT. William Willis Scott testified -, 1 I am in the military service of the United States; in the 6th West Virginia Cavalry. I was a prisoner at Andersonville. I was captured June 26, 1864. I remained at Lynchburg, I think, three weeks, and I arrived at Andersonville, I think, the middle of August. I know Captain Wirz very well. I saw him commit acts of cruelty on prisoners. In one case I was coming down after a bucket of water. I belonged away up in what they called the new stockade on the north side. Captain Wirz was coming in. A sick man was sitting on the side of the bank. He asked Captain Wirz if he could get out; Captain Wirz turned around, gave him a kind of sour look, and said, "Yes, God damn it, I will let you out," and with the revolver he struck the fellow over the head and shoulders several times. The fellow went to his tent then. On the third morning, I think, I made it my business to go down and see him. He was dead., tie had died the night before. I saw him. I suppose he died from the effects of the beating with the pistol. He was pretty badly bruised around the head and face. I think he beat him with the butt of the revolver which he had in his hand. I don't remember which hand he used. He knocked the man down the first blow., r I think this was about the 25th or 26th of August, 1864. I cannot give the man's, name. I did not inquire about that. I just came down to see if he was much the worse for his treatment, and I did not inquire any further. 1 Record, p. 194. TESTIMONY AS TO MURDER. 339 1 saw Captain Wirz on one occasion coming in between the stockade and the dead-line; one of his own guards was up above, and a stone or a brickbat, I can- not tell Which, was thrown down and hit Captain Wirz on the back. His own guard threw it; I saw the guard throw it. Captain Wirz wheeled around on his horse and there was near him one of our prisoners coming out of his tent. He shot and struck the man on the head. He made no inquiries before firing. He never made any inquiries nor looked. He just rode on. He cut off the skin of the .fellow's head along with some of the hair. He was only stunned a little; he got up and went into his tent. Captain Wirz did not make any inquiries at all. TESTIMONY OF PRESCOTT TRACY. Preseott Tracy testified: 1 I am in the military service of the United States. I am a lieutenant. I was commissioned last year. My previous position in the army was sergeant. I was taken prisoner. I was at the Andersonville prison. I was taken on the. 22d June, 1864, in the last charge we made on Petersburg. I was taken to Andersonville, 1 think, the last of June of that year. I was put in the stockade when I got there, by Captain Wirz. I was in there until the 17th of August of the same year. 1 was pretty near starved to death. I saw the prisoner [Wirz] very often. I never saw him commit acts of cruelty upon prisoners himself, but I saw him give the orders to do it, to shoot a man. I could not give the day exactly; I know that it was a Wednesday, that is all I know. In the month of August the man was shot. His name was Roberts. I can- not tell what regiment he belonged to. He was what we called "fresh fish," just come in by the north gate, and, not knowing the rules and regulations, he went to take a drink at the creek, and, it being muddy there, he slipped and fell in so that his head went about six inches inside the dead-line. Captain Wirz was behind me, perhaps the distance of this room ot a little more, and he hallooed to the sentry, "God damn your soul, why don't you shoot that Yankee son of a bitch?" That was the expression he made use of. The sentinel fired and shot the man through the top of the head and the ball came out at the back of his neck. The sentry did not say anything at the time; he only just fired. I lay down, for I was afraid of getting shot myself. This was in August, the forepart of August. I could not tell the date, because we did not know one day from another there. The man did not live; he died right in the creek, and we pulled him out and buried him that same afternoon. I never saw any other man shot. I heard the reports of guns, but I never saw a man shot. I saw one laid out, but did not see him shot. He was shot and dead, and we were going to bury him, and he was what is called laid out. I do not know the circumstances under which he was shot. I saw men in' the stocks. I could not tell you when I saw some. I never saw men die in the stocks, but I saw men die afterwards. I saw men die on the south side of the stockade from the effects of being in the stocks. I do not know their rallies. They were stretched but in the stocks; then pieces of wood across their necks and across "their feet, '"and ' their hands were stretched out as far as they co'uld go and tied down, and there they lay with the sun pouring right down on thenJ. They died the next morning after they were in the stocks. The first case I 1 Record, p. 212 et seq. 340 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. saw was a man belonging to the 3d Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was stretched out full length with his head up before the sun, with a piece of wood right across his neek, and another across his two feet, and there he lay from nine in the morning until nearly six in the afternoon. The next time. I saw him he was a corpse; it was the next morning; I helped to carry him out. I cannot remember the date. We could not remember one day from another there. We could not tell Sunday from Monday. It was in August, the fore part. I never saw any one else die after being in the stocks. When the man died he was out of the stockade, in a little shanty made of trees. He was not brought back after he was in the stocks. [To the Court:] Captain Wirz was behind me, about the length of this room, when the man was shot. I hallooed, "Roberts, Roberts, for Christ's sake get out of that!" That was the expression I made use of, and Captain Wirz was behind me with one hand behind his coat. He was outside the dead-line, on the street, or the road down to the creek, coming down from the north gate. Before I had time to get the man out, or speak to him a second time, he was shot. Captain Wirz was inside of the stockade, on the road down towards the south side of the stockade. He was walking down the street at the time. I am sure I saw him, I can swear to it, and if he will look me in the face he knows it. TESTIMONY OP FELIX DE LA BAUME. Felix De La Baume testified: 1 I was in the military service of the United States, in the 35th New York Volunteers. I was a prisoner of war at Andersonville from July 8, 1864, till April 19, 1865. I know the prisoner, Captain Wirz. On the 8th of July I arrived at Ander- sonville, with three or four hundred other prisoners, most of them sick and wounded. We were brought up to Captain Wirz's headquarters, were drawn up in line four ranks deep, and kept there for a considerable length of time, without any business being transacted. The guards had orders to let none of us go to the water. One of the prisoners was attacked with epilepsy or fits; he fell down; some of his friends or neighbors standing near him ran down to the creek after water. I don't know whether they had permission of the guard; I suppose so, because the guard was tied up by the thumbs for permitting them to do so. First I heard a shot fired, without seeing who fired it. After hearing that shot fired, I looked down to the left and I saw Captain Wirz fire two more shots, wounding two men. One of them was carried up near his headquarters, and, in my opinion, was in a dying condition. The other was wounded, too, but I did not see him again. I never saw him afterwards. The one who was carried up near the head- quarters was wounded somewhere in the breast. Captain Wirz had a revolver in his hand. I was perhaps twenty paces distant from him. I am not positive about the distance. The prisoner whom he shot was not very far from him. I am cer- tain I saw Captain Wirz discharge the pistol in his hand. I did not myself see the man who was brought up to headquarters die; but he was evidently in a dying condition, judging by his appearance; I never saw him again. We were not allowed to speak to the guard, and I could not make any inquiries. Captain Wirz asked the lieutenant of the guard, "Where is the guard who allowed this man to 1 Record, p. 282 et seq. TESTIMONY AS TO MUEDEB. 341 'all out of the ranks?" The guard was pointed out, and Captain Wirz ordered lim to be tied up by the thumbs for two hours. After this Captain Wirz pointed mt the man, and said, "That is the way I get rid of you damned sons of bitches." . myself saw the man fall down; he had epileptic fits, and I was informed that he men ran after water for him. We had not received any water all night; they ;ept us all night in the cars; on the way down from Macon to Andersonville ve had no water. When we passed the creek we wished to get some water, but ve were not allowed to have any. We were kept there at the headquarters of 3aptain Wirz for about two hours, without receiving a drink. We were then livided into squads and transported into the stockade. I was taken out with four ither men to be put into the 71st detachment, and was shortly afterwards taken iway from the headquarters into the stockade. All I can state as to whether the nan died from that gunshot wound is that he was, in my opinion, in a dying con- lition ; I judged so from his heaving up and down and from his gasping for >reath. I have seen many men on the battlefield in the same condition, and they ilways died shortly afterwards. The blood was running out from his breast or he middle of his body somewhere. All I heard about it afterwards was from a ■ebel sergeant; I think his name was Colby; he said the man died; he told me hat some time after I was in the stockade. In the month of December, 1864, when it was so very cold, we did not receive my wood in the hospital. I obtained sometimes a pass from Edward Young, who vas chief cook there, and from Jim Lane, who was also a cook; they were Federal )risoners. On those passes I used to go outside of the hospital enclosure to gather lp some wood, so as to have some fire in the tent where I stopped. Going out me day, I saw a man named Edler, a private in the 39th New York Volunteers, vho was captured on the 6th of February near Martinsburg. I saw him tied, vith an iron collar round his neck, to a post. As I had the pass of another man, vhich was always punished when it was found out, as soon as I saw Captain Wirz itanding near him I went off, so as not to be captured myself, because if Captain Wirz had found out that I had the pass of another man he would have punished ne too. I heard this man Edler say something to Captain Wirz, whereupon Wirz laid, "One word more, and I will blow your damned brain to hell," holding a pistol iowards his head. I have drawn a representation of that scene. [A drawing jeing exhibited to witness:] I draughted this from recollection. This figure rep- resents a guard standing over the man. That is a true representation. There was i guard, a captain, and some other man. I only represented one guard, but there vere some more rebels about there. The man was afterwards sent back to the hospital, of which he was an inmate. \.s he belonged to my regiment I took an interest in him, and as soon as he came jack to the hospital I went to his tent to make inquiries, but his neck and his ongue were so much swollen that he was unable to speak, and was evidently in i dying condition. The nurse, named Butsell, told me that the man was punished "or having gone out on a forged pass. The man died two or three days after- vard; I only visited him once while in that condition; the second time I went here he was dead; I cannot say whether the swollen neck and tongue still con- inued. The first time I was there his neck and tongue were very much swollen; rhen I came there again he was dead. I don't think he died from the effects of 342 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. that iron collar round his neek alone; if he had been a stout, healthy man, he might have stood it; but he was very far reduced already, almost to a skeleton, by starvation, before he was put in the irons. His neek or tongue was not swollen before he was put in the irons. He was able to speak before he was put in the irons. This circumstance happened near the end of December, 1864, after Christ- mas. I have seen men bucked and gagged. In going out on these passes of which I have spoken, I had several opportunities of seeing men bucked and gagged. I have drawn a representation of the front and side views of that bucking and gagging operation. [A drawing being exhibited to witness:] That is a correct representation. I drew it from my recollection. One of the figures here repre- sents a sentry standing over the man. The other person standing by was one of the rebel sergeants. 1 remember about the hounds. In the month of September, 1864, I was allowed to go out after wood. At that time Captain Wirz allowed squads of twenty-five to go out after wood about a mile distant from the stockade. At that time I myself was not able to carry any wood, but I availed myself of the opportunity to go out to have some fresh air. I went out with a man named Louis Holm, of the 5th New York Cavalry. We were both starved; we had had nothing to eat in consequence of being unable to cook our meal which we received. When we came out Holm made a proposition to me that we should hide ourselves and try to get away from the guard and go to some farm to obtain something to eat. We were too weak to run off; we did not intend to run off or "skedaddle," because we could not walk far; but we wished to obtain some food from some of the farmers; we always heard that the farmers around there were good Union men, and always aided our prisoners whenever they could do so without being detected. Holm and I hid ourselves in a very large tree in a kind of a mud-hole among the bushes, and remained there for over an hour; then we heard the dogs bark. An old Indian had once told me that in case of being overtaken by bloodhounds I should pretend to be dead and the hounds would not attack me. So I told Holm to remain quiet in the bushes and not make any noise, but he was so much fright- ened by the dogs that he tried to get up a tree, so as not to be torn to pieces by them. While he was trying to get up the tree the dogs came up and caught hold of him by one of his legs, biting quite a large hole. I have drawn a representa- tion of that scene. [A paper being shown to witness:] That is the drawing; the man climbing the tree represents Holm, and I am represented lying under the tree. That represents the character of the dog; it was a dog looking like this. My comrade was torn by the clogs very badly; we were brought in by a sergeant and by the men who had the dogs. At that time they had only two dogs out, and one of them captured us. They brought us in to Captain Wirz's headquarters, and one of the sergeants — I don't remember his name — spoke a few words for me and the other man. Captain Wirz did not punish us, but sent us back to the stockade and gave orders to the sergeant of the detachment not to let us go out any more. I have noticed persons with ball and chain attached to them. I saw one man in the stockade in the month of August, 1864; the south wde of the stockade was where I saw him first. He was insane, for I asked him why he had the ball and chain on, and he told me that he was Samson and they wanted to try his strength. He was a lunatic. I have drawn a representation of that man as confined with 344 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. the ball and chain. [A drawing being shown to witness:] That is my representa- tion. I have seen a great many men shot in the stockade near the dead-line, inside the dead-line; I mean between the dead-line and the inner stockade, having crossed the dead-line, between the dead-line and the inner stockade. There was a man of my company named Le Vois, a Frenchman, who was robbed in Richmond of his gold watch and chain and all his jewelry, in consequence of which he became insane. A few days after coming to Andersonville, he went inside the dead-line near the gate of the north side. He opened his shirt and called on the guard there, who was an old man, to shoot him, saying that he wanted to be killed. The old guard, who was a very sensible man, told him to go out of the dead-line, and hallooed to some of his comrades, telling them to call him out; but he would not come out, and we were all afraid to go inside the dead-line to bring him out. He went to the next guard, and the next guard shot him, killing him instantly. The guard who killed him was a young boy, about 15 or 16; and he said to the old guard, "If I had not killed the Yankee son of a bitch, I would have reported you to Captain Wirz for not shooting him; but I am satisfied; I now get my fur- lough." This occurred in the month of August, 1864, in the first part of the month, I believe. When we were there we did not know one day from another, and I cannot state the day definitely. I know positively of two whom I myself saw killed on the dead-line by the sentries; one was Le Vois, and another was a cor- poral of the 125th New York; I do not know the name of the corporal. Le Vois belonged to Company E, 39th New York Veteran Volunteers. I know the corporal that was killed belonged to the 125th New York Volunteers. I had seen him before, because his regiment belonged to my brigade. He was killed while reaching under the dead-line for clean water; I do not know to what company he belonged. TESTIMONY OF CHARLES E. TIBBLES. Charles E. Tibbies testified: 1 I have been in the military service of the United States, in the 4th Iowa Infantry. I was a prisoner at Andersonville. I went there on the 28th of March, 1864, and escaped on the 7th or 8th of September. We were taken there in the night. It was very dark and rainy. The captain ordered us to report at the same place at 9 o'clock next morning; we did so; we formed in line in two ranks, and were counted off; we were then ordered to stand in line until the whole of the prisoners were counted off — all the men in the prison; we did so. We were in line about two hours. I think there were only some six thousand there at that time. I presume we were kept there until all were counted; we all dispersed at the same time. I do not know whether Captain Wirz had been engaged in counting before that time. I know Captain Wirz personally. The next morning after we went there, a man walked along the front of our line, about' ten feet from the line. Captain Wirz turned around and saw him and caught him by the throat. He drew his pistol and told him he would blow his damned brains out if he did not keep away. I also saw him draw his pistol on several other men. I never saw him shoot any one. After we had been there some time burying the dead — I think it was in the latter part of July — Captain Wirz issued orders to us that we would not be 1 Record, p. 294 et seq. TESTIMONY AS TO MURDER. 345 illowed the mile as the agreement stated, but only from the graveyard to our |uarters, and we were guarded every night. Thinking that as he broke his agree- nent I was not bound by mine, I made my escape on the 7th or 8th of September, md was recaptured by the hounds about forty miles from Andersonville. We yere on a fence when the hounds came up, and we fought them off. The hound ceeper told us to get down, and we said we would not until he would call the lounds off. They said they had orders to let the hounds bite us, and they drew ■evolvers and said they would shoot us if we would not come down. We told hem to shoot ; that we would rather die anyhow than go to Andersonville. [To he Court:] There were four of us. There were six rebels. They whipped the lounds off and we got down and were marched back to Andersonville. On arriv- ng at Andersonville we were brought up in front of Captain Wirz's headquarters. Dhe houndkeeper said, "Here are these Yankees, Captain." Said he, "I will attend ;o them in a minute," and he ordered his revolver to be brought to him. The >rderly brought his revolver. After he made his revolver ready, he came out, lolding his revolver I think, in his right hand — came in front of us, looked at us i little bit, and said, "Where is Crandall?" referring to another man who escaped ;he same day. We told him we did not know anything about him. He turned ;o the houndkeeper and said, "If you will bring me Bill Crandall I will give you ive hundred dollars out of my own pocket. I will learn him how to run away." Then turing to us, he said, "You young sons of bitches of Yankees, I'll make you miell hell before night." He then turned to the sergeant and said, "These men's sentence is to work in the graveyard hard every day, on half rations, to be sent uto the stockade at night, and not to be exchanged when the other prisoners are sxchanged. Take these men and see that my orders are fulfilled, and if they do not work, or if they refuse to work, put them in on top of the dead and cover ;hem up, and if you don't do it, I will serve you the same way." The sergeant ;ook us to the graveyard, where we worked all day. That night we were taken Dack and put in the stockade. The next day Captain Wirz came to us and said ie had received orders to send us all away, and that he would put a special juard over us. He started us to Florence, South Carolina, and that was the last [ saw of Captain Wirz. That was in September. This man Crandall is the same vho testified a day or two since — William Crandall. TESTIMONY OF GEORGE CONWAY. George Conway testified: 1 I belonged to the 3d New York Artillery; I was a prisoner at Andersonville from the night of the 17th of March to the 7th of September, 1864. 1 saw a man shot one day; he came down after water; no one was allowed to jut their head or any part of their body under the dead-line. This man probably lot being acquainted with the rules, as many of them were not who came in ;here after the rules were read, put his hand in under the dead-line to get a cup )f water and the cup dropped from his hand; he put his hand in under the dead- ine to raise it up again and Captain Wirz shot him, the ball taking effect in his lead. He died almost instantly. [To the Court:] Captain Wirz shot him; he vas standing in the sentry-box. This occurred about the time the raiders were lung; I could not say whether it was before or after. It was about that time. 1 Record, p. 323. 346 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. I am certain I recognized Captain Wirz; I knew him well at that time. He had a revolver in his hand, I believe. Those were the circumstances. He was getting a cup of water out of the brook when the cup dropped from his hand. I do not know the name of that man; I never saw the man before till I saw him that time. The man died. TESTIMONY OF D. S. ORCOTT. D. S. Orcott testified t 1 I was in the military service of the United States, in the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Company L. I was taken prisoner and taken to Andersonville. I arrived there on the 22d of July, 1864. We arrived there about 10 o'clock on the 22d of July, 1864, and were marched tip before Captain Wirz's headquarters, and were kept standing there in the hot sun for three hours without any water. We had been seven days on the road and the men were dry, and he would not allow us to have any water. One of the men stepped out of the ranks and asked for a drink of water. Captain Wirz told the guard not to allow him to go out. He told the guards that if any of the men attempted to leave the ranks to kill them, to shoot them. One man stepped out and Captain Wirz came along and said, "Kill the damned Yankee son of a bitch." The guard hit the man over the head with his gun and knocked him down. His head was cut open and he lay there; he could not speak. I could not tell the appearance of the wound. I was not close enough to him, but I could see the blood f owing freely. The man did not die while I was there. There was a man of my regiment who got sun-struck and was left out there. He came into the stockade afterwards, and he told us that the man died two or three hours after we left. He did not state any declarations of the man at the time he died. I do not know the name of the man who was killed. He belonged to the 5th Penn- sylvania Cavalry. I think he was a private. The date this occurred, as near as I can tell, was the 22d of July. I heard the prisoner, Captain Wirz, say something about giving land to the Federal prisoners there. While we were standing in front of Captain Wirz's headquarters, a wagon came out with a load of dead in it, and one of the boys spoke up and asked what was in that wagon. Captain Wirz said it was "Yankees going out to get their land warrants." He said, "We are going to give you all land warrants of the same kind, six feet of land, or land enough to bury you," or something like that. TESTIMONY OP CHARLES H. RUSSELL. Charles H. Russell testified: 2 I was iri the military service of the United States. I was orderly sergeant, Company E, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, at the time of my capture, on the 9th day of May, 1864. . . I was sent to Andersonville, where I arrived on the 27th of May, 1864. After I had been in the stockade about two weeks, a number of men from my regiment who were there, and who had been fed on sour bread, wanted me to 1 Record, p. 325. ! Record, p. 345. TESTIMONY AS TO MURDER. 347 peak to Captain Wirz about it, and to see if he wouldn't give them better bread. '. took a sample of it to him one day, when, he came in the stockade, and I showed t to him. He turned himself and said, "I don't want to know anything about it." '. insisted on his looking at it. It was all moldy and sour. That made him angry, le had his pistol in his hand, and he wheeled around and presented it at my lead, cocked. There was a big crowd around there, and the boys began to sing iut, "Go in for him." He got scared, and wheeled around and rode out of camp. '. think it likely he would have shot me if he had dared to. I have seen two men shot myself for crossing the dead-line, and three after hey were shot. Q. State the circumstances of the shooting of those whom you saw shot. A. I saw a man shot at the creek one morning in June. We were down after vater. There was a big crowd there. The ground near the creek was very ilippery, where the boys were running in and out and spilling water. A fellow ;here, who looked very weak and sick, tried to get some water, but he slipped md fell, sticking his arm under the dead-line — nothing but his arm. I was vithin six feet of him when the guard raised his gun and fired and shot him lown. The man did not speak a word afterwards. I do not know that man's name nor his regiment. I did not see Captain Wirz jresent at that time. About the 20th of July, I think, there was a, man shot on ;he south side, at a little spring where they dug a hole in the ground about eight Eeet from the dead-line, on the south side of the creek. He was there getting vater, and there was quite a number getting water at the same time. They were jrowding around to see who would get the water first. This man got crowded jutside the dead-line, and the guard fired on him and shot him. The guard stood m the first post, on the south side of the creek. Captain Wirz came along shortly ifterwards, and went up the stand where the sentry was, and I saw him shake iands with the sentry. Shortly afterwards the sentry went down, and another soldier took his place. He shook hands with the sentry and called him a "bully fellow," or something of that sort. I heard nothing said about furloughs at that ;ime. At one time I was detailed to go out and get some wood. There was a Confederate soldier who made it a practice of going out in the woods where the Doys went for wood, and trading with them there, out of the sight of his officers. He said that there was an order out that they would get furloughs for every Yankee they killed. TESTIMONY OP HUGH E. SNEE. Hugh R. Snee testified: 1 I was in the military service of the United States — in the 39th Illinois Regi- nent. I was a prisoner at Andersonville about five months. I was captured May L6, 1864, and I made my escape about the 9th of September following. I made ny escape by smuggling myself out with a few prisoners who were to be exchanged jn special exchange arranged between General Sherman and General Hood. When ;hey. called the roll of these men who were to be exchanged, it was after dark; ;hat time being chosen on account of the heat, as men would faint during the Jay. When they called the roll, they said they wanted none but able-bodied 1 Record, p. 352. 348 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDEKSONVILLE. men. After I got out I fell into line. Others came out who could not walk. There were two men belonging to a western regiment — I think one belonging to an Iowa regiment ; I am not certain as to that ; they fainted before they got to the brook that ran, I think, between Captain Wirz's headquarters and the depot. They fell out of the ranks, and the guard shoved them to one side. A man ran back and wanted to know why they were out. They made the remark that they wished to get out of prison. The man said, "I will help you out damned soon." We were hurrying along at the double-quick. I heard six discharges from a pistol; I supposed it to be a revolver, and I heard a cry, as if somebody was hurt. Presently a rebel officer, » lieutenant I think, came along, and he made the re- mark that it was a brutal act. Some one asked who did it, and he said the cap- tain. I have no means of knowing that they were killed, except that this lieu- tenant said that only one of them was killed. He said, "One of them is dead." I have heard Captain Wirz's voice on several occasions. I cannot say positively if the voice I heard at that time had the accent of his voice. I thought at that time that it was his voice. We passed him soon afterward, perhaps not over fifteen minutes. He was sitting in his chair in front of his headquarters, and General Winder was sitting not a great distance from him. I suppose it was calculated that we were passing in review before them, and they were counting us. We were ordered to march in particular order so that we could be counted. That is all I know about that particular affair. TESTIMONY OF AMBROSE HENMAN. Ambrose Henman testified i 1 I am a private in Company L, 4th United States Cavalry. I was a prisoner at Andersonville from the 23d of April, 1864, till the last of July, 1864. I saw the prisoner [Wirz] there. 1 saw one man shot after I was there nine or ten days. It was about the 6th or 7th of May, I think, at the northwest corner of the stockade. The man put his hand under the dead-line to get a crumb of bread, when he was shot by the guard. I do not know the man's name or regiment. I think he was an idiot, a crazy man. I saw a man shot at the south gate, about the last of May, 1864. The man had several names — "Pretty Polly," "Fortune Teller," and "Chickamauga." Cap- tain Wirz was present at the time he was shot. Pretty Polly, as I called him, went up to the gate. Wirz was at the wicket-gate, having the gate open. Pretty Polly asked him to let him out. Captain Wirz drew his revolver and told him that he could not get out. Pretty Polly seemed to be afraid of the raiders inside, as they called them. Wirz drove him back from the dead-line and closed the gate and walked out. Chickamauga walked inside the dead-line and sat down, saying he would rather be shot by their men than be killed by our own men. Wirz ordered the sentinel to shoot him. The sentinel hesitated, and before the sentinel fired Wirz went up to the sentry-box with his revolver drawn. But before he got there the sentry fired at the man and shot him down, the ball striking him in the chin and passing through the breast. I heard nothing about furloughs. I spoke to Captain Wirz at the time, after the man was shot, and asked the privilege of 1 Record, p. 372. TESTIMONY AS TO MURDER. 349 iking him from the dead-line. He gave me permission, telling me to take him id go to hell with him. 1 picked him up and carried him back about four rods from the dead-line. le lay down there and died. The men crowded around there so much to see im, that Captain Wirz. ordered the sentinel to fire again. I saw Captain Wirz p in the sentry-box. I did not see him before he went to the sentry-box. I 3uld not see over the stockade. I saw him at the gate before the man was shot, [e drew his revolver and ordered him back. There was some crowd. Captain ?irz went to the sentry-box. He gave orders to the sentinel before he went up shoot "the Yankee son of a bitch." The sentinel was only a few feet from fhere the crowd stood. TESTIMONY OP GEORGE W. GRAY. George W. Gray testified t 1 I am in the military service of the United States; in the 7th Indiana Cavalry, Company B. Q. How long have you been in the service? A. In my last term two years and one month; I was taken to Andersonville >n the 10th of June, 1864, and remained there until November. About the last of August I made my escape from Andersonville, and was over- taken by a lot of hounds; before the catch-dog could get at me I took a tree. After I took the tree the hounds circled around and barked until the catch-dog eame up; when the catch-dog came up some Johnnies came up also, and de- manded that I should come down. I told them to tie that dog and that I would come down, but not before. They said they would tie one of the other dogs. 1 said no, that they should tie up the catch-dog; they tied him and I came down. The hounds did not touch me. I knew they would not — for the reason that I used to catch niggers myself with them, and so knew all about them. I was brought back to Andersonville prison and taken to Wirz's quarters. I was ordered by him to be put in the stocks, where I remained for four days, with my feet placed in a block and another lever placed over my legs, with my arms thrown back, and a chain running across my arms. I remained four days there in the sun; that was my punishment for trying to get away from the prison. At the same time a young man was placed in the stocks — the third man from me. He died there. He was a little sick when he went in, and he died there. I do not know his name; if I heard it, I have forgotten it. This occurred about "the last of August or the first of September, 1864. I am certain he died. The negroes took him out of the stocks after he was dead, threw him into the wagon, and hauled him away. Q. Do you know anything about the prisoner [Wirz] having shot a prisoner of war there at any time. A. He shot a young fellow named William Stewart, a private belonging to the 9th Minnesota Infantry. He and I went out of the stockade with a dead body, and after laying the dead body in the dead-house Captain Wirz rode up to us and asked by what authority we were out there or what we were doing there. Stewart said we were there by proper authority. Wirz said no more, 1 Record, p. 397 et seq. 350 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. but drew a revolver' and shot the man. After he was killed the guard took from the body about twenty or thirty dollars, and Wirz took the money from the guard and rode off, telling the guard to take me to prison. Q. Are you sure about that? A. If I was not I would not speak it. Q. By whose orders did you come out with the dead body? A. It was my determination — I don't know whether it was Stewart's or not — to get away again. For that reason we went out. We begged for the dead body. Q. Do you know whether that was the time that Lieutenant Davis had something to do with the prison? A. I recollect now that Lieutenant Davis ordered the sergeants of each detach- ment to detail men to carry out of the stockade the dead bodies of men belonging to that detachment. Q. State what Captain Wirz had in his hand when he shot that soldier. A. He had a revolver; whether a, navy pistol or not I don't know; it was a large pistol. Q. How near was he to him? A. About eight feet from him, I think. Q. Where did the ball take effect in your comrade? A. In the breast. He died right there where he was shot. Q. Were you at the time attempting to make your escape? A. No, sir; but it was my intention if I could, to do so. I was not attempting it at that time, nor was Stewart. Q. How far were you from the dead-house? A. About fifty yards — about half the distance from the stockade to the dead- house; a little off and to one side of it. Q. You do not know whether Lieutenant Davis had a. partial command there? A. I think that in September Captain Wirz was relieved temporarily by Lieu- tenant Davis on account of ill health, about two weeks, probably. Gj. Of the fact of Wirz committing this particular offense, you are certain? A. I am, sir. Q. Did you state the time when Stewart was shot? A. It was about the middle of September, after I got out of the stocks. Q. When testifying with reference to the man on the white horse, you said something about not being able to identify him; had you any difficulty after- wards in identifying Captain Wirz? A. The first time I knew such a man in the prison, I heard Lieutenant Davis call the name at the gate. He said, "Captain Wirz, come down this way.'' I looked at the man and asked the boys if it was not the commander of the Ander- sonville prison. [The Judge Advocate called upon the prisoner to stand up for identification. The prisoner, who was lying on a lounge, partly raised himself, turning his face to the witness.] Q. Do you recognize that man as the person who shot your comrade? A. That is the man. [The prisoner attempted to say something in contradiction of the witness, but was not permitted by the court. The Judge Advocate requested the prisoner to TESTIMONY AS TO MURDER. 351 tand up on his feet. The prisoner having complied with the Judge Advocate's equest, the witness looked at him and said, "I think that is the man."] Q. The person whom you have been talking about, you were afterwards in the labit of recognizing in the prison as Captain Wirz? A. Yes. Q. Do you recollect whether the man who shot your comrade had a foreign iccent? A. I took him to be a German or a foreigner by his talk, for this reason: When I was put in the stocks he said to me, "Cott tarn you, I fix you.' - For that reason I took him to be a foreigner or a Dutchman. I knew a young man being brought to the stockade after being caught by the bounds. I went out to see him and asked him what was the matter. He told me he was caught by bloodhounds and torn very badly. Part of his cheek was torn off, and his arms and hands and legs gnawed up so that the man only lived some twenty-four hours after he came into the stockade. That was in October, 1864, I think. I do not know the date exactly when I left Andersonville. I got to Savannah, Georgia, in December, 1864. I do not know the name of the man who was bitten by the dogs and who died in the stockade. 1 saw an officer riding on a white horse the day I arrived at Andersonville. I believe it was the same day. We got there, I think, on the ten o'clock train, and I think it was about the middle of the day. I saw that man afterwards. I could not at that time tell whether it was Captain Wirz or not, because I never had heard his name. I will not be positive whether it was Captain Wirz at that time or not. I knew him about two weeks after I went to the prison. I saw him when I first went there, at the prison-gate. The next place I saw him was inside the stockade, at the time Lieutenant Davis called him to one side and took him the other road. I cannot say whether it was or not the same man whom I first saw on the" gray horse. I would not wish to say. CHAPTER XIII. Besume of the Foregoing Chapters — Some Comment upon and Deductions fkom the Evidence — Mortuary Statistics — Johnson's Island and Ander- sonville Compared — Table of Deaths by Months — Number of Dead at Andersonville, 13,171 — Deaths in Twenty-five Federal Prisons in 1864 Compared with Andersonville. /~\F the participants in the trial of Captain Wirz, two only are ^S living — General J. H. Stibbs, one of the judges, now residing in Chicago, and the writer. In vindication of his verdict, General Stibbs has recently, in an address, given some interesting details of the trial. As for myself, I am performing not only what I regard as a duty I owe to the govern- ment and to the members of the court, the justness of whose findings is now being assailed, but I am giving the true story of the darkest page of the Rebellion, and I am seeking to make abortive and innocuous the misleading and altogether unwarranted implications arising from the erection of a monument to the memory of Wirz, and to refute the charges and statements placed indelibly upon that monument. The reader will have discovered that the evidence is first directed to the charge of conspiracy, which had for its purpose, in violation of the laws of war, the weakening of the Federal armies by the various means specified, — by starving large numbers to death, and rendering unfit for service such as fortunately survived the ordeal of their treat- ment; by crowding them into insufficient and unwholesome quarters, exposed to the changing temperatures of heat and cold, unprovided with any kind of shelter or clothing ; by depriving them in these con- gested quarters of sufficient pure water to drink, or even water with which to bathe or perform the most ordinary offices necessary to per- sonal cleanliness ; by leaving large numbers of the sick without medical attendance, who died in their quarters from sheer neglect; and by failing to exercise any sort of police control over this turbulent and despairing mass of human beings, encouraged thereby to rob and prey upon each other in their desperate struggle for existence. RESUME AND COMMENTS. 353 Is it necessary to look beyond the testimony and reports given and made by rebel officers and soldiers for support of the findings of the court? Turn back and read what Colonel Chandler reported and testified to ; read again the awful picture drawn by Dr. Jones and the testimony of the five or six rebel surgeons on duty there; read what officers and soldiers stationed there said of the prison and its horrors. Is it necessary to look to the testimony of the sufferers themselves ? But we may look to their testimony ; and, looking there, what do we see? A picture of such helpless, hopeless misery and suffering as would wring the most callous heart and should bring the blush of shame to those who seek to immortalize one of the arch perpetrators of this monstrous iniquity. THE STOCKADE. Notice next with what ingenuity the prison was planned and pre- pared. A sluggish stream coursed through the enclosure. Above was located the cook-house, from which the garbage, grease, and offal were cast into this stream to find their way down into the prison. Still farther above were located the camps for the soldiers constituting the prison guard. Near the stream were located the army sinks for the use of the soldiers, and into it the drainage from the camps passed, contaminating the water in its course through the prison. And now turn to the evidence, documentary and oral, from rebel sources and from the lips of the surviving Union soldiers, and note the picture of the morass into and through which the prisoners had to wade to dip up the scant and infected water they were to use. The testimony is recorded; it cannot be blotted out; much of it cannot with propriety be here repeated. Indeed, its publication as part of this record is justified, and to be tolerated in print only because it came from the lips of living witnesses who were sworn to tell the whole truth. Originally built with scanty space for ten thousand prisoners, the stockade was denuded of all timber which might have been some pro- tection from the sun's rays or could have been made use of for fire- wood, and was soon filled with double its estimated capacity. Instead of enlarging it to increase its habitability, it was contracted in size by the establishment of a dead-line twenty feet from the walls of the stockade and completely around its interior. This dead-line became the scene of frequent slaughter of the occupants of the prison, not one of whom was shown to have encroached upon it with any purpose to reach the stockade wall or effect his escape. It may be truthfully 354 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEKSONVILLE. said of the killings near or on this fatal dead-line, which occurred almost daily, that they were, all of them, wanton and reckless sacri- fices ; and be it noted, in no single instance was a guard ever rebuked, much less tried, for his crime. On the contrary, there is evidence tending to show that guards were rewarded for killing prisoners at the dead-line. Mr. Davis in his Belford articles refers to Dr. Jones as eminent in his profession and of great learning and probity. I have no hesitation in quoting him, for his testimony is not to be gainsaid. Nor can we discredit other of the rebel surgeons whose testimony is before us. Dr. G. G. Eoy was asked this question : "What was the condition of the men sent from the stockade to the hospital? Describe their appearance and condition." He replied: "They presented the most horrible spectacle of human suffering 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 indescribable. I attributed this condition to long confinement, want of necessaries and comforts of life, and all those causes which are calculated to produce that condi- tion of the system where there is just vitality enough to permit one to live. The prisoners were too densely crowded ; there was no shelter except such as they constructed themselves, which was very insuf- ficient. A good many were in holes in the earth, with their blankets thrown over poles; some were in tents constructed by their own in- genuity, and with just such accommodations as their own ingenuity permitted them to contrive. There were, you may say, no accommoda- tions made for them in the stockade.'' Upon their arrival, the prisoners were paraded in front of Wirz's quarters and counted off in detachments consisting of two hundred and seventy men, divided into three squads of ninety, and a prisoner designated as sergeant of each ninety. A number was given each de- tachment, and the members of the nineties were enrolled as belonging to the detachment thus constituted. They were thus turned into the stockade to shift for themselves, but were required to answer to their names at roll-call each day in their respective nineties. One of the indefensible means resorted to in securing a daily census of the prison was to punish the squad of ninety by stopping their rations unless all were accounted for at roll-call. In that mass of thirty-odd thousand, if one man could not be found, or if, unknown to his comrades, he had died and was unaccounted for, the remaining 356 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. eighty-nine suffered the penalty, and the evidence was that this hap- pened frequently. There was evidence that on several different days — notably on the 3d or 4th of July, 1864 — the entire prison was de- prived of rations. Witnesses testified to the suffering which resulted from the great irregularity as to time of issuing rations. Often the rations did not reach the prisoners until late in the day, and were then but sufficient to partly allay hunger, and left nothing until another day's rations came. TEEEOES OP THE PEISON PEN. The terrors of the prison pen were greatly augmented by the utter lack of police control. There was in fact none whatever, except such as the prisoners themselves could enforce. Eobbery of the weak by the stronger was common ; the dying saw around them eager, wolfish faces of men ready to fight over their scanty clothing; the more for- tunate possessors of a well levied heavy toll for a drink of water begged by some thirsty fellow-prisoner. Men fought like perishing animals for meat bones or crusts of bread ; they crawled with crippled limbs, drawn up by scurvy, with cup in teeth, to the slimy creek for water ; they burrowed in the ground like rodents of the plain to escape the scorching rays of summer and the cold of winter. The appeal to brutish instincts was so strong and insistent that the law of the jungle became the law of the prison with many, and there were enacted tragedies such as Dr. Jones described, where murder was stealthily committed for the miserably inadequate and wholly selfish motive of possessing the ragged garments of the victims. This lack of police supervision brought its harvest of suffering and death in many ways, and its effect reached a climax in a manner for- ever to condemn the prison management, by the prisoners taking the law into their own hands, and by drumhead court-martial trying, condemning, and executing on the gallows six of the supposedly most desperate characters. How can the prison authorities or their apolo- gists ever explain or justify a condition such as made this violent proceeding seem to the prisoners to be a necessity for self-protection ? Who shall say that when Wirz refused to hear their plea for mercy and coldly turned these unhappy wretches over to a tribunal lacking every semblance of a judicial investigation, with their fates sealed, that he does hot stand guilty before God and man ? Let us not for a moment hold the members of this improvised court responsible for resorting to means desperate and cruel to bring about some sort of RESUME AND COMMENTS. 357 safety to person in the prison. Necessity drove them to it ; but Winder and Wirz and the prison management created the necessity. Father "Whelan, whose testimony was relied on as tending to ex- culpate the accused in some degree, was pointedly asked if he was willing to testify that prisoners did not die from starvation, and he replied that he could not do so, and that, being unable to eat the rations given them, many must have died from starvation. If it were known to the prison authorities that because of the quantity of the rations, or because of their quality, prisoners, even in small numbers, were dying of starvation, — and that it was known to them is established to a moral certainty, — every consideration of humanity as well as the rules of civilized warfare demanded of the enemy that such condition should be speedily remedied. But it was not remedied, nor was it attempted to be remedied. On the contrary, the conditions so fatal were allowed to increase, and with this increase the death-roll was swollen to frightful proportions. That this was a result reason- ably to be expected can admit of no doubt, for not only the prison records proclaimed it, but the more humane and conscientious officers on duty at the prison forewarned the prison authorities that such result was inevitable unless remedial measures pointed out by them were adopted. If a guardian charged with the duty to feed his ward deliberately starves him to death, it is murder. In time of war captive prisoners become wards of the enemy. Except when forced to do otherwise in retaliation, — and only in retaliation, — prisoners of war are entitled to such humane treatment as may be consistent with their safe-keeping and as may be reasonably within the power of the enemy to give. It is never allowable to kill them outright, when once captured, much less to subject them to slow death by torture or starvation. When I say that this rule of conduct in time of war was flagrantly violated at Andersonville, I state not alone a conclusion or inference from the evidence, but I state what was the opinion, given under oath, of the rebel surgeons on duty there. If it be cruel, if it be monstrous to lay so atrocious a crime at the doors of these prison authorities, I but repeat the sworn testimony of men who were there, and who speak from personal observation and personal experience. Acting Assistant Surgeon J. C. Bates, who had been a medical prac- titioner since 1850, testified : "I feel myself safe in saying that seventy- five per cent of those who died might have been saved had those unfor- tunate men been properly cared for as to food, clothing, bedding, etc." 358 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. Vattel, who wrote upon international law over a century and a half ago, said : "As soon as your enemy has laid down his arms and surrendered 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 such a crime deserving death. Pris- oners of war may be secured, but cannot be made slaves, unless for personal guilt which deserves death, nor be slain, unless we be per- fectly assured that our safety demands such a sacrifice." What shall be said of the scores shot at the dead-line, some of them but reaching across it for a cup of water or piece of bread ; what of those who died from being put in the stocks and chain-gang or pur- sued by the dogs; and what of the thousands who perished in the stockade and hospital for want of being properly cared for ? CONDITIONS KNOWN AT RICHMOND. It does not admit of a moral doubt that the conditions at Anderson- ville were well known to many of the responsible heads of the rebel government at Richmond from the beginning to the end of that prison, with all its accumulating horrors ; nor can it be doubted that they were known to the Confederate President. It was generally known throughout Georgia, and was the subject of newspaper com- ment. It was reported over and over again to the authorities at Rich- mond. Let it not be forgotten that Mr. Davis defends the selection of Andersonville as the site for this prison on the ground that it was in "a productive farming country ; had never been devastated by the enemy; was well watered; was near Americus, a central depot for collecting the tax in kind and purchasing provisions for our armies." 1 Will not the inquiry suggest itself to the intelligent reader as to why these facilities were not taken advantage of to safeguard the comfort and provide subsistence supplies for the prisoners sent to this land of plenty? There is no escape from the conclusion that there was design in withholding from the prisoners the supplies that abounded and were available. It may be hard for us at this distance of time, confronted too by evidences that a feeling of good-will exists between the North and the South, and especially between the surviving soldiers of the two armies, to conceive the disclosures in this volume to have a pos- sible basis of truth. But however abhorrent, however humiliating the thought, however dark and repelling the shadow cast over great names, 1 Belford Magazine, January, 1890. RESUME AND COMMENTS. 359 the truth stands recorded in these pages, and the horrors of Ander- sonville will forever remain one of the most tragic chapters in a most wicked and causeless rebellion against the best government that man has ever instituted. THE HOSPITAL. But let us pass out of this horrible human corral, where men died by inches under slow processes of starvation and lost all moral sense and moral responsibility, many of them demented, in their effort to sustain life, — let us visit the hospital, in the hope of finding condi- tions ameliorated. What do we find there? There was a small stream running across one corner of the hospital stockade, the upper portion of which was used by the patients for washing, and the lower portion as a sink (privy). Let Surgeon Jones speak : This part of the stream is a semi-fluid of human excrement, and offal and filth of all kinds. This immense cess-pool fermenting beneath the hot sun emitted 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 deleterious influences on the inmates of the hospital. It would seem that the prison pen and the hospital were so located, relatively, as to co-ordinate in the work of destruction to the occupants ; each was to contribute its share to the death-roll. Look at the picture of the hospital as drawn by Dr. Jones : The patients and attendants [the attendants were prisoners], near two thou- sand, are crowded and but poorly supplied with old and ragged tents; a large number without any bunks in the tents lay upon the ground, ofttimes without even a blanket. No beds of straw appear to have been furnished. The tents extend to within a few yards of the small stream, which was used as a privy and loaded with excrement. I observed 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 everything and covered the faces of the sleeping patients, crawled down their open mouths, and deposited their maggots upon the gan- grenous wounds of the living and mouths of the dead. Mosquitoes in great numbers also infested the tents, and many of the patients were so stung by these pestiferous insects that they resembled those suffering from a slight attack of the measles. The police and hygiene of the hospital were defective in the extreme. 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 rag upon which the patient was lying and water poured over it, and all the putrescent matter allowed to soak into the ground-floor of 360 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. the tent. I saw the most filthy rags, which had been applied several times and imperfectly washed, used in dressing recent wounds. Where hospital gangrene was prevailing, it was almost impossible for any wounds to escape contagion under the circumstances. This was the condition existing as late as in the middle of September, six months after the prison was established. All this time the Great Eeaper was inexorably gathering in his toll of dead American soldiers ; all this time the boast of Wirz, that he was performing the service of the generals at the front in slaying the enemy, was being realized ; all this time General Winder was enforcing the policy he declared to Colonel Chandler, that it was better to leave the prisoners "in their present condition until their number had been sufficiently reduced by death to make the present arrangements suffice for their accommoda- tion." The treatment of the sick was not less barbarous than was the treat- ment of the dead revolting, and Dr. Jones speaks of the latter "as cal- culated to depress the already despondent spirits of the living." He said: The dead-house is merely a frame, covered with old tentcloth and a few brushes, situated in the southwest corner of the hospital grounds. When a patient dies he is simply laid in the narrow street in front of his tent until he is removed by the Federal negroes [negro soldiers] detailed to carry off the dead. If the patient die during the night, he lies there until morning; and during the day the dead were frequently allowed to remain for hours in those walks. In the dead- house the corpses lay on the bare ground, and were in most cases covered with filth and vermin. The reader will recall how the dead-wagon was loaded, tier upon tier, until twenty or thirty were piled in like so many swine. This, too, in the presence of the sick and dying. Little wonder that it was calculated to "depress the despondent spirits of the living." When Dr. Bates was assigned to duty he expresses himself as "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 upon props pretty well crowded, a majority of them in small tents. They could not be furnished with any clothing except the clothing of the dead, which was generally appropriated by the living. There was a partial supply of wood, but not sufficient to keep the men warm and prolong their existence. As a general thing, the patients were destitute, filthy, and partly naked. The clamor all the while was for something to eat," RESUME AND COMMENTS. 361 Like testimony came from the lips of many others. But why recall these horrors, which must have made upon the reader a lasting impres- sion as he progressed through their unfolding in previous pages? Other abhorrent features of this so-called hospital will not be forgot- ten, and need not be referred to again. It is true that medical science has advanced much since the Civil War, and armies in the field and in hospital receive more skillful treat- ment now than then; but it would be an unwarranted impeachment of the intelligence of that day to suggest that the hospital we have been examining was managed as it might or should have been, or that it was conducted with a view to prolong the lives of its unfortu- nate patients. There has never been a time in the history of the human family when it was supposed that man, sick or well, could exist without nourishment. Yet here was a hospital where "the clamor all the while was for something to eat" ; and this, too, in a region to which the prisoners were sent because, as Mr. Davis said, "it was a productive farming country," and because, as Commissary-General Ruffin testified, "it was the seat of plenty." The stockade and the hospital were the chief causes of the mortality, and it was the professional opinion of surgeons on duty there "that seventy-five per cent of those who died might have been saved had these unfortunate men been properly cared for as to food, clothing, bedding, etc." There were many deaths from violence, through ignominious pun- ishments inflicted in violation of the laws of war. These, in the aggre- gate, seem insignificant when compared with the thousands who died in the prison pen and hospital, but the manner of their taking off shows the reckless abandon of Winder and Wirz in their successful execution of the conspiracy. THE CONSPIRACY. It is not my purpose to halt now to show, what is settled law, that criminal intent may be presumed to have accompanied the criminal act. The law upon this point is fully given in the address of the Judge Advocate, hereinafter partly given, to which the reader is referred. Nor will I undertake to point out here all the facts and cir- cumstances leading to the conclusion reached by the court. The policy pursued by the rebel authorities throughout the tragedy of the Rebellion is plainly manifested in the letter of Colonel Robert Ould, Commissioner of Exchange, as early as March 17, 1863, written to 362 THE TEAGEDY OP ANDEBSONVILLE. General Winder at a time when the rebel government was exchanging Libby and Belle Island prisoners for prisoners held in the North by the Federal government. He said : "The arrangements I have made works largely in our favor. We get rid of a set of miserable wretches, and receive some of the best material I ever saw." This was a year pre- vious to the opening of the Andersonville drama, but the proofs abound that our soldiers in rebel prisons continued to be treated as they were later at Andersonville. All through this record is evidence of this fact. Indeed, it was attempted to be shown in defense of Wirz and the prison management at Andersonville, that prisoners came there from Libby, Belle Island, Florence, Salisbury and other places in the South in a dying condition. In his letter of May 5, 1865, to General Wilson, Wirz wrote : "I do not think that I ought to be held responsible for the shortness of rations, for the overcrowded state of the prison (which was of itself a prolific source of fearful mortality), for the inadequate supplies of clothing, want of shelter, etc. Still, I now bear the odium, and men who were prisoners seem disposed to wreak their vengeance upon me for what they have suffered ; I was only the medium, or I may better say the tool, in the hands of. my superiors." Could confession go further? Is there not here an admission of the main facts adduced at the trial? Does not the record disclose who were the superiors referred to who must share the responsibility of this great crime? And will the law acquit a co-conspirator, who was a willing tool in the perpetration of the conspiracy? Was Wirz under any such physical coercion as shoidd shield him? Again he appealed to the court in his address: "Am I the person who, from my position at Andersonville, should properly be held accountable for the crowded condition of the stockade, the want of shelter, the unwholesomeness of the food, the impurity of the water, • the inadequate hospital accommodations, and the lack of medicines and medical supplies, all of which combined and led to the dreadful mortality which prevailed at that place ?" Again : "A poor subaltern officer should not be called upon to bear upon his overburdened shoul- ders the faults and misdeeds of others." Again : "It is not for me to suggest where the culpability or responsibility lay." No, it was not for him to say ; for in this responsibility he was a willing sharer. There does, indeed, seem to have been a failure of justice that he alone should have suffered vicariously "for the misdeeds RESUME AND COMMENTS. 363 of others." But the righteousness of the verdict resides in the fact that, though not alone in guilt, he still was guilty. NEGATIVE TESTIMONY. There is testimony by persons who were on duty at Andersonville, and in a few instances by the prisoners themselves, that they never knew or heard of Wirz having killed a prisoner, and some testified that they never saw him commit, or heard of his committing, any per- sonal act of cruelty upon the prisoners. From this negative testimony the inference is sought to be drawn that he was not guilty of any such crimes. These witnesses all agree that Wirz was a very profane man, a man of high and ungovernable temper; that he cursed the prisoners, and often was rough in his personal treatment of them; that he carried a revolver, and was known to have threatened to use it; that he consigned prisoners to the stocks and chain-gang for no other offense than that of attempting to escape, as was their right and duty to do if they could ; that he was the prisonkeeper and directly responsible not only for their safety, but for their subsistence and comfort. Some of these witnesses thought that had Wirz been guilty of personally causing the death of a prisoner by his own hand or by his order they would have heard of it ; others admitted that they had little or nothing to do with the prisoners or their care, and that the crimes charged against Wirz might have been committed by him and they not have known it. But before we can discard and disbelieve the sworn testimony of eye-witnesses we must be able to say that these witnesses were willful perjurers, and this we must conclude from the inherent improbability of the testimony. It does not present the case of conflicting testimony generally met with in criminal trials, for there was no conflict. The case is not an ordinary one such as arises in a peaceful community suddenly aroused by the perpetration of a mur- der. We are not dealing with some great crime committed in a well- organized city of thirty thousand inhabitants, where its infrequency promotes publicity and the shock passes wavelike from house to house. What was the situation at Andersonville 1 Need I recall the picture so often described by the witnesses? Men were shot almost daily on the dead-line ; the victims of disease and starvation were being carted off to the burying-ground in wagonloads by hundreds, almost a thou- sand in a week at times, buried without ceremony in nameless graves, unhonored and unsung; scenes of horror surrounded the prison; human life was little valued, and death had no terror and attracted 364 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. scant notice. When men were dying by hundreds daily, from causes no less criminal than if caused by direct violence, is it strange that an individual homicide, committed by Wirz or any one else, should have been unknown to some in the camp or in the prison ? But it is urged in defense that Wirz showed a spirit of mercy and kindness in certain instances. He extended to Father Whelan and Father Hamilton the courtesy of allowing them to administer spiritual comfort to the dying, although Father Hamilton found it impossible, by curtailing the sacrament, to reach all the dying, they perished so rapidly. Could Wirz have done less and have claimed the right to the human name? He made recommendations which would have helped matters if carried out ; but they were recommendations which he had the power himself to execute, and he should have done so, but did not. These things showed that there was some human kindness in his nature, but they are not wholly incompatible with guilt and in themselves are insufficient to raise a reasonable doubt that he com- mitted the crimes charged against him. CHARGE OF MURDER. It has been suggested that the evidence of murder lacks credence because the witnesses could not always give the name of the victim or identify him in any way, nor give the precise date of the homicide. This is true of some, but not all of the instances. I will not attempt an analysis of the testimony touching individual cases ; this was thor- oughly done by the Judge Advocate in his address to the court, which the reader may consult. It is not necessary to a full justification of the sentence of the court that more than one deliberate and intentional homicide of an unoffending prisoner should be established to a moral certainty; and that one such case was shown, and more than one, cannot be doubted, without an absolute rejection of the testimony as unworthy of belief. The witnesses were before the court; their manner of testifying was under observation; the effect of the cross- examination was open to scrutiny; and the surrounding circum- stances also cast their weight upon the issue. Can we say, — has any one the right to say — that the witnesses absolutely perjured them- selves, and that the members of the court, all of them men of high rank and unimpeachable character, willfully violated their oaths to give the accused a fair and impartial trial upon the evidence adduced before them? 366 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. "Witnesses generally stated that they took but little note of time; that they did not know one day from another; some lost even the recur- rence of the month. Identification might be possible, as it was in some of the cases, but in others the victim might not at the moment be near any of his known comrades, and the evidence was that the prisoners became so begrimed with dirt and emaciated by suffering that they were past recognition. And who was to prosecute an inquiry after the man was killed ? His body was carried out of the prison pen and carted off with the other dead of the day to the cemetery. "What motive was there for investi- gating these occurrences or fixing them in the memory of the wit- nesses? "Was not "Wirz the sole arbiter of his own conduct? Out of all the cruel killings by Wirz and the prison guards, or by the treat- ment or lack of treatment of the sick in the hospital and in the prison, was there ever a court of inquiry called or any investigation of a judicial character? Is there any inherent improbability in the testi- mony that charges the killing by "Wirz's own hands, in view of the known character of the man, of the boasts he made that he was doing better service than any general in the field, and of the indifference with which he saw the prisoners dying by thousands from the treat- ment they were receiving? The specifications under charge 11 relate particularly to the con- duet of Wirz personally towards the prisoners, embracing acts of violence resulting in death at his hands, directly or by his order. In judging the evidence connecting him immediately with these homi- cidal acts, we may, and should, to a right understanding of the evi- dence, take into consideration all his acts in connection with the prison management. His disposition toward the prisoners, his cursing them, his violent and ungovernable temper, his threats of bodily injury, his depriving them of rations, punishing the innocent for breaches of discipline by others, his modes of cruel and inhuman punishment for trivial and wholly inadequate infractions of rules, the frightful mor- tality in hospital and prison, rmich of which it was within his power to have avoided, — indeed, in large degree, his responsibility for the indescribable horrors of the prison life at Andersonville, — all bear upon and help to shed light upon and render probable the evidence directed to the charge of murder. It is a legal and logical deduction from this continuous and unbroken series of cruelties resulting in the RESUME AND COMMENTS. 367 death of many thousands, of which he was a willing instrument, that such a man was quite capable of being guilty of personal and individual acts of cruelty which caused immediate death. If the general management of the prison had been humane, and everything had been done for the comfort and welfare of the prisoners which reasonably could have been expected under the circumstances; had there been no chain-gang, no stocks, no shutting off of rations as punishment, no brutal pursuit of escaping prisoners by ferocious dogs, no indiscriminate killing at the dead-line, — in short, had the prison been conducted by Captain Wirz with some regard for the principles that govern civilized nations in time of war, — it would be hard to believe the witnesses who testified to the facts upon which he was found guilty under charge 11 — the charge of murder. But, unfortunately, "Wirz could come before the court with no such record in his favor. All his conduct tended to make probable his guilt of the specific homicides laid at his door. It is true, under the rules of criminal procedure, that where one is on trial for some specific crime, evidence of other and different crimes is not admissible to prove the crime charged. But where an unbroken series of crimes appears, and all point to a common purpose, and all tend to a like result, in all of which the accused is criminally implicated, it is competent evidence as tending to establish his guilt of one or more individual crimes intimately connected with the series. SOME MORTUARY STATISTICS — JOHNSON'S ISLAND- FEDERAL PRISON COM- PARED WITH ANDERSONVILLE TABLE OP DEATHS BY MONTHS NUMBER OP DEAD AT ANDERSONVILLE, 13,171. It has been frequently stated in Southern papers that more deaths of rebel soldiers occurred in Union prisons than of Union soldiers in rebel prisons. ■ This statement is based upon a report made July 18, 1866, by General Hitchcock to Secretary Stanton, in which it appears that the number of rebel prisoners during the war is given as 220,000, and the deaths were 26,436, or 12 per cent, and that the number of Union prisoners is given as 126,952, and the deaths were 22,576, or 17.78 per cent. General Hitchcock calls attention to the fact that the reports from Southern prisons were exceedingly irreg- ular, and that no reports had been received from the Florence and 368 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSOXVILLE. other Southern prisons. "The reports," he says, "received from all prison stations in the South are believed to be very incomplete, with the exception of those received from Andersonville, Ga. ; Salisbury, N. C; Cahaba, Ala.; and Danville, Va." He states one instance given by the Christian Commission, showing that there were 676 Union soldiers died of which no report was made to his office. It is not pos- sible to approximate the actual deaths occurring in rebel prisons, while the deaths in Union prisons were carefully recorded and reported. It is not to be forgotten that at least two thousand of the Andersonville prisoners, after their release, died before reaching their homes, from causes directly traceable to the cruel treatment given them while in prison. General Hitchcock's letter follows: 1 Office Commissary-General of Prisoners, Washington-, D. C, July 18, 1866. Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War: Snt: In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th instant calling for a report of the number of deaths among Union soldiers while in Southern prisons, and also the deaths among rebel soldiers while held as pris- oners of war, I have the honor to state that from the reeords of this office it appears that 26,436 deaths have been reported among the rebel prisoners of war, and 22,576 Union soldiers are reported as having died in Southern prisons. These numbers should be seen in comparison with the number of prisoners respectively held North and South, to wit: In the North there were about 220,000, while in the South there were little more than half the number, to wit, about 126,952, as per reports received. It also should be noticed that while we have accurate reports of the deaths which occurred among rebel prisoners in the North, the reports from Southern prisons were exceedingly irregular, as appears by the report of the Christian Commission, showing that there were 676 Union soldiers died of which no report was made to this office. Add to which no reports of deaths were made from localities in the South, as Florence, S. C, and other places. The reports received from all prison stations in the South are believed to be very incomplete, with the exception of those received from Andersonville, Ga. ; Salisbury, N. C. ; Cahaba, Ala.; and Danville, Va. The number of deaths included in the Christian Commission report chiefly refer to battle-fields, with the exception of the 676 whose graves were found at prison camps. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, E. A. Hitchcock, Major-General V. S. Vols.; Commissary-General of Prisoners. 1 War of the Rebellion, series 2, vol. 8, pp. 946, 947. RESUME AND COMMENTS. 369- SOME FURTHER COMPARISONS. Rebel prisoners on hand at the beginning of each month in the- twenty-five prisons of the North for the year 1864 : 1 Prisoners. January 35,489 February 34,983 March 33,860 April 33,798 May 33,592 June 44,310 July 49,564 August 50,838 September 56,931 October 57,098 November 55,243 December 50,825 Total : 8,522 Average per month 710 There were accessions during the month and transfers to other- prisons, exchanges, escapes, and releases. But the beginning of the month plus the accessions, less the transfers, gives the number, when added to the deaths, as the number actually accounted for. The num- ber at the beginning of the month plus the deaths would give the- ratio of prisoners to number of dead. Average number of prisoners per month in twenty-five Northern prisons during year 45,421 Total deaths 8,522 Died. Total. 801 36,290 779 35,762 675 34,535 413 34,211 357 33,949 436 44,746 715 50,279 793 51,631 879 57,810 772 57,870 818 56,061 1,084 51,909 8,522 545,053 710 45,421 Average per month 710 In Andersonville there died : 2 In June 1,187 In July l,73l In August 2,994 In September 2,677 Total 8,589 Average number of prisoners at end of each month 3 . . . . 24,489 Average deaths per month for four months 2,147 More died in this one prison of the South in four months than died in the twenty-five prisons of the North for the entire year of 1864,. 3 War of Rebellion, vol. 8, series 2, p. 994. 2 Superintendent Bryant's table. 3 Dr. Stevenson's Book, p. 403. 370 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. and the average number of prisoners in Northern prisons was nearly double the average number in Andersonville prison for these four months. Johnson's island and andersonville prisons compared. One of the Northern prisons frequently brought into comparison with Southern prisons, by apologists for Andersonville, is Johnson's Island. We have the statistics of Johnson's Island. 1 I give here a table of prisoners and deaths by months for twelve months, from April, 1864, to March, 1865, inclusive, at Johnson's Island, covering most of the life of the Andersonville Prison: 1864. Prisoners. Deaths. April 2,251 4 May 2,114 4 June 2,313 1 July 2,244 1 August '. 2,570 1 September 2,717 5 October 2,697 2 November 2,754 4 December 3,231 9 1865. January 3,256 7 February 3,025 6 March 2,456 2 Average number of prisoners per month for the 12 months, 2,636 Average number of deaths per month for the 12 months. . 3.8 The average number of prisoners per month at Andersonville for the period stated, as reported by Dr. Stevenson, 2 was 12,527. The average number of deaths per month for that period, as given by Superintendent Bryant, was 1,049. The statistics show that at John- son's Island the average deaths per month were 1.5 per cent, and at Andersonville they were 8.3 per cent per month. I do not wish to convey the idea by these comparisons that there was no unusual suffering among rebel prisoners of war, or that the mortality was no greater than might ordinarily have been expected among a like number suddenly thrown into confinement. There was suffering and there were many deplorable deaths. But what I claim and what the records of our prisons 'will show is — that sufficient and nourishing food was supplied ; barracks and shelter from heat and * War of Rebellion, vol. 8, series 2, p. 994. 2 Dr. Stevenson's Book, p. 403. 372 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. cold were provided; bedding and lodging facilities, rough, to be sure,, but yet reasonably comfortable, were furnished; and there was an honest effort to provide and enforce sanitary and police regulations- and to secure some sort of orderly management and discipline in the prisons and prison enclosures. Frequent official inspections were- made by the officers appointed for that purpose and defects in sanita- tion pointed out and remedied. The war department records contain instances of military trials of guards who had recklessly or heedlessly fired upon prisoners. The treatment of the sick was in strong con- trast with that given in Southern prisons, of which we had just cause - for complaint. And the highest proof that there was a vast difference between the treatment given the prisoners generally by the respective governments resides in the undisputed fact that a large proportion of rebel prisoners were ready for service at any moment of their dis- charge, while the prisoners confined in Libby, Belle Island, Florence, Andersonville and other prisons of the South were so reduced in vitality as to be practically hors de combat, and with little promise of beinj* recruited in health for any future service in the army. This fact is indubitably shown by the letter of rebel Commissioner of Ex- change Ould, to General Winder, which elsewhere appears in this . volume, and, that this result was part of the policy being carried out, is an irresistible inference from the evidence herein recorded. There is in truth no logical force in the claim, if it be admitted, that the- rebel prisoners were inadequately fed or cared for. It is not pre- tended that our soldiers were starved in rebel prisons as a retaliatory measure, and such a claim, if made, would necessarily dispute the other • claim made that they were well fed. The treatment of rebel prisoners in the North is wholly irrelevant and can neither palliate nor excuse the treatment of Federal prisoners in the South. The subject has been referred to for no other reason than that there are persons who would find some excuse for the crime of Andersonville if the facts would warrant the belief that similar atrocities in kind and number, could' be laid at the door of the Federal government. But the facts war- rant no such belief. Had conditions existed in Northern prisons such as are shown to have existed at Andersonville and other prisons of the. South, no power could have restrained the public press from exposing - and denouncing the inhumanity of such a policy, and public sentiment . would have made its enforcement impossible. KESUME AND COMMENTS. 373 The superintendent of the cemetery, Mr. Jas. M. Bryant, in a letter "to me of date June 13, 1910, sends the following compilation of deaths for each day of each month. He says : "The enclosed figures are not absolutely correct, but are a very close approximation" : DAILY RECORD OP DEATHS IN ANDERSONVILLE MILITARY PRISON PEN. Day. Febr 1864. Marc a < s cu c >> 3 H3 P bo 3 < a 'Si o -tH O > o a oj. C 3 ■ H "5 5 <= 2 00 *~1 T- d a < 1 1 27 19 IS 49 74 105 81 25 6 10 4 5 1 2 2 21 7 21 45 74 104 49 26 5 6 6 2 3 1 21 27 30 43 74 112 41 28 5 6 7 6 4 1 21 13 31 51 74 96 65 35 7 5 6 6 5 7 27 29 27 42 90 97 46 33 4 5 i 2 '3 6 4 22 12 34 32 103 105 49 35 9 7 s 8 7 6 16 22 25 60 71 64 54 22 6 3 8 2 '2 8 6 15 20 32 22 96 109 50 22 5 6 8 6 1 9 3 23 19 3 5 41 93 77 35 13 5 7 6 1 10 24 31 45 57 85 100 63 12 6 5 11 '2 1 11 "i 9 21 28 38 103 98 105 13 • 7 2 1 12 3 27 17 30 54 81 111 75 11 12 8 3 i2 , . 13 4 15 24 30 34 110 78 60 20 11 5 10 8 . . 14 3 27 26 55 57 113 102 78 13 4 5 5 4 1 15 5 19 29 80 42 120 83 23 22 6 7 o s 16 4 13 28 24 55 108 100 53 21 5 9 7 3 '2 17 4 20 21 56 66 113 106 46 16 3 6 5 4 2 18 6 17 23 31 69 89 127 53 19 5 6 3 6 1 19 9 17 24 49 50 101 92 55 10 5 7 7 3 2 20 11 22 25 43 66 107 98 41 6 4 6 3 4 1 21 . 10 10 21 49 67 86 107 40 9 3 8 3 3 2 22' . 11 15 21 42 63 122 37 51 16 3 6 8 1 2 23 28 27 31 45 36 127 82 51 10 2 7 4 2 24 12 15 29 50 69 102 77 67 12 7 3 1 '3 , , 25 17 19 25 53 63 98 74 22 8 3 3 5 2 26 20 19 27 53 65 103 49 71 13 10 10 '5 27 1 19 15 18 45 71 93 83 40 9 6 13 'i , , 28 18 24 28 45 80 89 75 37 9 2 5 6 1 29 21 16 21 42 85 106 69 27 3 3 4 '3 , . 30 19 13 20 39 69 95 60 40 6 7 6 31 23 45 96 92 27 4 6 •• >• . ' H eq CO CO t- T-* -* t- w OS \a t- c- CO GO 00 t- M 00 CO OS c- cr. OS tc OS -r © w -2 73 cq m C- tH t- crs to U3 *r th T~ T— IH 2™ c o T^ «H c{ C-3 tH ** -"0-J h eo ers Ol c: © ■*f tH CO its © t- H- C] 3 d 00 la 00 CT ©■ as t- CO to CO oq c- CO I-H !*■" N 00 lf> C- u? ■* T-t t- C-l *r to t- 00 OS «o th" CJ ■** t-" o" tH* cm" 03 «* CS cj" ersons in the service to which they may be best adapted, keeping an account ! labor by them performed, of the value of it, and of the expense of their snance. The question of their final disposition will be reserved for future lination. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War. 2 neral Dix, at Baltimore, on August 25, 1861, wrote to General ellan as follows: Headquarters Department op Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Md., August 25, 1861. Sen. G. B. McClellan, ommanding Army of Potomac. eral: Early this morning three negro men came to Fort McHenry repro- of themselves to be runaway slaves from Anne Arundel County. I declined eive them into the fort on the ground that I could neither harbor them as ?es from service nor arrest them for the purpose of restoring them to their r of Rebellion, vol. i, series 2, p. 754. r of Rebellion, vol. i, series 2, p. 754. THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. ters. In a former letter I stated the view I take in regard to my duty in such :s, and having no instructions from the government I acted on it and directed negroes to leave the fort. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, [John A. Dix,] Major-General Commanding. ,1 Colonel Harvey Brown, commanding at Fort Pickens, department Florida, wrote Assistant Adjutant-General Townsend at Washing- on June 22, 1861, as follows: "I shall not send the negroes back, [ will never be voluntarily instrumental in returning a poor wretch ilavery, but will hold them subject to orders." 2 feneral T. W. Sherman wrote the Adjutant-General from Port ral, South Carolina, on December 15, 1861 : eral L. Thomas, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. cr: For the information of the proper authorities and for fear lest the gov- aent may be disappointed in the amount of labor to be gathered here from contrabands, I have the honor to report that from the hordes of negroes left he plantations but about 320 have thus far come in and offered their services, these the quartermaster has but about sixty able-bodied male hands, the rest g decrepit and women and children. Several of the 320 have run off. Every cement has been held out to them to come in and labor for wages and money nbuted among those who have labored. The reasons for this apparent failure far appear to be these: irst. They are naturally slothful and indolent and have always been accustomed ie lash, an aid we do not make use of. ;cond. They appear to be so overjoyed with the change of their condition that r minds are unsettled to any plan. bird. Their present ease and comfort on the plantations as long as their pro- ms will last will induce most of them to remain there until compelled to seek lines for subsistence. (though comparatively few have thus far come in it is therefore probable that me many will, and if they are to be received and taken care of some provision Id be made to cover them. They are «■ prolific race and it will be found that every able-bodied male there will be five to six females, children and decrepit, i really a question for the government to decide what is to be done with the rabands. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, T. W. Shekman, Brigadier-General Commanding, s /ar of Rebellion, vol. i, series 2, p. 766. /ar of Rebellion, vol. 1, series 2, p. 755. /ar of Rebellion, vol. 1, series 2, p. 785. THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 433 e following confidential letter will show with what hesitating ies the negro question was being treated and indicates the embar- lent of the President in dealing with it : dential.] Headquarters of the Army, Washington, July 16, 1861. dier-General McDowell, Commanding, fyc. : The general-in-chief desires me to communicate to you that he has re- from the president of the United States a second note dated to-day on the it of fugitive slaves in which he asks: "Would it not be well to allow s to bring back those which have crossed" the Potomac with our troops? eneral earnestly invites your attention to this subject, knowing that you with If enter fully into his excellency's desire to carry out to the fullest all tutional obligations. Of course it is the general's wish the name of the ent should not at this time he Drought before the public in connection with elicate subject. I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Schuyler Hamilton, Lieutenant-Colonel and Military Secretary.* us we see that an officer in Florida positively refused without *s to return negroes to slavery. And yet we find that about the time such orders were sent to General McDowell with the sanc- of the president. i January 7, 1862, in his instructions to General Burnside, who about to embark with the navy on an expedition along the south- east, General McClellan cautioned him that in making any proc- tion to "say as little as possible about politics or the negro, ily state that the true issue for which we are fighting is the pres- ;ion of the Union and upholding of the laws of the general gov- lent, and stating that all who conduct themselves properly will as is possible be protected in their persons and property." 2 it it soon became apparent that it was practically impossible to the slaves back or prevent their coming, and to drive them out imp and away from protection and support meant starvation in cases and in others their restoration to families whose heads in active rebellion, with arms in their hands, fighting the very ers who were engaged in restoring to them their slaves, cretary of War Cameron, on December 6, 1861, very clearly put dtuation before Congress, as follows: ir of Rebellion, vol. I, series 2, p. 760. ir of Rebellion, vol. 1, series 2, p. 798. THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. ; is already a grave question what shall be done with the slaves abandoned by r owners on the advance of our troops into Southern territory, as at Beaufort rict of South Carolina. The number left within our control at that point is ' considerable and similar cases will occur. What shall be done with them? we afford to send them forward to their masters to be by them armed against ir used in producing supplies to sustain the Rebellion? Their labor may be ul to us. Withheld from the enemy it lessens his military resources and with- ing them has no tendency to induce the horrors of insurrection even in the :1 communities. They constitute a, military resource, and being such, that they tld not be turned over to the enemy, is too plain to discuss. Why deprive him upplies by a blockade and voluntarily give him men to produce them? he disposition to be made of the slaves of rebels after the close of the war safely be left to the wisdom and patriotism of Congress. The representatives he people will unquestionably secure to the loyal slaveholders every right to :h they are entitled under the constitution of the country. Simon Camekon, Secretary of WarA 'he Congress was not indifferent to the exigencies nor unmindful the anomalous position the army was being placed in by being ed upon to return negroes to slavery. A resolution was introduced ;he House of Representatives and adopted on December 23, 1861, . on March 13, 1862, it was enacted into law as an army regulation, s resolution was as follows : zsolved, That the committee on military affairs be instructed to report to this le a bill for the enactment of an additional article of war for the government he army whereby the officers in the military service of the United States shall irohibited from using any portion of the forces under their respective com- ds for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor, and providing the punishment of such officers as may violate said article by dismissal from service. 2 SLAVES MUSTERED IN AS UNITED STATES SOLDIERS. (eneral Hunter had established a hold upon the coast of South olina. He took the bull by the horns, and not only set the negroes vork, but organized them into companies and armed them. This ed for an inquiry from Congress, through Secretary Stanton, to ch General Hunter replied in a characteristic letter. Hunter was ■ained soldier, a stern, fearless, and uncompromising patriot, who farther into the causes and purposes of the Rebellion than many jrs of that day. His letter " is a valuable contribution to the con- /ar of Rebellion, vol. i, series 2, p. 783. /ar of Rebellion, vol. i, series 2, p. 791. far of Rebellion, vol. t, series 2, p. 820. THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 435 lg sentiment of the period on the relations of the slaves to the and is good reading at this time. It is as follows : Headquarters Department of the South, Edwin M. Stanton, Port Royal, S. C, June 23, 1862. ecretary of War, Washington, D. C. : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communication from the int-general of the army, dated June 13, 1862, requesting me to furnish you the information necessary to answer certain resolutions introduced to the : of Representatives June 9, 1862, on motion of the Hon. Mr. Wickliffe, of icky, their substance being to inquire: Whether I had organized or was organizing a regiment of "fugitive slaves" 3 department? Whether any authority had been given me from the war department for such ization; and Whether I had been furnished-by the war department with clothing, uniforms, equipments, etc., for such a force? y having received the letter covering these inquiries at a late hour on Satur- Light I urge forward my answer in time for the steamer sailing to-day Jay), this haste preventing me from entering as minutely as I could wish many points of detail such as the paramount importance of the subject calls But in view of the near termination of the present session of Congress and widespread interest which must have been awakened by Mr. Wickliffe's tions, I prefer sending even this imperfect answer to waiting the period ary for the collection of fuller and more comprehensive data, the first question therefore I reply that no regiment of "fugitive slaves" has jr is being organized in this department. There is, however, a fine regiment •sons whose late masters are "fugitive rebels'' — men who everywhere fly before >pearance of the national flag, leaving their servants behind them to shift as hey can for themselves. So far indeed are the loyal persons composing this ent from seeking to avoid the presence of their late owners that they are ne and all working with remarkable industry to place themselves in a position in full and effective pursuit of their fugacious and traitorous proprietors, the second question I have the honor to answer that the instructions given ig.-Gen. T. W. Sherman by the Hon. Simon Cameron, late secretary of war, urned over to me by succession for my guidance, do distinctly authorize me ploy all loyal persons offering their services in defense of the Union and for ippression of this Rebellion, in any manner I might see fit or that the circum- ;s might call for. There is no restriction as to the character or color of the is to be employed or the nature of the employment — whether civil or military ivhich their services should be used. I conclude therefore that I have been rized to enlist "fugitive slaves" as soldiers, could any be found in this depart- No such characters, however, have yet appeared within view of our most ced pickets — the loyal slaves everywhere remaining on their plantations to ne us, aid us, and supply us with food, labor and information. It is the rs who have in every instance been the "fugitives," running away from loyal and loyal soldiers, and whom we have only partially been able to see — THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. fly their heads over ramparts or rifle in hand dodging behind trees in the erne distance. In the absence of any "fugitive-master law" the deserted slaves Id be wholly without remedy had not the crime of treason given them the it to pursue, capture and bring back those persons of whose protection they 3 been thus suddenly bereft. the third interrogatory it is my painful duty to reply that I have never ived any specific authority for issues of clothing, uniforms, arms, equipments so forth to the troops in question. My general instructions from Mr. Cameron mploy them in any manner I might find necessary, and the military exigencies ;he department and the country being my only but in my judgment sufficient ification. Neither have I any specific authority for supplying these persons 1 shovels, spades and pickaxes when employing them as laborers, nor with ;s and oars when using them as lightermen; but these are not points included lr. Wickliffe's resolution. To me it seemed that liberty to employ men in any icular capacity implied with it liberty also to supply them with the necessary s, and acting upon this faith I have clothed, equipped and armed the only 1 regiment yet raised in South Carolina. must say, in vindication of my own conduct, that had it not been for the y other diversified and imperative claims on my time and attention, a much e satisfactory result might have been hoped for, and that in place of only as at present, at least five or six well-drilled, brave and thoroughly-acclimated ments should by this time have been added to the loyal forces of the Union, he experiment of arming the blacks, so far as I have made it, has been a, com- 3 and even marvelous success. They are sober, docile, attentive and en- iastic, displaying great natural capabilities for acquiring the duties of a ier. They are eager beyond all things to take the field and be led into action, it is the unanimous opinion of the officers who have had charge of them that le peculiarities of this climate and country they will prove invaluable auxiliaries, 7 equal to the similar regiments so long and successfully used by the British orities in the West India Islands. i conclusion I would say it is my hope — there appearing no possibility of other if oreements, owing to the exigencies of the campaign in the Peninsula — to have ,nized by next fall, and to be able to present to the government, from 48,000 to 00 of these hardy and devoted soldiers. rusting that this letter may form part of your answer to Mr. Wickliffe's lutions, have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant, D. Hunter, Major-General, Commanding .i t thus will be seen, by gradual and inevitable progressive steps, isands of negro slaves became free and were so recognized before immortal proclamation of universal freedom. From slavery to lo one can fail to admire the bold frankness of this letter and the obviously practical view le situation taken by General Hunter. It will be recalled that many eminent men in the h advocated arming the slaves in defense of the Rebellion — most remarkable, indeed, as mid have been asking the slaves to fight for the privilege of having their fetters more gly riveted upon them. THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 437 jroud position of a United States soldier, an honored defender le Union, was indeed a remarkable transformation and a most ing departure from the earlier reception given to fugitive slaves, e organization of negro companies and regiments to aid in the irvation of the government which was then protecting them and families in the enjoyment of their liberty, and whose former srs were in the armies of the Rebellion, seeking to destroy that •nment, was justifiable on principles of international law, of self- irvation, and on the part of the slaves was as an acknowledgment reciprocal obligation due for the protection and freedom bestowed them. And when once enlisted as soldiers, they became entitled e same protection from our government, should they become pris- i of war, taken in honorable battle, as any other of our prisoners, td this brings me to one of the causes for the breaking off of the •al exchange of prisoners which had theretofore taken place under artel, e rebel congress passed an act outlawing any white officer who taken prisoner was in command of negro troops and prescribing nalty the fate of a felon. The negro troops themselves were to stored to their masters or put to hard labor. This brutal and irous policy was to some extent enforced. In some instances ) troops and their officers were shown no quarter when captured ivere murdered in cold blood. The Fort Pillow massacre will be Led. The right of exchange was denied them, officers were igno- rasly treated, and the enlisted men were, as at Andersonville, put >rk on fortifications or other defensive work, were treated with severity, — at times punished by whipping, — and at no time and instance given recognition as soldiers. When this policy became n to the Federal authorities a most vigorous protest was sent Lgh the officers of exchange; threats of retaliation were made, pending the settlement of the question upon a basis that would d equal treatment to all United States prisoners of war, general, inges, which had been going on under the cartel, ceased. THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. a very interesting and instructive lecture delivered at Boston rigadier-General Andrew S. Burt, U. S. A., retired, on December ?10 and published in the New York Evening Post December 17, he shows what splendid soldiers the negroes made and how valu- heir services became in the struggle to maintain the Union ; and THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. t now, in time of peace and in garrison duty, they have shown mselves to be model soldiers. There were 187,000 negroes enlisted •ing the Civil "War, many more than most people realize. I quote : hey participated in 213 battles and engagements, and never permitted the on colors to be dishonored by cowardice or treachery. . . . The glorious achieve- ts of the negro soldiers in the war for independence were forgotten in the nd war with Great Britain, and when they drove back General Packenham, kept him out of New Orleans in 1812, it was hailed as a new discovery of the tary capacity of our people. ^hen the Civil War came on, it was not until the second year of that deatb- jple that the negro soldiers were permitted to enlist and then on half -pay; but ire the terrible struggle was concluded they had written a new chapter in •ism and one which will never perish. Their brilliant achievements at Forts jner and Olustee, Fort Hudson and Milliken's Bend, made them welcome into flower of the army — the Army of the Potomac — in the closing months of those dy conflicts in front of Richmond and Petersburg. In the battles of Wilson's irf, Deep Bottom, Chapier's Farm, and Hatcher's Run they won for themselves ortal glory. On May 24, 1864, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, then in the prime of youth- vigor, at the head of 4,000 dismounted Confederate cavalry, attacked Wilson's trf, defended by two negro regiments under Gen. Wild, but the chivalry of the ;h was compelled to retire precipitously before the desperate counter charges he negroes. l government that would withhold its protection from such men . such of its defenders would be unworthy fighting for. It cannot a moment be admitted that our government was wrong in the id it took upon this issue. It would have been a dastardly betrayal ts duty to defenders of the Union to have yielded its position and ceded to the rebel government the right to treat our officers as ns and enslave our soldiers. It is cowardly and atrocious at this to attribute blame to our government for the wanton cruelties to loners at Andersonville, in its stand taken with reference to col- 1 troops and their officers, the justice and humanity of which no not blinded by hatred and prejudice can gainsay, iut this was not the only ground on which our government justified action, though in itself all-sufficient. Exchanges were proceeding lout serious interruption, although, as the rebel commissioner, d, said in March, 1863, they were sending to us miserable wretches receiving some of the best material he ever saw. The facts are t clearly stated in a report made to the secretary of war by Gen- Hitchcock, our commissioner of exchange. His statement of the will be received, with that confidence in its truth and fairness eh his high rank, his known uprightness of character, his devotion THE TBAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. the cause of the Union, and his familiarity with the subject must pire. His report to the secretary of war covers the whole ground, L is a most convincing vindication of the course taken by our gov- ment, and is a complete defense of General Grant's attitude in ling with the subject of exchange, and should be carefully read. 1 SUSPENSION OF THE CARTEL KEASONS THEREFOR. Washington City, D. C, November 22, 1865. r. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. at: I have the honor to submit the following statement as my general report the current year on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war; in doing ;h I find it necessary to revert to some facts of a precedent date in order that subject may be better understood. t an early period of the Eebellion a cartel for the exchange of prisoners was led upon in conformity with the authority of the president, as communicated ieneral Dix by the secretary of war in the following despatch, which contains ts face an important limitation, carefully guarding against any recognition of rebel government, the object having expressly in view the humane purpose of nding relief to prisoners of war : Was Department, Washington City, July 12, 1862. .-Gen. John A. Dix, Port Monroe. he president directs me to say that he authorizes you to negotiate a general ange of prisoners with the enemy. ou will take immediate measures for that purpose, observing proper caution nst any recognition of the rebel government and confining the negotiation to subject of exchange. The cartel between the United States and Great Britain been considered a proper regulation as to the relative exchange value of Dners. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. he agreement, signed by General Dix on the part of the government, and 3ral Hill on the part of the rebels, was duly announced in public orders by lority dated war department, adjutant-general's office, Washington, September 1862, a copy of which is hereunto annexed. ) long as the cartel for exchange of prisoners was respected in the South it faithfully observed by the government, and there is no doubt that its faithful ution would have been continued by the government until the end of the war, ss properly revoked by competent authority, if the rebel authorities had not ; distinctly violated its terms, under circumstances, indeed, of great aggra- m. tie first indication on the part of the rebels of a disposition to disregard the si became public through a message by Jefferson Davis to the rebel congress, hich, after alluding to the proclamation of the president announcing emancipa- , he makes use of the following language: "I shall, unless in your wisdom you i some other course more expedient, deliver to the several state authorities lommissioned officers of the United States that may hereafter be captured by forces in any of the states embraced in the proclamation, that, they may be /ar of Rebellion, vol. 8, series 2, p. 799. THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 441 with in accordance with the laws of those states providing for the punish- of criminals engaged in inciting servile insurrection." i 3 announcement of Mr. Davis was made January 12, 1863, and received the ed approval of the rebel congress, as shown in the following sections of an iproved May 1, 1863, to wit : 2 . 4. That every white person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as who, during the present war, shall command negroes or mulattoes in arms st the Confederate States, or who shall arm, train, organize, or prepare ;s or mulattoes for ( military service against the Confederate States, or who voluntarily aid negroes or mulattoes in any military enterprise, attack, or :t in such service, shall be deemed as inciting servile insurrection, and shall, rtured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the discretion of the . 5. Every person, being a commissioned officer or acting as such in the b of the enemy, who shall during the present war excite, attempt to excite, lse to be excited, a servile insurrection, or who shall incite, or cause to be 1, a slave to rebel, shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise pun- at the discretion of the court. , 7. All negroes and mulattoes who shall be engaged in war or be taken in against the Confederate States, or shall give aid or comfort to the enemies i Confederate States, shall when captured in the Confederate States, be de- 1 to the authorities of the state or states in which they shall be captured, dealt with according to the present or future laws of such state or states. 3 en the message just referred to became known to the president, he saw at ;he necessity of meeting it, and gave instructions to retain such rebel officers ght be captured, in order to be in a position to cheek the rebel government jstrain the execution of its avowed purpose, in violation of the cartel, s proceeding, initiated by the rebel government in violation of the cartel, ited in the cessation of exchanges, which, as the history of the matter shows, le unavoidable, and was entirely due to the rebel government, ncident with the proceedings with regard to the exchange of prisoners of war, ibels inaugurated a system of seizing unoffending citizens of the United i and subjecting them to maltreatment, in various ways, in order to effect a ular object, which became apparent when a demand was made for their e. For this purpose quite a number of citizens of Pennsylvania were carried aptivity by General Lee .when he penetrated into that state in 1863. en a demand was made for the release of this class of prisoners it was met most positive declaration that no citizen prisoner in rebel hands should be ed unless the government would enter into an agreement with the rebel rities not to arrest any one on account of his opinions or on account of his ithy with the rebel cause; and this declaration was repeated again and again : rebel authorities whenever the government demanded the release or exchange d citizen prisoners. will require but the slightest glance at this subject to convince any one of ;ter impossibility of acquiescing in the demand of the rebel authorities as a [uisite to the release of the citizens thus held in bondage. Such an agree- : state laws made such offense a felony with a felon's punishment. tit resolution. See War of Rebellion, vol. 5, series 2, p. 940. ; rebel congress attached the death penalty for the alleged crime of commanding negro in aid of the suppression of the Rebellion. THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. ; on the part of the United States would have been a virtual acknowledgment he independence of the rebel government, and would have foreclosed all pro- ings of the United States against all persons whomsoever, engaged in the e of treason and rebellion. It was absolutely impossible to acquiesce in the md of the South on that point, and this is the reason why this class of pris- s was beyond the reach of the government, except through the power of its es, which finally settled the entire question by putting an end to the entire illion itself. t the commencement of the cessation of exchanges the rebels held a few mers of war over and above the number of rebels held by the government, but capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson threw the balance largely the other ; and, as the prisoners captured by General Grant and General Banks were left ie South on parole, the rebel authorities determined to make use of them, not ■ly in violation of the cartel, but in open contempt of the laws of war. They ordered that body of men to be assembled at a place called Enterprise, in lissippi, on pretense of facilitating measures for their supplies, but in reality the different purpose, as we are now compelled to believe, of throwing them the rebel ranks to meet the anticipated conflict which, it was seen, was near and in East Tennessee, and which accordingly took place at the memorable les of Chiekamauga and Chattanooga; in which battles many of the captured >ners, paroled in the South by Generals Grant and Banks, took part without ng been duly exchanged, although the rebel authorities made an ex parte iration of exchange in their favor without proper authority, which was pro- sd against by the United States. . must be understood that the rebels might at any time have resumed the 3m of exchange agreed upon in the cartel by receding from the assumed right isposing of captured Union officers as required in the act passed by the rebel ;ress, before alluded to, and agreeing to the exchange of colored troops; but would never agree to acknowledge the right of colored troops to treatment to prisoners of war; and as the government of the United States had exercised right of employing colored troops as a part of the force against the rebels, r claim to such protection as the government could give was one which did not it of discussion. 'hen the rebels discovered that the suspension of . exchanges was operating nst them they resorted to the horrible expedient of subjecting the prisoners held to starvation and exposure to the elements, without the protection of •ters or tents, after first robbing them of their money and most of their cloth- and without regard to seasons or their inclemencies, in the hope of forcing government into a system of exchanges which should have the effect not only of ing in their hands all the colored prisoners they had taken, but of throwing their ranks the entire body of prisoners held by the Federal power, then tly in excess over the prisoners held by the rebels. 1 This fact is proved by the arations of the Richmond papers at the time when a few exchanges were made, the rebel agent, Colonel Ould, had not sent over the lines the number of pris- s equivalent to those received, but only a proportionate number, the ratio being indersonville and its horrors justify the view thus taken of the treatment given Union ners. THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 443 lined by Colonel Ould, in view of the number of prisoners held in the South it those held in the North, the claim to hold in reserve the colored prisoners South having never been abandoned. This fact was further established by ficial records of the commissary-general of prisoners, by which it appeared after sending several boatloads of exchanged prisoners each way, the rebels constantly falling in debt. Upon observing this fact, and noticing the ations in Richmond, I called upon the commissary-general of prisoners for a ,r statement of the result, and the statement showed an indebtedness in our of over 500 men, which statement was handed to the secretary of war, who pon directed an order to General Grant to assume the entire control of the r of exchanges, with authority to give such orders as he might think proper 5 subject. General Grant at once reverted to first principles, and directed Colonel Ould or the rebel authorities should be notified that colored troops . be treated as prisoners of war when captured; and, as the rebels were not ? to accede to this requirement, no further exchanges were made, in the receipt at the war department of the first intelligence of the inhuman lent to which our prisoners were subjected at Richmond,* the secretary of vithout a moment's hesitation, gave instructions to our agent of exchange rt Monroe to send forward supplies from the public stores for their relief, irge quantities of provisions and clothing were accordingly sent for dis- ion among the prisoners, and every possible effort was made to afford that f relief, even at the hazard of large portions of the supplies being wasted, lat was worse, misappropriated to the benefit of our enemies, who, it soon red, made use of these supplies for their own advantage, leaving our ers still to suffer. 2 But even this did not destroy the hope of the secretary ome portion of the supplies would, at least, be permitted to reach its des- >n, and the orders to send that relief were left in force until the rebels jives, shamed, perhaps, by the scandalous state of things, then likely to e historical, refused to receive any further supplies through the agents of ivernment. he mean time the sympathies of friends in the North were naturally awakened, irge quantities of supplies of all kinds were sent to Fort Monroe, whence rere forwarded for the relief of the prisoners at Richmond; but the moment >assed beyond the control of our agents they fell into the hands of the most icipled and shameless scoundrels that ever disgraced humanity. It is in that large quantities of supplies furnished by the benevolence of the North ie relief of suffering humanity in Southern prisons were piled up in sight ! objects for whose relief the supplies were sent, but beyond the line of the guards ; and while the prisoners were thus in sight of their own boxes rere not only forbidden to touch them but compelled to witness depredations them by the guards themselves, who feasted upon their contents, leaving ctims of war a prey to that merciless barbarism which will make one of irkest pages in the history of a rebellion which will itself remain an aston- it to all posterity for its almost causeless existence. ly have supposed that it was in the power of the government to afford relief prisoners in the South by a resort to retaliatory treatment of rebel prisoners s was in 1863, and before Andersonville Prison was created. s was true at Andersonville. 444 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. in the North. It is difficult to meet a suggestion of this kind by an appeal to the instincts of civilized humanity, because the mere suggestion supposes the absence of those instincts, and implies a willingness to see the public sentiment degraded into barbarism, which would have put the nation itself on the footing of savages, whose only excuse for their barbarity is their ignorance and their exclusion from the civilized world. The day must come when every true American will be proud of the reflection that the government was strong enough to crush the Rebellion without losing the smallest element of its humanity or its dignity, and stands before the world unimpeached in its true honor and glory. It may be observed that no one imagined, prospectively, the horrors that came to light at Andersonville, the full enormity of which only became known at the close of the military events which ended the war. Had they been known when at their worst the government would have had the choice of but three measures: First, the rebel prisoners might have been sent South, we to receive in return such white prisoners as they might have held, leaving the colored troops to their fate; second, a resort to retaliatory measures; or lastly, for the country to wage war with increased zeal to bring it to a legitimate end. No man can doubt which of these plans the Northern people would have approved if submitted to them, and the government only assumed to represent the people in the question.* It ought to be mentioned here, as a beautiful illustration of the moral sublime, that among the many memorials, some of them very numerously signed, which reached the war department, praying for relief to Federal prisoners suffering in the South, in nearly all of them there was an express protest against a resort to retaliation. And what was the real effect of the barbarity upon the prisoners in the South? Certainly it was most deplorable and shocking upon individuals for the time being; but no one whose moral eyes are open can fail to see that it became in many ways a signal step, under the guidance of Providence, for bring- ing the rebel cause to destruction. It strengthened the feeling in the North in favor of warlike and determined measures against the Rebellion; it sent thousands into the army who took the field resolutely determined to punish the authors of a great crime against humanity. The enemy might almost literally have felt that it is "a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God." An erroneous opinion appears to have been circulated, more or less widely, with regard to the number of colored Federal troops who fell into the hands of the enemy, which makes it important to state that the actual number thus exposed to injurious treatment was very much greater than has been commonly supposed. This will sufficiently appear from the fact that, on the 21st of January, 1865, Lieut. 0. 0. Poppleton, adjutant of the 111th TJ. S. Colored Infantry, addressed a letter, dated at Nashville, Tenn., to Major-General Butler, in the following words, to wit: I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of a Mobile paper (rebel) contain- ing, over the signature of D. H. Maury, Major-General, C. S. Army, the names of 569 soldiers belonging to the One hundred and sixth, One hundred and tenth, and One hundred and eleventh Regiments of U. S. Colored Infantry, who were taken prisoners by a force of the enemy under Maj.-Gen. N. B. Forrest at Athens 1 After having read this scathing indictment of the rebel authorities and this exposure of their perfidious conduct, can the reader view with complacency the attempt to charge upon General Grant the responsibility for the sufferings at Andersonville? THE EXCHANGE OF PKISONEKS. 445 and Sulphur Branch Trestle, Ala., on the 24th and 25th of September, 1864, and placed at work on the defenses of Mobile, Ala., by order of the rebel authorities. Lieut. William T. Lewis, adjutant One hundred and tenth U. S. Colored In- fantry has a paper of later date than this, containing the names of nearly 300 more soldiers of the same command also at work on the defenses of Mobile. This is an official report from the adjutant of the One hundred and eleventh Eegiment Colored Infantry, showing that there were then, in January, 1865, at work on the fortifications about Mobile 569 colored soldiers belonging to three regiments only; and a reference is made to another paper as being at that time in the hands of another officer, an adjutant also of one of those regiments, em- bracing the names of "nearly 300 moTe soldiers of the same command," making in all' over 800 colored soldiers of the United States army at work under rebel officers on the fortifications around Mobile alone. When the government determined to employ colored troops in its armies the principle was recognized that they were entitled to protection; and accordingly it was claimed that the class of troops referred to should receive such treatment from the army as was due to other troops employed in the defense of the govern- ment. The assertion of this principle did not depend upon the number of colored troops who might at any time be in the hands of the enemy. Every consideration of honor and humanity required the assertion of this principle as due to the troops employed in the service of the government; and accordingly, in various communi- cations, when the subject required it, the government agents connected with the duties of exchange of prisoners invariably set forward the principle. But this did not prevent the exchange of prisoners, man for man and officer for officer; the difficulty on this subject was due, first, to the message of Mr. Davis to the rebel congress, already referred to, declaring his purpose to deliver to Southern state authorities such white Union officers as might be captured for trial under state laws unknown alike to the laws of Congress and to the laws of war, as also stated above, in the fact the rebel authorities released from the obliga- tions of their parole a number of rebel prisoners and placed them in their ranks without exchange. During the brief period prior to the capture of Vicksburg the rebels held more prisoners of war than the government; but after the date of that event the ease was reversed, and from that time forward the government made every effort to obtain exchanges — man for man and officer for officer — but without avail, the rebel authorities persistently resisting applications for exchange unless the gov- ernment would release all rebel prisoners, after they had openly violated the cartel themselves, claiming that the government should deliver to them all rebel prisoners, while they on their part declared their purpose of withholding from exchange such colored prisoners as they might have in their possession. It is important to observe here that while this controversy was pending we actually held in prison depots in the North about 70,000 prisoners of war, over and above which we had a just and valid claim for more than 30,000 men who had been captured and paroled in the South, chiefly at Vicksburg and Port Hud- son, and who had never been properly exchanged; making in all at least 100,000 men whom the rebel authorities wished to draw from us in exchange for about 40,000 of the white troops of the United States, the effect of which would have been to throw into the army of General Lee an effective force of about 60,000 or 446 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. 70,000 men, in fine health and able in all respects to be put immediately into the field against General Grant's army, or with which General Lee might have obtained a disposable force of some 50,000 or more men for the purpose of entering the states of the North, and thereby possibly compelling General Grant to raise the siege of Eichmond or expose the Northern states to devastation by the enemy. i It was the desire of the rebel agent of exchange to avoid makiDg special ex- changes, in the hope of drawing from us the whole of the rebel prisoners of war we held in return for inferior numbers held by the enemy. To accomplish that object the rebel commissioner or agent of exchange not only declined to make exchanges on equal terms in any considerable number, but refused to make special exchanges, except under extraordinary influences brought to bear by the friends of interested parties ; and in repeated instances the rebel agent took care to indorse upon special applications the express declaration that he neither made nor coun- tenanced such applications. In consequence of this state of things, and while there was a hope of effecting general exchanges, only a few applications of a special character were forwarded over the lines; but when it became apparent that a general exchange could not be effected I received your instructions to forward all special applications for ex- change, in order, as you explained the purpose at the time, to afford every possible opportunity to extend relief to as many individuals as might hive the good fortune to secure Southern influences for that object; and great numbers of such applica- tions were sent over the lines, most of which, however, were never heard from afterward. Another fact I beg to state in connection with this subject, as a further illus- tration of the efforts of the department to extend relief to Federal officers and soldiers imprisoned South, to wit: The rebel authorities resorted to the system of placing individuals in close confinement, in alleged retaliation for what on our side was but the legitimate operation of the laws of war in the punishment of spies and other offenders against those laws. In the endeavor to afford relief in a particular case of this kind the rebel agent seized the opportunity of pro- posing the mutual release and exchange of all prisoners in close confinement, although at that time we had no rebel prisoners thus confined except by due course of law. This proposition was manifestly unfair, and a recovered letter from the rebel agent has shown that he knew it was so. Nevertheless, the proposition was accepted by your orders, and although it effected the release of some criminals belonging to the rebel army, it carried relief to = number of Federal officers and soldiers in the South, who thus obtained liberation, the concession on your part having had in view the relief it promised, and to some extent effected, in favor of a few of our officers and soldiers. The recovered letter alluded to was dated at City Point, March 17, 1863, and addressed to Brigadier-General Winder, in the following words: Sir: A flag of truce boat has arrived with 350 political prisoners, General Barrow and several other prominent men amongst them. I wish you to send me at 4 o'clock Wednesday morning all the military prisoners (except officers) and all the political prisoners you have. If any of the political prisoners have on hand proof enough to convict them of being spies, or having committed other offenses 1 Does not General Hitchcock make perfectly clear that the course our government pursued was the only one consistent with national honor and the plainest principles of justice? THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 447 which should subject them to punishment, so state opposite their names. Also, state whether you think, under all circumstances, they should be released. The arrangement I have made works largely in our favor. We get rid of a set of miserable wretches and receive some of the best material I ever saw. Tell Cap- tain Turner to put down on the list of political prisoners the names of Edward G. Eggling and Eugenia Hammermister. The president is anxious they should get off. They are here now. This, of course, is between ourselves. If you have any female political prisoner whom you can send off safely to keep her company I would [like] you to send her. Two hundred and odd more political prisoners are on their way. I would be more full in my communication if I had time. Yours truly, Ro. Ould, Agent of Exchange* It should be noticed in this report that when the subject, of exchange became embarrassing, because of the unwillingness of the enemy to exchange man for man, he demanding all of the rebel prisoners we held in exchange for the white prisoners held by him, Major-General Halleck, by the direction of the secretary of war, made an effort to obtain exchanges on equal terms. For this purpose he sent a flag of truce to General Lee, then in force on the Rapidan, and proposed that species of exchange; but General Lee declined to act upon the proposition, and answered, evidently in accordance with instructions from Richmond, that the subject of exchange was in the hands of a commissioner and he preferred to have nothing to do with it. As a further effort to obtain this class of exchanges the secretary authorized various commanders, distant from Washington, to open communications with the enemy, and to effect exchanges whenever they could be made on equal terms. In the midst of these difficulties I was painfully impressed with the impossibility of effecting exchanges on equal terms with Judge Ould; and having understood that General Butler was of the opinion that, if empowered to do so, he could make exchanges, I addressed a note to the secretary of war and proposed to withdraw from the position of commissioner of exchange in favor of any officer who could accomplish so desirable a result; upon which, however, the secretary did not see fit to make an order. A few days after this I was sent for from the war office, where I found the secretary in conversation with General Halleck on the subject of exchanges. The secretary then informed me that General Butler had expressed the opinion above stated, and that several members of Congress had expressed a similar opinion with regard to General Butler's ability to effect exchanges, if empowered to do so. I at once said to the secretary, "If General Butler is of opinion that he can make exchanges, I think, sir, you had better let him try." He then said that it was his wish that I should go to Fort Monroe and confer upon General Butler the requisite power by his authority, and he thereupon wrote, in the presence of General Halleck and myself, the following order : Wak Department, Washington, December 16, 1863. Major-General Hitchcock, Commissioner of Exchange of Prisoners. General: You will proceed immediately to Fort Monroe and take any meas- ures that may be practicable for the release, exchange, or relief of IT. S. officers and soldiers held as prisoners by the rebels. You are authorized and directed to confer with Major-General Butler on the subject, and may authorize him, as special agent, commissioner, or otherwise, to 1 This is the letter I discovered and introduced at the trial. — N. P. C. 448 THE TKAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVILLE. procure their release or exchange upon any just terms not conflicting with prin- ciples on which the department has heretofore acted in reference to the exchange of colored troops and their officers, and not surrendering to the rebels any prisoners without just equivalents. You may, if you deem it proper, relieve General Meredith and direct him to report to the Adjutant-General for orders. Yours truly, Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. Within half an hour after the writing of the above order I was on my way to Port Monroe, and on the morning of the 17th of December I reported to General Butler. After stating the limitations under which he would be authorized to make exchanges I requested him to prepare instructions for himself, giving him the authority he desired, in accordance with the orders of the secretary, stating that when ready I would sign them in the name of or with the authority of the secre- tary. In two or three hours thereafter I called again upon General Butler and made the instructions he had prepared official. They contained the following para- graphs : You are hereby instructed not to make any exchange which shall not return to you man for man, officer for officer, of equal rank with those paroled and sent forward by yourself, regarding, of course, for motives of humanity in the earlier exchanges, those officers and men on either side who have been longest confined. Colored troops and their officers will be put upon an equality in making ex- changes, as of right, with other troops. You are permitted, in conducting the exchange, to waive for the present the consideration of the questions of parole and excess now pending between the Confederate beligerent authorities and this government, leaving them untouched as they stand until further interchange of views between those authorities and yourself. The above instructions to General Butler will show precisely the animus of the secretary of war on the subject of exchanges. He was perfectly willing and anxious to make exchanges, man for man, officer for officer, and gave, as must be seen, the fullest power to General Butler to effect those exchanges. General Butler in his conversation with me expressed no desire to have any other instruc- tions or powers committed to him, and appeared to be very confident of his ability to accomplish the desired result, giving me in detail many reasons for that con- fidence. I returned to the city of Washington, and within a few days the public prints announced General Butler's first attempt to make exchanges and the result. General Butler sent a boatload of prisoners under a flag of truce to City Point, where they were offered for a like number of Federal troops. It appears that when this was reported to the rebel government violent indignation was expressed by the rebel authorities on the alleged ground that General Butler was an outlaw by the proclamation of Mr. Davis, and that it was an insult to employ him to accomplish any result requiring any sort of intercourse between him and the rebel authorities; but it was concluded fhat, inasmuch as a certain number of their troops were actually within their lines as returned prisoners of war, they should be received, and a like number of Federal prisoners should be exchanged for them; but notice was given to our agent that no more prisoners would be received in that manner, and it was reported at the time that General Butler was informed that a flag of truce even should not protect him within the rebel lines. When this was reported in Washington the president himself, in the presence of the secretary of war, declined to give any order on the, subject, unwilling to THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 449 concede to the rebels the right to dictate what agents this government should employ in its public business; but it was plain to be seen that the real object of the rebel authorities was to avoid making equal exchanges of man for man and officer for officer, their purpose being to deliver to us, as before stated, only a proportionate number of prisoners held by them as against those held by us; and because General Butler's instructions required the exchange of man for man, made the employment of General Butler in, the business of exchange the pretext for refusing those equal exchanges. This was evident, because, in point of fact, General Butler did not personally appear in the business — that is, he did not accompany the flag of truce — and if there had been any disposition on the part of the rebels to make equal exchanges they knew those exchanges would be made through the agency of another officer and not personally by General Butler; and thus the real purpose of the rebels becomes manifest, their object being to draw from us all of their own troops in our hands, giving us in exchange only such white troops of the Federal forces as they might hold. After this experiment by General Butler matters remained in suspense for some time, no exchanges being made. At length two Federal officers who had escaped from rebel prisons gave me their opinion, in this city, that if we would send to City Point for exchange a body of 300, 400, or 500 rebel officers, demanding a like number in return, the feeling in the South, they believed, would be such that the rebel authorities would not dare to refuse the exchange; and if that succeeded, they would not dare thereafter to refuse to exchange private soldiers. I thought very well of this suggestion and addressed a note to the secretary of war, communicating it and recommending its trial. The secretary at once accepted the suggestion and directed General Canby, then on duty in the war office, to require General Butler to make that trial. But General Butler thought proper to send a mixed boatload of officers and men. Here, then, was another effort to make exchanges on equal terms. The enemy accepted the prisoners sent over the lines but did not return a like number. This fact was publicly stated by the newspapers at Richmond and was confirmed by official reports received at the office of General Hoffman, the commissary-general of prisoners, after several boatloads had passed. When the purpose of the rebel commissioner became apparent, not to make exchanges man for man but only in proportionate numbers, the fact, with the evidence for it, was submitted to the secretary of war, and then it was, as stated above, that General Grant was in- . structed to take the subject under his own supervision, with the result already alluded to. After General Butler took charge of the duties in connection with the exchange of prisoners I was not officially advised of his proceedings, because he, being of senior rank to myself, made no reports to me; but in August, 1864, there was published in the journals of the day a letter, over the signature of General Butler, of the highest importance in connection with this subject. No official copy was furnished to me and I have never seen the letter of Judge Ould to which it refers, the authenticity of which, however, is sufficiently vouched in the letter of General Butler, which commences, addressed to Judge Ould, in these words: Sir: Your note to Major Mulford, assistant agent of exchange, under date of the 10th of August, has been referred to me. You therein state that Major Mul- ford has several times proposed to exchange prisoners respectively held by the 450 THE TKAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. two belligerents, officer for officer and man for man; and that the offer has also been made by other officials having charge of matters connected with the exchange of prisoners, and that this proposal has been heretofore declined by the Confederate authorities. That you now consent to the above proposition and agree to deliver to you (Major Mulford) the prisoners held in captivity by the Confederate au- thorities, provided you agree to deliver an equal number of officers and men. This letter, cited by General Butler, from Colonel Ould shows conclusively by whom the proposition for an equal exchange was originally made. It shows also that it had been repeatedly made by the government and had been as repeatedly refused by the rebel authorities. The matter had been placed in General Butler's hands, and he answered Judge Ould's letter, asking some preliminary explanations, which I believe were never made, and the opportunity of a final action upon Judge Ould's letter was thus cut off by himself. The reasons that induced General Butler's action may no doubt be seen, in part at least, in the letter he addressed to Judge Ould, which was published in the journals of the day. I have never heard that the matter was referred to the secretary of war, and have never understood that he gave any order in the premises. We learn from General Butler's letter that Judge Ould did not reach his con- clusion in reference to Major Mulford's proposition until a period of eight months had elapsed. It is impossible to approach the subject of this report without being solemnly impressed by a sense of the horrors inflicted upon the prisoners of war in the South; but in making the report I have felt imperatively called upon to confine myself to facts connected immediately with the subject of exchanges, leaving inferences to be drawn by others. I attach hereto such official letters and tele- graphic despatches as have either originated in my office or have reached me as may throw light upon the subject of this report. 1 have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, E. A. Hitchcock, Maj. Gen. of Vols. Commissioner 'for Exchange of Prisoners. On October 20, 1863, General Halleck at Washington wrote General Grant, then at Louisville, Kentucky, after General Rosecran's defeat at Chicamauga: 1 It is now ascertained that the greater part of the prisoners paroled by you at Vieksburg (July 4th), and General Banks at Port Hudson, were illegally and improperly declared exchanged, and forced into the ranks to swell the rebel num- bers at Chickamauga. This outrageous act, in violation of the laws of war, of the cartel entered into by the rebel authorities, and all sense of honor, gives us a lesson in regard to the character of the enemy with whom we are contending. He neither regards the rules of civilized warfare, nor even his most solemn engagements. You may, therefore, expect to meet in arms thousands of unex- changed prisoners released by you and others on parole, not to serve again until duly exchanged. 1 General Sherman's Memoirs. THE EXCHANGE OF PEISONEKS. 451 The inscription on the Wirz monument, giving a quotation from General Grant's letter of August 18, 1864, was placed there for the obvious purpose of fixing upon him the responsibility for the suffer- ings of our soldiers. It is due to the truth of history and to General Grant's memory that the correspondence, of which his letter forms a part, should be read. It will thus appear that General Grant was consistently adhering to a policy which would not only have been base treachery to the negro troops to abandon, but, as he points out, inhumanity to our soldiers in the field. The correspondence is as follows : City Point, Va., August 18, 1864. Majok-General Butler, Commanding, etc. I am opposed to exchanges being made until the whole matter is put on a footing giving equal advantages to us with those given to the enemy. In the mean time I direct that no flags of truce be sent to the enemy nor any arrangements or agreements entered into with him without my first being fully advised of what is being done and yielding my consent to it. The steamer New York will not be permitted to proceed to Aiken's landing until I receive a report of the full object of the mission and the load she now has on board. XL S. Grant, Lieutenant-Generail.i Butler's Headquarters, August 18, 1864, 7 p. m. Lieutenant-General Grant ; Telegram received. No exchange has been made or will be made which will give the enemy any advantage. To show that my views and the lieutenant-general's are in exact accordance, I will send letter written to General Hitchcock to-day upon this subject with the indorsements referred to. I have exchanged nobody but wounded men since the first of May, except surgeons, non-combatants, and a few cases of special exchange. A full report will be made to the lieutenant-general of all that was intended to be done in the matter. Benj. F. Butler, Majar-General, Commissioner of Exchange. [Enclosure.] ■ Hdqrs. Dept. or Virginia and North Carolina, 2 In the Field, Va., August 18, 1864. Major-General Hitchcock, Commissioner of Prisoners, Washington, D. C. General: I have one or two indorsements from you which say in substance that "it is desirable to have all our prisoners exchanged." I agree [to] that if all means all. But does the government intend to abandon the colored troops? That is 1 War of Rebellion, vol. 7, series 2, p. 606. General Hitchcock's report shows very clearly why it would have been inhumanity to our soldiers in the field to have yielded to the rebel demands. 2 War of Rebellion, vol. 7, series 2, p. 606. 452 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. the only question now pending. All others can be settled. From my conversation with the lieutenant-general he does not deem it desirable to move from the position taken on that question. I will again call the subject to the attention of Mr. Ould and obtain an interview with him if possible. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Benj. F. Butler, Major-General and Commissioner of Exchange. City Point, Va., August 18, 1864. Major-General Butler, Commanding, etc. I am satisfied that the object of your interview had the proper sanction and therefore meets with my entire approval. I have seen from Southern papers that a system of retaliation is going on in the South which they keep from us and which we should stop in some way. On the subject of exchange, however, I differ from General Hitchcock. It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, out it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man we hold, when released on parole or otherwise, becomes an active soldier against us at once either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those caught they amount to no more than dead men. At this particular time to release all rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here. TJ. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 1 - When General Hood moved up the Chattanooga Valley upon Resaca, which was held by a small force under Colonel Clark R. Weaver, he sent a demand for surrender October 12, 1864, in which he stated that if the commander yielded without resistance "all white officers and soldiers will be paroled in a few days. If the place is car- ried by assault, no prisoners will be taken." In the face of the "no quarter" threat of General Hood, Colonel Weaver replied, much as General Corse had done shortly before at Altoona: "In my opinion I can hold this post. If you want it come and take it." This incident is referred to as illustrating that the policy not to treat negro troops or their officers as prisoners of war was then in force. Headquarters Armies of the United States, October 2, 1864.2 General E. E. Lee, Commanding Army of Northern Virginia. General: Your letter of yesterday proposing to exchange prisoners of war belonging to the armies operating in Virginia is received. I could not of a right accept your proposition further than to exchange those prisoners captured within 1 War of Rebellion, vol. 7, series 2, pp. 606, 607. Note. — The inscription on the Wirz monument is that portion of General Grant's letter marked in italics. 2 War of Rebellion, vol. 7, series 2, p. 909. THE EXCHANGE OF PEISONEES. 453 the last three days and who have not yet been delivered to the commissary-general of prisoners. Among those lost by the armies operating against Eichmond were a number of colored troops. Before further negotiations are had upon the subject I would ask if you propose delivering these men the same as white soldiers? Very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. General Lee declined to decide the question, and the Richmond authorities adhered to their refusal to treat captured negro soldiers as prisoners of war. Looking back upon this painful controversy, the surviving veterans of the Union army, as well as all fair-minded persons must feel that our government took the only course open to it consistent with national honor and national safety. Colonel John McElroy, of "Washington City, editor and proprietor of the National Tribune, an able and prolific writer of Civil War sub- jects, was a prisoner at Andersonville. In my quest for information upon certain points, I sought an interview with him. I do not offer his opinions and statements of fact as evidence, but coming from one so well informed, and himself an eye-witness of many things to which his attention was invited, I do not hesitate to commend them to the careful consideration of the reader. Those who know Colonel Mc- Elroy will accept his statements as importing verity. Chipman. — Did you ever hear of a report made by the Confederate Congress upon the treatment of prisoners — a public document printed by the Confederate government? Mr. Brooks, past department commander, told me last night that he had seen such a report and had once had it, but I had never heard of it. McElroy. — The only things that I know were the report made by the inspector- general, C. S. A., and the proceedings of the grand jury of Sumter County, Georgia. C. — Where are the proceedings of that grand jury to be found? McE. — I do not know where to find them, but I think I made reference to it in my book on Andersonville and must have had it in an authoritative form at that time. C. — You were about to tell me some important facts that I should not overlook. Will you state them? McE. — The main element in the whole consideration of the prison question is the fact that the exchange definitely stopped July 4, 1863. Prior to that time there had been a cartel in operation by which prisoners were to be paroled and reported to their respective sides. This cartel was abused in ways that any one can see it would be, and finally modified to an agreement that all captures should be reduced to possession and delivered to the respective authorities at City Point or Vicksburg. After the capture of Vicksburg ard Port Hudson, General Pemberton applied to 454 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. General Grant for a guard to take the prisoners outside his lines and deliver them to the Confederate authorities. General Grant refused this from reasons of good policy, the strongest being his belief that as a large portion of Pemberton's forces had been drawn from the country which was now in our possession, if these men were turned loose they would go back home and take no further part in the war. In fact, General Grant furnished transportation to all those who wished to go baek to their homes. C. — Well, then, what Pemberton was seeking to bring about was to have his soldiers return to the army and not return to their homes? McE. — Yes. We all know that where the rebel armies advanced they con- scripted every able-bodied man and put him into the ranks. This was the recognized policy of the Southern Confederacy and the real reason of many of their forward movements. Naturally, these men, if they could escape and go back home, living under the protection of the Union army would remain out of the Confederacy. At the battle of Gettysburg Lee captured a great mass of Union prisoners and made a proposition to Meade to exchange them, but Meade pointed out this clause in the cartel compelling the reduction to possession, and then properly refused to receive them, they not having been reduced to possession since Lee was at least one hundred miles from his own lines. A great many of the prisoners — in fact the great body of them — understood this clearly and refused to accept the paroles which were offered them. There is a statement that General Couch, then commanding the district of the Susquehanna, not understand- ing the situation, did accept the paroles of a number of the Pennsylvania militia. There had come in at the same time the question of the colored troops to com- plicate the situation. Immediately upon the formal announcement of the policy of the government to accept negro troops the so-called Confederate government had responded with a law that the enlisted men among the colored troops who were captured should be returned to their lawful owners, and if these could not be found they should be sold at auction, while their white officers should be turned over to their several states to be dealt with according to the laws punishing those who incite servile insurrection. In one notable instance, that of Milliken's Bend, a number of captured officers were formally hanged, in terrorem, in front of General Dick Taylor's army at Richmond, Louisiana, which paraded to witness the execution. These officers were in command of colored troops. You will find in the war records that General Grant addressed a, note to General Dick Taylor asking if this were true. Taylor denied it, in spite of the fact that it had been witnessed by the entire division and the deaths of the officers who were so executed. This may be found in the Rebellion records under proper index. You will find in the "Volunteer Army Register" for 1865 (part 8, p. 152), published from the adjutant-general's office, the following note in the casualties of the 5th U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery: "Capt. Corydon Heath, taken prisoner June 7, 1863, and murdered by the enemy at or near Monroe, La., June — , 1863." Possibly Captain Wm. A. Skillen, Sidney, Ohio, if alive, can furnish some facts relative to this. C. — Did that policy with regard to exchange continue as it stood at that period? 456 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. McE., — Our government insisted that all the men who wore its uniform and bore its commissions should be treated alike as prisoners of war, and consequently those who had been taken in the operations subsequent to July 1, 1863, were held in possession in abeyance to this discussion. The year 1863 ended with the Con- federates having about 15,000 Union prisoners in their possession, and this gov- ernment having about 25,000 Confederates in its prisons. A still further com- plication arose on account of an order by Robert Ould, the Confederate commis- sioner of exchange, declaring all those prisoners captured at Vicksburg and Port Hudson to be duly exchanged. The Confederate secretary of war then ordered them into the field, and it is estimated that 10,000 of them fought us at Chieka- mauga when Jefferson Davis made the crowning effort to crush Roseerans. C. — Had Ould any authority for making this declaration? McE. — The only basis that I can remember for this action was the alleged acceptance of paroles of Pennsylvania militia by General Couch. I should have said that in the cartel as modified there was a provision for exchange of man for man and the parole of the surplus. This question of surplus immediately began to be of interest from the preponderance of prisoners in our hands and with Davis and Ould, insisting that they would not exchange man for man unless the surplus in our hands was paroled. My remembrance is that on February 11, 1864, General B. F. Butler, who had been appointed to the command of the department of Virginia and North Carolina, and became ex-ofScio commissioner of exchange, owing to City Point being in his department, wrote a letter in which he said: "For the sake of humanity let us return these men to their homes. Leaving the questions in dispute in abeyance, I will send up to-day 500 prisoners for which you can return a like number, and this can continue until all these men are returned to their homes." My remembrance is that perhaps two or three squads of 500 each were so exchanged, when Davis interposed with this demand that the surplus be paroled. As the operations which began on both fronts May 4, 1864, advanced, the disparity in the number of prisoners reduced to possession on both sides increased daily in favor of the government. According to the letter sent to the House of Representatives by Secretary Stanton, enclosing one from Major- General Hitchcock, then commissioner of exchange, we had by that time accumu- lated 220,000 rebels in our prisons, while they had 127,000 of us. This must have been in February or March of 1865. This disparity bears upon the question of paroling the surplus. This great disparity in our favor made Grant, who I am convinced stood firmly all the time for an exchange of man for man, determined against the paroling of the surplus, which would put at least 100,000 fresh, well- fed, well-rested troops in front of his army or that of Sherman, and he very properly said that hard as the lot of us prisoners was it was much better that we should suffer than to have such a prolongation of the war as would result. This, then, will explain the letter which Grant wrote in August, 1864, part of which is inscribed on the monument to Wirz. C. — What was the relative condition of the prisoners, federal and rebel, as to numbers in the beginning of 1864? McE. — My remembrance from statements which I saw in the public press is that the year 1863 ended with the Confederates having 15,000 Union soldiers in prison, while the government had 25,000 Confederate soldiers. According to the report THE EXCHANGE OP PRISONERS. 457 of General Hitchcock, the year 1864 ended with the government having 220,000 Confederate prisoners, while the Confederates had 127,000 Union soldiers in prison. C. — Andersonville was established February 24, 1864. I wish you would give me generally a statement as to the different places where our prisoners were at that time imprisoned, and approximately the number at the different prisons when Andersonville beeame an establishment. McE. — When it was seen that there was to be a prolonged discussion over the question of exchange, it was decided to be too dangerous to have such a body of prisoners in Richmond, and besides there was a difficulty in supplying them, as the resources of the Confederacy were taxed to supply Lee's army. There were also small bodies of prisoners at Danville, Virginia, and Cahaba, Alabama, east of the Mississippi. The prisoners west of the Mississippi were collected in a prison called Camp Ford, at Tyler, Texas. Therefore it was decided to build a general prison remote from our armies, and Andersonville, Georgia, 120 miles south of Atlanta, and in the midst of the unsettled piny regions, was selected as a general prison in which all of the prisoners east of the Mississippi could be gathered. This prison was opened when not yet finished, February 24, 1864, I being in the first squad of about 800 which marched in from Richmond. C— At that time how many prisoners were in Richmond? McE. — There must have been about 10,000. When we entered the prison we found that it consisted of a heavy stockade 1,100 feet north and south and 700 feet east and west, extending on both sides of a small creek which ran through a swamp in the center. We were turned in there without shelter or cooking utensils. Seeing that we had to stay there, we immediately began erecting shelters. Every- thing inside of the prison had been cut off except two pine trees in the southwest corner. We took poles from the rank growth in the swamp and bending them over like a wagon-cover fastened them together with grapevines and briars and then thatched them with the long-leaf -pine leaves, which we took from the trees which had been cut down. This was an exhibition of ingenuity which much astonished the Confederates. The records show that March, 1864, ended with 4,603 prisoners inside this stockade. This may be found in the American Cyclopaedia (vol. 1, p. 474). We got along tolerably well, though this ground was not larger than what is usually taken for the camp of a full regiment of infantry, of 1,000 men. The end of April saw this number increased to 9,577. The operations oh both fronts began May 4, 1864, and by the end of the month there had been gathered into the prison 18,454. C. — You mean the operations in the Wilderness? McE. — I mean the operations in the Wilderness and the advance on Atlanta. The end of June saw 26,867 there. There was then not room enough to lie down, and the Confederate authorities increased the prison by a stockade enclosing about seven acres more on the north side of the creek. The original area had been estimated at thirteen acres, and it was now increased to twenty-odd acres. This was reduced, however, by a dead-line twenty feet from the stockade running around the whole interior of the stockade. By the end of July there were 31,678 in the prison, and at the end of August there were 31,693. I think the recerd for August is too low. We were divided into squads of ninety, three squads to a detachment, which were numbered consecutively. These detachments were kept 458 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. full. One day, through curiosity, I counted 137 sergeants coming up to draw rations for their detachments. This would show 36,990. Atlanta fell September 1st, and brought our armies into such close proximity that it was necessary to remove the prisoners. There had been some efforts made by the cavalry of Sher- man's army to reach and release us before Atlanta fell. The dispersion of the prisoners began September 7th, I going out with the first squad to Savannah. It is my impression that probably 8,000 or 10,000^were sent to Savannah in Septem- ber. Everybody who was able to walk was taken out of the prison before the middle of the month, and September ended with only 8,218 in the prison. Those not taken to Savannah were sent to Florence, South Carolina. In October those of us at Savannah were sent to a new stockade built near Millen, at the junction of the railroad from Augusta to Savannah with that running to Maeon, where we remained until some time in November, when Sherman having begun his march the prison at Millen was broken up. We were taken back to Savannah, and some 5,000 of us sent down the coast to a place called Blackshear. There 1,000 of us were taken out and paroled and sent back to Savannah, where it was represented to us we should meet our ships and be exchanged. A partial exchange had been declared of 10,000 sick. As Sherman had passed on, leaving Andersonville behind him, the three or four thousand at Blackshear were taken across the country back to Andersonville and remained there until the close of the war. The squad in which I was was taken to Charleston and thence to Florence, where we found 8,000 or 10,000 of our former companions in Andersonville. In the mean time the prisoners who were being taken from the armies in Virginia were collected at Salisbury. Salisbury had been maintained as a prison from the beginning of the war, but no considerable number confined there until late in 1864. Those of us in Florence remained there until toward the close of the war. As Sherman ad- vanced a, large portion of them were taken out of Florence and sent up into North Carolina, but there was no safe place for them up there, and all were finally delivered to our authorities at Wilmington, North Carolina, after the capture of that place. The few thousand who went back to Andersonville had their number augmented somewhat by the prisoners captured by Hood, and were kept there until the 17th of April, 1865, when the last of them were sent to Florida and reached our lines in front of Jacksonville. C. — On several of the monuments erected in the cemetery is inscribed the state- ment "Death before dishonor," apparently the sentiment which arose in the prison times. I wish you would explain that. McE. — All the time that we were in prison there were Confederate emissaries among us trying to incite discontent with our government and encouraging the sending of delegations to Washington demanding our exchange. The bulk of the prisoners understood the situation very clearly and refused to join in these demon- strations and clubbed severely men who were promoting them. C. — There is to be found in the Rebellion records a paper signed by a large number of sergeants of squads petitioning the government and setting forth the confiition there to some extent, which was carried to Washington I believe by permission of the rebel authorities. What is your recollection about that? Did it represent anything like the universal sentiment? THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 459 McE. — It never was allowed to be generally known. As an illustration of that, while we were in prison at Savannah, the rebels came into the stockade and had a stand erected for speaking. When the stand was completed a shyster from New York, a very despicable fellow, named Pete Myers, got up on the stand and began a harangue to the effect that our government had abandoned us, had de- nounced us as "coffee-boilers" and "blackberry-pickers,' 7 and he proposed that we pass a resolution to the effect that if we were not exchanged within thirty days that we would join the Confederate army. That was at Savannah, after we had left Andersonville, and immediately the whole camp was thrown into a fever of excitement, and had it not been for the Confederates guarding Myers and helping him at once out of the prison he would have been beaten to death. At Millen, where' I was a sergeant of a squad, an order came in for us to make out a list of all the men whose terms of service had expired and who had been born abroad. Thinking that it might help us to exchange I made out my list, making every man foreign born. The next thing was an order for all those whose names appeared on the list to fall in. We were marched outside the prison, surrounded by a strong guard, when a man on a stump told us the old story of our government having abandoned us; that we had done our duty faithfully to it; that it was apparent to all of us that the Confederacy was about to succeed ; and that if we would join its ranks we would receive the same treatment in bounty lands and other considerations that their soldiers were to get. Before he had finished his speech a sergeant named Tom Lynn sprang out in front of his detachment and ordered it to about face, and we all marched back into the prison. I remember the incident particularly, as the rebels were determined to punish us for it. We had with incomprehensible labor split off slabs and made shelters for ourselves. The guards followed us directly into the prison, drove us up into a corner, and began to destroy these shelters which we had erected. The feeling was very bitter, but the comrades stood firm. C. — What was the physical condition of the prisoners when they left Richmond? McE. — It was tolerably fair. Those who went from Belle Isle had been much reduced by the scanty fare and the inclement weather there, to which they had been exposed without shelter. Those of us who had been in the buildings in Richmond were in better condition. C. — It is stated in excuse for the mortality at Andersonville, that the prisoners when brought there were on the verge of death, and that the mortality did not result from their treatment at Andersonville. McE. — In reply to that I will say that of the 45,000 men who so much as set foot in Andersonville, in round numbers 14,000 died. The bulk of these men were active, fit-for-duty soldiers who had been taken either in battle or on picket or in some other active service. The worst part of Andersonville lasted only about four months. That is from the time of the great crowd coming in in the middle of May until the middle of September. During that time, one out of four of these strong, healthy, present-for-duty men died, without taking into account those who were broken down there and died while being removed to other prisons or in those prisons. My remembrance is that we would be put on the cars and ride for a day or night and when we got off every car would have men who had died. We would camp in the woods or some place and move on leaving dead men lying all around. 460 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVILLE. Those men have not been counted in the record of the mortality of Andersonville. I notice in the record in the American Cyclopaedia that 149 died of gunshot wounds. This seems to me a great understatement. The orders were very stringent about approaching or touching the dead-line. The only water that came into the prison was from the creek which previously passed through the camps of the five or six thousand rebel guards, and further became polluted by passage through the swamp lying in the center of the prison. It seems to me that every day, and some- times twice during the day, the guards would kill a man who was reaching up under the dead-line to get water less foul than that below. C. — Colonel Chandler in his report concerning the prison management says that he heard no complaint as to the want of good drinking-water — that he inquired particularly of the soldiers if they had plenty, and so far as he could learn there was no complaint. McE. — Those of us of the older prisoners immediately began digging wells, and some of these were dug down as deep as thirty feet in the clay, and we used water from these wells. The newer prisoners of course did not have these and had to drink water from the creek. C. — Can you explain Providence spring? McE.. — I do not know anything about Providence spring of my own knowledge. It appeared in August. In the early part of that month I had made an effort to escape, and being barefoot at that time and running through the briars in the swamps, had hurt my feet so that I was unable to get around as I had formerly done, and I remained so lame that on September 7th, when we went out of the prison, I was still hobbling along with a stick. The spring broke out while I was in that condition, so I never saw it. C. — Some criticism is made of the findings of the court as to the individual murders committed by Wirz, on the ground that names of parties and definite statements as to dates could not be given, and it is urged that convictions under such circumstances are wholly without foundation. What explanation can you give of the conditions existing there that would make it probable that men might be killed and witnesses who saw it not know personally the person who was killed? McE. — You must remember that here were 30,000 or more men gathered from all the armies of the United States, coming in sometimes singly, sometimes in squads, and we did not know each other usually, more than the number of our regiments. For example, they all knew me as "Little Illinoy," as I belonged to an Illinois regiment. We were all in there in absolute barbarism. All that we wanted was to live until we could escape. There was no thought of records, organ- ization, or anything, and we were all looking forward to the next day when we might either escape or be exchanged. I was engaged in digging tunnels and plan- ning escape and getting what rations I could, and such things as that. The first man that I knew to be killed there was a poor half-witted German who we called "Sigel." This, it seems to me, was only a few weeks after we got into prison. Somebody had got hold of some biscuit that were moldy and had thrown them under the dead-line. Sigel came along and reached under the dead-line for them and was killed. I remember they came to me and said, "Let's go up there and look up that fellow that killed him. We may meet him later." THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 461 —Give your explanation of the condition of things that led up to the trial execution of some of our own soldiers by their comrades. :E. — While we were in Richmond there were a number of acknowledged es, criminals, and bounty-jumpers who had deserted to the rebel army. The s did not want them, but were holding them there. After we had been in ;rsonville a few days they brought these men down and put them over on the 1 side of the creek to themselves, and they immediately began preying on us. e noted thieves stayed in a little bunch by themselves, and we older prisoners ' them. We had several fights with them, and confined ourselves after that to lg care of ourselves. We called these scoundrels "Raiders." I was in com- :1 of fifty men formed for our own protection in the southwest corner of the ;ade. Great numbers of prisoners would come in, and a great many from the y of the Potomac would bring in blankets, watches, and money, and these 'es would watch for them and rob them. I have known them to kill as many iree of our men in one of these fights. The great mass of the prisoners could be made to understand that it was only a small body that was doing this ing, and they thought that we were all thieves. Finally a man who was nissary-sergeant of Company M of my regiment, decided to put them down, got Wirz's permission. At this time, when we were digging tunnels and mak- other efforts to escape, Wirz had put up a row of poles around the inside of stockade and issued orders that any assembly of more than 100 men passing ; poles would be the signal for the artillery opening upon them without ling. Sergeant Key got him to allow us to make a fight against these men, assembled us to the number of about 500. The "Raiders" had a big tent h they had made of blankets taken from the other prisoners, and on the ad of July we armed ourselves with clubs and went up and attacked them, ■e were about 400 or 500 of them, and we arrested about 125. Wirz agreed to charge of these. Then Wirz said that he would not take care of so many, we turned back all but a few. We found in the meanwhile that the camp understood what we were doing and were with us, and when these men that turned back came in they had to run the gauntlet, and several were killed, member one man particularly who was a well-known criminal. The fighting the day was over, and I had gone up to my quarters at the end of the street he north side, taking no part in the gauntlet running. A sailor, one of the t of the criminals, cut his way through the gauntlet and started up the street ird me. I picked up my club. A man was standing there holding a rail, just as the sailor came in front of him he dropped the rail across the back of leek and killed him. The others were given as fair a trial as we could by a t-martial consisting of thirteen sergeants chosen from the new prisoners. All men accused were brought before this court, where they had the benefit of sel and were confronted by the witnesses of their crimes. The decision of the t was that six should be hanged, and this was carried out by us on the 11th of 1864, which resulted in introducing order into the camp and terrorizing i criminals, who had before held the camp in terror. Wirz simply gave us lission to carry out the execution, but had his whole garrison under arms with irtillery turned upon us. He brought the condemned in to us and told us that is none of his business ; that we had tried them and condemned them ourselves, 462 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. and he washed his hands of the whole affair. Subsequent developments showed that every one of these men whom we had hanged had a long record of criminality both in the Confederate army and in our own. They were men who had deserted back and forth from the Confederate army to the Northern army. The men merely rotted to death in Andersonville. We got nothing to eat but corn meal without salt, and no meat. The men literally rotted with what we called "scurvy," and what is now known as pellagra, due to insufficient quantity of one kind of food. The record of the rebel surgeon-general says that there were 10,000 men at one time in there dying of scurvy. The rebel medical department applied to the rebel secretary of war for a commission to go to Andersonville and study the effect of crowding such an immense number of men together without sufficient food in such foul surroundings, but my remembrance is mostly of scurvy. It would begin usually with a man's ankles stiffening and his legs swelling. Then his gums would protrude beyond his lips, his teeth would drop out, ulcers would appear all over him, and he would simply rot to death. CHAPTER XVI. 1ERS0NVILLE CEMETERY MADE BEAUTIFUL — EXPEDITION IN SPRING OF 1865 TO Provide for Its Permanent Care — Eepost of Captain Jas. M. Moore, U. S. A. — Important and Interesting Eeport of Clara Barton, Founder of the Red Cross Society, to the American People — Report of Dorence Atwater, Who Kept the Death Register, to the Relatives of the Martyred Dead — Interesting Letter of Superintendent of Cemetery — Inscriptions on State Monuments — Patriotic Work Done by Woman's Relief Corps at Prison Park — A Parting Word with the Reader by the Author. 'here are eighty-four national cemeteries in the United States under supervision of the quartermaster's department of the army, in ch are buried 350,000 soldiers. rot all, but most of these contain the bodies of soldier-patriots who e up their lives during the Civil War that this government of ours aid not perish. The major part of these cemeteries are nearby >n the battlefields where their tenants fell in defense of the nation's and nation's honor. If their spirits visit the scenes of their valor could speak to us, would they name a spot for the resting-place heir earthly remains of more glorious memory or more to be pre- ed than the hallowed ground where they so nobly died? We may . conceive, too, that they would behold with pride and satisfaction loving tenderness with which the nation they helped to save is ;ecting, beautifying, and making forever sacred these last resting- es of its patriotic dead. he spirits of the thirteen thousand martyrs at Andersonville Ceme- have not the satisfaction of feeling that their earthly bodies lie )me one of the great battlefields where in life they bravely fought, they will find at Andersonville the assurance of their country's reeiation for their sufferings and sacrifices. All that art and ire can do to dispel the gloom and sadness which hung over that 3y of despair in 1864, and to brighten and make attractive the ng-plaee of these heroes, is being done by our government; and Lks to the noble efforts of the Woman's Relief Corps, auxiliary of Grand Army of the Republic, the prison grounds and ample sur- 464 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. rounding area have been acquired as a national park, and by these patriotic women conveyed to the nation. More than ordinary interest attaches to these grounds and I find satisfaction in giving such illustrations as I have been able to obtain showing how completely the scene has changed. I also feel quite sure that the reader will be glad of the opportunity to read the reports of an expedition promptly sent to Andersonville by the quartermaster- general, upon the order of the secretary of war, to take possession of the cemetery and initiate the necessary steps for its permanent im- provement. This expedition was under the direction of Captain Jas. M. Moore, assistant quartermaster United States army, with whom went Miss Clara Barton, widely known for her Eed Cross work of mercy and charity during the Civil War, and Dorence Atwater, who had been a prisoner at Andersonville and had kept the death register. Bach of these made a report of more than ordinary interest, which I am glad to include in this volume. Captain Moore's report is an official docu- ment addressed to the head of his department. Miss Barton's is semi- official, but is addressed to the people of the United States. Dorence Atwater's statement is rather the story of a personal experience, which would seem incredible as exhibiting a species of arbitrary power by our government of which he was the victim, and which can only be ac- counted for, if not justified, by some imperative necessity of which we can now but speculate. It is addressed to the surviving relatives of the martyred dead at Andersonville. Miss Barton's account of the expedition, read in the light of the testimony found in this volume, shows how an observant and sym- pathetic mind can discover the true situation by a priori reasoning. She saw everywhere effects of which the cause could unerringly be traced. The inscriptions on the monuments erected by state authority can- not fail to touch the hearts of all who read them. REPORT OP THE EXPEDITION TO ANDERSONVILLE. GEORGIA, DURING THE MONTHS OF JULY AND AUGUST, 1865. Assistant Quartermaster's Office, Washington, D. C, September 20, 1865. General: In accordance with Special Orders No. 19, quartermaster-general's office, dated June 30, 1865, directing me to proceed to Andersonville, Georgia, for the purpose of marking the graves of Union soldiers for future identification, and enclosing the cemetery, I have the honor to report as follows: ^ -* &•# -: i* r, "in grateful remembrance of the courage and patriotism by him displayed he late war for the suppression of rebellion and the preservation of constitu- al liberty.'' a 1868 President Andrew Johnson appointed Dorence Atwater consul at the chelles islands in the Indian ocean. a 1870 he was appointed by President Grant to the consulship at Tahiti in the ific ocean. n 1898, during President McKinley's administration, Congress removed all re- ning disabilities. >n July 18, 1872, while serving as consul at Tahiti, Dorence Atwater was rried to Princess Arii Noore Moetra Salmon of the royal family of Tahiti, and rly forty years of happiness followed this union. Desiring to visit his old ne again he returned to the United States last summer, was taken ill in this T, where he passed away on November 28th last in his sixty-fifth year. 482 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. It should be explained that Atwater's story was written in explana- tion of his original purpose to relieve the anxiety of thousands of widows and orphans, the fate of whose dear ones was shrouded in mystery. I believe his motive was upright and honorable, and that he was most unjustly accused and convicted. And yet the war depart- ment was not without some justification, though less severity might have been equally effective of its object. It was thought to be unde- sirable that the list of the dead should be published at that time, and before all doubt had been removed as to its accuracy, and this view has since to some extent been confirmed. The Atwater list has been published in at least two books which I have read, and I had thought of including in this volume the true and corrected list, but as it would occupy not less than one hundred pages it seemed better to use the space with other matter, especially as the war department has not yet given out the finally corrected roster of the dead. The doubt has not been as to the number, but as to the identification of the graves and their occupants. When we consider the evidence, the method of keeping the records, the manner of handling and burying the dead, the great number dying daily in hospital and in the stockade, many of them so disfigured by disease and the unclean surroundings as to be unrecognizable, I cannot myself feel any assurance that the markings of the graves can be implicitly relied on as correct in all cases. The dead are there and the identity of the dead reasonably assured, but the identity of the place where the remains of a particular soldier lie I cannot regard as certain in every instance. And we know that several hundred graves are marked "unknown soldier." Mr. James M. Bryant, the superintendent of the cemetery, to whom I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness for many courtesies in the preparation of this volume, has written some facts relating to the subject which will be read with interest. In his letter he states the reasons for his belief that the markings may be relied on as "fairly correct." His letter follows: Andersonville, Georgia, National Cemetery, June, 10, 1910. Honorable N. P. Chipman, Sacramento, Cal. Dear Sir: Your letter of 2d instant reached me yesterday, and was read with much pleasure, and I trust with profit also. I regret having kept you waiting so long for the photographs, but it was not as easy to find the Wirz photograph as I supposed it would be. The photographer who made that picture moved to Birmingham some little time ago, but I supposed ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 483 Center Upper left hand : J. M. Bryant, Superintendent of Andersonville Cemetery. Entrance to Cemetery. Upper right hand: Entrance to Prison Park. he continued to have the picture for sale, but receiving no response to a letter sent him relative to it I went on a hunt for what was wanted, and the one sent you was taken out of a show case, none others being on hand. This either indicates an unusual demand for the view of the mounment, or else that they want to have them disappear from the market, and to that extent, reduce the talk about the monument, and I am inclined to think the latter is the explanation of the matter. As I wrote you the Wirz photograph costs fifty cents, the others twenty-five cents, including postage. I sent more views of the cemetery and prison grounds than you will want, but you can select such as you desire and return the others. You write you would like to use a portion of my letter of May 20th in your book. I did not keep a copy and cannot recall just what I wrote, therefore will take the liberty of writing a rather lengthy letter, and if you are able to cull from it anything that will be of use to you there is no objection on my part. . . . I thank you very much for your remarks relative to the Wirz trial. It seems quite plain to me, after reading your explanation, that one might very easily see one kill another, identifying the murdered, but being a perfect stranger to the one killed he could not name him, though perfectly able of swearing to the act itself. I am glad 1 referred to that part of the trial as your remarks have removed a doubt from my mind regarding the matter. S4 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. The report of Miss Clara Barton will doubtless give you a better idea of the mditions prevailing at Andersonville in the summer of 1864 than anything I can •oduce. Yet there are two or three facts connected with the matter she fails to fer to, and are not mentioned in the other papers I am sending you, and which ■e necessary to a clear and full understanding of the question. When a man died there was an effort made to identify him, and I am informed r ex-prisoners that usually there were members of the same regiment near by, ho furnished the facts needed. Where identified a small card or piece of paper is secured to whatever the deceased might have on in the way of clothing, and at card bore merely a number, which corresponded with the same number in the irial register, where the name and record were written out as full as circumstances emitted. When a man's body was placed in the trench, a small post or board is put at the head bearing the number found secured to the remains when received om the prison. By looking up any number found on one of these posts, in the gister, all the known facts in the case would be found. Where the dead man uld not be identified he was buried as "Unknown." I have talked with two or ree ex-prisoners who were on duty at the cemetery, and they assure me that ery possible care was exercised in performing their tasks with accuracy. You ill notice Miss Barton refers to the same matter. Since I first came to Ander- nville (1883) we have disinterred three or four bodies for shipment to friends id re-burial in family lots. In two of those eases the bodies were identified rough a peculiarity of the teeth, which \ast, perhaps, longer than any other part the body. Prom what I have learned by reading articles written by eye-wit- isses, and in conversation with those who took part in the sad duty of burying e dead at Andersonville, I am quite confident the records are, with exceptions entioned later, fairly correct, and that when a grave is pointed out to anyone as ntaining the remains of a certain soldier, the probability is that it does. Miss Barton is a clear-minded woman, one of varied experience, and I imagine would be somewhat difficult to mislead her in a question of this nature, and you ill see from her report that she has entire faith in the accuracy of the method ed. And the government would hardly have spent thousands upon thousands of dol- rs for headstones unless it was satisfied the stone would mark the grave of one its soldiers, and would stand just above where he slept. That there were errors made, a great many of them, is only what might reason- ily be expected from the conditions and circumstances surrounding the prison id everything connected with it. When all the facts are considered, the large number of deaths, the rush and rmoil that is never absent under such environments, the hardened, calloused eon- tion of the men in constant contact with the dead, it appears wonderful that i have as correct a record as we now possess. We commenced, three years ago, an effort to eliminate as many of the mistakes iown to exist in the records as possible. New York having the largest number of y state buried here (over 2200), we commenced with that state. I first made an phabetieal list and sent it to the adjutant-general of that state for comparison th his records and such corrections as might be found necessary. As a result we irned of quite a number of men supposed to be resting beneath the sod here but ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 485 ho the adjutant-general's records show were mustered out with their regiments, ■ died elsewhere than at Andersonville. I made a separate list of these eases id sent them to the commissioner of pensions. Through him we learned that veral were yet alive and on the pension roll, others had died during recent years lince the close of the war). We have got into communication with some of those ill living, and know just how the error was made. In one case a soldier had a anket, on one corner of which appeared his name and record. He was on the it for exchange, and on leaving gave his blanket to a cousin who was very sick, bis man subsequently died and the record found on the blanket was supposed be his record. In another case two men, both named "Smith," were in the hos- tal, one a patient, the other a nurse. The patient died, and in some way the irse's name was recorded as the one who died. Two men belonging to the 16th Connecticut infantry, supposed to be buried here, 3re reported by the adjutant-general of that state as having been killed at Antie- m, Maryland, and buried on the battlefield. The commissioner of pensions re- irted that a widow was drawing a pension in one of the cases, and that claim was ed on account of children in the other case, and that both men were certainly lied at Antietam in 1863. We then got into communication with sergeant-major ellogg of the 16th Connecticut infantry, and the explanation in these eases is ry interesting indeed. I enclose a newspaper clipping giving all the particulars, ease return it. These are samples of the causes leading to some of the errors, and doubtless e others are of a similar nature. The percentage of real mistakes is very small, id will approach the vanishing point when we get through with the list. Every ailable source of information has been followed out, and within a year we will in a position to commence writing up the new register, and while there are some rors that can never be corrected, yet in comparison with the whole are not a op in the bucket. You stated that it might be advisable, or rather would add interest to it (the ok) if it contained a list of the dead. Any list that could be supplied at the esent time would necessarily be inaccurate, for reasons given above, for in dition to the errors mentioned are those of spelling of names, errors in rank, mpany and regiment, etc. These are simply innumerable. Then we have found ?eral duplicates. The greater portion of these will disappear in the new register, you will not need the names before another year rolls around it would afford me sasure to prepare the list for you. But as stated, a correct, approximately correct list, cannot be supplied at the ssent time. I am through with the preliminary work, and the list of dis- spancies, which number thousands, is now in the hands of the quartermaster- aeral for the purpose of being verified. As soon as returned I can make a nmencement on the new register, and when once under way it can soon be npleted. . . . One who had viewed the cemetery as the Washington expedition left it in 1865, its crude and unimproved state, would hardly recognize it at the present day. has been improved from year to year by the government, trees and shrubs in ge numbers have been planted, and every effort put forth to give the grounds ! appearance of a park. Pennsylvania, Maine, Indiana, Iowa, Connecticut and 16 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. ew Jersey have erected handsome monuments within the cemetery. Wisconsin, assaehusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan and Ohio placed their mounments within e old prison grounds, now known as "Prison Park." That property is now med by the Woman's Relief Corps; but an act has passed Congress and been (proved by the president, authorizing the government to accept it as a gift. 1 The (tails of the transfer are now being worked out by Colonel Hopkins, of Wash- gton, and probably within a year the title will pass to Uncle Sam. . . . It will give me real pleasure to aid you in any way within my power. Any time can serve you please command me. Very truly yours, J. M. Bryant, Superintendent. Andersonville, Georgia, National Cemetery, July 6, 1910. onorable N. P. Chipman, Sacramento, Cal. My Dear Sir: Referring to my last letter I append the inscriptions on the state onuments within the cemetery, namely, On the west side of the die the seal of Iowa is engraved, beneath which are the ards "Iowa honors the turf that wraps their clay. The Unknown. Their names e recorded in the archives of their country." On the base: "Act Thirtieth eneral Assembly." On the south side of the die is engraved a water scene with overhanging willows id » mountain rising in the background, under which is engraved the following lotation from the seventh chapter of Revelations, sixteenth and seventeenth (rses: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the in light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne lall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of water; and God (all wipe away all tears from their eyes." On the base: "God smote the side hill id gave them drink: August 16, 1864." On the east side of the die are the words "Death before Dishonor." Beneath that gend are the names, with company and regiment, of one hundred and seven Iowa ildiers who died while confined in prison. On the base: "Erected A. D. 1905." On the north side of the die are the words "Death before Dishonor" and the imes, with company and regiment, of one hundred and seven more Iowa soldiers ho died while confined in the prison. On the base: "Commissioners: Sergeant . C. Bishard, Co. M, Eighth Iowa cavalry, prisoner nine months; Corporal ", V. B. Evans, Co. I, Eighth Iowa cavalry, prisoner eight months; Captain J. A. rewer, Co. C, Twenty-third Missouri infantry, prisoner seven months; Captain ". T. Russell, Co. A, Fifty-first Indiana infantry, prisoner eighteen months; orporal W. C. Tompkins, Co. D, Twelfth U. S. infantry, prisoner eight months." INDIANA. South side : "Under authority of an act of the Sixty-fifth General Assembly of le State of Indiana. Indiana mourns for her fallen heroes, the 702 brave sons, ho for the cause they loved, gave up their lives in Andersonville Prison from ebruary, 1864, to April, 1865. Death did not affright them, nor fear subdue them )r could famine break their incorruptible spirit." L Since conveyed to the United States by the Woman's Relief Corps. ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 487 East side: "With great pity for their sufferings, but a greater admiration for ir unfaltering fidelity." ^est side: "Not theirs the matchless death by sword or shot; instead the agony martyrdom." !^orth side: "Till the mountains are worn out, and the rivers cease to flow, shall dr names be kept fresh with reverent honors, which are inscribed upon the )k of national remembrance." PENNSYLVANIA. This monument is built with an enclosed arched passageway through it, and inscriptions are upon bronze tablets secured to the walls within the arch. the east side is a bronze engraving illustrative of the stockade, showing the isades, dead-line, guards in their guard-boxes, and the prisoners procuring ter from the spring by using long poles with cups on the ends of them. Above in the marble wall are the words "Death before Dishonor." Vest side: This monument has been erected by the State of Pennsylvania in su&nce of an act entitled an act. to commemorate the heroism, sacrifices and riotism of the Pennsylvania soldiers who died in Andersonville Prison, Georgia, le confined there as prisoners of war : by the erection of a suitable monument in cemetery at that place ; creating a commission for such purpose, and appropriat- the necessary money therefor. Approved July 18, 1901, by His Excellency, William A. Stone, Governor. lommissioners : James Atwell, president; Ezra H. Eipple, secretary; William Ziegler, Harry White, James D. Walker, superintendent. (n another bronze tablet adjacent to the above appears : In Memoriam Pennsylvania's Sons at Andersonville. o the 1849 of her devoted sons who died at Andersonville Prison, where they e held as prisoners of war, in the years 1864 and 1865, and who are buried s, Pennsylvania dedicates this memorial of her undying love. The faithful men se names adorn this monument and the pages of their country's history, were il unto death, to the flag of the Eepublic, their lives are woven into the :ious fabric of American freedom. Through their sufferings they have left a cy of strong, patient endurance to the coming generations. With gratitude Umighty God, who gave this nation such heroic spirits in the time of trial, nsylvania cherishes their memory, their loyalty, their sacrifices and their res, a priceless heritage for evermore. his monument to their soldiers, is here built by a people ever fretted, blazoned decked with the hearts they built it of; and let it here securely stand, in l, in stone, in cap, in gate, till every shrine in every land will their lives nemorate. MAINE. srth side: Eirst are the words "Death before Dishonor." Then comes a bronze d with the coat of arms engraved -on it, "In grateful memory of those heroic ers of Maine who gave their lives that the Eepublic might live, and of those daring to die, yet survived the tortures and horrors of Andersonville Military )n. 1864 and 1865. The word "Maine" is cut in large letters on each side of monument. 488 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. NEW JEBSEY. West side: First there is a, scroll cut from the solid stone with the words "Death before Dishonor." "Go stranger, to New Jersey, tell her that we lie here in fulfillment of her mandate and our pledge to maintain the proud name of our state unsullied, and place it high on the scroll of honor among the states of this great nation." North side: "Number of dead, 255." East side: "Erected by the state of New Jersey in commemoration of the fidelity and heroism of her soldiers, who died at the Andersonville Confederate military prison, Georgia, in faithful adherence to their pledge of patriotism." CONNECTICUT. West side: First a bronze shield containing the coat of arms of the state. "In memory of the men of Connecticut who suffered in Southern military prisons, 1861-1865." These are all the monuments that are completed within the cemetery. New York and Illinois have monuments under way. The inscriptions to be placed on the former are not yet known. Those on the Illinois monument will be as follows: In the center : "Erected by the state of Illinois in grateful remembrance of the patriotic devotion of her sons who suffered and died in the military prison at Andersonville, Georgia, 1864-1865." Left side: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that govern- ment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." — Abraham Lincoln (Gettysburg address). Eight side : "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriotic grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." — Abraham Lincoln (first inaugural address). The following are the inscriptions dn the monuments erected within the old prison grounds: WISCONSIN. West side: Near top is cut the coat of arms of Wisconsin. "This monument erected by the state of Wisconsin, in grateful remembrance to her sons who suffered and died in Andersonville Prison, March, 1864, April, 1865." On the base, in large letters, "Let us have Peace." On one of the projections is inscribed: "Commissioners appointed in 1904 by R. M. La Follette, Governor." On another projection appears: "D. G. James, president, Eichland Center, Wisconsin, 16th Wisconsin Infantry." East side : First is cut the coat of arms of Wisconsin. "Known dead, 378. To live in hearts we leave behind us is not to die." On one of the projections is in- scribed: "L. Williams, treasurer, Columbus, Wisconsin, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry." On another projection appears: "C. H. Russell, secretary, Berlin, Wisconsin, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry." On north and south sides appears "W" within a wreath. Committee on Transfer of Andersonville Prison Property. 490 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. RHODE ISLAND. West side, coat of arms and names of the dead; east side, names of the dead; north side, names of the dead; south side, names of the dead. MASSACHUSETTS. Near the top is cut the words "Death before Dishonor," and underneath that the coat of arms. "Erected by the commonwealth in memory of her sons who died at Andersonville, 1864-1865." At the bottom in large letters, "Massachusetts." , East side: Cut with a keystone, "Known dead 765." Beneath, "Resolves 1900, chapter 77, approved May 28th. William Murray Crane, Governor. "Commissioners: Charles G. Davis, Thaddeus H. Neweomb, Francis C. Curtis, Levi G. McKnight, Everett S. Horton." North side: Coat of arras. 0Hia West side: "To her 1055 loyal sons who died here in camp Sumter from March, 1864, to April, 1865, this monument is dedicated." South side: Seal of the United States. East side: "Death before Dishonor." MICHIGAN. West side: "In memoriam. Erected by the state of Michigan to her soldiers and sailors who were imprisoned on these grounds, 1861-1865." INSCRIPTIONS ON MONUMENT TO MRS. LIZABETH A. TURNER. Badge of Woman's Relief Corps at top. "Lizabeth A. Turner, Past National President, Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic. Life Chairman Andersonville Prison Board, died at Andersonville, April 27, 1907. Erected by the Woman's Relief Corps to memorialize her work in hallowing these grounds." INSCRIPTIONS WITHIN THE PAVILION OVER PROVIDENCE SPRING. In center over the fountain : "With charity to all and malice towards none." Marble tablet at left of fountain: "This pavilion was erected by the Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, in grateful memory of the men who suffered and died in the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, from February, 1864, to April, 1865. "The prisoners cry of thirst rose up to heaven, God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth, and poured his sweetest waters gushing here." "Erected in 1901." ENTRANCE GATE. A large arch spans the entrance, on which appears in large letters the words, "Andersonville Prison Park." Suspended under the arch is a tablet with follow- ing inscription: "This arch was erected by the Woman's Relief Corps, No. 9, Department of Kansas, and Woman's Relief Corps, No. 172, Department of Massa- chusetts, in memory of the unknown in Andersonville, Georgia." The above comprises all the inscriptions you asked for, possibly more. Very truly yours, J. M. Bryant, Superintendent. ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 491 PROVIDENCE SPRING. "Providence Spring" has been the source of much speculation, and by many its appearance was. attributed to the direct interposition of God in answer to the prayers of the prisoners. Mr. Hiram Bucking- ham, who was quartermaster's sergeant, Sixteenth Connecticut In- fantry, and a prisoner at Andersonville, now residing at Washington City, wrote me of date October 18, 1910, the following account of the appearance of this spring. I think it will be accepted as the true explanation at least of the physical fact: You asked me about Providence Spring. The majority got their water by reaching under the dead-line, as it came in through the rebel camp above. The prisoners went from north to south of the prison by following the dead-line ; by so doing they had packed a hard path. One afternoon in August, an awful thunderstorm came up, flooded the stream through the prison, undermined the stockade and swept it away and the next morning a spring broke out on the side- hill just under the dead-line. It was a natural spring; our tramping up the hill near the dead-line had so packed the earth that the spring was forced to empty in the stream out of sight, but this heavy rain forced it to resume its old opening up on the hill. It now opens into a handsome marble house. There have been some unexpected and disappointing delays in getting out this volume, but they are not without their compensations. The published proceedings of the Woman's Relief Corps have just been placed in my hands, in which I find some very interesting matter relating to Andersonville Prison which should in addition to what has already appeared, have place among these pages. Enhanced value is given to the book in the half-tone likenesses I am able now to present of the noble women who have done so much to glorify and perpetuate the memory of the martyred dead at Anderson- ville. The committee having charge of the transfer of this property re- ported to the national secretary of the Woman's Relief Corps the progress of its efforts, culminating in' the formal transfer of which we have just read. This report should appear in this volume and is as follows: Ilion, N. Y., August 4, 1910. Georgia Wade McClellan, Nationdl Secretary Woman's Belief Corps. Madam: The Committee on Transfer of Andersonville Prison Property respect- fully submit the following report: The failure to pass the bill by the Sixtieth Congress was reported; also that it had been put on the calendar of the Sixty-first Congress in special session, both' House and Senate. 492 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. With renewed courage and a prayer for success, your chairman began making a list of new Representatives in the House where our bill 6971 was resting. Book- lets and letters sent to them brought favorable replies. Representatives General Isaac Sherwood, Ohio'; and Major Thomas W. Bradley, New York, who from the beginning had been deeply interested in our bill, had it taken up in the House at an early period, and on December 10, 1909, our Bill H. R. 10,106 was "committed to the committee of the whole House on the state of the Union, and ordered to be printed." January 17, 1910, the bill passed the House of Representatives unanimously, and victory was assured. Senator William Warner had charge of the bill in the Senate, but business called him out of the city and its passage was delayed some weeks, when it passed the Senate without opposition. Vice-President Sherman was favorable. On March 2nd, William H. Taft, President of the United States, signed our bill and it became a law. The last clause of the law, "the details incident to the transfer of said land to be arranged and perfected by the secretary of war," made it necessary for the Woman's Relief Corps to employ an attorney-at-law. Colonel Thomas S. Hopkins, of Washington, D. C, a comrade and able lawyer, by advice of Mrs. Sherwood and national president, was consulted, and he has given undivided attention to the land survey, and all legal lines of the deed of transfer. Much research has been necessary to unravel the tangle of deeds of conveyance and disputed land survey; but Chief Clerk Lewis W. Call, of Judge Advocate- General Davis's department, has promised Attorney Hopkins that he will submit to him the deed of transfer approved by the judge advocate-general in time for presentation at the G. A. R. encampment greetings in Atlantic City, September 20, 1910. Our national president requested me to extend an invitation to General Davis to be present to receive the final deed of Andersonville Prison property to the United States government. The Woman's Relief Corps is greatly indebted to Honorable Joseph B. Foraker, who introduced Bill 6971 to the Senate, May 5, 1908, and safely piloted it to the House; also to Representative John A. T. Hull, chairman of the House military committee, and Senator William Warner, of the Senate committee. Your transfer committee, Kate B. Sherwood, Mary L. Gilman and Mary M. North, have rendered valuable assistance, also Carrie Sparklin Read, while it was pending in the Senate. Your chairman has tried to do her duty in superintending detail work to its final completion. Looking back to March 27, 1908, when as national president, with the consent of my executive council, in the name of the Woman's Relief Corps, I formulated and proffered the free gift of Andersonville Prison property to the United States government, my heart is full of thankfulness and gratitude to our national convention and national president that' I was con- tinued to the end of the work, and thus permitted in my declining years to see the glorious fruition of the cherished hope of years. It was the harvest time of the work while the veterans of the Civil War held high places in legislation, while many women of the war yet lived and remembered the suffering of Andersonville Prison, the greatest battlefield of mental and physical ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 49; suffering known in the annals of war, and we are proud of our government to-day that has accepted the gift, and will perpetually guard Andersonville Prison groundi in honor of our Nation's defenders. The Woman's Belief Corps has been faithful to a sacred trust. Lizabeth A Turner, as our national president, sixteen years ago received the gift of the Ander sonville Prison pen from the G. A. R., department of Georgia. She devoted thi remaining years of her life in hallowing the grounds as a sacred spot. It was ; beautiful devotion of the Woman's Relief Corps to care for and beautify thes< grounds, and in surrendering them to the higher care of our government, we wil not forget. It will ever be a sacred memory, and our offerings of love will continu in gifts to the beautiful rose garden that is consecrated to Memorial Day in Ander sonville Cemetery. Respectfully submitted in P., C. and L., Kate E. Jones, Chairman, Kate B. Sherwood, Mary M. North, Mart L. Gilman, Committee. I find in the proceeding's referred to the report of Mrs. Sarah E Winans, chairman of the prison board, to the national secretary of th Woman's Relief Corps, which will fittingly round out the account o the work of this valuable and patriotic auxiliary to the Grand Arm; of the Republic. I quote : Toledo, Ohio, August 1, 1910. Georgia Wade McClellan, National Secretary, Woman's Belief Corps. Madam: I have the honor herewith to transmit to you, and through you to th Twenty-eighth National Convention, the report of the Andersonville Prison Boar for the past year. On account of the great distance, it has never been possible to hold a meetin of the board at Prison Park. On that account the responsibility of the care an improvements has rested chiefly upon the chairman of the board. I have endea\ ored to keep in close touch with its members by writing, and am proud to sa that I have had their most loyal support in all that seemed necessary to be dom Early in April I was directed by the national president to go and make a necessary repairs and put everything in good order before making the transfer t the government. Upon my arrival there I found work which detained me ove three weeks. Both wells were in bad condition; the quicksand had to be draw out and a new curbing put in; their depth now is ninety feet, with fifteen feet c water. Much to our surprise, the pump at the windmill during the winter fros and burst, necessitating the purchase of a new pump. The tank was also newl painted, and now there is an abundance of good water for use at the house and i the rose garden. Providence Spring was never in such fine condition as now. I had the floor c the pavilion newly cemented. The water is running through the fountain furnishe by the Ex-Prisoners of War Association into a basin, and into a pool in the ftoo 494 THE TBAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. and out through the pavilion, clear and sparkling as when it first burst forth to quench the thirst of the starving prisoners. The ground around is beautified by growing ferns. The pecan orchard is well cared for, and in a few years will be bearing nuts for profit. The grounds are well kept, and the Woman's Belief Corps can well be proud of what has been accomplished by the indomitable will and perseverance of her whose monument stands under the folds of the flag near by the rose garden she loved so well, Lizabeth A. Turner. During the past year four hundred and eleven visitors have registered, thirty- eight ex -soldiers and eight ex-prisoners. The caretaker, Comrade Bickell, and his wife have proven themselves the right people in the right place. Having been a prisoner there, he is interested in pre- serving all the landmarks, and the wells where the boys dug in vain for water. These wells, some seventy and eighty feet deep, are well preserved and will stand forever in memory of those who made the great sacrifice loyal and true to their country and died for the cause of freedom, and whose bones are washing out of the ground on the hillside at every heavy rainstorm. Mrs. Bickell, a typical Southern woman, proves herself an agreeable hostess; she is loyal and fully in sympathy with the oft-repeated story of starvation and suffering, as told by the ex-prisoners while visiting there, and repeats the truth of the same to those who would fain believe that sueh inhuman cruelties never could have existed in a civilized country. The Wirz monument, standing in the village, is its own condemnation. It need only stand there; a time will come when the South will be glad to bury it from sight. Our gifts this year are not numerous, but much appreciated. Through Kate G. Baynor, national patriotic instructor, the Sons of Veterans Auxiliary gave cocoa matting for the main hall in the cottage. The Department of Ohio, through its president, Mary C. Wentzel, gave a large wool bunting flag for the flagpole which was dedicated on Memorial Day. Mr. William Easterlin has promised to give land for a boulevard to connect Prison Park with the cemetery, making a deed to the government when the trans- fer is made. To make and keep our country great and strong, education must go hand in hand with patriotism; and as the Woman's Belief Corps transfers to the United States government her sacred trust of preserving the hallowed spot where thous- ands suffered martyrdom because of their patriotism, what more fitting use could be made of a part of the fund, set aside for Andersonville Prison Park, than to use it to encourage this grand moral sentiment? . . . The Memorial University, located in the geographical center of the United States and dedicated to the veterans and loyal women of 1861-65, is only in its infancy and needs our patriotic and loving support. We now have the opportunity of helping to build this living monument to a size as big as the biggest. . . . And now as this sacred place is about to pass into other hands, and I think of laying down the work so near to my heart, and in which I have labored for fourteen long years, I must confess a feeling of loneliness comes over me, and I shall long to journey to that Mecca once more and see it made more beautiful as the years go by. Anderson ville Prison Board. 496 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. To the members of the board and members of the advisory board, who with kind words and advice have rendered valued assistance, I return sincere thanks. I wish to express to the national president my thanks for the trust, confidence and counsel throughout the entire year; and to all who have placed a flower in my pathway I express heartfelt thanks. Respectfully submitted in F., C. and L., Sarah D. Winans, Chairman. At the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, convened at Atlantic City in September, 1910, there was a semi-official meeting of welcome held on the evening of September 20th. Among other interesting proceedings, all of which were of the most inspiring and patriotic character, was the formal transfer of the title to the prison grounds. I quote as follows : Commander-in-Chief Van Sant: The next number on the programme is of great interest to every member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the presenta- tion to the United States government, by the national president of the Woman's Relief Corps, of Andersonville Prison grounds. Jennie Iowa Berry, national president of the Woman's Relief Corps: Com- mander-in-chief and friends: One of the great spots of American history, hallowed by sufferings known to America and to the world, the sight of Andersonville Prison pen, is about to pass from the keeping of the Woman's Relief Corps to that of the United States government, and I have requested the woman who has been instrumental in bringing about the acceptance by the government of this historic and sacred spot to make the presentation, Kate E. Jones, past national president of the Woman's Relief Corps. Kate E. Jones : Commander-in-chief, veterans of the Grand Army and citizens assembled: Sixteen years ago the department of Georgia, Grand Army of the Republic, presented to the Wotnan's Relief Corps a tract of land known as the Andersonville Prison pen, famous in the history of the Civil War. The Woman's Relief Corps accepted the gift as a sacred trust, and year after year improved, cultivated and beautified the grounds till the barren desert waste became a garden of beauty. Five states erected beautiful monuments thereon to the memory of their heroic dead, and far above the highest ground in the old stockade the stars and stripes floated in the breeze, seen for miles around. As the years went on the feeling grew apace among comrades and members of the Woman's Relief Corps that these hallowed grounds should be under the care of and belong to the United States government. March 27, 1908, I, as national president, in the name of the Woman's Relief Corps, proffered, as a free gift, the Andersonville Prison property to the United States government. Finally, after some delay, the bill passed the Senate and House of Representatives unanimously, and March 2, 1910, President William H. Taft signed the bill, and it became a law. To-night I have the honor to present to the representative, Lewis W. Call, chief clerk of Judge Advocate-General George B. Davis of the war department, the transfer deed of Andersonville Prison property from the Woman's Relief Corps ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 497 to the United States government. It is a deed of a battlefield, the battlefield oi the greatest mental and physical suffering known in the annals of war, where nearly 14,000 men imprisoned, suffered, starved and died in defense of theii country, preferring death to dishonor. It is land blessed by God in Providence Spring when The prisoners' cry of thirst rang up to Heaven; God heard and with his thunder cleft the earth And poured His sweetest water gushing there. a crystal spring to-day. We are proud of our government that it accepts our gift, and will -perpetuallj guard and care for this hallowed spot in honor of our nation's defenders. As I surrender to you this deed to the Andersonville Prison property the hear of the Woman's Relief Corps goes with it. Many of us are old, gray-hairec women of the war, that knew of the sufferings of Andersonville. We shall neve: forget, but continue our gifts to the beautiful rose garden with its wealth oj blossoms consecrated to Memorial Day and the graves in Andersonville Nationa Cemetery. Lewis W. Call: Ladies of the Woman's Relief Corps: In accepting from yoi this gift to the government of the hallowed spot which has been your care fo: sixteen years I feel that it is fitting that it should pass into the hands of tb government for whom 14,000 men suffered martyrdom, and especially fitting tha it should be placed under the care of the war department, whose judge advocate general has authorized me to accept your donation. I feel sure that your trust will be faithfully executed, that the grounds wil ever be held as a memorial of the heroism of the men who there proved them selves the highest type of patriots, that future generations may journey there and reading the inscriptions upon the monuments you have caused to be erectec honor their memory, and realizing, in a measure, the individual sacrifice an patriotism that were necessary to preserve this nation, be inspired to do their par to keep this » government of the people, for the people and by the people, thank you in the name of the United States government for this gift. Some of the defenders of Andersonville Prison have alluded in con temptuous phrase to the fact that many prisoners believed that Pro\ idence Spring burst forth as a direct answer to their prayers for relie from the thirst which was consuming them. Inscriptions on some o the monuments erected at the cemetery have crystalized this beliei Are we at liberty to treat the matter as pure superstition — the idle cor juring of disordered minds 1 This spring figures throughout the test: mony ; several lives were sacrificed at this spot in cases where the cr of suffering nature overcame the dictates of prudence and the fate dead-line was unintentionally infringed upon. But these life-givin waters saved many souls from perishing, and can we wonder ths Providence Spring was worshipped with unreasoning superstition— 498 THE TSAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. sort of fetishism? What right have we dogmatically now to say that God's hand was not made manifest in this unexpected source of relief? While these pages were being passed through the press the bronze tablet to the Woman's Eelief Corps was on Memorial Day, 1911, dedi- cated at Andersonville. Mrs. Sarah D. Winans, chairman of the Andersonville Prison Board, has sent me a report of the dedicatory proceedings as published in the Atlanta Constitution June 4th, which will be read with interest by all who are in sympathy with the noble work of this patriotic organization. Among the illustrations in this volume I have been able to secure two of especial value — namely, the monument to Lizabeth Turner and the tablet commemorating the work of the Woman's Relief Corps. The report of the proceedings on the latter occasion follows : At the dedication on Tuesday, May 30, of the bronze tablet to the Woman's Eelief Corps, recently erected in Andersonville Park, interesting addresses were made by a number of prominent men and women, and- many visitors were present to witness the exercises which commemorate the work of the Relief Corps, auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Eepublie, in presenting the park to the United States government. The opening number on the programme was the raising of "Old Glory," which was presented by past department presidents of the Vermont Woman's Eelief Corps. After the ceremony, Mrs. Harris, national president of the corps, sang the "Star Spangled Banner." Mrs. Crane, national chaplain of the ladies of the G. A. E., gave the invocation. The history of the purchase of Andersonville by the department of the Georgia G. A. E. was read by Past Department Commander W. M. Seott, of Atlanta. A poem, written for the occasion by T. C. Harbaugh, was read by Mrs. Emmo- gene Marshall, whose brother was among the first to enter Andersonville, and lies buried there. The history of the work of the Woman's Eelief Corps at Andersonville since 1896, was given by Mrs. Sarah D. Winans, chairman of the Andersonville prison board. The monument was turned over to the national president of Women's Eelief Corps, she in turn presenting it to the United States government, through Captain Bryant, superintendent of Andersonville cemetery, who responded briefly for the government. The address of the afternoon was delivered by Mrs. Lue Stuart Wadsworth, of Boston, national patriotic instructor of the Woman's Eelief Corps, and was a finely worded and inspiring tribute. Preceding her address Mrs. Wadsworth recited her original poem, "A Tribute to the Heroes of Andersonville," among whom was her uncle. Mrs. Dr. Bliss, of Saginaw, Mich., paid a tribute to the women of the war, and an original poem by Past National President Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood, of Toledo, Ohio, was read, and also a letter from Miss Barton, an honored member ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 499 of the order, after which there was a song by National President Mrs. Harris, "The Flag Without a Stain." The exercises closed with singing of "America" and the "benediction. The monument was unveiled by Master J. Corey Winans, Jr., of Ohio, and three hearty cheers were given by the veterans for the completed work of the noble women. Members of the two G. A. E. posts in Fitzgerald and their auxiliaries of "Woman's Relief Corps and Ladies of the G. A. R. were present in large numbers. Many members of the order were present, among whom were National President Mrs. Belle C. Harris, of Emporia, Kansas; National Patriotic Instructor Mrs. Lue Stuart Wadsworth, of Boston, Massachusetts; Chairman of the Executive Board Mrs. Alice C. Dillworth, of Omaha, Nebraska ; Past National President Mrs. Sarah D. "Winans, of Toledo, Ohio; Mrs. Allaseba M. Bliss, of Saginaw, Michigan; Assistant National Press Correspondent Mrs. Isabel Worrell Ball, of Washington, D. O; Mrs. Elenora Marshall, of Sandusky, Ohio; Past Department President of Idaho, Mrs. Emma C. Grinnell, of Beloit, Wisconsin; National Chaplain of the Ladies of the G. A. R. Mrs. M. C. Crane; Mrs. T. C. Wainman, of Bainbridge, Georgia. Comrade J. T. Bicknell and Mrs. Bicknell entertained those who remained over- night at the park. In reply to inquiries made relative to the work of the Woman's Relief Corps at the Andersonville Cemetery, Mrs. Winans has written me some facts which should find a place in this volume. I quote : You refer to the work of the Woman's Relief Corps in beautifying the cemetery grounds. In this you are under a misapprehension. The cemetery has always been cared for by the general government. It is the prison pen, the ground where the boys suffered and starved that we thought should be held as sacred ground. It lies about one-fourth of a mile from the cemetery and contains eighty-seven acres, which include all the earthworks and forts surrounding the stockade; also Wirz's headquarters. The Grand Army of the Republic organization of Georgia first purchased the grounds but were not able to improve them and asked the Woman's Relief Corps to accept them as a gift, which we did, pledging ourselves to improve and keep them in order. We found it necessary to purchase fourteen acres additional to include all the forts. We took possession of the property in 1896. We put a woven wire fence around the entire eighty-seven acres, built a nine-room house and placed a care-taker on the ground. Later we built a granite pavilion over Providence Spring and made improvements from year to year. Five states have erected monuments in the stockade, believing they should stand on the ground where the men whose memory they commemorate suffered and died. The monuments erected by Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Wis- consin are within the grounds. ... I presume you are aware that the govern- ment has accepted » deed of this property from the Woman's Relief Corps. I am yet in charge, but they promise to take possession very soon. We have planted 400 pecan trees that are now coming into bearing. I think the government will make a boulevard joining the stockade and the cemetery. . . I do feel that as the English government guards with reverent care the "Black Hole of Calcutta," so 500 THE TKAGEDY OF ANDEBSONVILLE. we should with more reverent care guard the sacred ground on which so many suffered and died for our flag. Then the miracle of Providence Spring should he recorded in history. The wells dug there are in perfeet preservation — some seventy to eighty feet deep. . . . After a heavy rain you can pick up human hones in the stockade grounds. When they dug to set up the flag-pole they came upon the remains of a body; also when the Michigan monument was erected; and also when the pecan trees were being set out, which proves that many lie buried there in addition to those buried in the cemetery. We gathered and placed some of these bones in our monument. "i A PARTING WORD WITH THE READER. My purpose in publishing this volume is to rescue the salient facts relating to one of the most startling and dramatic, as well as the most melancholy and deplorable chapters in the history of the War of the Rebellion, and to refute the grossly inaccurate, not to say false, state- ments to be found engraved upon the "Wirz monument and being widely disseminated as the truth concerning the Andersonville Rebel Prison. Having been, in some measure, personally responsible for the con- duct of the trial of Wirz, I will be pardoned if, in this review, I have shown more the spirit of the advocate than of the judge. A society, respectable in numbers and in its personnel, has declared that Captain Wirz was innocent of the charges of which he was found guilty, and was judicially murdered, and it seeks to fix the ultimate responsibility for the Tragedy of Andersonville upon the Federal government. It can hardly be expected that under such circumstances I would publish a record which would impeach the verdict of the court or would justify the very grave charges now being promulgated in rela- tion to the trial. I submit, with confidence, to the unprejudiced reader, whether I have shown unwarranted feeling and whether the court drew unsupported conclusions from the evidence adduced before it. I have endeavored to fairly state the evidence on both sides, and, while, necessarily, much had to be omitted to bring the book within reasonable compass, I am not conscious of having suppressed any fact which would have tended to strengthen the defense of the accused, nor am I conscious of having in any wise attempted to exaggerate or ob- scure any of the important issues. I think it will be found that nearly all of the incriminating evidence is found in the testimony and official reports of rebel witnesses, and upon that alone, under settled rules 1 Witnesses testified that bodies were buried in the prison pen because their condition made their removal to the cemetery impossible. Thus is confirmed the horrors which surrounded those unhappy prisoners. ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 501 of criminal law, the prisoner was proven guilty of conduct and acts sufficient to justify the sentence imposed and the findings of a con- spiracy to destroy Union soldiers, helpless prisoners of war. It has been said to me, by persons for whose opinion I have high regard, that it was unwise to re-open the question of the Andersonville horror. It is quite likely others will share this opinion, and they may censure me for unveiling the ghastly scenes of suffering and death through which our unhappy prisoners of war were forced to pass. Be it so. I still think complete justification is shown in the earlier pages of this record for placing the facts before the world. That differences of opinion should exist as to the wisdom of reviving the facts herein narrated, is in keeping with a disposition manifested by the thoughtless to break down the distinction which, for many years has been recognized between the services rendered in defense of the Union and the services given in the effort to destroy the Union. Step by step the youth are being led to regard the Rebellion as but a venial political misadventure, reflecting no great discredit upon those who were engaged in it, since it failed of its purpose and since we are again a united people. Gradually the public mind is being taught to accord equal honors, which may be followed by equal rewards to those who fought to dis- solve the Union of States and those who fought to perpetuate the Union handed down to us by the Fathers of the Republic. In a flux of good feeling we are putting out of sight the underlying issues of the great conflict of arms and forgetting the stupendous sacrifices which were made and the precious lives which were lost in the settle- ment of those issues. Can we with safety do this ? Can we as a nation overlook the motive of the Rebellion and all its awful consequences and enter upon a policy of bestowing honors and rewards upon those who were engaged in that rebellion and for no other reason than that they were so engaged? That they have been admitted to full partici- pation in the affairs of government followed the restoration of the Union. But this concession came not as a reward for their military prowess in their resistance to the constituted authorities of the Union ; it came to them as citizens of a common Union who had laid down their arms and renewed their allegiance to the Union. As citizens they were welcomed but as military heroes the government can never with consistency or with justice bestow upon them the honors and rewards which rightfully belong to those who staked their lives to preserve 502 THE TEAGEDY OF ANDEESONVILLE. the nation. Any other view is to place a premium on disloyalty and must result in destroying all motive for supporting the government against the perils of rebellion. I have been led to make these observations in view of the fact that a bill is now before the Senate of the United States, recommended by the Committee on Military Affairs, appropriating $125,000 "for the erection of a Confederate naval monument at the Vicksburg National Military Park to commemorate the services of the Confederate navy.'' The Congressional Eecord of July 18th contains this bill as amended and reported to the Senate by the Committee on Military Affairs. Section 1 reads: That for the construction of a memorial to cost not to exceed $125,000 com- memorative of the service of the Confederate Navy on the Mississippi Eiver and its tributaries during the Civil War at the site and in accordance with the design approved by the Secretary of War, the sum of $50,000 is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise apportioned. Senator Williams of Mississippi, having charge of the bill, stated that it had the approval of the Vicksburg National Military Park Commission and the recommendation of the Secretary of "War. Senator Cummins of Iowa, representing a State that sacrificed hundreds of lives to save the Union, and Senator Works of California, who was himself a Union soldier, spoke in favor of the bill on sentimental grounds, apparently neither of them being conscious of the principle involved nor mindful of where such a precedent may lead. Senator Taylor of Tennessee advocated its passage from the standpoint of one who sees no great difference in the motive which actuated the con- tending forces during the war. He argued that as the South had con- tributed its share towards the erection of monuments "to commemorate the deeds of the brave men who followed the Federal flag, it was not asking too much to build a monument to the brave men who met them face to face on the battle field and upon the water.'' He said : "Why not build it? The Southern people were not guilty of treason. They fought for what they believed was right." But two Senators raised their voices in opposition — Senator Heyburn of Idaho and Senator Dixon of Montana. Senator Heyburn spoke with much force. He showed how the so-called Confederacy was regarded in the eye. of the law as decided by the United States Supreme Court, citing the case. 1 1 Hickman vs. Jones, 9 Wall, 197. ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 503 It is well for us to remember that the Confederacy, as an association of States, never had any recognition by our government. If the Con- federacy as such could not receive recognition by the Federal Govern- ment, how can that government now extend recognition in the highest and "most honorable form it can be bestowed, to those who fought to establish the Confederacy ? In the case cited by Senator Heyburn the Supreme Court said : The rebellion out of which the war grew was without any legal sanction. In the eye of the law it had the same properties as if it had been the insurrection of a county or smaller municipal territory against the State to which it belonged. The proportion and duration of the struggle did not affect its character. Nor was there a rebel government de facto in such a sense as to give any legal efficiency to its acts. . . . The Union of the States, for all the purposes of the constitution, is as perfect and indissoluble as the union of the integral parts of the States themselves; and nothing but revolutionary violence can in either case destroy the ties which hold the parts together. Eor the sake of humanity certain belligerent rights were conceded to the insurgents in arms. But the recognition did not extend to the pretended government of the Confederacy. . . . The Rebellion was simply an armed resistance to the rightful authority of the sovereign. Such was its character, its rise, progress and downfall. The view taken by Senator Dixon cannot fail to deeply impress one who will give a moment's thoughtful consideration to the question. I quote : Mr. President, it is much easier at times to vote in accordance with your feelings of sentiment than it is in accordance with a strict sense of public duty, and I confess that this bill raises a question in my mind which makes me somewhat halt between two opinions. I am a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, and this is the first time I knew that this bill had ever been reported to the Senate. That probably is on account of my dereliction of duty in not attending at all times every meeting of the committee. It is a little difficult for me personally to express my real feelings regarding a matter of this kind. I am a Southerner born, Mr. President. My mother's people served in the Confederate Army, while my father's kinsmen, some of them, served in the Army for the preservation of the Union. I think, without a feeling of egotism, that I can therefore look on the period of the Civil War with as broad and catholic a spirit as any patriotic American citizen can do. Personally, I have only the greatest feeling of admiration for the heroic men who laid down their lives for the cause of the Confederacy. I doubt whether in all history there is any more superb example of devotion to what they believed to be a principle than that which inspired the people of the South from 1861 to 1865. At the same time the principle for which they contended was eternally wrong. It was one of the questions which rise from a great disturbance of men's minds. Tint rmpBrinTiiTior smv man's feelincr of rifrht or wronif. But lonkinor bank 4-5 vpnrs 504 THE TRAGEDY OP ANDERSONVILLE. to that period, we know that the principle for which the South contended was wrong, that it would have been fatal to the very existence of republican institutions. After paying a tribute to the bravery of the men who were con- nected with the Confederate Navy on the Mississippi River and its tributaries and expressing a willingness to personally contribute to the cost of a monument to their memory, he said : But, Mr. President, is this the proper time for us to appropriate money from the Pederal Treasury to perpetuate by Federal law the acts of those who sought to destroy the very Government from which this appropriation is sought? There are probably half a million Pederal soldiers still living. I doubt, Mr. President, the wisdom that would take money from the Federal Treasury at this time to perpetuate by official act of this Government during the life time of the half million men who wore the blue and who by their own heroic sacrifice per- petuated this Republic, to build a monument — I read — "commemorative of the service of the Confederate Navy on the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the civil war." I do not believe the time has come for this Government to do these things officially. . . I do not believe at this time the Government should entertain this plan, which is merely the entering wedge. A monument at Vicksburg to the Confederate Navy is merely a prelude to a hundred other appro- priations for a hundred other battlefields. ... By the same rule of action and applying the same yard stick, if it is right to appropriate $150,000 for this monument at Vicksburg, then we ought also to dot the battle fields of the Civil War with bronze monuments to the men who died in the cause that they believed to be right. With this feeling, Mr. President, and with a feeling of regret that my judgment and my conscience do not allow me to vote for this measure, and wishing only to make my own sentiment plain, I am compelled by what I conceive to be my duty to all the country at this time to east my vote in opposition to the appropriation. Upon what just consideration of principle, policy, or even of senti- ment, can any other view than that expressed by Senator Dixon be taken? The dangerous precedent condemned, the opening wedge warned against, means more than the money outlay involved. If the comparatively insignificant services of the Confederate Navy on the Mississippi River call for such recognition, what must be done to adequately signalize the appreciation of the Federal Government for the valiant services of the Confederate Navy on the high seas to destroy American shipping? But the greater services of the insurgents, in their effort to divide and destroy the Union, were on the hundreds of battlefields and these, as Senator Dixon said, must if the Government be consistent be dotted with monuments erected by that government to honor those who fell while fighting to destroy it. Nor can this spirit of forgiveness, this AJNDERSONVILLE CEMETERY, AND CONCLUSION. 505 blotting out of all memory of stupendous sacrifices made to preserve the Union, halt with these memorials. The two contending forces had each a commander-in-chief. The day will come, if the policy of the pending Senate bill be adopted, when the Nation must commemorate the services of Jefferson Davis as the leader of the Eebellion with the same evidences of gratitude and appreciation as has been done by the Nation to commemorate the services of Abraham Lincoln. It is impossible to differentiate a "National Monument to Commemorate the Services of the Confederate Navy of the Mississippi River and its tributaries," from like monu- ments to the greater naval force of the Confederacy, to the armies it assembled and indeed, to its chosen civil and military leader. To the memory of all alike are we now asked to do homage. I repeat, this policy places a premium on disloyalty and is destructive of the sentiment of patriotism — the highest motive to which the Nation can appeal in times of threatened danger to the integrity of the Re- public. The Senate did not reach a vote upon the measure. Let us hope that the wiser and better thought of its friends may realize its im- propriety and withhold it. Singularly, the newspapers have not discovered this insidious piece of legislation. In but one have I seen it commented upon, and I give it as stating the question in a nutshell. I quote from the Sacramento Bee (California) of July 25, 1911: Senator Heyburn's remarks in opposing an appropriation for the erection of a monument in honor of Confederate soldiers were intemperate. Yet the justice of his opposition cannot successfully be attacked. It is not right for Congress in any wise to honor men who fought through four bloody years in an endeavor to destroy the Union. There is a principle involved here that no false sentiment should be allowed to make us forget. The Confederate dead and living have been honored in many ways since the Civil War, particularly by their former enemies, whose magnanimity has been very great, but to ask the Government itself to commemorate their assaults upon it, however brave, is carrying sentiment to an absurd extreme. If the Southern States should raise the money for a monument by private subscription, it would be more appropriate and representative. If, notwithstanding the opinion of those who would throw the cloak of oblivion over the scenes in this volume depicted, and would obliterate all distinction between the loyal defenders of the flag and those who fought to dishonor it, I shall have quickened a sense of gratitude 506 THE TRAGEDY OF ANDERSONVILLE. and died in Southern prisons, it will compensate me for all the labor involved and will sustain me under adverse criticism. In my belief the loftiest heroism and the most self-sacrificing patriot- ism exhibited throughout the Civil War are to be found in the annals of rebel prisons among the suffering and dying Union soldiers. Im- pelled by a sense of the crime of which they were the innocent victims, and in the discharge of a small part of the obligation under which, as an American citizen and a fellow soldier, they have placed me, this brief epitome of their heroic sacrifices is now submitted by The Author. INDEX Andersonville Cemetery 463 Andersonville, Condition of 65 Argument on Special Pleas 37 Atwater, Dorenee — Dead at An- dersonville 478 Barton; Clara, Eeport on Ceme- tery 469 Baxter, - Miss Alice, Letter as to Monument 15 Belfo'rd Magazine, Article by Jefferson Davis 19-25 Bryant, J. M., Superintendent of Cemetery 482 Butler, Gen. Benj. F., on Ex- change of Prisoners 451 Campbell, J. A., Endorsement ... 70 Cartel, Suspension of 440 Causes of Death, Chief 94 Charges and Specifications on Trial 32 Charge of Murder 364 Chilton, Col. B. W., Endorsement 70 Clavereul, Father, Diary 198 Cobb, Gen. Howell, Communication 54 Letter of 58 Commission for Trial of Wirz... 31 Comparison with Rebel Prisoners 369 Compilation of Deaths 373 Conditions Known at Richmond. 358 "Confederate Veteran," Defend- Monument 16 Connecticut, Monument in Ceme- tery 488 Conspiracy, The 361 Conspiracy Charge, The 390 Davis, Jefferson 11, 19, 71 Death and Disease, Consolidated Report 93 Dead, Number of 367 Deaths, Record of 88 Diseases, Report Concerning .... 88 Eldridge, Chief Surgeon E. J., Report 59 Execution and Burial of Wirz. . . 426 Exchange of Prisoners 437 Findings and Sentence 418 Findings of Commission 35 Grant, Gen. U. S., on Exchange of Prisoners 451, 452 Hall, Major W. Carvell, Letter from Confederate Records . . 79 Halleck, Gen. H. W., on Exchange of Prisoners 450 Handcuffing the Prisoner, Re- marks 334 Hitchcock, Gen. E. A., Letter of. 368 Holt, J., Judge Advocate-General 419 Argument of 37 Hospital, The \ . . 359 Indiana, Monument in Cemetery. 486 Iowa, Monument in Cemetery. . . 486 Johnson's Island Compared .... 370 Judge Advocate, Extract from Argument of 380 Judge Advocate-General, Opinion 419 Jurisdiction of Military Commis- sion 380 Ketcham, Gen. Win. A., Minority Report on Wirz Monument. .13-15 Losing Our Standards 6 Massachusetts, Monument of . . . . 490 Maine, Monument in Cemetery. . 487 Michigan, Monument of 490 McElroy, John, Statement of Facts 453 Moore, Capt. Jos. M., Report on Condition in 1865 465 Moore, Surgeon-General S. P., Letter Assigning Dr. Jones. . 82 Mortuary Statistics 367 Negative Testimony 363 New Jersey, Monument in Ceme- tery 488 Ohio, Monument of 490 Order Convening the Trial Court. 31 Order of the President 425 Ould, Ro., on Exchange of Pris- oners 447 Pennsylvania, Monument in Cem- etery 487 Personnel of the Court 376 Pleas Interposed 36 Preface 7 Prison, Description of, Jones.... -83 Prisoners, Number of, Jones 84 Prison Pen — Its Terrors 356 510 INDEX— CONTINUED. Rhode Island Monument .> . 490 Eeturn of Prisoners for August, 1864 ... 63 Eeturn of Prisoners for July, 1864 69 Rules for Government of Proceed- ings 42 Sick and Wounded, Morning Re- ports 87 Slaves as United States Soldiers. 434 Stanton, Edwin M., on Exchange of Prisoners 448 Stevenson, Surgeon R. R., Reports 88, 105 Stibbs, Gen. John H., Address. . . 377 Stockade 353 Stockade, Description of 51 Tanner, on Wirz Monument, Ad- dress of 1906 12 Reply to Torrance 15 Testimony of — Achuff, Joseph R 261 Adler, Joseph 174, 267 Alden, J. Evereth 181, 295 Allen, Nazareth 252 Andrews, Samuel J. M. ... 182, 297 Balser, Dr. William 139 Barrows, Dr. A. V 243 Bussinger, Daniel W 263 Bates, Dr. John C 125 Belcher, O. S 258, 336 Blair, A. G 284 Boyle, Major Archibald 177 Brown, J. D 333 Brown, Samuel D 332 Bull, William 282 Burns, James H 283 Cain, John A 182 Cashmyer, Philip 77 Castlen, Dr. F. G 119, 250 Chandler, Col. D. T.. .52, 66, 68, 73 Clark, J. Nelson 174 Conway, George 345 Corbett, Boston 166, 247 Crandall, W. W 275, 288 Grouse, William 273 Culver, Jasper 278 Davidson, James K 258 Dillard, William 254 Fairclough, Oliver B 337 Fisher, John 276 French, Capt. Wilson 180 Gibbs, Col. T 241 Goldsmith, John H 277 Gray, George W 349 Griffin, W. A 155, 294 Halley, P. Vincent 259 Hamilton, Rev. William John. 143 Head, Dr. B. J 137 Heath, Capt. John F 253 Henman, Ambrose 348 Hogan, Martin E 249 Hopkins, Dr. G. S 119 Home, Thos. H 176 Huneyeutt, Calvin 255 Jennings, William Henry 270 Jones, Dr. Joseph 81, 83, 99 Jones, J . B 77 Kean, R. T. H 75 Kellogg, Robert K 164, 222 Kellogg, Edward S 260 Kennell, Alexander 271 Keyser, Joseph D 249 La Baum, Felix de 340 Maddox, Frank 265 Marsh, Dr. M. M 158 Marshall, James E 274 Moesner, Augustus 159, 325 Mohan, James 256 Noyes, Henry E 45 Orcott, D. S 346 Peebles, William M 275 Persons, Lt.-Col. Alexander W. . 52 Pond, L. S 272 Rice, Dr. G. L. B 123 Riker, S. M 289 Robinson, Mark D 44 Roy, Dr. G. G 135 Russell, Chas. H 287, 346 Scott, William Willis 338 Selph, CM 58 Smith, Charles E 290 Smith, Goldwin, Reminiscences. 190 Smith, Sidney 272 Spencer Ambrose 150 Spring, Andrew J 173, 251 Stearns, D. H 175, 270 Tate, Robert 296 Terrell, Horatio B 264 Thornburg, Dr. Amos 108, 111 Tibbies, Charles E 344 Tracy, Prescott 339 Van Buren, Willis 177 Van Valkenburg 156 Walker, John Burns 179 Walsh, Thomas 179, 292 Welling, Col. George 189 Williams, Charles F 291 Wilson, Major-Gen. J. H 184 Wright Lieut. J. H 157 Younker, John L 280 Williams, Chas. F 291 Testimony for Defense — Allen, Nazareth 202 Armstrong, Capt. Jas. W 202 Bardo, Vincenzo 219 Bates, Dr. John C 205 Boate, Edward Wellington. 229, 312 Castlen, Dr. F. G 206 INDEX— CONTINUED. 51: Clavereul, Father (diary) 198 Crandall, "W. W 313 Dilly, Benjamin E 231, 314 Duncan, Rev. E. B 208 Fannin, Col. James H. . . . 209, 304 Fechtner, George W 235 Elewellen, Dr. E. A 207, 300 French, S. B., Major 209 Gleich, August 314 Guscetti, Frederick 233, 317 Hall, Samuel 201, 306 Hammack, W. D 210, 307 Hamilton, Dr. W. J 303 Harris, Martin S 226, 321 Heath, Lieut. John F 204 Moesner, Augustus 224, 323 Persons, Col. A. W 211, 308 Proctor, Major Geo. L 213, 309 Roth, Frederick 220, 324, 330 Roy, Dr. G. G 302 Ruffin, Lt.-Col. F. G 213 Whelan, Rev. Peter 19; Wright, Capt. J. H 216, 30! Torrance, Gen., on Majority Re- port 1! Total Deaths at Andersonville ... 37; Transfer of Prison Grounds 49( Trial of Henry Wirz 2\ Wellf ord, Report on Prison 7( Wells, Surgeon F. J., Reports... 81 White, Surgeon Isaiah H., Report of 72, 10! Winder, John H., Letter of 6] Wisconsin, Monument in Cemetery 48f Winans, Mrs. Sarah D., Report of Woman's Relief Corps 491 Wirz, H., Report of 6( Wirz Monument, Initial Movement for U Wirz, Capt. H.— Return for July, 1864 61 Return for August 6< Return for October 10] sggK Knciu: ■v.^.^.-^z^.l^M ■ ■ .. ■ . agggl