The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-12-23

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81 q tta, 20 E.,t1F~
In Georgia, the reader may indn,,. 3, q.
widest conjecture. We assure bin, ~
he will End that he has scarcely imao;ns me;
Fthe truth. q u
CHRISTIAN PATIENCE OF THx surrxeRRs-
FEARFUL ANb WONDERFUL spKorAcrRa n,
wAeTED NATURE. hiiF .''ii ''.H'7
| In our tour through the hospitals VIC
saw these released men, black With sun.
tan and the smoke Of the pine fires ove1
which they bent as they cooked the food
that Knocked their hunger and robbed
them Of their lives. They were in Goods
country now. The grand old stars and
stripes waved over them, and the notes Of
their own sweet national music were watt.
ed through the classmates to their grateful
ears. Attentive nurses in the Union 8 blue
lowered round their bedsides, anticipating
every want, and watching with more
than brotherly tenderness each change of
| symptom. Words of cheer, assurances OF
returning health, were coaxing back the
( red blood to their wan cheeks, and light.
ing up their hollow. eyes with CLEAN of
hope. But, alas! there were and are
cheeks-hundreds of them-that will not
glow, and eyes that will not sparkle ever
more. One hundred and fifteen have up
to this morning already died in hospital,
and the fate OF many more is sealed. No
medical skill can save them-no love. no
hope lure them back to life again. Rebel
diabolism has exhaused the life-spring.
quenched the life-lamp. One may gureie
yet little while, the other glimmer; but
both are ebbing, both shall disappear It
was pleasant sight to see the Commission
gathered around the beds of the wasted
skeletons, aptly described by simple SOL
der, one who was almost skeleton him.
self, as looking "'like the skeletons that
doctors have, you know, strung on wires,
only covered over with skin so you couldn't
see how they were made" Some OF the
Commission were men of venerable age
the chairman, DR.. DelaGeld, Mr.. Wilkins,
and Mr. Winston, for instance--all, with
sorrowing faces, listened to the tale as it
was gasped out from the parched throat
and withered lungs of q martyr. son err
rands of pity and of mercy bent" each
tone found an echo in their hearts. There
lay the sufferers. Most of them had been
hale men, with the instinct of life strong
in them.
The Commission purposely selected such
so as to further the ends of truth and JUS
tice, and allow nothing like prejudice to
interfere in their examination into tile dia-
bolism of treason. 1t would take many
an effort, many q systematized assault, to
1 hro 4t,a loi &c
frames. They were the granite. Weaker
constitutions might, like sandstone, crum-
bic under but little strain, but it would
require constant cropping upon the rock.
There lay the strong man, punier in frame
than the puniest STRIPPING now. His tough
thews and sinews had all melted away with
the flesh. The cheeks were gaunt in the
strictest, hollow in the strongest sense.
The eye was deep sunken in the head; it's
lids had lost their fitness, and refused to
perform their Office, leaving the eye to
glare and stare at you, dimmed all over
with notes, dull, lifeless, despairing. Its
orbits and the temporal bones were so far
advanced that the white enamel shone
through the skin, which every moment
seemed to be losing its hold on its prison.
ers, allowing them to escape their thral-
dom. The thorax marked all its parts.
The RIBS were clearly visible, for the skin,
tanned and smoked though it was, was
stretched to almost transparent tightness,
till the interstices between the bones were
revealed, and the curious eye almost i'm.
agined itself peering through the pleura
into the chest to see the terrible emacia-
ton there, Each struggling breath threw
out the bones still more prominently, I'M
til it seemed as if their fimsy covering
would fall off like a garment and leave a
skeleton indeed. The abdomen was so
shrunken that the valves of the digestive
apparatus caused protnberances, and the
digested portions Of the food as they
passed down the intestines swelled them
until their outline could be marked by any
spectator, and the course of the fwces ca
silly followed! The limbs partook of the
general decay. One inch and three
quarters around the biceps muscle was
common measurement OF those which in
life we've stout and strong as young will
lows.
TESTIMONY OF THE PRISONERS AS TO THEIR
TREATMENT AT ANDERsONvILLE, ETC.
A friend once remarked to US that he
thought that nature had given to the hu-
man skull the peculiar appearance called
"grinning to remind us of our utter
worthlessness.. In these faces, clothed as
they yet were with the veil that hides the
| sarcasm, that sepulchral smile was present,
the more funereal because of the medium
through which it looked The reply to
pleasant words, or the recollection of
some kindness that had been done them in
their captivity, called up this sad smile
so sad, SO solemn, so miserable, that all
, who witnessed it were touched. It was a
! beautiful tribute to their warmth of heart,
| that from among all the brutalities they
suffered they would religiously Gull some
little good deed done them to show that
So-and-so was not ''rhean man "-the
usual term they applied to their murder
ers. "There was DR.. Todd" (and she
was the brother-in-law of Abraham Lin
coin T." chimed in another), che was a
/ very, nice man." And then they would
go on to recount how he gave them an
4 ounce more of this, or half pint more Of
that, or rag, or button, or some ordi-
nary medicine, evidently finding pleasure