Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1865-08-23
THE ANDERSONVLLE ToRTURERS.
What was Meant by the Dead Linc---How Our
Men Were Buried.

1ou must permit me to enter my protest
against the position which your partiality
has assigned me, when you term me a
Georgia planter. Iclaim the more humble
position of a Georgia farmer" distinc
ton more apparent at the South than at
the North and grade which does not
ehtitle the incumbent to the more aristo-
cratic privilege Of being called twenty
bale man" am only producer of the
staff of life on limited scale.
fear that I may tire the patience of
your readers by continuing the subject of
my previous article, but am unwilling to
conclude hurried narrative of the hor-
rors Of AndersonvilIe without pacing
upon record my objections to the matter
as well as spirit of the letter of the counsel
Of Major Wurtz published on the same
day as my first communication. If they
imagine that the sympathies of the nation
can be restrained, or its desire for certain
/ information repressed, by their iniunc-
tions to that effect, they ana | read the
character of the people very differently.
If they seek to prevent a judgment being
passed upon the conduct Of their client,
they have begun their efforts too late. 1t
would have been better if they had stifed
the groans, subdCcd the siGhs and stilIed
the death struggles OF Wurtz's victims,
before the winds waited them TO the North,
or they had aroused the sensibilltlcs and
vengeance OF the mourning mothers and
sisters, who look IN VAIN Tor tldlngs OF the
lost and tortured ones who suffered under
MN. Inc counsel Tor W urtz arc probably
paId lor DONG what they nave done, and
so their ImPertlnent request will 90 for
what 1t IS worth. My task IS se!i-lmposed,
and results from severe convictions of
duty to justice, to Government, to human
ity.
The desire that the people Of the North
should know. from ono who had constant
opportunitics for seeing, what amount of
cruelty can be exerted by one who had the
power, and, fear, also the inclination, to
practice it upon men who, by every law
recognized by civilized beings, were enti-
tied to the ml'dest treatment that safety
would permit.
| haye referred to the quality and guam
/ tity of the food given to the prisoners,
and have since been asked if the country
was really SO destitute of provisions as to
require it. At the Post Quartermaster :,
at Americus, nine miles from Anderson
! Vile, there was turned over to the United
States Government nearly two hundred
| thousand pounds OF bacon and an im-
mensc amountof corn and other produce:
a large quantity was stored at Albany,
forty miles lower down, and very consider
able stored at Oglethorpe, eighteen miles
! above AndersonvilIe These amounts
were constantly increasing from tithcs
and purchases, so that it will be seen that
there was no lack of provisions in the
country whercwith to furnish the prisoners
food
have heard much Of what is termed
the dead line" few, however knew what
Is meant by it. After the completion OF
the prison and its use, those confined
there were accustomed to approach the
stockade and look through the openings
between the posts, or talk to outsiders
a fter the assumption Of the command by
Major Wurtz he caused the prisoners to
be notified that if thew approached within
thirty feet of the stockade, they would he
shot by the guard on the outside This
limit of thirty feet was unmarked by any
line 1Chdterer 1t was ideal, and lett to
the arbitrary determination Of men on
guard majority Of whom were as IN
capable OF Judging ot distances, or OF thls
| distance of thirty feet, as were the poor
prisoners who were doomed II they trans
+ gressed IT. The consequence was tAa
} weekiy-yes, almost dalIy, the prisoner
( were shot down ny the guards "he'
these thought that they had 'ranscehue'
. the imaginary lihe Whicn separate" 'ii''S
= seven thousand human beings from etei