Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-10-31
BELLE ISLAND AND ANDERSON

barring the TACT OF WOMEN anu CAIIuheh
participating in the sufferings Of the siege
and massacre, the record Of our Union
wal prisoners anguish in tho Southern
iails and corrals far exceeds the devilish
horror of Cawnpore. The latter suffered
the pangs Of starvation for so many weeks
and even-in most instances in Anderson
vile and Belle Island for so many
months as the former endured days. And
a wholesale slaughter of our troops con-
fined, at the hell stations named, would
have been mercy, if it had taken place at
the date of their incarceration. The
mangling of the dead bodies Of their VIC
tins constitutes a dreadful scene in the
East India mutiny panorama; but when
we attempt an estimate Of the actual tor
ture to which the unfortunate English
were there subjected, we have a COMPARE
son from the Sunny South, within two
years occurrence, that renders all the
stories of Sepoy cruelty of Insignificant
instance. The testimony in the Writ
trial develops an aggregate Of agony as
necessarily undergone which appals to the
last degree. Thousands who persisted at
the pens where the Confederate fends
confined Union soldiers died the death of
unspeakable w~retchedness. The favored
few of the incarcerated were those who
early stumbled over the dead-line and fell
pierced by the sentry's bullet, or inadver-
tently approached the barred windows of
their prison to get the buckshot "wel-
come" Of the guard, who were anxious for
the pleasing opportunity Of Yankee
target practice"
Could you for one moment suppose
such a condition of affairs as a party in
England who during all the, time Of re-
ceipt Of the bloody India mutiuy intclli-
gence gave unmistakeable evidence of
gladness at the news? Incredible :"
you exclaim. Yet there is a party in the
Northern States of this Union many OF
of whose members, with little effort
q, ~concealment Of their jubilant SEN
timents, actually rejoiced over the It'd
ings of our Union soldiers suffer-
ings at Belle Island, and Libby, and An
Jacksonville. There are journals which
distinctly stated that it vas what might
be expected, after an invasion Of the
homes Of the South" Copperheads and
Copperhead journals gloated over the
practice adopted by the Confederate au-
thorities in Richmond and Georgia for the
starving to irreparable skeleton attenua-
ton, if not unto death, Of the Union SOL
der captured in battle. They echoed
the fiendish, exultant words Of Confeder-
ate Commissioner Ould, when he boosted
of the worthless carcasses he exchanged
for healthy, robust C~onfederates. Verify,
| Of what sort Of material are the hearts OF
these Copperheads madea Indeed, was
not this q wal in behalf Of Mercy herself,
as well as a struggle for the perpesuity Of
free institutions?
VIII you have political association in a
party that contains such devils incarnate
as are described. VIII you be connected
with the party that hopes Wirz may es-
cape the hanging penalty-a party that
dcnounces the contrary desire as "disboli-
CALI" Will you remain with a party-ii
you have, heretofore, without apprccia-
ting its associations and the character of a
majority of its leaders-that mourned
when Andersonville, and Belle Island,
and Libby Prison were nc more the rebel
guarded places Of excruciating torment for
| the captured soldier Of our Government .
Will you be counted among the number
of the party that regards Mrs. Surratt as
a martyr to their cause, and worthy o
their monumental memory:
The nearest name written in time for the
Copperhead party, next to that of their
present baptizing, is Sepoy :" but a Sc
poy of the Cawnpore's massacreing hosts
is white in his disposition and conscience
before the Copperhead who chuckled over
the transcendent infamy Of the American
rebellion, as illustrated at Libby, Ander-
sonvillc and Belle Island.