The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-08-10
The Andersonville Torturers.
What was Meant by the Dead Line.
How Our Men were Buried.
b he Editors Of the N. Y. Erentmo Post: /:

70 The Editors Of the ". Y. EreniH1 Post.
You must permit me to enter my pro
test against the position which YOUR
partiality has assigned me, when YOU
term me a Georgia planter" I claim
the more humble position of Georgia
"farmer," distinction more apparent
at the South than Mt the North. and n
grade which docs not entitle the incum-1
oent'to the more aristocratic privilege
OF being called n "twenty-bale man. -
l am only a producer of the staff Of
life on limited scale,
fear that may tire the patience of
your readers by continuing the subject
OF my previous article, but am un-
willing to conclude hurried narrative
Oh the horrors of AndersOnVille with
out placing upon record my objections
20 the matter as well as spirit of the
letter OF the counsel of Major Wertz,
pup1shed on the same day us nv first
communication. If they imagine that
the sympathies of the nation can be re-
strained, or its desire for certain infor-
matlon 'rePresSed, by their injunctions
TO that effect, they and read the char
acter of thepeOple very differently. IF
they seek to prevent a. Judgment being
passed upon the conduct of their clienf
they nave begun their efforts too late.
II would have been better if they had
stirred the groans, subdued the signs
and stilled the death struggles of
Wertz's victims, before the winds WAIT
ed them to the North, or they had
aroused the sensihs tiles and Vengennce
Iof tho mourning mothers and sisters.
WHO look in vain fos tfdingS of the lost
and tortured ones Aho suffered under
MN. Ihe counsel for WeGtz are proba-
bly, paid ordoing what they have done,
and so their imp ertinef ediiest will 20
for what 1t is worth. htyl task is self
imposed, and results from sincere CON
lvictions of duty to Justice, to governs
ment, to humanity
l desire that the people Af the North
should know, from one who had con-
slant opportunities for seeing. what
amount of cruelty can beexerted by
one who had the power, and, j fear, also
the inclination, to practice 1t unon men
who, by every law recognized BY ciyiIi-
zed beings, were entitled to the mildest
treatment that safety would permit.
have referred to the quality and
Equantity of the food given to the pris-
oners, and have since been asked Ii the
country was really SO destitute of pro-
visions as to require it. AT the post
quartermaster's, at Americus nine miles
from Andersonyille, there was turned
over 10 the United States government
nearly two hundred thousand pounfIS
OF bacon and an immense amount AZ
corn and other produce; n larger dunn-
tity was stored at Albany, forty miles
lower down, and very considerable
stores Mt Oglethorpe, eighteen miles
above AndersonVille. These amounts
We're continually increasing from tithes
ana purchases, so that it will be seen
\ that tlthere.was no lack of provisions in
the country wherewith to furnish the
prisoners food.
havelheard much of what is termed
the dead line" few, however, know
| What is meant by it, After the compile
aon 1.-THE prison and its use, those con-
hned there were accustome to approach
the stockade, and look through the OPEN
1ngs between the posts, or talk to out
Slders, Atter the IaSsumption of COM
mand by Major WertZ, he caused the
prisoners to be notified that if they APP
preached within thirty feet of the stock
ade, they would be shot by the guards
upon the outside. This limit of thirty
feet was unmarked bydiJ tine srhdteUei.
4 1t was ideal, and left to the arbitrary de-
Termination of men on guard, maiori-
1 lty or whom were as incapable of iudp-
ing of distances, OF, of this distance OF
thirty feet, as were the poor prisoners
! who were doomed if they transgressed
yes almost daily, the prisoners We're
tshot down. by the guards, whenlthese
thought that they had transcended the
Imaginary line which separated thirty
tSeven Thousand. human beings from
eternity. .,Ir5.sts. ,, I,4 -l5.=t,iG
Upon one, occasion, a prisoner who
had been confined there for more than
a year, rendered desperate by hunger,
4 want and filth, preferring death to a
lif6 so unuttefably miserable, after
4 writing n last fond letter to his wife in
Indiana, and bidding his friends around
him farewell, deliberately advanced to-
wards the side of the stockade and
| calmly received the well-directed shot
of the sentinel, that released his soul
endure and which his manhood sunk
iunder.
j The. southeast corner of the interior
/ of the stoCkade was the fnvorite spot for
Il this kind of practice by the executors
of Wertz's will; for ut this point the
ilbrOOk or stream to which have al
iready referred entered the limits of the
| prison. Here the water was less taint-
edand Pefouled by the drainage of the
lhiH, and afforded n somewhat more
IpaIatable drink 4 of course this point
| was sought in preference to any. other.
| But woe to-the unfortunate wretch who
ever reached with his arm beyond tho
prescribed bounds to- dip up n cup of
better water than the reeking current
below him offered A sentineI's bullet
ISent one more spirit trembling to its
God, while the wretCh's body lay promo
/ and washed in the very water that his
\ less fortunate comrades must drink
until necessity forced its removal. How
many were slain in this manner will
never be known until the records of a
book unscanned by mortal eyes be
made up in, figures of living light.
AT short distance from the Stocl1nde
i was the field where the remains of the
dead prisoners were supposed to be