Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-08-25
Reccollections of Prison Life in
Rebellion.

a
On the 9Th day of April, 1862, II
writer was one of some two thousan
Union soldiers who found themselvt
prisoners of war in rebel hands. part
the result of the previous days fahlin
, at Shiloh. Soon after we were lodge
, , in military prisons at Tuscaloosa. Ala
under command of Captain II. Writ,
5. A., who has since gained some motor
ietv for bis extreme cruelty towards pris
oners OF war under his charge, and no,
lies in prison awaiting trial for his crimes
On contemplating the suffering and tor
lures Of our soldiers while incarceratp
in Southern death pens, the heart grow
faint, and the mind turns away in sorrow
No pen can ever picture in its true color
the misery Of rebel prison life How
hardly can any one believe such barbar
tiles, such slow yet careless, fortunes coult
ever be practiced, or even tolerated, b,
a people, protesting civilization, ant
Christianity Truth and facts canno
be denied, nor the reecoleciions OF suffer
ines endured erased from the minds o
its victims. Such reccollections impe
the writer to give his impression of pris-
on life under Captain Wirtz. He claim
to be Frenchman, ia apparently forty,
five years old, below the medium height
rather stout and compactly built, round
shoulders, thick short neck, black bristly
hair, slightly sprinkIed with gray, low
forehead, small, black sinister eyes, look
ing out from under heavy, shaggy eye
brows; dark complexion-just such q
man rs instinct would select TO do mean
act--such is the picture fixed in the wri-
ter's mind of Captain Writ; only add
cowardice, and it is complete. His ma.
ture seemed well calculated to fit him for
a tool Of jeff, Davis and TO execute his
hellish purpose of incapacitatng all Un-
ion soldiers who fell into his hands as
prisoners of war from any further ser
vice in the field after release. Captain
Writ was not content to starve and ex-
pose bis victims TO the incemencies Of
the climate but it pleased him to add
insulting and tanning language. Hence
it gave hin pleasure to kick the dead
body Of a prisoner, and grinning Che could
not laugh say, "Ah, ha another id
Yank gone to hell. He'll will soon be
so full Of them, that his Satanic Majesty
will have to annex New England to his
dominions for want of room
To man writhing in agony of pain he
would say: You damn'd Yankee fool,
reckon you wish you had stayed at
homo, and minded your own business,
and not come down here TO steal our
nggers. love to see you Yankees
here for we will learn you decent man.
ners and gentlemanly department, pro-
vded you don't all die in course of dis
cipline.
To the surgeon he would often say
The more that die, the less we shall
have TO feed or fight; and | take good
caro- to parole them all, so as to count
hem in exchange
One act of his more fendish than some,
| recall | occurred on the Levee at
Tuscaloosa, Ala, while the prisoners
were waiting to embark on transports en-
route for Montgomery, as we thought, to
be paroled. There was boy some
fifteen or sixteen years old, belonging to
he 18th Regiment Iowa Infantry. His
made him the especial iavorite
IT all the prisoners. He was good
singer, and contributed not little to dis
pei the irksomeness Of prison life by his |
songs. His singing was source of
great irritation to old Writ, and he tried
various modes of punishment to stop it.
He would confne him in a dungeon
twenty. four or forty,eigbt hours at a time,
without food or water; still up through
those dungeon bars would come the words
OF the Star Spangled Banner. No pun>
could make young Allen desisl
from singing. As we stood on the Levee.
all talk ing was forbidden. The thoughts
of home, however, were too strong for
young Allen to resist to sing that good
old tune, Home Sweet Home A blow
from old VIRUS revolver felled him to
the ground. He was badly cut on the
head We cared for him as best we
could. He lived to reach Nashville,
Tenn, and there died beneath that old
flag he loved so well, a victim of Captain
Wirtz's vindictive hatred of American
soldiers.
! might 90 on and relate many more
similar cases that came under my own
observation, but for the present will leave
him to his own reflections in the hand,
Of Just but indignant people.-St A.
bans Messenger.