The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1865-12-29
Shall Rebel Leaders be Punished?

lowing extract from the report Of Robert
r. Corson,-Vermont's own agent at
Philadelphia,-as made to Gen. Wash
burn, and Incorporated in his last report,
and then honestly say whether in their
opinion the rebel leaders should be punish
3D. or whether they shall be allowed back
in Congress to make laws to govern the
widows and orphans of those men they
thus deliberately murdered:
This, then, this deliberate, malignant,
fendish torture Of innocent men in the
earthly hell at Andersonville, by the side
of which the agony of the Black Hole of
Calcutta was bissful, and the torment of
the Spanish Inquisition happiness before
which, every species of cruelty, which the
malice of the most barbarous men ever
devised, seems but as child's play, was but
a fitting termination to the long, weary
years of bondage, of oppression, of OUT
rage and cruelty, of the lash, the stake,
the concubinage, the murder, which, l
thank God, from the Utmost recesses of
my soul. have passed away forever.
| listened to the stories of those who re-
tanned their senses, as they lay, with white
lips whispering their anguish, on the hos
pital beds, over and over again. At first
I was incredulous, hardly daring to believe
that human beings could be guilty of such
awful outrages against God and man, but
it was confirmed by hundreds of them,
and indeed it needed no confirmation 1
had but to look upon the emaciated, ghast-
ly shapes which lay around me, wrecks Of
a once splendid manhood, to find the
strongest proof Of the facts | had heard.
After the landing they died by scores.
TO many it was but blessed relief from
unutterable agony; from misery that NO
tongue can ever tell.
/ have seen from forty 10 fifty bodies in
the dead-house at one time, and upon one
occasion | attended the funeral of forty
three who had died in two days. AT an
other time sixty-fve were buried at once.
Nothing could avail to save these men
when brought from the ships. DR.. Van
derkief. the surgeon in charge, together
with Dr. Ely his assistant, and the ladies
in attendance, used every exertion in their
behalf. but in vain; they were too far
cone for human skill In one instance
four men were sent ashore iii one boat :
two of them died before reaching the
wharf. while the other two expired almost
Immediately after entering the hospital.
So accustomed to brutal treatment had
these men become, that as | passed from
bed to bed, offering each some little word
of encouragement and cheer, or giving
them some article which in their miserable
condition they could enjoy, they cried like
children, sobbing ont their thanks for the
kindness,-an indeed they were just like
children. All the stern dignity of their
manhood was gone, and with their wasted
feeble bodies seemed to come that feeling
of dependence. that consciousness of utter
helpeSsnes,, which clraractcrizc> a child.
But few persons in the North would be-
licve the reports which were published re-
garding the inhuman treatment of these
brave men, and although photographs were
taken. of what were by no means the
worst cases, persons were still incrcdulous,
doubling that the cases were rs bad as
represented The Wiz trial has proved
these stories to be authentic, although
many, who could give the most terrible
testimony from their own experience, are
forever at rest, and can give it alone to
Him that .judgeth righteously.
More than thirty thousand men confined
in an enclosure of less than fifteen acres :!
This of itself is proof enough thai there
must have been great suffering, but the
graves Of thirteen thousand, who lie buried
at Andersonville, make it stronger and
more damning, while twice that number,
who died after reaching home, but add to
the already overwhelming testimony.
SO much suffering was enough to sadden
any heart, and this duty at Annapolis,
was the most painful have ever been
called upon to perform. No battlefield,
that have visited, SO impressed me. Gun
shot wounds are very terrible in their eff
tects, but the evidence of slow, deliberate
torture by starvation, inflicted upon oul
prisoners, was thousand times more aw-
full"