The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-08-11
The AadersOnYIIle TOrtureFs.
WHAT WAS MEANT BIZ THE DEAu
LINE.
How Our Men were Buried,
70 tEe EIais0rs Of ths Esesinq Pest

tiality has assigned me, when YOU term me
q Georgia planter" q distinction more
apparent at the South than at the North.
and glade which does not entitle the in
cumbent TO the more aristocratic privilege
of being called a ntwenty bale man" l
am only producer Of the staff of life on s
limited scale.
1 fear that may tire the patience of
your reader by continuing the subject of
my previous article, but am unwilling to
conclude hurried narrative of the horrors
of Andersonville without placing upon re-
cord my objections to the matter as well as
spirit of the letter of the counsel Of Major
Wertz, published on the same day as my
inst communication. Ifthey imagine that
the sympsthies Of the nation can be res
trained, or its desire for certain ill.,
formation repressed, by their iDjunctions
to that effect, they and 1 read the
character of the people very differently
II they seek to prevent q Judgment being
passed upon the conc Uct or Inelr client
they have begun their efforts too late. It
would have been better If they had stified
the groans, fubdued the sighs and stifsd
the death struggles of Wertz's victims, be-
fore the winds waited them to the Nerth,
or they had aroused the sensibihties and
vengeance of the mourning mothers and
sisters, who look in vain for tidings of the
lost and tortured ones who suffered under
him The counsel for Weriz are probably
paid for doing what they have done, and
so their 1mPertinent request will go for
what 1t Is worth. Ny task is self imposed,
and results from sincere convictions Of duty
TO Justice to government to humanity.
1 desire that the people Of the North
should know, from one whe had constant
opportunities 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 mildest treatment that safety
would permit.
l have referred to the quality and guam
tity of the food given TO the prisoners, and
have since been asked if the country wss
really so destitute Of provisions IS to re-
quire it. At the post qusrtermsster's at
Americus, nine miles from Andersonville,
there was turned over to the United States
Government nearly two hundred thousand
pounds Of bacon and sn immense amount
of corn and other produce; larger guam
tity was stored at Albany, forty miles
lover down, and very considerable stores
st OglethOrpe, eighteen miles above An.
dersonville. These amounts were con-
tinually increasing from tithes and pur-
chsses, so that it will be seen that there
was no lack of provision in the country
wherewith to furnish the prisoners food.
have heard much of whs. is termed the
dead line; )" few, however, know what Is
meant by 1t. Alter the completion of the
prison, those confined there were aceus-
toned to approach the stocksde and lock
through the openings between the posts, or
talk to outsiders. after the assumption of
by Msjor Wertz, he caused the
prisoners to be notified that if they ap-
prosched within thirty feet of the stockada
they would be shot by the guards upon the
outside This limit of thirty feet was IN
By any LSHe I0hGtsUer. It was ideal,
and left to the arbitrary determination of
men on guard, msjority of whom were IS
incapable of Judging of distances, or of
snls distance of thisty foot, were the
poor prisoners who were doomed if they
trsnsgressed it. The consequence was
that weekly, yes almost daily, the prison
srs were shot down by the guards, when
these thought that they had trsnscsnded
The imaginary line which separated thirty
seven thousand human beings from eter-
nifty.
Upon one occasion, prisoner who had
been confined there for more than q year,
desperate by hunger, want and |
filth, preferring death to life SO unuttera- |
bly, miserable, sfser writing a last fond let
ter to his wife in Indiana, and bidding his |
friends around him farewell, deliberately |
towards the side of the stOckade, |
ard calmly received the we'll directed shot
Of the sentinel, that released his soul from |
The tortures which he could not endure, and !
which his manhood sank under.
The southeast corner of the interior of |
The stocksde was the fsvorite spot for this |
kind of practice by the executors of /
Wertz's will; for at this point the brook \
Dr. stream to which I have already referred |
entered the limits of the prison. Here |
The water was less tainted and befouled BY |
the drainage of the hill, and afforded q |
more pslatsble drink; of course |
This point was sought, in preference to any |
other. But wO to the unfortunate wretch |
who ever reached with his arm beyond
The prescribed bounds, TO dip up cup Of
better water than the reeking current be-
low him offered A sentinel's bullet sent |
one more spirit trembling to God, while |
the wretch's body lay prone and washed in
the very water that mis- less fortunate com.
rsdes must drink, until necessity forced its
removal How many were slain in this
will never be known until the re-
cords of book unscanned BY mortal eyes
be made up in figures of living light.
At short distance from the stockade
WAS the field where the remains of the
dead prisoners were supposed to be buried.
AS if the toriures and degrsdstions oftheir
Wretched life were insufficient the culmi-
mating stroke Was given by their mode Of
interment. In long bitches, scarcely two
feet in depth, without coffin or cover, with
out even the ordinary decent composing Of
their limbs, but csrelessly hustled into the
bed which was to be their last. thirteen
thousand eight hundred shrunken, CHASTITY
bodies have been tossed; and there they
lie, an "Rrmy of martyrs" whose cry will
90 up to heavens gate ia uncessing pesls,
asking vengeance for the "deep damna.
ton of their taking of"
1 know not what the benevolent mission
of Captain Moore may have accomplished
in this dreary cemetery, but / do know
that three months ago at least onstenth Of
the whole number there were lying ex-
posed; the dirt which had been carelessly
thrown upon them having settled or been
washed away, while legs and and arms pro-
truded here and there, sad signal posts Of
down. trampled humanity, natural monu-
ments of fiendish cruelty. And over this
AceldSma of the NOrth's best and bravest
could be seen the shadoWsof the thousand
buzzsrd's wings IS they slowly sailed
shove the fostering heaps, or, gloated with
their hcrrid feast gloomily sat and gazed
upoh others who followed TO this isdisgusting
banquet Of deathl -..- OIL.
For this and for more than this has
Wertz been summoned TO account. It will
not answer to plead for him that he Wss
the servant of others in authority, and act
ed under orders. It will not do to say that
the Confederate government knew al this
and failed to apply remedy. Until it is
shown that man must lose his manhood
and humanity its feelings, that the
officer must become brute and blind
ly obey, when his instincts and his
duty force him to resist or resign,
the world viii not hold him guIltless who
tramples upon all decency and outrages all
sensibiity, by reducing prisoners of war to
q condition little better than that of Gagged
hyenas. The wall of bereaVed wives and
he plesdings of orphaned children, Joined
10 the stern dictates of justice, demand that
l.