Cairo evening times. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1865-1866, 1865-09-09
Correspondence of the Cairo Times.

Correspondence of the Cairo Times.
WASHINGTON, SEPT. 4, 1865.
! Nothing of any interest stirring here to day.
| keeper of the Andersonville prison, adjourned
| over FROM Saturday until tomorrow Tues-
day. at 10 am.
Every days proceedings in this case continue
to heap up evidence ofsavage cruelty that al
most makes one blush for poor human nature.
When stories Of the sufferings of our soldiers
held as prisoners by the rebels, and the cruel
ties inflicted upon them, first began to be cir
culated at the North but few believed them.
Even when evidence of the truth Of many of
| these rumors forced themselves upon the pub
| lie mind, almost every one was willing to ink
the Confederates did the best they could under
the circumstances, and that the sufferings Of
| our men in their hands was the result of in
ability on the part of their captors to treat
| them properly, and not the result of deliber-
ate system Of cruelty that would put to shame
the veriest savages that ever danced around
the fire that consumed their victims But
even the most lenient in their judgment are
compelled to give up this idea. The pictures
of suffering and the details of systematic
cruelty, developed by the evidence given
upoL this trial are terrible, heartsckening. We
instinctively turn away from the sight and try
to think it a dream, nightmare, and not a
horrible reality. But, alas, the cumulative
evidence is too strong, and, to the disgrace of
human nature, we find it is not dream. I do
not think the mass of the Southern people
should be held up to public opinion as part;ci-
pators either in acts or principles in such
barbarities, but that there was a sys-
tematic plan adopted and pursued by
certain of the authorities connected with
the rebel War Department., intended. by
starvation and disease to destroy the lives of
| prisoners in their hands, I have no doubt
However brutal Wirz may be by nature, he
would not have dared to play the role of a
| fiend incarnate so openly as he did if he had
| not known that his course would be approved
| and sustained by his superior officers. Like
! master like man. holds good in military mat
ters as in other paths of life. Wirz was but
| the tool, willing and plant one, no doubt,
| find the real demon whose wings cast dark
shadow over all the prison pens of the South
| and whose breath filled the air with disease and
death, we may pass by Wirz and other prison
keepers, and even by Gen. Winder, and come
| TO the head of the rebel War Department, if
not the rebel President himself Not only at
Andersonville, but at Libby, at Danville, at
Belle Isle, at Salisbury, and at Florence, S. C.
the same system was observed. Starvation,
exposure without shelter, to sun and to storm,
little or no no medical attendance, kicks, blows,
shooting at the t;dead lne,' in Short every
thing that could wear out and destroy both
the minds and bodies Of the poor wretches
whom an evil fate had consigned to such
keeping.
The first feeling one has in reading of these
barbarites IS sympathy for the sufferers, next a
| feeling Of shame and regret that animals capa-
ble of committing such deeds should be found
| in human shape; and then one feels as If he
would like to see the strong hand of '!justice'
| grapple those in higher position who investi-
gated these things and place them for trial be-
| side the poor wretch who did but s'obey
| orders III, to use his own words, ''killing
more id Yankees at Andersonville than Lee
| was killing at the 'front.'
This trial will soon end and so will the
| career of Wirz.
| The trial of "Jeff Davis'' is still held off
for what reason is not otknown to the unintiated.
1t is rumored that it is set for an early day,
| and that Gen. Butler is to assist the Attorney
General as public prosecutor, O'Connor, OF
New York, and Geo. E. Pugh, of Ohio, for the
| defense. Yours,
| EGYPTIAN