The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1865-09-02
The Andersonville Torturers.
What was Meant by the Dead Line.
TooHow OUR MEN WERE BURIED.

TOE HOW OUR MEN WERE BURIED.
~@lAN ~ ~ N--4--- "a q Z ,el-1
The following letter was written to the New
York Post by Georgia Farmer who lived near
Andersonville and had abundant opportunity
for knowing how our prisoners were treated by
the Rebel authorities. 1t will give our readers
an idea of the man Werz,f whose trial is now
going on at Washington before military court.
;. fear that may tire the patienceof your rea
ders BY continuing the subject of my, previous
article, but am unwilling to conclude a hurried
narrative of he horrors Of Andersonville with
/ out placing upon record my objections to the
matter as we'll as spirit of the letter of thelconn-
sci of Major Wertz, published on the same day
as my first communication. If they imagine
that the sympathies of the nation can be restrain
ed or its desire for certain information repressed
by their injuuctions to that effect they and
read the character of the people very differently.
If they seek TO prevent Judgment being passed
upon the conduct of their client, they have begun
their efforts too late. 1t would have been better
if they would have stihed the groans, suhdued
the signs and stilled the death struggles of
Wertz's victims, before the winds waited them
to the North or they had aroused the sensbilities
and vengeance of the mourning mothers and sis
tiers; Who look in vain for tdings of the lost and
tortured ones who suffered under him. The
counsel for Wertz are probably paid, for doing
what they have done, and so their impertinent
request will go for what it's worth. My task IS
selimposed, and results from sincere convictions
of duty ojustice, to Government, to humanity.
l-o4 desire that the people of the North should
know, from one who had constant opportunities
for seeing W hat amount of crueltyc can be exert
ed 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
entitled to- the mildest treatment that safety
would permit. 4itoJ" Ifigqoq 2di 10 i5i1Jotl
have referred to the quality and quantity of
| the food given to the prisoners, and have since
been asked il the country was really so destitute
of provisions as to require it. At the post Quar-
termaster's, at Americas, nine miles from Ander-
sonville there was turned over to the United
States Government nearly two hundred thousand
ponnds of bacon and an immense amount of corn
AID other produce. Alarger quantity was stored
at Albany forty miles lower down and very
considerable stores at Oglethorpe eighteen miles
above Andersonville. These amounts were con-
tinualy increasing from tithes and purchases, so
that it will be seen that there was no lack of pro-
visions in the country werewith to furnish the
prisoners food % .39ot9o ST ipoaG - al-s---,
4 have heard much Of what is termed the
dead line;2 few however, know what is meant
| By it. After the completion Of the prison and
| its use, those confined there were accustomed to
| apnroach the stockade and look through the
openings between the posts or talk. to outsiders
| After the assumption of command by Major
Wertz he caused the prisoners to be notified that
| if they approached within thirty feet of the
| stockade, they would be shot by the guards upon
the outside This limit of thirty feet was u'anark
ed 5v anu line ,chdte0er lit was ideal, and left to
| the arbitrary determination of men on guard,
| majority of whom were as incapable of judging
| of distances or of this distance of thirty feet
as were the poor prisoners who were doomed il
they transgressed it, The consequence was that
weekly, yesalmost daily, the prisoners were shot
| down by the guards, when these thought that
| they had transcribed the imaginary line which
separated thirty seven thousand human beings
| from eternity TyA,g EEegEEE,L
/ Upon one occasion prisoner who had been
| confined there for more than year, rendered
desperate by hunger, want and filth, rRrefering
| death to a life SO unutterably miserable, after
writing a, last fond letter to his wife in Indiana,
and bidding his friends around him farewell, de-
| liberately advanced towards the side of the
stockade, and calmly received the well-directed
/ shot Of the sentinel, that released his soul from
| the fortunes which he could not endure ana
which his manhood sunk under. lo
| The southeast corner of, the interior or the
stockade was the avorite spot for this kind prac
tice by the executors Of Wertz will for at this
| point the brook or stream TO which | have al
| ready referred entered the limits OF the prison.
| Here the water was less tainted and befouled by
| the drainage of the hill, and afforded some
what more paIatable drink; OF course this point
was sought in preference to any other. But wo
to the unfortunate wretch who ever reached win
his arm beyond the prescribed BOUNDS, 10 dip up
n cup of better water than the reeking current
below him offered a A sentnel's bullet sent one
more spirit trembling to its God, while the
wretcl1's body lay prone and washed in the very
waterfall his Iessfortunate comrades must drink,
until necessity forced its removal. How many
were slain in this manner will never be known
until the records of book unscanned by NOR
tai eyes be made up in figures of living light
Alta short distance from the stockade was the
field where the remains Of the dead prisoners
were supposed to be buried. AS if the fortunes
and degradations of their wicked life were in
sufficient, the eliminating stroke was given by
their mode of interment. In long bitches, scarce
ly two feet in depth, without coffin or cover,
without even the ordinary decent composing OF
their limbs. but carelessy hustled into the bed
which was to be their last, thirteen thousand ana
eight hundred shrunken, ghostly bodies nave oeen
tossed; and they lie an army OF martyrs
whose cry will gonp to Heavens gate IN unceaS-
ing peals asking vengence for the : deep Gamma
ton of their taking off.
know what the benevolent mission of
captain MOOlt iudy uoNSioSSosAP -
drcary cemetery, but ] do know that three
months ago Mt least one-tenth Of the whole num-
her there lying were exposed the dirt when
had been carelessly thrown upon them having
settled or washed away, while legs and arms pro-
tuded here and there, sad signal posts OF down
trampled humanity, natural monuments OF ilend-
ish cruelty.I Aud over this Acedama OF the
North's best and lbravest could be seen the shad-
ows of the thousand buzzards' wings as they
slowly sailed above the fostering heaps or. gloat-
ed with their horrid feast, glomily sat and gazed
upon Others who had followed to this disgusting
banquet of death iN .YQAaH f}iv i4oT
For this and for more than this has Werfz
been summoned 10 account. 1t will not answer
to plead for him that he was the servant OF 9TH
ers in authority, and acted under it. 1t will not
do to say that the Confederate Government knew
all this and failed to apply remedy. Until II
is shown that man must lose his manhood ana
humanity its feelings that the officer must become
a brute and blindly obey, when his instincts and
hisdutyfor him to resist or resign, the world
will not hold him sguiltless who tramples upon |
all decencv and outrages all sensibility by redu-
cling prisoners of war to condition little better
than that of Gagged hyenas The wall of bereav-
ed wives and the pleadings Of orphaned children,
ionedto the stern dictates Of justice, demand that
punishment should be melted to him, who show
ed no mercy upon the helpless and unarmed pris-
oner, whom the fate of war had thrown into MS
power. If I have added anything to the infor-
nation of your readers, my purpose is fully ac-
cornplished bv the brief and hurried notes that