Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-08-10

The prison couLfbe perceiUGf for tuO mules,
aud Formers IJing mthe ne0hJorhosd began
to fepJor hehealth Vshetr Gtnniies.
Al a consequences OF this, the hospitals,
facetious wOsNYeriz in his lwr bic humanity
wores crowded to completion with he ems-
ciated. starved and diseased mUu who were
truuded into them. "a, II
The hospitals we're constructed of logs,
unhewcd, the interstices untitled and open,
admitting the rain, without floors, cots,
bunks or blankets, filthy and fetid with the
fostering, putrid bodies of the sick, the dy- /
ing and the dead. Words fail, language is
inpotent to describe one Of those dens of
disease and death | once mustered the |
COURAGE, impeled by the earnest entreaties
OF Northern friend, to enter one. of them,
to visit one who was tendery reared, and
walked in the best ranks of Connecticut
society. | believed had seen before this
what deemed to be human wretchedness
in its worst forms. sIthoughtthat could
nerve myself to witness mortal agony and
wretchedness aud destitution, as had heard
| it described, without bancbingor trembling.
But if the condensed horrors of hundred
"black holes" had been brought before my
mind to prepare me for the ordeal they
would have failed to realize the facts as
saw them face to face '.i. "' 80
| Il CuUUOt, III udlIy paper Ttdu ny iu-
| necence and virtre, detail what met my
sight on the occasion | refer to. | will not
lipOlute any page, save the records of the
! courts that inusttry the culprit for the Grin
Of torture by disease and filth, with the
details of that caravansary' of horrible,
| Intentional slaughter. For fear that some
may think have exaggerated, an episode
here will perhaps, dispe such illusion. =
Convicted by the horrible fact that was a
stencil in his ncstrils, Gen. Windcr, then
Commssary-Ge of Prisons, not having his
headquarters at Andcrsonville, was forced
by decency, not humanity, for this be him
self asserted, to ak the aid of the Presiding
Elder of the Methodist Church of that
circuit to adopt some means to alleviate the
miseries and soothe the wretchedness Of th,
poor inmates ofthat Andersonville hospital
! This gentleman invoked the cooperation Of
(, the women of Sumter County, who respond
Z ed with clothing and necessaries only, fo
, these alone are allowed, to the amount o
four wagon loads. Upon the day ap
e pointed, four ladies, accompanied by thei
husbands, went to the prison and sough
g from the Provost Marshala pass, to tax
J their benefactions to the sick prisoners. q.
" was refused with a curse The part
o proceeded to Winders headquarters, wher
Henry Wertz was in company with th
D General. The demand for pass repeated
o Understand the ladies we're present, an
% the reasons given why the party were thel
Is in accordance with Winder's specialrequ
J. To their astonishment, they were met wit
IL this reply: Cd d-n you, have you q
es turned Yankees here2" .1
as "No, General responded the spoke
le man Ofthc party, 81 am not, as youknow, n
OF are any here present; we havs come, as yC
'n requested us, through the Rev. Mr.. d.,
OF bring necessary article for the FEEDER
hospital and ask pass for the purpose
us delivei ing them" .'',
''It's d-n lel never gave permissi
as for anything of the kind BE off wi
by you, all of you ~ .."i'
1t; AS if this fearless display of martial val
no and gentlemanly bearing was not sntiiciel
OF Henry Wertz essayed to and did eclipse
Ia General in profanity and indecency-
to here assert that if the lowest sinks OF t
ny most abandoned parts OF your city we
es' CLEANED, they could not surpass the rib,
ne or, exhibited in the presence of refined a
EN- 'loyal" ladies. i,rt @ H'4. 1l
ed Shocked, terrified, beaten to the VI
dust with modification, tile party retf,
vas and, toled in their efforts to suecor the S
ey, or alleviate the torturcs OF tho dying Tn
De soldiers, they gave their loads Of cloth
ip- and food to a passing column of Fede
JIG prisoners on their way to another place
on Millen. They at least had the satisfaot
acy Of knowing that some were benefited, e'
en- if they had failed in their efforts for tn
ose who most needed their assistance.
ays During the last winter-whch was
cks usually cold for Georgia, when the ice mi
an inch thick-no shelter, no blankets
the clothes, no wood was provided for
for wretched inmates IF that prison. SOU
Fm- were permitted, to the number of thirty
. 60 out under guard daily, for enc he
lug without axes or any cutting tool, to gat
was the refuse and rotten wood in the fore
cry and if they eutstaid their time, they "
yea tried by drumhead court martial. char
ght with violating their parole, and if fo'
the guilty, were hung | myself saw h
2ps' Poor fellows, thought, God has taken
Ieu' upon you and given you deliverance Fl
y M our cruel jailor. When you and he m
lng at another judgment-seat woe to him il
hels authority be found insufficient for this
. king of your lives, wretched though they
the My house was the resort, or, she
sary say, refuge, of most of the prisoners
I'M made their escape from the st0ckade,
ney the tales of starvation and distress wi
they told would have melted an iron he
gon | must close my hurried account of VIII
10 had seen If II far from full. not one.
day has been told. bv far the most has b
but kept back from very shame, and in res
and to your readers. have not embellisi
,,ove The pictures were too rough, the charaC
IN too forlorn for the flowers of rhetoric
OF bloom 10 their presence. Broken hes
and crushed spirits and manhood tramp pied
inr may answer as fitting subjects for thu
peas mancer's pen, but the horrible reality
tho seldom seen, burns its images upon tn,
81. holders soul. that no other impressions
lced efface, and they remain life pictures ind
bout III 'T-' M '.Ifii.a "a
one u, -----------, . s.-------------- sol
day. SLAVERY auS ..vndeDendepc.