The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-08-07

\ anu -GNN ENN1UGH- OUHS
4 4 2I 95 the bread aboye described per day
I Then, also, the custom. of y carrying the
lpr1soners' food into the stockade in
| wagons, was abolished. They drove up
TO the gates, which were slightly open
ed and the scanty food, foul and un-
heal4thy 1eal ttIly as It was, was thrown inside
| Dy the guard, to be scram bled for by
i the wretched prisoners, the strongest
ana those nearest the gate getting the
q largest share, the weak and sicllly get
ting noae.! u = &I4h I'd GlI1 II
l have mentioned the small brook
winch r runs r1I IS through the lower part of
water for drinking and washing. This
brook has its rise in a swamp not far
from the prison, and at no time, GER
ta1nly not for q lengt hened period, was
the Water suitable OF healthy; butWhen
the faces and filth, the drainage of the
I whole camp of prisoners, came to be
4 tsuperadded to the natural unfitneis of
the water for mixing or cleansing pur-
poses, myreaders can judge what thirst
| was assuage6, or fever cooled, or thr0b-
I bling temples washed, by: this floating
stream Of filth and disease! At any
time, under the most rigid hygienic re-
Estrlctlons, it is difficult to maintain
health and cleanliness among a large
body of men-what do you think was
the condition of 81, 900 half-nakedS half
starved men, without any police regu-
latiOns, under no moral or restraining
influences? !? If the remnant who were
finally nal allowed to passed out of this
military Golgotha were not wild
beasts, unwashed, befouled devils, no
thanks are to be given to Henry Wertz
for lack of effort to produce such a con-
summntion. yIataa-
When it rained, rs it does in that eli
mate almost continually during the
Spring and Fall months, the soil within
| thn in01nC11rn Tyoe FN1oo 1OIoSe, rP Ia
soft mud,; at least fifteen inches IN
depth, through which stalked and stag
gered the gaunt, lhalf-clad wretches thus
confined. The stencil from the prison
could be 31eTceiUed for t,po DtilcS, and
farmers liVialg IN the igh6OghOOd began
to fear for the health of their families. ~
| AS n consequence of this, the hOspiI
tals-facctfoUs was Wertz in his horri-
bic hulnanity-were crowded to com
pletion with the emaciated, starved and
diseased men who were trundled into
them. '..'-.4 'i''"t Ltfi
logs, unhewed, 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 dying and the
dead. Words fail, Language is impo-
tent to describe one of these dens of
disease and death. I once mustered the
courage, impelled by the earnest en-
treaties ofa Northern friend, to enter one
| of them, to visit one. who was tenderly
reared, and walked in the best ranks of
| Connecticut society. i believed had
seen before this what deemed to be
human Wretchedness in it's worst forms.
I thought that could, nerve myself to
witness mortal agony and wretched-
lness and destitutiOn, as rhad heard it
described, without blanching or trem-
bling. But if. the condensed horrors of
a hundred "black hOles'' had been
brought before my mind to prepare me
for the ordeal, they would, have failed
to realize the facts as sHw them face to
face. ,itl - 4tf .-'at-..s E5-.
I cannot, in n daily paper read by
Innocence and virtue, detail what met
my sight on the occasional refer to.
will not pOllute any. page, save the
records of the courts that must, try the
culprit for the crime of torture by dis
ease and filth, with the details Of that
caravansary of horrible, intentional
Slaughter For fear that some may
think I have exaggerated, an episode
here will, perhaps, dispel such Illusion.
"a stencil in his nostrilS, GenG Wi1lder,
then Commissary-Gen. of Prisons, not
having his headquarters at Anderson
vile, was forced by decency, not hui
manity, for this he himself asserted, to
ask the aid of the Presiding Elder of the
Methodist Church of that circuit to
adopt some means to alleviate the mis-
cries and soothe the wretohedness of
the poor inmates OIL that AndersonYl!le
hospital. This gentleman NJ InyoSed Y the
cooperation lion Of the women OF sumter,
IGoqnty,dWho responded with clothing
are allowed, to the amount! of four
wagon loads. Upon the day appointed,
tour ladies', accompanied py t9elr nus
from the iProvost-:Marshal pass, to
take their oenetactions to the SICK prls.
9ners: one III vas FstIseu 5,I WI curse curse
quarters wnere henry Weftz nv WAS !, IN
company With The, .Gener2l: 'eI 9I. me de-
mand 1or q pass repeateeo: GStn1Gerstand,
the lad1es ne were present, ana ~ me reasons
given why the party were tnere, IN ac-
| COrdanc6 with W1nderS special req ueSt.