The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1865-08-16
The AudersonvIl,e P.isoners.

| i0nged 10 New ork regiment. Ell
Boate passed through every form of dis
ease known to the prison; has food wa
the same as that given 10 other prisoners
One hundred and thirty to one hundred
and forty died daily-certainly terribl,
mortality. He didn't form very fat
tering opinion OF Writ Yet he ADDS
Wirlz was vain but not bad man
and when prisoners paid him specia
respect, he spoke and acted. feelingly
Il would indeed comply with any re
quest of theirs. They of.ed cheered hin
as he walked or road through the prison
When he stopped the rations at the
nolthern side of the stockade on Saint
Patrick's day, because so many of them
wanted to play the flank movement,
had myself 10 fast all day, with the ex
ception Of one full fist of raw corn meal
which happened to remain from the DAY
before, and ray prayers on the day of the
patron saint of Ireland was plague q
both your houses" Federals as we'll as
Confederates. | thought also that bread
and meat, day after day, without any sort
of variety was cruel, ahd that we Oughr
to have had occa -ional beans or vegetabe es
Instead. But knew not then what diff
culties there were on the part of the
rebels in getting even the bread and
meat.
/ take this opportunity to say thai
mems systems became so PROSTATE from
long confinement. want OF tifen ordinary
iood and wanS of vegetables for twelve
or fifteen months, and corn bread every
day, that they were unable 10 eat halt
their rations of bread and ham, and that
hundreds of them threw the bread in
the street, and sold their meal rations
and bought beans. Every day you went
through the prison you could find hun
dreds of bread rations thrown out as rub
bish, both by those whose systems were
too weak to eat it, and by those not de
pendent on the rations alone, OF which
there were thousands. Ia the course Of
my term in the stockade-about thre7
montbs-mol8sses rice and beans were
occasionally served TO the prisoners, which
was most gratefully received by the poor
prisoners.
Well, bat some one will ask me, was
not Captain Wirtz guilty Of atrocities
toward our men :" reply as emphat.
ically and soIemnly as il | were on my
lE'S-Il bCNt ItCN NOt4AiS III ISIA III III TIC
stockade." Some men were shot bg the
guards for Infringing on the :" dead line,"
but every Intelligent soldier viii admit
and did admit that when it was under
stood that to infringe on the dead line
was as much prohibited as to attempt to
get over the stockade-a fact known to
all the prisoners-whocver was shot had
only himself to blame. In several in
stances the guards warned men inlring-
ing on the dead line, and God bless their
humanity, say /, for no lives were lost
in other cases the warning was unbeeded.
and the guards had to fire in other cases
men were fired on without any warning,
bat this was seldom.
The object of this dead line which was
a fenced in space of ground twenty one
feet wide, equi-distant from the stockade,
all round by slight railing, was to pre-
vent the prisoners coming too near the
stockade, as it was apprahended they
might at any moment burst through il, if
allowed to come close to it in any num-
bers. During my stay, then, in the
stockade, never witnessed acts of atroc-
lty or wanton cruelty exercised toward
our men by or on behalf of Capt Wirtz,
who, so far as | could learn while | w9s
in the stockade, only performed a very
disagreeable duty to the best of his abii-
ity-sometimes roughly, but never with
malignity or in bad spirit. He certainly
would never become general favori,e
with the prisoners, but his position and
the relations they held toward one
another, must be considered.
When | became paroled prisoner, l
had to alter my opinions IN toto Of Captain
Wirtz. What | thought harsh in him
was more assumed than real; while what
was kind in Tue man was real, net assum
ed. He had the least amount of sec
donal feeling | met In the South He
would often say: {" If The id fanatics
on both sides were pat into a barrel and
thrown into the sea, and if they could
escape through the bung hole, let them
do SO but ii they sank to the bottom.
the country at large would be the better
of it."
When prisoners would arrive previ
ously to the enlargement of the stockade.