The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-08-08
The Treatment Of Federal Prisoners at
Anders0nville.

The New York Post, of Thursday,
publishes the following letter in relation
to the treatment of Federal prisoners at
Andersonville by Hog" Winder, of
Maryland, and Captain Wertz, the COM
mandant of that post. The Post says
the author is "loyal Georgian, a gentle
man well known in New York city and
State, and who spoke of what he saw and
knew of the condition and treatment OF
our unhappy men who werein the hands
Of Wertz and Winder:"
There appears to be disposition on
the part of some of the public press to
mitigate the offences and crimes of Ma
jor Henry Wertz, late the responsible
keeper of the stockade at Andersonville,
Georgia, and to throw upon others the
responsibilities that justly attach to those
alone who were in immediate command
of that prison. Being personally ac-
quainted with most of the officers who
were stationed at Andersonville, and
knowing much of the treatmentof those
who were so unfortunate as to have been
confined in that pen of horror, have
thought that a condensed statement of
how things were managed and prisoners
of war were treated there, might not be
entirely unacceptable to your readers.
wish to be understood as not DESTROYS
/ to forestall t he action or opinion of the
commission which is about toinvestigate
this matter, or to add anything to the
feeling entertainedtow towards Major Wertz
It is enough for him to rest, now and
forever, under an obloquy that no time
TO, III 10 To- al
within himself the unenviable pangs
which the recollection of his powerless
murdered victims will ever arouse, and
to know that whatevermay be the award
of human tribunal, his punishment is
already decreed.
The prison of Andersonville is stock
ade of about eighteen feet high, the
posts comprising it being sunk in the
ground five feet-it originally comprised
an area of eighteen acres, but was SUBJ
sequently enlarged to twenty-seven
acres. The enclosure is upon the side of
hill, looking towards the South, at the
foot of which is small brook, about
five feet wide, and as many inches deep,
which furnished the water for the use OF
the prisoners. Within this enclosure
were turned the prisoners as they ar
rived, and left to provide for themselves,
there being no shelters, or arbors, or any
kind of protection afforded by trees, or
otherwise, against the burning rays of
the Southern sun, the furious storms or
the freezing winters.
The position was selected by Captain
Winder, a son of General John H. Win
der, who was sent from Richmond for
the purpose in the latter part of 1861
When it was suggested to him by dis
interested but humane spectator of his
operations, that it would perhaps be
better to leave the trees standing within
the proposed stockade, as they would
afford shade to the prisoners, he replied,
That was just what he was not going
to do he was going to make pen for
the id Yankees, where they could rot
faster than they could be sent there"
And admirably did he accomplish his
mission.
The first commandment of the post was
Col. Persons, who was soon succeeded
by John H. Winder, with his son as
Adjutant, his nephew as commissary
and sutler, and Henry Wertz in imme-
diate command of the prisoners. There
were generally stationed there for guard
duty, from three to six regiments of in
fantry, with one company of artillery,
having a battery Of six pieces, accord