The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1866-04-21
The Dead at Andersonyille.

Captain James NJ. Moore, @. NJ, U. S. A., ha:
thousand of the Union dead who were buried a.
Andersonville, South Carolina. Hundreds more
be says, were buried there, whose names he coult
not ascertain. Among the number contained il
the list we recognize the names of many persona
friends-young men who went with us at thei
country's call to battle with the marshaed host
of treason, and who, when captured, were in thu
vigor of manhood. But they are gone-brutally
murdered by the chirol,y of the South-starued
tortured, killed, by the men who are wont to Sc
themselves up as the very highest types of civil
cation. May God forgive the leaders of the re
bellion for the horrible crueties committed upoI
our noble, heroic soldiers; we never can.
In describing Andersonville, Captain Moor
says:
How men could survive as well as they die
in this pen, exposed to the rays of an almost tro
pical sun by day and drenching dews by night
without the slightest covering, is wonderful. Tht
ground is filled with holes where they burrowed
in their efforts 20 shield themselves from the wea
ther and many poor fellow, in endeavoring tt
protect himself in this manner, was smotheIed t
death by the earth falling in upon him.
"The stories told of the sufferings of our mer
while prisoners here have been substantiated bN
hundreds; and the skeptic who will visit Auder
sonville, even now, and examine the stockade
with its black, ooZy mud, the cramped ant
wretched burrows, the dead line and the slaugh
ter house, must be callous observer, indeed, i
be is not convinced that the mseries depicted o
this prison are no exaggerations."
Commenting on the above, the Baltimore Amer
lean has the following:
The revolving details are before the world
Search the records of the human race, the dark
est periods of ancient barbarism, and we still fai
to find an instance of demonism SO horrible
Thirteen thousand gallant men deliberately muir
dered by slow, systematic and fiendish fortunes
In ancient barbarous periods, death or slavery
speedy death by the sword, or compulsory labor
in the service of the captor-was the fate of th'
captured, and all men, in whose breasts ther
glowed one spark of the primitive flame of liber
ty, everywhere preferred death to captivity
speedy death to degrading toll in the chains o
The bondman. The history of those ages are
consequently, filled with sanguinary instances o
frightful slaughter In the pages Of Thucydide
we have description Of the massacre, il
one night of two thousand helots by tht
Lacedemon youth--the cruel murder of TIVE
thousand unotfending victims by the barbarou
scions of the bloody oligarchal tyrants of Sparta
They fell by the sword. In the annals of Pagan
Rome, IN the description of the domestic life o
its oligarchal tyrants, we meet with individual
instances of criminal cruelty like that of Polio
who Toasted his lampreys upon the bodies of sucl
of his slaves as offended him In the record o.
the Middle Ages we find Henry ", of England
at Agincourt, with small but gallant band o.
Englishmen, pressed on all sides by superior mum
bers ordering the slaughter of his captives t
save his own countrymen Later, in Spain, w
meet with the massacre of Moriscoes in Scot
land, at Glenco, the slaughter of the unfortunate
acknowledgement instances truly Of sangui
nary cruelty In all these instances, however
the sword did its work speedily ! Nowhere il
antiquity, with all its stupendous crime ant
cruelty-in the dark or feudal ages, with the
ignorance and brutal barbarism-not even in be-
inquisitoral dungeons of Venice, in the mos
cruel periods of her obligarchy, can be found ar
instance of crime so prodigous or so horrible
nowhere pirallel to the long, lingering indie
scribable agony of thirteen thousand noble mer
drawn out through frightful weeks and month:
of prolonged and systematic demonism A crime
so appalling was left to our own age-to the
nineteenth century The preparation of crime
the revolving details of which appall even tht
callous soul not denounced by slavery, was lef
to the Christian obligarchs of our own country
to a class of men fond of Boosting of their en-
lightenment, their progress in civilization, and
their superiority in all the accomplishments o.
race
1t was thought, however, that when the fear.
full passions of the hour had subsided-when the
heat and fury of the battle had passed away, and
quieter moments reacting upon the hours o
strife, permitted a calmer contemplation of the
frightful demonition of the Libby and Anderson
ville of Fort Pillow, Salisbury, and Pea Ridge
a consciousness in the breast of their authors OF
their heavy guilt, with the returning sentiments
of humanity, would develop a contrition that
would fill their souls with horror--a remorse
that would cause, them, in sackcloth and ashes,
to humble themselves before their loyal coutry-
men-aye, to shrink from the sight of day, and
to shun the highways of man. Has this been
so Where is their contrition-where their re-
morse On the contrary, the men whose every
act was an outrage upon mercy during four
years Of wicked, causeless rebellion now, while
iustifying their acts in the name of treason, de-
mand an unconditional amnesty for all their fear
full crimes Do not they, who trampled upon
every right of man, and banished from their
breasts every sentiment of humanity, now, in
stead of upon Bonded knees appealing to the
clemency of the nation for an obteration OF the
past, do not these men really demand restora-
ton OF all their former rights unoer Tue consul
tuition as it wds With hypocritical mask of
dissimuated loyalty, so thin that the latent
malignty, still ranking in their unrepenant
hearts, appears plainly in their every act, do not
these men, in thus demanding a restoration of
all their former rights under the Constitution as
it ,oas really claim restoration of their old oil
garchal tyranny and domination in the Nation
al councils their oigarchal power over the States
with all their demoralizing consequences
Shall " treason, with IFS conconlitants of un-
utterable crimes, never be made :" odious' trail
tors" never be " punished ~
Marylanders, loyal, patriotic Marylanders,
when rejecting upon the diabolical tortures en-
dured by their patriot soldiery in the pens of the
Confederacy, while in imagination, they place
themselves by the sides Of their brothers, fathers,
sons, during the terrible weeks and months of
long, lingering, Undesirable agony in the pris-
on bells of Andersonville while they hear the
wall, and see the suffering Of the widows and or
phans of their hero-martyrs who at Anderson
Vile, gave up their noble lives for their country,
while thus true to themselves, their country aud
their martyred dead loyal Marylauders will not
again yield the destinies Of their State to the
control of men whose appalling demonism, fast
ening upon the escutcheon Of the nation an in
delible blot aud passing in history TO our chill
dren, will be regarded by every succeeding gen.
eration with increased indipnAtion and horror