Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-11-07

TO tod under its handsome covers and in its
clear type, the most dreadful record of the
war, the fearful and terrible details of the
wretchedness, starvation, suffering and death
which have made Andersonville the blackest
name of the war. More than 80 900 Union
soldiers perished in rebel prisons during the
war, and % 900 were buried at Andersonyille
and Salisbury alone. Most of these victims of
rebel berbarity were deliberately tortured to
death by starvation. The rebel officials at
Richmond, when they we're charged with starv-
InS UulCn prisoners. attempted to pallate their
guilt by pretending that their prisoners had the
same care and ratons, as the rebel soldiers,
II any one ever thought for an instant this ex-
cuse had any foundation in fact, he should read
the startling evidence OF This book. which re-
vei.ls IN It's own horrid image the utter fend-
ishoess OF cruelty which must have inspired
the traitors who put to death, by process
more appalling than any of the devilish devices
Of the lnquisition, these thousands of brave
boys in blue" The details are sickening in
their very horror, and By their sharp contras,
with the prison fare of JEFF. Davis, and the
present treatment of traitors, arouse a some
what fierce indignation.
We nave room only for the following ex-
tract, which speaks of the graves of the thir-
teen thousand dead, who suffered the extremi-
y OF torment, even unto death
At the distance of about i've hundred PAGES
northwestward from the stockade, il Ii tie
Eeld which is almost overshadowed by the sur
rounding pines. appears multitude of stakes
standing upright in the earth in long and reg.
ular lines.
Upon every one Of these fragments OF boards
figures have been carelessly scratched by an
iron instrument and they run up to the ap-
pal:ng number Of almost thirteen thousand
Each stick represents dead man-a hero
aGd this multitude of branchless and Ieafe.s
trunks reminds US rather of blasted vineyard
than Of cemetery arranged for the human
dead
have seen many of the rarest sculptures in
civilized lands. where art has lavished and ex-
hausted its powers to awaken sympathy for the
dead but have met with none that moved my
heart more impressively than the brief, vague
Inscriptions, the rude memorials of thi silen.
and neglected fed, where sleep entire army
Of freemen, who preferred lingering death
rather tn an allegiance to rebel and wicked
f4ction-
Beneath the red clods of this field, thickly
as the leaves of autumn, ars stretched side by
side a number OF men more numerous than all
Of the American soldiers who perished by dis
ease and casualty of battle during the Mexican
war-mOre than all the British soldiers who
were killed, or VerIshed from their wounds,
the bloody fed, OF the Crimea, the desperate
struggles at Waterloo. the foUr great battles
in Spain,-TalsvOrs, Salamanca, Albuers, W.T.
toria,-and also the sanguinary contest at New
Orleans. All these losses OF the sons OF the
british empire do not build up hectacomb of
the human deed so high, so vast, red, as
this single link of the great chain of wrong
tEat stretched from Virginia to Texas.
There Is no battlefield on the face of the
globe, known to the antiquary, where so many
soldiers are inferred in one group, a. are gath
cred together in the broad trenches of this
neglected field among the pine forests of Geor-
ga What a gathering Is this w hat
monument ~ the incarnation of political lust,
OF the reckless desperation, the impscabiity of
the deVraved human heart. when resolved upon
cruelty The world does not offer, among all
her extart memorials, more terrible, more
impressive comment upon the ambition, The
power. the glory Of mankind.
Respect 10 the dead is an instinct of nature !;
and to leave the remains of fallen cOmrade
upon the field, unhonored, is repugnant
TO the red men of the forest. How much more,
then. does a civilized nation, of high degree,
VIII It row forget the noble sacrifice OF It's
sons amid the deSasing Influences of commerce
and manufictuTe Shall these sticks. w hich
mark he nations sacrifice, moulder into dust,
and with their brief Inscriptions be swept away
by ne winds Of the world, and all traces Of
this heroisn, this msrtyrdom, lost =?
Here IS something required more than brief,
hollow, human gratitude. and 5onorous, per-
liable epitaph
Whatever rises above the level Of this plain
to commemorate for future ages the devotion
Of the men who sleep beneath, should be of
lss-Ing material, and colossal as the gigantic
proportions oi the republic Itself: the field
should Oe eveiled and swept, and every distin-
guishIr 2 sign blended and effaced, and the true
altar Of memoral erected in the hearts of all
men who believe and reverse those eternal
principles Of love. justice, and truth.
LtOegty mas out inscription 10 offer, and
that IS the noble lines which we're traced on
the dungeon wall in the blood of the Doblest
and purest of the Girondists " POtius morn
guam fcBddri Death rather than dishonor.
Impartial history will give to the memory Of
these men pace among the records OF useless
murder
The law Of parole all-suffcient TO pre-
vent their return TO service, and their absence
from the fields Of campaign would have been
OF no material weight with the prolific North
But the intent of their csptors was cruelty )
and they strove to reduce the numbers, and TO
intimidate the courage of the Federal soldiers,
by acts Of savage barbarity, as the relentless
Tartar hoped TO terrify the HIndoos into the
profession of Mohammedsnsm by sacrificing
multitudes, and deluging whole countries In
bOod.
10 deny the criminality is. as Lamartine says
of the msssacres of September, to belle the
right of feeling of the human race. 1t is to
deny nature, which is the morality of instinct
There is nothing in mankind greater than hu
manity. Ii is not more permissible for a gov
ernmeut than for a man to commit murder
Ii q drop Of blood stains the hand of a mur
derer, oceans of gore do not make innocent
the Dantons. The magnitude of the crime
does not transform it into virtue. Pyramidi
Of dead bodies rise high, it is true, but not &c
high the execration of mankind
This book is the only illustrated work OF
this subject published, having upwards OF TWEEN
ty ensravings, maps, etc, from correct draw
Inss, measurements, ETC., taken on the spot
and from rebel photographs Price 81 90
THE WooDvLLE SToRIEs.-Mr. William
T. Adams Is the author of a series OF stories
for boys and girls, under the assumed nam'
Ot Oliver Optic The series is now com
plete III six volumes, with these titles I'll
Rich and Humble; IL, In School and Out
LII, Watch and Wait; Nv, Work and Win
v. Hope and Have; vi, Haste and Waste