Weekly Trinity journal., 1867-02-02
NUMBER 4.
Martyria OF, Andersonville Prison.

simple story of the wrongs and heroism Of the
men who were slowly murdered at Andersonville.
1t is inscribed +" to the memory of the men who
steadily upheld the cause of civil liberty, and
who preferred lingering death, in the midst of
unparalleled privations and horrors, rather than
dishonor and denial of their birthrights." 1t is
book that every American citizen should read.
Our people are too ready to forget the treachery,
and worse than savage barbarity, which charac-
terized the treatment of our prisoners by the
men whom President Johnson would now have
make our laws and rule over US. We make the
following extracts from the book:
NOBLE DEVOTION OF THE VICTIMS.
| To understand fully the determined character,
the steadfast loyalty of these brave and unfor-
tunate men, we must consider at length the de-
tails of this enclosure with its hungry, emaciate,
filthy mass of humanity, whence arose stencil
of death so powerful to be perceived at the
distance of league-the array of instruments
of torture, the burning sky, the manifest design
of cruelty.
The suffering wretch had only to pronounce
the magic words. Allegiance to the rebel
cause" and his suferings and misery were at
end. The huge gates few open and with
grim smiles the enfeebled and tottering apostdte
| ranks.
But the republic was safe here, and the sacred
fire of its affairs burned steadily through all the
horrors and noxious vapors of this hell on earth.
Strange to relate, that out of the seventeen
thousand registered sick, there is record Of only
about trenty.fpe who accepted the offers to save
their lives and took the oath of the rebels. 1t is
not wonderful that this great number of men
should thus in silence, brave the horrors by
which they were surrounded, and remain firm in
their convictions of right and wrong? An en-
tire army perished rather than deny the country
which gave them birth They would no more
surrender their principles, than their homes and
affairs, as ransom for their lives.
Has the worlds history parallel to this de-
voton?
And that not wither though the earth
| Forgets her empires with just decay"
! Life here was brief. The victims as they
entered the gate were appalled, at the horrors that
were presented to them in this living sepulchre.
Nature seemed to have abandoned the struggle
early, and the young men passed, with rapid
pace, from youth to manhood-from manhood
to old age. Neither prudence nor philosophy
could protect them from the grievous influences
of the morbid conditions to which they were ex-
posed The delicate and noble faculties were
bunted and destroyed. Some perished at once,
almost as quickly as though struck by the light
ming of heaven, whilst others fingered, accord
reserved and superabundant powers of youth.
Among the few survivors of the present day
we can learn of the fearful struggle between life
and DEATH by the gray hairs, the impassive
features, from which the smile of youth has fed
forever, the feeble and tottering steps of the
man who has prematurely arrived at his limit
of earthly existence.
The integrity and character exhibited by these
men, in the midst of these tortures is unsur-
passed.
GREAT NUMBER OF VICTIMS.
There is no battlefield the face of the
globe, known to the antquary, where so many
soldiers inferred in one group as are gathered
together in the broad trenches of this neglected
field among the pine forests of Georgia. What
gathering is this | What a monument of the in
carnation of political lust of the reckless des-
peraton the implacabliity Of the depraved hu-
man heart, when resolved upon cruelty The
world does not offer, among all her extant me-
MORALS, more terrible, more impressive COM
ment upon the ambition, the power, the glory of
mankind"
CR1MINALITY CANNOT Re DENIED.
i" Impartial history will give to the memory Of
these men place among the records of useless
murder.
The law of parole was all-sufficient toprevent
their return to service, and their absence from the
fields of campaign would have been of no material
weight with the prolific North.
and they strove to reduce the numbers and to in
timidate the courage of the Federal soldiers by
acts of savage barbarity as the relentless Tartar
hoped to terrify the Hndoos into the profession
of Mohammedanism by sacrificing multitudes,
and delugng whole countries in blood.
To deny the criminality is, as Lamartne says
of the massacres 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 humanity.
It is not more permissible for government than
for a man to commit murder. If drop of blood
stains the hands of a murderer, oceans of gore
do not make innocent the Dantons. The magni-
tude of the crime does not transform it into vir-
tue. Pyramids of dead bodies rise high, it ia
true, but not so high as the execration Of man
kind
SELECTION OF THE SPOT.
1t is not the belief of the writer, although
there are many facts to warrant such An infer
ence, that the selection was made with the view
of deliberately destroying the prisoners openly,
without reserve; for there were other localities
far more pestilential than this, and yet, on the
other hand, there were also many situations in
fnitely more salubrious and easy of access
There was in reality not much reflection in the
matter. The selectors thought only of the geo.
graphical and strategical position they cared
not for its topography or its meteorology.
They consulted only their convenience. THE
idea Of the preservation Of The Hues Of their unfor-
tunate prisoners troubled their minds, nerer
disturbed their conseienees. They would.build
safe and secure pen, and if God, in his infinite
and mysterious mercy, chose to summon from
earth any of the hapless wretches, they would
not consider themselves accountable for the
premature deaths. Such was their reasoning
Such was their philosophy. Such was their
conscience. The exult of Winder, when assert
ing that ne was doing more for the confederacy
than dozen regiments at the front, and the ex-
clamation of Howell Cobb, when pointing to the
ten thousand graves, " That is the way would
do for them, were perhaps the brayodo of the
Southern STAKEHOLDER. Even at this late date We
can find men of some tenderness in this vicinity,
who have reasoned their weak minds into the
belief that no harm was ever done or intended
and even if it can be proved, that the federais
only received what they deserved, and no more
] than their own prisoners at the Norm rece'Veu.