The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-04-26

ministered by The Infamous Colonel Fish,
who was afterward sentenced TO the Albany
Peniteuitiary for various crimes, was
another abode of Yankee humanity. IL
was a relief to leave It for a solitary cell NJ
Fort McIlenry, where the Confederate sol
.dicr, loaded with balls and chains, passed
the weary time, nc windows admitting the
light Of day, no lamp allowed at night.
Tile den Of each was cold and noisOme; the
walls thick with mildew the floor covered
with filth of every kind, aud swarming with
.vermin. Here, with a i2-pound ball and
chain on the left ankle, one Confederate
soldier, a prisoner of war, remained for
three months and a half. Here, In this
"hcll upon earth" he was thirteen times
tossed in a blanket, IN presence of the Fed
eral guards, each time falling heavily on
his head or sides. When he had crawlcd
away and fallen asleep, he was awakened
by fire applied to his feet, supplied by the
scntries, causing burns, the scars Of which
he will carry to his grave. Often he was
knocked down, beaten and kicked.
At Forrest Hall, In Georgetown, under
the very nose of Lincoln and Seward, "sus-
poets" we're tortured by u stream of water,
with Il force of thirty pounds TO the square
inch playing on the small of their backs;
and were aftCrward led out for execution,
or to a lifelong confinement In the peni-
Tertiary.
No one knows what has become of these
prisoners. There We're in 1865 some five
Hundred and fifty political prisoners on
the Dry Tortugas. where no writ OF hdbeds
corpus could reach them. Who they are, or
what their oilensc, no one knows. When
will the secrets of that Bastilc be disclosed ?
VIII man ever punish Seward, or will IL be
left to God to do IL? When Charlotte Cor
day killed Marat, she was executed for it,
and ~ dD'i du peuplc' was lamented and
canonized.
But the prisoners were shot for crossing
the dead linen ut Andersonville. Thirty
five thousand turbulent prisoners are diff
cult to control. 1t is no wonder Wirz
wished he was dead. Among them was
the ordinary proportion of villains II
.~blaCkguards, murderers, raViShers and
thieves. for whom hanging was too good.
AT Forrest Hall, in Georgetown, almost
within sight of the White House, -four inn
mense windows reaching from the top al
most to the bottom, bound with iron, looked
forth upon the street; but none of us ever
presumed to gaze from them, for orders
were given to shoot dead the audaciouS
wretch who should thus defy the laws. "
. y spot, large enough for the promenade
Of the guards, was reserved for them; INT
whatever poor wretch dared to invade the
neutral ~ground-for such it was called by
the rcSidents-he was shot like a dog for
his dariug-murdered, coolly and delibcr-
ately. hight over the entrance to this
room was Il place called the lodge"
Here Il corporal and three or four sentrieS
were placed, with the same humane orders
to execute, relative to the shedding of hu-
man blood So t%estities Lieutenant Har-
idingc, The SAM rule was enforced in 9TH
er Northern slave pens.
THAT reminds me" said Colonel Wood.
of a good story, There was a fellow, an
officer in the Confederate States Army, who
received some money from IL lady who was
held in my residence for stubborn people.
With this he bribed the sentinel, who was
in the yard beneath, to let him attempt an
escape. The sentinel agreed; but | got
wind of the affair an hour before it took
place, and walking up to the sentinel. !
said, Now, yen God damned rascal, I've
got you in my power; and if you don't
shoot that damned rebel, I'll have you
hung So, when Mr.. Rebel gets out of the
window, Mr.. Sentinel blazes away at him,
and down he drops, k~ertlummeXed, Damn
him, he died in the hospital, some days af-
%terward."
\ very good story! When will Colonel
William L. Wood, superintendent of the
IOld Capitol and Carroll prisons, be tried by
military commission for murder?
When, indeed, has any Northern olicia
been duly punished for any atrocity Mrs
IL WAS lltu 10 neT CHIT anu lOHPtN
by some of Sherman's thieves, when III
robbed and burned his way through Geor
2 gia. Her clothes were stripped up to he
waist, and she was whipped with leathe
: straps, because a negro had told the Cap
} tain who superintendent the whipping, tina
G her husband had buried twenty thouSanC
dollars in gold, When She appealed to tn,
Captain, the apt embodiment of "humani
, ty," for mercy, his answer was, "Daml
g you, tell us where the gold is hid and II
! let you up" They beat her until she faint
g ed, and then left her.
The feet of more than n dozen wOmel
l were burned, in Arkansas, in the early par
of the year 1865, by men in the Fedora
= service, to make them disclose where the,
: had hidden their Valuables. One of then
whom we know, n lady over sixty years G
I age, was so severely and cruelty burne
= that both feet had to be amputated. y
E.. one wa ever punished for these outrages,
Colonel Jennison robbed, burned an
: murdered, in Arkansas, was tried for |
n and simply dismissed the service. And W
the charges against him were such that,
guilty, as was proven to be, he richly dc
# served death.