National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1868-06-26
The Dead at AnderSonville.

Five hundred yards northwest of
the st0ckade, is the cemetery where
sleep more than fifteen thousand OF
the victims of Andersonville,-a
spot nearer hell, in the concentrate
td maiIgulty which it represents,
than amy other on the Contlnent.-I
Fortunately the prlS IN records We're
recovered, 50 tnat all but about
Tour hundred graTeS can be ldentl-
iied. The government has pat up
mead boards at all the graves, with
the number, name, state, regiment
or company, taken from these rec
ordS.
The inclosure in which the bodies
reposc, | should Judge, must con
tain some twenty acres, ana IS tX-
cecdingly well adapted to the pur-
pose, being dry, and pleasantly di-
ycrsltied with hill aud dale. and
pant OF it with a small grove. Tine
government. however, has planned
to remove the bodies to "A very large
/ and extensive lot OF IL hundred and
sixty acres, adjoining the present
one on the south. The intention
WAS to take up the bodies and bury
! them by States, and to beautity the
| lot with monuments and such other
works As would render it worthy OF
a great republic. y force OF more
than five hundrcd men had worked
on it the entire winter. But when
was there the work had been ar
rested, the men dismissed, and |
nope and pray it may never again
Oe resumed. 1t seems to me that
the iittpSt place tor our braves to
rest in, is Just wlere they were
/ borne out and laid from the prison.
/ 1t is too late now to add glory to
their ashes by garnishing their sep
ulchreS. They will speak to the iu-
/ ture more impreSSlvely out of the
1 long trenches, where they were laid
| without a coffin or shrOud, than
they could from the most costly
1 nauSolcLmS the wealth of "a nation
could build. For one | protest
against the intended, but mistaken
honor We cannot disturb their sa-
cred dust without breaking the
charm and the lesson of their lives.
The less of ostentatlUn here the
better. Only let the government
see that imptri,hable tablets are
set over these graves and that these
Gods acres, Sown with its martNred
dead, are kept severely simple, and
severely beautiful, and it will hay,
done its duty.
Had a son or "A brother there,
could not he tempted to remove his
remains from the company OF his il
tuStlious compatriotS. 1t would
seem to me little less than profana
ton to disturb a rep0se SO august
and 50 profound. In all the earth
there Is not spot where our mar.
tyrS to liberty and law could rest SO
we'll, a. right here IN sight of the
hell where they were tortured I,
death.
He would be a remarkable mar
who could 80 MP and down thes,
long avenues of graves, readin.
- these unknown names without I
feeling such as he never experience,
before, and is never likely To eXpc
ucnce again. But if the names ar,
fam liar II they call up old faces, il
whose light he has walked, and re
jpicCd--tlu,tcd comrades with whom
ne has marched, and bivouacked
couuScllrd ANA prayed, what Wort
III the language can tell the trelin.
ten And this latter was my for
: tune. read there names of Sixt,
comrades of tn" old 18th, captured
at Drury's Bluff, who came here t,
StarVe aud die. As have no word
p to express my feeling, | shah not at
tempt II, but viii hope that suryiv
ing friends, who may trace thcs
= IlncS, may at least have this com
! fort, that one who loved them ha
, looked upon the place of their rest
e and tcnderly pronounced thci
namcs.-Lctter from Chapiain c. |
. WoodcorM to he Conyeyatioaalis