Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-05-20
The Da11ls RisllaSf hai1ebellion.
Three thousand Ssarviny Pisoners-A
Patriotic Drummer Boy-LoyG get
A Negro Prayer Meeting-1Fdces 81
Sherman's Grand March,

Four years ago last Thursday, guard
of rebel soldiers, with three thousand
Union prisoners from Andersonville, find
ing that they were not safe from raids
while Sherman was marching to the sea,
came down to the Union outposts, about
thirty miles from Jacksonville, and sent q
letter to the commanding general of the
department and of the post, asking that
the prisoners might be received within
the Federal lines, as the rebels dare not
release such body inside of their own
picket posts. Long and impatiently
waited both guard and guarded for the
answer that would permit the sick, sore
and ragged soldiers to march into the
town where food and clothing awaited
their coming. The guards, fearing cap
ture by some stray band Of Federal cav
airy, cursed and foamed, while the ema-
ciated veterans lost faith in humanity as
they lay starving on the naked ground.
No one imagined but that the order, when
it did come, would admit them at once,
for no other course would be Christian or
human. Conceive, if you can, then, the
surprise, sorrow, anguish and Indignation
caused by the answer that was finally
sent, which stated that, as the command
ing general had no. "orders" from the War
Department to receive prisoners or other
parties through his lines, they could not
be received, and the rebel guard must
march away at once.
Oh to risk ones life for the nation to
endure the horrors of thousand deaths
in prison like that at Andersonville !;
and to be jolted about the country en-
open freight cars, naked, sick and starry
ing until every joint and bone was be-
numbed, and every muscle the seat of cut
ting pains, and then, just when they had
reached place of refuge, and almost
within sight of the bales of clothing and
piles of commissary stores, to be rejected
by their own comrades in arms, forsaken
by their own friends, and remanded to a
fearful death by starvation and exposure,
oh I! it was too cruel.
Just four years ago to-day, the rebel
guard, cut off from all official correspond
ence with their commanding general, who
was attempting to impede Sherman 5
march, brought the whole brigade of
martyrs down as far as the railroad track
was open, and there dumped them off
the train, telling them that they must get
into the federal lines somehow or die
there in the woods. Between this time
and their first application for admlttance,
however, many a brave veteran and good
citizen joined the ranks of martyrs in
heaven. When they came in sight the
picket post, the sentinel supposed that it
was body of refugee negroes, they were
SO dirty, and the pickets at once proposed
to let them pass, as was the usual custom.
But on finding they were white soldiers
delay occurred, and the very absence
of "orders," which before kept them out,
this time let them in; for the picket did
not deem it possible that he should refuse
admittance to Federal soldiers, when me-
groes walked in unmolested. Once with
in the lines shout of thanksgiving went
up, and many man thanked God then
who had met almost every danger and al
most every hardship, and never thought
of it before. What sight they must
have been dirty as coal beavers, naked
to the waist, and barefooted; vermin
creeping over their rags and long hair
horrid sores and CHASTITY scars,-many
limping and many with arms and heads
bandaged in dirty rags, and all having
the appearance of walking skeletons rath-
er than living, thinking men. When the
assembly, as it dragged its slow length
along the railroad track, came in sight of
the stars and stripes, all began to weep
for joy, and tears flowed long and fast,
while the EXPLANATIONS "Oh the old
flag, God bless the flag" Thank God we
see it wave once once more came from
the lips of thousand starving men.
puf q ptryx hon
She the tears of bearded men,"
On it went Into the streets of the city
this stream of human misery from the
foul cutters of the rebel slaughter pens.
We are starving oh for the love of God
give us something to eat" Away they
went along the shaded sidewalks, "ndoi
the rose trees, and by the flower BEDS
phantoms of want and misery,-until the
city was filled with the mendlcant crowd
of Northern beggars.
But Col. Tilman, of a Philadelphia col
ored regiment, assuming a responsibility
which Gen. Wedges, it is said, fled to st.
Augustine to shirk, issued rations to the
sufferers and provided them with tents.
The camp was pitched in the suburbs
of Jacksonville, near the banks of the
beautiful st. Johns river, where the ripe
blackberries and beautiful wild flowers
now tempt the traveller into almost
impossible whey thicket, and these few
survivors of hardships to which twenty
five thousand of their comrades succumb-
ed, at last, found comfort and peace
Among the sufferers who came i'll on
that memorable day, was
BRAVE LITTLE DRUMMER 10Y
from Natick, Mass, but whose name and
regiment, owing to the absence OF an
officer, we could not get. lie had en-
dured so much suffering and laid ST many
months out in the whitening sun, that
when he arrived in jacksonville all was
dark to him, for he was blind Who is
there that can realize the suffering that
the poor boy must have undergone, which
caused him to become, gradually, hat at
last, totally blind Z When WI think of
the unfortunate little fellow as he was
described to US, sick and sore. nothing
bat skin and bones, and those eyes like
Millions,
s'That roll in vain
To find one pie rcing and fiud dawn.
So thick drop serene hath quenched their orbs
Or dim suifusion vailed. F"
our anger and call down blighting curse
upon the guilty heads that deliberately
planned the slow destruction of these hui
man beings. Yet jeff Davis and his add
visers, upon whose hands the blood of
twenty thousand murdered prisoners still
is seen, go unhung, unframed, free God
of Justice! how can these things be-
But the little boy, with wonderful
resignation, blamed no one, cursed no.
body. When asked if he had not been
sorry that he went into the army, he
opened wide his sightless eyes and firmly
closed his teeth, exclaiming, "Never !!
no, no, neverr' Hopeful words he dicta-
ted to his mother in Natick: " He was
not very sick" He was soon coming
home" He would "soon be able to see
again." and his friends here were very
kind to him" But alas! he never went
home, and sight revisited not those eyes.
10 81 do