Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-01-19
Anders0nville.

IOuD0 sensation throughout Tue cOun.
try the past week, has brought out a
good many letters from men who were
at Andersonville. Ben. Hill pictured
the place az a garden of Eden, but
these poor fellows differ from the old
Confederate somewhat. Charles Rich
ardson. foreman of the Wisconsin Office,
who was a prisoner Is months, writes
a very interesting letter to that paper,
showing up Andersonville as it really
was, and makes it out anything but a
Paradise. Below we give few ex-
tracts from his letter:
To begin with. Andersonville was
merely railway station-not atown.
A stockade. surrounding about ten or
twelve acres of cleared ground, had
been constructed, thus forming a pen;
a piece of forest land had been planted
like posts in the ground (thus forming
a projection walD and-this was An
Jacksonville. Union prisoners were put
through the huge gaze, in this prison
No building, no shed, no tree no shrub
10 the entire enclosure! And here, in
all kinds of weather, the heavy rain,
followed by the burning sun. the poor
captives. half starved and half clothed !,
dragged ont weary months.
A dirty little stream passed through
the stockade den from west to east,
after having first passed through the
rebel camp. The reader may know
what that means: The refuse of that
camp went into the little brook; and
then passed through the den-and this
vile, disease-breeding, loathsome stuff
was all that the Union soldiers had to
drink, and all that they had to wash
in; and to approach this, they were
obliged to wade through one hundred
feet of miry bog, or marshy ground,
which lined the brook-sinking to
their knees nearly at every step. The
reader must think what all this means;
the mere words don't express it.
And in this enclosure was confined
at one time, thirty three thousand men,
each walking skeleton. with no life,
no hope-nothing but crushed, bro
ken spirit! They were crowded SO
closely together that it was almost i'm
possible for one to lie down without
touching another.
The sentries paced their beats (lttle
platforms running along the stockade }
and watching the death-line. This was
line running about twenty feet from
the fence; to approach it was death,
and, as the sentries were given a fur
Tough for killing any Of the prisoners,
they didn't stop to exact calculation; IT
man was any where near the line,
and the sentry happened to want a
furlough. the rifle would do its deadly
work bs aA4 aal - Tse,s
What pen can describe the suffer
ings! Hudd,ed together, sufficiently
clothed-cov with vermin-~ SLOWLY
starving with no hope before them =
is it to be wondered at that old Ander-
sonville prisoners feel their blood tim
gle, evea at this late day, when they
hear Congressman upon the floor of
the House cover the den with almost a
halo Of glory?
During June, 1864, it rained for
twenty seven days. The showers were
followed by the fierce heat of the burn
ing sun. Not ! shred of shade any
where! What followed? The poor
fellows who were bare-footed and half
naked, saw their skin dry up like parch-
meat-crack open; gangrene set in,
and the loathsome ailment ate off fin
ger, toes, feet and legs No medical
attendance-not even little shade to
hide the swollen, blistering, bleeding.
notifying bodies from the scorching
sun! Men, whose feet were swollen to
double size and cracked with the parch-
ing sun, used to sit all day long with a
strip Of cloth, or an old coat, (if they
, could get IT'D thrown over their feet, to
ward off the blaze.
OF course there was scheming for
liberty. Men would tunnel the ground,
and after weary nights Of labor would /,
with teverish joy, find the route UNI
der-glound, beyond the fence, ready.
In the stiffness of the night, a dash
for liberty would be made. Early in
he morning, those left behind would
hear the yelping of the bloodhounds,
tracking the flying men. Ere long the
poor mangled fellows, bleeding and
faint. would be returned to the death
engenderiag den.
About noon every day, wagons Of
provisions would trundle into camp,
and the half-staryed fellows would tall
in. in attachments. for rations, aud
this fsod Was brought in, in the Wagons