Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1876-01-27
ANDERsoNyILLE.
The Congressional Committee
Report--The Death Rate ON
Both Sides.
From the Detroit Tribune.


Both Sides.
From the Detroit Tribune.
There may he some who have grown
into manhood since the close of the
War of the Rebellion who do not re-
member the horrcrs of fAndersonville
though few who lived through the
war, aud were old enough to under
stand the awful atrocities OF the reb-
ell prison-pens at the time they oc-
CURED. will ever forget then. 1t is
we'll to recall them accurately. now
that they have been brought into
fresh mention BY the debate in Con
gress. In 1867. a Congressional Com
mittee. composed of both Democrats
aud Republicans, unanimously re-
ported the following terrible descrip-
ton Of Andersonvilie, after Winder
and Wirtz had been given full power
there by JEFF. Davis: &
'The subsequent history of Ander-
sonyille has startled and shocked the
world with n tale of horror. of woe,
and death, before unheartl and un-
known to civilization. No pen can
describe, no painter sketch. no imag-
ination comprehend its fearful and
unutterable iniquity. 1t would seem
as il the concentrated madness of
earth and hell had f0nndits final lodg
ment in the breasts of those who in
augurated the rebellion and con-
trolled the policy of the Confederate
Government, and that the prison at
AndersOnville had been selected for
the most terrible human sacrifices
which the world had ever seen. Into
its narrow walls were crowded $4,000
enlisted men, many of them the
bravest and the best. the most devoted
and heroic of those grand armies
which carried the flag Of their conn
try to final victory. For long and
weary months here they suffered,
maddened, were murdered, and died.
Here they fingered, unsheitered from
the burning rays Of trOpicGt sHR By
day, md drencbing and deadly deics
by night, in every stage of mental
and physical disease, huugered, ema-
ciated, starving, maddened; fostering
with unhealing wounds; gnawed by
the ravages of scurvy and gangrene;
with swollen limbs and distorted Wis
age; covered with vermin which they
had no power to eXtirpate: exposed
to the .fo0diHq ruins Which drOre
them droWhing .fi'om the miserable
holes in Which, like sciRe, they bHr-
rowed; parched with thirst and mad
with hunger; racked with pain or
proStrated with the weakness Of dis
solution; with naked limbs ami mat
tel hair; filthy with smoke and innd;
soiled with the very excrement from
which their weakness would OF per
NIT them to escape; eatea 6g The
gnaWiaa WOrmS Uhich their OTn
toOunds hdd eRgs0dered;; with no bed
hut the earth; no covering save the
cloudy sky-these men, these heroes,
born in the image of God, thus
crouching and writhing in their ter
rihle torture and calculating barbar
ity, stand forth in history as mOnu
ment OF the surprising horrors OF
AndersOnville as it shall be seen and
read in all future time, realizing in
the studied tOrmentS of their prison
house the ideal Ot Dante's Inferno
and Millions Hell.
The New York Mail. while depre-
eating the attempt to bring before
the public again the horrors of the
rebel prison pens, remarks: 80 say
that the Davis Government shall not
be made to face its responsibility in
the light of the notorious brutal
facts is, 10 talk nonsense and insult
all reason and humanity. There are
q few figures which Mr.. Hill needs to
he set right about. Surgeon-General
Barnes can hardly he COOL authority
if he says (as Mr.. Hill quotes) that
the Confederates hal in their prisons
10000 more Union prisoners than we
had of COnfederates. And q death
rate based upon such a statement is
fallacious and misleading. AS we un-
derstand the matter, the number ot
Confederates captured and sent to
depots at the North was 222, 2,S47, and
the number of Union soldiers cap.
tured by the other side and sent tO
depOts at the South was l26,90O. II
is upon these figures that the death
rate Mr.. Hill wants to establish
should be computed, and so computed
it is found that we quote DIR. j. w.
Draper) the death rate of prisoners
in the prisons of each side was one
in S.27 in the Union depots, and l in
3.44 in the Confederate dcpots. And
the same authority expresses the
opinion that the true ratio will proba
bly be not less than three United
States soldiers To one Confederate
soldier" 1t is in most respects IN
fortunate that this old ulcer should
again be publicly exposed; but th'
North is not to he slandered and the
world insulted by such tactics for the
overturning of historical truth, as
those pursued by Mr.. Hill. To white
wash JEFF. Davis and his gang at thu
expense of Lincoln, Stanton, and theil
compatriots, is indeed q bold pro
cedure, but truth can not be crushed
out in any such way.
Ostrich Farming.