The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1876-02-02


rid of old Winder; God have mercy
on those to whom be has been sent"
Mr.. GARFIELD then quoted some of
the testimony given on the Wirz trial
as to the condition of the stockade,
the dead line, &c, and remarked
upon it, that in the midst of pine
country. place had been selected
which has miasmatic marsh in its
midst, and that, . small stream of
water having been found, troops had
been stationed on il above the stock
ade, so that it was de6led by all the
excrements of the camp before it
reached the stockade. Besides that,
in the very excess Of cruelty and as
if to negative every clause of the
order, men had been detailed to cut
down every tree in.the enclosure and
leave not a tree, . shrub or leaf TO
show where a garden or forest had
been. He then referred to the re-
port made by Colonel Chandler, who
haa been detailed 10 Inspect the An
Jacksonville prisous which was, By
Adjutant General Cooper, submitted
to the Secretary ofsWar, with the re-
mark that the condition of that pris-
on was reproach 30 the Confedera-
| cy. So that the knowledge OF its
horrors had thus been brought home
to the political family of Jefferson
Davis. But the answer to Colonel
Chambers report vas the issuing of
an order few days afterwards, pro-
noting General Winder to be Com
missary General of all the prisons and
prisoners throughout the Confedera-
CIV, and W ben the Commanding Gen.
eral of the army subsequently, re-
moved Wiuder, Davis revoked the
order Of removal and indorsed on it
that it was entirely uncalled for.
The British Army lost in ten great
battles Of the Napoleonic war, iu-
cIuding Waterloo, not quite $4,000
men; but this Major General Win
der, within his terrible pit of death,
/ from April, 1864, to April, 1865,
pitched into the awful treach the dead
bodies of his prisoners to the number
of 1854
As to Mr. Hills comparison of the
atrocities Of Elmira aud Anderson
vile, be challenged any Democratic
member from the neighborhood of
Elmira, Ca. p Douglas or Fort Della
ware to rise aud say that any inhu-
manity had been practiced there.
No Democrat doing so, be denounced
the assertion as fearful and awfully
untrue.
Mr.. PLATT read a telegram receiv-
ed by him from b. F. Tracy, late
Commander of the Military Post of
Elmira, stating that the facts justified
him Plat Yesterday, in his denial
of inhumaaity in the treatment of
prisoners at Elmira.
Mr. WALKER rose on the Demo-
cratic side of the House and, stating
that be lived within seventeen miles
of Elmira, indorsed the statements
in the telegram. applause on Re-
publican side.
Mr.. HILL disclaimed any purpose
in his remarks yesterday OF charging
inhumanity on anybody about Elmira
or anywhere else; be had only read
yesterday the letter from the New
York World, as evidence of the cru
city inseparable from prison life, and
he bad wound up the statement by
saying that the official records show
ed the relative mortality to be great
er among the Southern prisoners at
the North thaa among the Northern
prisoners at the South.
A member-Do you charge that
the mortality among the Confederate
prisoners at the North was owing to
cruelty?
Mr.. HILL do not undertake to
say 10 what the mortality on either
side of the line was due. | say that
it was attributable to those horrors
inseparable from prison life anywhere,
and l intended my point against
striving to work up these horrors of
the past and to keep alive strife which |
ought to be buried. Applause.
Mr.. GARFIELD remarked that, even
on the testimony of an anonymous
letter read yesterday by Mr. Hill,
the post of Elmira had been located |
in as healthy place as there could
be found in the State of New York |
He called attention to the fact that
the place in which the Confederate
prisoners who had died at Elmira
were buried, had been inclosed and |
cared for by the Administration,
which had been characterized by the
gentleman from Georgia as malignant,
ferocious, const,tution-hating and
South hating.
NJ. HILL remarked that at the last
time of decorating graves in the South,
the Southern people united with
Northern soldiers and decorated, in
harmonious accord, the graves of the
fallen Federale and fallen Confeder-
ates. and it was because of that glo-
rious feeling that he protested against
the renewal of the history of such
horrors. Applause.
Mr.. GARFIELD-So do /. Who
brought it here?
Chorus from the Democratic side
blaine! Blaine! Blaine!"
Mr.. GAREIELD said he wished that
some fraternal feeling could follow
the forty mained Uaion soldiers who
had recently lost their places about
the House.
A discussion ensued on that point,
which developed the statement on
one side that, whereas out of l53 SUBJ
ordinate positions in the last House
only eighteen were filed by Union
soldiers, there were, out of eighty
FIVE subordinate positions in the pres
ent House twenty-six filled by Union
and the statement on the
other side that in the House post
Office nine Union soldiers had been
dismissed and their places filed by
nine Confederate soldiers.
Mr.. GARFIELD, passing from that
point, proceeded to discuss the ques-
ton of exchange Of prisoners, to re-
late the history and to detail tie
causes fer the interruption of e1-
change. He showed that the central
noio. of d;ficultv uaa in the dafer