The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1880-04-14

their brethren, for whom the prison
gates of Belle Isle, Danville, Salisbury,
Florence, Columbia and Cahawba
opened only in eternity. There are
few families in the North who have
not at least Que dear relative or
friend among these $4,000 whose sad
fortune it was to end their service for
the Union by lying down and dying
for il in Southern prison pen. The
manner of their death. the horrors that
clustered thiekly around every mo.
ment of their existence, the loyal, un.
faliering steadfastness with which they
endured all that fate brought them has
never been adequately told IL was
not with them as with their comrades
in the field, whose every act was per.
formed in the presence of those whose
duty it was to observe such matters
and report them to the world
HiideG from the view Of their
friends in the North by tie impenetra.
BILE vail which the military operations
of the Rebels drew around the Sc. ca led
Coufederaey, the people knew next to
nothing of their career or their suffer.
ings. Thousands died there less
heeded even than the hundreds who
perished on the battle field. Grant
did not lose as many men, killed out-
right, in the terrible campaign from
the Wilderness to the James River
43 days of desperate fghting--as died
10 July and August at Andersonville
Nearly twice AS many died in that
prison as fell from the day tha I Grant
crossed the Rapidan, till he settled
down into the trenches before Peters
bug. More than four times as many
Union dead lie under the solemn,
soughiDg pines about that forlorn little
village III Southern Georgia than mark
the course Of Sherman from Chattan.
ooga to Atlanta. The Nation stands
sghast at the expenditure OF life which
attended the two bloody campaigns of
1864 which virtually crushed the Con.
tederacy, but no one remembers that
more Union soldiers died 10 the rear
Of the Rebel lines than were killed in
front Of them The great military
events that stamped out the Rebellion
drew attention away from the sad
drama which starvation and Disease
played in the gloomy pens IL the far
recesses of somber Southern forests.
The author begins with an account
of the raid made into the enemys
country by the cavalry command in
which be was serving as an enlisted
man. They met the Rebel cavalry,
and after a sharp fight, worst it badly,
sending it flying from the field. For
while the Union cavalry live off the
fatness Of the land, but at length they
are trapped in narrow valley, and
after desperate resistance, are all
captured, and sent to Richm ond. Two
months Of hardship and exposure on
Bell Isle, and in the tobacco factories
end by their being sent to Anderson.
ville-the author arriving in the first
squad that enters the pen. Then en-
sues six months Of terrible suffering,
in which four out of five of those
around him die. This is ended by the
fall Of Atlanta, Immediately upon
which the Rebels, fearful Of the safety
of so great mass Of prisoners in such
proximity to the National lines as the
fall of that stronghold has brought
about, hurry the bulk of them Off to
another and more remote places of
confinement.
The author is first taken to Savan.
nah; after short stay there, TO Mil.
len thence TO Savannah again; thence
to Blackshear,' where he is paroled
and sent back to Savannah again, as.
tensibly TO be exchanged, but really
to get him aud his companions safely
past Sherman's advancing lines and
take them TO Florence, S. o., where
they are kept until the Confed
began going to pieces in March, 1864
Into this warp and woof of daily
history are woven numbeTless bits of
fascinating description of thrilling in
cideuts, and even laughabc episodes
for there was fun, even in that
dreary experience. Among the most
thrilling recital to be found anywhere
Is that of the story Of the fights with
and the capture and execution of the
Raiders" band OF murderous des.
perados who infested the prison, and
six of whom were hanged IN terrorem.
and as punishment for their multi
farious oHenses. This is the only full
and accurate account of this noted ep-
isode that has ever heen written.
Many versions have been given ofthis,
but they have all been written by men
who We're misinfoFmed as the real facts
in the case. The author, being one Of