Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-04-15
ANDERSONYILLE.
"A Story ofSouthern Nil
itary pFisons."


Thousand Copies Sold Before
One was Printed-A Graphic
Story of q Private Soldiers Ex-
perience I'm Richmond. Ander-
sonville, Savannah, Milien.
Biackshear, Charleston and
Florence. II
No book since ''Uncle Toms Cabin" has
had the unparalleled success that has attended
the publication in the form of Q copiously H.
Illustrated volume of series of articles that ran
through the Toledo BLADE last year under the
title Of 'Andei sonville; Story of Southern
Military Prisons" Such was the interest
aroused by the subject, and the fascinating
manner in which 1t was treated that the mere
announcement that the sketches were to be re-
produced In book form was sufficient to bring
in orders for more than 90, 600 copies before
one was printed, and the the volume has been
upon the market now less than four months,
the sales have nearly reached 40, ,00s, with ev-
cry prospect that that figure will be doubled
or trebled before the year is out. Certainly
no book ever sold itself TO the extent that this
one has, because the efforts to introduce il
anywhere have been Of the slightest, and in
much the greater part of the country none
whatever have been made. -
There Is sdeep fascination in the subject Of
Aaderssnville, for that Golgotha, In which lie
the whitening bones Of $4,000 gallant young
men, represents TO them very much of the
dearest and costiest sacrifice 0f the war for the
preservation OF our national unity. Ii is q
type too of its class. It's more than hundred
hecstonbs of dead represents several times
that number Of their brethren, for whom the
prison gates of Belle Isle, Dsnville, Salisbury,
Florence, Columbia and Cahawba opened on
ly In eternity. There are few families in the
North who have not at least one dear relative
or friend among these 10000 whose sad for
tune Il was TO end their service for the Union
by lying down and dying for it in Southern
prison pea. The manner of their death, the
horrors that clustered thickly around every
moment Of their existence, the loyal. unfaltef-
ing sieadfsstness with which they endured ell
that fate broaght them has never been aie-
qustely told. 1t was not with them as with
then comrades in the field, whose every act
was performed in the presence of those whose
port them to the world.
Hidden from the view of their friends in
the North by the impeneirable vail which the
military operations of the Rebels drew around
the so-called Coafederscy, the people knew
next 70 nothing Of their career or their suffer-
ings. Thousands died there less hsedel even
than the hundreds who persisted On the battle
field. Grant did not lose as many men, killel
outright. in the terrible campaign from the
Wilderness to the James Rivers days of
desperate fghting-as died in July and Aug
ust at Andersonville. Nearly twice as many
died in that prison as fell from the day that
Grant crossed the Rapidan, till he settled
down into the trenches before Petersburg.
More than four times rs many Union dead lie
under the solemn, soughing pines about that
follorn little Village iu Southern Georgia than
mark the course of Sherman from Chattanooga
to Atlanta. The Nation stands aghast at the
cApCuoituAS vi ltlC WHICH httCuuCQ TIC tWU
bloody campaigns of 1864 which virtually
crushed the Confederacy but no one remem.
bers that more Union soldiers died in the rear
of the Rebel lines than were killed in front of
them. The great military events that stamp
ed out the Rebellion drew attention away
from the sad drama which Starvation and Dis
ease played in the gloomy pens in the far re-
cesses of somber Southern forests II
The author begins with an account of the
laid made into the enemy's country by the
cavalry command in which he was serving as
an enlisted man. They meet the Rebel cav
airy, and after sharp fight, wort it badly.
sending il flying from the field For a while
the Union cavalry live of the fataess of the
land, but at length they are trapped in a nar-
row valley, and after desperate resistance,
are ell captured, and sent TO Richmond. Two
months of hardship and exposure on Bell Isle,
and in the .obaccn factories end by their being
sent to Andersonville-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, immedi.
ately upon which the Rebels, fearful of the
safety Of so great mass of prisoners in such
proximity to the Nations. 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 10 Savannah; after
q short stay there, 10 Millen; thence TO Savan-
nah again; thence to Blackshear, where he is
paroled and sent back to Savannah again, os-
rensibly to be exchanged. but really to get him
and his companions safely past Sherman's ad-
vancing lines and take them TO Florence, s. G.
where they are kept until the Confederacy be-
gan going to pieces IN March, 1854.
Into this warp and woof of daily history are
woven numberless bits OF fascinating descrip-
ton Of thrilling incidents, and even laughable |
episodes-for there was fun, even in that drea- |
ry experience. Among the most thrilling re- |
cital TO be found any where Is that of the story
Of the fights with and the capture and execu- |
tion Of the "Ralders" band of murderous |
desperados who infested the prison, and six of
whom were hanged IN te7T0rsna, and as q pun. |
ishment for their multifarious offenses. This |
Is the only full and accurate account of this |
noted episode that has ever been written. -
Many versions have been given Of this, but
they nave all been written by men who were
misnformed as the real facts in the csse. The
author, being one Of the very few Of those
now living who were actively identified with
the affair from first TO last, has exceptional
knowledge Of that OF which he speaks.
Letters from more than 3, 900 surviving pris-
oBers testify In the strongest terms 10 wonder.
fui accuracy OF the book. Such testimonial
-unfeckt by single dissent from any living
prisoner'is one Of the rnarvels OF current liter
Hture. .-.1,. i' MA
The press has been no less kind 10 the book
than the general public, and II has received
the highest euiogiums from political, religious
and literary papers, which unite 10 saying that
for vlyidness OF description, realism Of detail