The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1880-04-07
AHnERsoRVILLE.
"a Story Of Southern military Prls'
ons."

onS.
TIE MOST SUCCESSFUL BOOK siNtL -
CLFTOM's CABIN''-TwENTH THOUSAND
COPIES som nEFORE ONE WAS PRINTED
Il GRAPHIC STORY OF A PRIVATE soil
DIFR's FNPFRIENCE N RICHMOND
ANDERsONVILLE. SAVANNAH MiLLhN'
BLACKsHEAR, CHARLESTON AND fLoH-
ENCE.
No book since "Uncle TOMS Cabin has
had the unparalleled success that has AZ
tended the publication in the form of a CO.
piciOusly illustrated volume OF a series oil
articles that ran through the Toledo
Blade last year under the title Of "Ander-
sOnville; a story Of Southern Military
Prisons" Such was the interest aroused
by the subject. and the fascinating man
ner in which il was treated that the mere
announcement that the sketches were to
be reproduced in book form was sufficient
to bring in orders for more than 2O.OOO
copies before one was printed, and though
the volume has been upon the market now
less than four months, the sales nave
nearly reached 10000, with every pros
poet that that number 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 intro
duce it anywhere have been of the slight
est, and in much the greater part OF the
country none whatever have been made.
There is a deep fascination in the subject
of Andersonville, for that Golgotha, in
which lie the whitening bones of $4,000
gallant young men, represents to them
very much of the dearest and eostuest
sacrifice of the war for the preservation OF
our national unity. 1t is type, too, OF
its class. Its more than hundred heca-
tombs of dead represent several times that
number of their brethren, for whom the
prison gates of Belle Isle, Danville, Sails
bury, Florence, Columbia and CahawDa
opened only in eternity. There are few
families in the North who have not at least
one dear relative or friend among these
60, 900 whose sad fortune it was to end
their service for the Union by lying down
and dying for it in a Southern prison pen.
The manner of their death, the horrors
that clustered thickly around every mo-
ment of their existence, the loyal, unfal-
tering steadfastness with which they en-
dured all that fate brought them has never
been adequately told. 1t was not with
them as with their comrades in the field,
whose every act was performed in the
presence of those whose duty it was to
observe such matters and report them to
the world.
Hidden from the view of their friends
in the North by the impenetrable vail
which the military operations of the Reb-
els drew around the sO-called COnfederacy,
the people knew next to nothing of their
career or their sufferings. Thousands
died there less needed even than the hun
dreds who persisted on the battle field.
Grant did not lose as many men, killed
outright, in the terrible campaign from
the Wilderness TO the James River-43
days of desperate iighting-as died July
and August at Andersonyille. Nearly
thrice as many died in that prison as tell
from the day that Grant crossed the Rap
idan, till he settled down into the trenches
before Petersburg. More than four times
as many Union dead lie under the solemn.
soughing pines about that forlOrn little
Village in Southern Georgia than mark
the course of Sherman from Chattanooga
TO Atlanta. Thc Nation stands aghast at
the expenditure of life which attended the
two bloody campaigns of 1861 which viz
tually crushed the COnfederacy, but no
one remembers that more Union soldiers
died In the rear Of the Rebel lines than
were killed in front of them. The great
military event that stamped out the Re-
belion drew attention away from the sad
drama which starvation and disease play
ed in the gloomy pens in the far recesses
of somber Southern forests.
The author begins with an account of
the raid made into the enemy's country
by the cavalry command in which he was
serving as an enlisted man. They meet
the Rebel cavalry, and after 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, all are cap
tured. and sent to Richmond. Two months
of hardship and exposure on Belle Isle,
and in the tobacco factories end by their
being sent to Andersonville-the author
arriving in the first squad that enters the
pen. Then ensues six months of terrible
suffering, in which four out of five around
him die. This is ended by fall upon
Atlanta, Immediately upon which the
Rebels. fearful of the safety of so great O
mass of prisoners in such proximity to the
National lines as the fall of that strong.
hold has brought about, hurry the bulk Of
them off to another and more remote pla.
ces of confinement.
The author is first taken to Savannah
after short stay there, to Millen; thence
to Savannah again, thence to Blackshear
where he is paroled and sent back to Sa.
yannah again, ostensibly to be exchanged
but really to get him and his companions
safely past Shermans advancing lines anC
take them to Florence, S. c., where they
are kept until the Contederacy began 60
ing to pieces in March, 1864.
Into this warp and wool of daily history
are woven numberless bits of fascinating
description of thrilling incidents, and evel
laughable episodes-for there was fun
even in that dreary experience. Among
the most thrilling recital to be found any
where is that of the story of the fight
with ana The capture ana execution OF TIT
''Raiders" a band of murderous despera
dos who infested the prison, and six o
whom were hanged in to17oren,, and as
punishment for theirmultifarious offenses
This is the only full and accurate accoun
of this noted episode that has ever beef
written. Many versions have been givel
of this, but they have all been written by
men who were misinformed as to the rea
facts in the case. The author, being on,
of the very few of those now living VIII,
were actively identified with the affai
! from first to last, has exceptional knowl
edge of that of which he speaks.
| Letters from more than 5000 surviving
| prisoners testify in the strongest terms t.
wonderful accuracy of the book. Such
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS by single dissen
from any living prisoners one of tn,
marvels of current literature.
The press has been no less kind to th,