The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1880-04-03
ANDERSONVILLE,,
A Story Of Southern Military Prisons.

a fhlNAlh bOIDl1itS EAFHklENGE IN NlCHhOND
ANDERsoNvILLE. SAVANNAH. MILLES, BLACK.
SHEAR. CHARLESTON AND FLORENCE.
No book since "Uncle Toms Cabin" has had
the unparalleled success that has attended
the publication in the form of a copiously H.
lustratcd volume Of a series Of articles that
run through the Toledo BLADE last year un-
der the title or' 'Andersonvllle; n ste ryofSouth-
ern Military Prisons" Such was the interest
aroused by the subject, and the fascinating
manner 10 which It 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 %, 900 copies
before one was printed, and tho the volume
has been upon the market now less than four
months, the sales have nearly reached 40, 600.
with every prospect that that figure will be
doubled or trebled before the year is out
Certainly no book ever sold itself to the ex.
tent that this one has, because the efforts to
introduce II anywhere have been Of the slight
est and in much the greater part of tho coun-
try none whatever have been made.
There is deep fascination in the subject of
Andersonville, for that Golgotha, in which
lie the whitening bones of 13, eco gallant young
men, represents to them very mich of the
dearest and costliest sacrifice of the war for
the preservation of our national unity. his
type, too. of its class. Its more than hund-
red hecatombs OF dead repr esent several times
that number Of their brethren for whom the
prison gates of Belle isle, Danville, Salisbury,
florence, Col dmbia and Cahawba opened
only in eternity. There are few families in
the North who have not at least one dear rel
dtive or friend among these $1,000 whose sad
fortune 1t was to end their service for the Un-
ion by lying down and dying for 1t in South
ern prison pen. The manner of their death,
the horrors that clustered thickly around eve
ry moment of their existence, the loyal, unfal-
tering steadfastness with which they endured
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 rebels drew around
the so-called Confederacy, the people knew
next to nothing of their career of their suffer
ings. Thousands died there less heec ed even
than the hundreds who perished 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 flghting-as died in July and Au.
gust at Andersonvillo. Nearly twice MS many
died in that prison ms fell from the day that
Grant crossed the Rapidan, 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 GeoIgia than
mark the course of Sherman from Chattanoo.
ga to Atlanta. The nation stands aghast at
the expenditure of life which attended the two
bloody campaigns of 1884 which virtually
crushed the Confedcracy. 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
cd out the rebellion drew attention away from
the sad drama which starvation and disease
played 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 met the rebel caval-
ry, and after sharp fight, worst it badly,
sending 1t flying from the field. For while
the Union cavalry live off the fatness of the
land, but at length they are trapped in mar
row valley, and after desperate resistance,
arc all captured, and sent to Richmand. Two
months of hardship and exposure on Belle
Isle and In the tobacco factories, end by their
being sent to Andersonvllle-the author ar
irving in the first squad that enters the pen.
Then ensues six months of terrible suffering,
in which four out of flve of those around him
die. This is ended by the fall Of Atlanta, i'm.
mediately 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 of to another and more re-
mote place of confinement.
The author is first taken to Savannah; after
n short stay there, to Milen thence to Saw
annah again; thence to Blackshear, where
he is paroled and sent back to Savannah a.
gain, ostensibly to be exchanged, but really
to get him and his companions safely past
Sherman's advancing lines and take them to
Florence, S. U, where they are kept until the
Confederacy began going to pieces in March.
1884
Ahto IAlo wal anu NOOl OF ually history are
woven numberless bits of fascinating descrip-
tion of thrilling incidents, and even laughable
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 "Raders," band Of murd.
erous desperadoes who infested the prison, and
six Of whom were hanged IN TERIoREM, and
as a punishment for their multilarous olfens-
es. This is the only full and accurate account
of this noted episode that has ever been writ
ten. Many versions have been given of this,
but they have all been written by men who
were IN isinformed as to the real facts in the
case. The author, being one of the very few
OF those now living who were actively indenti.
fed with the affair from first to last, has ex.
ceptional knowledge Of that ofwhich he speaks
Letters from more than 5000 surviving pris.
oners testify in the strongest terms to the
wonderful accuracy of the book. Such tes-
tlmonial-unfeckt by single dlssen: from
any living prlsoner-ls one of the maryels Of
current literature.
The press has been no less kind to the book
than the general public and 1t has received
the highest eulogiums from political, religious |
and literary papers, which unite in saying |
that for yividness ofdeseription, realism of de- |
tail, and fascination OF style 1t has no equal |
in the literature OF the war.
The book contains 056 large handsomely |
printed pages, illustrated with l5I pictures
drawn under the authors supervision. Put
lIshed at Toledo, o., by d. X. Locke, and sold
by subscription at $500 per copy the best
selling book for agents in the market. Agents
wanted in every Township in the u. s.
\ butcher in Columbia was detected sell
ing the carcass of 3O-year-old goat for
spring lamb.