The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1880-09-02
SAD RECORDS OF THE WAR.

SAD RECORDS OF THE WAR.
In the Confederate acre at Elmira,
New York, lie buried three thou
sand Confederate dead. There were
twelve.thOusand prisoners there,and
five hundred of these died of small
pox, but the most terrible disease
that thrice decimated this store of
hapless men was chronic diarrhRa.
The government, no doubt, provid-
ed well for these poor prisoners, but
those who were placed in charge of
the prison probably grew rich off
the misdirected supplies. Three
thousand of the flower of the South
ern army were laid away here in
boxes, so close, that they rested
against each other, and under this
acre of ground there is solid sub
strata of human remains. The
ground has been plowed over and
sowed with grass, and the green
sward is all that marks the resting
place of these three thousand Con-
federates. A correspondent of the
Charleston Netrs and Courier has
lately visited the spot, and his long
letter is full of the deepest interest.
He saw and conversed with the sex
ton who laid away all these dead
soldiers, some of them mere boys,
and his narration of the facts of
this prison life and this char
nal field were. full of sadness.
He thought nothing of the first pris-
oner he was called upon to bury,
but soon he buried four and five and
six in a day, and then twenty and
thirty for long period of time, and
once he remembered having laid
away forty-six in one single day.
These prisoners were brought from
Gettysburg. The sexton said:
saw them just after they got of the
cars which brought them from Gettys-
burg A boy came along with loaf OF
bread. A prisoner looked sidelong at
the loaf, and said, "Come here, lad; how
much will you take for you loaf?' The
boy said he didn't want to sell it, but the
man could have il for dime, and he
would get another loaf. The Confeder-
ate paid the boy for it, and il wasn't u
minute before it was divided between six
men.
AS to the dead he said:
They were much emaciated-all wasted
away and sunk to nothing. 1t was a
ghastly sight to see them. Such sights l
hope 1 may never see again. 1t was un-
they were sick When they were dying
and in delirium they would call the names
of wife, mother, sister, or brother. When
they were dying theynever talked of war;
they talked only of home. 1t made my
heart bleed to hear them.
In reply to question as to the
character of the prisoners the SEX
ton said:
They were loyal to their flag. They
died in prison rather than take the oath
of allegiance. They chose to suffer for Il
cause which they conscientiOusly thought
right rather than yield to that which
they honestly thought wrong.
Here is more of the narrative:
There was one Confederate soldier who
was a coal-black negro. He had been
captured IN the Confederate ranks at
Gettysburg. He endured confinement
and chances of death in the prison nearly
two years rather than take the oath OF
allegiance. He was the most bitter rebel
ever saw. Two companies Ofnegro SOL
diers, recruited for the Union army
among the plantation hands ofSOuth Car
olina, mouted guard for time over the
Confederate prisoners here. Itwas rather
CALLING to the Confederates. The colOred
soldiers strutted around, proud of their
blue uniforms, brass buttons, and shining
guns, and especially delighted in the state
Of affairs, with tables turned, in which
they found themselves. They were IN
tensely bitter toward the Confederate
soldiers. One day luckless prisoner ac-
cidentally stepped over the dead line, and
one of the negroes on guard shot him.
The man was picked up dead. The ne
groes were then sent away for different
Kind of service. 1t is said that one day q
Confederate prisoner approached the
dead line and colored sentinel on guard
cried out, "Halt dah de powder in dis
heah gun wants right smart to burn ~
There was a mere lad in the prison,
who, though he was hardly large enough
to carry q gun, had been a soldier in the
great charge of Pickett's division, on the
third day at Gettysburg. 1 asked him
how one so small got into the army. He
said: "Mister, / was standing out in front
of the house on the rail fence, in the
country, watching the soldiers go by.
Some one from the ranks took hold of my
hand and said, come on, you will do to
fight" Here the boy would burst into
mother since that day."
met by accident, after leaving Mr..
Jones, man whom l recognized, from
his prohounciation, as from the South.
He had been Confederate prisoner at
Elmira. Although he was quite commu-
NEGATIVE, he spoke of the prison only with
extreme reluctance He said that when
a prisoner fell sick it was always con-
sidered that he would die, as a matter of
course. Another prisoner would wash
the sick man a shirt for the sake of tho
sick mans rations. He himself helped
bury the dead for five cents a day and
double rations. He had no doubt that the
United States government provided well
for the prisoners, but he feared that their
arrangements were sometimes thwarted
by men engaged in making money.
There once came to the prison." he
SAID, "a woman with f0ur little cnlldren,
all clad in the poorest garments, and evi-
IDENTIFY destitute. She was respectable
looking woman. She came from the tar
South. Her husband was in prison. She
had come all the way with her little chill
dren to see him. How she ever got North
with her children fills me with astonish-
ment. She came to the prison door in
her calico sun bonnet, her little children
around her. She asked to see
her husband, who was inside sick. They
told her that she couldn't see him that
day, but to come the next day. The next
day she came at the appointed time, and
they told her he was dead. Then she
wanted to see his corpse. They sent her
to the dead house. She went there, but
found that his body had not yet come.
When she called next day the body had
just gone to the cemetery. There the
body had just been buried. She entreat-
ed them to dig it up aud open the coffin
for her. They did so, She could not
recognize the wasted features as those of
her husband at first. But the children
cried out that IL was their father. What
became of her and them, God knows.'
ORGANIZATION.