The National tribune., 1882-11-16
The Young Orderly of Monster Wirz
at AnderSOnVille.
B RANDING A TRAITOR.
Arrival of a Very Young
Prisoner.
fContin,ted from last 1ueck.1


sockade. l was ordered to accompany him
and assist in carrying his instrument. We
mounted one of the perches where the guards
were stationed, overlooking the entire enclos-
ure and from that point of view the artist
managed to get a very fair negative 1t re-
quired four exposures one for each corner
of the stockade-to get q complete picture OF
the interior, however. / have seen many
drawings of Andersonville, but nothing except
photograph could possibly give an adequate
idea Of its horrors, and the one taken that day
did not, of course, depict Andersonville at It's
worst. Every day wrought some new misery.
BY this time cook-house had been built by
Virus orders, and it was so situated at the edge
of the creek which ran through the enclosure,
on the west side between the two gates, that
the water which we were forced TO use was con-
taminated by the ofial and refuse. Wirz levied
on the prisoners whenever there was any work
TO be done outside, and placed them on parole
for the time being. Nothing so aroused his
anger as an attempt to escape. The blood
hounds regularly every morning made the
circuit of the stOckade, and if scent was struck,
Off they would go yelping like fendS incarnate,
with Turner, the keeper, and his gray haired
assistant following hard after them, mounted
mules, and armed to the teeth. 1t was
common thing for them to return before dusk,
with from one to three half-naked and limping
captives, and march them to headquarters to
receive old Wirz's bencdiction before being sent
back to the PEN And yet, despite the dismay
which such spectacles occasioncd, we were al
ways devising some way to get back to " Gods
Country" as we used to call it. There were
two sources of hope left to us-cXchange or
escape. Sometimes word would reach us that
an exchange had been agreed upon, and our
faces would brighten up at the very possibility
of seeing home once more, and then, when day
after day passed without further news, we
would be plunged in still deeper despair.
TUNNELING TOOLS.
Escape was possible only through tunneling be-
meath the stockade, and that was attended with
great risk as well as danger. Still it was never
without its allurements for some of us. The
guards kept very sharp watch upon our move
ments, and although there were, from first to
last, some fifty thousand men confined at An
dersonvile, not more than four hundred, |
think ever succeeded In battling the hounds
deed, the majority were afterwards reGaptured
and returned to old Wirz, or sent to some other
prison. Many attempts were made to scale the
stockade, but the guards were numerous that
it was impossible to cross the dead-line without
being shot. As for the gates they were only
opened to admit new captivcs, or the rebel SER
gcant whose duty it was to call the roll, or the
wagon with the rations. Nor was it an easy
matter to dig a tunnel without being detected
WiTz was always on the alert, and it was COM
mon thing to have the work broken up after
some poor fellow had spent weeks upon it, 1t
was necessary to excavate for distance of fifty
or sixty feet in order to reach the exterior of
the prison, and the lack of proper instruments
made the work one of great difficulty. The
ends of the logs of which the stockade was CON
structed were driven some five feet into the
ground, and there was always great danger that
one of them would fall in and bury the boys
under it. | have known many a case where
the digger was caught in that fix, and nearly
smothered to death before he could be res
cued. In one instance, the comrades OF 4
prisoner who had met with an accident OF
this kind were compelled to call in the
remember that Wirz was highly amused by
this incident Had he been present at the time
| am inclined to think he would have ordered
the guards to let the fellow die there. He took
a ffendish delight in our suflerings The i'm
plement generally used in the work of excava-
ton was a halfcanteen, and it answered the
purpose of scoop very well in some respects.
A canteen, as all old soldiers know, is soldercd
together in the middle, and the half cantecns
made very handy utensils for cooking purposes
as well as for digging q road to freedom. A
prisoner who owned a canteen was considered
a lucky fellow at Andersonville. We used to
contrive very good handle out Of a split stick.
As a rule the place chosen for starting tunnel
was some little blanket tent pitched as near
the dead-line as possible so as not to have
TO excavate for any greater distance than
was absolutely necessary. The first digger
would lie flat on his stomach, and as he scoopcd
away the dirt in front of him push it back with
his hands and feet until the man behind him
could reach it. The latter would then push it
back to the man behind him, and when it
reached the mouth Of the tunnel another man
would scoop it up in bags made by tying up
the legs Of our pantaloons and carry it of to the
swamp where it could be empticd in safety
The work was extremely fatiguing, and work
ing parties were generally organized into sec
tons and relieved every half hour.
BRANDING A TRAITOR.
Wirz, as l have said, was always on the alert
TO detect and break up any little schemes of
this kind, and used to hold out special induce
mcnts to the men to betray their comrades.
The bounty jumpers were very serviceable to
him in this respect, but he would sometimes
send in some of his own men to act as spies
On one occasion when tunnel had been
broken up through the treachery of one of the
prisoners, the boys managed to identify the
traitor and at first were for putting him to
dcath-a fate which he richly merted, con-
sidering that to prevent his fellow prisoners
from escaping was not much better than muir
der. 1t was finally decided, however, to brand
the traitor with the letter T. There happened
to be Il sailor among the prisoners who was
tattoo artist of considerable renown, and after
consultation he was directed to brand the
traitor by burning the top of the letter L
across his forehead and the stem down his nose.
1t required only half an hour to do the work
but it must have seemed an eternity to the
victim. Wirz was so enraged when he heard
Of the punishment that had been melted out to
the wretch that he threatened to stop the IA
tions of the whole camp. l never knew what
became of the traitor. He was sent outside of
the stOcllade and kept at the cook-house for