The National tribune., 1882-11-23
ITO be continued
ANDERSONVILLE.
Iatrodaction to the Hospltslitiss Of that Prison
He'll.
To the Editor NATIONAL TRIRUNE:

| tie many careful readers of The NATIONAL
/ TRIBUNE, the soldiers fricnd,) and having
/ been a prisoner of war have been particularly
/ interested in reading that portion of the paper
written by those who suffered with me in those
| prison hells and after reading all l can find
/ upon the subject, it has occurred to my mind
that the half viii never be told. If had not
been there myself and seen the awful suffering
and experienced the tortures, l should think,
as many do, that there was great deal of color
attached.
Now. if there is a vacant corner to be found
! in your friendly paper, with your consent
would like to tell little of my experience in
/ two of those prisons. viz, AGdersonyille and
! Florence. l was captured at Atlanta about the
Goth Of August, 1861; was taken to Anderson
Vile with number Of Stonenaus raiders; was
robbed OF coat, hat, and all the little treasures
| | had on my person; was told by my captors
that | would not need my coat and hat rs l
would have good quarters in the prison One
man took my rubber coat another traded hats
with me and gave me one of much less value.
Soon anethor came aad traded also. They kept
on trading until was hatles5 and coatless and
| in this situation was turned into that slaughter
!
me to a$te,npt to describe my feelings as | en-
tered the gate of that prison and looked upon
! the CHASTITY coTpses Of some seventy-iive prison
ers, naked us when they were born, bloated
and dirty, many of them covered with filth;
eyes staring wide open, and limbs drawn up.
! This was my first introducti0n,-th w,ts the
first sight that met my gaze. | firmly believe,
and shall till my dying day, that my hair rose
on end and the blood curdled in my veins as /
! beheld that sight. There crowded around me
! living skeletons, with sunken eyes and long
matted, tangled hair. dirty and filthy, many Of
them with not enough clothing to cover their
nakedness. find that language is too weak to
| picture the horrid scene. Had the tongue Of
an angel l could not do it. None can under
! stand what / write-only those who witnessed
/ the same. Those Southern prison hels are in
one respect like religion. To understand it,
you must have an experience. Every survivor
| of Andersonville that was there in the fall of
| '6i will know whethsr | am writing truth or
fiction. AS those sickly, starved, and grimy
! looking beings crowded around me, so eager to
hear the news from the army, l looked upon
! them and grew sick ct heart. That scene will
! hant me while live. For little while only
! / gave up in despair, and made up my mind
/ that l, too, would soon be as one of them. l
| believe that if ever I offered an earnest prayer
/ it was at that darkest of all dark hours.
prayed fervently for grace to sustain me-
for saw no ray of hope or spark of light from
the dreary scene around, and, like one of old,
/ l can truthfully say God heard and answered
my prayer. Had l at that time given way to
that awful feeling of dependency that was
creeping over me- like many others | would
have been carried out and my dust be mingled
with that of thousands of others in South
Georgia. This prison pen being situated in
pine forest, and having a stockade-wall twenty
feet high, it was impossible TO have any crcu-
lation of air. Taking this into consideration,
| together with the fact that there were 5000
prisoners there in that enclosure of eighteen
acres of ground, you can have some idea Of the
awful stencil that struck me as | entered the
prison If | had not breathed it for eight
months and am still alive l could not believe
| knowing what do about it, that anyone could
! breathe it for twenty-four hours and live.
was turned into the prison about four D. m. as
near as / can recOllect, the 9th of August,
! 1864, and was placed in a detachment. / then
had time to think and look around, and wonder
where the good quarters were that my capt0rs
! told mo would have;-so good and comfortable
! that | would not need coat or hat. While |
was looking and wondering, my name was
spoken, and looking behind me | saw one of
my company boys iChariey Health, who was
captured at Chickamauga. He invited me
home with him. | asked him where he lived.
and he led the way to his abode, which was a
hole in the ground. I remained with him as
long ~ prison life lasted. 1t seemed they had
lust drawn their rations. AS he was ready TO
dine, he asked me if | would share his Aospi-
tality. His bill of fare consisted of corn-mcal
Cruel. quite thin and saltess. ! tasted thereof
and came near heaving Jonah. He remarked
that would come to it before long.
Now, if you viii bear with me, I will give
a little of my first nights experience at Ander-
sonvlle, and close for the present and by your
permission viii continue 10 give a sketch from
time to time, as space may be had in your valu-
able paper. After we had convcrscd together
in the darkness and gloom of that prison until
the sentinels had called out "ten o'clock and
all is we'll" Heath said: 81 guess we had better
retire" and we both crawled into the hole which
he called his home. Then commenced the bod
lily torture of being eaten up alive. | had been
soldier for over two years and half, and
thought l knew something about graybacls,
but my pen fails me when / attempt to describe
how they tortured me that night and al! the
following nights of my prison life. The whole
pen was literally alive with crawling vcrmin.
| lay about thirty minutes, but could stand il
no longer; got up and attempted to walk
around, but the darkness was so intense that
could not see where was going: so had lust TO
stand and stamp and shake myself for hours. and
each hour seemed an age. | thought morning
would never come That night seemed longer
than the two and half years of active soldier
life on the battle field. All through those
hours of intense suffering | thought of home
and loved ones of wife and sweet babies, won
derng if / should ever see them again. Morn
ing came at last. Weary and exhausted with
the suferngs of the past ght, in which had
not slept wink, began to look around me.
and the horrors that met my gaze that day will
haunt me while / live. w. w JELIIsoN,
CO. Z, Goth Ill. Vols
| WILSON, KAN.
What Physicians Say.
SAN Er,>yTpO Car