The National tribune., 1882-10-26


sidcration Of humanity we might have derived
all the fuel necessary for our wants. The men
would willingly have got their own fuel had
they been permitted to do so, and they could
have been placed on parole of honor, as the
cooks and nurses were, while engaged in their
duties outside of the stockade, and, in any
event, the c0ufederates had a sufficient force at
hand to guard them properly had they thought
that necessary. AS it was, the prisoners only
chance to procure a supply of fuel was to
bride the guards by means of rings, pencils,
knives, or any knicB nacks of which they
happened still to retain possession, to accom-
pany a small party to the woods and bring back
such stray knots and humps as they might be
able to pick up. Most of the guards were poor
and ignorant, and a handful Of brass buttons
had a great attraction fdr them.
1t may seem incredible, yet it is a fact, that
the prisoners who bore their suferings with the
greatest humanity and displayed the most
endurance were not men Of robust appearance,
but youths and striplings.
OF course the character Of our guards was a
matter of special interest to us, and we soon
learned to distinguish the difference between
men from different sections of the South, At
the time there were two regiments stationed at
Andcrsonvile,-the Twenty-sixth Alabama, of
which | have already spoken, and the Fifty
fifth Georgia. The Alabamians, as a rule, were
kind and humane in their treatment of prison.
crs and possessed fine, sOdierly bearing. The
GcGrgians, on the other hand, were treachcrous
and brutal They delighted in shooting
prisoners down at every opportunity, while
the Alabamians rcfraincd from firing until
satisfied that deliberate breach of the regula-
tons was intended. 1t occurred quite frequently
that prisoners who were several feet within the
dcad-line and had no idea of passing it, were
shot down in cold blood by the Georgiars but
so far rs l know during the whole time of my
imprisonment but one man was shot by the
ALabamians I knew him well. His name was
David Hubbard, and he was q member of the
Thirty-eighth Illinois. lie was very unpopular
with the men, but he had lost a leg at the
battle Of Chickamauga, if I am not mistaken,
and, as he was forced to go about on crutchcs, he
received, on that account, some consideration.
POOR POLL PARROT.
He seemed to have a special fondness for max
ing hateful and spitcful remarks, and, on ac-
ncI1namcd him " Poll Parrot" One day Wirz
saw fit to remove him from the stockade, for
some reason that was never fully explained, and
a few days later a squad of confedcrates visited
the prison, and marched directly to a tent where
some fifty men were at work in a tunnel. 1t
was suspected that he had betrayed his COM
radcs. At any rate the boys talked the matter
over, and, when he returned to the prison, resolv
ed to lynch him. He succeeded, however, in
breaking away from Them and, no other refuge
being at hand, ran under the dead-Ine The
prisoners thought, of course, that he did this for
his own protection, but they soon discovered
their mistake On perceiving the manHuvre,
the guard, a member of the Twenty-sixth Ala
bama, ordered him out. As he did so, poor Poll
Parrot rose up on the only leg that he had
brought away from Chickamauga, and, resting
his back against the dead-line, faced the guard
and shouted: :" No. won't go out! If l have
lost the confidence of my comrades l want to die
right here." The men were puzzled but, think
ing this was only a sharp trick to escape the
punishment which they felt he deserved at their
hands, they renewed their yells. Once more the
guard ordered Poll Parrot out, but he stood his
exclaimed: "No, l won't go! You may fire at
me, guard Here is my heart; shoot me right
thcre!" The words were hardly out of his mouth
when the guard pulled the trigger, and poor Poll
Parrot fell back mortally wounded. He must
have buried his face in his hands, for the bullet
cut away, with his lower jaw, his little fingers,
and left a great hole in his breast where it went
crashing through. They carried the poor fell
low away to the dCad-hOuse, where / saw him a
few moments later. At the time of the occur
renee l was with Wirz at headquarters, and 1
remember yet what the monster said when the
news was brought to him. Said he: "That one
legged man tried to pass the guard at the south
gate when | was down there, and | told him to
stand back. He replied: Captain, want to
die l drew my revolver, and said: Well
stand there, damn you, and I'll do it for you if
you don't go back in there | presented the
muzzlo Of my revolver at him, at which he APP
pcarod to be frightened, and obeyed my order"
From what Wirz said, | am sure that it was
not Poll Parrot who betrayed the boys who were
working in the tunnel but he had a mischiev-
GUS tongue, and it is not surprising that his COM
radcs nistrusted him. The men who carried
him to the dead-hOuse told me afterwards that
in his dying agony he Waggcd his tongue Wig
orousIy as if he wished to speak, but he was
poweress to articulate a single word. l could
not but pity the brute who shot him. When he
realized what he had done he threw his gun
down and buried his face IN his hands. He was
almost the only sentinel at AndcrsonviIIc that
l ever knew to display the slightest compunc-
ton over the killing of Yankee"
To DC continued