The National tribune., 1882-09-28

| greatest Of hardships, and is ruinous to the
| health. We have wood enough for cooking
purposes, but mono to keep warm by. The
weather is extremely cold at night and as few
| prisoners have blankets, many men freeze TO
death, to say nothing of frost-bitten limbs.
| that are speedily attacked by gangrene. This
| is fully as rough place as Andersonvile. It
consists of an ohlOng stockade enclosing two
! opposite hillsides, with swamp between, tho
| whole forming an area of about fifteen acres
| OF this area the swamp takes up five acres.
| The stockade runs east and west, being about
| twice rs long as it is wide, and the gate is at
the western end. The eastern hillside is not
| quite so high as the western. Flowing through
the swamp from north to south is brook of
| crystal water. The stOckade logs are unhewn,
and instead of sentry boxes such as were pro-
vided at AndersOnville and Mllen, the earth
| is heaped up on the outside of the stoclxade to
a sufficient height TO form q walk for the SEN
tinels and enables them to see all that trans
prcs inside. At each corner of the stockade
is an elevated platform on which artillery is
mounted. The guns are pointed to the inside
and are kept loaded with grape and canister.
| The dead-line consists of merely Il furrow
plowed in the ground, instead of a railing. It
| is supcriluous TO state that the prisoners have
no tents or barracks. The large majority of
them live in holes in the ground, more or less
rooted over with mud and sticks. Across the
swamp runs a dyke or elevated road, and the
creek is spanned by rough bridge of logs
By reason of its proximity to the bridge the
prison market-place is humorously termed
g the Rialto." The railroad station is about
mile distant. Florence is in Darlington county,
at about the centre of the State of South
Carolina, and is about north from Charleston.
Dec. 1st-The interior of the prison is COM
manded by Lieutenant Barrett of the Fifth
Georgia infantry, whom the prisoners call
Red Head" by reason of his scarlet l""'--
He is the Wirz of Florence-the incarn;
meanness and cowardly cruelty. To ju
his language and conduct when we can
think he is the most brutal and confer
wretch | ever saw. He is quite as re ~
flourish weapons in the face Of unarme ..
and helpless invalds as Wirz was, al O.
prisoners state that he has manned = .f
unoifending men by striking them with
and man who is manned in here is We
tain to die. The vengeance of the dyiI
federacy is falling on us, and such
Wirz Winder and Barrett are managi
business. The death rate here is twel
cent. month; that is, twelve men Of
every hundred die every month. Acc ~
to another estimate, the average durat
life is one hundred and twenty-one days
misery by sickness and starvation is a . -
to be considered in addition. During ii
month hundreds of despairing prisoners aas
enlisted in the rebel army. The garriso
sists of the Fifth Georgia regiment and
organizations composed of conscripts .a
other scum. Colonel Iverson is comma
of the post Once in q while he has a
impulse, but he permits too many barb;
to go unrebuked to entitle him to be
spoken of. As at DIillen, we are organize
hundreds and thousands. The wood
is pitch pine, and is SO full of pitch that
cut long silver, light one end of
stick the other end in the ground ..t
write by it the same as 1 would by a C 16.
1t burns brilliantly in the little fir,
of our gopher hole" Why should
work so hard to build houses, espea
Northern mudsills when all they really re
is a hole in the ground? We are in gQls
Carolina at last, the home of the flow @