The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-11-09
The Young Orderly Of Monster Wirz
at AnderSOnViIIe.
STRIPPING THE DEAD.
Brisk Speculations in Bad
Suffers Supplies.
TCorfirusd from last frseE.1

about mile above Andersonville and an equal
distance from the stOckade, and spent his nights
there. He rode his famous gray mare, and his
route lay through the burying ground and a
strip of woods that sllirted the railroad. l sup
pose l know the qualities of that mare better
than anyone now living-better even than did
Wirz himself-for l had the care of her, and
used to exercise her daily in bearing messages
to and from the depot, the farmhouse, and
military headquarters. She was fine animal,
| easy gated and sure footed, and | became
! greatly attached to her. 1t was on the morn
ing following that on which my young COmrade
died that became the commandants orderly.
! Existence had become intOlerable within the
stockade, and when old Wirz asked me to act
as his "errand boy" as he called it, I was
nothing 10th to accept My duties as l have
intimated, were chiefly those of messenger to
the depot and General Winder's headquarters,
and | had to make the trip several times day.
Wirz by this time had managed to incur the
| ill-Will not only of every inmate of the prison,
but Of the majority of the rebel soldiers en-
! campcd in the vicinity. On one occasion he
drew his revolver on q guard who did not obey
! his order to get up from the ground on which
! he was lying with sufficient alacrity, and l
| heard him say afterwards that he would have
shot the poor fellow if he had hesitatcd a mo-
| ment longer. Yet he was at heart a great
coward. He rode up to his Office one morning
! swearing in the most shocking manner, and
on being asked by the spectators who were
attracted to the spot by his blasphemous ejacu-
lations declared that some - Yankee had
/ ~.
and having waylaid him, tried to knock his
brains out with a club. Wirz was in too great
state of excitement at first to go into particu-
lars but we learned presently that as he was
riding through the woods man had suddenly
| jumped out of the brush, seized his mare by
| the Bride and tried to fell him to the ground
! with a stout club Fortunately for Wirz the
blow was badly aimed, and he only received a
smart rap on the chin. His white linen
trousers were stained with blood below the
knee, but the wound was of quite a triGing
character 1t was the occasion, however, of
my first introduction to his home whittier he
dispatched me at once to procure a clean pair
of pantaloons Mrs. Wirz was quite as much
excited rs her husband when I told her what
had occurred, and denounced the mean, low,
dirty, Yankees" with vehemence that at once
convinced me that instead of one master, the
inmates of Andersonvllo had two to deal with
Whether it really was an escaped prisoner who
assaulted Wirz or not, was never able to dis
cover but the chances are at least even that
his assailant was one of the confederate guards
who had suffered from his brutality.
PRISON PRIvATIoNs.
About this time a fine riGed battery which had
been captured by the confederates at the battle
of Olustee Fla, was brought to AndersonviIle
and stationed where it would command the
prison enclosure. As the condition of the in
mates grew more and more pitiful the confed-
crates became more and more apprehensve Of
an outbreak. We now had sunny weather, it
is true, and the lack of fuel was no longer felt,
but constant exposure to the storms of Febru-
airy and March, and the want of nourshing
food had undermined the constitutions of the
men generally, and they were in no condition
to successfully resist the inrOads of disease
The majority, too were in rags, and fresh
clothing could only be obtained by stripping
the bodies of the dead. Many corpse was
carried nearly naked to the gates and it was
the invariable custom, as soon as man died to
remove all his clothing except his shirt, and to
the latter pin a little slip of paper, containing
simply his name rank, company and regiment
The appearance Of the dead as they lay stretched
out at Andersonville haunts me still Their
features were distorted with pain and hunger,
and millions Of lice swaInod on their sunken
limbs and emaciated bodies. 1t was IA hideous
spectacle and God forbid that His sun shall
ever shine on the like again
UNWELCOME VISITORS.
1t is not pleasant subject l know, but this
narrative would be incomplete did it fail to
record the plague of vermin which fell upon
the prisoners. The greybacks as the boys
called them-iufested the whole place, and it
was all a strong, healthy man could do to keep
his person clean by picking them off of his
clothes every day, while the sick and feeble
were literally devoured by them. 1t was as
much part of the daily rontine of prison life to
remove the vermin from our clothing as it was
to eat or sleep or drink, and no expression was
more common or uttered with more seriousness
in our mess than the loathsone one: "Wel |
comrades, let us louse!" 1t seemed to us some |
times as if all the plaques of Egypt had been |
let loose upon US. During the month of April |
the average number of prisoners on the roll
was five thousand, and the official returns give |
a total Of five hundred and seventy-six deaths |
during that period, or a daily mortality of
over nineteen. The confederatcs had made |
shift to erect hospital in the neartheasterm
part Of the stockade, but it was utterly unfit |
for the purposes it was designed to serve. A |
small portion Of the enclosure had been rallied |
off from the rest, few fly tents erected and
layer of pine leaves spread on the ground to |
serve as beds for the inmatcs-only this and |
nothing moro. Nothing was done to relieve |
them from the tortures inflicted by the lice,
nourshing food was denied them, and there
was an entire lack of proper medical attend
ance. No wonder that the hospital came to be
looked upon as the gateway to the grave. As
a matter of fact, seventy-six per cent.-accord-
ing to the official records-of all the patients
admitted died there!
AND STILL THEY COME.
Towards the close of the month our number
was increased by the arrival of two thousand
prisoners who had constituted the Federal gar
rson at Plymouth, North Carolina, and had
been allowed when they surrendered to retain
their personal effects. They were the best
dressed and finest looking body of men that we
had seen, and nearly every one still had some
of his veteran bounty money III his possession,
but from the moment the gates of Anderson
vile closed upon them they seemed to give
themseles up to despair. The contrast between
which they now found themselves doomed was