The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-01-10
PRISON NE MORIES,
The Bright and the Dark Side of
Andersonville Twenty Years Ago.
[Bg George Sect, Fort Ednard, N u

[By George Sect, Fort Edrard, N "
While sitting on hand-truck, the other day,
at Cohoes depot, had conversation with an
| old prisoner, who agreed with me that there
was no bright side to life in Andersonvie.
Chaplain MeCabe can, in his eloquent way,
! touch up and tickle the sides of Libby, and
make us all laugh, hat the clouds THAT covered
| the sand-holes of Andersonviie were too por-
! tentious for that, and my Cohoes friend was
rignt-there was no bright side" in that roof
/ less tenement.
One evening last October, while waiting in
the passenger room at Saratoga, | heard
familiar voice outside under the arcade. 1t
was Lee Goss, the author of the Soldiers
! Story" busy talking cartelsbip matters over
again. So / asked him if all the bad things
about Andersonville were to be found in his
book. 90, no." said he; some things are too
horrible for book" Having thought q great
deal on the subject, | made up my mind that
the only bright side to Andersonville was the
outside.
In the winter of 1865 slept some during
the day, if the sun permitted, for [
NEVER LAY DOWN AT NIGHT
for fear the frost might snap my life out How
| many times have | stopped in my walk and
| listened to the guards singing out the number
| of their posts and the hours OF the night until
the song Of the last sentinel died away and the
fnOnotOnY Or announcer Hour I0ll0Wcu. linen IL
seemed that everything had heavenly bright
ness beyond the horizon of the stockade while
we were the only great sufferers in the world.
Some Of the cruel past is already forgotten.
The other day l asked Hazleton, one of the
| Oldest prisoners, how many sentry boxes sur
rounded the stockade, and he scratched his
head twice over, but it was no use, he had for
gotten.
In the cold bright mornings of winter I
sometimes crept up the north hill to where the
sun shone, and one day found there an ema-
cated marine who had been picked up on the
coast, and with an earnest look he informed
NE that If he ever got down to the Atlantic
aglin he was going to eat whale.
There might have been some brightness in
such contemplatlon-nlore so than in the
thoughts of the poor fellow who one day
stepped up to me- with his torn blouse but
toned with wooden pins, and whispered in my
ear:
general has come! ("
] inquired, "What general?"
Ee yelled out,
GENERAL STARVATION.
But no one smiled at the episode.
1t was pleasure in Andersoaville to be per-
mitted to go outside, under guard, for an arm
full of wood, to walk over the pure sand and
piney leaves as far as the guards would per-
nit, and then labor hard on your return with
1 u oElSA VI HOou, Uiitil COuiu lly III 0UHA tt
the feet of our comrades in prison.
We seldom had snch opportunities, but when
they came we felt it to be great privilege to
be for few moments outside, where old rags
were often found to shoe the feet with, where
old bones Were sometimes found to crack open
and make soup Of. and sometimes an armfnI of
pine boughs could be brought in for bed.
Then, in the early spring of 1865, the south
gate few open for us all, and while on our
way to the depot we could pick up from the
sand rags aud strings, and sometimes q stray
bean here and there, that had been dropped
and wintered through.
Surely the outside life was more pleasant
than the other.
. Down towards Albany the freight train rattles
along with living freight and the lucky one
who makes hole in a box-car and is rewarded
with sweet potato at some stopping place,
sniacks his lips with the greatest pleasure while
eating 1t raw, and, although this new expert
ence created new risks yet what pleasure it
, was to run theH and battle with disease!
In 1865 there was no railroad between Al
bany and Townsville, and we had scarcely
made mile of this journey on foot, when a
rebel on horseback came dashing along to the
front, and then the hearts of the boys sank
, again when they heard the order, Back to
. Andersonville." Back TO unreasonable we 60
and even on to Macon-and now it seems as If
the whole Confederacy could not contain us,
, and we are
ORDERED BACK TO ALBANY
again. and there is happy indication that the
Confederacy may be winding up its affairs.
Tanned down by starvation in prison, the
boys were nov picking up wonderfully on con-
hseated corn, and the guards, many of whom
were good fellows, were becoming more nervous,
and ON cur last journey to brownsville plan
was talked OF TO relieve them of their muskets.
Over Flint River at Albany stands a long
covered bridge, and about half way through it
a 9nlnrpI rna
box OF corn and driving four mules; he is on his
way to the mill at Albany, but, when his mules
see such looking lot of Yankees as we are the
leaders take fright and twist themselves around
and face the wheel mules and the driver Our
men take in the situation at glance No such
opportunity ever presented itself to them since
their capture They have the colored man
and the corn at their mercy. The guards can
do nothing while moving in such crowded
space, and our boys pile over one another into
the wagon and load themselves down with ears
of corn until they are crowded out by the rush
} from behind.
| was pretty well in the rear, helping along
sick comrade, and when | came up | found
the taIl-board out of the wagon, or else the end
broken open, but | succeeded in gathering up
quite number of cars of corn on the floor of
the bridge, while the colored man still sat on
the wagon-seat, lamenting his loss bitterly.
What viii massa say2 What viii massa
! say?"
One of our boys replied: "Tell him that he
had better not say anything; tell him that we
will call around in the evening and eat him
up"
The country between Albany and Thomas
vile was paradise for prisoners. That even
ing,
IN CAMP AT BLUE SPRINGS.
we drank corn coffee and ate corn all the even
ing; and that night, with the ears OF corn
under my head, J. dreamed Of home.
great change all at once oyer Us.
We Were no longer tame and Submissive; star
walton no longer leveed us; the old spirit
gradually returned. The waters of Blue
Springs as large as small garden, boil up be-
fore us then meander away in a large stream.
Here scores of our men jump into the spring
and take the long-desred bath They try to
sink beneath the waters that boil up, but fad
it impossible Corn and ground peas are doing
their work. and are fast turning us into rebels
against rebels. That night the guards find it
impossible to keep all of onr men in camp.
There are no stockades now, and our best
feeling fellows run the guards with irnpnnity,