Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-02
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsrArcH.l

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPArCH.1
WILLIAMSBURG, November L-Mr. Jos.
Collins, of Kansas City, Mo-. but formerly
of Penn township, this county, has just re-
turned from a trip through the Southern
States, and, among other places, visited An
dersOnville. Ca, and Florence, s. G., hav-
ing brother-George Collins-buried at
the latter place in an unknown grave. The
object of his visit was, in part, to find his
brothers grave. He thus describes Ander-
sonville, after lapse of 25 years from the
time of its occupation by $1,000 Union sol
diers, IA, 900 of whom are now silent occu-
pants.
I arrived at Ander 1nville station the
latter part of last September. The town
consists of eight or ten dwelling houses and
one hotel. / hired q colored guide, who
escorted me to the old prison inclosure.
The ground is now owned by two negroes,
and cotton crop now covers its once repul-
sive surface; all the evidence of imprison-
ments once used by the Confederate mill
tary authorities have ceased to exist, save a
small shed over the once famous spring that
many claimed had supernatural origin.
THE sToCKADE Is ALL DOWN.
Nothing to define the once ponderous in
closure, except that the stumps of the logs,
and the outline Of the prison are defined by
the old water wells, dug by the Union pris-
oners. There are no remains of the C0nfed-
crate cookhouse, deadhouse or Captain
Wertz's headquarters; only the unleveled
remains of the earthen breastworks, from
which Captain Wertz used to point sections
of artillery, with grape and canister, to
awe and bring to terms the Yankees who
dared to sing patriotic songs within range
of his guns.
The low ground or swamp between the
north and south sides of the prison is now
grown over with canebrake and brushwood.
This was the place so repulsiVe while occu-
pied by the prisoners. In some other parts
of the inclosure are trees IL to 10 inches in
diameter, of the persimmon and pine va
riety. Time, with its mellowing influences,
is tenderly and quietly placing the cover of
oblivion on these tragic scenes Of other
days.
FULL OF SAD REMINDERS.
The cemetery, short distance from the
old prison pen, Is maintained by the Gov
ernment The Superintendent, Captain
Bryant, was a Union soldier. The known
graves number 12,779, and the unknown
number is 923. The unknown have square
block of marble with the solitary number in
figures inscribed on its face; the known have
the soldiers name, number and State; and
the register in the Superintendent's Office
tells you the regiment and company. The
cemetery is inclosed with q durable red
brick wall about 3 feet high by %
inches in thickness. The six soldiers who
were hanged in 1854 by the prisoners (the
writer being witness), are marked in the
register as "Raiders," and ON their head
stones appear their names and States. Their
names are: P. Delaney, Pennsylvania; w.
Collins, Pennsylvania (no relation to my
Charles Curtis, Rhode Island;
John Sarsfeld, New York; W. Dickson aud
A. Mum, both of the United States navy.
They were executed for numbering their
fellow prisoners. The cemetery is kept in
frst-class order, equal to any national ceme-
terY in the United States. The old wells
dug by the prisoners still remain untitled,
some of them being covered with posts and
logs.
ANOTHER SACRED SPOT.
Florence, S. c., was next visited by my
Mr.. Collins, whose brother lies
buried in an unknown grave there. He
thus describes the South Carolina prison
pen:
The stockade here, like the Andersonville
one, is rapidly decaying and disappearing
under the relentless hand of time. The
earthen embankment outside the wood
stockade, on which the Confederate
sentinel paced to and fro, and hourly
shouted the time of the night, is all that re-
mains of the obstacle to freedom where II,
900 prisoners suffered the weary months and
days of the winter of 1854 The location is
one mile southeast OF the town above named,
in Darlington. district, and about midway
between Charleston and Wilmington. The
inclosure is partly covered with q growth Of
shrub trees and small patch of cotton in
one corner.
The Government has also q cemetery here,
and macadamized roadway from Florence to |
the cemetery is now under construction. The |
visitor will stand amazed when he faces the |
headstones and finds 2,799 marked with the !
word Unknown" and the |
remarkably small number, 2O6, "Known."
The cemetery
CONSISTS OF -FOUR ACRES,
also by brick wall inclosure.
William J. Elgie, one-armed soldier, is |
here, and guards this |
bivouac of the unknown dead.
One of the few known graves is that of q |
woman; headstone gives her name. She |
enlisted as q soldier in disguise, her sex re-
naming unknown until death called her to |
rest, far from home and comforts. Visitors
usually drop tear of sympathy right here
on this lone heroine's grave. Romance
may gently and tenderly weave her actions
into syllables and words; but Fame will say:
"Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead,
Dear as the blood ye gave;
No impions footstep here shall tread
The herbage of your grave.
Nor shall your glory be forgot
While Fame her record keeps,
Or Honor points the hallowed spot
Where Valor proudly sleeps"
SAMUEL CREELMAN