The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-10-09
FACTS CONCERNING ANDERsONVILLE
PRISON.

So rapidly does one generation sue
coed another in the active duties of life,
that l very much fear the important
truths in connection with the suiferings
of the heroes who were confined at An
Jacksonville prison, fail to make a
proper impression on our busy minds,
and are not received by the younger
people Of our country as u part of the
history of our Nation, horrible as these
facts may be. l have, with some efforts
and care, collected from very reliable
sources some facts that bear on this sub
ject, and which l believe are not gener-
ally known, and l send this cNmmunica-
ton to you asking for it place in your
paper.
In January, 1876, during the debate
upon the proposition of granting gen
eral amnesty to all rebels against the
government, who took pant in the war of
1S61-5, Hon. James G. Blaine stated
some facts in relation to the treatment
of the prisoners at Andersonville, and
charged the responsibility of that treat
ment to Jefferson Davis.
Mr.. Blaine says: THAT he Jefferson
Davis), was the author, knowingly, de-
liberately, guiltily and wilfully, of the
gigantic murders and crimes at Ander-
sonviile."
A member "And Libby"
Mr.. Blaine: Libby pales into insight
ficance before Andersonville. l place it
on that ground. and I believe to-day,
that so rapidly does one event follow on
the heels of another in the rapid age in
which we live that even those of us who
were contemporaneous with what was
transpiring there and still less those who
have grown up since, fail to remember
| the gigantic crime then committed. Sir,
since the gentleman from Pennsylvania,
(Mr. RandalD introduced this bill last
month, have taken occasion to re-read
some of the historic crueltieS of the
world have read over the details of
! those atroCiOus murders of the Duke of
Alva in the Low Countries, which are
always mentioned with a thrill of horror
throughout ChristendOm. l have read
the details OF the massacre of st. Bar
| tholomew, that stands out in history as
one of those atrocities beyond magma
| ton. | have read anew the horrors, I'M
told and unimaginable, of the Spanish
| InquiSition. And | here, before God,
measuring my words, knowing their full
extent and import, declare that neither
the deeds of the Duke of Alva, in the
Low Countries, nor the massacre of st.
Bartholomew, nor the thumb screws
and engines of torture of the Spanish In
QUESTION begin to compare in atrOcity
with the hideous crime of Anderson
Vile"
Mr.. Blaine further says: 81 hold in my
hand story written out by committee
of Congress. After detailing the prep
aration of that prison, the arrange
ments made with hideous cruelty for the
victims, the report which 1 hold in my
hand and which was concurred in by
Democratic members as well as Re
publican members of Congress, states
this, and | beg the members to hear it
for it is far more impressive than any
thing can say. After l say, giving full
details, the report says:
"The subsequent history of Anderson
vile has startled and shocked the world
with tale of horror, of woe and death,
before unheard and unknown to civlliza-
ton. No pen can describe, no painter
sketch, no imagination comprehend its
fearful and unutterable iniquity.
sit would seem as if the concentrated
madness of earth and hell had found ito
final Judgement in the breasts of those
who inaugurated the rebellion and con-
trolled the policy of the Confederate
government, and that the prison at
Andersonville had been selected for the
most terrible human sacrifice which the
world has ever seem
Into its narrow walls were crowded
thirty-fve thousand enlisted men, many
of them the bravest and best, the most
devoted and heroic of those grand
armies which carried the flag of our
country to final victory For long and
weary months here they suffered, mad
dened, were murdered and died. Here
they fingered, unsheltered from the
burning rays Of tropical sun by day,
and drenching and deadly dews by
night, in every stage of mental and
physical disease, hundgered, emaciated,
starving, maddened, fostering with I'M
healed wounds; gnawed by the ravages
of scurvy and gangrene; with swollen
limb and distorted yissage; covered with
vermin which they had no power to ex-
tirpate; exposed to the flooding rains
which drove them drowning from their
miserable holes in which, like swine.
they burrowed; parched with thirst and
mad with hunger; racked with pain or
Frustrated with the weakness of disso-
luton; with naked limbs and matted
hair; filthy with smoke and mud; soiled
with the very eXcrement from which
their weakness would not permit them
to escape; eaten by the gnawing worms
which their own wounds had engen-
dered; with no bed but the earth; no
covering save the clouds or the sky;
these men, these heroes, born in the
IMAGE of God Tins croucbinO and