The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-09-10
AT TIE CAMPFIRES.
Talking Of the Days and Deeds Of
Flood and Field.

The Campfire is an institution chat will
never die out of popularity SO long as there
are comrades enough gathered to pass the
evening IN rehearsing recollections of the
old days. Such an occasion always brings
the comrades closer together, and refreshes
the memory as to those scenes in which they
played such an all-important part.
The Campfire of the Union Ex-Prisoners
at the Auditorium was the largest held dur
ing the Encampment. There was not a va
cant seat left when the Second Regiment
Band played a medley of patriotic and
popular airs. Rev. John s. Ferguson, of
Keokuk, Iowa, offered prayer. /. N. Ma
han then introduced as Chairman of the
meeting Mayor F. B. DoraD, Of st. Paul,
who, in turn, announced that, as National
Commander Sheriff, of the War Prisoners
Association, was present, he wanted him to
act as Chairman. Before taking his seat,
however, Mayor Doran made short address,
in which he said:
1.-THE story Of camp and hospital, of battle
nd ,ivouac and all the incidents that relate
t. active army life have been so often and SO
we'll told, it has seemed fitting that the sur
viyors Of another phase of army experience
and so we are here gathered as an ex-Pris-
oners Campfire We believe that while
some dark shadows may be thrown athwart
your listening vision, it may not be in vain
or tend to incite an unjust prejudice against
this reopeniDg of the frightful experiences
of over 80 years ago.
attempts will be made to portray what
was the impression made upon different in
;y;d 1c WI ,o xuaro unfortunate pnOuUh to
become the military guests of the Southern
Confederacy. To those who have not heard
them it may seem that these recitals are
warped by prejudice, and that unfeeling dis
regard for others feelings is INDUCED; that
bitterness and sectional hate have been per-
mitted to usurp calm statement of actual
fact; in short, that things are told that are
the overstatements of disordered imagina-
tons. To such / will say that after the
lapse of 81 years since my experience OF
prison life ended can with deliberate judg-
ment declare that no pen can portray and
no tongue express the Understandable horrors
/ witnessed from Dec. 26, 1862, to Nov. A,
1865
"The very flower of our youth rallied from
the farms, from the academies, from the col
leges, the counting -rooms, the shops, and
the professions, and with all the ardor OF
youth threw themselves into the conflict
with disunion and treason. Large numbers
of this class of youths were by the fortunes
of war made captive. And what a cap
tisity! Huddled together like swine, they
underwent alike the lrightful billings of cold
OF the no less turturing, blistering rays of
Southern sun. Thrown into camps located
in the midst of forests whose timber was OF
no value, that timber which might have
warmed from frost or shaded from sun was
denied them. No adequate supply of food
of even the coarsest kind was allowed, and
so, starving, freezing, or burning, these noble
youths were left to their fate-to live or die,
as might be determined by their capacity
for endurance.
ssIf all the anguish that went to fill the
10000 graves of unknown heroes at Ander-
sonville, Salisbury, Florence, Belle Isle, and
numerous smaller posts can be summed up
it may, and / earnestly hope will go far
toward the avoidance of future civil and
fratricidal strife through the object-lesson 1t
furnishes. We fell into hands that through
q barbarous system had become call0used
against human suffering until the pitifnl,
CHASTITY spectacle our poor, suffering heroes
presented made no appeal to their SYM
pathy. To them the National army was
one to invade their rights and compel them
to abandon what they had been taught to
regard as God-giysn right; the right to
compel an unrehunerated toll, and to use
for barter and sale the bodies of men and
women.
"Let us thank God that system is not
only abolished, but is on all hands conceded
to have been an evil in itself, not only as
applied to the captive, but equally an evil
and hindrance and bar sinister to the
masters progress. They have now come
to see the evil, and we welcome them as
brothers."
At the conclusion of his speech Mayor
Doran introduced Commander Sheriff, who
spoke of his experience as prisoner of war
in the Salisbury Prison. He said he en-
listed at the age of IA, and spent his 10th
birthday in the battle Of the Wilderness