The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-09-30
ANDERSONVILLE.
Continued from first page)

We were only under the old Stars and
Stripes, we wouldn't care for few
worms, would WEI"
1t seemed terrible that so gallant a
soul should depart from earth in this
miserable fashion. Some of us, much
moved by the sight, went to the doctor.
and put the case as strongly as possible,
begging them to do something to allevi-
ate his suffering. They declined to see
the case, but got rid of us by giving us
a bottle of turpentine, with directions to
pour it upon the ulcers to kill the mag
gots. We did so. 1t must have been
cruel torture, and as absurd remedially
as cruel, but our hero set his teeth
and endured without groan. He
was then carried out to the hospital
to die.
| said the doctors made pretense of
afording medical relief. 1t was hardly
that, since about all the prescription for
those inside the Stockade consisted in
giving handful of sumach berries to
each of those complaining of scurvy.
The berries might have done some good,
had there been enough of them, and
had their action been assisted by proper
food. AS it was, they we're probably
nearly, if not wholly, useless. Nothing
was given to arrest the ravages of dyson
terry.
A limited number of the worst cases
were admitted to the hospital each day.
AS this only had capacity for about one
quarter of the sick in the Stockade, new
patients could only be admitted as others
died. 1t seemed, anyway, like signing
a mans death warrant to send him to
the hospital, as three out of every four
who went out there died. The following
from the official report of the hospital
shows this:
Total number admitted, ~, 400; died,
1868; exchanged, 1913; took the oath
of allegiance, %; sent elsewhere, 1889.
Total, 1900. Average deaths, rs per
cent.
Early in August I made successful
effort to get out to the hospital. l had
several reasons for this: First, one of my
chums, W. w. Watts, of my own COM
pany, had been sent out little while
before very sick with scurvy and pneu-
lnonia, and | wanted to see if / could
do anything for him, if he still lived. l
have mentioned before that for awhile
after our entrance into AndersonvilIe
five Of us slept on one overcoat and COW
cred ourselves with one blanket. Two
of these had already died, leaving, as
possessors of the blanket and overcoat,
W. W. Watts, B. b. Andrews, and my
SELF
Next. | wanted to go out to see if
there was any prospect of escape. /
had long since given up hopes of escap-
ing from the Stockade. All our at
tempts at tunneling had resulted in dead |
failures, and now, to make us wholly de-
spair of success in that direction, an
other stockade was built clear around
the prison, at a distance Of 100 from the
first palisades. 1t was manifest that,
though we might succeed in tunneling
past one stockade, we could not go be-
yond the second one.
| had the scurvy rather badly and,
being naturally slight in frame, l pre-
sented very sick appearance to the
physicians, and was passed out to the
hospital. While this was a wretched
affair." it was still vast improvement on
the Stockade. About five acres of
ground, little southeast of the Stock
ade, and bordering ON a creek, we're in
closed by board fence, around which
he guard walked. Trees shaded the
ground tolerably well. There were
,ents and flies to shelter part Of the sick,