The National tribune., 1897-12-16
ANDERSONVILLE.
the woods, and supply all the meat
Continued from first page.)

'NS "oN'Sp ~A" S"PPiy al eHS huSoI
used.
Andrews used to insist that some of
the hogs which we saw were so thin that
the connection between their fore and
headquarters was only single thickness
of skin, with hair on both sides-but
then Andrews sometimes seemed to me
to have tendency to exaggerate.
The swine certainly did have pro-
portions that strongly resembled those
of the animals which children cut out of
cardboard. They were like the geo.
metrical definition of a superficial
length and breadth, and no thickness.
A ham from them would look like
palm-leaf fan.
| never ceased to marvel at the deli
cate adjustment of the development of
animal life to the soil in these lean Sec
tons of Georgia. The poor land would
not maintain anything but lank, lazy,
men, with few wants, and none but lank,
lazy men with few wants sought
maintenance from it. | may have
tangled up cause and effect in this
proposition, but if so, the reader can
disentangle them at his leisure
! was not astonished to learn that it
took 800 square miles of Pierce County
land TO maintain 1000 Crackers" even
as poorly as they lived should want
fully that much of it to support one fair
sized Northern family as 1t should be.
After leaving the cars we were
marched Oft into The pine woods, by the
side of considerable stream, and told
that this was to be our camp. A heavy
guard Was placed around US. and
number OF pieces of artillery mounted
where they would command the camp.
We started i'll to make ourselves COM
Portable, a. at MiIlen, by building
shanties. The prisoners we left behind
followed us. and we soon had our old
crowd of five or six thousand, who had
been our companions at Savannah and
Milen, again with US. Tie place looked
very favorable for escape We knew
we were still near the sea coast really
not more than foIty miles away-and
we felt that II we could once get there
we should be safe Andrews ami | medi-
tated plans of escape, and toiled awav
at our cabin.
About a week after our arrival we
were startled bv an order for the one
thousand of us who had first arrived to
get read y to move out. In a few min
utes we were taken outside the guard
line, massed close together, and informed
in few words by rebel officer that
we were about to be taken back to
Savannah for exchange.
The announcement took away our
breath. For an instant the rush of |
emotion made us speechless, and when !
utterance returned, the first use we |
made Of it was to join in one stimuli
taneous outburst of reclamation. Those
inside the guard line, understanding
what our cheer meant, answered us with
a loud shout OF ongratulation-the first
real, genuine, hearty cheering that had
been done since receiving the announce
ment Of the exchange at Andersonville,
three months before.
As soon as the excitement had SUBJ
sided somewhat the rebel proceeded to
explain that we would all be required
to sign parole. This sci us to think
ing. After our scornful rejection of the
to enlist in the rebel army,
the rebels had felt around among us
as to how we were dis
posed toward taking what was called
The "Non- Combatant's Oath -; that is,
he swearing not to take up arms against
the Southern Confederacy again during
The war;
TO the most of us this seemed only
little less dishonorabe than joining the
rebel army. We held that our oaihs to
our own Government placed us at its
disposal until it chose to discharge US,
and we could not make any engage
uents with its enemies that might come
n contrayention of that duty