The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-10-07

How Escaped PRIsoNEI
wonderful revolver-of which | have
spoken-in such manner as to threaten
the luckless captives with instant death,
he would shrek out imprecatons, curses,
and foul epithets in French, German
and English until he fairly trothed at
the mouth.
There were plenty of stories current
in camp of his having several times
given away to his rage so far as to
actually shoot men down in these inter-
views, and still more of his knocking
boys down and jumping upon them,
until he inflicted injuries that soon re-
suited in Death How true these rumors
were [ am unable to say of my own
personal knowledge, since | never saw
him kill any one, nor have [ talked
with any one who did. There were a
number of cases of this kind testified
to upon his trial, but they all happened
among "paroles outside the Stockade,
or among the prisoners inside after we
left, SO | knew nothing Of them.
One of the Old Switzer's favorite
ways Of ending these seances was to in
form the boys that he would have them
shot in an hour or so, and bid them pre-
pare for death. After keeping them in
fearful suspense for hours he would
order them to be punished with the
stocks, the ball-and-c chain, the chain
gang, OFF his fierce mood had burned
itself entirely out-as was quite likely
with a man of his shallow brain and
vaclllating temper-to be simply re-
turned to the Stockade.
Nothing, | am sure, since the days of
the Inquisition-or still later, since the
terrible punishments visited upon the
insurgents of 1S4S by the Austrian
aristocrats-has been SO diabolical as
the stocks and chain-gangs, as used by
Wirz. At one time seven men, sitting
in the stocks near the Star Forth
plain view of the camp became objects
of interest to everybody inside. They
were never relieved from their painful
position, but were kept there until
all of them died. think it was nearly
two weeks before the last one succumbed.
What they endured in that time even
Imagination cannot conceive. | do not
think that an Indian tribe ever devised
keener torture for its captives.
The chain-gang consisted of num-
Der Of men-varying from II to 20,
all chained to one G4-pound ball. They
were also stationed near the Star Fort,
standing out in the hot sun, without a
particle of shade over them. When
one moved they all had to move. They
were scourged with the dysentery, and
the necessities of some one of their num-
Der kept them constantly in motion. l
can see them distinctly yet, tramping
laboriously and painfully back and for
ward over that burning hillside, every
moment of the long, weary Summer
days.
A comrade sometime ago wrote to re-
mind me of the beneficent work Of the
Masonic Order. | mention it most gladly,
as it was the sole recognition on the part of
any of our foes of our claims to human
kinship. The churches of all denom-
nations the solitary Catholic
priest, Father Hamilton-ignored US as
wholly as if we were dumb beasts.
Lay humanitarians were equally In
different, and the only interest mani
tested by any rebel in the welfare of any
prisoner was by the Masonic brother
hood. The rebel Masons interested
themselves in securing details outside
the Stockake in the cook house, the COM
missary, and elsewhere, for the brethren
among the prisoners who would accept
such favors. Such as did not feel in
clined to go outside on parole received
frequent presents in the way Of food, and
especially vegetables, which were lite
ally beyond price. Materials were seat
| inside to build tents for the Masons, and
| | think such as made themselves known
before death received burial according
to the rites of the Order. Doctor White,
and perhaps other Surgeons, belonged
to the fraternity, and the wearing of a