The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-03-03
HDd2rsoDviIlQ:
A Story Of Rebel Military
Prisons.
(CoPYuNaaT.)
CHAPTER LXXXIII.


THE REsrONSIBILlTY-wHO WAS TO BLAME
FOR ALL THE MIsERY-AN FXAMISA-
TIoN OF THE FLIMsY EXCUSES MADE
FOR TIE REBELs-oxR DOCUMENT THAT
CONvICTS THEM-wHAT is DESIRED.
! have erdeavored 70 tell the foregoing
story as calmly, as dispassoaately, as free
from vituteration and prejudice as possible.
How well have succeeded the reader must
Judge How difficult this moderation has
been mt times only those know who, like my
self, have seen, frsm day to day, the treason
sllarpened fanGs of Starvation and Disease
gnaw nearer and nearer to the hearts of we'll
beloved friends and comrades OF the 63 Of
nv company comrades who entered prison
with me but ], or at most Is, emerged alive,
and several Of these have since died from the
effects of what they suffered.
The mortality in the other companies Of our
battali n was equally great, as it was also
with the prisoners generally. Not less than
%, 0e0 gallant, noble hearted boys died around
me between the dates Of my captnre and re-
lease. Nobler men than they never died for
any cause For the most part they were
simple minded, honest hearted b0ys; the
sterling prodIcts Of our Northern homc-liie,
and Northern common schools, and that
grand stalwart Nartsern blood. the yeeman
blood of sturdy miaale-eass freemsn-the
blood Of the race which has conquered on
every field slnes the Roman Empire went
down under its sinewy blows They prated
little OF honor, and knew nothing of chiv-
airv" except in its repulsive travesty in the
South.
AZ citizens at hsme. no honest labor had
been regarded by them as tee handle to be
followed NTH manly pride in its Success; as
soldiers in the field. they did their duty with
a calm deSanee of danger and death that the
world has not ssen eeuaisd in the 6, coo years
that men have followed the trade Of war.
In the prison their ssnduet was marked by
the same transformations bat HatliRckln. here
ism. Deats, stared them in the face con-
stantly. They could read their own fate in
that of the loatbaome. unburied dead all
around them. Insolent enemies meeksd
their sufEsrings and sneered at their devotion
to a Government which they asserted had
abandoned them but the simple faith, the
ingrained honesty of these pLtin- hammered,
piain-spOken boys rose superior to every trial.
Brutus, the noblsst Roman of them ALL says
in his grandeSt fight:
Set honor IL one eye and deaf in the other,
And will look on both indifferently.
never questioned their duty; no repinings, no
murmurings against their Government es-
capped their lips, they took the dread fortunes
brought to them as calmly, as unshrinkingly
as they had those in the field: they quailed
not nor wavered in their faith before the
worst the rebels could do.
The finest epitaph ever inscribed above
soldiers grave was that craven on the stone
which marked the resting place of the death
less 300 who fell at Thermopyle-
Co stranger. to Iacedasmon-
And ell Sparta that we lie h. re in obedience to
her laws.
They who lie be shallow graves of An
dersonville Belle Isle, Florence and Sails
bury, lie there in obedience to the precepts
and maxims inculcated into their minds in
the churches and common schools of the
North; prtcepts which impressed upon them
the duty of manliness and honor in all the re-
latons and exigencies of life; not the 'chiv-
alric" prate OF their enemies, but the calm
steadfastness which endureth to the end.
The highest tribute which can be paid them
is to say they did full credit to their teach
ings and they died as every American should
when duty bids him. No richer heritage was
ever bequeathed to posterity.
1t was in the year 1864 and the first three
months of 1865 that these 10 600 youths were
cruelty and needlessly done to death. In
these fatal ID months more young men than
to-day form the pride, the hope and the vigor
of any one of our leading cities more than at
the beginning of the war were found in either
of several States in the Nation, were sent to
their graves g unknelled, uncoffined and I'M
Known victims of the most barbarous and
unnecessary cruelty recorded since the Dark
Ages.
BarbarOus, because the wit of man has not
yet devised a more savage method of destroy
ing fellow beings than by exposure and starva-
ton unnecessary, because the destruction of
these had not, and could not have the slight
est effect upon the result of the struggle The
rebel leaders have acknowledged that they
knew the fate of the Confederacy was sealed
when the campaign Of 1864 opened with the
North displaying an unfinching determine
ton to prosecute the war to successful con-
clusiOn.
All that they could hope for after that was
some fortuitous accident, or unexpected for
eign recognition that would give them peace
with victory. The prisoners were non-impOrt-
ant factors in the military problem. Had
they all been turned loose as soon as captured
their efforts would not have fastened the Con-
federacy's fate a single day.
AS to the responsibility for this nonstrous
cataclysism of human misery and death: That
the great mass of the Southern people APP
proved of these Outrages. or even knew of
them, do not, for an instant, believe. They
are as little capable of countenancing such
thing as any people in the world But the
crowning blemish of Southern society has ever
been the dumb acquescence of the many
respectable well-disposed, right-thinking peo-
pie in the acts of the turbulent and unscru-
pulous few.
From this direfnl spring has flowed an Had
of unnumbered woes, not only to that section
but to our common country. 1t was this
that kept the South vibrating between pa
triotism and treason during the Revolution,
so that it cost more lives and treasure to
maintain the struggle there than in all the
rest of the country. It'was this that threat
ened the dismemberment' of the Union in
1882. 1t was this that aggravated and en-
venomed every wrong growing ont of slavery
that outraged liberty, debauched citizenship,
plundered the mails, gagged the press, stiaed
speech, made opinion crime, polluted the
free soil Of God with the unwilling step of the
bondman, and at last crowned three-quarters
of century of this unparalleled iniquity by
dragging II ,O0o, 600 Of people into war from
which their souls revolted, and against which
they had declared by overwhelming MAORI
ties in every State except South Carolina,
where the people had no voice.
1t may puzzle some to understand how q
ln<., 81 of I