The Washington times., 1901-07-28
In Southern Prisons.

Confederate prisons We're managed will
as much humanity as was possible in tn
circumstances. and that Federal prison
ers were treated nearly as well as tn,
men in the ranks of the Confederate
army. 1t is not likely to meet with nucl
favor in the South. as the writer. though
he speaks well of the rank and file o
the Confederate army and Of most o
the officers with whom he came in con
tact, Is extremely frank and emphatic il
his statements that deliberate cruelty wa.
practiced upon Yankee prisoners for th'
purpose Of increasing the death rate anS
decreasing the possibility of the prisoner:
beirg of any use to the Northern army
when exchanged. The book contains mucl
the same account of the prisons as tha
given out by Albert d. Richardson, cor
respondent of the New York Tribune
in his book. The Field, the Dungeon, ani
the Escape published some thirty years
ago. 1t should be remembered. however
that the customs of war have changed
considerably in the last half century. and
that the treatment Denounced as barbar-
Gus in the South african war, whether
practiced by Briton or Boer, would have
been considered a matter of course fifty
years ago. Much fault has rightly been
found with the deficient hospital service
of the Spanish-American war, but in the
Crimea there was at first no hospital
service at all. 1t is scarcely to be won
dered at therefore. that the notions of
military necessity in the treatment of
prisoners. entertained in 1858. allowed the
existence of conditions which were hor-
rible in themselves and seem even more
so after the lapse of nearly forty years.
The author says of the prison guards:
1T seemed to be the aim of the
rebel authorities to put men in charge
of the prisons who were notorious on
account of their brutal natures
bullies, and. l doubt not, towards at
the front. for no truly brave man
would vent his spleen on an unarmed
prisoner who had no means of de-
Tending himself. and whose surround
ings were such that prudence would
forbid resistance. This is the most
charitable aspect | can put upon the
matter; for if such persons were not
chosen Intentionally, but were taken
from the army without regard to their
peculiar fitness in this respect, Ii
would seem to prove that. as a whole,
the rebel army was a set of black
guards and barbarians, and l cannot
make that assertion. Justice to the
true Southern soldier compels me to
say that we generally found them true
as steel to soldierly principles and
generous 10 a fallen foe
OF the policy of the Confederate gov
ernment in -esSrd to prisoners he says:
THE editorials in regard to Ander-
souville struck me at the time
as being the coolest survey of prob
able mortuary result that / had ever
read or heard. 1t was murder, not
only premedtated, but publicly recon-
mended. And the locating of the
stockade at Andersonvilie was a grand
supplement to such a spirit and
worthy the genius of its advocates and
projectors. Yet notwithstanding all
the adduced testimony in the case.
men will stand up in the halls of
Congress and declare that the in
human treatment of prisoners was un-
known to them and to the Confederate
authorities at Richmond. Such asser-
tions are preposterous and bear false
hood on their face, with the stencil
of Belle Island waited TO their nostriis
by every breeze blowing from the
south. the island itself in view of
the windows of the Capitol. and their
morning papers bearing editorials of
this character to their very desks"
An extract from one of the editorials
referred to is as follows:
"a move is in contemplation among
officials. and has been recommended,
having for its object the removal of
the Yankee prisoners now confined in
Richmond and Danville to the corii-
fields OF central Georgia. We think
this would be a wise move. as 1t will
take them nearer thu base from which
their supplies are brought, doing
away with transporting 1t to them,
and placing them also where the
climate may tell upon them heavily
as our army Is doing In front"
Among the incidents in the chapters on
Andersonviile is this:
'I found had been very fortunate
In becoming one of Felix's household
in more ways than one. Being one of
the. original settlers he had secured
a pine stump, roots and all. This he
had SfO hel ind &c tor VT IN ha
dead line, where he could watch It,
every splinter being valuable. When
we got through cooking We gathered
up every particle of wood and put out
the fires. laying the charred embers
carefully away till next time. That
you may better gets an idea of the
value of fuel, ! would note little con-
versation between us to that point.
what are those fellows doing
over there in the swamp? said ],
one day. directing Felix's attention to
a dozen or more persons who were
wading around in the mire and filth
fuddling around with their arms
buried UP to their shoulders and feel
ing carefully as IL in search Of buried
treasures.
Why he said, they are hunt
Ing for red-roots to cook with
Red roots" / echoed-I suppose in
doubling tone.
Yes, red roots. When we first
came in here that swamp was covered
thick with redwood bushes as high as
that rabbit could not get through
them. Now it is as you see-every
inch has been worked over dozens of
times. two feet below the surface. in
search Of bits OF roots to cook with
Tough, isn't II?
Tough, Good heavensi Think of
those fellows thus working over those
four or five acres Of nlthy swamp in
search of the smallest fibres of roots,
while just outside the stockade walls
on the east and south were thousands
of cords of the best Of pine wood and
hundreds of cords of tree-tops. the
butts Of which had been felled in pre-
pairing the pen. These tree-topS had
been dragged off the prison ground,
and now lay outside, going to waste
although the prisoners would gladly
have collected them IL they could have
had permission to do so, under guard
! made II my business to inves-
tigate all that when / was out on
parole, and ] could attribute the whole
thing to nothing but 'cussed mean
ness. well studied and scrupulously
applied. There is not a person who
was confined there but viii testify
that the condition of the men might
have been bettered a hundredfold
without one cent Of cost to the Con-
federate government.
owing 10 the bad condition of the
water supply. the boys had dug
number OF wells. some of them forty
and hfty feet deep. The sand was of
perpendicular wall. The digging was
all done with knives. and the dirt was
drawn up in boot-tops OF course.
the sand favored the work but to
supply so great a number with good
drinking water was beyond the power
of the wells. and there was considera-
bic suffering with no hopes Of any
thing better. as the weather became !
hotter and the grounds outside be-
came filthier."