Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-03-10

Harper Brothers. New York. have very
recently issued a handsomely bound en-
cyclopedia called "Harpers Encyclopedia
of United States History in which,
among other subjects. the well-worn.
much-abused one of Confederate prisons
is treated. A one-sided treatment OF
course, but so virulent, so far-reaching
and imaginative in treatment, that one
is impelled to ask-not IL a northerner
wrote it. but-what northerner? Who is
he? He must have been suffering untold
pangs of bitterness from a cause less far
removed than the civil war; when he was
engaged in compiling this startling array
of erroneous statements which are in
tended to go down into history as facts.
But It is not with the writer the south
has to reckon. He can be dispensed with
in as few words as Thomas Carlyle once
used in his brief criticism of a certain
novel-perhaps HE, too, was hungry"
Or, perhaps through the mist Of years, he
sees things as he pictures them, but 1t is
with Harper Brothers that the descend
ants of these men, who are accused OF all
the crimes in the calendar, are disaffected.
1t is a matter Of great surprise and In
dignation that a reputable firm like the
Harper Bros. could lend themselves to
propagating such sentiments by sending
such literature out from their publishing
house.
The statements almost as a whole are
deplorably untrue, to put 1t mildly. The
union prisoners did not have a holiday
festival of it, nor was 1t even compar-
able with trying conclusions with the
Spaniards; but of the best the south had
which was deplorably little-the union
prisoners shared. to the last crumb.
But to quote:
Libby prison had six rooms each 100
feet in length and 40 in breadth. At one
cry grade, from a lieutenant to brtga-
der general. They were allowed no other
place In which to cook, eat, wash and dry
their clothes and their persons, sleep. and
take exercise. Ten feet by two feet was
all the space each man might claim. Their
money, watches, and sometimes part of
their clothing were taken from them when
they went in. For a long time they were
not allowed seat of any kind to sit upon.
The board floors, on which they slept,
were washed every afternoon, and were
damp at night. causing many to become
consumptive and die. The glasses in the
numerous windows were mostly broken,
and they suffered intensely from cold in
winter, for they were allowed only one
blanket each, and these in time became
ragged, filthy, and filed with vermin.
Turner, a lieutenant OF General Winder,
the commissary OF prisoners, seemed to
make cruelty his study. He ordered that
no one should go within three feet of
window. A violation of the rule gave IL
cense to the guard to shoot the offender.
The prisoners were also deliberately starv-
ed. The process of slow starvation began
In the fall of 1862 and was so general and
uniform in all the prisons that, according
to report of a committee of the United
States Sanitary commission, there can be
no doubt of its having been done by direct
orders. This starvation was done when,
as has been proved, there was abundance
of food at the command Of the jatlers.
Boxes Of food and clothing, sent TO the
prisoners from their friends at the north,
were denied them after the beginning of
January, 1854. Three hundred boxes"
said the report, arrived every week. and
were received by Ould. the commissioners
OF. exchange, but instead Of being distrib-
uted, were retained, and piled up in a
warehouse near by.
Fancy the poor, half-starved Confeder-
ate soldiers browsing on green corn, raw
potatoes and herbs, while they busted
themselves storing away in warehouses,
every week. three hundred boxes" OF
Boston baked beans, and other goodies
just for spite-just for the sake of being
cruel to their captives. Turning over
store-house of good things to the rats
when they were themselves starving for
want of proper food.
another pathetic picture is given Of the
prisoners at Bell housekeeping on in
their last sleep, frozen to death"
At Andersonville, Co., the sufferings OF
the captives are described as still more
acute" The picture given here is suggest
i've only of the worst class of ghost
story" and in himsiness Of text and hor-
ror of imaginative detail deserves only to
rank with that class of literature.
These are not the first misstatements or