The National tribune., 1906-10-04

stowe, co. r, I'd Mich, 131 Catherine
St, Detroit, Mich.
ANDERSONVILLEA AND WIRZ.
The Place Was Simply an Internal Re-
Eion, With Wirz the Chief Demon.
Editor National Tribune: am 6
subscriber of The National Tribune and
generally read it through / notice an
article in the paper written by a man
by name of Col. W. NJ. Hammond. II
was quite eulogy on a man he called
Maj. WirZ, who had charge of Ander-
sonyille Prison during the civil war
Now, I was one of those prisoners. and
I knew Butcher Wirz," as he was call
ed, great deal better than Col. Ham
mond did or does. He said he was sent
there to investigate conditions at the
prison. and make a report to headuuar-
ters of the Southern Confederacy or SO
l suppose. He says he was three days
at Andersonville, and while / do not
doubt that in the least, / do doubt his
ever being inside the stockade three
hours, for the stencil there was so great
no person would remain longer than
they could possibly help.
Col. Hammond says that WIZ said of
himself that he was doing the very best
he possibly could do for the prisoners,
and had asked the Southern Govern
ment for more food and of a better
quality. and if they could not send it.
then to turn us loose and let us go.
And then he adds: THE old man cried
until the tears ran off his face" (The
old hypocriteD And then Col. Ham
mond gives it as his opinion that Wirz
was great soldier, we'll skilled in mill
tary affairs, and capable of filling any
position he might be intrusted with
Well, he certainly was capable of fill
ing the place he occupied at Anderson
vile Prison pen, and was doing just
what he had been put there to do. When
he took Col. Hammond through the
stockade he did not take his sword or
revolver with him. and Hammond asked
him II he was not afraid to go among
the prisoners unarmed. But WirZ said
he was not afraid of the men, for they
knew he was doing the very best he
could do for them, while at the same
time the men knew him for their bit
terest enemy, and he knew there was
not man among them but would have
delighted to cut his throat from ear to
ear if he would not have been found
out Well did the men know that with
in 80 minutes after Wirz had been kill
ed there would not have been a live
prisoner left in that stockade for they
had battery after battery trained on us.
and they would have opened on us with
grape and canister. All they wanted
was some pretext to get to kill us. and
we knew it.
Now / will try to give little sketch
of Andersonville Prison and Capt WirZ.
The prison was hell on earth, and
Capt. Wirz was the devil in charge of
it. and his imps were on the outside
taking it all in and applauding as the
inhuman cruelty we received went on.
At the time was put in the stockade
they claimed there were $4,000 prison.
ers within the inclosure. When I ar
rived some of the ones first put in had
some sort of shelter, but more than one
half had no shelter of any kind We
were turned in just like a lot of hogs
would have been turned in a field, only
this place was great deal worse on
account of filth and vermin. One could
see the vermin crawling in the sand
like ants in hill We We're in torment
all the time, and if man got sick and
could not hunt the vermin off himself
he would soon have running sores all
over him, and gangrene would set in,
and few wretched days, which seemed
like years, would end his life. The wa
ter we had to drink was not fit for ami
mails. We got it from a run, and 4
small run at that, and all of the filth
from the cook house and from the Con-
federate camp ran into it or was thrown
into it. This shallow dirty stream was
always full of maggots. I have seen
men naked as the day they We're born,
not one stitch of any kind of covering
70 protect their bodies from the sun,
which in many instances had burnt the
bodies of the men almost into a solid
blister.
This, you will grant, was bad enough.
but the half has not been told, and
never will be. Much of it was much
too bad to put into print. The place
was, as have said a hell on earth, and
Devil Wirz" was playing his part of it
Where was Col. Hammond, I wonder,
when his great military man." WirZ
was having his trial at Washington City
for murder? Why was he not there to
help his old friend out of trouble? Wir2
was proven murderer in the first de-
gree. He had shot men down like dogs
for the most trifiing offenses. He had
one man tied up to a post and was 60
ing to shoot him. when one of the un-
fortunate victims comrades fell upon
his knees before WirZ and begged him
not to do it. and the answer he got was
in lead-he shot the man who made the
plea for his comrades life, This was
not an exceptional case, either.
He had place on one side of the
stockade which he called hospital II
was, rather, butcher shop. They had
no medicine to giveethe prisoners, and
the quickest way to get rid of them wa.
| to kill them. WirZ was known to have
knocked men down, then to jump into
their faces and stamp them to death
And for torture, he would have then
tied up by their thumbs, so that theiI
toes would just touch the ground. and
| he would buck and gag them and pu
| them in the stocks, and, in short, DE-
everything and anything inhuman thai
| he could think of to punish them I,
| death. Some of the men at the stock.
ade would tell us that WirZ was doini
more to stop the war than any Genera
they had. Now. if Col. w. NJ. Ham
mond and the Daughters of the Con
federacy are going to put up monu
ment in honor of Capt. WirZ, wan
them to do ii while some of us old ex
prisoners are living; and the wonder t.
me is that so many of us are living I,
tell the tale, for the horrors of wa
were as nothing compared with the hor
rors Of Andersonville Prison. for on,
would rather be in the field at $13 :
month than in Andersonville Prison a
500 a day and sure of getting off will
my life; for life is not worth much afte
coming through that experience NJ,
standing weight when captured was 15
. pounds, and when was exchanged an,
3 got to the hospital at Annapolis
!. weighed 65 pounds.
I see there was bill presented &
] Congress to give all the ex-prisoners O
war $50 month for the balance O