The National tribune., 1907-03-07
Food In co.f.s.r.t. Prisons.

| iooS, anu WIS IN oH Oluerent pTleOub,
so he knows something about that good
food Mr.. Henry Y. Wells says the Con-
federates gave rour men. Comrade
Wtckham was IN -Andersonville eight
| months. and wonders II Comrade Wells
would like to live as he did then, with
out food or shelter, day or night from
storm or intense ihetst, and without rags
to cover the body. Vie can hardly be-
| lieve Comrade Wells was a soldier in
| the civil war, for surely anyone who
was would know how the prisoners
| Jared. He saw his share of Wfrz's
cruelty during his confinement. He saw
as many as 100 saead, starved to death,
carried out of the stockade in one day.
It is impossible for pen to tell the suf-
rering and torments of Andersonville.
III the Government really means to do
anything for the prisoners Of war 1t IS
nigh time 1t was about It, 1t is well
enough to build canals and to raise
! salaries, but in the name of God cannot
Congress remember the boys who We're
confined in those pens of starvation,
| disease and cruelty. If they would con-
slider that thousands chose such a
death rather than turn traitor to flag
and country they would not be so in
different. In order to make parents,
wife and sweetheart feel better about
| it, 1t was printed in the Northern pa
pers that the boys We're doing double
duty when confined in the prisons, and
when the relatives in the North sent
boxes of good things to the prisoners
to keep them alive till exchanged not
one in 800 ever reached it's proper des-
tination. Comrade Wickham can only
pray that something may be done for
the eX-prisoners of war before they are
all called to the last camping ground.
Sticks to 1t Yet.
William Stropes, Co. A, 2sth ILL.,,
Highland Falls, n. Y, says Comrade j.
l.. Weed did not understand him or
read his letter Alright He distinctly
stated that it was the Thirteenth Corps
that took Spanish Fort, and he sticks
to it yet, and always will. The COM
rade must remember that the Thir-i
teenth Corps lay on the left from the
bay around to Fort Mcintosh Then
came the Fifteenth Corps, which ex-
tended from Fort Mcintosh to the bay
on the north side: then the Sixteenth
Corps in front of Spanish Fort. As to
the Sixteenth Corps being there, they
We're there all right He does not wish
to say anything against the old Six
teenth Corps, for they We're always pres
ent when wanted. His regiment served
in that corps for awhile, but during the
Mobile campaign was transferred to the |
Thirteenth Corps. He still says, and |
will stick to it, that the Thirteenth
Corps took possession of Spanish Fort, |
and that the Sixteenth Corps took Fort |
Mcintosh, both of which events took |
place about p. M, April 9, 1865 Com |
rade Stropes does not wish to take any |
credit away from COmrade Weed or to |
praise the Thirteenth Corps too much. |
The Thirteenth Corps was the first or
ganiZed in the Western Army, and Gen. |
U. S. Grant was its first commander 1t |
was representative of this corps who
ynn ttarA Il 49, .
Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court |
House and also q representative of the |
Thirteenth Corps who gave the last
command of the civil war to cease fir
ing. That officer was Col. Branson, !
formerly SergeanteMajor of the 2Sth
Ill. Comrade Stropes wishes all the |
comrades who see this letter to write |
to him personally
Waits for The National Tribune's Ver-
sion.
B. T. Martin, Co. K, 18th Wis, Ellen
dale, n. D., says that whenever he sees
anything that interests him in the other
newspapers he does not form an opinion |
himself until he sees what The Ma
tional Tribune has to say on the sub
Ject, for he knows it will not publish
anything until 1t has gotten at the truth.
What The National. Tribune had to say
of the mob riot in Atlanta, Ca, some
time ago confirmed his opinion on the
affair exactly. Another item of interest
to him was that of the car shortage.
One firm in his place could not get
carload of coal for nearly two months
tho orders had been accepted, and he
knows that at the time there wer
empty cars standing on the side track
The grain shippers could not always
get the cars they wanted, nor when they
them. But the right man is at
the helm of the Ship of State, to whom
the high and humble are alike. He is
all right in the Brownsville case. The
old vets know how far a roll call went
In '62. when we were forbidden to take
anything that belonged to Johnny Reb,
and how mum some shoulder straps
were and how little they seemed to
know. Let the probing go deeper than
he ranks.
The 18th III.
Geo. H. Sargent, Co. X, 137th Ill,
Ellsworth, Wis. has never written any
hing for publication before, but he was
reused lately by letter from ,
D. j. Lyon, Sabetha. Kan, and feels !
mpelled to reply Referring to For 1
'est's raid in Memphis. Tenn, Comrade t
Lyon said Forrest SHE'D around them, ,
got out after him. This Comrade Sar- {
gent takes as a s!ur on his regiment '
md the 39th Wis, who, If they were s
,nly 1G0-days boys, were not all in l
,alids. and did some lively work early t
n the morning of Aug 81, 1854, par ,
icularly at the right of his regiment S
lie doubts very much If the 45th Iowa c
would have done any better under the 9
Speak up, boys of the
l37th Ill. and 39th Wis. I think we
very well with the average
aw troops, and even with some of the 7
,lder ones" :
Pension Boards. s
J. L. WeIch. Sergeant, Battery H, 5thtt !
J. 8. Art, st. James. Mo-, read with .
interest what Comrade G. L. Johnson, Q
20. B, 34th Ohio, had to say in a re-
ent issue of The National Tribune on I