The National tribune., 1907-10-31
ANDERsoNvuLE DEAD ROLL.
The Prisoners Were Only Accounted for
hY Number and No Rolls We're Made.

by NusnbcE anu NO ltOlfs VI CEc AshNC.
Editor National Tribune: Your ISSUE
of June 6, 1907. contains communica'
ticn from j. W. Bryant, Superintendent
of Andersonvlle Cemetery. AS a com
bination of figures arranged Scicntifical'
ly and sentences well constructed i
makes Interesting reading for one no'
familiar with the real facts, but to one
who spent six months at AnderSonVilic
M!llen and Florence, when what Is now
cemetery was prison pen, and has
clear remembrance OF what occurred
all these figures about the graves oi
comrades inferred there, whose identity
has been established, and the short list
CT unknown appended to this list make
the whole article read like pure fiction
There were no medical examinations III
AndersOnville. No record of myself OF
any of my comrades was made beyond
giving each of us a number to be called
BY and answer to- The only diseases
saw in Andersonville were diarrhea
scurvy, gangrene, modification and
starvation.
Al the Wirz trial in Washington DR.
]. c. Bates, Contract Surgeon at Ander-
sonville, admitted he was never inside
the stockade in his official capacity as
Surgeon Dr. J. ]. Ray testified at the
same time and place to the same ef-
feet. that there were no medical exam
nations of any sort. Our comrades
confined there made no report when one
of our number died. Then how are the
names on headstones at Andersonville
obtained? To my mind the whole list
Is entirely fictitious as to the real iden-
tity of any buried at Andersonville. God
alone knows where the bones of any
particular comrade are deposited.
Take my own case: Captured while
scouting in front of Petersburg, Va, in
May, 1864, my name, company, regiment,
rank and the State to which l was cred
tied were taken and recorded at the
front. This was repeated at the office
of the Provost-Marshal in the city of
Petersburg These were the only occa-
sions on which i answered to my name
during all the six long months 1 was
held prisoner. The day following my
cature /, with some 500 others, was
shipped to Andersonville. We were
simply counted off 60 men in squad,
to fill a freight car like so many cattle.
and as such, by count only, were We
turned into the stocka6e at Anderson
Vile. Our assignments in that prison
pen were by count only, each prisoner
being designated by a certain number in
a squad made up Of multiples of Is.
The verification of the number within
the stockade was the first business each
day, and was made Up of SO many alive
and SO many dead Yanks. The issue Of
Der alive at that time. After the count
the dead were stripped to the skin, and
without sign by which identification
could be made were carried outside the
st0ckade and piled one on the other,
like cord wood, under the death shell
ter. Later in the day these bodies
would be removed to the Potters' Field,
pitched into a trench and covered with
earth. God alone knows who they were
individually. i have seen at least $50
bodies thus treated after single morn
tng's count of the prisoners in Ander-
sonyille. during the month of August.
1864. When 1 left Andersonville about
Sept. !. the order was given for num-
Der of detachments of 270 men to be
ready the following morning to go to
Savannah, as we were to be exchanged.
We arrived on the following day at MIL
len stockade, and were counted into the
prison pen at that place. In October
all were removed from Millen to Flor
ence, S. c., by count only. In Decem-
ber the rebels were obliged to evacuate
Florence, and as they were without a
prison in which to confine us. about Jan.
], 1865, some 500 of US found ourselves
at Wilmington, n. c., in an open field, a
plowed furrow turned around us an
swering for the old dead line. At this
place We were loaded on fat cars, with
no protection on sides or ends, and
tidHspOEtCG " tuc VI tiic otdtS
AS the train proceeded on its way many
were pitched of by the motion of the
ears from the sides or fell from the
ends. These were Andersonville prison.
ers. and as they were left where they
fell surely they fill unknown graves,
presuming they were ever buried, which
is not likely. After spending two or
three days in the woods of North Caro-
lima, without rations except raw corn
from the stalk, We were again loaded
on the fiat cars and told that We were
going back to Wilmington to be paroled.
OF the 500 originally filling the cars
nearly one-half perished as i have de-
scribed. or, having died on the cars
were thrown off promiscuously by the
guards after the count had been taken.
When the survivors of this awful jour-
ney found themselves within the Union
picket lines and the rebel guard called
put, Fall in. Yanks. and be counted."
the reply was, ITO with your
count You have counted us for the
last time" With this we broke for
t'Old Glory" waving over the coIored
troops drawn up in line on the bank of
the Black River. to receive that pro-
lection, care and nursing which brought
some of US back to health. i may be
wrong, but ! do not believe one in 10
of the same 800 remaining alive could
have given their names and the needful
PARTICULARS loE q descriptive isl. 1t Is
well 10 preserve Andersonviile as res
ervation, to adorn the grounds and
make il forever a marked spot but It is
not well to further gloss over the hor-
rors enacted there by a fictitious ar
rangement of headstones and a list of
diseases, implying daily inspection by
doctors This. by inference, gives to the
readers of such articles as the one re-
ferred TO the impression that when An
dersonville was prison pen care Of the
and an official record of the deceased
made and preserved.
Gen. Brayman reports that 336 Fed
eral prisoners Joined the rebel army
recruited by Col. O'Neil, 10th Tenn, c.
8. A. / never heard of such a recruit
ing officer being there; but do know,
however, that there was always a stand
ing offer made each morning at the
count of the prisoners to the effect that
II any OF us would take the non-com-
batant's oath and work as directed by
the officers of the Confederate Govern
ment We would be taken out of the
stockade, wei clothed and fed, and at
the end of the war receive the pay of
enlisted men in the Confederate army
Some may have availed themselves of
this temptation to save life. but I never
knew Of one. 1t Is possible that Gen
Brayman may have been misinformed; !;
but allowing that he is correct, 336 is
80 small percentage of the 1000 or
$4,000 prisoners confined there it is
hardly worth mentioning. He says that
there were no commissioned officers
among the number This is the only
reliable statement I see In his report