The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-04-07
DARK MEMORIES OF
ANDERS0NV|LLE
There Was Suffering, Sickness,
Death There, But Who Was
to Blame?
NORTH M0RE THAN THE. SOUTH
The Truth as Recorded-And Yet
Wirz Is Still Being
Hanged.

DR.. j. L. NJ Curry, in his Civil His
tory Of the Confederate States, says:
zone Of the most singular ilustra-
lions ever presented of the power of
literature to conceal and pervert, to
modify and falsify history, to trans
fer odium from the guilty to the in
nocent, is found in the fact that the
reproach Of disunion has slipped from
the shoulders OF the North to those
of the South"
On the prison question also we have
permitted the North to transfer the
odium Of cruelty to prisoners 10 the
South, when the reproach rests upon
the North. Nor can it slip from her
shoulders the odium of her policy. The
facts are slowly coming forth.
When Ben Fill delivered his An
Jacksonville speech in the United
States Senate in reply to Blaine, it was
thought he had for all time spiked the
guns that had shot forth caumnies
iand misrepresentation against the
South concerning treatment of Federal
prisoners.
But the war wages on us yet The
G. O. p. objects to monument to
Captain Wirz.
The return of battle-flags was a
generous act tending towards a
more perfect" Union, and it is strange
that the State Superintendent Of Pub
lie Instruction, Hon. Alfred Bayliss, of
3 Springfield. ILL.,, should issue a PAM
phlct in 1906 holding the South up
TO scorn for inhumanity to prisoners
Professor Bayliss uses his pamphlet
IN his public schools. Hence we should
study the prison history OF the South,
and when investigated the fact is re-
vealed that the South's efforts to re-
lease and relieve the prisoners stand
forth like high monuments, as tcsti-
Inony TO her magnanimity, her gene
4 rosity, her unceasing humanity.
Let us look into the prison history
Of the Confedcracy.
.RgtO On July y, 1852, the cartel was
z adopted. All prisoners were to be re-
leased IN ten days after capture. The
I Very day after this cartel of exchange
was signed Major-General John Pope,
on July %, SG2 issued orders that NJ
lowed his soldiers to shoot as spies
and as enemies of the United States
government all Virginia farmers who
We're found filling the soil or sowing
grain or cultivating crops on farms
within his rear ana even inside his
lines. Hundreds We're shot down in tha
Held before the Confederate govern
Y ment. could arrest such conduct and get
Pope's order rescinded. America, in
later years, ..bccame incensed even to
making war on Spain because General
saNNcyiei lSSueu rSlullaf orders in Cuba,
Did Wcyler take his cue from General
Pope, that illustrous example that
Il so pleased Weyler that he ordered his
i own walk along the same path?
BY persistent effort OF our commits
sioner, the cartel lasted one year Tho
Confederacy, seeing the emaciated con
dition OF such prisoners as had re.
turned was intense in Ner desire for
& exchange, and the Confederucy was I'M
prepared FOR the action OF Stanton,
order No. 2o9, breaking the cartel. BY
this order Federal prisoners were moi
10 be exchanged or even paroled Ii
paroled they We're forced back into
e the Federal army. This order. NO
299, caught the Confederacy unprv-
pared to meet the prison protNem. The
cemetery at AndersonVille was founded
on this order. 1t was like pnssin,;
sentence upon Federal prisoners. 10,
the North knew that the Confederacy
was without medicines and doctors and
x not equipped to care for prisoners
Hence. Mr.. Davis ana Colonel OuId
the commissioner of exchange. put
forth every effort to get rescinded or.
der No. 209 and Colonel Ould wa,
given the largest authority in deal.
ing with Major milford, United States
agent of exchange, Everything wa.
done to emphasize the fact that W,
were scant OF food of doctors, Of med
icines--indeed absolutely unpreparct
TO hold captives.
deaf ear WAS turned To It NIL.
8 4 t Is Interesting history to follow
the Confederate authorities in their Of
fort TO abate prison suffering Col
Ould. from the day the cartel was dis