Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-11-13
Impressions of AndersonvIlle.

impressions OF AnuerSonSllIe.
have asked some of the comrades
who two weeks ago went to Anderson
vile to attend the dedication Of the
monument there to tell me what they
saw about the old prison to make the
strongest impression on their minds.
This is the answer of Department
! Commander John c. Martin: 81 could
not help thinking, as we walked over
the road from the little railrcGd sta
/ ton to the gate of the grounds, how
many, many poor fellow had marched
with his fellow captains over that
same road never to come back again
how many had been drawn away by
the wagon load to the cemetery three
fourths of mile in another direction:
l do not know what others thought oil
most, but my mind would go back to
the poor fellows starving there 49
years ago now.
1--WE found the stockade, the picture
, of which you have over at the other
end of the room, to have disappeared
entirely. Some of it had, suppose
rotted down, but part of it had been
split up into wood and rails. The line
of the stockade is marked py Aka
posts, about six feet high, painted
white, and marked 'stockadeLine' In
side this Hle of posts, and 20 feet from
! it. there is a second row, about three
feet high, marked, Lead Line. You
know, I suppose that if any prisoner
ever SO much as got his foot even by
accident an inch over this so-callc1
dead line. he was at once shot by the
guard.
when we got inside these lines
realized that was standing where
from first to last, between $4,000 and
/ 10000 men, good men and true, loya
to the flag of our country, had suffered
untold and untc;ia:.!o tortures. I felt
that the ground the had been con
secrated by the fearful sacrifice they
there made for the sake of freedom
an union. In my imagiE etion could
/ see those poor starved, enaciatet
boys, many with Lo clothing and
others with almost none, begrimec
with pitch-pine smoke and camp filth
and no chance to clean up, dying from
/ scurv,r and diarrhca brought en- by
I filthy food and starvation; no protec
ton from the scorching sun of summer
or the chilling winds. benumbing rains
and biting frosts of winter. Being
right there on the spot the law q as
sociation of ideas caused my mind tc
| go back to those things as it never
could do before
/ 'The low ground bordering the little
tereeK running across the enclosure
once SO miry, Shiny and filthy, has
given growth to large trees and a
/ thick mass of underbrush. Some oil
/ the pine trees that have sprung VI
right where the prisoners had then
/ 'dug-outs' have now come to be two
feet in diameter, 1t is as i. good
dame Nature has been seeking in her
own benefcent manner to cover up and
hide away in mass of greeneFy the
ugly scars of those sad days. The pre-
sent generation cannot, by looking up
on those grounds, realize what was
taking place there 40 years ago today
"Out at the cemetery there are rows
and rows of monuments, every stone
marking grave nearly $4,000 in all
There are 40 acres of ground in the
+ cemetry proper, but the government
owns about 100 acres more. The Gem
etery is beautiful spot and well kept.
1t is said to be as pretty a place as
that at Arlington. opposite Washington,
which has come to be called, Arling ton
the Beautiful | am indeed glad that
Uncle Sam is taking so good care OF
the great resting places of his heroic
dead
an all our intercourse with the
southern people we were treated most
courteously. We received cordial
greetings every where and "verybody
seemed glad TO see us,-especially so.
when they knew we were union sol