The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-12
Literary Lights and Shadobs
BY S. MAYS BALL.

have very probably taken lip the ques- ton of doing justice as far as possible at this late day to the life Of MaJor Henry Wirz. the immediate commander under General Winder of the Anderson vile prison. known to southerners as Camp Sumter" Considering the fact that the Grand Army of the Republic. to say nothing of the Woman's Relief corps attached thereto. have been busy ever since the civil war in building mon uments to all sorts and conditions of northern heroes and near-herOes when ever the opportunity presented itself, it is not only about time but it is now the duty of the southern men and women to so build upon proper memories and facts that future generations may know not only both sides of the question but the truth thereof. Any statement made or any monument even proposed by the southern people Is received with some times howls and jeers these days-even yet-from those of the rabid men and women on the other side of the great conflict who do not know or who will not accept tile fact that the war really IS over and has been so for forty years. A book which the south has been await ing for a long time has just been pub lished It is called "The True Story of Andersonville Pr -son-A Defense of Maj. Henry Wirz," and best of all it has been written by a northern man, one who fought all through the civil war and spent from February ?, 1864, until the middle of September, 1864, at Anderson vile MT. James Madison Page, com missarv sergeant of Michigan cavalry, was captured by the Confederate forces under Gen. A. P. Hill at Liberty MilIs on the Rapidan in Virginia, September 21 1863. Soon after his capture MT. Page, with a lot of other prisoners, was sent to Richmond. where he was confined first | 1.afa m that same city. In February. lS54 MT Page and about 1000 other prisoners was sent to Andersonville, where he re- mained seven months. In regard 10 ms treatment in the hands of the Confeder- ate soldiers while a prisoner, the Key note to his book is simply this;
 ssTouching my treatment on tne whole I cannot recall a solitary instance during the IA months while I was pris- @oner of being insulted, browbeaten, rob- bed or maltreated in any manner py Confederate officer or soldier
 In fact, MT. Page gives an account earlier in his book where he had been robbed by Union prisoner and he eells how the Confederate guards reSained TOT him his lost articles, money, watch, etc. MT Page gives a clear. concise descrip- ton of the location of the Andersonville prison He says that the camp was lo- cated in what had been heavy timber but the trees had been cut down mere was a stream of clear water running east through the prison grounds. The stockade was built of p4ne logs cut 2o feet long and hewed to the thickness or one foot and set in a trench five feet deep. making a wall 15 feet high, on top of which were sentry boxes about 30 feet apart When the stockade was completed it would comprise about II acres. There were only about 2000 pris-
 
 : However this number of prisoners m creased rapidly day by day in Tact the accounts differ as to how many prisoners were confined at one time at Anderson vile. but after the stockade was en- larged to about 25 acres there were something between 30,ooO to S2,ooO con fined there at one time. MT. Page says;
 ssOf course there were suffering, hun ger and misery among the prisoners at Andersonville prison, and had my snare of it there. There were also hunger, misery and suffering at Salisbury and at Rock Island and Elmira, the two latter places Union prisons) right in land or plenty c,...
 MT. Page says further that the Con fe1erate officer who selected Anderson ville for the prison location gave eVl- sdence of his being an engineer or no mean caliber. He says that he does not believe that in the whole state or Geor- a made. In discussing the location of the camp and in writing of the treatment of prisoners by Major Wirz and other Con federates Mir Page takes issue with practically all of the northern h1storlahs. By citing paragraphs from Ambrose Spencer's "A Narrative of Anderson ville.' from John McElroys "A Story or Rebel Prisons" in fact seven historians who have written on this subject, MT. Page. by the use and comparison Of dl1- ferent paragraphs in those books, has made those authors contradict them selves over and over again. Colonel Per sons of the Twenty-fifth Alabama regl- ment was the commander at Anderson vile when MT Page arrived there. Col onel Persons was so we'll liked by all of fhe prisoners that MT. Page says that even Spencer and Urban two of the most rabd northern authors) speak well of him. Colonel Persons was succeeueu by Major (then Captain) Wirz under General Winder about the middle or April 1864. MT. Page says that General Winder was tyrannical, but ito hold him personally responsible for the scant and meagre rations and lack of cloth ing for the prisoners l think Is both un- just and unreasonable. yet the little he had to give he could have given less grudgingly." MT. Page describes ms first interview with Major Wirz. The
 
 Wirz in fear and trembling for some favor to the prisoners, which favor much to Mr Pages and his fellow pris- oners' surprise, was promptly granted. MT Page says that Major Wirz was or good height, perhaps feet s lnches tall, slim in build, with a handsome face aouiline nose, even features and hlSh forehead. His eyes were gray in color. At that time he wore short parually full beard. There was quiet, supdued expression of sadness in his counte- nance particularly in his eyes. There was nothing of that short, thick-set Dutchman, repusive in appearance be- sotted. ignorant and cruel we hear about or of a eountenance denoting ferocity and brutality" Most of the northern historians, among other charges against Wirz and the Andersonville prison au- thorities claim that when an epidemic of smallpox endangered most of the pris- oners and vaccination was ordered, that the vaccination matter was poisoned in order to more quickly kill off the help ! less prisoners. Mir Page demolishes that and all other charges, leaving nothing of truth in them. MT. Page tella very in- terestingly all about the dead line.
 which was slight fence built within the stocRade, 12 feet from the 15-foot high stockade outer fence, beyond which to within the 12 feet distance of the outer fence no prisoner could go without being killed Some prisoners were killed, but in all cases. so MT. Page contends, pro- per warning of "halti' was given and the prisoners knew that if they dis obeyed orders they would be shot. Mir. Page says truthfully that Major Wirz "had no kindergarten to deal with. The eoo tI,o xzar relnpf anfltr 1-