The National tribune., 1909-06-03
NO scR1prURAL AUTHORITY.
A Sultana Survivor Who Feels All the
Bitterness of the Past.


Bitterness OF the Past.
Comrade Ira B. Horner, Co. X, 65th
Ohio, Weston, O., writes: Il served in
! 1 saw him fall from his horse in battle.
| in front of Marietta, Ga. 1 participated
| in many of the severest battles of the
war; was wounded Dec. 81, 1862. at
Murfreesboro; was captured at Frank
| lin, Tenn, and remained prisoner for
six months. 1 am almost ashamed to
declare myself an American whenever
recall the brutality and inhumanity
with which our American captors af-
| flicted the helpless who were in their
hands. / never saw hogs treated with
SO great disregard for their sufferings
as the rebels deliberately inflicted upon
| us. Soon after capture we were stripped
of our clothes. robbed of the shoes we
wore, and left to stand or lie about in
the mud and made to march over rough
| roads in unshod feet, unfed, the sick
allowed no more care thar the strongest
were allowed; no care, indeed, except
to prevent escape. / was six weeks and
five days in Andersonville. The treat
ment of prisoners there was pattern
for treatment of the damned in the
eternal hell: the fiend. Wirz, devised
and imposed tortures upon his victims
for emulation by the other devil below,
who certainly. could do no more in the
way of Affections. None was exempt
from sufferings that were easily evaded
by use of means at hand had not tor
ture and slaughter been the object of
the authorities of the place. and great
numbers died because 1t Nss the pur-
pose to kill them by torture. 1t is not
| conceivable that those who seek to
| honor WirZ with monument do so in
| ignorance of the facts of the case or
thru misconception of his character. A
| monument to Wirz is an expression in
| enduring stone, approving gross, brutal
/ iinhumanity. and slow. deliberate muir
| der by cruel methods. Still, Congress
| does nothing with the prisoners bill.
! After four years of battles, marches,
isufferings, seventies in line, field march
and camp, l am of opinion that a dol
| lar-a-day pension for the men behind
| the guns: the men who, served long,
| faced the enemy in battlefand endured
the rigors of real warts not unreason-
able liberality. Nor do ILfeel that the
man who was in ranks for 80 days,
within the borders OF his own State,
never crossed by an armed Soe, deserves
as much as I, for hel did mt suffer as
| much. did not make as mich effort, did
not accomplish as much fof the Union.
The man who was but one hour in the
vineyard may have Teceiyed as much
wage as the man who was there all day,
but at least he worked fon one hour
he did something, accomplished some-
thing. The man wh63 did home guard
duty for 90 days, 30 hiiles from hostile
powder, did not do that. and therefore
has no Scriptural authority to demand
as much as the man gets who bore the
battle burdens. and, theYtpils. of the
trenches. I am one OF the Sultana sur
vivers9 In that expfosion s'f,7O0 lost
their lives and scores survived who
were crippled for life, of whom I am
one. I was jammed among the debris;
my left shoulder was dislocated; my
left breast crushed in; my teeth crashed
out; my left leg scalded; my hearing
permanently impaired. I was left un-
fitted for work. am reimbursed all
my lost capacity for work, rewarded
for all my lifelong sufferings, restitu-
ton is made for all my discomforts,
| pains, tortures and sacrifices by PEN
| sion of s14 month! How is that for
high? Yet, I took the risks, of course,
when I enlisted. I then was moved
solely by patriotic desire to serve my
country. Nevertheless. I feel that Con-
gress ought to feel that the country
owes somewhat an expression of grati-
| tude to the men that saved the Union,
and should see that they do not suf-
! fer"