The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-05-01

/ city They were then digging the
foundation for the ten-stoTy building
1 now see at the corner of Govern
ment and Palafox streets; the scat
/ folding was still up around the beau
( titul First National Bank building.
! Now l find it occupied. Further along
at the corner of Garden and Palafox
/ streets the foundation for the San
! Carlos hotel is being made. Again at
+ the site of the old LeBaron residence
! l find handsome brOwnstone church
/ well under way, with the words First
/ Methodist Church" in front. Here
eight months ago laborers were
/ digging for a foundation; now 1t has
/ the appearance of really handsome
/ building Later / crossed the Plaza
Ferdinand, beautifully and elegantly
/ laid out. 1t is now an attraction 10
/ the city and is truly in finer condi-
/ ton than / have ever seen it.
| April, 1861, /, with portions of the
/ First Florida regiment, laid on the
/ grass and slept under the big trees.
Now I find iron benches scattered
/ literally about. I admire the foun-
! tain. though l expected to find it
I larger. Later l visited points where
| they are laying the splendid concrete
( sidewalks truly an evidence conclu-
sive of the march for improvement OF
the city and soon these sidewalks
| win be traversed by fifty, instead of
thirty thousand.
| shook hands with the mayorelect.
/ The citizens voted wisely when they
elected this progressive gentleman.
Principally at 4 p. m. the old Rebs-
in line stepped off to the tune Of
Dixie. Quite a fine crowd was as
sembIed at the monument. which had
hnoTl T1roNriOTCs-r hanACOmPlV decorated
by the ladies. Comrade HUMPHREYS
introduced. AS a sergeant of Vir-
ginia regiment he said he did not
wear any stripe. He made a very
interesting talk for few minutes,
paying a glowing tribute to the live
and dead heroes, finishing his Grafton
with a tribute to those who died in
Yankee prisons. He said: "Harassed
by guards, kept on insufficient Tations
with many discomfOrts, and often
begged to abandon our cause with
offers of liberty, money, employment
and almost anything they might ask,
yet they preferred to remain prison.
erS of war and to suffer on to the
end. rather than deny their country
or betray our cause. They died like
sheep, yet remained faithful. Moth
ing could demonstrate the honesty,
integrity, and patriotism more than
the men did in northern prisons
Their graves should never be forgot
ten though they died in prison and
were buried in Potter's field"
The comTade spoke truly. Where
is the monument that has ever been
erected for the thousands who died
in that hell, Fort Delaware? In the
winter of 1864 the smallpox broke
out in this prison pen where ten
EhorT-onH If
terrible became the scouTge that the
dead boat had to make two trips day
across the Delaware river to the New
jersey coast. We well ones were
made to pick up. these rOtting, feS-
tering carcasses of dead comrades.
put them in a blanket covered and
alive with vermin, tie the four cor
neTs together, run pole through and
two of us tote out this putrid mass to
the dead boat. During this time, as
I say, two trips q day were made to
the Jersey shore. | frequently was
detailed to go to bury. The Yankees
made us dig big trenches and into
them dump our loads, minus the
blanket They were put in in heaps.
Then when the trench had sufficient
in it, barrels of lime were dumped
upon these bodies That is the way
our dead were buried at Fort Della
ware, "UnkneiIed, uncofined and I'M
known"
Many thousands of these dead lay
on the New Jersey shore, waiting the
sea to give up her dead" Are not
these poor, faithful ones worthy nf a
monument to let pOsterity know one
hundred years hence that they died
for the cause that was right?
WIN. H. TRIMMER.
Moline, Fla, April 20, 1909.