Omaha daily bee., 1911-04-30

Ohm HOWARD bT1BBS OF
EsFfT Cedar Rapids, Ia. is the sole
~ surviving member Of the court
y that tried Captain Henry wirz.
Et.y ~ the keeper of Andersonville
az 80 prison, for the crueities in
nctcd on the union prisoners during their
confinement there in the war between the
north and south. His connection with the
notable trial enables him to give many
intere sting details OF the proceedings Of
the now famous event which resulted in
the verdict OF guilty being lodged against
the confederate prison keeper. Mr.. Stbbs
says:
Were it not for several specific reasons
my preference would be to say nothing on
the subject, not because would shirk the
responsibility of having participated in the
trial of wirz, but because for more than
fifty days during his trial 1 sat and list
ened to the terrible story of the sufferings
and death Of our brave boys at Anderson
vile, and when the end was reached felt
that 1 would like TO Danish the subject
from my mind and forget, II l could, the
details of the terrible crimes committed
there
"On occasions when the action of the
court has been criticised, or condemned
] have felt that 1t was the duty of our
friends to defend those who had served as
members Of the court, rather than that we
should speak for ourselves. Then, too, 1
have been in doubt as to the extent of my
litigation, taken when l was sworn as a
member of the court, and a result 1
have remained silent on the subject for
nearly half a century; but time passed
and one after another of those who served
with me passed off the stage, leaving me
the sole survivor of the court and after
"a monument was erected to commemorate
the memory Of wirz and he was proclaimed
a martyr who had been unfairly tried and
condemned, I concluded to lay aside all
question of propriety and obligation and
talk of the trial.
The evidence presented before the Wirz
commission satisfied the court beyond
doubt that while this Andersonvile prison
was being made ready, IL not before, q con
spiraoy was entered into by certain persons,
high In authority in the confederate SER
vica 10 destroy the lives of our men, or at
least subject them to such hardships as
would render them unfit for further mill
tary service.
were sworn, and of this number nearly
100 had been confined as prisoners in the
stockade. one after another they told
their experience as prisoners and Of the
condition existing in the stockade at An
Jacksonville, until we had the picture COM
plete from their standpoint; and had there
been other evidence in the case, the facts
OF their combined testimony might, with
Fa4 4 lie
CT edited, because all had been sufferers
and supposedly were preJudiced and biased.
But we had other witnesses. two score of
them and more, who had been in the con-
federate service and were at the prison as
guards, officers, surgeons etc, and some
OF them had made official reports telling
OF the horrible condition of the prison and
its inmates. A number of these reports
were found and introduced as evidence
before the court. and the parties who made
them were called I'm to testify concerning
what they had written. This evidence
served to corroborate in the fullest par
ticular all that had been testified to by
those who had been prisoners CONCERNING
the general conditions in the prison.
"In August 1854 DIR, Joseph Jones, an
ex-surgeon of the confederate army whom
jefferson Davis, in an article published
in Belfords Magazine in January, 1890,
referred to as being eminent in his pro-
fession, and Of great learning and probity,
was sent to Andersonville to investigate
and report his observations. His official
report made to Surgeon General Moore,
was very full and complete. In 1t he gave
minute description OF the stockade, and
the hospital adjacent; of the number of
prisoners and their crowded conditions; of
the lack of food, fuel. shelter, medical
attendance, etc, OF the condition of the
men in the stockade, and the hospital.
In one instance he said:
8 I visited 1900 sick within the stockade,