Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1914-08-19
When War Was Really He'll
Graphic Recollections Of Expert
ences Of Fifty Years Ago in August
By CLINT PARKHuRsr.

By CLINT PARKHuRsT,
Sixteenth iowa infantry.
on August read article in an Omaha paper
concerning the confederate stockade at Andersonvinc
The writer was correct, IN the main but put afoat
some grievous errors cannot allow pass unnotced
Mention IL made frequently OF surgeons, and Of the
continual difficulty they in caring our SICK b.
reason Of scarcity OF medical supplies This will
make a survivor OF Andersonville smile.
prisoner there and in other such hes for nearly eight
months. During that whole time / a ply
sican or surgeon duty in any place OF captivity.
/ never saw a prisoner receive q dose OF medicine
remedy OF any kind. never heard Of such an in
stance / never saw or heard OF wounded man re-
ceiving treatment Of any kind except from his
panions in misery The sick in Andersonvie lay
the bare ground under a ptess till death ended
their anguish There shelter of any kind for
any that improvised with rags and tattered
pieces Of blanket Many prisoners dug holes in the
ground and lived and slept in them Toward the close
OF summer $3.50 when thousands Of inmates had been
sent away, some sheds were built at the north
end Of the prison pen and into these the sick and
dying crammed till the sheds would contain
There a hospital somewhere in the woods
outside the pen. but IL only cluster of rotten
tents where a few hundred men at time laid the
ground till they died-with medicine without care,
almost without food and often without food entirely.
Proof Of what Andersonvle was is shown by
nearly 1900 graves In the National cemetery there.
The greatest mortality occurred in August, when the
death rate rose to Sn men a day The naked bodies
another like slaughtered hogs, and hauled off to the
graveyard The vermin infested clothing stripped from
the dead was. by the prisoners divided among needy
survivors
On twenty-sx acres of ground. no had forty
square feet to occupy" There scarcely room
enough for the sleep night for one-third Of
the camp black, sinking swamp. The rebel
sergeants, who called the roll every morning told US
that there 5000 men in the For feeding
purposes they had divided into droves of 1000
each, each drove having number Thus we could
usually guess very closely concerning total mum.
Der, although dying fast, and new prison.
frequently arrived
We are told that Captain Henry wrz did what
ever he could the horrors of the place and
bewaiied his inability to do moro for us. An effort
lie made TO have him appear sort OF scapegoat
and martyr to the raging passions OF war. i deny
such statement point blank Wirz was monster
OF cruelty. l him a hundred times, and Often by
compulsion, heard his obscene abuse Of prisoners.
Even the rebel guards covered in his presence. He
was hanged at Washington City. not for being Tailor
at Andersonvnle He was hanged for murder. Ho
was thoroughly convicted OF having murdered pris
oner with his hand. Two other cases OF murder
could have been proven against him He was for
egn mercenary. who deserted from theNunion army
after the battle OF Bull Run and who received COM
mission in the confederate service and placed in
charge of the military prisoners, first at Richmond
and afterwards at Andersonvlle His name and
memory deserve execraion
Nor were we moved from Andersonvllle from
tives OF humanity but because the enemy feared
Sherman would capture us. Andersonvflle only APP
peared than other southern stockades because
OF the great number of men confined there During
the winter that followed many half naked prisoners
froze 10 death. dead bodies OF such men at the
Mlen stocksde and at the Florence (s c., stockade
/ was a captive at Andersonville Mllen, Blackshear.
Savannah, Charleston, Florence, Wilmington and
eoldsboro N C. The treatment of prisoners
everywhere the same-brutality and starvation, To
this statement make these exceptions: At Savannah
a band OF ladies came out TO our camp with delivery
wagons and servants and us hot coffee and
loaves OF bread Coffee then costly rarity In
the south, the whole coastline being blockaded. "A
similar instance occurred at Charleston although the
city was under the fire of the union fleet At Colds
boro N c. the guards attempted to drive off party
of ladies who out to relieve u.s. but they refused
20 leave and oaves OF bread across the dead
line TO till their supply was exhausted
When Wilson'S cavalry captured Andersonville,
only about $500 emacated wretches found there
and TO escape their vengeance wirz fled to General
Wilson and implored protection. At prison headquar-
tiers was found official order from General Wnder
issued at the time Stoneman led an unsuccessful cav
| airy raid on Andersonvile. 1t read:
'If you learn that the Yankee cavalry are within
fifty miles of Andersonvile open fire the prison
ers with grape and canister
At last accounts that order was on file in the
| archives of the War department at Washington City.
| opportune death from disease saved Winder from
death on scaffod for the government had several
matters TO settle with him.
II Is true that Grant opposed exchange OF prison
era on the ground that OF them were deserters
His assumption was false Nine-tenths OF us became
prisoners as a choice between captivity and Inn
mediate death. AS ali instance, my own regiment
was taken In desperate combat after capturing what
was left OF two regimen and three companies of the
! enemy on the ed OF July. before Atlanta. Grants
real reason was that he paroled 5000 men at Vicks-
| burg and every man of them was forced 10 take up
arms as soon as oamped within the 'enemys lines
Father Hamilton q am not a Catholic), was the
only representative Of Christian Glericas that was
| ever known 20 enter our prison pens. He told the
authorities at Andersonve;
''If you cannot exchange those men and cannot
| faed them parole them and send them 10 Sherman.
| You have no right TO staTve them"
Colonel Chandler, a confederate inspecting officer
who visited us, gave the Richmond government some
what similar advice. Throughout the war the con-
tsderate solders were poorly fed There not only