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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prison Life in Andersonville, by John L. Maile
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Prison Life in Andersonville
+       With Special Reference to the Opening of Providence Spring
+
+Author: John L. Maile
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2012 [EBook #39584]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISON LIFE IN ANDERSONVILLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"PRISON LIFE IN ANDERSONVILLE"
+
+
+
+
+  This volume,
+  Number 48
+
+  of the Author's Autograph
+  Edition, limited to five hundred
+  copies, is presented to
+
+
+  In grateful appreciation
+  for cordial support and financial
+  patronage of the work.
+
+
+
+
+  "Prison Life in Andersonville"
+
+  With Special Reference to the
+  Opening of Providence Spring
+
+
+  _by_
+  John L. Maile
+
+
+  A Veteran of Company F, Eighth Regiment Michigan
+  Volunteer Infantry and afterward assigned as
+  Lieutenant in the Twenty-eighth U. S. C. T., and
+  for a time an unwilling guest in the Confederate
+  Military prisons at Lynchburg and Danville, Va.,
+  Andersonville, Ga., Florence, S. C., and Salisbury,
+  N. C.
+
+
+  "One flag, one land, one heart, one hand,
+  One Nation evermore."
+                        --O. W. Holmes.
+
+
+  GRAFTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
+  WEST COAST MAGAZINE
+  LOS ANGELES.
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT 1912
+  BY JOHN L. MAILE
+
+  LOS ANGELES, CAL.
+  U. S. A.
+
+  All Rights Reserved
+
+
+  PRESS OF WEST COAST MAGAZINE
+  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
+
+
+
+
+Commendation
+
+
+That the following narrative of Southern prison life should be written so
+many years after the occurrence of the events described is explained by
+the fact that the author has been urged by many friends to put on record
+his descriptions that have interested many people in the East, in the
+Interior and in the West.
+
+To Members of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Woman's Relief Corps,
+allied organizations, and readers generally, I am glad to commend this
+book as giving a more particular account of the opening of Providence
+Spring than has before appeared.
+
+Appreciation of the strenuous days of the great Civil War will be revived,
+and the memories of Veterans, not a few will be refreshed by this
+interesting story.
+
+  H. M. Triuble.
+    Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.
+
+  Princeton, Illinois,
+    March 2, 1912.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Four years of war life.
+
+In five Confederate prisons.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Author in 1860.
+
+The Year Before Enlistment.]
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+
+  Dedicated to the Woman's Relief Corps, whose tender,
+  thoughtful care has preserved the
+  sacred memorials of the war, and
+  to the memory of my
+
+  COMRADES
+
+  in arms
+  who have answered
+  the final
+  call; to the age-worn
+  remnant who still linger
+  behind, and to the younger
+  patriots of the present generation,
+  to whom it is given, in the happier
+  days of peace, to fight for their country
+  the bloodless battles of righteousness and truth.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE _of_ CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER.                                        PAGE.
+
+     I. The Writer's Credentials                     19
+
+    II. View of a Confederate Prison                 27
+
+   III. The Prison Commisariat                       35
+
+    IV. A Dearth of Water                            53
+
+     V. A Cry to Heaven                              61
+
+    VI. Unsealing of the Spring                      65
+
+   VII. Was It a Miracle?                            72
+
+  VIII. Deliverance                                  85
+
+    IX. An Incident by the Way                       93
+
+     X. A Sequel                                    103
+
+
+  APPENDIX.                                       PAGE.
+
+    A. Contributory Testimony                       116
+
+    B. Responsibility for Prison Treatment          119
+
+    C. Woman's Relief Corps Memorial                123
+
+    D. A Memorial Day Meditation                    135
+       Rev. H. H. Proctor, D. D. of Atlanta.
+
+    E. Permanent Honors for Confederate Heroes      141
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+The Author: As Prospective Soldier. As Present Writer.
+
+Plan of the Prison Pen.
+
+View of Interior and Foreground.
+
+A Dream.
+
+The Broken Stockade.
+
+The Spring and Women of the Relief Corps.
+
+Adventure in Wilmington Hospital.
+
+The Beloved Teacher.
+
+The Michigan Monument in Andersonville.
+
+The Andersonville Cemetery.
+
+
+
+
+A Personal Foreword
+
+
+The establishment and perpetuity of our Union have been secured by the
+sacrifices of war. The Declaration of Independence preceded seven weary
+years of conflict, whose culminating sufferings were experienced in the
+British prison ships and in the winter camp at Valley Forge. In this
+contest the patriotic soldiers of the north and of the south made common
+cause, and what they did and what they suffered indicates a measure of the
+enduring worth of our national life. The story of revolutionary days finds
+an enlarged counterpart in the sufferings of the civil war.
+
+A phase of the great struggle is recalled in the following narrative of
+events, which belongs to a rapidly receding past. Soon no survivor will be
+left to tell the tale; hence the desirability of putting it into permanent
+form before it fades altogether from recollection. To some the story of
+the breaking out of Providence Spring may seem to have been given undue
+prominence in this record; but it is around that event that these
+reminiscences gather, and the circumstances attending were so indelibly
+stamped upon the memory of the writer that they call for expression.
+Probably he was the youngest of the group of Andersonville prisoners who
+participated in the concert of prayer that preceded the unsealing of the
+fountain, and on that account he may be the only survivor.
+
+In the course of the narrative unpleasant things have been referred to in
+the interests of truth, but nothing has been set down in malice. The Great
+Healer has closed up many wounds of hearts as well as of bodies, and the
+grass has grown green over the graves of buried controversies. The boys in
+gray and the boys in blue now fraternize around common campfires and under
+a common flag. But while the writer has none save the kindliest feelings
+toward his brothers of the lost cause, he cannot help rejoicing that
+alike in the clash of arms, and in the more peaceful conflict of ideas
+which has followed, the principles for which he and others bled and
+suffered have gained the victory and are among the things which never
+perish from the earth.
+
+
+
+
+    "We are coming, Father Abraham--three hundred thousand more,
+    From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore.
+    We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
+    With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;
+    We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before--
+    We are coming, Father Abraham--three hundred thousand more.
+
+    "If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
+    Long lines of moving dust your vision may descry;
+    And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
+    And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
+    And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour--
+    We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.
+
+    "If you look up all our valleys, where growing harvests shine,
+    You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
+    And children, from their mothers' knees, are pulling at the weeds,
+    And learning how to reap and sow, against their country's needs;
+    A farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door--
+    We are coming, Father Abraham--three hundred thousand more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE WRITER'S CREDENTIALS.
+
+
+The writer of the following narrative feels justified in calling attention
+to his military record in order that he may be furnished with a warrant
+for inviting the attention of readers to the matters herein described.
+Broadly speaking, his record is that he saw nearly four years of active
+service, including ten months of confinement in Confederate prisons and
+three months in hospitals and parole camps.
+
+Given more in detail it would be as follows: He enlisted at the age of
+seventeen, on September 2, 1861, at Hastings in the Eighth Regiment
+Michigan Volunteer Infantry; Company F of which N. H. Walbridge was
+Captain; Traverse Phillips, First Lieutenant; Jacob Maus, Second
+Lieutenant, and John D. Sumner, Orderly Sergeant.
+
+The Eighth was known as the famous "wandering" regiment of
+Michigan--ex-Governor Col. William M. Fenton, Commander.
+
+His regiment was mustered in at Grand Rapids and journeyed via Detroit,
+Cleveland and Pittsburg to Washington, going into camp on Meridian Hill
+overlooking the capitol. On October 19th, with his regiment, he embarked
+from Annapolis on the steamship Vanderbilt, taking part in the Dupont
+Expedition to the South Carolina coast and occupancy of Beaufort and the
+Sea Islands.
+
+He was in engagements on Coosaw river, and at the bombardment of Fort
+Paluski off Savannah. While his regiment was in the campaign of James
+Island, near Charleston, he was in the Signal Corps service on the
+Beaufort river. In April the regiment sailed to Virginia; he was at the
+second Bull-Run in July, and with the Maryland campaign of South Mountain,
+Antietam; the succeeding Fredericksburg fighting and thence via Kentucky
+to Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi.
+
+In the autumn of '63 he marched via Cumberland Gap to East Tennessee and
+took part in conflicts at Blue Springs, Lenoir Station, Campbell's
+Station, the siege of Knoxville, and defense of Fort Saunders. After
+re-enlistment with his comrades in January he marched over the mountains
+nearly two hundred miles in ten days through deep snow to the railroad at
+Crab Orchard, Kentucky. This severe ordeal was followed by a brief respite
+of a thirty days' furlough from Cincinnati to Michigan.
+
+In April, 1864, the regiment rejoined the Ninth Army Corps at Annapolis,
+and on May 3rd he was, after examination in Washington, confirmed for a
+commission as Lieutenant. On the 4th, he overtook his regiment camping
+near the Rappahannock river; on the evening of the 5th the vicinity of the
+Rapidan river was reached in full view of the smoke of Sedgwick's
+artillery opening the great battle of the Wilderness. On the afternoon of
+the 6th, his regiment was ordered into action when he with a thousand
+others from the division was taken prisoner and marched to Lee's
+headquarters, where he saw the famous general, whom he remembers as
+sitting with great dignity of bearing upon his horse, calmly viewing the
+situation. And it was reported that he kindly remarked to a group of
+prisoners that they must make the best of their predicament. On the 9th
+the examination papers came for the new Lieutenant, but he was now the
+guest of the Confederacy and could not be excused.
+
+A comrade sent to his home the disquieting message, "missing in action and
+probably killed," but happily from Orange Courthouse by the great kindness
+of a Virginia Lieutenant a telegram was forwarded by flag of truce to his
+parents stating that he still survived. The memorial services announced
+for the following week were postponed and are yet to take place.
+
+Introductory experiences as a prisoner of war included many hours of
+fasting, followed by a most exhaustive march of twenty-eight miles to
+Orange Courthouse under close cavalry guard; thence by rail to
+Gordonsville, where the place of detention was a pen frequently used for
+the rounding up of cattle. At this point the prisoners were usually
+relieved of any superfluous clothing and outfit.
+
+Fortunately the writer had discovered in the crowd five members of his
+regiment. He and they drew together as companions in misfortune, and
+formed a group in which each one was to have a share and share alike of
+all they possessed; and they entered into a solemn pledge to care for one
+another in sickness.
+
+Very early in the morning of our night at Gordonville we were aroused by
+the sharp command, "Wake up there, wake up there, you Yanks. Fall into two
+ranks. Quick there," given by a Confederate sergeant. The occasion was the
+arrival of a trainload of beef cattle for the Confederate army, and the
+master of transportation saw an opportunity to load the prisoners into
+the freight cars just made vacant and which were to return to Lynchburg
+immediately.
+
+To be thus unceremoniously aroused from sleep and hustled into filthy cars
+made us very indignant, but "There is a divinity that shapes our ends;
+rough-hew them how we will," and in the confusion of moving in the
+twilight, and the absence of inspection we got off scot free from the
+usual ceremony of being stripped of superabundant clothes and
+accouterments. Thus our group of six were each left in possession of a
+blanket, a section of shelter tent, a haversack, a tin cup and plate, a
+knife, a fork, a spoon, and such scanty clothing as we had on. The extras
+we possessed were a frying pan, a file, and several pocket knives, two or
+three towels, a small mirror, and a thin piece of mottled soap. The latter
+was used exclusively for a Sunday morning wash of hands and face until it
+melted away.
+
+This unusual amount of equipment was kept as inconspicuous as possible and
+was safely carried through the prisons at Lynchburg and Danville, where
+we awaited transportation to an unknown destination, which proved to be
+the military inferno of Andersonville, in southwestern Georgia, to reach
+which we rode more than seven hundred miles from the battlefield packed
+fifty and sixty in a freight car, with twenty or thirty of our number on
+the top.
+
+The locomotives, which burned pitch pine, emitted clouds of acrid smoke
+that, mingled with dust arising from the roadbed, enveloped the train in a
+gloomy, suffocating pall. Mile after mile the worn, rattling freight cars
+and wheezing engine crept along the right-of-way, which, as a narrow lane,
+threaded the interminable pitch-pine forests that admitted no stirring
+breeze.
+
+On Sunday morning we arrived in the beautiful city of Augusta, Georgia.
+Our train was sidetracked on a principal thoroughfare whose borders were
+embowered in luxuriant foliage which screened attractive homes, whence the
+church bells were calling the summer-dressed occupants. On the sidewalk
+opposite from the train groups of the people loitered to gaze upon the
+grimy, famished prisoners who swarmed upon the tops of the freight cars
+and formed a sweltering crowd within.
+
+Several ladies deferred their church-going, re-entered their houses,
+emerged with baskets filled with sandwiches, crossed the street to the
+side of the train and, overcoming the objections of the guards, handed out
+the precious food to the grateful men, who responded with their most
+courteous thanks.
+
+This little piece of genuine chivalry was the one bright spot in the
+torturing journey, and was matched by the sensibilities of some Southern
+ladies, who later viewing the interior of Andersonville from the stockade
+platform, turned away their faces weeping.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Ground Plan of Andersonville Stockade.
+
+Description: Fig. 1, Keeper's House; 2, "P. Spring"; 3, Nat'l Monument; 4,
+Purchased Property; 5, Stockade; 6, Outer Stockade; 7, Deadline; 8, Forts
+and Batteries; 9, Main Fort; 10, [1]Gallows; 11, Magazine; 12, Capt.
+Wirtz' Headquarters; 13, To Cemetery; 14, Wells and Tunnels; 15, Dead
+House; 16, Guard Camp; 17, Road to Station; 18, Creek; 19, North Gate; 20,
+South Gate; 21, Flag Pole.]
+
+[Illustration: THE ANDERSONVILLE PRISON PEN
+
+This view looks westward. Providence Spring was located just below the
+north gate, close to the stockade X.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AN INSIDE VIEW OF A CONFEDERATE PRISON.
+
+
+At the time of our incarceration in Andersonville, the crisis of the war
+of the rebellion was reached. General Grant was fighting the great battles
+of the Wilderness in Virginia; the investment of Petersburg was about to
+begin, and General Lee was resisting the impact of the Federal forces with
+unsurpassed skill and heroism. General Sherman was also hastening his
+preparations to penetrate the vitals of the Confederacy by his famous
+"March to the Sea."
+
+Skirmishes by the contending forces were of daily occurrence, and
+frequently battles were fought that now loom large in history. To bury the
+dead was not difficult; but the care of the wounded was a grave concern to
+both armies. An affair of still greater magnitude was the gathering up of
+the captured officers and soldiers, the transporting of them hundreds of
+miles, and the placing of them in prisons for safe keeping.
+
+The Confederate authorities adopted a simple and logical plan. Foodstuffs
+for their armies could not be gathered in war-swept Virginia, nor to any
+great extent from the border States. In Georgia and Alabama, in parts of
+the Carolinas, Mississippi and Louisiana faithful slave labor produced an
+abundant supply of rice, corn and bacon, sweet potatoes and beans.
+
+To transport these bulky materials to the armies of Lee, Hood and Johnson
+required every locomotive and freight car that could be mustered on
+Southern railroads. Hence the northward-bound trains were heavily laden.
+Those going southward were empty, and were available to carry away the
+thousands of Union prisoners. At several points in the South Atlantic and
+Gulf States, stockade prisons were set up, notably that in Southwestern
+Georgia, named after an adjacent hamlet, "Andersonville."
+
+This celebrated place of confinement for Federal prisoners below the rank
+of commissioned officer was located about sixty-two miles from Macon. It
+consisted of a stockade made of pine logs twenty-five feet long, set
+upright in a trench five feet deep, inclosing some sixteen acres,
+afterwards enlarged to twenty-six acres.
+
+This inclosure was oblong in form, with its longest dimension in a general
+north and south direction, and had two gates in its western side, near the
+north and south ends respectively. It was commanded by several stands of
+artillery, comprising sixteen guns, located at a distance on rising
+ground. From four directions the guns could sweep the prison interior with
+grapeshot or shells.
+
+A line of poles was planted along the lengthwise center of the pen. We
+were informed that if the men gathered in unusual crowds between the range
+of the poles and the north and south gates, the cannon would open upon us.
+
+A report was circulated among us to the effect that General Sherman had
+started an expedition to release us; and we were informed that if his
+troops approached within seven miles of the stockade the prisoners would
+be mowed down by grapeshot. The fact is that one of his generals proposed
+a sortie that never was made. "About July 20, 1864, General Stoneman was
+authorized at his own desire to march (with cavalry) on Macon and
+Andersonville in an effort to rescue the National prisoners of war in the
+military prisons there."
+
+Outside and against the stockade platforms for guards were placed two or
+three rods apart, and were so constructed that the sentinel climbed a
+ladder and stood waist high above the top of the wall and under a board
+roof, which sheltered him from the sun and rain.
+
+Each of the guards faced the vast mass of prisoners and was ordered to
+closely watch the dead line before and below him half way to his comrade
+on his right and left.
+
+The "dead line" formed a complete circuit parallel to the inside of the
+stockade and about twenty feet therefrom. It consisted of a narrow strip
+of board nailed to a row of stakes, which were about four feet high.
+"Shoot any prisoner who touches the "dead line" was the standing order to
+the guards. Several companies from Georgia regiments were detailed for the
+duty, and their muskets were loaded with "buck and ball" (_i. e._, a large
+bullet and two buckshot). The day guard at the stockade consisted of one
+hundred and eighty-six men; the day reserve of eighty-six men. The night
+reserve consisted of one hundred and ten men; the outlay pickets of
+thirty-eight men.
+
+A sick prisoner inadvertently placing his hand on the dead line for
+support, or one who was "moon blind" running against it, or anyone
+touching it with suicidal intent, would be instantly shot at, the
+scattering balls usually striking others than the one aimed at.
+
+The intervening space between the wall and the dead line was overgrown
+with weeds, and was occasionally tested by workmen with long drills to
+ascertain the existence of tunnels. In attempting to escape by this means
+the prisoners endeavored to emerge at night some distance from the
+stockade and take to the woods. To frustrate such attempts, which would
+inevitably be discovered at roll-call the following morning, man-tracking
+hounds were led by mounted men on a wide circuit around the prison, with
+the well-nigh universal result that the trail was struck and the fugitive
+taken.
+
+Later a stockade was erected parallel to the first, and some ten or twelve
+rods beyond. Tunnels could not be carried so far with the means available.
+They were dug with knives and the dirt was taken out in haversacks or bags
+drawn in and out by a cord. The work of digging was usually carried on at
+night. During the day a sick man lay over the tunnel's mouth in a tent or
+under a blanket. That the roll-call sergeant might not discover the fresh
+earth, it was sifted early in the morning from the pocket and down the
+trouser leg of a comrade, who walked unconcernedly about. The little
+grains of earth which he dropped were soon trodden under foot.
+
+To increase the difficulty of tunnel escape, slaves and teams were
+employed to build piles of pitch-pine along the cleared space beyond the
+outer stockade. At night, when these were lighted, a line of fires was
+made which illuminated a wide area. From these fires arose columns of
+dense smoke, which in the sultry air of a midsummer night hung like a pall
+over the silent city of disease and starvation. Yet the city was not
+wholly quiet, for undertones of thousands of voices that murmured during
+the day at night died away into the low moans of the sick and the
+expiring, or rose into the overtones of the outcry of distressful dreams.
+In the edge of the gloom beyond the fires, patrols paced to and fro until
+the dawn. Every evening the watch-call sounded, "Post number one, nine
+o'clock and all is well." This cry was repeated by each sentinel until it
+had traveled around the stockade back to the place of starting. "Nine and
+a half o'clock and all is well," was next spoken, and likewise repeated.
+Thus every half hour from dark to daylight the time was called off, and
+this grim challenge greeted our ears every night until the survivors bade
+the Confederacy good-bye. Not that our captors benevolently wished to
+increase the sense of the shortness of the time until our release, but to
+be assured that the guards were keeping awake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE PRISON COMMISSARIAT.
+
+
+The least that can be said of the prison sustenance is that it was
+exceedingly slim. But while the _per diem_ rations dealt out to an
+Andersonville prisoner were too small for proper maintenance, and much of
+the time inferior in quality, yet the thirty-two thousand to thirty-five
+thousand men who had to be fed were as a rule promptly served.
+
+To secure this result effective organization was necessary. It was
+accomplished as follows: Groups of two hundred and seventy men were named
+detachments and duly numbered. Every detachment was divided into the
+first, second and third nineties, each of which was in charge of one of
+our own sergeants. The nineties, in turn, were divided into the first,
+second and third thirties, which also were in charge of a sergeant or
+corporal.
+
+At ten o'clock every forenoon a drum call was beaten from the platform at
+the south gate. At this signal the prisoners fell into line by
+detachments, forming as best they could in the narrow paths that separated
+the small tents, blanket shanties or dug-outs. At the same moment a
+company of Confederate sergeants entered the two gates for the purpose of
+counting and recording the number of the prisoners. To each of these
+officers a certain number of detachments were assigned. The men,
+unsheltered from the fierce sun-heat, had perforce to remain standing
+during the entire count. If a number less than that of yesterday was in
+evidence, the Federal sergeant had to account for the deficit. Sometimes a
+number of men were too ill to stand up, so the line was held the longer
+while the Confederate official viewed the sick where they lay.
+
+The bodies of those who had died since the count of the previous day were
+early in the morning carried to the south street and laid in a row until
+the ration wagon could haul them to the burying trench. On a card attached
+to the wrist of the deceased was written by the detachment sergeant, his
+name, regiment and date of death. These names were taken by the
+enumerator, who verified the record as the bodies were carried through the
+gate. Such was the scarcity of clothing that garments of any value were
+taken by comrades from the dead before interment.
+
+In the early summer prisoners were occasionally detailed under guard to
+carry the dead some distance from the gate. On the return they were
+allowed to gather up chips which had accumulated from the hewing of
+stockade timbers. The quantity a man, weakened by hunger and disease,
+could bring in would sell for five dollars, U. S. currency. Competition to
+get out on one of these details became so intense that the privilege was
+discontinued.
+
+At four o'clock in the afternoon rations of corn bread and bacon were
+issued on the basis of the morning count of those who are able to stand
+up. Two army wagons drawn by mules entered the north and south gates
+simultaneously. They were piled high with bread, thin loaves of corn bread
+or Johnny cake, made of coarse meal and water by our men who had been
+paroled for that work.
+
+A blanket was spread upon the ground and the quantity for a detachment was
+placed thereon in three piles; one for every ninety, according to the
+number of men able to eat. In like manner the sergeants of nineties
+sub-divided the piles to the thirties.
+
+The writer had charge of a division of thirty and distributed as follows:
+His blanket was spread in front of his shelter tent and on it he spread
+the bread in as many pieces as there were men counted in the morning.
+
+Each man had his number and was intently watching the comparative size of
+the portions. "Sergeant," cries one, pointing to a cube of bread, "That
+piece is smaller than the one next to it." A crumb is taken from the one
+and placed upon the other. The relative size of any piece may be
+challenged by any member of the thirty, for his life is involved.
+
+The equalization is finally completed to the satisfaction of all. The
+sergeant then takes up a piece in his hand and says, "Whose is this?" A
+designated comrade looking the other way calls a number. The owner steps
+up and takes his portion. This process is repeated until all are served.
+Some four or five pounds of bacon are then cut on a board into small
+pieces and issued in like manner.
+
+The cube of bread and morsel of meat constitute the ration for twenty-four
+hours. One-half may be eaten at once; the remainder should be put in the
+haversack for breakfast. If any one yields to his insatiable hunger and
+eats the whole for supper he has to fast until the following evening and
+must then deny himself and put away the portion for the next morning's
+breakfast. Experiment proved that strength was better sustained by taking
+the scanty ration of food in two portions than by eating the whole at
+once.
+
+When the number of prisoners exceeded fifteen thousand, the facilities of
+the cook-house were inadequate. Therefore raw rations were issued
+alternately every two weeks to each side of the prison. In this form the
+amount _per capita_ daily was a scant pint of corn meal and a scrap of
+uncooked bacon.
+
+Occasionally boiled rice and cow beans were substituted for the meal, but
+these were very difficult to issue in accurate portions. Sometimes a
+quantity of this glutenous food was carried in a sleeve of a shirt or in
+the trouser's leg tied at the end.
+
+The supply of fuel for cooking was wholly inadequate. Often the ration of
+wood was ironically called a "toothpick." It would be split into small
+short splinters and two men would sometimes combine their portions. Water
+in a quart tin cup setting on small blocks of clay could be brought to a
+boil before the wood under it was consumed. Into this water meal was
+stirred and, if the blaze could be yet further economized, partially
+cooked mush was the outcome. The sick could not, however, do this work for
+themselves. Many ate meal uncooked, but the experiment soon ended life.
+
+It may be observed that many of the Andersonville prisoners were well
+supplied with money. The Federal armies were reclothed and paid off in the
+spring of 1864. The new recruits and re-enlisted veterans, in many
+instances, had with them bounty money when captured. Greenbacks could be
+pressed into the sole of a shoe, or placed inside a brass button. In
+various ways money was concealed about the person.
+
+The authorities at Andersonville allowed supplies to be sold to the
+prisoners for Federal money. Numerous small restaurants flourished in the
+stockade. From small clay ovens they supplied fresh bread and baked meats.
+Irish and sweet potatoes, string beans, peas, tomatoes, melons, sweet
+corn, and other garden products were abundantly offered for sale. New
+arrivals were amazed to find these resources in the midst of utter
+destitution and starvation.
+
+As this sketch is of the nature of personal experiences, the writer might
+tell how, in his case, the question of increasing the food supply was
+solved. A ration of fresh beef received by his thirty consisted of a shank
+bone on which a small amount of lean meat remained. This latter was cut
+into portions about the size of a little finger. These were easily issued,
+but what shall be done with the bone which towered on the meat board above
+the diminutive strips of beef? No tools were available by which it could
+be broken up. One and another cried out, "I don't want the bone for a
+ration." "Count it out for me." "I can't gnaw a bone." The writer knew
+that a wealth of nutriment was contained in the rich marrow and oil-filled
+joints, and in view of the unanimous rejection of the bone, said, "Well,
+boys, if none of you want it, I will take it as my portion." "Agreed,"
+shouted the crowd, adding expressions like these, "Come, hurry up and
+call off that meat; I'm hungry." The strips were speedily issued, and, for
+the most part, eaten at once.
+
+The fortunate possessor of what was a large soup bone borrowed from a
+comrade a kitchen knife with permission to cut on the back of the same
+teeth, which were made with a file procured from a tent-mate. The steel of
+the blade was exceedingly hard and by the time the teeth were finished the
+file was worn nearly smooth. However, this fact insured that the teeth
+would hold their edge. The bone was quickly cut in two and the marrow dug
+out with a splinter. What remained was melted out with boiling water and a
+marrow soup was prepared for six hungry patriots. Next, the joints were
+sawed into slices and the rich oil extracted therefrom with hot water.
+Thus for two meals a generous addition was made to our impoverished menu.
+
+Soon after, while splitting wood by driving the knife into the end of a
+stick, the blade was snapped off about one and one-half inches from the
+handle. This disaster brought consternation, for the owner valued his
+knife at five dollars. However, a settlement was effected by which the
+user retained the broken parts and the worn-out file. The blade was set
+into a split stick to be used as a saw, as circumstances might require.
+
+The broken end of the shank was scraped on a brick to form a beveled edge
+like a chisel. Later on, the fact was demonstrated that these tools were a
+providential preparation. The face of the writer became diseased with the
+much prevailing scurvy. A swollen cheek, inflamed and bleeding gums with
+loosening teeth, indicated the fact that a hard fight for life must be put
+up. How shall it be done? About this time a stockade was built on three
+sides of an enclosure attached to the north end of the prison, thus making
+more room for the thousands of additional prisoners who were constantly
+arriving from many battle fields. The intervening wall was taken up and
+most of the timber sold to the prisoners. From one who had purchased a
+log, the writer obtained the wood sufficient to make three water pails;
+working on a two-thirds share.
+
+This material was delivered to the writer in split strips about three
+inches thick and four feet long. With the knife-blade saw these sticks of
+hard pine were slowly and laboriously cut into lengths for staves which
+were split on a curve by driving together several sharp-pointed wedges
+into a circular grain of the wood. Thus each stave was an arc of the
+circumference of the tree. A day's ration was traded for a board three
+inches wide and thirty inches long. A mortise was cut through this to
+receive the knife-chisel, which was held in place with a forked wedge
+after the manner of a carpenter's plane.
+
+This was the jointer on which the edges of the staves were smoothed and
+its upper end was placed on the knee of the writer, who sat tailor fashion
+on the ground, and the lower end was placed in a hole in the earth. The
+pieces for the bottom of the pail were split flat across the circular
+grain of the tree, and the edges were also smoothed on the jointer. For
+the want of truss hoops, the problem of setting up the staves seemed
+insurmountable. A sleepless night was passed in thinking the matter
+through. At four o'clock in the morning the inspiration came, and the
+solution was: Dig a hole in the ground the form and slope of the
+prospective pail. This was speedily done, and the staves were successfully
+set half their length in this mold, and the last one driven home brought
+the whole into shape. Two knapsack straps were passed around the top of
+the pail and held it together. It was then carefully drawn out of the hole
+and hoops made of split saplings were put in place, and the handle of like
+material was made. Precious food was bartered for these split stems, and
+the resultant fasting added to prevailing starvation nearly cost the
+writer his life.
+
+Pieces for the bottom were jointed, placed on the ground and on them the
+pail was set. A pencil was run round on this bottom and the end of each
+piece was cut with saw and chisel wherever the curved mark indicated.
+
+Days of incessant labor with chisel and a borrowed jackknife sufficed to
+produce from hard pitch pine the staves for the sides and bottom of a
+water pail of the ordinary size.
+
+When at last the pail was completed so imperfect were the joints that meal
+could be sifted through. Derisive laughter greeted the apparent failure of
+a pail to hold water, through the joints of which the light freely shone.
+However, the maker depended on the dry wood of the staves swelling tight
+if only the hoops proved strong enough to stand the immense pressure.
+Happily, this resulted and in triumph the first made pail was handed over
+to the owner of the log in payment for the wood from which three pails
+could be made.
+
+The second pail was more speedily made and sold for $1.50 with which the
+proprietor bought vegetables which eaten raw cured the scurvy in his face.
+
+During the following winter which was passed in the Confederate prison at
+Florence, South Carolina, the shoes worn by the most of our group, owing
+to defective machine stitching, peeled from the toe to the heel, causing
+almost constantly damp feet, to the serious detriment of health.
+
+Again the writer was obliged to make a fight for life. Recalling the
+process of making his chisel, he scraped, on a brick, the shank of his
+worn-out file into a point like a pegging awl. A gum tree knot served as a
+handle. A two-inch nut from a car bolt was screwed to a handle for a shoe
+hammer. A piece of soft pine was whittled into a last. With the knife-saw
+maple chips were cut into right lengths for shoe pegs which were shaped
+one by one. With this equipment the loosened soles were tightly pegged to
+the uppers. The shoes thus made water tight contributed no little to our
+chances of survival.
+
+The writer afterwards mended shoes for one of the wood-chopping party who
+secured, of field negroes, sweet potatoes which he brought with the
+working squad into the prison at evening, and with them paid for the
+mending. These were cooked by the writer and retailed to the prisoners
+with large profit in U. S. fractional currency.
+
+Confederate money was secretly purchased forty dollars for one, and with
+this supplies could be lawfully bought of the prison sutler. Bread per
+small loaf, flour per pound, and a fair-sized cabbage could be bought each
+for ten dollars. We drove a flourishing trade in hot cabbage soup with men
+who possessed any money; especially to those who, without shelter,
+literally piled themselves together for mutual warmth during the piercing
+cold and rain of a southern winter night.
+
+The soup was made in the following manner: A cabbage consisted of a stalk
+with a tuft of leaves on the upper end and a bunch of roots on the lower
+end. The whole was washed clean and chopped up fine with the knife-chisel.
+The sliced leaves, stem and roots were boiled in eight quarts of water
+until made as tender as heat could do it. Into the green colored liquid
+was stirred some flour thickening; the whole was salted and a minced red
+pepper was added for pungency, while a whole pepper floated on the surface
+as an advertisement.
+
+For a soup dipper a piece of pail hoop was riveted to the side of a
+condensed milk can, the two rivets being cut from a copper cent with the
+chisel driven with the shoe hammer. For soup plates a canteen was melted
+apart and the two halves formed each a plate. On [2]Market Square, down by
+the swamp, four slender stakes were driven and thereon was placed a pine
+shake, which formed the soup counter. The soup kettle was covered with a
+piece of woolen shirt, which kept in the heat. Very early each morning we
+opened up for business and a line of shivering men in rags and nearly
+perished from exposure formed as the soup brigade. The price per plate
+was a five-cent shinplaster of U. S. fractional currency. The poor fellow
+who had no money must needs go without. As new prisoners ceased to arrive
+the money supply was soon gathered up and the prison sutler went away and
+trade was brought to an end.
+
+[Illustration: A DREAM]
+
+Our last plate of soup was sold to a Maine soldier who paid for it his
+last five cents. He was nearly naked and incessantly shivered from the
+cold. The writer found him the following morning, after a night of rain,
+to which he was exposed, with his knees drawn up to his chin in the
+instinctive effort to bring the surfaces of his body together for warmth.
+With difficulty his frame was straightened out for burial.
+
+The profit of this business for several weeks gave to our group of six one
+fairly good meal each day and made possible the survival of those of our
+number who finally emerged from this awful prison life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A DEARTH OF WATER.
+
+
+If the food supply of Andersonville was bad, the water supply was worse.
+To understand the situation and to see how little was done to overcome the
+difficulties involved, and to make the most of the existing facilities for
+the relief of the suffering, one has to consider the formation of this
+prison encampment.
+
+The surface of the interior consisted of two hillsides, sloping
+respectively north and south towards the center which was occupied by a
+swamp of nearly four acres. This was traversed by a sluggish creek which
+was some five feet wide and six inches deep, and made its way along the
+foot of the south slope. Up the stream were located the headquarters of
+Capt. Wirtz, the camps of the Confederate artillery and infantry and the
+cook-house for the prisoners. The drainage of these localities entered
+the creek which flowed into the prison through spaces between the stockade
+timbers, and polluted the water which was the chief supply of the prison,
+and which, at midnight, in its clearest condition, was the color of amber.
+The intervening space at the foot of the north hill was a wide morass, and
+when overflowed by rains became a vast cesspool on which boundless swarms
+of flies settled down and laid their eggs; which were speedily hatched by
+the fervent heat of the nearly tropical sun, and became a horrible
+undulating mass. On a change of wind the odor could be detected miles
+away; indeed it was reported that the people of Macon petitioned General
+Howell Cobb, the military governor of Georgia, for a removal of the prison
+located sixty miles away, lest an awful pestilence sweep over their
+country!
+
+The turkey buzzards, birds of ill omen, would come up against the wind,
+alight on the bare limbs of the tall pines overlooking the prison, and
+circle over the grizzled city as if waiting to descend for a carrion
+feast.
+
+When we entered the prison on May 23rd, our detachment of two hundred and
+seventy men was scheduled fifty-five, indicating the presence of fourteen
+thousand eight hundred and fifty prisoners. The number steadily rose until
+a reported thirty-five thousand were present at one time. As the arrivals
+increased by hundreds and thousands, the daily mortality was counted by
+scores and hundreds, and many of the sick were without shelter from the
+heat of the pitiless sun.
+
+As the killed and wounded are scattered over the fields of the sanguinary
+battle, so our dying sick lay around on every hand. In the early summer,
+Capt. Wirtz issued to the prisoners picks and shovels, with which to dig
+wells for increased water supply. From some of these wells the men started
+tunnels through which to escape. Discovering this, the commander withdrew
+the tools, and ordered the wells to be filled up. Permission to keep one
+of them open was purchased by a group of prisoners. It was sunk to a
+necessary depth, covered with a platform and trap door, and supplied about
+one thousand men.
+
+Aside from this well, for the favored few, the only water supply was from
+about twelve feet of the length of the creek which reached between the
+dead-line and the bridge connecting the two divisions of the prison. A
+terrible water famine set in, with the result that many of the ailing ones
+became insane from thirst.
+
+In these unsanitary surroundings there is a well authenticated case of a
+man who was severely afflicted with scurvy. As he lay in the place of
+filth and stench, without medical attention until gangrene of the lower
+limbs set in, he realized that to save his life he must lose his feet. No
+one of his comrades had the nerve to perform the necessary operation, so
+he obtained an old knife and disjointed his pedal extremities.
+
+    "In November, 1863, an order was issued for the establishment of a
+    prison in Georgia, the granary of the eastern part of the
+    Confederacy, and for this purpose a tract of land was selected near
+    the town of Andersonville. A stockade 15 feet high, inclosing 16-1/2
+    acres, was built, and this, in June, 1864, was enlarged to 26-1/2
+    acres, but 3-1/4 acres near the center were too marshy to be used. A
+    small stream ran through the inclosure, which, it was thought, would
+    furnish water sufficient for drinking and for bathing. The trees
+    within the stockade were cut down and no shelter was provided for the
+    expected inmates, who began to arrive in February, 1864, before the
+    rude prison was completed according to the design, and before an
+    adequate supply of bacon for their use had been received. Prisoners
+    continued to come until, on the 5th of May, there were about 12,000,
+    which number went on increasing until in August it exceeded 32,000.
+    Their condition was one of extreme wretchedness. Those who came first
+    erected rude shelters from the debris of the stockade; later arrivals
+    burrowed in the ground or protected themselves with any blankets or
+    pieces of cloth of which they had not been deprived according to the
+    practice of robbing men who were taken prisoners which prevailed on
+    both sides. Through an unfortunate location of the baking and cooking
+    houses on the creek above the stockade the water became polluted
+    before it reached the prisoners, so that to obtain pure water they
+    must dig wells. =After a severe storm a spring broke out within the
+    inclosure, and this became one of the main reliances for drinking
+    water.= The sinks were constructed over the lower part of the stream,
+    but the current was not swift enough to carry away the ordure, and
+    when the stream was swollen by rain and overflowed, the foecal matter
+    was deposited over a wide area, producing a horrible stench. This was
+    the famous prison of Andersonville."--From Rhodes' History of the
+    United States, Vol. V, pp. 483-515.
+
+    "The history of Andersonville prison pen has shocked the world with
+    its tales of horror, of woe, and of death, before unheard of and
+    unknown to civilization. No pen can describe, no artist can paint, no
+    imagination comprehend their fearful and unutterable sufferings.
+
+    "Into the narrow confines of this prison were herded more than
+    thirty-five thousand enlisted men, whose only fault was they 'wore the
+    Union blue,' many of them the bravest and best, the most devoted and
+    heroic of those grand armies that carried the flag of the Union to
+    final victory. For long and weary months they suffered and died for
+    that flag. Here they suffered =unsheltered= from the burning rays of a
+    southern sun, or were drenched by the rain and deadly dews of the
+    night. All this while they were in every stage of physical
+    disease--hungered, emaciated, starving.
+
+    "Is it a wonder that during the month of August, 1864, one man died in
+    every eleven minutes, night and day, or that, for six months,
+    beginning April, 1864, one died every twenty-two and one-half minutes
+    night and day? This should forever silence the assertion that men
+    would be taken prisoners rather than risk their lives on the firing
+    line. The lack of water was the cause of much disease and suffering.
+    Under the most favorable circumstances the water supply was
+    insufficient for one-quarter of the number of men confined there. All
+    the water obtainable was from a sluggish creek that ran through the
+    grounds; and, in addition to this, there were thirty-six hundred men
+    acting as guards camped on the bank of this stream before it reached
+    the prison pen, and the water became so foul no words can describe
+    it."--From "A Sketch of Andersonville," by Mrs. Lizabeth A. Turner,
+    Chairman Andersonville Prison Board. Journal of the Twenty-fifth
+    National Convention of the Woman's Relief Corps, page 169.
+
+
+
+
+    "More things are wrought by prayer
+      Than this world dreams of."
+                          --Tennyson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A CRY TO HEAVEN.
+
+
+The bitter cry which arose from the suffering camp was changed on the lips
+of a few to an appeal to heaven. Where else could men look in their dire
+extremity? One evening early in August the sound of the old long metre
+doxology was heard from the voices of a group of men gathered around the
+solitary pine stump in the enclosure, which was situated at the end of the
+north street of the prison where space was left for the ration wagon to
+turn around. On this stump was seated an emaciated cavalry sergeant, Mr.
+Shepard, of Columbus, Ohio, formerly an honored preacher of the gospel. In
+days past he had frequently been called upon to offer prayer over the
+remains of some deceased comrade, and now he led in the old and well-known
+hymn to call like-minded souls together.
+
+Some twenty-five unkempt, starving men gathered around him and joined in
+the familiar strain. What memories of family worship and old-time services
+in the meeting-house those words called up. Said Brother Shepard in
+substance: "I have today read in the book of Numbers of Moses striking the
+rock from which water gushed out for the ample supply of man and beast. I
+tell you God must strike a rock in Andersonville or we shall all die of
+thirst. And if there is no rock here, He can smite the ground and bring
+forth water to supply our desperate needs. Of this I am sure; let us ask
+Him to do this."
+
+Pointing to an uncombed, unwashed, ragged comrade standing close by, he
+said, "Will the brother from Chicago pray?" He then successively called on
+other acquaintances, distinguishing them by their different localities at
+home. All the prayers were poured out in the one desire for water.
+
+For perhaps an hour the meeting continued and closed with the doxology.
+The words of the leader were, "Boys, when you awake during the night
+offer to God a little prayer for water. Do the same many times tomorrow,
+and let us meet here in the evening to pray again for water."
+
+If memory be not at fault, these individual and collective petitions were
+steadfastly offered from Monday evening to Thursday evening.
+
+For a month previous we had noticed that a number of the stockade timbers
+near the north gate had been loosened by the percolating of the copious
+rain and that they were sagging considerably and had settled out of line.
+We wondered why they had been allowed to remain so long in this unsafe
+condition. Was it a coincidence that after prayer began to be offered the
+quartermaster of the prison notified Capt. Wirtz that stockade timbers
+were out of line and should be set right? He was ordered to take a gang of
+slaves and make the necessary repairs. About fifteen stalwart negroes were
+marched through the main gate and turned into the twenty-foot space
+between the dead-line and the wall. With pike poles the closely adjoining
+posts were heaved into position and the earth was closely tamped.
+
+Then the workers faced about and commenced digging a trench up the hill
+nearly as wide as the space between the dead-line and the stockade. A part
+of the gang swung their picks into the red clay which was shoveled against
+the timbers. Another set followed with heavy rammers and pounded the whole
+into a smooth, sloping surface which was tamped closely to the base of the
+wooden wall, making a perfect watershed, and thus preventing the further
+loosening of the earth at the base of the stockade. By Thursday evening
+the broad trench with rounded bottom was completed from the swamp up the
+dead line space to the north gate.
+
+
+
+
+    THE WOMANS RELIEF CORPS
+
+    "Today beneath our Nation's flag,
+      The old red, white and blue,
+    A band of noble women work
+      With a purpose just and true;
+    To aid and succor those who fought
+      To save our honored land,
+    For home and freedom, God and right,
+      Those earnest women stand."
+
+
+[Illustration: PROVIDENCE SPRING AND WOMEN OF THE RELIEF CORPS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+UNSEALING OF THE SPRING.
+
+
+On Friday morning an ominous stillness pervaded nature. By the middle of
+the forenoon a dense, dark cloud was noticed in the southwest quarter of
+the horizon, slowly creeping upward. It rose above the treetops majestic
+and awful in appearance. A troop of small, scurrying, angry-looking clouds
+seemed to form an advancing line to the vast mass of storm cloud. The
+onward movement quickened, and soon the front of the mountain of
+approaching cloud assumed a gray appearance, caused by the mighty downpour
+of water which more nearly than anything else seemed a continuous
+cloudburst.
+
+Crashes of thunder broke over our heads and flashes of lightning swished
+around us as if the air was filled with short circuits. The awful moving
+wall came towards us rapidly and we understood what was happening.
+
+As the mighty deluge swept through the clearing west of the prison, we
+bowed our heads in preparation of submersion in the advancing waterspout.
+When it came upon us the sensation was as if a million buckets of water
+were being poured upon us at once. The air was so filled with the roaring,
+hissing flood that we could not look up, but bent forward to protect our
+faces, covering our nostrils with our hands to preserve a little breathing
+space.
+
+Instantly rivulets of water poured down over our bodies as if a hose were
+discharging its stream on our shoulders, and the surface of the filthy
+ground was soon covered with a rush of muddy water. The swamp space as
+quickly filled with great swirling eddies. The upper stockade served as a
+dam across the creek, which in a few minutes became swollen into the
+dimensions of a river. Driftwood bore down upon the stockade, causing it
+to give way with a mighty crash. The heavy timbers were whirled across
+the prison as if they were mere straws, and by the force of their impact
+carried away the rear stockade. From the batteries solid shot was fired
+over our heads to warn us that if we attempted to escape through the
+opening in the wall we would be swept by the cannon. The roar of the guns
+chimed harmoniously with the thundering of the storm. In the awful
+suspense of such overwhelming conditions the progress of time could not be
+measured. The downpour may have continued twenty minutes, perhaps half an
+hour, or possibly longer. So great was its fury that we felt it must soon
+end or it would end us. Fortunately, it ceased as suddenly as it came.
+Looking up, we saw the great water wall retreating. The sun burst forth
+with unwonted vigor and shone with brilliant effect upon the receding
+rain. A dense fog arose from the drying garments of thirty-five thousand
+human bodies and from the exhalations of surrounding surfaces. As the
+heavy mist cleared away, the drenched and forlorn prisoners tried to be
+merry. They viewed with complacency the breach in the walls of the
+infamous pen and wished that every timber had been leveled to the earth.
+
+A witty comrade on the south hill of the prison, thinking to convey
+desired information to the north side, shouted at the top of his voice,
+"Water! Water!" Men on the north side, as by a common impulse, answered
+back, and the two great companies in turn shouted the magic word, much as
+the opposite hosts on Ebal and Gerazim alternately responded, "Amen."
+
+Immediately after this antiphonal outburst a voice was heard from the
+north gate, ringing out in clear tones the thrilling words, "A spring! A
+spring! A spring has broken out!" "Where, where?" was the eager inquiry
+which arose at once from many lips. The writer tried to press his way
+towards the north gate, but the crowd was so dense that no progress could
+be made. The excitement of the moment was indescribable. During a lull
+some one sang out, "You fellows over by the north gate, tell us, has a
+spring broken out?" "Yes," was the reply, an emphatic "Yes." Then was
+further shouted the explanation, "Where the trench was dug the flood has
+torn up the earth and a spring has gushed out."
+
+As soon as opportunity afforded we pressed our way to the spot, and there,
+just below the north gate, in the center of the space between the stockade
+and the dead-line, at the point where the earth had been most deeply
+excavated, the sloping surfaces had gathered the waters of the flood. The
+bottom of the trench was torn up some twenty inches, uncovering the vent
+of a spring of purest crystal water, which shot up into the air in a
+column and, falling in a fanlike spray, went babbling down the grade into
+the noxious brook. Looking across the dead-line, we beheld with wondering
+eyes and grateful hearts the fountain spring.
+
+But our relief was not yet realized; the question which now concerned us
+was how to bring its cooling waters within reach of our lips. In the
+afternoon and evening of that eventful Friday we prayed that God would so
+turn the heart of Capt. Wirtz that he would allow the precious water to be
+conveyed within our lines. We waited in suspense for the answer, and on
+Saturday morning, to our delight, we saw the quartermaster again enter the
+gate with a gang of slaves, bringing fence boards, hammers, nails, axes
+and stakes. A double row of the latter was driven, so that the direction
+crossed the dead-line at a slight angle down the hill. A strip was nailed
+across each pair of stakes, and in the aperture rested a trough made of
+two fence boards nailed together. At the lower end of this chute in an
+excavation was set a sugar hogshead, around which clay was tamped so as to
+aid in making it watertight. When all was ready the upper end of the chute
+was thrust under the falling column of water, which swiftly ran down and
+filled to overflowing the large barrel. From this the men by crowds dipped
+freely of the refreshing, life-giving water.
+
+Laughter, songs and thanksgiving abounded. Thus was wrought before our
+eyes a gracious work of Providence which to many of us was quite as
+wonderful and quite as manifestly the work of the All-Father as was the
+smitten rock in the Palestine desert from which the thirst of the fainting
+hosts of Israel was slacked in their desert wanderings.
+
+[Illustration: Stockade bursted by a flood which opened the wonderful
+"Providence Spring"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WAS IT A MIRACLE?
+
+
+A profound conviction has been cherished by many that the unsealing of
+Providence Spring was as marked an interposition of the hand of the
+Almighty as that recorded in the Book of Numbers where it is said, "And
+Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water
+came forth abundantly and the congregation drank." Num. 20:11.
+
+Are they wrong in this conviction? The unwontedness of the incident admits
+of no dispute. In such a sober work as Rhodes History of the United
+States, we have the statement, "After a severe storm a spring broke out
+within the enclosure (Andersonville stockade) and this became one of the
+main reliances for drinking water." Vol. V., p. 492.
+
+An eye witness records: "About the first of August showers fell that beat
+anything I ever saw. There was one good result, for where the stockade was
+washed away on the north side, it opened a spring of pure water, enough to
+supply nearly the whole of the prison." (The narrative of Amos E. Stearns,
+Co. A, 25th Regiment, Mass. Published by Franklin Pierce, 1887.)
+
+While comparatively few of the prisoners knew of the days of prayer that
+preceded the storm, every one recognized that something out of the
+ordinary course of events had happened; and that a new spirit pervaded the
+camp. Before this, no one would give a dying man a drink, for water was
+scarce, and the scurvy in the recipient's mouth might contaminate the cup
+for its owner. And indeed, not many had the strength to wait upon others.
+But now the dull, sombre, despairing mood was changed. The little stream
+of pure water, contrasted with the former slough that supplied us,
+murmured sweetly down through the night, and during the day it
+over-brimmed thousands of cups that eager hands reached forth.
+
+In after days many of these men were gathered at Camp Chase, Ohio, and
+there detained until improved health rendered them presentable for return
+home.
+
+We recall that when in the chapel of that place a Capt. Allen conducted
+evening religious services, hundreds of testimonies were given to the
+effect that the breaking out of the spring at Andersonville was a distinct
+answer to prayer and a convincing fact of the reality of help coming from
+above. Many of the speakers declared that their Christian faith began from
+that occurrence.
+
+Questions such as the following naturally arise: Was Providence Spring a
+miracle? Would the saving relief have been withheld if prayer had not been
+offered?
+
+The situation is not more difficult of analysis than is that described in
+the story of Queen Esther where is exhibited the interplay of natural and
+supernatural elements in human activity and Divine over-ruling. The
+northern section of the Andersonville inclosure was mainly a bank of clay,
+as evidenced by the many wells which were partially sunk, but filled, by
+order of Capt. Wirtz, because tunnels therefrom were dug for escape. The
+vein of water which issued in Providence Spring doubtless flowed from time
+immemorial, and being unable to work upward through a too great overpress
+of clay, had found a lower seam through which it seeped into the depths of
+the swamp below. This implied fact was learned as follows: As the prison
+administration was unable to cook meal and bacon for the increasing
+thousands of men, these articles were issued raw for two weeks alternately
+to the north and south sides of the enclosure.
+
+A distressingly small lot of wood must suffice a detachment of two hundred
+and seventy men for three days. Often the individual portion would not
+make a fire that would scald, much less cook, the scant portion of
+cornmeal, which was sometimes coarse and unbolted. It was said that more
+than ten thousand cases of bloody dysentery prevailed at one time;
+aggravated by irritation to stomach and intestines from the practically
+uncooked food. The awful unsanitary conditions which prevailed can be
+described, but respect for the sensibilities of the reader forbids.
+Suffice it to say that the need for fuel was urgent, that a number of the
+stronger captives would lay aside their tattered remnants of clothing,
+wade into the slimy muck of the swamp, and, sinking to their armpits,
+would pull up fragments of wood that had long been submerged. This was
+mostly pitch pine and when broken up would quickly burn. The work of
+exhuming fuel under such repulsive conditions was chiefly done at night.
+
+It was noticed that in the morning the partially remaining foot-prints and
+depression, from which the stick had been drawn, were filled with clear
+water. This fact was a mystery until after the spring was opened; then the
+conclusion was reached that the spring water followed a deep seam in the
+clay and oozed into the swamp some distance below the surface and rose up
+through the openings made by the wood-diggers.
+
+Therefore Providence Spring was not especially created to order. Like
+Topsy, it had "allus" been. The providential aspects of the case may be
+thus stated; the spring existed, but was unknown. It was located under the
+space between the dead-line and the stockade, through which digging for a
+well was not permitted; it therefore remained undiscovered. The
+out-of-plumb position of the stockade timbers had existed for a long time,
+but was not noticed by the officials until the time when prayer began to
+be offered for water. As the petitions of Esther and Mordecai, unknown to
+the King, in a manner unseen affected his action, so by analogy, the
+prayer of Sergeant Shepard and his colleagues influenced the state of mind
+of the quartermaster and of Commandant Wirtz and they were moved to the
+repairing of the stockade which had long been neglected.
+
+This decision led to the forming of a broad trench by digging away the
+ground to afford the needed watershed from the base of the stockade.
+
+Thus a channel was formed which gathered the storm-water with force
+sufficient to tear away the ground over the spring and release the
+life-giving fountain. The slaves removed quite a depth of the earth
+directly over the unknown reservoir; thus the deepest part of the trench
+was brought so near the spring that the rush of the storm-flow could do
+the rest.
+
+The spring water was uncovered and its pressure was sufficient to throw it
+into the air. However, as it was located on the forbidden margin, any
+prisoner reaching under or over the dead-line for a draught of the water
+would be instantly shot by the sentinel posted overhead on the wall.
+
+Hence, after the spring was opened an object of much desire, and suitable
+as a subject of prayer, was that the hardness of Capt. Wirtz would be
+relaxed to the extent of allowing the prisoners to have access to the
+water. This result was accomplished and the relief was complete.
+
+A recent writer commenting on the development of Providence Spring refers
+to the marble fountain erected by the Ex-Prisoners of War Association
+inside the granite pavilion built over the spring by the Woman's Relief
+Corps, remarks, "The waters flow strong and sweet with a never-ceasing
+stream into the marble basin. It is said to be the best water in all
+Georgia; that which gushes forth from the side of the little hill in
+Andersonville." Confirmatory to this statement is the following incident:
+
+In 1896, when the writer lectured in Warsaw, N. Y., on "Reminiscences of
+Battle-fields and Prisons," a prominent war veteran of the town, who had
+been a member of the staff of General Grant, showed him a bottle of water
+from Providence Spring which nine years before had been hermetically
+sealed by the Rev. G. Stanley Lathrop of Atlanta. So pure was the content
+that no sediment existed.
+
+The further comment is: "The scientific fact of Providence Spring is that
+in the August electrical storm the rocks (clay) which held back this
+spring were cracked or broken open by a lightning bolt and the waters
+gushed forth. No one ever believed that it was a sort of Moses
+intervention for the prisoners, but it was undoubtedly looked upon in that
+light by the poor, thirsty, half-starved prisoners."
+
+To which we reply that if we believe in prayer as an instrumentality by
+which human and divine forces cooperate to a beneficent end, and the
+result takes place, why should we question the efficacy of intercession?
+
+The fact that a number of believing men in the prison were engaged for
+some days in protracted prayer for relief from water-famine was not
+ostentatiously announced at the time, and was little noticed by the crowd.
+Thus has it ever been with the origin of great spiritual movements.
+
+The relief came and a new spirit of hope and gladness, such as prevailing
+prayer engenders, swept through the multitude.
+
+The scientific fact of a mightly rain storm being the visible agency of
+completing the opening of Providence Spring fitly coordinates with the
+moral force of prayer, as in numberless instances such convergence occurs
+in history. Nevertheless, this explanation will probably be accepted or
+challenged according to the personal experience of the reader in matters
+of Christian faith.
+
+In the case of the smitten rock of the Palestine desert water doubtless
+existed in an abundant, although unknown supply. The Almighty, by the
+agency of Moses, brought it forth for the satisfying of a great multitude.
+
+The prophet was commanded to speak to the rock and it would give forth
+water. The response could be from none other than the Creator of all
+mountains and flowing streams. And although Moses went beyond the Divine
+command, and struck with a rod instead of speaking with his voice, yet the
+Divine goodness was not withheld, "and the water came abundantly." So at
+Andersonville the sufficient, though unknown, supply was close at hand.
+Human voices pleading for relief were answered by Him who spoke by the
+wind, the lightning and the flood.
+
+It is said that the spiritual desires of our hearts are the reflection of
+what God is waiting to do for us through our own co-operation. Surely
+then, the prayers of the Andersonville prisoners for water were incited by
+Him who saw their dire necessity, and who waited only for human hands to
+aid in the release of the fountain of water which his Omnipotence had
+created.
+
+During the subsequent years the writer has given the foregoing account in
+lectures and conversations to his comrades of the Grand Army of the
+Republic and to many others. Gentlemen of scientific and Christian
+attainments have said that this explanation of the phenomenon of
+Providence Spring is the most satisfactory of any that they have heard.
+
+The event here chronicled is commemorated by the erection on the spot of a
+granite pavilion which is appropriately named "Providence Spring." The
+inscriptions are as follows:
+
+    This Fountain Erected by
+    THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF UNION
+    EX-PRISONERS OF WAR
+    In Memory of the 52,345 Comrades
+    who were confined here as prisoners of
+    war, and of
+    the 13,900 comrades buried in the
+    adjoining National Cemetery.
+    Dedicated Memorial Day,
+    May Thirteenth, Nineteen Hundred
+    and One.
+
+    James Atwell, National Commander.
+    S. M. Long, Adjt. Gen'l.
+    J. D. Walker, Cham. Ex. Committee.
+
+A reverse tablet bears the words:
+
+    This Pavilion Was Erected by the
+    WOMAN'S RELIEF CORPS
+    Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
+    Republic
+    In grateful memory of the men who
+    suffered and died in the
+    Confederate Prison at Andersonville,
+    Georgia,
+    From February, 1864, to April, 1865.
+
+    "The prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven;
+    God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth
+    And poured his sweetest waters gushing here."
+
+    "Erected 1901."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DELIVERANCE.
+
+
+[3]At a point on the Cape Fear river, about ten miles from Wilmington, N.
+C., a trainload of old Andersonville prisoners who had been confined also
+at Florence, S. C., and Salisbury, N. C., were delivered to General Terry.
+They had just been paroled at Goldsboro, and were received by him about
+the middle of March, 1865. His headquarters was at a point on the Cape
+Fear river and recently taken from the enemy. It was now held by the Third
+New Hampshire, Sixteenth New York heavy artillery, and by a division of
+colored troops.
+
+The freight cars halted in a pine forest about a mile from this position,
+which commanded a pontoon bridge. A squad of cavalry received the
+ex-prisoners, unfurling the Stars and Stripes in greeting. Many of the
+boys in blue wept, when they saw our plight. The released men tried to
+hurrah, but were too weak to raise much of a shout. Three ambulances were
+loaded with as many of the sick as could be taken on the first trip.
+
+At the farther end of the pontoon bridge the road led through a deep cut
+in the bank up to the open space of the camp where guns pointed over the
+river towards the forest through which the freight train had come from
+Goldsboro with the paroled men. Spanning this cut was an arch constructed
+of evergreen boughs and faced with the white cloth square of shelter
+tent, upon which was spelled in letters made of evergreen sprigs, "THE
+SIXTEENTH NEW YORK WELCOMES YOU HOME."
+
+The march of a mile from the railroad to the pontoon bridge greatly
+exhausted the paroled prisoners. At first the excitement of once more
+gazing upon the flag they loved, and being received by the advanced
+squadron, stimulated them to walk with some show of vigor.
+
+But soon their eyes shone with the unwonted brightness of fatigue in
+contrast with their pinched and grimy faces. Many sank by the wayside, to
+be picked up by the ambulance when the same could return for them.
+
+The stronger ones worked up into the head of the column which crossed the
+pontoon bridge and the advance files of men undertook to walk up through
+the cut in the bank at the bridge end. But their feet sank in the sand and
+they were too weak to go further.
+
+Meanwhile a company of colored soldiers were drawn up through the cut in
+two ranks facing. Between these lines and under the arch our ambulance
+passed; the horses tugging with might and main up the steep grade and
+through the deep sand. The white officers and the black soldiers stood at
+"Present Arms." The eyes of the soldiers opened and their teeth gleamed
+with an aspect of astonishment, as they for the first time beheld seasoned
+graduates from a course of experiences in war-prisons. The living wrecks
+in the ambulances were still more pale and ghastly than were the stronger
+ones following slowly on foot, and as the latter emerged from the woods on
+to the floating bridge, the onlooking crowd of our men off duty began to
+be stirred with a great excitement.
+
+As the ambulances lined up before headquarters, General Terry approached.
+With him were the brigade surgeon and a representative of the United
+States Christian Commission. The General looked upon us with tear-dimmed
+eyes; and turning to the surgeon gave his pocket flask, saying, "Doctor,
+for God's sake, help these poor fellows."
+
+This ambulance stopped on the crest of the hill, when the Christian
+Commission man stepped to its side and said to the writer, "My boy, you
+will get out here." Seeing I was too weak to rise from the seat, he said,
+"Just lie across my shoulder." This I did and he carried me into a near-by
+country church building which sheltered the sick until they could be
+conveyed by boat to Wilmington.
+
+Meanwhile the straggling column of paroled prisoners had crossed the
+bridge. An officer undertook to form them into ranks so as to march in
+form under the arch and between the lines which stood at "Present arms."
+Their feet sank in the soft sand of the cut, and after taking a few steps
+they were utterly exhausted. The officer in charge thus addressed the two
+lines: "Shoulder arms!" "Order arms!" "Stack arms!" "Break ranks and carry
+these men up the hill!" With a mighty cheer the athletic colored soldiers
+sprang forward and each picked up an emaciated, wilted prisoner, carried
+him up the hill, and tenderly placed him on the ground. In due time, the
+sick were taken by boat to the Wright House Hospital, Wilmington, and the
+stronger ones were placed in a camp waiting transportation by steamer to
+the north.
+
+In the winter of 1875-76, the partially regained health of the writer
+collapsed, and he was advised to consult his former regimental surgeon,
+Dr. Wells B. Fox. The Doctor said, "You may live a good while, and you may
+not. Prepare to leave your family in as good shape as possible. If you
+have unsettled accounts fix them up."
+
+Pursuant to this advice, and needing the benefit of a climate warmer than
+a Michigan winter, he went to Washington to close up some army matters.
+Here he was received very kindly by Surgeon General Barnes, and by him
+ordered to have a thorough examination by experts of the medical
+department. The diagnosis was more favorable than was deemed possible, and
+its correctness has been verified by the subsequent years.
+
+On the journey from Cheboygan to Washington, a stop was made at
+Greenville. With his host, a call was made on the Rev. James L. Patton,
+pastor of the Congregational Church of that place. As the evening passed,
+conversation turned to army happenings. After reciting some experiences in
+the service of the United States Christian Commission, with an aroused
+manner, Dr. Patton said, "I must tell you of an occasion that I shall
+never forget. I was in the Christian Commission service outside
+Wilmington, North Carolina, near the close of the war, with General Terry,
+when he received the first installment of old Andersonville prisoners as
+they were sent into our lines. Terry was all broken up over their
+condition." "Could the prisoners walk?" asked the writer. "Yes," he
+replied; "some of them could, but many had to be brought in on
+ambulances." He was asked, "Where did you put those who were sick?" "We
+laid them on the floor of a little church that was close by," Dr. Patton
+replied. Extending his hand the writer said, "Dr. Patton, thank you."
+"Why, why," he replied hesitatingly, "you need not thank me for the
+story; it is true and you are welcome to it." "Yes," was the response, "I
+have no doubt the story is true. I do not thank you for it, but for
+helping me out of the ambulance at that time." Need it be said that these
+two men found themselves comrades, indeed?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AN INCIDENT BY THE WAY.
+
+
+A steamboat on the northeast branch of the Cape Fear river carried our
+paroled men from the station held by General Terry to the city of
+Wilmington.
+
+One of the principal mansions was owned by a Dr. Wright who had fled with
+his family on the approach of the Union troops. His fine residence was
+converted into a hospital for the arrivals who were sick.
+
+During the ride from Goldsboro on top of a freight car, the writer was
+taken ill and was barely able to walk the steamer plank at the point of
+transfer. After resting in the little country church he was taken to the
+Wright House Hospital and assigned a straw bed on the floor of a room in
+the third story. Soldier nurses proceeded to take off his infested prison
+rags and to give him a sponge rub. He fainted under the process and had a
+run of fever during which he was delirious.
+
+When the point of death was apparently reached his vitality took a turn
+for the better and he rapidly improved.
+
+On the floor of his room were twelve narrow straw beds having a succession
+of occupants who, with a few exceptions, were soon transferred to their
+final resting places.
+
+Many of the ex-prisoners having died from the effects of the too early use
+of solid food, the physicians became extremely cautious and limited the
+sick to small quantities of the most simple preparations.
+
+During the writer's convalescence, his ravenous hunger was unsatisfied by
+the slender allowance. It happened that his bed ended up to a window, and
+his favorite occupation was to sit on his pillow and watch the proceedings
+in the yard below. Here was a servant's cottage occupied by two colored
+women who evidently had excused themselves from flight with their master.
+The older one moved about with quiet dignity and doubtless had been the
+"mamma" of the family. With evident pleasure she watched the new life and
+movement around her, and held in restraint her young and vivacious
+companion.
+
+In the yard soldier cooks prepared in large kettles great quantities of
+beef soup, which was ladled into pails, carried to the kitchen and served
+to the patients throughout the building.
+
+A young artilleryman from Olean, New York, lay on a straw pallet alongside
+that of the writer. The one was called "Olean" and the other "Michigan."
+From his post of observation at the window the latter, one morning,
+watched the handling of the soup below with an interest that could not be
+concealed. "Say, Michigan, what are you looking at?" inquired Olean. "I am
+looking at them pouring out the soup," was the reply, "and say, Olean, I
+wish I could have a good smell of it."
+
+"_Smell_ of the soup," said Olean contemptuously; "if I was a wishing I'd
+wish I _had_ some and not just a smell." Upon this sagacious remark, a
+number of the occupants of the other beds passed the wink or laugh with a
+feeble, hacking sound; their pinched faces brightening with a sense of
+mirth.
+
+The practical wisdom of the suggestion was not lost upon "Michigan," who
+said, "If I was a little stronger I would take my cup, go down the stairs
+and into the yard and I would say, 'Boys, I'm awfully hungry; please give
+me some soup.'" Ah-ah-ah, laughed "Olean." "Say, Michigan, I'll bet you
+five cents you can't walk the length of your bed and touch the door knob."
+Upon this challenge, the other patients from their pillows exchanged
+glances, several braced up on the elbow and discussed the possibility of
+one of their number leaving his room without permission to forage for
+refreshments. The concensus of opinion was that he could not succeed.
+
+"Who are you talking to?" vigorously responded "Michigan." "You think I
+can't do it; I'll show you what I can do." Grasping the projecting window
+moulding he helped himself to his feet, carefully balancing his trembling
+steps along the narrow space between the beds on the floor, and
+triumphantly grasping the knob of the door exclaimed, "There now, Olean;
+I've done it; I've done it. Where is your five cents?" "Oh, I haven't any
+five cents," replied Olean, "but say, Michigan, you would look mighty fine
+going down those stairs, wouldn't you?"
+
+Thereupon the observing comrades laughed in great glee; in weakness, like
+little children, a very trifling incident amused them; they nodded their
+heads at each other and exchanged approving glances.
+
+Our regulation costume was a gray army shirt, drawers of like material,
+and a pair of socks. Thus appareled "Michigan" opened the door into the
+hall, peered over the railing down the two flights of stairs and, seeing
+the coast clear, worked along to the newel post and carefully lowered
+himself one or two steps.
+
+Thinking discretion might be the better part of valor, he tested his
+strength for the return by trying to retrace the steps down which he had
+come. He was quite unable to lift himself on the rising, so must needs
+continue down the two flights, resting his weight on the rail. Dizzy and
+breathless he stood by the stair post on the main floor. At this juncture
+the hospital steward suddenly entered and was amazed to find a very weak
+patient in a state of migration. "What are you doing here?" he hurriedly
+and angrily asked. "What room do you belong to and who said you might
+leave it?" "Oh, I'm just taking a little exercise," was the reply. The
+steward rang for an attendant, and with an oath said, "No more of this; I
+will order a man to help you to your room and there you stay."
+
+But no helper appeared, so our hero summoned all his determination and
+walked through the hall to the back porch. Here a stack of plain coffins
+greeted his view; and he fancied that one of them belonged to him. Going
+down the veranda steps he held to the rail and coming into the full rays
+of the sun turned faint and for a few minutes was helpless. Again, he
+summoned all the powers of his will and started down the gravel walk
+towards the servant's cottage.
+
+Reaching the porch of the same, he sank exhausted on the steps with head
+resting against the corner post. Just then the old "mamma" came out of her
+room and caught sight of the wasted form and pale face of the would-be
+soup hunter. Gazing pityingly upon his emaciation, and speaking to her
+assistant, she exclaimed, "Dinah, Dinah, come yeah, come yeah; look at dat
+ar' po' white chile; he bleached so white as linen!"
+
+Then addressing him, she said, "Wah yo' come from? Wah yo' come from?"
+"Oh, auntie," he gasped, "I came out of the hospital to get some soup and
+I can't get any further. Auntie, give me something to eat; I'm awfully
+hungry!" "Dinah, Dinah," she said. "Go to the cupboard and git a big slice
+ob de co'n pone; jes slip it undah you aprun and bring it yeah to me."
+Passing the generous slice under her own apron, the old mammy stood by the
+veranda post, looking the meanwhile intently at a distant object as if
+oblivious to all near concerns.
+
+Thus she partially screened the invalid from observation, and reaching the
+portion down to his hand, tenderly said, "Dar now, honey, yo eat dat
+bread." No second invitation to indulge his famished appetite was needed.
+The slice of "co'n pone" speedily disappeared. Strange to say, no
+inconvenience resulted. The food aroused the dormant vitality and the
+young fellow eagerly exclaimed, "Auntie, Auntie, that was so good. Give me
+some more." "No, honey," she said decisively, "de doctah see me do dis
+yah, I done go, suah." Then the invalid began to cry hysterically. The
+sympathy of the kind old heart was still further aroused and, spreading
+her great hand on his head, she said softly, "Po chile, po chile, he want
+ta see he muddah."
+
+"Mother, Mother!" How that word stirred his heart and aroused his memory
+so weakened by suffering. Physical vigor from the dark hand upon his head
+was surcharged with vitality that probably stimulated the depleted
+personality.
+
+Again the young man asked, "Aunty, aunty, give me some more," and again
+came the reply, "No, honey, de doctah see me do dis, he send me off for
+suah." Meanwhile "Olean" was pressing his face against the third-story
+window to see how "Michigan" was prospering in his quest for soup.
+
+A soldier nurse approached the cottage and "aunty," who seemed to be on
+good terms with all, interceded for her guest. "Dis ya chile done cum down
+fo a wok; he done tiad out, yo' help him back, won't yo', massa?" And he
+did.
+
+[Illustration: "Dinah, Dinah, look at dat ar po' white chile; he bleached
+so white as linen."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A SEQUEL.
+
+
+At the age of thirteen, the writer attended a series of religious meetings
+and became profoundly convicted of his obligation to accept Jesus Christ
+as his personal Savior. Lack of moral courage held him back from an open
+confession. He compromised by secretly pledging to become a Christian
+after he had entered upon his chosen profession of law. Thereupon his
+convictions ceased and the matter was forgotten.
+
+Now, in his illness in Andersonville prison, answer to prayer, as
+evidenced in the instance of Providence Spring, turned his attention to
+his own moral necessities. Well might this introspection occur; for, in
+this month of August, 1864, his prospects of surviving the surrounding
+conditions were swiftly diminishing. Blood poisoning, in the form of
+scurvy, had settled in his face. He tottered from weakness. His long days
+and weary nights were spent on his blanket, spread on the ground, just
+within the little shelter tent that was wedged in among others. When eyes
+were closed to awful sights, the ears must listen to dreadful sounds. As
+vitality was ebbing away, and the things of time and sense were
+withdrawing, the realities of eternity seemed to come to the front. Truly
+it was time to "prepare to meet thy God." This must be done at once. The
+reading of the little pocket testament began anew, and the thought was
+awakened to pray for self; when suddenly there came to mind the forgotten
+covenant of seven years ago, "I will be a Christian _after_ I become a
+lawyer."
+
+The obvious conclusion was, "Taken on your own terms, as you cannot be a
+lawyer, you cannot be a Christian." Total physical and mental weakness
+could not cope with this mental suggestion. The reflections that followed
+led to feelings of utter despair. Thus he soliloquized, "In the day of my
+strength I said 'No' to God; now, in the hour of my weakness, he will not
+hear me. He knows that from fear and not from sincerity I now seek to
+pray. Hypocritical prayer will but add insult to injury. I must not pray."
+These confused reasonings were largely due to an anemic brain and mental
+temptation. The weakened mind accepted a lie in place of the invigorating
+truth that "now is the day of salvation." Eternity seemed to open its
+portals to a realm of darkness into which the soul was being forced by the
+stress of its own past decision, while high over these gates enthroned in
+light appeared the radiant form of the Son of God. While this Personage
+seemed unspeakably lovely and "chief among ten thousand," the soliloquizer
+said, "He has been denied, he is lost to me." These cogitations filled the
+waking and sleeping hours of several nights. With a sense of woe
+unutterable the decision of doom was accepted. The sensations of a lost
+soul seemed to be real. Words are entirely inadequate to express the sense
+of eternal, irremediable loss by which the heart was oppressed. This
+exhaustive strain could not long continue. The evening of a day of
+unusually oppressive heat presaged the end. Vividly the thought stood
+before the mind, "This is my last night on earth." To the comrade who was
+blanket-mate the home address was given and a whispered good-bye. This was
+the fully accepted close of life.
+
+Sinking into an unrestful slumber, the small hours of the morning arrived,
+and a forgotten incident of the long ago was revived in a dream. The scene
+in vision occurred on a beautiful Sunday morning of spring, eleven years
+before. The location was a village on the old Ridge road in Niagara
+county, New York. The region was, and is, noted for its orchards of
+deciduous fruits. On this date the blossoms were out in full. Banks of
+pink and white embosomed the homesteads that lined the historic highway;
+sweet odors filled the air, and bevies of bees with droning song were
+industriously gathering the abundant nectar. Nothing could surpass the
+beauty of that quiet Lord's Day morning as the family, consisting of
+father, mother, older sister and younger brother, with the lad, wended its
+way to the brick church of the village. They habitually passed, on the
+outskirts of the same, the stone house of Col. N----, whose daughter's
+husband was absent in the West.
+
+The good lady taught in the Sunday school a class of boys who were from
+seven to ten years of age, and although they were possessed of
+irrepressible juvenile energy, and occasionally, to her distress, seemed
+to be irreverent; yet they regarded her with sincere respect and gave
+willing obedience.
+
+On the Saturday night, preceding this Sunday morning, a great burden of
+solicitude for the safety of her husband was suddenly pressed in upon her
+mind. To her imagination he seemed to be in extreme peril; perhaps he was
+unattended; he might be alone and facing a speedy and fatal termination.
+Possessing a strong faith in God, and believing his readiness to hear and
+answer prayer, at midnight she aroused from her bed and engaged in an
+irrepressible travail of soul for the far-away loved one. For several
+hours the burden of intercession continued. With the coming of the Sunday
+morning dawn, the light which made all nature bright and beautiful was
+suddenly duplicated in her heart. All at once the burden lifted.
+Instantaneously her being was filled with the sweet assurance that all was
+well with her husband; that whatever was his danger he was being saved
+therefrom. A tender gratitude possessed her heart. A sense of union with
+the mighty Jehovah suffused her being with a consciousness of strength and
+resource. Like Deborah of old a song of triumph arose in her soul.
+
+As the time of going to church approached, the above mentioned family came
+along, and, as was their custom, the teacher and her son, who was about
+the age of the writer, joined them on the way to the sanctuary. As the
+others were conversing by the way, the two boys ran on ahead and the one,
+having observed on the face of his teacher the marks of suffering, said to
+his chum, "Newton, what is the matter with your mamma?"
+
+"O, Johnny," was the reply; "My mamma has been feeling awful bad about my
+papa. I guess she thinks he is going to die, for in the night I heard her
+talking and talking to God about saving him and making him well. Say,
+Johnny, if God don't do what mamma asks I won't have any papa, will I?"
+
+With their hands joined in a common sympathy, and with mutual tears, the
+two lads sorrowed for a brief moment. But what parental anxiety could hold
+their abounding life from immediate sympathy with nature smiling all
+around? By the time the church was reached and cheery salutations had been
+exchanged with arriving classmates, all impressions of grief were
+forgotten.
+
+The teacher, in a mood of chastened gladness and confidence, listened to
+the sermon which the venerable pastor extended to an unusual length. This
+delay absorbed the brief period of time usually given to an intermission,
+during which the intermediates might straighten out the kinks which
+seemed to form in their lithe limbs while perched on cushioned seats so
+high that their feet dangled short of the carpet.
+
+The good superintendent, whose gracious face and form are remembered as
+but of yesterday, called the school to order immediately after the
+benediction was pronounced. "We are late," he said, "and cannot have
+intermission today; classes take their places at once."
+
+These irrepressible youngsters combined the movement of filing into the
+pew with motions not included in the regular order. One punched another.
+The lad who had recently shared the mental distress of his mother now
+inserted a bent pin under the descending form of his companion; resulting
+in a response that did not improve the discipline of the occasion. The
+boisterous impulse seized the entire class to the annoyance and
+discomfiture of the teacher, who was seated at their front in the
+adjoining pew. Several reproving glances directed towards the young
+insurgents quieted them during the opening exercises.
+
+After the vigil of prayer during much of the preceding night and the
+answer of peace that had been given, we can readily understand the state
+of mind which now possessed the teacher. The transient, sportive disorder
+of the little boys was but a harmless ripple on the surface of her
+thought. Her soul was in a continued attitude of prayer. Her victory in
+intercession made easy a renewal of request at the throne of grace. Not
+only her mother-heart but her Christian love yearned over the lads that
+were committed to her care. Not the surface question of behavior, but the
+issue of their conversion to Jesus Christ took possession of her mind. She
+thought to herself, "Why not now? Why not now?" Attracting the attention
+of the lads by tapping on the pew-top with her ivory-mounted fan, with
+countenance expressing unwonted strength, she said, "My boys, I want you
+to now be perfectly quiet, and to bow your heads and close your eyes
+while I pray for you."
+
+The spirit of quiet firmness which accompanied these words, the
+outreaching of her soul as in the interceding exercise of the previous
+night, profoundly impressed the lads. Instantly and willingly, they took
+the attitude of reverence; motionless they listened to the tender voice
+that pleaded in words like these: "O Lord, my heavenly Father, I ask Thee
+to help my little boys to give their hearts to Thee. Wilt Thou not, by the
+sacrifice of thy dear Son, cleanse their hearts from sin. Wilt Thou give
+to them a new heart, a clean heart? Bestow upon them freely of Thy Holy
+Spirit, and help them to live always for Thee. Amen."
+
+Although eleven years had passed away, and the immature experiences of
+boyhood had been replaced by the opening realities of manhood, the events
+above described formed the subject-matter of the dream on that memorable
+night in Andersonville. The panorama of what was largely forgotten
+unfolded before the mind in what was supposed to be the sleep of
+approaching death. These renewed impressions were so vivid that at the
+instant of awaking the reality seemed to be with the old-time home; the
+dream was the being in the prison pen.
+
+But a few moments of consciousness were required for the recognition of
+the actual circumstances of the present time and place.
+
+But, within, all was changed. In the place of despair an inspiring hope
+was in the ascendant. The forms and voices of loved ones had been seen and
+heard. The intercession of the teacher for her little boys had restored
+the right to pray. While yet in much physical weakness the day was mostly
+passed in silent prayer.
+
+During the second night a lessened impression of the dream was repeated.
+By the second morning all the processes of thought were restored to the
+normal condition. The mind and will were able to adopt the irreversible
+determination to henceforth implicitly trust in the living God and to
+live the life of faith and prayer. And up to the present hour that
+determination has sought to be unfalteringly kept.
+
+[Illustration: The Beloved Teacher in After Years.]
+
+
+
+
+"The mystic chord of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot
+grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will
+yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
+be, by better angels of our nature."--Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address,
+March 4, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A.
+
+CONTRIBUTORY TESTIMONY.
+
+
+Many narratives of experiences in the military prisons maintained by the
+government of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War have
+been written by Union officers and soldiers confined therein. With minor
+differences of statement arising from personal diversities these
+testimonies as a whole establish the fact of unprecedented suffering and
+mortality.
+
+Since the close of the Civil War our government has unstintedly employed
+ability and money in compiling and publishing an exhaustive exhibit of the
+Union and Confederate records. These statistics and memoranda afford to
+the later historian abundant and reliable data, and upon his calm verdict
+we may rely for the substantial truth.
+
+    The holding of prisoners during our civil war was a matter of large
+    concern. The number of Union soldiers captured was 211,411; paroled
+    on the field, 16,669; died in captivity, 30,218. These last figures
+    are defective. Of twelve Confederate prisons the "death registers" of
+    five are only partial and thousands of the emaciated men passed away
+    soon after release.
+
+    The number of Confederate soldiers captured was 462,635; paroled on
+    the field 257,769; died in captivity 25,976. The percentage of deaths
+    among the imprisoned Confederates, it will be seen, was far less than
+    among the Union prisoners.
+
+    The number of enlistments in the Union army was 2,898,304; in the
+    Confederate army from 1,239,000 to 1,400,000. The estimated cost of
+    war to the North was $5,000,000,000, and to the South $3,000,000,000.
+
+(The above figures are taken from a "History of the United States," by
+James Ford Rhodes, LL.D., Litt.D., who quotes from General F. C.
+Ainsworth, Chief of the Record and Pension Office.)
+
+
+
+
+"We raise our father's banner that it may bring back better blessings than
+those of old; ... that it may say to the sword, 'Return to thy sheath,'
+and to the plow and sickle, 'Go forth.' That it may heal all jealousies,
+unite all policies, inspire a new national life, com-pact our strength,
+ennoble our national ambitions, and make this people great and strong, not
+for aggression and quarrelsomeness, but for the peace of the world, giving
+to us the glorious prerogative of leading all nations to juster laws, to
+more humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to rational, instituted
+civil liberty, and to universal Christian brotherhood."--Address of H. W.
+Beecher at Fort Sumpter flag raising, April 15, 1865.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B.
+
+RESPONSIBILITY FOR PRISON TREATMENT.
+
+
+It is difficult, even after the lapse of years not a few, to consider
+dispassionately the treatment accorded by the Confederacy to her
+prisoners. War had fanned to a flame the fire of sectional animosity, and
+a spirit of retaliation was awakened. It is true the South was
+comparatively a poor country, and the hand of war had stripped her bare.
+The mighty armies of both sides carried on their vast operations on
+southern soil; the one as an army of defense, the other as an army of
+invasion.
+
+In the movements of strategy and battle, many combatants were taken
+prisoners; these were sent to the rear for safe keeping and maintenance.
+With practically unlimited resources this additional burden was scarcely
+felt at the North.
+
+At the South, the case was different. The extended territory occupied by
+the armies was practically unproductive for the people. It was, therefore,
+inevitable that the prisoners of war share the general limitation. As
+their numbers increased, it was necessary that they be conveyed to
+localities beyond the reach of rescue. Their increasing hosts could not
+wait upon the size of the stockades built for their confinement, and the
+limited forces that could be spared for their safe keeping must in some
+way hold them closely in hand.
+
+Moreover, unfriendly prejudices were increasing by the very fact of
+invasion, and as the North was held responsible for the war, the prisoners
+were the object of bitter hatred. In numerous minor particulars, such as
+ample supply of water, of shelter and of food and fuel, the obligations of
+the southern military authorities were criminally negligent; yet many of
+the features of the prison circumstances were probably unavoidable.
+
+The situation in the South is summed up in the following extract from "A
+History of the American People," by Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D., Litt.D., Vol.
+IV, pp. 306, 307:
+
+    "One of the most distressing evidences of the straits to which the
+    South had been brought was seen in the state of the prisons in which
+    she was forced to keep the thousands of prisoners who fell into the
+    hands of her armies.
+
+    "More than two hundred thousand, first and last, were taken, and only
+    some sixteen thousand of these were paroled upon the field....
+
+    "Not until the war seemed turning toward its end could an exchange of
+    prisoners be arranged. The Federal authorities knew their superiority
+    in fighting population and did not care to lose by returning fighting
+    men to the South. If her soldiers died in Southern prisons, they were
+    dying for their country there, General Grant said, as truly as if they
+    lost their lives in battle.
+
+    "In the south men could not be spared from the field to guard the
+    prisons; there were not guards enough; there was not food enough; and
+    many thousands were crowded together under a handful of men.
+
+    "Proper sanitary precautions were, in the circumstances, impossible.
+    The armies themselves lacked food and went without every comfort, and
+    the prisoners could fare no better--inevitably fared worse, because
+    they were penned within a narrow space and lacked the free air of the
+    camp. A subtle demoralization touched the government of the
+    Confederacy itself as the war went its desperate course, and those who
+    kept the prisons felt that demoralization with the rest."
+
+One recollection has burned itself into memory. At Andersonville there was
+a standing offer of immediate release to any prisoner of average strength
+who would take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and engage in
+non-combatant service. Officers who entered the prison with these
+proposals were shunned by our men. I recall a recently naturalized Federal
+prisoner who thus enlisted. When he re-entered the prison in Confederate
+uniform as a recruiting officer, his reception was such that he fled to
+the gate for his life; shouting to the guard to protect him. For flag and
+country our boys could uncomplainingly die a lingering death, but they
+could not turn traitor.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX C.
+
+WOMAN'S RELIEF CORPS MEMORIAL.
+
+
+Among the heroisms of the great Civil War none surpassed the
+self-sacrificing devotion manifested by the women of the North and of the
+South. The latter are represented by an organization known as "The
+Daughters of the Confederacy," within whose associations are kept alive
+ardent memories of heroic days.
+
+The former have wrought enduring deeds of patriotism and of mercy, chiefly
+in co-operation with the Grand Army of the Republic. The work of the
+Woman's Relief Corps in securing and improving the Andersonville prison
+grounds constitutes an imperishable memorial to their patriotic devotion.
+
+To the energy and executive ability of Mrs. Lizabeth A. Turner, Chairman
+of the Andersonville Prison Board, is due in large measure the complete
+success attending the movement to gain possession of and to beautify the
+site and surroundings of the historic Andersonville prison.
+
+The following letter written two years before the decease of Mrs. Turner
+explains in her own vigorous expressions how these great results were
+secured:
+
+"Woman's Headquarters Relief Corps, (Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
+Republic.) 46 Camp Street, New Britain, Conn., October 14, 1905."
+
+"Rev. John L. Maile.
+
+Dear Comrade: Some fifteen years ago the Department of Georgia, G. A. R.,
+considered the idea of buying the Andersonville prison pen and holding it
+in memory of the men who there died for the preservation of the Union.
+
+The committee bought all the land the owners would release and hoped to
+raise through the Northern posts and their friends a permanent fund for
+the care of the grounds.
+
+The plan proved a failure. The G. A. R. in the South is very poor. Its
+members are mostly colored men who are able to make little more than
+their living.
+
+On the property was a mortgage of about $750, which was paid by the
+Woman's Relief Corps, but money for the care of the place was lacking. The
+grounds were then offered to the United States Government on the condition
+of providing perpetual care. As Andersonville is not a battlefield, the
+authorities declined the proposition.
+
+On two occasions a like proposal was made to the National G. A. R.
+Encampment, but these veterans decided that the time is not far distant
+when they can care only for themselves.
+
+With better success the responsibility was tendered to the Woman's Relief
+Corps, which felt that if there is a place on God's earth that should be
+held sacred, it is that prison pen. The officials accepted the obligation,
+trusting to woman's patriotism for support and care, and they have not
+trusted in vain.
+
+The adage that "God helps those who help themselves" has been true in our
+case. When we accepted the sacred trust and looked the ground over, I
+found a large corner of the original pen and three forts we did not own.
+We bought the extra grounds and the forts, paying for them several hundred
+dollars more than they were worth. We ventured for all or nothing--and
+_all_ it was.
+
+This occurred in 1895, and in that year I was elected President of the W.
+R. C. At the convention we raised by personal contributions $700 as a
+beginning.
+
+During several years each member was asked to give from three to five
+cents; some responding, others refusing. Now all bills are paid from the
+general fund of the National organization.
+
+We own eighty-eight and one-half acres of land, including the seven forts;
+all the earthworks and rifle pits; also the wells dug by the men in trying
+to reach water. These are in as perfect condition as when the war closed.
+
+Not a well has caved in or a fort changed in shape. That hard, red clay
+seems as unyielding as stone.
+
+The grounds are inclosed with a high wire fence and suitable gates. Roads
+are laid out and bridges built over the creek. Bermuda grass roots planted
+on the north side will make an even lawn.
+
+Grass seed for a sward will not germinate in that soil. We have built over
+Providence Spring a stone pavilion, also a nine-room house, well
+furnished, and after the northern home pattern.
+
+We also have a barn, a henyard, a good mule and all kinds of work tools
+for such a place.
+
+We engage an old veteran and his wife as caretakers. From a pole 116 feet
+high floats in the air every day the flag those heroes died to save. At
+our last convention we voted to build a windmill the coming winter.
+
+Last fall we set out 300 roses and this autumn will add 200 more. We have
+also set out 150 four-year-old pecan trees that are from 10 to 15 feet
+high. They do finely in that soil and when from ten to twelve years old
+will bear a paying crop. A freeze does not affect them and they are
+marketable without decaying.
+
+Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Michigan have put up beautiful
+monuments in the prison pen. Wisconsin will have hers ready to dedicate on
+next Memorial Day.
+
+Pennsylvania, Iowa and Maine have placed monuments in the cemetery. All
+this has been done through the work of the W. R. C.
+
+While I believe the prison pen is the _only_ place for the monuments, I am
+thankful to have any State remember their Andersonville men wherever they
+think best.
+
+"Death Before Dishonor" is the motto on all the monuments within the
+prison grounds.
+
+Last year we had markers put down on all the places of special interest;
+also on the stockade and dead lines. Trees have grown up _through_ the
+forts forty feet high and are more than two feet through.
+
+The W. R. C. has started a fund for the perpetual care of the Prison Pen
+Park. We began last year and have already $3,000 in the fund. The yearly
+income is to be added to the principal, and none to be used until the
+proceeds are sufficient to support the place.
+
+We are to set aside annually _not less_ than $1,000 for the increase of
+the fund, besides caring for current expenses.
+
+You will, I am sure, be much interested in the situation. I have been
+Chairman of the Board from the beginning and hope to live long enough to
+see sufficient money set aside to care for the place _forever_.
+
+    Yours in F. C. and L.,
+      LIZABETH A. TURNER,
+
+    Chairman Andersonville Prison Board of Control."
+
+Mrs. Turner served as President of the Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to
+the Grand Army of the Republic, and was appointed by her compeers as Life
+Chairman of the Andersonville Prison Board. Her death occurred at
+Andersonville on April 27, 1907.
+
+A monument suitable to her memory, erected by the Woman's Relief Corps,
+adorns the prison grounds for which she spared not her life to preserve
+and beautify.
+
+From the Annual Address of Mrs. Fanny E. Minot, President of the Woman's
+National Relief Corps, at the Twenty-third Annual Convention, 1905:
+
+"In March it was my privilege, in company with Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Winans
+and Mrs. Kate E. Jones, to visit Prison Park at Andersonville. As I walked
+through the grounds and read and pondered on the suffering there endured,
+it seemed, indeed, a hallowed spot. Just beyond is the National Cemetery,
+in whose broad trenches are interred more soldiers in one group than upon
+any battlefield on the face of the globe. A whole army perished rather
+than deny the country which gave them birth! The bravery of the men at
+Thermopylae has been the theme of song and story; but they fought in the
+shadows of their soul-inspiring mountains, while these men, removed from
+the activities of war, the flash of arms, the long array of men eager for
+the contest, dragged out a miserable existence till death came to their
+relief. If ever men were loyal, true and brave, whose names should be
+inscribed on honor's roll, it was these."
+
+    "Who tasted death at every breath
+    And bravely met their martyrdom."
+
+"How fitting that the magic touch of woman should consecrate this prison
+pen and make it a prison park! Only patient, persistent effort has made
+the change possible; for the soil is unresponsive, and tangled vines and
+underbrush had run riot for many years. But on this visit we found the
+grounds suitably enclosed, the Bermuda grass taking root, the moats and
+creek cleared of the vines and the conopy erected over that wonderful
+Providence Spring. The house erected for the caretaker much exceeded my
+expectations for comfort and convenience. Honeysuckles and roses clambered
+over the porch, and the rose garden, planned by Mrs. Turner, gave promise
+of beauty and fragrance where formerly had been barrenness and foul odors.
+On these grounds Ohio has raised a beautiful granite shaft, Massachusetts
+has placed a substantial monument near by, Rhode Island has honored her
+dead in bronze and stone, and last Memorial Day the Governor of Michigan
+came with friends to dedicate with appropriate ceremonies a monument to
+the brave sons of that State. Wisconsin has selected a site near the spot
+where some of her men encamped; and other States are planning to erect
+monuments, but wish first to be assured that the park will have permanent
+care."
+
+
+    PLANTING THE FLAG AT ANDERSONVILLE.
+
+    BY MRS. ANNIE WITTENMYER.
+
+    We lift up the banner of freedom today,
+    And let the world know that due honor we pay
+    To liberty's martyrs, who starved for the right,
+    And crown them with heroes who fell in the fight.
+
+    Their chalice of woe was filled up to the brim;
+    They drank to the dregs with high courage and vim,
+    Nor faltered, nor wavered, but loyal and true,
+    Stood firm by their colors, the red, white and blue.
+
+    The earth was their pillow, their covering the sky;
+    And thousands lay down on the bare ground to die;
+    No artist can paint, no pen tell the story
+    Of all they endured for love of "Old Glory."
+
+
+    The Lord, in compassion, took note of their grief,
+    And came, in His majesty, to their relief;
+    He rode on the wind, where swift lightnings played,
+    And hallowed the ground where the prisoners laid.
+
+    They panted with thirst, ere the Presence passed by,
+    But flashes of glory lit up the dark sky;
+    A thunderbolt fell, with omnipotent ring,
+    And opened the fountain of Providence Spring.
+
+    And peace came at last. Ah! for thousands too late;
+    We mourn, as a people, their pitiful fate,
+    And hold the ground sacred, our care and our pride,
+    And plant the flag over the place where they died.
+
+    But the Nation is saved! They died not in vain;
+    Our people are all reunited again.
+    From ocean to ocean--the lakes to the sea--
+    One country, one people, one flag of the free!
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX D.
+
+A MEMORIAL DAY MEDITATION.
+
+
+By Rev. H. H. Proctor, D.D., of Atlanta, Ga., in The Congregationalist of
+May 2, 1905.
+
+"The thirtieth of May is sacred to the nation. With its return the heart
+of the country instinctively turns to those eighty-three national
+cemeteries, mostly on Southern soil, where in 194,492 known and 151,710
+unknown graves lie 346,202 men who fell fighting for the flag. And in all
+the land, fittingly enough, there are no spots more beautiful than these.
+For their care and improvement the national government spends $100,000 a
+year.
+
+The cemetery at Andersonville, Ga., gains additional interest in view of
+the famous prison connected with it. Of these I wish to speak. No one can
+spend a day there, as I did lately, without drinking deep of the patriotic
+spirit. The very ground on which you stand seems holy, when you think how
+brave men suffered and died there. The very air seems charged with their
+spirit still.
+
+Some disappointment is felt when over one hundred miles south of Atlanta
+you get off at a little station, with a few straggling houses here and
+there. But in the distance, a mile away, the national flag waving
+invitingly bids reassurance. At length you stand at the entrance of the
+cemetery, entering through the strong iron gates of the thick ivy-covered
+brick wall, 12,782 known and 923 unknown men are buried within.
+
+Many things at once interest you. Walks lead to every part of the grounds.
+Trees, shrubbery and flowers enhance the natural beauty of the place.
+Feathered songers of the South chant daily requiems. Each grave is marked
+by a white marble headstone, on which is generally carved the number,
+rank, name and state of the dead soldier. Here and there we read the sad
+inscription, "Unknown." The white stones contrasting with the fine
+greensward under the soft Southern sky make an impressive scene. This is
+especially true in that part of the grounds where stands the splendid
+monument of New Jersey, as shown by the accompanying illustration.
+
+In a convenient place there is located an octagonal rostrum, where every
+Memorial Day gathers a large concourse of people to pay homage to the
+sacred dead. After the exercises the most impressive act of all follows.
+Each grave, officers or private, white or black, known or unknown, is
+decorated with a miniature flag. And what a transformation! Instead of the
+monotonous rows of bare white stone a field of flags, by the magic of
+loving remembrance, appears!
+
+But as impressive as is this cemetery, more impressive still to me was the
+prison. It is only a few rods away. Its notoriety is universal. Blaine, in
+his memorable speech in Congress, immortalized its more than Siberian
+horrors.
+
+Some of the posts of the old stockade fence, survivors of that dread
+prison will be interested to know, still stand. There, within a space of
+thirteen acres, 52,345 men, the very flower of the Republic, were kept in
+a pen. For thirteen months they were exposed in that rude stockade to the
+heat in summer and the cold in winter, to blistering sun and chilling
+blasts. From cruelty and exposure, hunger and thirst, disease and dirt,
+they died like sheep. Every fourth man died!
+
+The story of "Providence Spring" is universally familiar. It proves that
+God is yet with men as of old. The water supply for these thousands in
+that small space consisted of but one little brook which of course soon
+became unspeakably foul. In their thirst they cried unto God for water. He
+who hears the cry of the raven could not be dumb to the prayer of the
+suffering soldier. It was night. Soon the sky was overcast with clouds,
+the lightnings flashed, the thunders rolled, and a great rain came that
+night. Next morning a fountain of living water sparkled in God's sunshine
+near where the devout soldier had knelt in prayer the night before.
+
+In recognition of God's providential gift they christened it "Providence
+Spring." Today a pavilion of stone, erected by the Woman's National Relief
+Corps, commemorates the spot. Two significant utterances are carved on
+marble tablets in the pavilion. On one we read these words: "The
+prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven. God heard and with his
+thunders cleft the earth, and poured forth his sweetest waters gushing
+here." Over the fountain, which has never ceased from that day to this,
+carved in Georgia marble are the great words of that great man in whose
+big soul the nation was born again: "With charity to all and malice toward
+none."
+
+As I stood by this spot and looked up on the hill I felt a new love of
+country stir within my heart. I could but say in my heart I would rather
+be a plain American citizen, though black, than a knighted Roman under
+Cæsar.
+
+As we think of that prison we are thankful for the cemetery. The prison
+typifies suffering. The cemetery is the symbol of peace. Through that
+gateway of suffering our martyrs entered into peace. How typical of the
+nation! Through the crucible of suffering it entered into peace."
+
+[Illustration: FLAG DAY: ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY]
+
+[Illustration: THE MICHIGAN MONUMENT IN ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX E.
+
+SHALL THE GOVERNMENT CONFER PERMANENT HONORS ON CONFEDERATE HEROES?
+
+
+The magnanimity which dictated the terms of surrender at Appomattox was
+typical of the treatment extended by the Government of the United States
+to its defeated opponents. Well might this be so. The sinews of strength
+of the mighty North had through the four years of desperate conflict grown
+strong indeed.
+
+A Confederate Major General declared that the veterans of General
+Sherman's army, pushing their winter way through the swamps and rivers of
+the South; foraging widely for subsistance and always ready to fight,
+illustrated a type of soldier that the world had not seen since the days
+of Julius Cæsar.
+
+The final parade of the Union army along Pennsylvania avenue before the
+President, the Cabinet, prominent Generals and notables of other nations,
+displayed a vast procession of seasoned veterans whose effectiveness had
+never been surpassed. They were the choice, steel-tempered residue of more
+than two millions of citizen soldiery who had enlisted to preserve the
+union of States, "one and inseparable," against the folly of secession.
+
+In the plentitude of their invincible strength, nursing no lust of power,
+they disbanded to peaceful homes from whence they came; subsiding from
+their regnant military life as the mighty storm-waves of the ocean sink
+away into pacific calm.
+
+Apart from wide-spread personal bereavement the North bore no serious
+scars of war. The perfection of agricultural machinery enabled rich
+harvests to be gathered in season notwithstanding the dearth of farm help
+which had gone to the army. Factories of every kind were, with large
+profits, turning out abundantly all sorts of goods. Our commerce with the
+world was unhindered, save by the eccentric raids of the Alabama; the
+muscle and brawn of an ample labor immigration supplied the manual force
+necessary to national expansion; as illustrated in the building of the
+trans-continental railroads. The huge war debt instead of being felt as an
+incubus was but a process of turning into ready cash the prosperity of the
+future.
+
+Contrast with this picture the condition of the Southern States at the
+close of the four dreadful years. Within a goodly portion of her borders
+the country was war-swept and harried by the consuming necessities of vast
+armies of both friend and foe; for hungry men and beasts on the march and
+in the fight must subsist largely upon the supplies which the foragers
+gather from the adjacent regions.
+
+Manufacture, as compared with the North, was a neglected art south of
+Mason's and Dixon's line.
+
+The most extensive and effective naval blockade of history hermetically
+sealed nearly every Southern port, thereby hopelessly shutting in untold
+wealth of cotton, the returns of which were otherwise available to every
+need.
+
+No millions of stalwart immigrants reinforced Southern industry; on the
+contrary her labor system and property tenure in human beings were
+shattered in pieces.
+
+The flower of her masculine youth perished; the prestige of ruling
+intelligence, culture and wealth was dethroned and, to crown her
+afflictions although she knew it not, the South lost her best and most
+powerful friend in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
+
+Then followed the agonies of political reconstruction and the ignoble
+invasion of carpet-bag adventurers who, in many instances, were valiant
+only for pelf.
+
+Surviving this wide-spread chaos the South, for the most part, believed in
+their lawful right of withdrawing from the Union. By many of their leading
+minds this contention had been long held, and that conception of
+government doubtless had filtered down through all classes of society so
+far as thought was developed on the subject.
+
+The defense of State rights probably was a more powerful incentive to
+civil war than was at first the purpose to defend slavery.
+
+The bravery of Southern soldiers has never been surpassed. The
+self-sacrificing patriotism of Southern women reached the high-water mark.
+
+The vitality and moral force of Southern chivalry was distinguished even
+in the remarkable loyalty of the slaves.
+
+If the foregoing briefly stated considerations form a truthful
+presentation of the case, why, it may be asked, may not the National
+Government expand the magninimity of President Lincoln and General Grant
+by engaging with Congress to erect monuments and other memorials to heroes
+of the army and navy of the Confederacy? The first step towards such
+procedure has already been taken in the form of proposed legislation at
+Washington.
+
+We would not imply that the most eminent leaders of the Southern forces
+were personally unworthy of posthumos honor.
+
+On the contrary it is our privilege to bear testimony to the exalted
+individual worth, the consecrated devotion to country as they understood
+the duty, and the pre-eminent ability in action that characterized the
+most noted leaders of the Confederacy.
+
+Nevertheless their relation to national history is determined, not by
+individual excellencies, but by the fact that they rebelled against the
+Government they were sworn to defend. To the utmost they did all they
+could to dismember the Union of which they were an integral part, to
+dishonor the flag that emblazoned the glory of a common origin and
+history.
+
+In the interest of perpetuating a far-reaching sentiment of loyalty to
+national life and well-being we would strenuously deny the moral right of
+Congress to make appropriations for the erection of memorials that are
+designed to crown Confederate valor with renown. If by private
+subscriptions admirers wish to build monuments they undoubtedly will be
+allowed to do so.
+
+Our Government has wisely extended high courtesies to prominent Southern
+Generals, and has on many occasions held out the olive branch of peace.
+But we must not forget that brotherly kindness and neighborly good-will
+cannot cancel the fact that the Southern conception of government by state
+rights, as against National sovereignty, meant the destruction of the
+Nation as such and was so intended.
+
+Had the war for the Union been a failure this fair continent on which has
+been nourished the hopes of the world would have been the arena of two
+general governments separated by no natural dividing lines and probably at
+last to be succeeded by contending states and communities.
+
+Thus the last condition of free civilization in America would have been
+more disgraceful than was the situation of the warring principalities of
+ancient Greece, because we had sinned against a greater light than they
+possessed.
+
+If National monuments are dedicated to commemorate Southern gallantry will
+not a subtle influence steadily flow out from these reminders of civil war
+to the effect that assault upon the Nation's existence is an offense so
+trivial as to be expiated by bravery on the field of battle?
+
+Who can tell what crises of peril may in the future break in upon our
+beloved land? And what if the youth of the North and of the South are,
+from generation to generation, taught by the influence of public memorials
+that there is no real distinction between those who fought to save the
+Nation and those who did all they could "that the government of the
+people, by the people, and for the people, shall (not) perish from the
+earth."
+
+We present a quotation from the judgment of the Supreme Court, as given by
+General N. P. Chipman on page 503 of his recent and informing book on
+Andersonville:
+
+    "The rebellion out of which the war grew was without any legal
+    sanction. In the eye of the law it had the same properties as if it
+    had been the insurrection of a country or smaller municipal territory
+    as against the State to which it belonged. The proportion and duration
+    of the struggle did not affect its character. Nor was there a rebel
+    government de facto in such a sense as to give any legal efficiency to
+    its acts.... The Union of the States, for all the purposes of the
+    constitution, is as perfect and indissoluble as the union of the
+    integral parts of the States themselves; and nothing but revolutionary
+    violence can in either case destroy the ties which hold the parties
+    together.
+
+    "For the sake of humanity certain belligerant rights were conceded to
+    the insurgents in arms. But the recognition did not extend to the
+    pretended government of the Confederacy.... The Rebellion was simply
+    an armed resistence of the rightful authority of the sovereign. Such
+    was its character, its rise, progress and downfall."
+
+The legal aspects of the case as thus expressed have their great value as
+indicating facts fundamental to organic National existence and they
+demonstrate the inherent inconsistency of devoting Federal appropriations
+to the erection of monuments to the honor of opponents of the Union. This
+can be but a transient purpose which should and, we believe will be,
+relinquished.
+
+We close this narrative with the words of a departed soldier who was a
+devoted friend of General Lee and afterwards a trusted counsellor of
+General Grant, as recorded in the Memoirs of Gen. John B. Gordon, pp. 464,
+465:
+
+"American youth in all sections should be taught to hold in perpetual
+remembrance all that was great and good on both sides; to comprehend the
+inherited convictions for which saintly women suffered and patriotic men
+died; to recognize the unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivalled
+courage; to appreciate the singular absence of personal animosity and the
+frequent manifestation between those brave antagonists of a
+good-fellowship such as had never before been witnessed between hostile
+armies. It will be a glorious day for our country when all the children
+within its borders shall learn that the four years of fratricidal war
+between the North and the South was waged by neither with criminal or
+unworthy intent, but by both to protect what they conceived to be
+threatened rights and imperiled liberty; that the issues which divided the
+sections _were born when the Republic was born_, and were forever buried
+in an ocean of fraternal blood. We shall then see that, under God's
+providence, every sheet of flame from the blazing rifles of the contending
+armies, every whizzing shell that tore through the forests at Shiloh and
+Chancellorsville, every cannon-shot that shook Chickamauga's hills or
+thundered around the heights of Gettysburg, and all the blood and the
+tears that were shed are yet to become contributions for the upbuilding of
+American manhood and for the future defense of American freedom. The
+Christian Church received its baptism of pentecostal power as it emerged
+from the shadows of Calvary, and went forth to its world-wide work with
+greater unity and a diviner purpose. So the Republic, rising from its
+baptism of blood with a national life more robust, a national union more
+complete, and a national influence ever widening, shall go forever
+forward in its benign mission to humanity."
+
+From the oldest to the youngest, let us all unite in the patriotic
+salutation, "I pledge my allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for
+which it stands. One Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for
+all."
+
+
+THE FINISH
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Toward the close of the war great bounties were paid for recruits in
+northern cities. Many desperate characters enlisted for this money,
+intending to desert at the first opportunity. The vigilence of Genl. Grant
+forced them into battle. Many were captured and landed in Andersonville.
+Here they conspired to rob and murder fellow prisoners. Capt. Wirtz
+convened a trial court composed of prisoners who observed all the forms of
+law in the trial of these desperadoes. Six of them were found guilty of
+murder and were hung.
+
+[2] Market Square was a piece of made ground on the edge of the swamp in
+the center of the prison. Here men came together to barter trinkets they
+had made to while away the time, to exchange parts of rations, and to
+indulge generally, so far as they could, in the Yankee instinct for trade.
+
+[3] On February 20th, 1912, the writer received a call from an old friend,
+Rev. M. L. Holt, of Neligh, Nebraska. He gives this confirmatory statement
+to Mr. Maile: "As Sergeant Major of the Third New Hampshire Veteran
+Volunteer Infantry I can certify to the military surroundings at the place
+of your release. Two days before your arrival from Goldsboro, General
+Terry ordered our Third New Hampshire to make a forced march to a point
+ten miles distant from Wilmington on the Northeast branch of the Cape Fear
+river and take from the enemy a pontoon bridge at that point.
+
+"We skirmished with the foe nearly the entire distance and came up to them
+just as they had cut the near end of the bridge from the bank. With our
+machine guns we drove them off and moored the bridge back to its place. On
+the second day after we received the old Andersonville prisoners and had
+the satisfaction of knowing we had prepared their way by having the bridge
+in readiness for them to cross the river into our lines. I shall never
+forget the impression made upon us by the condition of these survivors of
+Confederate prisons. These events occurred in March, 1861."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Prison Life in Andersonville, by John L. Maile
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      Prison Life In Andersonville, by John L. Maile&mdash;A Project Gutenberg eBook
+    </title>
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prison Life in Andersonville, by John L. Maile
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Prison Life in Andersonville
+       With Special Reference to the Opening of Providence Spring
+
+Author: John L. Maile
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2012 [EBook #39584]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISON LIFE IN ANDERSONVILLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1><small>&#8220;PRISON LIFE IN ANDERSONVILLE&#8221;</small></h1>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><strong>This volume,<br />
+<br />
+Number 48<br />
+<br />
+of the Author&#8217;s Autograph<br />
+Edition, limited to five hundred<br />
+copies, is presented to<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+In grateful appreciation<br />
+for cordial support and financial<br />
+patronage of the work.</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">&#8220;Prison Life in Andersonville&#8221;</span></p>
+<p class="center">With Special Reference to the<br />
+Opening of Providence Spring</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><i>by</i><br />
+<span class="large">John L. Maile</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="author">A Veteran of Company F, Eighth Regiment Michigan
+Volunteer Infantry and afterward assigned as Lieutenant in
+the Twenty-eighth U. S. C. T., and for a time an unwilling
+guest in the Confederate Military prisons at Lynchburg and
+Danville, Va., Andersonville, Ga., Florence, S. C., and Salisbury, N. C.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&#8220;One flag, one land, one heart, one hand,<br />
+One Nation evermore.&#8221;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">&mdash;O. W. Holmes.</span></td></tr></table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GRAFTON PUBLISHING COMPANY<br />
+WEST COAST MAGAZINE<br />
+LOS ANGELES.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span> 1912<br />
+BY<br />
+<span class="smcap">John L. Maile</span></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Los Angeles, Cal.</span><br />
+U. S. A.</p>
+<p class="center">All Rights Reserved</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRESS OF WEST COAST MAGAZINE<br />
+LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Commendation</h2>
+
+
+<p>That the following narrative of Southern prison life should be written so
+many years after the occurrence of the events described is explained by
+the fact that the author has been urged by many friends to put on record
+his descriptions that have interested many people in the East, in the
+Interior and in the West.</p>
+
+
+<p>To Members of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps,
+allied organizations, and readers generally, I am glad to commend this
+book as giving a more particular account of the opening of Providence
+Spring than has before appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Appreciation of the strenuous days of the great Civil War will be revived,
+and the memories of Veterans, not a few will be refreshed by this
+interesting story.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><img src="images/signature.jpg" alt="H. M. Triuble." /></p>
+
+<p>Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Princeton, Illinois,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">March 2, 1912.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 351px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img01.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">Four years of war life.<br />
+In five Confederate prisons.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img02.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+<p class="center">The Author in 1860.<br />
+The Year Before Enlistment.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<h2>DEDICATION</h2>
+
+
+<p class="center">Dedicated to the Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps, whose tender,<br />
+thoughtful care has preserved the<br />
+sacred memorials of the war, and<br />
+to the memory of my<br />
+<br />
+COMRADES<br />
+<br />
+in arms<br />
+who have answered<br />
+the final<br />
+call; to the age-worn<br />
+remnant who still linger<br />
+behind, and to the younger<br />
+patriots of the present generation,<br />
+to whom it is given, in the happier<br />
+days of peace, to fight for their country<br />
+the bloodless battles of righteousness and truth.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img03.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+<p class="title">TABLE <i>of</i> CONTENTS</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter.</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td>
+    <td>The Writer&#8217;s Credentials</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td>
+    <td>View of a Confederate Prison</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td>
+    <td>The Prison Commisariat</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td>
+    <td>A Dearth of Water</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td>
+    <td>A Cry to Heaven</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td>
+    <td>Unsealing of the Spring</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td>
+    <td>Was It a Miracle?</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td>
+    <td>Deliverance</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td>
+    <td>An Incident by the Way</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td>
+    <td>A Sequel</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Appendix.</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_A">A.</a></td>
+    <td>Contributory Testimony</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_B">B.</a></td>
+    <td>Responsibility for Prison Treatment</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_C">C.</a></td>
+    <td>Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps Memorial</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_D">D.</a></td>
+    <td>A Memorial Day Meditation<br />Rev. H. H. Proctor, D. D. of Atlanta.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_E">E.</a></td>
+    <td>Permanent Honors for Confederate Heroes</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<p class="title">ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>The Author: As Prospective Soldier. As Present Writer.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Plan of the Prison Pen.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>View of Interior and Foreground.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>A Dream.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The Broken Stockade.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The Spring and Women of the Relief Corps.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Adventure in Wilmington Hospital.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The Beloved Teacher.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The Michigan Monument in Andersonville.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The Andersonville Cemetery.</td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+<h2>A Personal Foreword</h2>
+
+
+<p>The establishment and perpetuity of our Union have been secured by the
+sacrifices of war. The Declaration of Independence preceded seven weary
+years of conflict, whose culminating sufferings were experienced in the
+British prison ships and in the winter camp at Valley Forge. In this
+contest the patriotic soldiers of the north and of the south made common
+cause, and what they did and what they suffered indicates a measure of the
+enduring worth of our national life. The story of revolutionary days finds
+an enlarged counterpart in the sufferings of the civil war.</p>
+
+<p>A phase of the great struggle is recalled in the following narrative of
+events, which belongs to a rapidly receding past. Soon no survivor will be
+left to tell the tale; hence the desirability of putting it into permanent
+form before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> it fades altogether from recollection. To some the story of
+the breaking out of Providence Spring may seem to have been given undue
+prominence in this record; but it is around that event that these
+reminiscences gather, and the circumstances attending were so indelibly
+stamped upon the memory of the writer that they call for expression.
+Probably he was the youngest of the group of Andersonville prisoners who
+participated in the concert of prayer that preceded the unsealing of the
+fountain, and on that account he may be the only survivor.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the narrative unpleasant things have been referred to in
+the interests of truth, but nothing has been set down in malice. The Great
+Healer has closed up many wounds of hearts as well as of bodies, and the
+grass has grown green over the graves of buried controversies. The boys in
+gray and the boys in blue now fraternize around common campfires and under
+a common flag. But while the writer has none save the kindliest feelings
+toward his brothers of the lost cause, he cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> help rejoicing that
+alike in the clash of arms, and in the more peaceful conflict of ideas
+which has followed, the principles for which he and others bled and
+suffered have gained the victory and are among the things which never
+perish from the earth.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&#8220;We are coming, Father Abraham&mdash;three hundred thousand more,<br />
+From Mississippi&#8217;s winding stream and from New England&#8217;s shore.<br />
+We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,<br />
+With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;<br />
+We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before&mdash;<br />
+We are coming, Father Abraham&mdash;three hundred thousand more.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,<br />
+Long lines of moving dust your vision may descry;<br />
+And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,<br />
+And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;<br />
+And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour&mdash;<br />
+We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;If you look up all our valleys, where growing harvests shine,<br />
+You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;<br />
+And children, from their mothers&#8217; knees, are pulling at the weeds,<br />
+And learning how to reap and sow, against their country&#8217;s needs;<br />
+A farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door&mdash;<br />
+We are coming, Father Abraham&mdash;three hundred thousand more.&#8221;</td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<p class="title">THE WRITER&#8217;S CREDENTIALS.</p>
+
+
+<p>The writer of the following narrative feels justified in calling attention
+to his military record in order that he may be furnished with a warrant
+for inviting the attention of readers to the matters herein described.
+Broadly speaking, his record is that he saw nearly four years of active
+service, including ten months of confinement in Confederate prisons and
+three months in hospitals and parole camps.</p>
+
+<p>Given more in detail it would be as follows: He enlisted at the age of
+seventeen, on September 2, 1861, at Hastings in the Eighth Regiment
+Michigan Volunteer Infantry; Company F of which N. H. Walbridge was
+Captain; Traverse Phillips, First Lieutenant; Jacob Maus, Second
+Lieutenant, and John D. Sumner, Orderly Sergeant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>The Eighth was known as the famous &#8220;wandering&#8221; regiment of
+Michigan&mdash;ex-Governor Col. William M. Fenton, Commander.</p>
+
+<p>His regiment was mustered in at Grand Rapids and journeyed via Detroit,
+Cleveland and Pittsburg to Washington, going into camp on Meridian Hill
+overlooking the capitol. On October 19th, with his regiment, he embarked
+from Annapolis on the steamship Vanderbilt, taking part in the Dupont
+Expedition to the South Carolina coast and occupancy of Beaufort and the
+Sea Islands.</p>
+
+<p>He was in engagements on Coosaw river, and at the bombardment of Fort
+Paluski off Savannah. While his regiment was in the campaign of James
+Island, near Charleston, he was in the Signal Corps service on the
+Beaufort river. In April the regiment sailed to Virginia; he was at the
+second Bull-Run in July, and with the Maryland campaign of South Mountain,
+Antietam; the succeeding Fredericksburg fighting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> and thence via Kentucky
+to Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of &#8217;63 he marched via Cumberland Gap to East Tennessee and
+took part in conflicts at Blue Springs, Lenoir Station, Campbell&#8217;s
+Station, the siege of Knoxville, and defense of Fort Saunders. After
+re-enlistment with his comrades in January he marched over the mountains
+nearly two hundred miles in ten days through deep snow to the railroad at
+Crab Orchard, Kentucky. This severe ordeal was followed by a brief respite
+of a thirty days&#8217; furlough from Cincinnati to Michigan.</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1864, the regiment rejoined the Ninth Army Corps at Annapolis,
+and on May 3rd he was, after examination in Washington, confirmed for a
+commission as Lieutenant. On the 4th, he overtook his regiment camping
+near the Rappahannock river; on the evening of the 5th the vicinity of the
+Rapidan river was reached in full view of the smoke of Sedgwick&#8217;s
+artillery opening the great battle of the Wilderness. On the afternoon of
+the 6th, his regiment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> was ordered into action when he with a thousand
+others from the division was taken prisoner and marched to Lee&#8217;s
+headquarters, where he saw the famous general, whom he remembers as
+sitting with great dignity of bearing upon his horse, calmly viewing the
+situation. And it was reported that he kindly remarked to a group of
+prisoners that they must make the best of their predicament. On the 9th
+the examination papers came for the new Lieutenant, but he was now the
+guest of the Confederacy and could not be excused.</p>
+
+<p>A comrade sent to his home the disquieting message, &#8220;missing in action and
+probably killed,&#8221; but happily from Orange Courthouse by the great kindness
+of a Virginia Lieutenant a telegram was forwarded by flag of truce to his
+parents stating that he still survived. The memorial services announced
+for the following week were postponed and are yet to take place.</p>
+
+<p>Introductory experiences as a prisoner of war included many hours of
+fasting, followed by a most exhaustive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> march of twenty-eight miles to
+Orange Courthouse under close cavalry guard; thence by rail to
+Gordonsville, where the place of detention was a pen frequently used for
+the rounding up of cattle. At this point the prisoners were usually
+relieved of any superfluous clothing and outfit.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the writer had discovered in the crowd five members of his
+regiment. He and they drew together as companions in misfortune, and
+formed a group in which each one was to have a share and share alike of
+all they possessed; and they entered into a solemn pledge to care for one
+another in sickness.</p>
+
+<p>Very early in the morning of our night at Gordonville we were aroused by
+the sharp command, &#8220;Wake up there, wake up there, you Yanks. Fall into two
+ranks. Quick there,&#8221; given by a Confederate sergeant. The occasion was the
+arrival of a trainload of beef cattle for the Confederate army, and the
+master of transportation saw an opportunity to load the prisoners into
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> freight cars just made vacant and which were to return to Lynchburg
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>To be thus unceremoniously aroused from sleep and hustled into filthy cars
+made us very indignant, but &#8220;There is a divinity that shapes our ends;
+rough-hew them how we will,&#8221; and in the confusion of moving in the
+twilight, and the absence of inspection we got off scot free from the
+usual ceremony of being stripped of superabundant clothes and
+accouterments. Thus our group of six were each left in possession of a
+blanket, a section of shelter tent, a haversack, a tin cup and plate, a
+knife, a fork, a spoon, and such scanty clothing as we had on. The extras
+we possessed were a frying pan, a file, and several pocket knives, two or
+three towels, a small mirror, and a thin piece of mottled soap. The latter
+was used exclusively for a Sunday morning wash of hands and face until it
+melted away.</p>
+
+<p>This unusual amount of equipment was kept as inconspicuous as possible and
+was safely carried through the prisons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> at Lynchburg and Danville, where
+we awaited transportation to an unknown destination, which proved to be
+the military inferno of Andersonville, in southwestern Georgia, to reach
+which we rode more than seven hundred miles from the battlefield packed
+fifty and sixty in a freight car, with twenty or thirty of our number on
+the top.</p>
+
+<p>The locomotives, which burned pitch pine, emitted clouds of acrid smoke
+that, mingled with dust arising from the roadbed, enveloped the train in a
+gloomy, suffocating pall. Mile after mile the worn, rattling freight cars
+and wheezing engine crept along the right-of-way, which, as a narrow lane,
+threaded the interminable pitch-pine forests that admitted no stirring
+breeze.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday morning we arrived in the beautiful city of Augusta, Georgia.
+Our train was sidetracked on a principal thoroughfare whose borders were
+embowered in luxuriant foliage which screened attractive homes, whence the
+church bells were calling the summer-dressed occupants. On the sidewalk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+opposite from the train groups of the people loitered to gaze upon the
+grimy, famished prisoners who swarmed upon the tops of the freight cars
+and formed a sweltering crowd within.</p>
+
+<p>Several ladies deferred their church-going, re-entered their houses,
+emerged with baskets filled with sandwiches, crossed the street to the
+side of the train and, overcoming the objections of the guards, handed out
+the precious food to the grateful men, who responded with their most
+courteous thanks.</p>
+
+<p>This little piece of genuine chivalry was the one bright spot in the
+torturing journey, and was matched by the sensibilities of some Southern
+ladies, who later viewing the interior of Andersonville from the stockade
+platform, turned away their faces weeping.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img04tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<a href="images/img04.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div>
+<p class="center">Ground Plan of Andersonville Stockade.</p>
+
+<p class="note">Description: Fig. 1, Keeper&#8217;s House; 2, &#8220;P. Spring&#8221;; 3, Nat&#8217;l Monument; 4,
+Purchased Property; 5, Stockade; 6, Outer Stockade; 7, Deadline; 8, Forts
+and Batteries; 9, Main Fort; 10, <small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small>Gallows; 11, Magazine; 12, Capt. Wirtz&#8217;
+Headquarters; 13, To Cemetery; 14, Wells and Tunnels; 15, Dead House; 16,
+Guard Camp; 17, Road to Station; 18, Creek; 19, North Gate; 20, South Gate; 21, Flag Pole.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img05.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">THE ANDERSONVILLE PRISON PEN</p>
+<p class="center">This view looks westward. Providence Spring was located just below the north gate, close to the stockade X.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<p class="title">AN INSIDE VIEW OF A CONFEDERATE PRISON.</p>
+
+
+<p>At the time of our incarceration in Andersonville, the crisis of the war
+of the rebellion was reached. General Grant was fighting the great battles
+of the Wilderness in Virginia; the investment of Petersburg was about to
+begin, and General Lee was resisting the impact of the Federal forces with
+unsurpassed skill and heroism. General Sherman was also hastening his
+preparations to penetrate the vitals of the Confederacy by his famous
+&#8220;March to the Sea.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Skirmishes by the contending forces were of daily occurrence, and
+frequently battles were fought that now loom large in history. To bury the
+dead was not difficult; but the care of the wounded was a grave concern to
+both armies. An affair of still greater magnitude was the gathering up of
+the captured officers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> and soldiers, the transporting of them hundreds of
+miles, and the placing of them in prisons for safe keeping.</p>
+
+<p>The Confederate authorities adopted a simple and logical plan. Foodstuffs
+for their armies could not be gathered in war-swept Virginia, nor to any
+great extent from the border States. In Georgia and Alabama, in parts of
+the Carolinas, Mississippi and Louisiana faithful slave labor produced an
+abundant supply of rice, corn and bacon, sweet potatoes and beans.</p>
+
+<p>To transport these bulky materials to the armies of Lee, Hood and Johnson
+required every locomotive and freight car that could be mustered on
+Southern railroads. Hence the northward-bound trains were heavily laden.
+Those going southward were empty, and were available to carry away the
+thousands of Union prisoners. At several points in the South Atlantic and
+Gulf States, stockade prisons were set up, notably that in Southwestern
+Georgia, named after an adjacent hamlet, &#8220;Andersonville.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>This celebrated place of confinement for Federal prisoners below the rank
+of commissioned officer was located about sixty-two miles from Macon. It
+consisted of a stockade made of pine logs twenty-five feet long, set
+upright in a trench five feet deep, inclosing some sixteen acres,
+afterwards enlarged to twenty-six acres.</p>
+
+<p>This inclosure was oblong in form, with its longest dimension in a general
+north and south direction, and had two gates in its western side, near the
+north and south ends respectively. It was commanded by several stands of
+artillery, comprising sixteen guns, located at a distance on rising
+ground. From four directions the guns could sweep the prison interior with
+grapeshot or shells.</p>
+
+<p>A line of poles was planted along the lengthwise center of the pen. We
+were informed that if the men gathered in unusual crowds between the range
+of the poles and the north and south gates, the cannon would open upon us.</p>
+
+<p>A report was circulated among us to the effect that General Sherman had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+started an expedition to release us; and we were informed that if his
+troops approached within seven miles of the stockade the prisoners would
+be mowed down by grapeshot. The fact is that one of his generals proposed
+a sortie that never was made. &#8220;About July 20, 1864, General Stoneman was
+authorized at his own desire to march (with cavalry) on Macon and
+Andersonville in an effort to rescue the National prisoners of war in the
+military prisons there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Outside and against the stockade platforms for guards were placed two or
+three rods apart, and were so constructed that the sentinel climbed a
+ladder and stood waist high above the top of the wall and under a board
+roof, which sheltered him from the sun and rain.</p>
+
+<p>Each of the guards faced the vast mass of prisoners and was ordered to
+closely watch the dead line before and below him half way to his comrade
+on his right and left.</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;dead line&#8221; formed a complete circuit parallel to the inside of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+stockade and about twenty feet therefrom. It consisted of a narrow strip
+of board nailed to a row of stakes, which were about four feet high.
+&#8220;Shoot any prisoner who touches the &#8220;dead line&#8221; was the standing order to
+the guards. Several companies from Georgia regiments were detailed for the
+duty, and their muskets were loaded with &#8220;buck and ball&#8221; (<i>i. e.</i>, a large
+bullet and two buckshot). The day guard at the stockade consisted of one
+hundred and eighty-six men; the day reserve of eighty-six men. The night
+reserve consisted of one hundred and ten men; the outlay pickets of
+thirty-eight men.</p>
+
+<p>A sick prisoner inadvertently placing his hand on the dead line for
+support, or one who was &#8220;moon blind&#8221; running against it, or anyone
+touching it with suicidal intent, would be instantly shot at, the
+scattering balls usually striking others than the one aimed at.</p>
+
+<p>The intervening space between the wall and the dead line was overgrown
+with weeds, and was occasionally tested by workmen with long drills to
+ascertain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> the existence of tunnels. In attempting to escape by this means
+the prisoners endeavored to emerge at night some distance from the
+stockade and take to the woods. To frustrate such attempts, which would
+inevitably be discovered at roll-call the following morning, man-tracking
+hounds were led by mounted men on a wide circuit around the prison, with
+the well-nigh universal result that the trail was struck and the fugitive
+taken.</p>
+
+<p>Later a stockade was erected parallel to the first, and some ten or twelve
+rods beyond. Tunnels could not be carried so far with the means available.
+They were dug with knives and the dirt was taken out in haversacks or bags
+drawn in and out by a cord. The work of digging was usually carried on at
+night. During the day a sick man lay over the tunnel&#8217;s mouth in a tent or
+under a blanket. That the roll-call sergeant might not discover the fresh
+earth, it was sifted early in the morning from the pocket and down the
+trouser leg of a comrade, who walked unconcernedly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> about. The little
+grains of earth which he dropped were soon trodden under foot.</p>
+
+<p>To increase the difficulty of tunnel escape, slaves and teams were
+employed to build piles of pitch-pine along the cleared space beyond the
+outer stockade. At night, when these were lighted, a line of fires was
+made which illuminated a wide area. From these fires arose columns of
+dense smoke, which in the sultry air of a midsummer night hung like a pall
+over the silent city of disease and starvation. Yet the city was not
+wholly quiet, for undertones of thousands of voices that murmured during
+the day at night died away into the low moans of the sick and the
+expiring, or rose into the overtones of the outcry of distressful dreams.
+In the edge of the gloom beyond the fires, patrols paced to and fro until
+the dawn. Every evening the watch-call sounded, &#8220;Post number one, nine
+o&#8217;clock and all is well.&#8221; This cry was repeated by each sentinel until it
+had traveled around the stockade back to the place of starting. &#8220;Nine and
+a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> half o&#8217;clock and all is well,&#8221; was next spoken, and likewise repeated.
+Thus every half hour from dark to daylight the time was called off, and
+this grim challenge greeted our ears every night until the survivors bade
+the Confederacy good-bye. Not that our captors benevolently wished to
+increase the sense of the shortness of the time until our release, but to
+be assured that the guards were keeping awake.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<p class="title">THE PRISON COMMISSARIAT.</p>
+
+
+<p>The least that can be said of the prison sustenance is that it was
+exceedingly slim. But while the <i>per diem</i> rations dealt out to an
+Andersonville prisoner were too small for proper maintenance, and much of
+the time inferior in quality, yet the thirty-two thousand to thirty-five
+thousand men who had to be fed were as a rule promptly served.</p>
+
+<p>To secure this result effective organization was necessary. It was
+accomplished as follows: Groups of two hundred and seventy men were named
+detachments and duly numbered. Every detachment was divided into the
+first, second and third nineties, each of which was in charge of one of
+our own sergeants. The nineties, in turn, were divided into the first,
+second and third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> thirties, which also were in charge of a sergeant or
+corporal.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o&#8217;clock every forenoon a drum call was beaten from the platform at
+the south gate. At this signal the prisoners fell into line by
+detachments, forming as best they could in the narrow paths that separated
+the small tents, blanket shanties or dug-outs. At the same moment a
+company of Confederate sergeants entered the two gates for the purpose of
+counting and recording the number of the prisoners. To each of these
+officers a certain number of detachments were assigned. The men,
+unsheltered from the fierce sun-heat, had perforce to remain standing
+during the entire count. If a number less than that of yesterday was in
+evidence, the Federal sergeant had to account for the deficit. Sometimes a
+number of men were too ill to stand up, so the line was held the longer
+while the Confederate official viewed the sick where they lay.</p>
+
+<p>The bodies of those who had died since the count of the previous day were
+early in the morning carried to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> south street and laid in a row until
+the ration wagon could haul them to the burying trench. On a card attached
+to the wrist of the deceased was written by the detachment sergeant, his
+name, regiment and date of death. These names were taken by the
+enumerator, who verified the record as the bodies were carried through the
+gate. Such was the scarcity of clothing that garments of any value were
+taken by comrades from the dead before interment.</p>
+
+<p>In the early summer prisoners were occasionally detailed under guard to
+carry the dead some distance from the gate. On the return they were
+allowed to gather up chips which had accumulated from the hewing of
+stockade timbers. The quantity a man, weakened by hunger and disease,
+could bring in would sell for five dollars, U. S. currency. Competition to
+get out on one of these details became so intense that the privilege was
+discontinued.</p>
+
+<p>At four o&#8217;clock in the afternoon rations of corn bread and bacon were
+issued on the basis of the morning count<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> of those who are able to stand
+up. Two army wagons drawn by mules entered the north and south gates
+simultaneously. They were piled high with bread, thin loaves of corn bread
+or Johnny cake, made of coarse meal and water by our men who had been
+paroled for that work.</p>
+
+<p>A blanket was spread upon the ground and the quantity for a detachment was
+placed thereon in three piles; one for every ninety, according to the
+number of men able to eat. In like manner the sergeants of nineties
+sub-divided the piles to the thirties.</p>
+
+<p>The writer had charge of a division of thirty and distributed as follows:
+His blanket was spread in front of his shelter tent and on it he spread
+the bread in as many pieces as there were men counted in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Each man had his number and was intently watching the comparative size of
+the portions. &#8220;Sergeant,&#8221; cries one, pointing to a cube of bread, &#8220;That
+piece is smaller than the one next to it.&#8221; A crumb is taken from the one
+and placed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> upon the other. The relative size of any piece may be
+challenged by any member of the thirty, for his life is involved.</p>
+
+<p>The equalization is finally completed to the satisfaction of all. The
+sergeant then takes up a piece in his hand and says, &#8220;Whose is this?&#8221; A
+designated comrade looking the other way calls a number. The owner steps
+up and takes his portion. This process is repeated until all are served.
+Some four or five pounds of bacon are then cut on a board into small
+pieces and issued in like manner.</p>
+
+<p>The cube of bread and morsel of meat constitute the ration for twenty-four
+hours. One-half may be eaten at once; the remainder should be put in the
+haversack for breakfast. If any one yields to his insatiable hunger and
+eats the whole for supper he has to fast until the following evening and
+must then deny himself and put away the portion for the next morning&#8217;s
+breakfast. Experiment proved that strength was better sustained by taking
+the scanty ration of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> food in two portions than by eating the whole at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>When the number of prisoners exceeded fifteen thousand, the facilities of
+the cook-house were inadequate. Therefore raw rations were issued
+alternately every two weeks to each side of the prison. In this form the
+amount <i>per capita</i> daily was a scant pint of corn meal and a scrap of
+uncooked bacon.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally boiled rice and cow beans were substituted for the meal, but
+these were very difficult to issue in accurate portions. Sometimes a
+quantity of this glutenous food was carried in a sleeve of a shirt or in
+the trouser&#8217;s leg tied at the end.</p>
+
+<p>The supply of fuel for cooking was wholly inadequate. Often the ration of
+wood was ironically called a &#8220;toothpick.&#8221; It would be split into small
+short splinters and two men would sometimes combine their portions. Water
+in a quart tin cup setting on small blocks of clay could be brought to a
+boil before the wood under it was consumed. Into this water meal was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+stirred and, if the blaze could be yet further economized, partially
+cooked mush was the outcome. The sick could not, however, do this work for
+themselves. Many ate meal uncooked, but the experiment soon ended life.</p>
+
+<p>It may be observed that many of the Andersonville prisoners were well
+supplied with money. The Federal armies were reclothed and paid off in the
+spring of 1864. The new recruits and re-enlisted veterans, in many
+instances, had with them bounty money when captured. Greenbacks could be
+pressed into the sole of a shoe, or placed inside a brass button. In
+various ways money was concealed about the person.</p>
+
+<p>The authorities at Andersonville allowed supplies to be sold to the
+prisoners for Federal money. Numerous small restaurants flourished in the
+stockade. From small clay ovens they supplied fresh bread and baked meats.
+Irish and sweet potatoes, string beans, peas, tomatoes, melons, sweet
+corn, and other garden products were abundantly offered for sale. New
+arrivals were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> amazed to find these resources in the midst of utter
+destitution and starvation.</p>
+
+<p>As this sketch is of the nature of personal experiences, the writer might
+tell how, in his case, the question of increasing the food supply was
+solved. A ration of fresh beef received by his thirty consisted of a shank
+bone on which a small amount of lean meat remained. This latter was cut
+into portions about the size of a little finger. These were easily issued,
+but what shall be done with the bone which towered on the meat board above
+the diminutive strips of beef? No tools were available by which it could
+be broken up. One and another cried out, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want the bone for a
+ration.&#8221; &#8220;Count it out for me.&#8221; &#8220;I can&#8217;t gnaw a bone.&#8221; The writer knew
+that a wealth of nutriment was contained in the rich marrow and oil-filled
+joints, and in view of the unanimous rejection of the bone, said, &#8220;Well,
+boys, if none of you want it, I will take it as my portion.&#8221; &#8220;Agreed,&#8221;
+shouted the crowd, adding expressions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> like these, &#8220;Come, hurry up and
+call off that meat; I&#8217;m hungry.&#8221; The strips were speedily issued, and, for
+the most part, eaten at once.</p>
+
+<p>The fortunate possessor of what was a large soup bone borrowed from a
+comrade a kitchen knife with permission to cut on the back of the same
+teeth, which were made with a file procured from a tent-mate. The steel of
+the blade was exceedingly hard and by the time the teeth were finished the
+file was worn nearly smooth. However, this fact insured that the teeth
+would hold their edge. The bone was quickly cut in two and the marrow dug
+out with a splinter. What remained was melted out with boiling water and a
+marrow soup was prepared for six hungry patriots. Next, the joints were
+sawed into slices and the rich oil extracted therefrom with hot water.
+Thus for two meals a generous addition was made to our impoverished menu.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after, while splitting wood by driving the knife into the end of a
+stick, the blade was snapped off about one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> and one-half inches from the
+handle. This disaster brought consternation, for the owner valued his
+knife at five dollars. However, a settlement was effected by which the
+user retained the broken parts and the worn-out file. The blade was set
+into a split stick to be used as a saw, as circumstances might require.</p>
+
+<p>The broken end of the shank was scraped on a brick to form a beveled edge
+like a chisel. Later on, the fact was demonstrated that these tools were a
+providential preparation. The face of the writer became diseased with the
+much prevailing scurvy. A swollen cheek, inflamed and bleeding gums with
+loosening teeth, indicated the fact that a hard fight for life must be put
+up. How shall it be done? About this time a stockade was built on three
+sides of an enclosure attached to the north end of the prison, thus making
+more room for the thousands of additional prisoners who were constantly
+arriving from many battle fields. The intervening wall was taken up and
+most of the timber sold to the prisoners. From one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> who had purchased a
+log, the writer obtained the wood sufficient to make three water pails;
+working on a two-thirds share.</p>
+
+<p>This material was delivered to the writer in split strips about three
+inches thick and four feet long. With the knife-blade saw these sticks of
+hard pine were slowly and laboriously cut into lengths for staves which
+were split on a curve by driving together several sharp-pointed wedges
+into a circular grain of the wood. Thus each stave was an arc of the
+circumference of the tree. A day&#8217;s ration was traded for a board three
+inches wide and thirty inches long. A mortise was cut through this to
+receive the knife-chisel, which was held in place with a forked wedge
+after the manner of a carpenter&#8217;s plane.</p>
+
+<p>This was the jointer on which the edges of the staves were smoothed and
+its upper end was placed on the knee of the writer, who sat tailor fashion
+on the ground, and the lower end was placed in a hole in the earth. The
+pieces for the bottom of the pail were split flat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> across the circular
+grain of the tree, and the edges were also smoothed on the jointer. For
+the want of truss hoops, the problem of setting up the staves seemed
+insurmountable. A sleepless night was passed in thinking the matter
+through. At four o&#8217;clock in the morning the inspiration came, and the
+solution was: Dig a hole in the ground the form and slope of the
+prospective pail. This was speedily done, and the staves were successfully
+set half their length in this mold, and the last one driven home brought
+the whole into shape. Two knapsack straps were passed around the top of
+the pail and held it together. It was then carefully drawn out of the hole
+and hoops made of split saplings were put in place, and the handle of like
+material was made. Precious food was bartered for these split stems, and
+the resultant fasting added to prevailing starvation nearly cost the
+writer his life.</p>
+
+<p>Pieces for the bottom were jointed, placed on the ground and on them the
+pail was set. A pencil was run round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> on this bottom and the end of each
+piece was cut with saw and chisel wherever the curved mark indicated.</p>
+
+<p>Days of incessant labor with chisel and a borrowed jackknife sufficed to
+produce from hard pitch pine the staves for the sides and bottom of a
+water pail of the ordinary size.</p>
+
+<p>When at last the pail was completed so imperfect were the joints that meal
+could be sifted through. Derisive laughter greeted the apparent failure of
+a pail to hold water, through the joints of which the light freely shone.
+However, the maker depended on the dry wood of the staves swelling tight
+if only the hoops proved strong enough to stand the immense pressure.
+Happily, this resulted and in triumph the first made pail was handed over
+to the owner of the log in payment for the wood from which three pails
+could be made.</p>
+
+<p>The second pail was more speedily made and sold for $1.50 with which the
+proprietor bought vegetables which eaten raw cured the scurvy in his face.</p>
+
+<p>During the following winter which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> was passed in the Confederate prison at
+Florence, South Carolina, the shoes worn by the most of our group, owing
+to defective machine stitching, peeled from the toe to the heel, causing
+almost constantly damp feet, to the serious detriment of health.</p>
+
+<p>Again the writer was obliged to make a fight for life. Recalling the
+process of making his chisel, he scraped, on a brick, the shank of his
+worn-out file into a point like a pegging awl. A gum tree knot served as a
+handle. A two-inch nut from a car bolt was screwed to a handle for a shoe
+hammer. A piece of soft pine was whittled into a last. With the knife-saw
+maple chips were cut into right lengths for shoe pegs which were shaped
+one by one. With this equipment the loosened soles were tightly pegged to
+the uppers. The shoes thus made water tight contributed no little to our
+chances of survival.</p>
+
+<p>The writer afterwards mended shoes for one of the wood-chopping party who
+secured, of field negroes, sweet potatoes which he brought with the
+working<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> squad into the prison at evening, and with them paid for the
+mending. These were cooked by the writer and retailed to the prisoners
+with large profit in U. S. fractional currency.</p>
+
+<p>Confederate money was secretly purchased forty dollars for one, and with
+this supplies could be lawfully bought of the prison sutler. Bread per
+small loaf, flour per pound, and a fair-sized cabbage could be bought each
+for ten dollars. We drove a flourishing trade in hot cabbage soup with men
+who possessed any money; especially to those who, without shelter,
+literally piled themselves together for mutual warmth during the piercing
+cold and rain of a southern winter night.</p>
+
+<p>The soup was made in the following manner: A cabbage consisted of a stalk
+with a tuft of leaves on the upper end and a bunch of roots on the lower
+end. The whole was washed clean and chopped up fine with the knife-chisel.
+The sliced leaves, stem and roots were boiled in eight quarts of water
+until made as tender as heat could do it. Into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> the green colored liquid
+was stirred some flour thickening; the whole was salted and a minced red
+pepper was added for pungency, while a whole pepper floated on the surface
+as an advertisement.</p>
+
+<p>For a soup dipper a piece of pail hoop was riveted to the side of a
+condensed milk can, the two rivets being cut from a copper cent with the
+chisel driven with the shoe hammer. For soup plates a canteen was melted
+apart and the two halves formed each a plate. On <small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small>Market Square, down by
+the swamp, four slender stakes were driven and thereon was placed a pine
+shake, which formed the soup counter. The soup kettle was covered with a
+piece of woolen shirt, which kept in the heat. Very early each morning we
+opened up for business and a line of shivering men in rags and nearly
+perished from exposure formed as the soup brigade. The price per plate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+was a five-cent shinplaster of U. S. fractional currency. The poor fellow
+who had no money must needs go without. As new prisoners ceased to arrive
+the money supply was soon gathered up and the prison sutler went away and
+trade was brought to an end.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img06.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">A DREAM</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Our last plate of soup was sold to a Maine soldier who paid for it his
+last five cents. He was nearly naked and incessantly shivered from the
+cold. The writer found him the following morning, after a night of rain,
+to which he was exposed, with his knees drawn up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> to his chin in the
+instinctive effort to bring the surfaces of his body together for warmth.
+With difficulty his frame was straightened out for burial.</p>
+
+<p>The profit of this business for several weeks gave to our group of six one
+fairly good meal each day and made possible the survival of those of our
+number who finally emerged from this awful prison life.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<p class="title">A DEARTH OF WATER.</p>
+
+
+<p>If the food supply of Andersonville was bad, the water supply was worse.
+To understand the situation and to see how little was done to overcome the
+difficulties involved, and to make the most of the existing facilities for
+the relief of the suffering, one has to consider the formation of this
+prison encampment.</p>
+
+<p>The surface of the interior consisted of two hillsides, sloping
+respectively north and south towards the center which was occupied by a
+swamp of nearly four acres. This was traversed by a sluggish creek which
+was some five feet wide and six inches deep, and made its way along the
+foot of the south slope. Up the stream were located the headquarters of
+Capt. Wirtz, the camps of the Confederate artillery and infantry and the
+cook-house for the prisoners.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> The drainage of these localities entered
+the creek which flowed into the prison through spaces between the stockade
+timbers, and polluted the water which was the chief supply of the prison,
+and which, at midnight, in its clearest condition, was the color of amber.
+The intervening space at the foot of the north hill was a wide morass, and
+when overflowed by rains became a vast cesspool on which boundless swarms
+of flies settled down and laid their eggs; which were speedily hatched by
+the fervent heat of the nearly tropical sun, and became a horrible
+undulating mass. On a change of wind the odor could be detected miles
+away; indeed it was reported that the people of Macon petitioned General
+Howell Cobb, the military governor of Georgia, for a removal of the prison
+located sixty miles away, lest an awful pestilence sweep over their
+country!</p>
+
+<p>The turkey buzzards, birds of ill omen, would come up against the wind,
+alight on the bare limbs of the tall pines overlooking the prison, and
+circle over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> grizzled city as if waiting to descend for a carrion
+feast.</p>
+
+<p>When we entered the prison on May 23rd, our detachment of two hundred and
+seventy men was scheduled fifty-five, indicating the presence of fourteen
+thousand eight hundred and fifty prisoners. The number steadily rose until
+a reported thirty-five thousand were present at one time. As the arrivals
+increased by hundreds and thousands, the daily mortality was counted by
+scores and hundreds, and many of the sick were without shelter from the
+heat of the pitiless sun.</p>
+
+<p>As the killed and wounded are scattered over the fields of the sanguinary
+battle, so our dying sick lay around on every hand. In the early summer,
+Capt. Wirtz issued to the prisoners picks and shovels, with which to dig
+wells for increased water supply. From some of these wells the men started
+tunnels through which to escape. Discovering this, the commander withdrew
+the tools, and ordered the wells to be filled up. Permission to keep one
+of them open<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> was purchased by a group of prisoners. It was sunk to a
+necessary depth, covered with a platform and trap door, and supplied about
+one thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>Aside from this well, for the favored few, the only water supply was from
+about twelve feet of the length of the creek which reached between the
+dead-line and the bridge connecting the two divisions of the prison. A
+terrible water famine set in, with the result that many of the ailing ones
+became insane from thirst.</p>
+
+<p>In these unsanitary surroundings there is a well authenticated case of a
+man who was severely afflicted with scurvy. As he lay in the place of
+filth and stench, without medical attention until gangrene of the lower
+limbs set in, he realized that to save his life he must lose his feet. No
+one of his comrades had the nerve to perform the necessary operation, so
+he obtained an old knife and disjointed his pedal extremities.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;In November, 1863, an order was issued for the establishment of a
+prison in Georgia, the granary of the eastern part of the
+Confederacy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> and for this purpose a tract of land was selected near
+the town of Andersonville. A stockade 15 feet high, inclosing 16&#189;
+acres, was built, and this, in June, 1864, was enlarged to 26&#189;
+acres, but 3&#188; acres near the center were too marshy to be used. A
+small stream ran through the inclosure, which, it was thought, would
+furnish water sufficient for drinking and for bathing. The trees
+within the stockade were cut down and no shelter was provided for the
+expected inmates, who began to arrive in February, 1864, before the
+rude prison was completed according to the design, and before an
+adequate supply of bacon for their use had been received. Prisoners
+continued to come until, on the 5th of May, there were about 12,000,
+which number went on increasing until in August it exceeded 32,000.
+Their condition was one of extreme wretchedness. Those who came first
+erected rude shelters from the debris of the stockade; later arrivals
+burrowed in the ground or protected themselves with any blankets or
+pieces of cloth of which they had not been deprived according to the
+practice of robbing men who were taken prisoners which prevailed on
+both sides. Through an unfortunate location of the baking and cooking
+houses on the creek above the stockade the water became polluted
+before it reached the prisoners, so that to obtain pure water they
+must dig wells. <b>After a severe storm a spring broke out within the
+inclosure, and this became one of the main</b><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> <b>reliances for drinking
+water.</b> The sinks were constructed over the lower part of the stream,
+but the current was not swift enough to carry away the ordure, and
+when the stream was swollen by rain and overflowed, the foecal matter
+was deposited over a wide area, producing a horrible stench. This was
+the famous prison of Andersonville.&#8221;&mdash;From Rhodes&#8217; History of the
+United States, Vol. V, pp. 483-515.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The history of Andersonville prison pen has shocked the world with
+its tales of horror, of woe, and of death, before unheard of and
+unknown to civilization. No pen can describe, no artist can paint, no
+imagination comprehend their fearful and unutterable sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Into the narrow confines of this prison were herded more than
+thirty-five thousand enlisted men, whose only fault was they &#8216;wore the
+Union blue,&#8217; many of them the bravest and best, the most devoted and
+heroic of those grand armies that carried the flag of the Union to
+final victory. For long and weary months they suffered and died for
+that flag. Here they suffered <b>unsheltered</b> from the burning rays of a
+southern sun, or were drenched by the rain and deadly dews of the
+night. All this while they were in every stage of physical
+disease&mdash;hungered, emaciated, starving.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is it a wonder that during the month of August, 1864, one man died in
+every eleven minutes, night and day, or that, for six months,
+beginning April, 1864, one died every twenty-two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> and one-half minutes
+night and day? This should forever silence the assertion that men
+would be taken prisoners rather than risk their lives on the firing
+line. The lack of water was the cause of much disease and suffering.
+Under the most favorable circumstances the water supply was
+insufficient for one-quarter of the number of men confined there. All
+the water obtainable was from a sluggish creek that ran through the
+grounds; and, in addition to this, there were thirty-six hundred men
+acting as guards camped on the bank of this stream before it reached
+the prison pen, and the water became so foul no words can describe
+it.&#8221;&mdash;From &#8220;A Sketch of Andersonville,&#8221; by Mrs. Lizabeth A. Turner,
+Chairman Andersonville Prison Board. Journal of the Twenty-fifth
+National Convention of the Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps, page 169.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&#8220;More things are wrought by prayer<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than this world dreams of.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">&mdash;Tennyson.</span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<p class="title">A CRY TO HEAVEN.</p>
+
+
+<p>The bitter cry which arose from the suffering camp was changed on the lips
+of a few to an appeal to heaven. Where else could men look in their dire
+extremity? One evening early in August the sound of the old long metre
+doxology was heard from the voices of a group of men gathered around the
+solitary pine stump in the enclosure, which was situated at the end of the
+north street of the prison where space was left for the ration wagon to
+turn around. On this stump was seated an emaciated cavalry sergeant, Mr.
+Shepard, of Columbus, Ohio, formerly an honored preacher of the gospel. In
+days past he had frequently been called upon to offer prayer over the
+remains of some deceased comrade, and now he led in the old and well-known
+hymn to call like-minded souls together.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>Some twenty-five unkempt, starving men gathered around him and joined in
+the familiar strain. What memories of family worship and old-time services
+in the meeting-house those words called up. Said Brother Shepard in
+substance: &#8220;I have today read in the book of Numbers of Moses striking the
+rock from which water gushed out for the ample supply of man and beast. I
+tell you God must strike a rock in Andersonville or we shall all die of
+thirst. And if there is no rock here, He can smite the ground and bring
+forth water to supply our desperate needs. Of this I am sure; let us ask
+Him to do this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pointing to an uncombed, unwashed, ragged comrade standing close by, he
+said, &#8220;Will the brother from Chicago pray?&#8221; He then successively called on
+other acquaintances, distinguishing them by their different localities at
+home. All the prayers were poured out in the one desire for water.</p>
+
+<p>For perhaps an hour the meeting continued and closed with the doxology.
+The words of the leader were, &#8220;Boys,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> when you awake during the night
+offer to God a little prayer for water. Do the same many times tomorrow,
+and let us meet here in the evening to pray again for water.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>If memory be not at fault, these individual and collective petitions were
+steadfastly offered from Monday evening to Thursday evening.</p>
+
+<p>For a month previous we had noticed that a number of the stockade timbers
+near the north gate had been loosened by the percolating of the copious
+rain and that they were sagging considerably and had settled out of line.
+We wondered why they had been allowed to remain so long in this unsafe
+condition. Was it a coincidence that after prayer began to be offered the
+quartermaster of the prison notified Capt. Wirtz that stockade timbers
+were out of line and should be set right? He was ordered to take a gang of
+slaves and make the necessary repairs. About fifteen stalwart negroes were
+marched through the main gate and turned into the twenty-foot space
+between the dead-line and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> the wall. With pike poles the closely adjoining
+posts were heaved into position and the earth was closely tamped.</p>
+
+<p>Then the workers faced about and commenced digging a trench up the hill
+nearly as wide as the space between the dead-line and the stockade. A part
+of the gang swung their picks into the red clay which was shoveled against
+the timbers. Another set followed with heavy rammers and pounded the whole
+into a smooth, sloping surface which was tamped closely to the base of the
+wooden wall, making a perfect watershed, and thus preventing the further
+loosening of the earth at the base of the stockade. By Thursday evening
+the broad trench with rounded bottom was completed from the swamp up the
+dead line space to the north gate.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p class="title">THE WOMANS RELIEF CORPS</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&#8220;Today beneath our Nation&#8217;s flag,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The old red, white and blue,</span><br />
+A band of noble women work<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With a purpose just and true;</span><br />
+To aid and succor those who fought<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To save our honored land,</span><br />
+For home and freedom, God and right,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those earnest women stand.&#8221;</span></td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 389px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img07.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">PROVIDENCE SPRING AND WOMEN OF THE RELIEF CORPS</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<p class="title">UNSEALING OF THE SPRING.</p>
+
+
+<p>On Friday morning an ominous stillness pervaded nature. By the middle of
+the forenoon a dense, dark cloud was noticed in the southwest quarter of
+the horizon, slowly creeping upward. It rose above the treetops majestic
+and awful in appearance. A troop of small, scurrying, angry-looking clouds
+seemed to form an advancing line to the vast mass of storm cloud. The
+onward movement quickened, and soon the front of the mountain of
+approaching cloud assumed a gray appearance, caused by the mighty downpour
+of water which more nearly than anything else seemed a continuous
+cloudburst.</p>
+
+<p>Crashes of thunder broke over our heads and flashes of lightning swished
+around us as if the air was filled with short circuits. The awful moving
+wall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> came towards us rapidly and we understood what was happening.</p>
+
+<p>As the mighty deluge swept through the clearing west of the prison, we
+bowed our heads in preparation of submersion in the advancing waterspout.
+When it came upon us the sensation was as if a million buckets of water
+were being poured upon us at once. The air was so filled with the roaring,
+hissing flood that we could not look up, but bent forward to protect our
+faces, covering our nostrils with our hands to preserve a little breathing
+space.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly rivulets of water poured down over our bodies as if a hose were
+discharging its stream on our shoulders, and the surface of the filthy
+ground was soon covered with a rush of muddy water. The swamp space as
+quickly filled with great swirling eddies. The upper stockade served as a
+dam across the creek, which in a few minutes became swollen into the
+dimensions of a river. Driftwood bore down upon the stockade, causing it
+to give way with a mighty crash. The heavy timbers were whirled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> across
+the prison as if they were mere straws, and by the force of their impact
+carried away the rear stockade. From the batteries solid shot was fired
+over our heads to warn us that if we attempted to escape through the
+opening in the wall we would be swept by the cannon. The roar of the guns
+chimed harmoniously with the thundering of the storm. In the awful
+suspense of such overwhelming conditions the progress of time could not be
+measured. The downpour may have continued twenty minutes, perhaps half an
+hour, or possibly longer. So great was its fury that we felt it must soon
+end or it would end us. Fortunately, it ceased as suddenly as it came.
+Looking up, we saw the great water wall retreating. The sun burst forth
+with unwonted vigor and shone with brilliant effect upon the receding
+rain. A dense fog arose from the drying garments of thirty-five thousand
+human bodies and from the exhalations of surrounding surfaces. As the
+heavy mist cleared away, the drenched and forlorn prisoners tried to be
+merry. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> viewed with complacency the breach in the walls of the
+infamous pen and wished that every timber had been leveled to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>A witty comrade on the south hill of the prison, thinking to convey
+desired information to the north side, shouted at the top of his voice,
+&#8220;Water! Water!&#8221; Men on the north side, as by a common impulse, answered
+back, and the two great companies in turn shouted the magic word, much as
+the opposite hosts on Ebal and Gerazim alternately responded, &#8220;Amen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after this antiphonal outburst a voice was heard from the
+north gate, ringing out in clear tones the thrilling words, &#8220;A spring! A
+spring! A spring has broken out!&#8221; &#8220;Where, where?&#8221; was the eager inquiry
+which arose at once from many lips. The writer tried to press his way
+towards the north gate, but the crowd was so dense that no progress could
+be made. The excitement of the moment was indescribable. During a lull
+some one sang out, &#8220;You fellows over by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> north gate, tell us, has a
+spring broken out?&#8221; &#8220;Yes,&#8221; was the reply, an emphatic &#8220;Yes.&#8221; Then was
+further shouted the explanation, &#8220;Where the trench was dug the flood has
+torn up the earth and a spring has gushed out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as opportunity afforded we pressed our way to the spot, and there,
+just below the north gate, in the center of the space between the stockade
+and the dead-line, at the point where the earth had been most deeply
+excavated, the sloping surfaces had gathered the waters of the flood. The
+bottom of the trench was torn up some twenty inches, uncovering the vent
+of a spring of purest crystal water, which shot up into the air in a
+column and, falling in a fanlike spray, went babbling down the grade into
+the noxious brook. Looking across the dead-line, we beheld with wondering
+eyes and grateful hearts the fountain spring.</p>
+
+<p>But our relief was not yet realized; the question which now concerned us
+was how to bring its cooling waters within reach of our lips. In the
+afternoon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> and evening of that eventful Friday we prayed that God would so
+turn the heart of Capt. Wirtz that he would allow the precious water to be
+conveyed within our lines. We waited in suspense for the answer, and on
+Saturday morning, to our delight, we saw the quartermaster again enter the
+gate with a gang of slaves, bringing fence boards, hammers, nails, axes
+and stakes. A double row of the latter was driven, so that the direction
+crossed the dead-line at a slight angle down the hill. A strip was nailed
+across each pair of stakes, and in the aperture rested a trough made of
+two fence boards nailed together. At the lower end of this chute in an
+excavation was set a sugar hogshead, around which clay was tamped so as to
+aid in making it watertight. When all was ready the upper end of the chute
+was thrust under the falling column of water, which swiftly ran down and
+filled to overflowing the large barrel. From this the men by crowds dipped
+freely of the refreshing, life-giving water.</p>
+
+<p>Laughter, songs and thanksgiving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> abounded. Thus was wrought before our
+eyes a gracious work of Providence which to many of us was quite as
+wonderful and quite as manifestly the work of the All-Father as was the
+smitten rock in the Palestine desert from which the thirst of the fainting
+hosts of Israel was slacked in their desert wanderings.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img08.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">Stockade bursted by a flood which opened the wonderful &#8220;Providence Spring&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<p class="title">WAS IT A MIRACLE?</p>
+
+
+<p>A profound conviction has been cherished by many that the unsealing of
+Providence Spring was as marked an interposition of the hand of the
+Almighty as that recorded in the Book of Numbers where it is said, &#8220;And
+Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water
+came forth abundantly and the congregation drank.&#8221; Num. 20:11.</p>
+
+<p>Are they wrong in this conviction? The unwontedness of the incident admits
+of no dispute. In such a sober work as Rhodes History of the United
+States, we have the statement, &#8220;After a severe storm a spring broke out
+within the enclosure (Andersonville stockade) and this became one of the
+main reliances for drinking water.&#8221; Vol. V., p. 492.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>An eye witness records: &#8220;About the first of August showers fell that beat
+anything I ever saw. There was one good result, for where the stockade was
+washed away on the north side, it opened a spring of pure water, enough to
+supply nearly the whole of the prison.&#8221; (The narrative of Amos E. Stearns,
+Co. A, 25th Regiment, Mass. Published by Franklin Pierce, 1887.)</p>
+
+<p>While comparatively few of the prisoners knew of the days of prayer that
+preceded the storm, every one recognized that something out of the
+ordinary course of events had happened; and that a new spirit pervaded the
+camp. Before this, no one would give a dying man a drink, for water was
+scarce, and the scurvy in the recipient&#8217;s mouth might contaminate the cup
+for its owner. And indeed, not many had the strength to wait upon others.
+But now the dull, sombre, despairing mood was changed. The little stream
+of pure water, contrasted with the former slough that supplied us,
+murmured sweetly down through the night, and during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> day it
+over-brimmed thousands of cups that eager hands reached forth.</p>
+
+<p>In after days many of these men were gathered at Camp Chase, Ohio, and
+there detained until improved health rendered them presentable for return
+home.</p>
+
+<p>We recall that when in the chapel of that place a Capt. Allen conducted
+evening religious services, hundreds of testimonies were given to the
+effect that the breaking out of the spring at Andersonville was a distinct
+answer to prayer and a convincing fact of the reality of help coming from
+above. Many of the speakers declared that their Christian faith began from
+that occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>Questions such as the following naturally arise: Was Providence Spring a
+miracle? Would the saving relief have been withheld if prayer had not been
+offered?</p>
+
+<p>The situation is not more difficult of analysis than is that described in
+the story of Queen Esther where is exhibited the interplay of natural and
+supernatural elements in human activity and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> Divine over-ruling. The
+northern section of the Andersonville inclosure was mainly a bank of clay,
+as evidenced by the many wells which were partially sunk, but filled, by
+order of Capt. Wirtz, because tunnels therefrom were dug for escape. The
+vein of water which issued in Providence Spring doubtless flowed from time
+immemorial, and being unable to work upward through a too great overpress
+of clay, had found a lower seam through which it seeped into the depths of
+the swamp below. This implied fact was learned as follows: As the prison
+administration was unable to cook meal and bacon for the increasing
+thousands of men, these articles were issued raw for two weeks alternately
+to the north and south sides of the enclosure.</p>
+
+<p>A distressingly small lot of wood must suffice a detachment of two hundred
+and seventy men for three days. Often the individual portion would not
+make a fire that would scald, much less cook, the scant portion of
+cornmeal, which was sometimes coarse and unbolted. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> said that more
+than ten thousand cases of bloody dysentery prevailed at one time;
+aggravated by irritation to stomach and intestines from the practically
+uncooked food. The awful unsanitary conditions which prevailed can be
+described, but respect for the sensibilities of the reader forbids.
+Suffice it to say that the need for fuel was urgent, that a number of the
+stronger captives would lay aside their tattered remnants of clothing,
+wade into the slimy muck of the swamp, and, sinking to their armpits,
+would pull up fragments of wood that had long been submerged. This was
+mostly pitch pine and when broken up would quickly burn. The work of
+exhuming fuel under such repulsive conditions was chiefly done at night.</p>
+
+<p>It was noticed that in the morning the partially remaining foot-prints and
+depression, from which the stick had been drawn, were filled with clear
+water. This fact was a mystery until after the spring was opened; then the
+conclusion was reached that the spring water followed a deep seam in the
+clay and oozed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> into the swamp some distance below the surface and rose up
+through the openings made by the wood-diggers.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore Providence Spring was not especially created to order. Like
+Topsy, it had &#8220;allus&#8221; been. The providential aspects of the case may be
+thus stated; the spring existed, but was unknown. It was located under the
+space between the dead-line and the stockade, through which digging for a
+well was not permitted; it therefore remained undiscovered. The
+out-of-plumb position of the stockade timbers had existed for a long time,
+but was not noticed by the officials until the time when prayer began to
+be offered for water. As the petitions of Esther and Mordecai, unknown to
+the King, in a manner unseen affected his action, so by analogy, the
+prayer of Sergeant Shepard and his colleagues influenced the state of mind
+of the quartermaster and of Commandant Wirtz and they were moved to the
+repairing of the stockade which had long been neglected.</p>
+
+<p>This decision led to the forming of a broad trench by digging away the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+ground to afford the needed watershed from the base of the stockade.</p>
+
+<p>Thus a channel was formed which gathered the storm-water with force
+sufficient to tear away the ground over the spring and release the
+life-giving fountain. The slaves removed quite a depth of the earth
+directly over the unknown reservoir; thus the deepest part of the trench
+was brought so near the spring that the rush of the storm-flow could do
+the rest.</p>
+
+<p>The spring water was uncovered and its pressure was sufficient to throw it
+into the air. However, as it was located on the forbidden margin, any
+prisoner reaching under or over the dead-line for a draught of the water
+would be instantly shot by the sentinel posted overhead on the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Hence, after the spring was opened an object of much desire, and suitable
+as a subject of prayer, was that the hardness of Capt. Wirtz would be
+relaxed to the extent of allowing the prisoners to have access to the
+water. This result<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> was accomplished and the relief was complete.</p>
+
+<p>A recent writer commenting on the development of Providence Spring refers
+to the marble fountain erected by the Ex-Prisoners of War Association
+inside the granite pavilion built over the spring by the Woman&#8217;s Relief
+Corps, remarks, &#8220;The waters flow strong and sweet with a never-ceasing
+stream into the marble basin. It is said to be the best water in all
+Georgia; that which gushes forth from the side of the little hill in
+Andersonville.&#8221; Confirmatory to this statement is the following incident:</p>
+
+<p>In 1896, when the writer lectured in Warsaw, N. Y., on &#8220;Reminiscences of
+Battle-fields and Prisons,&#8221; a prominent war veteran of the town, who had
+been a member of the staff of General Grant, showed him a bottle of water
+from Providence Spring which nine years before had been hermetically
+sealed by the Rev. G. Stanley Lathrop of Atlanta. So pure was the content
+that no sediment existed.</p>
+
+<p>The further comment is: &#8220;The scientific fact of Providence Spring is that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+in the August electrical storm the rocks (clay) which held back this
+spring were cracked or broken open by a lightning bolt and the waters
+gushed forth. No one ever believed that it was a sort of Moses
+intervention for the prisoners, but it was undoubtedly looked upon in that
+light by the poor, thirsty, half-starved prisoners.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To which we reply that if we believe in prayer as an instrumentality by
+which human and divine forces cooperate to a beneficent end, and the
+result takes place, why should we question the efficacy of intercession?</p>
+
+<p>The fact that a number of believing men in the prison were engaged for
+some days in protracted prayer for relief from water-famine was not
+ostentatiously announced at the time, and was little noticed by the crowd.
+Thus has it ever been with the origin of great spiritual movements.</p>
+
+<p>The relief came and a new spirit of hope and gladness, such as prevailing
+prayer engenders, swept through the multitude.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>The scientific fact of a mightly rain storm being the visible agency of
+completing the opening of Providence Spring fitly coordinates with the
+moral force of prayer, as in numberless instances such convergence occurs
+in history. Nevertheless, this explanation will probably be accepted or
+challenged according to the personal experience of the reader in matters
+of Christian faith.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of the smitten rock of the Palestine desert water doubtless
+existed in an abundant, although unknown supply. The Almighty, by the
+agency of Moses, brought it forth for the satisfying of a great multitude.</p>
+
+<p>The prophet was commanded to speak to the rock and it would give forth
+water. The response could be from none other than the Creator of all
+mountains and flowing streams. And although Moses went beyond the Divine
+command, and struck with a rod instead of speaking with his voice, yet the
+Divine goodness was not withheld, &#8220;and the water came abundantly.&#8221; So at
+Andersonville the sufficient, though unknown,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> supply was close at hand.
+Human voices pleading for relief were answered by Him who spoke by the
+wind, the lightning and the flood.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that the spiritual desires of our hearts are the reflection of
+what God is waiting to do for us through our own co-operation. Surely
+then, the prayers of the Andersonville prisoners for water were incited by
+Him who saw their dire necessity, and who waited only for human hands to
+aid in the release of the fountain of water which his Omnipotence had
+created.</p>
+
+<p>During the subsequent years the writer has given the foregoing account in
+lectures and conversations to his comrades of the Grand Army of the
+Republic and to many others. Gentlemen of scientific and Christian
+attainments have said that this explanation of the phenomenon of
+Providence Spring is the most satisfactory of any that they have heard.</p>
+
+<p>The event here chronicled is commemorated by the erection on the spot of a
+granite pavilion which is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>appropriately named &#8220;Providence Spring.&#8221; The
+inscriptions are as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="center">This Fountain Erected by<br />
+<span class="smcap">The National Association of Union</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Ex-Prisoners of War</span><br />
+In Memory of the 52,345 Comrades<br />
+who were confined here as prisoners of<br />
+war, and of<br />
+the 13,900 comrades buried in the<br />
+adjoining National Cemetery.<br />
+Dedicated Memorial Day,<br />
+May Thirteenth, Nineteen Hundred<br />
+and One.<br />
+<br />
+James Atwell, National Commander.<br />
+S. M. Long, Adjt. Gen&#8217;l.<br />
+J. D. Walker, Cham. Ex. Committee.</p>
+
+<p>A reverse tablet bears the words:</p>
+
+<p class="center">This Pavilion Was Erected by the<br />
+<span class="smcap">Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps</span><br />
+Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the<br />
+Republic<br />
+In grateful memory of the men who<br />
+suffered and died in the<br />
+Confederate Prison at Andersonville,<br />
+Georgia,<br />
+From February, 1864, to April, 1865.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&#8220;The prisoner&#8217;s cry of thirst rang up to heaven;<br />
+God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth<br />
+And poured his sweetest waters gushing here.&#8221;</td></tr></table>
+<p class="center">&#8220;Erected 1901.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<p class="title">DELIVERANCE.</p>
+
+
+<p><small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small>At a point on the Cape Fear river, about ten miles from Wilmington, N.
+C., a trainload of old Andersonville prisoners who had been confined also
+at Florence, S. C., and Salisbury, N. C., were delivered to General Terry.
+They had just been paroled at Goldsboro, and were received by him about
+the middle of March, 1865. His headquarters was at a point on the Cape
+Fear river and recently taken from the enemy. It was now held by the Third
+New Hampshire, Sixteenth New York heavy artillery, and by a division of
+colored troops.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>The freight cars halted in a pine forest about a mile from this position,
+which commanded a pontoon bridge. A squad of cavalry received the
+ex-prisoners, unfurling the Stars and Stripes in greeting. Many of the
+boys in blue wept, when they saw our plight. The released men tried to
+hurrah, but were too weak to raise much of a shout. Three ambulances were
+loaded with as many of the sick as could be taken on the first trip.</p>
+
+<p>At the farther end of the pontoon bridge the road led through a deep cut
+in the bank up to the open space of the camp where guns pointed over the
+river towards the forest through which the freight train had come from
+Goldsboro with the paroled men. Spanning this cut was an arch constructed
+of evergreen boughs and faced with the white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> cloth square of shelter
+tent, upon which was spelled in letters made of evergreen sprigs, &#8220;THE
+SIXTEENTH NEW YORK WELCOMES YOU HOME.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The march of a mile from the railroad to the pontoon bridge greatly
+exhausted the paroled prisoners. At first the excitement of once more
+gazing upon the flag they loved, and being received by the advanced
+squadron, stimulated them to walk with some show of vigor.</p>
+
+<p>But soon their eyes shone with the unwonted brightness of fatigue in
+contrast with their pinched and grimy faces. Many sank by the wayside, to
+be picked up by the ambulance when the same could return for them.</p>
+
+<p>The stronger ones worked up into the head of the column which crossed the
+pontoon bridge and the advance files of men undertook to walk up through
+the cut in the bank at the bridge end. But their feet sank in the sand and
+they were too weak to go further.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile a company of colored soldiers were drawn up through the cut in
+two ranks facing. Between these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> lines and under the arch our ambulance
+passed; the horses tugging with might and main up the steep grade and
+through the deep sand. The white officers and the black soldiers stood at
+&#8220;Present Arms.&#8221; The eyes of the soldiers opened and their teeth gleamed
+with an aspect of astonishment, as they for the first time beheld seasoned
+graduates from a course of experiences in war-prisons. The living wrecks
+in the ambulances were still more pale and ghastly than were the stronger
+ones following slowly on foot, and as the latter emerged from the woods on
+to the floating bridge, the onlooking crowd of our men off duty began to
+be stirred with a great excitement.</p>
+
+<p>As the ambulances lined up before headquarters, General Terry approached.
+With him were the brigade surgeon and a representative of the United
+States Christian Commission. The General looked upon us with tear-dimmed
+eyes; and turning to the surgeon gave his pocket flask, saying, &#8220;Doctor,
+for God&#8217;s sake, help these poor fellows.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>This ambulance stopped on the crest of the hill, when the Christian
+Commission man stepped to its side and said to the writer, &#8220;My boy, you
+will get out here.&#8221; Seeing I was too weak to rise from the seat, he said,
+&#8220;Just lie across my shoulder.&#8221; This I did and he carried me into a near-by
+country church building which sheltered the sick until they could be
+conveyed by boat to Wilmington.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the straggling column of paroled prisoners had crossed the
+bridge. An officer undertook to form them into ranks so as to march in
+form under the arch and between the lines which stood at &#8220;Present arms.&#8221;
+Their feet sank in the soft sand of the cut, and after taking a few steps
+they were utterly exhausted. The officer in charge thus addressed the two
+lines: &#8220;Shoulder arms!&#8221; &#8220;Order arms!&#8221; &#8220;Stack arms!&#8221; &#8220;Break ranks and carry
+these men up the hill!&#8221; With a mighty cheer the athletic colored soldiers
+sprang forward and each picked up an emaciated, wilted prisoner, carried
+him up the hill, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> tenderly placed him on the ground. In due time, the
+sick were taken by boat to the Wright House Hospital, Wilmington, and the
+stronger ones were placed in a camp waiting transportation by steamer to
+the north.</p>
+
+<p>In the winter of 1875-76, the partially regained health of the writer
+collapsed, and he was advised to consult his former regimental surgeon,
+Dr. Wells B. Fox. The Doctor said, &#8220;You may live a good while, and you may
+not. Prepare to leave your family in as good shape as possible. If you
+have unsettled accounts fix them up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pursuant to this advice, and needing the benefit of a climate warmer than
+a Michigan winter, he went to Washington to close up some army matters.
+Here he was received very kindly by Surgeon General Barnes, and by him
+ordered to have a thorough examination by experts of the medical
+department. The diagnosis was more favorable than was deemed possible, and
+its correctness has been verified by the subsequent years.</p>
+
+<p>On the journey from Cheboygan to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Washington, a stop was made at
+Greenville. With his host, a call was made on the Rev. James L. Patton,
+pastor of the Congregational Church of that place. As the evening passed,
+conversation turned to army happenings. After reciting some experiences in
+the service of the United States Christian Commission, with an aroused
+manner, Dr. Patton said, &#8220;I must tell you of an occasion that I shall
+never forget. I was in the Christian Commission service outside
+Wilmington, North Carolina, near the close of the war, with General Terry,
+when he received the first installment of old Andersonville prisoners as
+they were sent into our lines. Terry was all broken up over their
+condition.&#8221; &#8220;Could the prisoners walk?&#8221; asked the writer. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; he
+replied; &#8220;some of them could, but many had to be brought in on
+ambulances.&#8221; He was asked, &#8220;Where did you put those who were sick?&#8221; &#8220;We
+laid them on the floor of a little church that was close by,&#8221; Dr. Patton
+replied. Extending his hand the writer said, &#8220;Dr. Patton, thank you.&#8221;
+&#8220;Why, why,&#8221; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> replied hesitatingly, &#8220;you need not thank me for the
+story; it is true and you are welcome to it.&#8221; &#8220;Yes,&#8221; was the response, &#8220;I
+have no doubt the story is true. I do not thank you for it, but for
+helping me out of the ambulance at that time.&#8221; Need it be said that these
+two men found themselves comrades, indeed?</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<p class="title">AN INCIDENT BY THE WAY.</p>
+
+
+<p>A steamboat on the northeast branch of the Cape Fear river carried our
+paroled men from the station held by General Terry to the city of
+Wilmington.</p>
+
+<p>One of the principal mansions was owned by a Dr. Wright who had fled with
+his family on the approach of the Union troops. His fine residence was
+converted into a hospital for the arrivals who were sick.</p>
+
+<p>During the ride from Goldsboro on top of a freight car, the writer was
+taken ill and was barely able to walk the steamer plank at the point of
+transfer. After resting in the little country church he was taken to the
+Wright House Hospital and assigned a straw bed on the floor of a room in
+the third story. Soldier nurses proceeded to take off his infested prison
+rags and to give him a sponge rub. He fainted under the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>process and had a
+run of fever during which he was delirious.</p>
+
+<p>When the point of death was apparently reached his vitality took a turn
+for the better and he rapidly improved.</p>
+
+<p>On the floor of his room were twelve narrow straw beds having a succession
+of occupants who, with a few exceptions, were soon transferred to their
+final resting places.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the ex-prisoners having died from the effects of the too early use
+of solid food, the physicians became extremely cautious and limited the
+sick to small quantities of the most simple preparations.</p>
+
+<p>During the writer&#8217;s convalescence, his ravenous hunger was unsatisfied by
+the slender allowance. It happened that his bed ended up to a window, and
+his favorite occupation was to sit on his pillow and watch the proceedings
+in the yard below. Here was a servant&#8217;s cottage occupied by two colored
+women who evidently had excused themselves from flight with their master.
+The older one moved about with quiet dignity and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> doubtless had been the
+&#8220;mamma&#8221; of the family. With evident pleasure she watched the new life and
+movement around her, and held in restraint her young and vivacious
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>In the yard soldier cooks prepared in large kettles great quantities of
+beef soup, which was ladled into pails, carried to the kitchen and served
+to the patients throughout the building.</p>
+
+<p>A young artilleryman from Olean, New York, lay on a straw pallet alongside
+that of the writer. The one was called &#8220;Olean&#8221; and the other &#8220;Michigan.&#8221;
+From his post of observation at the window the latter, one morning,
+watched the handling of the soup below with an interest that could not be
+concealed. &#8220;Say, Michigan, what are you looking at?&#8221; inquired Olean. &#8220;I am
+looking at them pouring out the soup,&#8221; was the reply, &#8220;and say, Olean, I
+wish I could have a good smell of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Smell</i> of the soup,&#8221; said Olean contemptuously; &#8220;if I was a wishing I&#8217;d
+wish I <i>had</i> some and not just a smell.&#8221; Upon this sagacious remark, a
+number<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> of the occupants of the other beds passed the wink or laugh with a
+feeble, hacking sound; their pinched faces brightening with a sense of
+mirth.</p>
+
+<p>The practical wisdom of the suggestion was not lost upon &#8220;Michigan,&#8221; who
+said, &#8220;If I was a little stronger I would take my cup, go down the stairs
+and into the yard and I would say, &#8216;Boys, I&#8217;m awfully hungry; please give
+me some soup.&#8217;&#8221; Ah-ah-ah, laughed &#8220;Olean.&#8221; &#8220;Say, Michigan, I&#8217;ll bet you
+five cents you can&#8217;t walk the length of your bed and touch the door knob.&#8221;
+Upon this challenge, the other patients from their pillows exchanged
+glances, several braced up on the elbow and discussed the possibility of
+one of their number leaving his room without permission to forage for
+refreshments. The concensus of opinion was that he could not succeed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who are you talking to?&#8221; vigorously responded &#8220;Michigan.&#8221; &#8220;You think I
+can&#8217;t do it; I&#8217;ll show you what I can do.&#8221; Grasping the projecting window
+moulding he helped himself to his feet, carefully balancing his trembling
+steps along<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> the narrow space between the beds on the floor, and
+triumphantly grasping the knob of the door exclaimed, &#8220;There now, Olean;
+I&#8217;ve done it; I&#8217;ve done it. Where is your five cents?&#8221; &#8220;Oh, I haven&#8217;t any
+five cents,&#8221; replied Olean, &#8220;but say, Michigan, you would look mighty fine
+going down those stairs, wouldn&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon the observing comrades laughed in great glee; in weakness, like
+little children, a very trifling incident amused them; they nodded their
+heads at each other and exchanged approving glances.</p>
+
+<p>Our regulation costume was a gray army shirt, drawers of like material,
+and a pair of socks. Thus appareled &#8220;Michigan&#8221; opened the door into the
+hall, peered over the railing down the two flights of stairs and, seeing
+the coast clear, worked along to the newel post and carefully lowered
+himself one or two steps.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking discretion might be the better part of valor, he tested his
+strength for the return by trying to retrace the steps down which he had
+come. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> quite unable to lift himself on the rising, so must needs
+continue down the two flights, resting his weight on the rail. Dizzy and
+breathless he stood by the stair post on the main floor. At this juncture
+the hospital steward suddenly entered and was amazed to find a very weak
+patient in a state of migration. &#8220;What are you doing here?&#8221; he hurriedly
+and angrily asked. &#8220;What room do you belong to and who said you might
+leave it?&#8221; &#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m just taking a little exercise,&#8221; was the reply. The
+steward rang for an attendant, and with an oath said, &#8220;No more of this; I
+will order a man to help you to your room and there you stay.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But no helper appeared, so our hero summoned all his determination and
+walked through the hall to the back porch. Here a stack of plain coffins
+greeted his view; and he fancied that one of them belonged to him. Going
+down the veranda steps he held to the rail and coming into the full rays
+of the sun turned faint and for a few minutes was helpless. Again, he
+summoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> all the powers of his will and started down the gravel walk
+towards the servant&#8217;s cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the porch of the same, he sank exhausted on the steps with head
+resting against the corner post. Just then the old &#8220;mamma&#8221; came out of her
+room and caught sight of the wasted form and pale face of the would-be
+soup hunter. Gazing pityingly upon his emaciation, and speaking to her
+assistant, she exclaimed, &#8220;Dinah, Dinah, come yeah, come yeah; look at dat
+ar&#8217; po&#8217; white chile; he bleached so white as linen!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then addressing him, she said, &#8220;Wah yo&#8217; come from? Wah yo&#8217; come from?&#8221;
+&#8220;Oh, auntie,&#8221; he gasped, &#8220;I came out of the hospital to get some soup and
+I can&#8217;t get any further. Auntie, give me something to eat; I&#8217;m awfully
+hungry!&#8221; &#8220;Dinah, Dinah,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Go to the cupboard and git a big slice
+ob de co&#8217;n pone; jes slip it undah you aprun and bring it yeah to me.&#8221;
+Passing the generous slice under her own apron, the old mammy stood by the
+veranda post, looking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> the meanwhile intently at a distant object as if
+oblivious to all near concerns.</p>
+
+<p>Thus she partially screened the invalid from observation, and reaching the
+portion down to his hand, tenderly said, &#8220;Dar now, honey, yo eat dat
+bread.&#8221; No second invitation to indulge his famished appetite was needed.
+The slice of &#8220;co&#8217;n pone&#8221; speedily disappeared. Strange to say, no
+inconvenience resulted. The food aroused the dormant vitality and the
+young fellow eagerly exclaimed, &#8220;Auntie, Auntie, that was so good. Give me
+some more.&#8221; &#8220;No, honey,&#8221; she said decisively, &#8220;de doctah see me do dis
+yah, I done go, suah.&#8221; Then the invalid began to cry hysterically. The
+sympathy of the kind old heart was still further aroused and, spreading
+her great hand on his head, she said softly, &#8220;Po chile, po chile, he want
+ta see he muddah.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mother, Mother!&#8221; How that word stirred his heart and aroused his memory
+so weakened by suffering. Physical vigor from the dark hand upon his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> head
+was surcharged with vitality that probably stimulated the depleted
+personality.</p>
+
+<p>Again the young man asked, &#8220;Aunty, aunty, give me some more,&#8221; and again
+came the reply, &#8220;No, honey, de doctah see me do dis, he send me off for
+suah.&#8221; Meanwhile &#8220;Olean&#8221; was pressing his face against the third-story
+window to see how &#8220;Michigan&#8221; was prospering in his quest for soup.</p>
+
+<p>A soldier nurse approached the cottage and &#8220;aunty,&#8221; who seemed to be on
+good terms with all, interceded for her guest. &#8220;Dis ya chile done cum down
+fo a wok; he done tiad out, yo&#8217; help him back, won&#8217;t yo&#8217;, massa?&#8221; And he
+did.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img09.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">&#8220;Dinah, Dinah, look at dat ar po&#8217; white chile; he bleached so white as linen.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<p class="title">A SEQUEL.</p>
+
+
+<p>At the age of thirteen, the writer attended a series of religious meetings
+and became profoundly convicted of his obligation to accept Jesus Christ
+as his personal Savior. Lack of moral courage held him back from an open
+confession. He compromised by secretly pledging to become a Christian
+after he had entered upon his chosen profession of law. Thereupon his
+convictions ceased and the matter was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in his illness in Andersonville prison, answer to prayer, as
+evidenced in the instance of Providence Spring, turned his attention to
+his own moral necessities. Well might this introspection occur; for, in
+this month of August, 1864, his prospects of surviving the surrounding
+conditions were swiftly diminishing. Blood poisoning, in the form of
+scurvy, had settled in his face. He <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>tottered from weakness. His long days
+and weary nights were spent on his blanket, spread on the ground, just
+within the little shelter tent that was wedged in among others. When eyes
+were closed to awful sights, the ears must listen to dreadful sounds. As
+vitality was ebbing away, and the things of time and sense were
+withdrawing, the realities of eternity seemed to come to the front. Truly
+it was time to &#8220;prepare to meet thy God.&#8221; This must be done at once. The
+reading of the little pocket testament began anew, and the thought was
+awakened to pray for self; when suddenly there came to mind the forgotten
+covenant of seven years ago, &#8220;I will be a Christian <i>after</i> I become a
+lawyer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The obvious conclusion was, &#8220;Taken on your own terms, as you cannot be a
+lawyer, you cannot be a Christian.&#8221; Total physical and mental weakness
+could not cope with this mental suggestion. The reflections that followed
+led to feelings of utter despair. Thus he soliloquized, &#8220;In the day of my
+strength I said &#8216;No&#8217; to God; now, in the hour of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> my weakness, he will not
+hear me. He knows that from fear and not from sincerity I now seek to
+pray. Hypocritical prayer will but add insult to injury. I must not pray.&#8221;
+These confused reasonings were largely due to an anemic brain and mental
+temptation. The weakened mind accepted a lie in place of the invigorating
+truth that &#8220;now is the day of salvation.&#8221; Eternity seemed to open its
+portals to a realm of darkness into which the soul was being forced by the
+stress of its own past decision, while high over these gates enthroned in
+light appeared the radiant form of the Son of God. While this Personage
+seemed unspeakably lovely and &#8220;chief among ten thousand,&#8221; the soliloquizer
+said, &#8220;He has been denied, he is lost to me.&#8221; These cogitations filled the
+waking and sleeping hours of several nights. With a sense of woe
+unutterable the decision of doom was accepted. The sensations of a lost
+soul seemed to be real. Words are entirely inadequate to express the sense
+of eternal, irremediable loss by which the heart was oppressed. This
+exhaustive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> strain could not long continue. The evening of a day of
+unusually oppressive heat presaged the end. Vividly the thought stood
+before the mind, &#8220;This is my last night on earth.&#8221; To the comrade who was
+blanket-mate the home address was given and a whispered good-bye. This was
+the fully accepted close of life.</p>
+
+<p>Sinking into an unrestful slumber, the small hours of the morning arrived,
+and a forgotten incident of the long ago was revived in a dream. The scene
+in vision occurred on a beautiful Sunday morning of spring, eleven years
+before. The location was a village on the old Ridge road in Niagara
+county, New York. The region was, and is, noted for its orchards of
+deciduous fruits. On this date the blossoms were out in full. Banks of
+pink and white embosomed the homesteads that lined the historic highway;
+sweet odors filled the air, and bevies of bees with droning song were
+industriously gathering the abundant nectar. Nothing could surpass the
+beauty of that quiet Lord&#8217;s Day morning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> as the family, consisting of
+father, mother, older sister and younger brother, with the lad, wended its
+way to the brick church of the village. They habitually passed, on the
+outskirts of the same, the stone house of Col. N&mdash;&mdash;, whose daughter&#8217;s
+husband was absent in the West.</p>
+
+<p>The good lady taught in the Sunday school a class of boys who were from
+seven to ten years of age, and although they were possessed of
+irrepressible juvenile energy, and occasionally, to her distress, seemed
+to be irreverent; yet they regarded her with sincere respect and gave
+willing obedience.</p>
+
+<p>On the Saturday night, preceding this Sunday morning, a great burden of
+solicitude for the safety of her husband was suddenly pressed in upon her
+mind. To her imagination he seemed to be in extreme peril; perhaps he was
+unattended; he might be alone and facing a speedy and fatal termination.
+Possessing a strong faith in God, and believing his readiness to hear and
+answer prayer, at midnight she aroused from her bed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> and engaged in an
+irrepressible travail of soul for the far-away loved one. For several
+hours the burden of intercession continued. With the coming of the Sunday
+morning dawn, the light which made all nature bright and beautiful was
+suddenly duplicated in her heart. All at once the burden lifted.
+Instantaneously her being was filled with the sweet assurance that all was
+well with her husband; that whatever was his danger he was being saved
+therefrom. A tender gratitude possessed her heart. A sense of union with
+the mighty Jehovah suffused her being with a consciousness of strength and
+resource. Like Deborah of old a song of triumph arose in her soul.</p>
+
+<p>As the time of going to church approached, the above mentioned family came
+along, and, as was their custom, the teacher and her son, who was about
+the age of the writer, joined them on the way to the sanctuary. As the
+others were conversing by the way, the two boys ran on ahead and the one,
+having observed on the face of his teacher the marks of suffering, said to
+his chum,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> &#8220;Newton, what is the matter with your mamma?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;O, Johnny,&#8221; was the reply; &#8220;My mamma has been feeling awful bad about my
+papa. I guess she thinks he is going to die, for in the night I heard her
+talking and talking to God about saving him and making him well. Say,
+Johnny, if God don&#8217;t do what mamma asks I won&#8217;t have any papa, will I?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With their hands joined in a common sympathy, and with mutual tears, the
+two lads sorrowed for a brief moment. But what parental anxiety could hold
+their abounding life from immediate sympathy with nature smiling all
+around? By the time the church was reached and cheery salutations had been
+exchanged with arriving classmates, all impressions of grief were
+forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher, in a mood of chastened gladness and confidence, listened to
+the sermon which the venerable pastor extended to an unusual length. This
+delay absorbed the brief period of time usually given to an intermission,
+during which the intermediates might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> straighten out the kinks which
+seemed to form in their lithe limbs while perched on cushioned seats so
+high that their feet dangled short of the carpet.</p>
+
+<p>The good superintendent, whose gracious face and form are remembered as
+but of yesterday, called the school to order immediately after the
+benediction was pronounced. &#8220;We are late,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and cannot have
+intermission today; classes take their places at once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>These irrepressible youngsters combined the movement of filing into the
+pew with motions not included in the regular order. One punched another.
+The lad who had recently shared the mental distress of his mother now
+inserted a bent pin under the descending form of his companion; resulting
+in a response that did not improve the discipline of the occasion. The
+boisterous impulse seized the entire class to the annoyance and
+discomfiture of the teacher, who was seated at their front in the
+adjoining pew. Several reproving glances directed towards the young
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>insurgents quieted them during the opening exercises.</p>
+
+<p>After the vigil of prayer during much of the preceding night and the
+answer of peace that had been given, we can readily understand the state
+of mind which now possessed the teacher. The transient, sportive disorder
+of the little boys was but a harmless ripple on the surface of her
+thought. Her soul was in a continued attitude of prayer. Her victory in
+intercession made easy a renewal of request at the throne of grace. Not
+only her mother-heart but her Christian love yearned over the lads that
+were committed to her care. Not the surface question of behavior, but the
+issue of their conversion to Jesus Christ took possession of her mind. She
+thought to herself, &#8220;Why not now? Why not now?&#8221; Attracting the attention
+of the lads by tapping on the pew-top with her ivory-mounted fan, with
+countenance expressing unwonted strength, she said, &#8220;My boys, I want you
+to now be perfectly quiet, and to bow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> your heads and close your eyes
+while I pray for you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The spirit of quiet firmness which accompanied these words, the
+outreaching of her soul as in the interceding exercise of the previous
+night, profoundly impressed the lads. Instantly and willingly, they took
+the attitude of reverence; motionless they listened to the tender voice
+that pleaded in words like these: &#8220;O Lord, my heavenly Father, I ask Thee
+to help my little boys to give their hearts to Thee. Wilt Thou not, by the
+sacrifice of thy dear Son, cleanse their hearts from sin. Wilt Thou give
+to them a new heart, a clean heart? Bestow upon them freely of Thy Holy
+Spirit, and help them to live always for Thee. Amen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Although eleven years had passed away, and the immature experiences of
+boyhood had been replaced by the opening realities of manhood, the events
+above described formed the subject-matter of the dream on that memorable
+night in Andersonville. The panorama of what was largely forgotten
+unfolded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> before the mind in what was supposed to be the sleep of
+approaching death. These renewed impressions were so vivid that at the
+instant of awaking the reality seemed to be with the old-time home; the
+dream was the being in the prison pen.</p>
+
+<p>But a few moments of consciousness were required for the recognition of
+the actual circumstances of the present time and place.</p>
+
+<p>But, within, all was changed. In the place of despair an inspiring hope
+was in the ascendant. The forms and voices of loved ones had been seen and
+heard. The intercession of the teacher for her little boys had restored
+the right to pray. While yet in much physical weakness the day was mostly
+passed in silent prayer.</p>
+
+<p>During the second night a lessened impression of the dream was repeated.
+By the second morning all the processes of thought were restored to the
+normal condition. The mind and will were able to adopt the irreversible
+determination to henceforth implicitly trust in the living<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> God and to
+live the life of faith and prayer. And up to the present hour that
+determination has sought to be unfalteringly kept.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 311px; height: 450px;"><img src="images/img10.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">The Beloved Teacher in After Years.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+<p class="note">&#8220;The mystic chord of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot
+grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will
+yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
+be, by better angels of our nature.&#8221;&mdash;Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address,
+March 4, 1861.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX_A" id="APPENDIX_A"></a>APPENDIX A.</h2>
+<p class="title">CONTRIBUTORY TESTIMONY.</p>
+
+
+<p>Many narratives of experiences in the military prisons maintained by the
+government of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War have
+been written by Union officers and soldiers confined therein. With minor
+differences of statement arising from personal diversities these
+testimonies as a whole establish the fact of unprecedented suffering and
+mortality.</p>
+
+<p>Since the close of the Civil War our government has unstintedly employed
+ability and money in compiling and publishing an exhaustive exhibit of the
+Union and Confederate records. These statistics and memoranda afford to
+the later historian abundant and reliable data, and upon his calm verdict
+we may rely for the substantial truth.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The holding of prisoners during our civil war was a matter of large
+concern. The number of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>Union soldiers captured was 211,411; paroled
+on the field, 16,669; died in captivity, 30,218. These last figures
+are defective. Of twelve Confederate prisons the &#8220;death registers&#8221; of
+five are only partial and thousands of the emaciated men passed away
+soon after release.</p>
+
+<p>The number of Confederate soldiers captured was 462,635; paroled on
+the field 257,769; died in captivity 25,976. The percentage of deaths
+among the imprisoned Confederates, it will be seen, was far less than
+among the Union prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The number of enlistments in the Union army was 2,898,304; in the
+Confederate army from 1,239,000 to 1,400,000. The estimated cost of
+war to the North was $5,000,000,000, and to the South $3,000,000,000.</p></div>
+
+<p>(The above figures are taken from a &#8220;History of the United States,&#8221; by
+James Ford Rhodes, LL.D., Litt.D., who quotes from General F. C.
+Ainsworth, Chief of the Record and Pension Office.)</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+<p class="note">&#8220;We raise our father&#8217;s banner that it may bring back better blessings than
+those of old; ... that it may say to the sword, &#8216;Return to thy sheath,&#8217;
+and to the plow and sickle, &#8216;Go forth.&#8217; That it may heal all jealousies,
+unite all policies, inspire a new national life, com-pact our strength,
+ennoble our national ambitions, and make this people great and strong, not
+for aggression and quarrelsomeness, but for the peace of the world, giving
+to us the glorious prerogative of leading all nations to juster laws, to
+more humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to rational, instituted
+civil liberty, and to universal Christian brotherhood.&#8221;&mdash;Address of H. W.
+Beecher at Fort Sumpter flag raising, April 15, 1865.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX_B" id="APPENDIX_B"></a>APPENDIX B.</h2>
+<p class="title">RESPONSIBILITY FOR PRISON TREATMENT.</p>
+
+
+<p>It is difficult, even after the lapse of years not a few, to consider
+dispassionately the treatment accorded by the Confederacy to her
+prisoners. War had fanned to a flame the fire of sectional animosity, and
+a spirit of retaliation was awakened. It is true the South was
+comparatively a poor country, and the hand of war had stripped her bare.
+The mighty armies of both sides carried on their vast operations on
+southern soil; the one as an army of defense, the other as an army of
+invasion.</p>
+
+<p>In the movements of strategy and battle, many combatants were taken
+prisoners; these were sent to the rear for safe keeping and maintenance.
+With practically unlimited resources this additional burden was scarcely
+felt at the North.</p>
+
+<p>At the South, the case was different.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> The extended territory occupied by
+the armies was practically unproductive for the people. It was, therefore,
+inevitable that the prisoners of war share the general limitation. As
+their numbers increased, it was necessary that they be conveyed to
+localities beyond the reach of rescue. Their increasing hosts could not
+wait upon the size of the stockades built for their confinement, and the
+limited forces that could be spared for their safe keeping must in some
+way hold them closely in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, unfriendly prejudices were increasing by the very fact of
+invasion, and as the North was held responsible for the war, the prisoners
+were the object of bitter hatred. In numerous minor particulars, such as
+ample supply of water, of shelter and of food and fuel, the obligations of
+the southern military authorities were criminally negligent; yet many of
+the features of the prison circumstances were probably unavoidable.</p>
+
+<p>The situation in the South is summed up in the following extract from &#8220;A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+History of the American People,&#8221; by Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D., Litt.D., Vol.
+IV, pp. 306, 307:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;One of the most distressing evidences of the straits to which the
+South had been brought was seen in the state of the prisons in which
+she was forced to keep the thousands of prisoners who fell into the
+hands of her armies.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;More than two hundred thousand, first and last, were taken, and only
+some sixteen thousand of these were paroled upon the field....</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not until the war seemed turning toward its end could an exchange of
+prisoners be arranged. The Federal authorities knew their superiority
+in fighting population and did not care to lose by returning fighting
+men to the South. If her soldiers died in Southern prisons, they were
+dying for their country there, General Grant said, as truly as if they
+lost their lives in battle.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the south men could not be spared from the field to guard the
+prisons; there were not guards enough; there was not food enough; and
+many thousands were crowded together under a handful of men.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Proper sanitary precautions were, in the circumstances, impossible.
+The armies themselves lacked food and went without every comfort, and
+the prisoners could fare no better&mdash;inevitably fared worse, because
+they were penned within a narrow space and lacked the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>free air of the
+camp. A subtle demoralization touched the government of the
+Confederacy itself as the war went its desperate course, and those who
+kept the prisons felt that demoralization with the rest.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>One recollection has burned itself into memory. At Andersonville there was
+a standing offer of immediate release to any prisoner of average strength
+who would take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and engage in
+non-combatant service. Officers who entered the prison with these
+proposals were shunned by our men. I recall a recently naturalized Federal
+prisoner who thus enlisted. When he re-entered the prison in Confederate
+uniform as a recruiting officer, his reception was such that he fled to
+the gate for his life; shouting to the guard to protect him. For flag and
+country our boys could uncomplainingly die a lingering death, but they
+could not turn traitor.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX_C" id="APPENDIX_C"></a>APPENDIX C.</h2>
+<p class="title">WOMAN&#8217;S RELIEF CORPS MEMORIAL.</p>
+
+
+<p>Among the heroisms of the great Civil War none surpassed the
+self-sacrificing devotion manifested by the women of the North and of the
+South. The latter are represented by an organization known as &#8220;The
+Daughters of the Confederacy,&#8221; within whose associations are kept alive
+ardent memories of heroic days.</p>
+
+<p>The former have wrought enduring deeds of patriotism and of mercy, chiefly
+in co-operation with the Grand Army of the Republic. The work of the
+Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps in securing and improving the Andersonville prison
+grounds constitutes an imperishable memorial to their patriotic devotion.</p>
+
+<p>To the energy and executive ability of Mrs. Lizabeth A. Turner, Chairman
+of the Andersonville Prison Board, is due in large measure the complete
+success<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> attending the movement to gain possession of and to beautify the
+site and surroundings of the historic Andersonville prison.</p>
+
+<p>The following letter written two years before the decease of Mrs. Turner
+explains in her own vigorous expressions how these great results were
+secured:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Woman&#8217;s Headquarters Relief Corps, (Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
+Republic.) 46 Camp Street, New Britain, Conn., October 14, 1905.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rev. John L. Maile.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Comrade: Some fifteen years ago the Department of Georgia, G. A. R.,
+considered the idea of buying the Andersonville prison pen and holding it
+in memory of the men who there died for the preservation of the Union.</p>
+
+<p>The committee bought all the land the owners would release and hoped to
+raise through the Northern posts and their friends a permanent fund for
+the care of the grounds.</p>
+
+<p>The plan proved a failure. The G. A. R. in the South is very poor. Its
+members are mostly colored men who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> are able to make little more than
+their living.</p>
+
+<p>On the property was a mortgage of about $750, which was paid by the
+Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps, but money for the care of the place was lacking. The
+grounds were then offered to the United States Government on the condition
+of providing perpetual care. As Andersonville is not a battlefield, the
+authorities declined the proposition.</p>
+
+<p>On two occasions a like proposal was made to the National G. A. R.
+Encampment, but these veterans decided that the time is not far distant
+when they can care only for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>With better success the responsibility was tendered to the Woman&#8217;s Relief
+Corps, which felt that if there is a place on God&#8217;s earth that should be
+held sacred, it is that prison pen. The officials accepted the obligation,
+trusting to woman&#8217;s patriotism for support and care, and they have not
+trusted in vain.</p>
+
+<p>The adage that &#8220;God helps those who help themselves&#8221; has been true in our
+case. When we accepted the sacred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> trust and looked the ground over, I
+found a large corner of the original pen and three forts we did not own.
+We bought the extra grounds and the forts, paying for them several hundred
+dollars more than they were worth. We ventured for all or nothing&mdash;and
+<i>all</i> it was.</p>
+
+<p>This occurred in 1895, and in that year I was elected President of the W.
+R. C. At the convention we raised by personal contributions $700 as a
+beginning.</p>
+
+<p>During several years each member was asked to give from three to five
+cents; some responding, others refusing. Now all bills are paid from the
+general fund of the National organization.</p>
+
+<p>We own eighty-eight and one-half acres of land, including the seven forts;
+all the earthworks and rifle pits; also the wells dug by the men in trying
+to reach water. These are in as perfect condition as when the war closed.</p>
+
+<p>Not a well has caved in or a fort changed in shape. That hard, red clay
+seems as unyielding as stone.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>The grounds are inclosed with a high wire fence and suitable gates. Roads
+are laid out and bridges built over the creek. Bermuda grass roots planted
+on the north side will make an even lawn.</p>
+
+<p>Grass seed for a sward will not germinate in that soil. We have built over
+Providence Spring a stone pavilion, also a nine-room house, well
+furnished, and after the northern home pattern.</p>
+
+<p>We also have a barn, a henyard, a good mule and all kinds of work tools
+for such a place.</p>
+
+<p>We engage an old veteran and his wife as caretakers. From a pole 116 feet
+high floats in the air every day the flag those heroes died to save. At
+our last convention we voted to build a windmill the coming winter.</p>
+
+<p>Last fall we set out 300 roses and this autumn will add 200 more. We have
+also set out 150 four-year-old pecan trees that are from 10 to 15 feet
+high. They do finely in that soil and when from ten to twelve years old
+will bear a paying crop. A freeze does not affect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> them and they are
+marketable without decaying.</p>
+
+<p>Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Michigan have put up beautiful
+monuments in the prison pen. Wisconsin will have hers ready to dedicate on
+next Memorial Day.</p>
+
+<p>Pennsylvania, Iowa and Maine have placed monuments in the cemetery. All
+this has been done through the work of the W. R. C.</p>
+
+<p>While I believe the prison pen is the <i>only</i> place for the monuments, I am
+thankful to have any State remember their Andersonville men wherever they
+think best.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Death Before Dishonor&#8221; is the motto on all the monuments within the
+prison grounds.</p>
+
+<p>Last year we had markers put down on all the places of special interest;
+also on the stockade and dead lines. Trees have grown up <i>through</i> the
+forts forty feet high and are more than two feet through.</p>
+
+<p>The W. R. C. has started a fund for the perpetual care of the Prison Pen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+Park. We began last year and have already $3,000 in the fund. The yearly
+income is to be added to the principal, and none to be used until the
+proceeds are sufficient to support the place.</p>
+
+<p>We are to set aside annually <i>not less</i> than $1,000 for the increase of
+the fund, besides caring for current expenses.</p>
+
+<p>You will, I am sure, be much interested in the situation. I have been
+Chairman of the Board from the beginning and hope to live long enough to
+see sufficient money set aside to care for the place <i>forever</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Yours in F. C. and L.,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">LIZABETH A. TURNER,</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Chairman Andersonville Prison Board of Control.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Turner served as President of the Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps, Auxiliary to
+the Grand Army of the Republic, and was appointed by her compeers as Life
+Chairman of the Andersonville Prison Board. Her death occurred at
+Andersonville on April 27, 1907.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>A monument suitable to her memory, erected by the Woman&#8217;s Relief Corps,
+adorns the prison grounds for which she spared not her life to preserve
+and beautify.</p>
+
+<p>From the Annual Address of Mrs. Fanny E. Minot, President of the Woman&#8217;s
+National Relief Corps, at the Twenty-third Annual Convention, 1905:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In March it was my privilege, in company with Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Winans
+and Mrs. Kate E. Jones, to visit Prison Park at Andersonville. As I walked
+through the grounds and read and pondered on the suffering there endured,
+it seemed, indeed, a hallowed spot. Just beyond is the National Cemetery,
+in whose broad trenches are interred more soldiers in one group than upon
+any battlefield on the face of the globe. A whole army perished rather
+than deny the country which gave them birth! The bravery of the men at
+Thermopylae has been the theme of song and story; but they fought in the
+shadows of their soul-inspiring mountains, while these men, removed from
+the activities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> of war, the flash of arms, the long array of men eager for
+the contest, dragged out a miserable existence till death came to their
+relief. If ever men were loyal, true and brave, whose names should be
+inscribed on honor&#8217;s roll, it was these.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Who tasted death at every breath<br />
+And bravely met their martyrdom.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How fitting that the magic touch of woman should consecrate this prison
+pen and make it a prison park! Only patient, persistent effort has made
+the change possible; for the soil is unresponsive, and tangled vines and
+underbrush had run riot for many years. But on this visit we found the
+grounds suitably enclosed, the Bermuda grass taking root, the moats and
+creek cleared of the vines and the conopy erected over that wonderful
+Providence Spring. The house erected for the caretaker much exceeded my
+expectations for comfort and convenience. Honeysuckles and roses clambered
+over the porch, and the rose garden, planned by Mrs. Turner, gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> promise
+of beauty and fragrance where formerly had been barrenness and foul odors.
+On these grounds Ohio has raised a beautiful granite shaft, Massachusetts
+has placed a substantial monument near by, Rhode Island has honored her
+dead in bronze and stone, and last Memorial Day the Governor of Michigan
+came with friends to dedicate with appropriate ceremonies a monument to
+the brave sons of that State. Wisconsin has selected a site near the spot
+where some of her men encamped; and other States are planning to erect
+monuments, but wish first to be assured that the park will have permanent
+care.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PLANTING THE FLAG AT ANDERSONVILLE.</p>
+<p class="center">BY MRS. ANNIE WITTENMYER.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>We lift up the banner of freedom today,<br />
+And let the world know that due honor we pay<br />
+To liberty&#8217;s martyrs, who starved for the right,<br />
+And crown them with heroes who fell in the fight.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span><br />
+Their chalice of woe was filled up to the brim;<br />
+They drank to the dregs with high courage and vim,<br />
+Nor faltered, nor wavered, but loyal and true,<br />
+Stood firm by their colors, the red, white and blue.<br />
+<br />
+The earth was their pillow, their covering the sky;<br />
+And thousands lay down on the bare ground to die;<br />
+No artist can paint, no pen tell the story<br />
+Of all they endured for love of &#8220;Old Glory.&#8221;<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+The Lord, in compassion, took note of their grief,<br />
+And came, in His majesty, to their relief;<br />
+He rode on the wind, where swift lightnings played,<br />
+And hallowed the ground where the prisoners laid.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span><br />
+They panted with thirst, ere the Presence passed by,<br />
+But flashes of glory lit up the dark sky;<br />
+A thunderbolt fell, with omnipotent ring,<br />
+And opened the fountain of Providence Spring.<br />
+<br />
+And peace came at last. Ah! for thousands too late;<br />
+We mourn, as a people, their pitiful fate,<br />
+And hold the ground sacred, our care and our pride,<br />
+And plant the flag over the place where they died.<br />
+<br />
+But the Nation is saved! They died not in vain;<br />
+Our people are all reunited again.<br />
+From ocean to ocean&mdash;the lakes to the sea&mdash;<br />
+One country, one people, one flag of the free!</td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX_D" id="APPENDIX_D"></a>APPENDIX D.</h2>
+<p class="title">A MEMORIAL DAY MEDITATION.</p>
+
+
+<p>By Rev. H. H. Proctor, D.D., of Atlanta, Ga., in The Congregationalist of
+May 2, 1905.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The thirtieth of May is sacred to the nation. With its return the heart
+of the country instinctively turns to those eighty-three national
+cemeteries, mostly on Southern soil, where in 194,492 known and 151,710
+unknown graves lie 346,202 men who fell fighting for the flag. And in all
+the land, fittingly enough, there are no spots more beautiful than these.
+For their care and improvement the national government spends $100,000 a
+year.</p>
+
+<p>The cemetery at Andersonville, Ga., gains additional interest in view of
+the famous prison connected with it. Of these I wish to speak. No one can
+spend a day there, as I did lately, without drinking deep of the patriotic
+spirit.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> The very ground on which you stand seems holy, when you think how
+brave men suffered and died there. The very air seems charged with their
+spirit still.</p>
+
+<p>Some disappointment is felt when over one hundred miles south of Atlanta
+you get off at a little station, with a few straggling houses here and
+there. But in the distance, a mile away, the national flag waving
+invitingly bids reassurance. At length you stand at the entrance of the
+cemetery, entering through the strong iron gates of the thick ivy-covered
+brick wall, 12,782 known and 923 unknown men are buried within.</p>
+
+<p>Many things at once interest you. Walks lead to every part of the grounds.
+Trees, shrubbery and flowers enhance the natural beauty of the place.
+Feathered songers of the South chant daily requiems. Each grave is marked
+by a white marble headstone, on which is generally carved the number,
+rank, name and state of the dead soldier. Here and there we read the sad
+inscription, &#8220;Unknown.&#8221; The white stones contrasting with the fine
+greensward under the soft<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> Southern sky make an impressive scene. This is
+especially true in that part of the grounds where stands the splendid
+monument of New Jersey, as shown by the accompanying illustration.</p>
+
+<p>In a convenient place there is located an octagonal rostrum, where every
+Memorial Day gathers a large concourse of people to pay homage to the
+sacred dead. After the exercises the most impressive act of all follows.
+Each grave, officers or private, white or black, known or unknown, is
+decorated with a miniature flag. And what a transformation! Instead of the
+monotonous rows of bare white stone a field of flags, by the magic of
+loving remembrance, appears!</p>
+
+<p>But as impressive as is this cemetery, more impressive still to me was the
+prison. It is only a few rods away. Its notoriety is universal. Blaine, in
+his memorable speech in Congress, immortalized its more than Siberian
+horrors.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the posts of the old stockade fence, survivors of that dread
+prison will be interested to know, still stand. There, within a space of
+thirteen acres,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> 52,345 men, the very flower of the Republic, were kept in
+a pen. For thirteen months they were exposed in that rude stockade to the
+heat in summer and the cold in winter, to blistering sun and chilling
+blasts. From cruelty and exposure, hunger and thirst, disease and dirt,
+they died like sheep. Every fourth man died!</p>
+
+<p>The story of &#8220;Providence Spring&#8221; is universally familiar. It proves that
+God is yet with men as of old. The water supply for these thousands in
+that small space consisted of but one little brook which of course soon
+became unspeakably foul. In their thirst they cried unto God for water. He
+who hears the cry of the raven could not be dumb to the prayer of the
+suffering soldier. It was night. Soon the sky was overcast with clouds,
+the lightnings flashed, the thunders rolled, and a great rain came that
+night. Next morning a fountain of living water sparkled in God&#8217;s sunshine
+near where the devout soldier had knelt in prayer the night before.</p>
+
+<p>In recognition of God&#8217;s providential<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> gift they christened it &#8220;Providence
+Spring.&#8221; Today a pavilion of stone, erected by the Woman&#8217;s National Relief
+Corps, commemorates the spot. Two significant utterances are carved on
+marble tablets in the pavilion. On one we read these words: &#8220;The
+prisoner&#8217;s cry of thirst rang up to heaven. God heard and with his
+thunders cleft the earth, and poured forth his sweetest waters gushing
+here.&#8221; Over the fountain, which has never ceased from that day to this,
+carved in Georgia marble are the great words of that great man in whose
+big soul the nation was born again: &#8220;With charity to all and malice toward
+none.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As I stood by this spot and looked up on the hill I felt a new love of
+country stir within my heart. I could but say in my heart I would rather
+be a plain American citizen, though black, than a knighted Roman under
+C&aelig;sar.</p>
+
+<p>As we think of that prison we are thankful for the cemetery. The prison
+typifies suffering. The cemetery is the symbol of peace. Through that
+gateway<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> of suffering our martyrs entered into peace. How typical of the
+nation! Through the crucible of suffering it entered into peace.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 321px;"><img src="images/img11.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">FLAG DAY: ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 550px; height: 381px;"><img src="images/img12.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">THE MICHIGAN MONUMENT IN ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX_E" id="APPENDIX_E"></a>APPENDIX E.</h2>
+<p class="title">SHALL THE GOVERNMENT CONFER PERMANENT HONORS ON CONFEDERATE HEROES?</p>
+
+
+<p>The magnanimity which dictated the terms of surrender at Appomattox was
+typical of the treatment extended by the Government of the United States
+to its defeated opponents. Well might this be so. The sinews of strength
+of the mighty North had through the four years of desperate conflict grown
+strong indeed.</p>
+
+<p>A Confederate Major General declared that the veterans of General
+Sherman&#8217;s army, pushing their winter way through the swamps and rivers of
+the South; foraging widely for subsistance and always ready to fight,
+illustrated a type of soldier that the world had not seen since the days
+of Julius C&aelig;sar.</p>
+
+<p>The final parade of the Union army along Pennsylvania avenue before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+President, the Cabinet, prominent Generals and notables of other nations,
+displayed a vast procession of seasoned veterans whose effectiveness had
+never been surpassed. They were the choice, steel-tempered residue of more
+than two millions of citizen soldiery who had enlisted to preserve the
+union of States, &#8220;one and inseparable,&#8221; against the folly of secession.</p>
+
+<p>In the plentitude of their invincible strength, nursing no lust of power,
+they disbanded to peaceful homes from whence they came; subsiding from
+their regnant military life as the mighty storm-waves of the ocean sink
+away into pacific calm.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from wide-spread personal bereavement the North bore no serious
+scars of war. The perfection of agricultural machinery enabled rich
+harvests to be gathered in season notwithstanding the dearth of farm help
+which had gone to the army. Factories of every kind were, with large
+profits, turning out abundantly all sorts of goods. Our commerce with the
+world was unhindered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> save by the eccentric raids of the Alabama; the
+muscle and brawn of an ample labor immigration supplied the manual force
+necessary to national expansion; as illustrated in the building of the
+trans-continental railroads. The huge war debt instead of being felt as an
+incubus was but a process of turning into ready cash the prosperity of the
+future.</p>
+
+<p>Contrast with this picture the condition of the Southern States at the
+close of the four dreadful years. Within a goodly portion of her borders
+the country was war-swept and harried by the consuming necessities of vast
+armies of both friend and foe; for hungry men and beasts on the march and
+in the fight must subsist largely upon the supplies which the foragers
+gather from the adjacent regions.</p>
+
+<p>Manufacture, as compared with the North, was a neglected art south of
+Mason&#8217;s and Dixon&#8217;s line.</p>
+
+<p>The most extensive and effective naval blockade of history hermetically
+sealed nearly every Southern port, thereby<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> hopelessly shutting in untold
+wealth of cotton, the returns of which were otherwise available to every
+need.</p>
+
+<p>No millions of stalwart immigrants reinforced Southern industry; on the
+contrary her labor system and property tenure in human beings were
+shattered in pieces.</p>
+
+<p>The flower of her masculine youth perished; the prestige of ruling
+intelligence, culture and wealth was dethroned and, to crown her
+afflictions although she knew it not, the South lost her best and most
+powerful friend in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the agonies of political reconstruction and the ignoble
+invasion of carpet-bag adventurers who, in many instances, were valiant
+only for pelf.</p>
+
+<p>Surviving this wide-spread chaos the South, for the most part, believed in
+their lawful right of withdrawing from the Union. By many of their leading
+minds this contention had been long held, and that conception of
+government doubtless had filtered down through all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> classes of society so
+far as thought was developed on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The defense of State rights probably was a more powerful incentive to
+civil war than was at first the purpose to defend slavery.</p>
+
+<p>The bravery of Southern soldiers has never been surpassed. The
+self-sacrificing patriotism of Southern women reached the high-water mark.</p>
+
+<p>The vitality and moral force of Southern chivalry was distinguished even
+in the remarkable loyalty of the slaves.</p>
+
+<p>If the foregoing briefly stated considerations form a truthful
+presentation of the case, why, it may be asked, may not the National
+Government expand the magninimity of President Lincoln and General Grant
+by engaging with Congress to erect monuments and other memorials to heroes
+of the army and navy of the Confederacy? The first step towards such
+procedure has already been taken in the form of proposed legislation at
+Washington.</p>
+
+<p>We would not imply that the most eminent leaders of the Southern forces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+were personally unworthy of posthumos honor.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary it is our privilege to bear testimony to the exalted
+individual worth, the consecrated devotion to country as they understood
+the duty, and the pre-eminent ability in action that characterized the
+most noted leaders of the Confederacy.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless their relation to national history is determined, not by
+individual excellencies, but by the fact that they rebelled against the
+Government they were sworn to defend. To the utmost they did all they
+could to dismember the Union of which they were an integral part, to
+dishonor the flag that emblazoned the glory of a common origin and
+history.</p>
+
+<p>In the interest of perpetuating a far-reaching sentiment of loyalty to
+national life and well-being we would strenuously deny the moral right of
+Congress to make appropriations for the erection of memorials that are
+designed to crown Confederate valor with renown. If by private
+subscriptions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> admirers wish to build monuments they undoubtedly will be
+allowed to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Our Government has wisely extended high courtesies to prominent Southern
+Generals, and has on many occasions held out the olive branch of peace.
+But we must not forget that brotherly kindness and neighborly good-will
+cannot cancel the fact that the Southern conception of government by state
+rights, as against National sovereignty, meant the destruction of the
+Nation as such and was so intended.</p>
+
+<p>Had the war for the Union been a failure this fair continent on which has
+been nourished the hopes of the world would have been the arena of two
+general governments separated by no natural dividing lines and probably at
+last to be succeeded by contending states and communities.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the last condition of free civilization in America would have been
+more disgraceful than was the situation of the warring principalities of
+ancient Greece, because we had sinned against a greater light than they
+possessed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>If National monuments are dedicated to commemorate Southern gallantry will
+not a subtle influence steadily flow out from these reminders of civil war
+to the effect that assault upon the Nation&#8217;s existence is an offense so
+trivial as to be expiated by bravery on the field of battle?</p>
+
+<p>Who can tell what crises of peril may in the future break in upon our
+beloved land? And what if the youth of the North and of the South are,
+from generation to generation, taught by the influence of public memorials
+that there is no real distinction between those who fought to save the
+Nation and those who did all they could &#8220;that the government of the
+people, by the people, and for the people, shall (not) perish from the
+earth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We present a quotation from the judgment of the Supreme Court, as given by
+General N. P. Chipman on page 503 of his recent and informing book on
+Andersonville:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The rebellion out of which the war grew was without any legal
+sanction. In the eye of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>the law it had the same properties as if it
+had been the insurrection of a country or smaller municipal territory
+as against the State to which it belonged. The proportion and duration
+of the struggle did not affect its character. Nor was there a rebel
+government de facto in such a sense as to give any legal efficiency to
+its acts.... The Union of the States, for all the purposes of the
+constitution, is as perfect and indissoluble as the union of the
+integral parts of the States themselves; and nothing but revolutionary
+violence can in either case destroy the ties which hold the parties
+together.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For the sake of humanity certain belligerant rights were conceded to
+the insurgents in arms. But the recognition did not extend to the
+pretended government of the Confederacy.... The Rebellion was simply
+an armed resistence of the rightful authority of the sovereign. Such
+was its character, its rise, progress and downfall.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>The legal aspects of the case as thus expressed have their great value as
+indicating facts fundamental to organic National existence and they
+demonstrate the inherent inconsistency of devoting Federal appropriations
+to the erection of monuments to the honor of opponents of the Union. This
+can be but a transient purpose which should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> and, we believe will be,
+relinquished.</p>
+
+<p>We close this narrative with the words of a departed soldier who was a
+devoted friend of General Lee and afterwards a trusted counsellor of
+General Grant, as recorded in the Memoirs of Gen. John B. Gordon, pp. 464,
+465:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;American youth in all sections should be taught to hold in perpetual
+remembrance all that was great and good on both sides; to comprehend the
+inherited convictions for which saintly women suffered and patriotic men
+died; to recognize the unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivalled
+courage; to appreciate the singular absence of personal animosity and the
+frequent manifestation between those brave antagonists of a
+good-fellowship such as had never before been witnessed between hostile
+armies. It will be a glorious day for our country when all the children
+within its borders shall learn that the four years of fratricidal war
+between the North and the South was waged by neither with criminal or
+unworthy intent, but by both to protect what they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> conceived to be
+threatened rights and imperiled liberty; that the issues which divided the
+sections <i>were born when the Republic was born</i>, and were forever buried
+in an ocean of fraternal blood. We shall then see that, under God&#8217;s
+providence, every sheet of flame from the blazing rifles of the contending
+armies, every whizzing shell that tore through the forests at Shiloh and
+Chancellorsville, every cannon-shot that shook Chickamauga&#8217;s hills or
+thundered around the heights of Gettysburg, and all the blood and the
+tears that were shed are yet to become contributions for the upbuilding of
+American manhood and for the future defense of American freedom. The
+Christian Church received its baptism of pentecostal power as it emerged
+from the shadows of Calvary, and went forth to its world-wide work with
+greater unity and a diviner purpose. So the Republic, rising from its
+baptism of blood with a national life more robust, a national union more
+complete, and a national influence ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> widening, shall go forever
+forward in its benign mission to humanity.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>From the oldest to the youngest, let us all unite in the patriotic
+salutation, &#8220;I pledge my allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for
+which it stands. One Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for
+all.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img13.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">THE FINISH</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p>
+
+<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Toward the close of the war great bounties were paid for recruits in
+northern cities. Many desperate characters enlisted for this money,
+intending to desert at the first opportunity. The vigilence of Genl. Grant
+forced them into battle. Many were captured and landed in Andersonville.
+Here they conspired to rob and murder fellow prisoners. Capt. Wirtz
+convened a trial court composed of prisoners who observed all the forms of
+law in the trial of these desperadoes. Six of them were found guilty of
+murder and were hung.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> Market Square was a piece of made ground on the edge of the swamp in
+the center of the prison. Here men came together to barter trinkets they
+had made to while away the time, to exchange parts of rations, and to
+indulge generally, so far as they could, in the Yankee instinct for trade.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> On February 20th, 1912, the writer received a call from an old friend,
+Rev. M. L. Holt, of Neligh, Nebraska. He gives this confirmatory statement
+to Mr. Maile: &#8220;As Sergeant Major of the Third New Hampshire Veteran
+Volunteer Infantry I can certify to the military surroundings at the place
+of your release. Two days before your arrival from Goldsboro, General
+Terry ordered our Third New Hampshire to make a forced march to a point
+ten miles distant from Wilmington on the Northeast branch of the Cape Fear
+river and take from the enemy a pontoon bridge at that point.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We skirmished with the foe nearly the entire distance and came up to them
+just as they had cut the near end of the bridge from the bank. With our
+machine guns we drove them off and moored the bridge back to its place. On
+the second day after we received the old Andersonville prisoners and had
+the satisfaction of knowing we had prepared their way by having the bridge
+in readiness for them to cross the river into our lines. I shall never
+forget the impression made upon us by the condition of these survivors of
+Confederate prisons. These events occurred in March, 1861.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Prison Life in Andersonville, by John L. Maile
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,2977 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prison Life in Andersonville, by John L. Maile
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Prison Life in Andersonville
+       With Special Reference to the Opening of Providence Spring
+
+Author: John L. Maile
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2012 [EBook #39584]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISON LIFE IN ANDERSONVILLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"PRISON LIFE IN ANDERSONVILLE"
+
+
+
+
+  This volume,
+  Number 48
+
+  of the Author's Autograph
+  Edition, limited to five hundred
+  copies, is presented to
+
+
+  In grateful appreciation
+  for cordial support and financial
+  patronage of the work.
+
+
+
+
+  "Prison Life in Andersonville"
+
+  With Special Reference to the
+  Opening of Providence Spring
+
+
+  _by_
+  John L. Maile
+
+
+  A Veteran of Company F, Eighth Regiment Michigan
+  Volunteer Infantry and afterward assigned as
+  Lieutenant in the Twenty-eighth U. S. C. T., and
+  for a time an unwilling guest in the Confederate
+  Military prisons at Lynchburg and Danville, Va.,
+  Andersonville, Ga., Florence, S. C., and Salisbury,
+  N. C.
+
+
+  "One flag, one land, one heart, one hand,
+  One Nation evermore."
+                        --O. W. Holmes.
+
+
+  GRAFTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
+  WEST COAST MAGAZINE
+  LOS ANGELES.
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT 1912
+  BY JOHN L. MAILE
+
+  LOS ANGELES, CAL.
+  U. S. A.
+
+  All Rights Reserved
+
+
+  PRESS OF WEST COAST MAGAZINE
+  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
+
+
+
+
+Commendation
+
+
+That the following narrative of Southern prison life should be written so
+many years after the occurrence of the events described is explained by
+the fact that the author has been urged by many friends to put on record
+his descriptions that have interested many people in the East, in the
+Interior and in the West.
+
+To Members of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Woman's Relief Corps,
+allied organizations, and readers generally, I am glad to commend this
+book as giving a more particular account of the opening of Providence
+Spring than has before appeared.
+
+Appreciation of the strenuous days of the great Civil War will be revived,
+and the memories of Veterans, not a few will be refreshed by this
+interesting story.
+
+  H. M. Triuble.
+    Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.
+
+  Princeton, Illinois,
+    March 2, 1912.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Four years of war life.
+
+In five Confederate prisons.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Author in 1860.
+
+The Year Before Enlistment.]
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+
+  Dedicated to the Woman's Relief Corps, whose tender,
+  thoughtful care has preserved the
+  sacred memorials of the war, and
+  to the memory of my
+
+  COMRADES
+
+  in arms
+  who have answered
+  the final
+  call; to the age-worn
+  remnant who still linger
+  behind, and to the younger
+  patriots of the present generation,
+  to whom it is given, in the happier
+  days of peace, to fight for their country
+  the bloodless battles of righteousness and truth.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE _of_ CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER.                                        PAGE.
+
+     I. The Writer's Credentials                     19
+
+    II. View of a Confederate Prison                 27
+
+   III. The Prison Commisariat                       35
+
+    IV. A Dearth of Water                            53
+
+     V. A Cry to Heaven                              61
+
+    VI. Unsealing of the Spring                      65
+
+   VII. Was It a Miracle?                            72
+
+  VIII. Deliverance                                  85
+
+    IX. An Incident by the Way                       93
+
+     X. A Sequel                                    103
+
+
+  APPENDIX.                                       PAGE.
+
+    A. Contributory Testimony                       116
+
+    B. Responsibility for Prison Treatment          119
+
+    C. Woman's Relief Corps Memorial                123
+
+    D. A Memorial Day Meditation                    135
+       Rev. H. H. Proctor, D. D. of Atlanta.
+
+    E. Permanent Honors for Confederate Heroes      141
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+The Author: As Prospective Soldier. As Present Writer.
+
+Plan of the Prison Pen.
+
+View of Interior and Foreground.
+
+A Dream.
+
+The Broken Stockade.
+
+The Spring and Women of the Relief Corps.
+
+Adventure in Wilmington Hospital.
+
+The Beloved Teacher.
+
+The Michigan Monument in Andersonville.
+
+The Andersonville Cemetery.
+
+
+
+
+A Personal Foreword
+
+
+The establishment and perpetuity of our Union have been secured by the
+sacrifices of war. The Declaration of Independence preceded seven weary
+years of conflict, whose culminating sufferings were experienced in the
+British prison ships and in the winter camp at Valley Forge. In this
+contest the patriotic soldiers of the north and of the south made common
+cause, and what they did and what they suffered indicates a measure of the
+enduring worth of our national life. The story of revolutionary days finds
+an enlarged counterpart in the sufferings of the civil war.
+
+A phase of the great struggle is recalled in the following narrative of
+events, which belongs to a rapidly receding past. Soon no survivor will be
+left to tell the tale; hence the desirability of putting it into permanent
+form before it fades altogether from recollection. To some the story of
+the breaking out of Providence Spring may seem to have been given undue
+prominence in this record; but it is around that event that these
+reminiscences gather, and the circumstances attending were so indelibly
+stamped upon the memory of the writer that they call for expression.
+Probably he was the youngest of the group of Andersonville prisoners who
+participated in the concert of prayer that preceded the unsealing of the
+fountain, and on that account he may be the only survivor.
+
+In the course of the narrative unpleasant things have been referred to in
+the interests of truth, but nothing has been set down in malice. The Great
+Healer has closed up many wounds of hearts as well as of bodies, and the
+grass has grown green over the graves of buried controversies. The boys in
+gray and the boys in blue now fraternize around common campfires and under
+a common flag. But while the writer has none save the kindliest feelings
+toward his brothers of the lost cause, he cannot help rejoicing that
+alike in the clash of arms, and in the more peaceful conflict of ideas
+which has followed, the principles for which he and others bled and
+suffered have gained the victory and are among the things which never
+perish from the earth.
+
+
+
+
+    "We are coming, Father Abraham--three hundred thousand more,
+    From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore.
+    We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
+    With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;
+    We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before--
+    We are coming, Father Abraham--three hundred thousand more.
+
+    "If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
+    Long lines of moving dust your vision may descry;
+    And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
+    And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
+    And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour--
+    We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.
+
+    "If you look up all our valleys, where growing harvests shine,
+    You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
+    And children, from their mothers' knees, are pulling at the weeds,
+    And learning how to reap and sow, against their country's needs;
+    A farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door--
+    We are coming, Father Abraham--three hundred thousand more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE WRITER'S CREDENTIALS.
+
+
+The writer of the following narrative feels justified in calling attention
+to his military record in order that he may be furnished with a warrant
+for inviting the attention of readers to the matters herein described.
+Broadly speaking, his record is that he saw nearly four years of active
+service, including ten months of confinement in Confederate prisons and
+three months in hospitals and parole camps.
+
+Given more in detail it would be as follows: He enlisted at the age of
+seventeen, on September 2, 1861, at Hastings in the Eighth Regiment
+Michigan Volunteer Infantry; Company F of which N. H. Walbridge was
+Captain; Traverse Phillips, First Lieutenant; Jacob Maus, Second
+Lieutenant, and John D. Sumner, Orderly Sergeant.
+
+The Eighth was known as the famous "wandering" regiment of
+Michigan--ex-Governor Col. William M. Fenton, Commander.
+
+His regiment was mustered in at Grand Rapids and journeyed via Detroit,
+Cleveland and Pittsburg to Washington, going into camp on Meridian Hill
+overlooking the capitol. On October 19th, with his regiment, he embarked
+from Annapolis on the steamship Vanderbilt, taking part in the Dupont
+Expedition to the South Carolina coast and occupancy of Beaufort and the
+Sea Islands.
+
+He was in engagements on Coosaw river, and at the bombardment of Fort
+Paluski off Savannah. While his regiment was in the campaign of James
+Island, near Charleston, he was in the Signal Corps service on the
+Beaufort river. In April the regiment sailed to Virginia; he was at the
+second Bull-Run in July, and with the Maryland campaign of South Mountain,
+Antietam; the succeeding Fredericksburg fighting and thence via Kentucky
+to Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi.
+
+In the autumn of '63 he marched via Cumberland Gap to East Tennessee and
+took part in conflicts at Blue Springs, Lenoir Station, Campbell's
+Station, the siege of Knoxville, and defense of Fort Saunders. After
+re-enlistment with his comrades in January he marched over the mountains
+nearly two hundred miles in ten days through deep snow to the railroad at
+Crab Orchard, Kentucky. This severe ordeal was followed by a brief respite
+of a thirty days' furlough from Cincinnati to Michigan.
+
+In April, 1864, the regiment rejoined the Ninth Army Corps at Annapolis,
+and on May 3rd he was, after examination in Washington, confirmed for a
+commission as Lieutenant. On the 4th, he overtook his regiment camping
+near the Rappahannock river; on the evening of the 5th the vicinity of the
+Rapidan river was reached in full view of the smoke of Sedgwick's
+artillery opening the great battle of the Wilderness. On the afternoon of
+the 6th, his regiment was ordered into action when he with a thousand
+others from the division was taken prisoner and marched to Lee's
+headquarters, where he saw the famous general, whom he remembers as
+sitting with great dignity of bearing upon his horse, calmly viewing the
+situation. And it was reported that he kindly remarked to a group of
+prisoners that they must make the best of their predicament. On the 9th
+the examination papers came for the new Lieutenant, but he was now the
+guest of the Confederacy and could not be excused.
+
+A comrade sent to his home the disquieting message, "missing in action and
+probably killed," but happily from Orange Courthouse by the great kindness
+of a Virginia Lieutenant a telegram was forwarded by flag of truce to his
+parents stating that he still survived. The memorial services announced
+for the following week were postponed and are yet to take place.
+
+Introductory experiences as a prisoner of war included many hours of
+fasting, followed by a most exhaustive march of twenty-eight miles to
+Orange Courthouse under close cavalry guard; thence by rail to
+Gordonsville, where the place of detention was a pen frequently used for
+the rounding up of cattle. At this point the prisoners were usually
+relieved of any superfluous clothing and outfit.
+
+Fortunately the writer had discovered in the crowd five members of his
+regiment. He and they drew together as companions in misfortune, and
+formed a group in which each one was to have a share and share alike of
+all they possessed; and they entered into a solemn pledge to care for one
+another in sickness.
+
+Very early in the morning of our night at Gordonville we were aroused by
+the sharp command, "Wake up there, wake up there, you Yanks. Fall into two
+ranks. Quick there," given by a Confederate sergeant. The occasion was the
+arrival of a trainload of beef cattle for the Confederate army, and the
+master of transportation saw an opportunity to load the prisoners into
+the freight cars just made vacant and which were to return to Lynchburg
+immediately.
+
+To be thus unceremoniously aroused from sleep and hustled into filthy cars
+made us very indignant, but "There is a divinity that shapes our ends;
+rough-hew them how we will," and in the confusion of moving in the
+twilight, and the absence of inspection we got off scot free from the
+usual ceremony of being stripped of superabundant clothes and
+accouterments. Thus our group of six were each left in possession of a
+blanket, a section of shelter tent, a haversack, a tin cup and plate, a
+knife, a fork, a spoon, and such scanty clothing as we had on. The extras
+we possessed were a frying pan, a file, and several pocket knives, two or
+three towels, a small mirror, and a thin piece of mottled soap. The latter
+was used exclusively for a Sunday morning wash of hands and face until it
+melted away.
+
+This unusual amount of equipment was kept as inconspicuous as possible and
+was safely carried through the prisons at Lynchburg and Danville, where
+we awaited transportation to an unknown destination, which proved to be
+the military inferno of Andersonville, in southwestern Georgia, to reach
+which we rode more than seven hundred miles from the battlefield packed
+fifty and sixty in a freight car, with twenty or thirty of our number on
+the top.
+
+The locomotives, which burned pitch pine, emitted clouds of acrid smoke
+that, mingled with dust arising from the roadbed, enveloped the train in a
+gloomy, suffocating pall. Mile after mile the worn, rattling freight cars
+and wheezing engine crept along the right-of-way, which, as a narrow lane,
+threaded the interminable pitch-pine forests that admitted no stirring
+breeze.
+
+On Sunday morning we arrived in the beautiful city of Augusta, Georgia.
+Our train was sidetracked on a principal thoroughfare whose borders were
+embowered in luxuriant foliage which screened attractive homes, whence the
+church bells were calling the summer-dressed occupants. On the sidewalk
+opposite from the train groups of the people loitered to gaze upon the
+grimy, famished prisoners who swarmed upon the tops of the freight cars
+and formed a sweltering crowd within.
+
+Several ladies deferred their church-going, re-entered their houses,
+emerged with baskets filled with sandwiches, crossed the street to the
+side of the train and, overcoming the objections of the guards, handed out
+the precious food to the grateful men, who responded with their most
+courteous thanks.
+
+This little piece of genuine chivalry was the one bright spot in the
+torturing journey, and was matched by the sensibilities of some Southern
+ladies, who later viewing the interior of Andersonville from the stockade
+platform, turned away their faces weeping.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Ground Plan of Andersonville Stockade.
+
+Description: Fig. 1, Keeper's House; 2, "P. Spring"; 3, Nat'l Monument; 4,
+Purchased Property; 5, Stockade; 6, Outer Stockade; 7, Deadline; 8, Forts
+and Batteries; 9, Main Fort; 10, [1]Gallows; 11, Magazine; 12, Capt.
+Wirtz' Headquarters; 13, To Cemetery; 14, Wells and Tunnels; 15, Dead
+House; 16, Guard Camp; 17, Road to Station; 18, Creek; 19, North Gate; 20,
+South Gate; 21, Flag Pole.]
+
+[Illustration: THE ANDERSONVILLE PRISON PEN
+
+This view looks westward. Providence Spring was located just below the
+north gate, close to the stockade X.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AN INSIDE VIEW OF A CONFEDERATE PRISON.
+
+
+At the time of our incarceration in Andersonville, the crisis of the war
+of the rebellion was reached. General Grant was fighting the great battles
+of the Wilderness in Virginia; the investment of Petersburg was about to
+begin, and General Lee was resisting the impact of the Federal forces with
+unsurpassed skill and heroism. General Sherman was also hastening his
+preparations to penetrate the vitals of the Confederacy by his famous
+"March to the Sea."
+
+Skirmishes by the contending forces were of daily occurrence, and
+frequently battles were fought that now loom large in history. To bury the
+dead was not difficult; but the care of the wounded was a grave concern to
+both armies. An affair of still greater magnitude was the gathering up of
+the captured officers and soldiers, the transporting of them hundreds of
+miles, and the placing of them in prisons for safe keeping.
+
+The Confederate authorities adopted a simple and logical plan. Foodstuffs
+for their armies could not be gathered in war-swept Virginia, nor to any
+great extent from the border States. In Georgia and Alabama, in parts of
+the Carolinas, Mississippi and Louisiana faithful slave labor produced an
+abundant supply of rice, corn and bacon, sweet potatoes and beans.
+
+To transport these bulky materials to the armies of Lee, Hood and Johnson
+required every locomotive and freight car that could be mustered on
+Southern railroads. Hence the northward-bound trains were heavily laden.
+Those going southward were empty, and were available to carry away the
+thousands of Union prisoners. At several points in the South Atlantic and
+Gulf States, stockade prisons were set up, notably that in Southwestern
+Georgia, named after an adjacent hamlet, "Andersonville."
+
+This celebrated place of confinement for Federal prisoners below the rank
+of commissioned officer was located about sixty-two miles from Macon. It
+consisted of a stockade made of pine logs twenty-five feet long, set
+upright in a trench five feet deep, inclosing some sixteen acres,
+afterwards enlarged to twenty-six acres.
+
+This inclosure was oblong in form, with its longest dimension in a general
+north and south direction, and had two gates in its western side, near the
+north and south ends respectively. It was commanded by several stands of
+artillery, comprising sixteen guns, located at a distance on rising
+ground. From four directions the guns could sweep the prison interior with
+grapeshot or shells.
+
+A line of poles was planted along the lengthwise center of the pen. We
+were informed that if the men gathered in unusual crowds between the range
+of the poles and the north and south gates, the cannon would open upon us.
+
+A report was circulated among us to the effect that General Sherman had
+started an expedition to release us; and we were informed that if his
+troops approached within seven miles of the stockade the prisoners would
+be mowed down by grapeshot. The fact is that one of his generals proposed
+a sortie that never was made. "About July 20, 1864, General Stoneman was
+authorized at his own desire to march (with cavalry) on Macon and
+Andersonville in an effort to rescue the National prisoners of war in the
+military prisons there."
+
+Outside and against the stockade platforms for guards were placed two or
+three rods apart, and were so constructed that the sentinel climbed a
+ladder and stood waist high above the top of the wall and under a board
+roof, which sheltered him from the sun and rain.
+
+Each of the guards faced the vast mass of prisoners and was ordered to
+closely watch the dead line before and below him half way to his comrade
+on his right and left.
+
+The "dead line" formed a complete circuit parallel to the inside of the
+stockade and about twenty feet therefrom. It consisted of a narrow strip
+of board nailed to a row of stakes, which were about four feet high.
+"Shoot any prisoner who touches the "dead line" was the standing order to
+the guards. Several companies from Georgia regiments were detailed for the
+duty, and their muskets were loaded with "buck and ball" (_i. e._, a large
+bullet and two buckshot). The day guard at the stockade consisted of one
+hundred and eighty-six men; the day reserve of eighty-six men. The night
+reserve consisted of one hundred and ten men; the outlay pickets of
+thirty-eight men.
+
+A sick prisoner inadvertently placing his hand on the dead line for
+support, or one who was "moon blind" running against it, or anyone
+touching it with suicidal intent, would be instantly shot at, the
+scattering balls usually striking others than the one aimed at.
+
+The intervening space between the wall and the dead line was overgrown
+with weeds, and was occasionally tested by workmen with long drills to
+ascertain the existence of tunnels. In attempting to escape by this means
+the prisoners endeavored to emerge at night some distance from the
+stockade and take to the woods. To frustrate such attempts, which would
+inevitably be discovered at roll-call the following morning, man-tracking
+hounds were led by mounted men on a wide circuit around the prison, with
+the well-nigh universal result that the trail was struck and the fugitive
+taken.
+
+Later a stockade was erected parallel to the first, and some ten or twelve
+rods beyond. Tunnels could not be carried so far with the means available.
+They were dug with knives and the dirt was taken out in haversacks or bags
+drawn in and out by a cord. The work of digging was usually carried on at
+night. During the day a sick man lay over the tunnel's mouth in a tent or
+under a blanket. That the roll-call sergeant might not discover the fresh
+earth, it was sifted early in the morning from the pocket and down the
+trouser leg of a comrade, who walked unconcernedly about. The little
+grains of earth which he dropped were soon trodden under foot.
+
+To increase the difficulty of tunnel escape, slaves and teams were
+employed to build piles of pitch-pine along the cleared space beyond the
+outer stockade. At night, when these were lighted, a line of fires was
+made which illuminated a wide area. From these fires arose columns of
+dense smoke, which in the sultry air of a midsummer night hung like a pall
+over the silent city of disease and starvation. Yet the city was not
+wholly quiet, for undertones of thousands of voices that murmured during
+the day at night died away into the low moans of the sick and the
+expiring, or rose into the overtones of the outcry of distressful dreams.
+In the edge of the gloom beyond the fires, patrols paced to and fro until
+the dawn. Every evening the watch-call sounded, "Post number one, nine
+o'clock and all is well." This cry was repeated by each sentinel until it
+had traveled around the stockade back to the place of starting. "Nine and
+a half o'clock and all is well," was next spoken, and likewise repeated.
+Thus every half hour from dark to daylight the time was called off, and
+this grim challenge greeted our ears every night until the survivors bade
+the Confederacy good-bye. Not that our captors benevolently wished to
+increase the sense of the shortness of the time until our release, but to
+be assured that the guards were keeping awake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE PRISON COMMISSARIAT.
+
+
+The least that can be said of the prison sustenance is that it was
+exceedingly slim. But while the _per diem_ rations dealt out to an
+Andersonville prisoner were too small for proper maintenance, and much of
+the time inferior in quality, yet the thirty-two thousand to thirty-five
+thousand men who had to be fed were as a rule promptly served.
+
+To secure this result effective organization was necessary. It was
+accomplished as follows: Groups of two hundred and seventy men were named
+detachments and duly numbered. Every detachment was divided into the
+first, second and third nineties, each of which was in charge of one of
+our own sergeants. The nineties, in turn, were divided into the first,
+second and third thirties, which also were in charge of a sergeant or
+corporal.
+
+At ten o'clock every forenoon a drum call was beaten from the platform at
+the south gate. At this signal the prisoners fell into line by
+detachments, forming as best they could in the narrow paths that separated
+the small tents, blanket shanties or dug-outs. At the same moment a
+company of Confederate sergeants entered the two gates for the purpose of
+counting and recording the number of the prisoners. To each of these
+officers a certain number of detachments were assigned. The men,
+unsheltered from the fierce sun-heat, had perforce to remain standing
+during the entire count. If a number less than that of yesterday was in
+evidence, the Federal sergeant had to account for the deficit. Sometimes a
+number of men were too ill to stand up, so the line was held the longer
+while the Confederate official viewed the sick where they lay.
+
+The bodies of those who had died since the count of the previous day were
+early in the morning carried to the south street and laid in a row until
+the ration wagon could haul them to the burying trench. On a card attached
+to the wrist of the deceased was written by the detachment sergeant, his
+name, regiment and date of death. These names were taken by the
+enumerator, who verified the record as the bodies were carried through the
+gate. Such was the scarcity of clothing that garments of any value were
+taken by comrades from the dead before interment.
+
+In the early summer prisoners were occasionally detailed under guard to
+carry the dead some distance from the gate. On the return they were
+allowed to gather up chips which had accumulated from the hewing of
+stockade timbers. The quantity a man, weakened by hunger and disease,
+could bring in would sell for five dollars, U. S. currency. Competition to
+get out on one of these details became so intense that the privilege was
+discontinued.
+
+At four o'clock in the afternoon rations of corn bread and bacon were
+issued on the basis of the morning count of those who are able to stand
+up. Two army wagons drawn by mules entered the north and south gates
+simultaneously. They were piled high with bread, thin loaves of corn bread
+or Johnny cake, made of coarse meal and water by our men who had been
+paroled for that work.
+
+A blanket was spread upon the ground and the quantity for a detachment was
+placed thereon in three piles; one for every ninety, according to the
+number of men able to eat. In like manner the sergeants of nineties
+sub-divided the piles to the thirties.
+
+The writer had charge of a division of thirty and distributed as follows:
+His blanket was spread in front of his shelter tent and on it he spread
+the bread in as many pieces as there were men counted in the morning.
+
+Each man had his number and was intently watching the comparative size of
+the portions. "Sergeant," cries one, pointing to a cube of bread, "That
+piece is smaller than the one next to it." A crumb is taken from the one
+and placed upon the other. The relative size of any piece may be
+challenged by any member of the thirty, for his life is involved.
+
+The equalization is finally completed to the satisfaction of all. The
+sergeant then takes up a piece in his hand and says, "Whose is this?" A
+designated comrade looking the other way calls a number. The owner steps
+up and takes his portion. This process is repeated until all are served.
+Some four or five pounds of bacon are then cut on a board into small
+pieces and issued in like manner.
+
+The cube of bread and morsel of meat constitute the ration for twenty-four
+hours. One-half may be eaten at once; the remainder should be put in the
+haversack for breakfast. If any one yields to his insatiable hunger and
+eats the whole for supper he has to fast until the following evening and
+must then deny himself and put away the portion for the next morning's
+breakfast. Experiment proved that strength was better sustained by taking
+the scanty ration of food in two portions than by eating the whole at
+once.
+
+When the number of prisoners exceeded fifteen thousand, the facilities of
+the cook-house were inadequate. Therefore raw rations were issued
+alternately every two weeks to each side of the prison. In this form the
+amount _per capita_ daily was a scant pint of corn meal and a scrap of
+uncooked bacon.
+
+Occasionally boiled rice and cow beans were substituted for the meal, but
+these were very difficult to issue in accurate portions. Sometimes a
+quantity of this glutenous food was carried in a sleeve of a shirt or in
+the trouser's leg tied at the end.
+
+The supply of fuel for cooking was wholly inadequate. Often the ration of
+wood was ironically called a "toothpick." It would be split into small
+short splinters and two men would sometimes combine their portions. Water
+in a quart tin cup setting on small blocks of clay could be brought to a
+boil before the wood under it was consumed. Into this water meal was
+stirred and, if the blaze could be yet further economized, partially
+cooked mush was the outcome. The sick could not, however, do this work for
+themselves. Many ate meal uncooked, but the experiment soon ended life.
+
+It may be observed that many of the Andersonville prisoners were well
+supplied with money. The Federal armies were reclothed and paid off in the
+spring of 1864. The new recruits and re-enlisted veterans, in many
+instances, had with them bounty money when captured. Greenbacks could be
+pressed into the sole of a shoe, or placed inside a brass button. In
+various ways money was concealed about the person.
+
+The authorities at Andersonville allowed supplies to be sold to the
+prisoners for Federal money. Numerous small restaurants flourished in the
+stockade. From small clay ovens they supplied fresh bread and baked meats.
+Irish and sweet potatoes, string beans, peas, tomatoes, melons, sweet
+corn, and other garden products were abundantly offered for sale. New
+arrivals were amazed to find these resources in the midst of utter
+destitution and starvation.
+
+As this sketch is of the nature of personal experiences, the writer might
+tell how, in his case, the question of increasing the food supply was
+solved. A ration of fresh beef received by his thirty consisted of a shank
+bone on which a small amount of lean meat remained. This latter was cut
+into portions about the size of a little finger. These were easily issued,
+but what shall be done with the bone which towered on the meat board above
+the diminutive strips of beef? No tools were available by which it could
+be broken up. One and another cried out, "I don't want the bone for a
+ration." "Count it out for me." "I can't gnaw a bone." The writer knew
+that a wealth of nutriment was contained in the rich marrow and oil-filled
+joints, and in view of the unanimous rejection of the bone, said, "Well,
+boys, if none of you want it, I will take it as my portion." "Agreed,"
+shouted the crowd, adding expressions like these, "Come, hurry up and
+call off that meat; I'm hungry." The strips were speedily issued, and, for
+the most part, eaten at once.
+
+The fortunate possessor of what was a large soup bone borrowed from a
+comrade a kitchen knife with permission to cut on the back of the same
+teeth, which were made with a file procured from a tent-mate. The steel of
+the blade was exceedingly hard and by the time the teeth were finished the
+file was worn nearly smooth. However, this fact insured that the teeth
+would hold their edge. The bone was quickly cut in two and the marrow dug
+out with a splinter. What remained was melted out with boiling water and a
+marrow soup was prepared for six hungry patriots. Next, the joints were
+sawed into slices and the rich oil extracted therefrom with hot water.
+Thus for two meals a generous addition was made to our impoverished menu.
+
+Soon after, while splitting wood by driving the knife into the end of a
+stick, the blade was snapped off about one and one-half inches from the
+handle. This disaster brought consternation, for the owner valued his
+knife at five dollars. However, a settlement was effected by which the
+user retained the broken parts and the worn-out file. The blade was set
+into a split stick to be used as a saw, as circumstances might require.
+
+The broken end of the shank was scraped on a brick to form a beveled edge
+like a chisel. Later on, the fact was demonstrated that these tools were a
+providential preparation. The face of the writer became diseased with the
+much prevailing scurvy. A swollen cheek, inflamed and bleeding gums with
+loosening teeth, indicated the fact that a hard fight for life must be put
+up. How shall it be done? About this time a stockade was built on three
+sides of an enclosure attached to the north end of the prison, thus making
+more room for the thousands of additional prisoners who were constantly
+arriving from many battle fields. The intervening wall was taken up and
+most of the timber sold to the prisoners. From one who had purchased a
+log, the writer obtained the wood sufficient to make three water pails;
+working on a two-thirds share.
+
+This material was delivered to the writer in split strips about three
+inches thick and four feet long. With the knife-blade saw these sticks of
+hard pine were slowly and laboriously cut into lengths for staves which
+were split on a curve by driving together several sharp-pointed wedges
+into a circular grain of the wood. Thus each stave was an arc of the
+circumference of the tree. A day's ration was traded for a board three
+inches wide and thirty inches long. A mortise was cut through this to
+receive the knife-chisel, which was held in place with a forked wedge
+after the manner of a carpenter's plane.
+
+This was the jointer on which the edges of the staves were smoothed and
+its upper end was placed on the knee of the writer, who sat tailor fashion
+on the ground, and the lower end was placed in a hole in the earth. The
+pieces for the bottom of the pail were split flat across the circular
+grain of the tree, and the edges were also smoothed on the jointer. For
+the want of truss hoops, the problem of setting up the staves seemed
+insurmountable. A sleepless night was passed in thinking the matter
+through. At four o'clock in the morning the inspiration came, and the
+solution was: Dig a hole in the ground the form and slope of the
+prospective pail. This was speedily done, and the staves were successfully
+set half their length in this mold, and the last one driven home brought
+the whole into shape. Two knapsack straps were passed around the top of
+the pail and held it together. It was then carefully drawn out of the hole
+and hoops made of split saplings were put in place, and the handle of like
+material was made. Precious food was bartered for these split stems, and
+the resultant fasting added to prevailing starvation nearly cost the
+writer his life.
+
+Pieces for the bottom were jointed, placed on the ground and on them the
+pail was set. A pencil was run round on this bottom and the end of each
+piece was cut with saw and chisel wherever the curved mark indicated.
+
+Days of incessant labor with chisel and a borrowed jackknife sufficed to
+produce from hard pitch pine the staves for the sides and bottom of a
+water pail of the ordinary size.
+
+When at last the pail was completed so imperfect were the joints that meal
+could be sifted through. Derisive laughter greeted the apparent failure of
+a pail to hold water, through the joints of which the light freely shone.
+However, the maker depended on the dry wood of the staves swelling tight
+if only the hoops proved strong enough to stand the immense pressure.
+Happily, this resulted and in triumph the first made pail was handed over
+to the owner of the log in payment for the wood from which three pails
+could be made.
+
+The second pail was more speedily made and sold for $1.50 with which the
+proprietor bought vegetables which eaten raw cured the scurvy in his face.
+
+During the following winter which was passed in the Confederate prison at
+Florence, South Carolina, the shoes worn by the most of our group, owing
+to defective machine stitching, peeled from the toe to the heel, causing
+almost constantly damp feet, to the serious detriment of health.
+
+Again the writer was obliged to make a fight for life. Recalling the
+process of making his chisel, he scraped, on a brick, the shank of his
+worn-out file into a point like a pegging awl. A gum tree knot served as a
+handle. A two-inch nut from a car bolt was screwed to a handle for a shoe
+hammer. A piece of soft pine was whittled into a last. With the knife-saw
+maple chips were cut into right lengths for shoe pegs which were shaped
+one by one. With this equipment the loosened soles were tightly pegged to
+the uppers. The shoes thus made water tight contributed no little to our
+chances of survival.
+
+The writer afterwards mended shoes for one of the wood-chopping party who
+secured, of field negroes, sweet potatoes which he brought with the
+working squad into the prison at evening, and with them paid for the
+mending. These were cooked by the writer and retailed to the prisoners
+with large profit in U. S. fractional currency.
+
+Confederate money was secretly purchased forty dollars for one, and with
+this supplies could be lawfully bought of the prison sutler. Bread per
+small loaf, flour per pound, and a fair-sized cabbage could be bought each
+for ten dollars. We drove a flourishing trade in hot cabbage soup with men
+who possessed any money; especially to those who, without shelter,
+literally piled themselves together for mutual warmth during the piercing
+cold and rain of a southern winter night.
+
+The soup was made in the following manner: A cabbage consisted of a stalk
+with a tuft of leaves on the upper end and a bunch of roots on the lower
+end. The whole was washed clean and chopped up fine with the knife-chisel.
+The sliced leaves, stem and roots were boiled in eight quarts of water
+until made as tender as heat could do it. Into the green colored liquid
+was stirred some flour thickening; the whole was salted and a minced red
+pepper was added for pungency, while a whole pepper floated on the surface
+as an advertisement.
+
+For a soup dipper a piece of pail hoop was riveted to the side of a
+condensed milk can, the two rivets being cut from a copper cent with the
+chisel driven with the shoe hammer. For soup plates a canteen was melted
+apart and the two halves formed each a plate. On [2]Market Square, down by
+the swamp, four slender stakes were driven and thereon was placed a pine
+shake, which formed the soup counter. The soup kettle was covered with a
+piece of woolen shirt, which kept in the heat. Very early each morning we
+opened up for business and a line of shivering men in rags and nearly
+perished from exposure formed as the soup brigade. The price per plate
+was a five-cent shinplaster of U. S. fractional currency. The poor fellow
+who had no money must needs go without. As new prisoners ceased to arrive
+the money supply was soon gathered up and the prison sutler went away and
+trade was brought to an end.
+
+[Illustration: A DREAM]
+
+Our last plate of soup was sold to a Maine soldier who paid for it his
+last five cents. He was nearly naked and incessantly shivered from the
+cold. The writer found him the following morning, after a night of rain,
+to which he was exposed, with his knees drawn up to his chin in the
+instinctive effort to bring the surfaces of his body together for warmth.
+With difficulty his frame was straightened out for burial.
+
+The profit of this business for several weeks gave to our group of six one
+fairly good meal each day and made possible the survival of those of our
+number who finally emerged from this awful prison life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A DEARTH OF WATER.
+
+
+If the food supply of Andersonville was bad, the water supply was worse.
+To understand the situation and to see how little was done to overcome the
+difficulties involved, and to make the most of the existing facilities for
+the relief of the suffering, one has to consider the formation of this
+prison encampment.
+
+The surface of the interior consisted of two hillsides, sloping
+respectively north and south towards the center which was occupied by a
+swamp of nearly four acres. This was traversed by a sluggish creek which
+was some five feet wide and six inches deep, and made its way along the
+foot of the south slope. Up the stream were located the headquarters of
+Capt. Wirtz, the camps of the Confederate artillery and infantry and the
+cook-house for the prisoners. The drainage of these localities entered
+the creek which flowed into the prison through spaces between the stockade
+timbers, and polluted the water which was the chief supply of the prison,
+and which, at midnight, in its clearest condition, was the color of amber.
+The intervening space at the foot of the north hill was a wide morass, and
+when overflowed by rains became a vast cesspool on which boundless swarms
+of flies settled down and laid their eggs; which were speedily hatched by
+the fervent heat of the nearly tropical sun, and became a horrible
+undulating mass. On a change of wind the odor could be detected miles
+away; indeed it was reported that the people of Macon petitioned General
+Howell Cobb, the military governor of Georgia, for a removal of the prison
+located sixty miles away, lest an awful pestilence sweep over their
+country!
+
+The turkey buzzards, birds of ill omen, would come up against the wind,
+alight on the bare limbs of the tall pines overlooking the prison, and
+circle over the grizzled city as if waiting to descend for a carrion
+feast.
+
+When we entered the prison on May 23rd, our detachment of two hundred and
+seventy men was scheduled fifty-five, indicating the presence of fourteen
+thousand eight hundred and fifty prisoners. The number steadily rose until
+a reported thirty-five thousand were present at one time. As the arrivals
+increased by hundreds and thousands, the daily mortality was counted by
+scores and hundreds, and many of the sick were without shelter from the
+heat of the pitiless sun.
+
+As the killed and wounded are scattered over the fields of the sanguinary
+battle, so our dying sick lay around on every hand. In the early summer,
+Capt. Wirtz issued to the prisoners picks and shovels, with which to dig
+wells for increased water supply. From some of these wells the men started
+tunnels through which to escape. Discovering this, the commander withdrew
+the tools, and ordered the wells to be filled up. Permission to keep one
+of them open was purchased by a group of prisoners. It was sunk to a
+necessary depth, covered with a platform and trap door, and supplied about
+one thousand men.
+
+Aside from this well, for the favored few, the only water supply was from
+about twelve feet of the length of the creek which reached between the
+dead-line and the bridge connecting the two divisions of the prison. A
+terrible water famine set in, with the result that many of the ailing ones
+became insane from thirst.
+
+In these unsanitary surroundings there is a well authenticated case of a
+man who was severely afflicted with scurvy. As he lay in the place of
+filth and stench, without medical attention until gangrene of the lower
+limbs set in, he realized that to save his life he must lose his feet. No
+one of his comrades had the nerve to perform the necessary operation, so
+he obtained an old knife and disjointed his pedal extremities.
+
+    "In November, 1863, an order was issued for the establishment of a
+    prison in Georgia, the granary of the eastern part of the
+    Confederacy, and for this purpose a tract of land was selected near
+    the town of Andersonville. A stockade 15 feet high, inclosing 16-1/2
+    acres, was built, and this, in June, 1864, was enlarged to 26-1/2
+    acres, but 3-1/4 acres near the center were too marshy to be used. A
+    small stream ran through the inclosure, which, it was thought, would
+    furnish water sufficient for drinking and for bathing. The trees
+    within the stockade were cut down and no shelter was provided for the
+    expected inmates, who began to arrive in February, 1864, before the
+    rude prison was completed according to the design, and before an
+    adequate supply of bacon for their use had been received. Prisoners
+    continued to come until, on the 5th of May, there were about 12,000,
+    which number went on increasing until in August it exceeded 32,000.
+    Their condition was one of extreme wretchedness. Those who came first
+    erected rude shelters from the debris of the stockade; later arrivals
+    burrowed in the ground or protected themselves with any blankets or
+    pieces of cloth of which they had not been deprived according to the
+    practice of robbing men who were taken prisoners which prevailed on
+    both sides. Through an unfortunate location of the baking and cooking
+    houses on the creek above the stockade the water became polluted
+    before it reached the prisoners, so that to obtain pure water they
+    must dig wells. =After a severe storm a spring broke out within the
+    inclosure, and this became one of the main reliances for drinking
+    water.= The sinks were constructed over the lower part of the stream,
+    but the current was not swift enough to carry away the ordure, and
+    when the stream was swollen by rain and overflowed, the foecal matter
+    was deposited over a wide area, producing a horrible stench. This was
+    the famous prison of Andersonville."--From Rhodes' History of the
+    United States, Vol. V, pp. 483-515.
+
+    "The history of Andersonville prison pen has shocked the world with
+    its tales of horror, of woe, and of death, before unheard of and
+    unknown to civilization. No pen can describe, no artist can paint, no
+    imagination comprehend their fearful and unutterable sufferings.
+
+    "Into the narrow confines of this prison were herded more than
+    thirty-five thousand enlisted men, whose only fault was they 'wore the
+    Union blue,' many of them the bravest and best, the most devoted and
+    heroic of those grand armies that carried the flag of the Union to
+    final victory. For long and weary months they suffered and died for
+    that flag. Here they suffered =unsheltered= from the burning rays of a
+    southern sun, or were drenched by the rain and deadly dews of the
+    night. All this while they were in every stage of physical
+    disease--hungered, emaciated, starving.
+
+    "Is it a wonder that during the month of August, 1864, one man died in
+    every eleven minutes, night and day, or that, for six months,
+    beginning April, 1864, one died every twenty-two and one-half minutes
+    night and day? This should forever silence the assertion that men
+    would be taken prisoners rather than risk their lives on the firing
+    line. The lack of water was the cause of much disease and suffering.
+    Under the most favorable circumstances the water supply was
+    insufficient for one-quarter of the number of men confined there. All
+    the water obtainable was from a sluggish creek that ran through the
+    grounds; and, in addition to this, there were thirty-six hundred men
+    acting as guards camped on the bank of this stream before it reached
+    the prison pen, and the water became so foul no words can describe
+    it."--From "A Sketch of Andersonville," by Mrs. Lizabeth A. Turner,
+    Chairman Andersonville Prison Board. Journal of the Twenty-fifth
+    National Convention of the Woman's Relief Corps, page 169.
+
+
+
+
+    "More things are wrought by prayer
+      Than this world dreams of."
+                          --Tennyson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A CRY TO HEAVEN.
+
+
+The bitter cry which arose from the suffering camp was changed on the lips
+of a few to an appeal to heaven. Where else could men look in their dire
+extremity? One evening early in August the sound of the old long metre
+doxology was heard from the voices of a group of men gathered around the
+solitary pine stump in the enclosure, which was situated at the end of the
+north street of the prison where space was left for the ration wagon to
+turn around. On this stump was seated an emaciated cavalry sergeant, Mr.
+Shepard, of Columbus, Ohio, formerly an honored preacher of the gospel. In
+days past he had frequently been called upon to offer prayer over the
+remains of some deceased comrade, and now he led in the old and well-known
+hymn to call like-minded souls together.
+
+Some twenty-five unkempt, starving men gathered around him and joined in
+the familiar strain. What memories of family worship and old-time services
+in the meeting-house those words called up. Said Brother Shepard in
+substance: "I have today read in the book of Numbers of Moses striking the
+rock from which water gushed out for the ample supply of man and beast. I
+tell you God must strike a rock in Andersonville or we shall all die of
+thirst. And if there is no rock here, He can smite the ground and bring
+forth water to supply our desperate needs. Of this I am sure; let us ask
+Him to do this."
+
+Pointing to an uncombed, unwashed, ragged comrade standing close by, he
+said, "Will the brother from Chicago pray?" He then successively called on
+other acquaintances, distinguishing them by their different localities at
+home. All the prayers were poured out in the one desire for water.
+
+For perhaps an hour the meeting continued and closed with the doxology.
+The words of the leader were, "Boys, when you awake during the night
+offer to God a little prayer for water. Do the same many times tomorrow,
+and let us meet here in the evening to pray again for water."
+
+If memory be not at fault, these individual and collective petitions were
+steadfastly offered from Monday evening to Thursday evening.
+
+For a month previous we had noticed that a number of the stockade timbers
+near the north gate had been loosened by the percolating of the copious
+rain and that they were sagging considerably and had settled out of line.
+We wondered why they had been allowed to remain so long in this unsafe
+condition. Was it a coincidence that after prayer began to be offered the
+quartermaster of the prison notified Capt. Wirtz that stockade timbers
+were out of line and should be set right? He was ordered to take a gang of
+slaves and make the necessary repairs. About fifteen stalwart negroes were
+marched through the main gate and turned into the twenty-foot space
+between the dead-line and the wall. With pike poles the closely adjoining
+posts were heaved into position and the earth was closely tamped.
+
+Then the workers faced about and commenced digging a trench up the hill
+nearly as wide as the space between the dead-line and the stockade. A part
+of the gang swung their picks into the red clay which was shoveled against
+the timbers. Another set followed with heavy rammers and pounded the whole
+into a smooth, sloping surface which was tamped closely to the base of the
+wooden wall, making a perfect watershed, and thus preventing the further
+loosening of the earth at the base of the stockade. By Thursday evening
+the broad trench with rounded bottom was completed from the swamp up the
+dead line space to the north gate.
+
+
+
+
+    THE WOMANS RELIEF CORPS
+
+    "Today beneath our Nation's flag,
+      The old red, white and blue,
+    A band of noble women work
+      With a purpose just and true;
+    To aid and succor those who fought
+      To save our honored land,
+    For home and freedom, God and right,
+      Those earnest women stand."
+
+
+[Illustration: PROVIDENCE SPRING AND WOMEN OF THE RELIEF CORPS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+UNSEALING OF THE SPRING.
+
+
+On Friday morning an ominous stillness pervaded nature. By the middle of
+the forenoon a dense, dark cloud was noticed in the southwest quarter of
+the horizon, slowly creeping upward. It rose above the treetops majestic
+and awful in appearance. A troop of small, scurrying, angry-looking clouds
+seemed to form an advancing line to the vast mass of storm cloud. The
+onward movement quickened, and soon the front of the mountain of
+approaching cloud assumed a gray appearance, caused by the mighty downpour
+of water which more nearly than anything else seemed a continuous
+cloudburst.
+
+Crashes of thunder broke over our heads and flashes of lightning swished
+around us as if the air was filled with short circuits. The awful moving
+wall came towards us rapidly and we understood what was happening.
+
+As the mighty deluge swept through the clearing west of the prison, we
+bowed our heads in preparation of submersion in the advancing waterspout.
+When it came upon us the sensation was as if a million buckets of water
+were being poured upon us at once. The air was so filled with the roaring,
+hissing flood that we could not look up, but bent forward to protect our
+faces, covering our nostrils with our hands to preserve a little breathing
+space.
+
+Instantly rivulets of water poured down over our bodies as if a hose were
+discharging its stream on our shoulders, and the surface of the filthy
+ground was soon covered with a rush of muddy water. The swamp space as
+quickly filled with great swirling eddies. The upper stockade served as a
+dam across the creek, which in a few minutes became swollen into the
+dimensions of a river. Driftwood bore down upon the stockade, causing it
+to give way with a mighty crash. The heavy timbers were whirled across
+the prison as if they were mere straws, and by the force of their impact
+carried away the rear stockade. From the batteries solid shot was fired
+over our heads to warn us that if we attempted to escape through the
+opening in the wall we would be swept by the cannon. The roar of the guns
+chimed harmoniously with the thundering of the storm. In the awful
+suspense of such overwhelming conditions the progress of time could not be
+measured. The downpour may have continued twenty minutes, perhaps half an
+hour, or possibly longer. So great was its fury that we felt it must soon
+end or it would end us. Fortunately, it ceased as suddenly as it came.
+Looking up, we saw the great water wall retreating. The sun burst forth
+with unwonted vigor and shone with brilliant effect upon the receding
+rain. A dense fog arose from the drying garments of thirty-five thousand
+human bodies and from the exhalations of surrounding surfaces. As the
+heavy mist cleared away, the drenched and forlorn prisoners tried to be
+merry. They viewed with complacency the breach in the walls of the
+infamous pen and wished that every timber had been leveled to the earth.
+
+A witty comrade on the south hill of the prison, thinking to convey
+desired information to the north side, shouted at the top of his voice,
+"Water! Water!" Men on the north side, as by a common impulse, answered
+back, and the two great companies in turn shouted the magic word, much as
+the opposite hosts on Ebal and Gerazim alternately responded, "Amen."
+
+Immediately after this antiphonal outburst a voice was heard from the
+north gate, ringing out in clear tones the thrilling words, "A spring! A
+spring! A spring has broken out!" "Where, where?" was the eager inquiry
+which arose at once from many lips. The writer tried to press his way
+towards the north gate, but the crowd was so dense that no progress could
+be made. The excitement of the moment was indescribable. During a lull
+some one sang out, "You fellows over by the north gate, tell us, has a
+spring broken out?" "Yes," was the reply, an emphatic "Yes." Then was
+further shouted the explanation, "Where the trench was dug the flood has
+torn up the earth and a spring has gushed out."
+
+As soon as opportunity afforded we pressed our way to the spot, and there,
+just below the north gate, in the center of the space between the stockade
+and the dead-line, at the point where the earth had been most deeply
+excavated, the sloping surfaces had gathered the waters of the flood. The
+bottom of the trench was torn up some twenty inches, uncovering the vent
+of a spring of purest crystal water, which shot up into the air in a
+column and, falling in a fanlike spray, went babbling down the grade into
+the noxious brook. Looking across the dead-line, we beheld with wondering
+eyes and grateful hearts the fountain spring.
+
+But our relief was not yet realized; the question which now concerned us
+was how to bring its cooling waters within reach of our lips. In the
+afternoon and evening of that eventful Friday we prayed that God would so
+turn the heart of Capt. Wirtz that he would allow the precious water to be
+conveyed within our lines. We waited in suspense for the answer, and on
+Saturday morning, to our delight, we saw the quartermaster again enter the
+gate with a gang of slaves, bringing fence boards, hammers, nails, axes
+and stakes. A double row of the latter was driven, so that the direction
+crossed the dead-line at a slight angle down the hill. A strip was nailed
+across each pair of stakes, and in the aperture rested a trough made of
+two fence boards nailed together. At the lower end of this chute in an
+excavation was set a sugar hogshead, around which clay was tamped so as to
+aid in making it watertight. When all was ready the upper end of the chute
+was thrust under the falling column of water, which swiftly ran down and
+filled to overflowing the large barrel. From this the men by crowds dipped
+freely of the refreshing, life-giving water.
+
+Laughter, songs and thanksgiving abounded. Thus was wrought before our
+eyes a gracious work of Providence which to many of us was quite as
+wonderful and quite as manifestly the work of the All-Father as was the
+smitten rock in the Palestine desert from which the thirst of the fainting
+hosts of Israel was slacked in their desert wanderings.
+
+[Illustration: Stockade bursted by a flood which opened the wonderful
+"Providence Spring"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WAS IT A MIRACLE?
+
+
+A profound conviction has been cherished by many that the unsealing of
+Providence Spring was as marked an interposition of the hand of the
+Almighty as that recorded in the Book of Numbers where it is said, "And
+Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water
+came forth abundantly and the congregation drank." Num. 20:11.
+
+Are they wrong in this conviction? The unwontedness of the incident admits
+of no dispute. In such a sober work as Rhodes History of the United
+States, we have the statement, "After a severe storm a spring broke out
+within the enclosure (Andersonville stockade) and this became one of the
+main reliances for drinking water." Vol. V., p. 492.
+
+An eye witness records: "About the first of August showers fell that beat
+anything I ever saw. There was one good result, for where the stockade was
+washed away on the north side, it opened a spring of pure water, enough to
+supply nearly the whole of the prison." (The narrative of Amos E. Stearns,
+Co. A, 25th Regiment, Mass. Published by Franklin Pierce, 1887.)
+
+While comparatively few of the prisoners knew of the days of prayer that
+preceded the storm, every one recognized that something out of the
+ordinary course of events had happened; and that a new spirit pervaded the
+camp. Before this, no one would give a dying man a drink, for water was
+scarce, and the scurvy in the recipient's mouth might contaminate the cup
+for its owner. And indeed, not many had the strength to wait upon others.
+But now the dull, sombre, despairing mood was changed. The little stream
+of pure water, contrasted with the former slough that supplied us,
+murmured sweetly down through the night, and during the day it
+over-brimmed thousands of cups that eager hands reached forth.
+
+In after days many of these men were gathered at Camp Chase, Ohio, and
+there detained until improved health rendered them presentable for return
+home.
+
+We recall that when in the chapel of that place a Capt. Allen conducted
+evening religious services, hundreds of testimonies were given to the
+effect that the breaking out of the spring at Andersonville was a distinct
+answer to prayer and a convincing fact of the reality of help coming from
+above. Many of the speakers declared that their Christian faith began from
+that occurrence.
+
+Questions such as the following naturally arise: Was Providence Spring a
+miracle? Would the saving relief have been withheld if prayer had not been
+offered?
+
+The situation is not more difficult of analysis than is that described in
+the story of Queen Esther where is exhibited the interplay of natural and
+supernatural elements in human activity and Divine over-ruling. The
+northern section of the Andersonville inclosure was mainly a bank of clay,
+as evidenced by the many wells which were partially sunk, but filled, by
+order of Capt. Wirtz, because tunnels therefrom were dug for escape. The
+vein of water which issued in Providence Spring doubtless flowed from time
+immemorial, and being unable to work upward through a too great overpress
+of clay, had found a lower seam through which it seeped into the depths of
+the swamp below. This implied fact was learned as follows: As the prison
+administration was unable to cook meal and bacon for the increasing
+thousands of men, these articles were issued raw for two weeks alternately
+to the north and south sides of the enclosure.
+
+A distressingly small lot of wood must suffice a detachment of two hundred
+and seventy men for three days. Often the individual portion would not
+make a fire that would scald, much less cook, the scant portion of
+cornmeal, which was sometimes coarse and unbolted. It was said that more
+than ten thousand cases of bloody dysentery prevailed at one time;
+aggravated by irritation to stomach and intestines from the practically
+uncooked food. The awful unsanitary conditions which prevailed can be
+described, but respect for the sensibilities of the reader forbids.
+Suffice it to say that the need for fuel was urgent, that a number of the
+stronger captives would lay aside their tattered remnants of clothing,
+wade into the slimy muck of the swamp, and, sinking to their armpits,
+would pull up fragments of wood that had long been submerged. This was
+mostly pitch pine and when broken up would quickly burn. The work of
+exhuming fuel under such repulsive conditions was chiefly done at night.
+
+It was noticed that in the morning the partially remaining foot-prints and
+depression, from which the stick had been drawn, were filled with clear
+water. This fact was a mystery until after the spring was opened; then the
+conclusion was reached that the spring water followed a deep seam in the
+clay and oozed into the swamp some distance below the surface and rose up
+through the openings made by the wood-diggers.
+
+Therefore Providence Spring was not especially created to order. Like
+Topsy, it had "allus" been. The providential aspects of the case may be
+thus stated; the spring existed, but was unknown. It was located under the
+space between the dead-line and the stockade, through which digging for a
+well was not permitted; it therefore remained undiscovered. The
+out-of-plumb position of the stockade timbers had existed for a long time,
+but was not noticed by the officials until the time when prayer began to
+be offered for water. As the petitions of Esther and Mordecai, unknown to
+the King, in a manner unseen affected his action, so by analogy, the
+prayer of Sergeant Shepard and his colleagues influenced the state of mind
+of the quartermaster and of Commandant Wirtz and they were moved to the
+repairing of the stockade which had long been neglected.
+
+This decision led to the forming of a broad trench by digging away the
+ground to afford the needed watershed from the base of the stockade.
+
+Thus a channel was formed which gathered the storm-water with force
+sufficient to tear away the ground over the spring and release the
+life-giving fountain. The slaves removed quite a depth of the earth
+directly over the unknown reservoir; thus the deepest part of the trench
+was brought so near the spring that the rush of the storm-flow could do
+the rest.
+
+The spring water was uncovered and its pressure was sufficient to throw it
+into the air. However, as it was located on the forbidden margin, any
+prisoner reaching under or over the dead-line for a draught of the water
+would be instantly shot by the sentinel posted overhead on the wall.
+
+Hence, after the spring was opened an object of much desire, and suitable
+as a subject of prayer, was that the hardness of Capt. Wirtz would be
+relaxed to the extent of allowing the prisoners to have access to the
+water. This result was accomplished and the relief was complete.
+
+A recent writer commenting on the development of Providence Spring refers
+to the marble fountain erected by the Ex-Prisoners of War Association
+inside the granite pavilion built over the spring by the Woman's Relief
+Corps, remarks, "The waters flow strong and sweet with a never-ceasing
+stream into the marble basin. It is said to be the best water in all
+Georgia; that which gushes forth from the side of the little hill in
+Andersonville." Confirmatory to this statement is the following incident:
+
+In 1896, when the writer lectured in Warsaw, N. Y., on "Reminiscences of
+Battle-fields and Prisons," a prominent war veteran of the town, who had
+been a member of the staff of General Grant, showed him a bottle of water
+from Providence Spring which nine years before had been hermetically
+sealed by the Rev. G. Stanley Lathrop of Atlanta. So pure was the content
+that no sediment existed.
+
+The further comment is: "The scientific fact of Providence Spring is that
+in the August electrical storm the rocks (clay) which held back this
+spring were cracked or broken open by a lightning bolt and the waters
+gushed forth. No one ever believed that it was a sort of Moses
+intervention for the prisoners, but it was undoubtedly looked upon in that
+light by the poor, thirsty, half-starved prisoners."
+
+To which we reply that if we believe in prayer as an instrumentality by
+which human and divine forces cooperate to a beneficent end, and the
+result takes place, why should we question the efficacy of intercession?
+
+The fact that a number of believing men in the prison were engaged for
+some days in protracted prayer for relief from water-famine was not
+ostentatiously announced at the time, and was little noticed by the crowd.
+Thus has it ever been with the origin of great spiritual movements.
+
+The relief came and a new spirit of hope and gladness, such as prevailing
+prayer engenders, swept through the multitude.
+
+The scientific fact of a mightly rain storm being the visible agency of
+completing the opening of Providence Spring fitly coordinates with the
+moral force of prayer, as in numberless instances such convergence occurs
+in history. Nevertheless, this explanation will probably be accepted or
+challenged according to the personal experience of the reader in matters
+of Christian faith.
+
+In the case of the smitten rock of the Palestine desert water doubtless
+existed in an abundant, although unknown supply. The Almighty, by the
+agency of Moses, brought it forth for the satisfying of a great multitude.
+
+The prophet was commanded to speak to the rock and it would give forth
+water. The response could be from none other than the Creator of all
+mountains and flowing streams. And although Moses went beyond the Divine
+command, and struck with a rod instead of speaking with his voice, yet the
+Divine goodness was not withheld, "and the water came abundantly." So at
+Andersonville the sufficient, though unknown, supply was close at hand.
+Human voices pleading for relief were answered by Him who spoke by the
+wind, the lightning and the flood.
+
+It is said that the spiritual desires of our hearts are the reflection of
+what God is waiting to do for us through our own co-operation. Surely
+then, the prayers of the Andersonville prisoners for water were incited by
+Him who saw their dire necessity, and who waited only for human hands to
+aid in the release of the fountain of water which his Omnipotence had
+created.
+
+During the subsequent years the writer has given the foregoing account in
+lectures and conversations to his comrades of the Grand Army of the
+Republic and to many others. Gentlemen of scientific and Christian
+attainments have said that this explanation of the phenomenon of
+Providence Spring is the most satisfactory of any that they have heard.
+
+The event here chronicled is commemorated by the erection on the spot of a
+granite pavilion which is appropriately named "Providence Spring." The
+inscriptions are as follows:
+
+    This Fountain Erected by
+    THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF UNION
+    EX-PRISONERS OF WAR
+    In Memory of the 52,345 Comrades
+    who were confined here as prisoners of
+    war, and of
+    the 13,900 comrades buried in the
+    adjoining National Cemetery.
+    Dedicated Memorial Day,
+    May Thirteenth, Nineteen Hundred
+    and One.
+
+    James Atwell, National Commander.
+    S. M. Long, Adjt. Gen'l.
+    J. D. Walker, Cham. Ex. Committee.
+
+A reverse tablet bears the words:
+
+    This Pavilion Was Erected by the
+    WOMAN'S RELIEF CORPS
+    Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
+    Republic
+    In grateful memory of the men who
+    suffered and died in the
+    Confederate Prison at Andersonville,
+    Georgia,
+    From February, 1864, to April, 1865.
+
+    "The prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven;
+    God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth
+    And poured his sweetest waters gushing here."
+
+    "Erected 1901."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DELIVERANCE.
+
+
+[3]At a point on the Cape Fear river, about ten miles from Wilmington, N.
+C., a trainload of old Andersonville prisoners who had been confined also
+at Florence, S. C., and Salisbury, N. C., were delivered to General Terry.
+They had just been paroled at Goldsboro, and were received by him about
+the middle of March, 1865. His headquarters was at a point on the Cape
+Fear river and recently taken from the enemy. It was now held by the Third
+New Hampshire, Sixteenth New York heavy artillery, and by a division of
+colored troops.
+
+The freight cars halted in a pine forest about a mile from this position,
+which commanded a pontoon bridge. A squad of cavalry received the
+ex-prisoners, unfurling the Stars and Stripes in greeting. Many of the
+boys in blue wept, when they saw our plight. The released men tried to
+hurrah, but were too weak to raise much of a shout. Three ambulances were
+loaded with as many of the sick as could be taken on the first trip.
+
+At the farther end of the pontoon bridge the road led through a deep cut
+in the bank up to the open space of the camp where guns pointed over the
+river towards the forest through which the freight train had come from
+Goldsboro with the paroled men. Spanning this cut was an arch constructed
+of evergreen boughs and faced with the white cloth square of shelter
+tent, upon which was spelled in letters made of evergreen sprigs, "THE
+SIXTEENTH NEW YORK WELCOMES YOU HOME."
+
+The march of a mile from the railroad to the pontoon bridge greatly
+exhausted the paroled prisoners. At first the excitement of once more
+gazing upon the flag they loved, and being received by the advanced
+squadron, stimulated them to walk with some show of vigor.
+
+But soon their eyes shone with the unwonted brightness of fatigue in
+contrast with their pinched and grimy faces. Many sank by the wayside, to
+be picked up by the ambulance when the same could return for them.
+
+The stronger ones worked up into the head of the column which crossed the
+pontoon bridge and the advance files of men undertook to walk up through
+the cut in the bank at the bridge end. But their feet sank in the sand and
+they were too weak to go further.
+
+Meanwhile a company of colored soldiers were drawn up through the cut in
+two ranks facing. Between these lines and under the arch our ambulance
+passed; the horses tugging with might and main up the steep grade and
+through the deep sand. The white officers and the black soldiers stood at
+"Present Arms." The eyes of the soldiers opened and their teeth gleamed
+with an aspect of astonishment, as they for the first time beheld seasoned
+graduates from a course of experiences in war-prisons. The living wrecks
+in the ambulances were still more pale and ghastly than were the stronger
+ones following slowly on foot, and as the latter emerged from the woods on
+to the floating bridge, the onlooking crowd of our men off duty began to
+be stirred with a great excitement.
+
+As the ambulances lined up before headquarters, General Terry approached.
+With him were the brigade surgeon and a representative of the United
+States Christian Commission. The General looked upon us with tear-dimmed
+eyes; and turning to the surgeon gave his pocket flask, saying, "Doctor,
+for God's sake, help these poor fellows."
+
+This ambulance stopped on the crest of the hill, when the Christian
+Commission man stepped to its side and said to the writer, "My boy, you
+will get out here." Seeing I was too weak to rise from the seat, he said,
+"Just lie across my shoulder." This I did and he carried me into a near-by
+country church building which sheltered the sick until they could be
+conveyed by boat to Wilmington.
+
+Meanwhile the straggling column of paroled prisoners had crossed the
+bridge. An officer undertook to form them into ranks so as to march in
+form under the arch and between the lines which stood at "Present arms."
+Their feet sank in the soft sand of the cut, and after taking a few steps
+they were utterly exhausted. The officer in charge thus addressed the two
+lines: "Shoulder arms!" "Order arms!" "Stack arms!" "Break ranks and carry
+these men up the hill!" With a mighty cheer the athletic colored soldiers
+sprang forward and each picked up an emaciated, wilted prisoner, carried
+him up the hill, and tenderly placed him on the ground. In due time, the
+sick were taken by boat to the Wright House Hospital, Wilmington, and the
+stronger ones were placed in a camp waiting transportation by steamer to
+the north.
+
+In the winter of 1875-76, the partially regained health of the writer
+collapsed, and he was advised to consult his former regimental surgeon,
+Dr. Wells B. Fox. The Doctor said, "You may live a good while, and you may
+not. Prepare to leave your family in as good shape as possible. If you
+have unsettled accounts fix them up."
+
+Pursuant to this advice, and needing the benefit of a climate warmer than
+a Michigan winter, he went to Washington to close up some army matters.
+Here he was received very kindly by Surgeon General Barnes, and by him
+ordered to have a thorough examination by experts of the medical
+department. The diagnosis was more favorable than was deemed possible, and
+its correctness has been verified by the subsequent years.
+
+On the journey from Cheboygan to Washington, a stop was made at
+Greenville. With his host, a call was made on the Rev. James L. Patton,
+pastor of the Congregational Church of that place. As the evening passed,
+conversation turned to army happenings. After reciting some experiences in
+the service of the United States Christian Commission, with an aroused
+manner, Dr. Patton said, "I must tell you of an occasion that I shall
+never forget. I was in the Christian Commission service outside
+Wilmington, North Carolina, near the close of the war, with General Terry,
+when he received the first installment of old Andersonville prisoners as
+they were sent into our lines. Terry was all broken up over their
+condition." "Could the prisoners walk?" asked the writer. "Yes," he
+replied; "some of them could, but many had to be brought in on
+ambulances." He was asked, "Where did you put those who were sick?" "We
+laid them on the floor of a little church that was close by," Dr. Patton
+replied. Extending his hand the writer said, "Dr. Patton, thank you."
+"Why, why," he replied hesitatingly, "you need not thank me for the
+story; it is true and you are welcome to it." "Yes," was the response, "I
+have no doubt the story is true. I do not thank you for it, but for
+helping me out of the ambulance at that time." Need it be said that these
+two men found themselves comrades, indeed?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AN INCIDENT BY THE WAY.
+
+
+A steamboat on the northeast branch of the Cape Fear river carried our
+paroled men from the station held by General Terry to the city of
+Wilmington.
+
+One of the principal mansions was owned by a Dr. Wright who had fled with
+his family on the approach of the Union troops. His fine residence was
+converted into a hospital for the arrivals who were sick.
+
+During the ride from Goldsboro on top of a freight car, the writer was
+taken ill and was barely able to walk the steamer plank at the point of
+transfer. After resting in the little country church he was taken to the
+Wright House Hospital and assigned a straw bed on the floor of a room in
+the third story. Soldier nurses proceeded to take off his infested prison
+rags and to give him a sponge rub. He fainted under the process and had a
+run of fever during which he was delirious.
+
+When the point of death was apparently reached his vitality took a turn
+for the better and he rapidly improved.
+
+On the floor of his room were twelve narrow straw beds having a succession
+of occupants who, with a few exceptions, were soon transferred to their
+final resting places.
+
+Many of the ex-prisoners having died from the effects of the too early use
+of solid food, the physicians became extremely cautious and limited the
+sick to small quantities of the most simple preparations.
+
+During the writer's convalescence, his ravenous hunger was unsatisfied by
+the slender allowance. It happened that his bed ended up to a window, and
+his favorite occupation was to sit on his pillow and watch the proceedings
+in the yard below. Here was a servant's cottage occupied by two colored
+women who evidently had excused themselves from flight with their master.
+The older one moved about with quiet dignity and doubtless had been the
+"mamma" of the family. With evident pleasure she watched the new life and
+movement around her, and held in restraint her young and vivacious
+companion.
+
+In the yard soldier cooks prepared in large kettles great quantities of
+beef soup, which was ladled into pails, carried to the kitchen and served
+to the patients throughout the building.
+
+A young artilleryman from Olean, New York, lay on a straw pallet alongside
+that of the writer. The one was called "Olean" and the other "Michigan."
+From his post of observation at the window the latter, one morning,
+watched the handling of the soup below with an interest that could not be
+concealed. "Say, Michigan, what are you looking at?" inquired Olean. "I am
+looking at them pouring out the soup," was the reply, "and say, Olean, I
+wish I could have a good smell of it."
+
+"_Smell_ of the soup," said Olean contemptuously; "if I was a wishing I'd
+wish I _had_ some and not just a smell." Upon this sagacious remark, a
+number of the occupants of the other beds passed the wink or laugh with a
+feeble, hacking sound; their pinched faces brightening with a sense of
+mirth.
+
+The practical wisdom of the suggestion was not lost upon "Michigan," who
+said, "If I was a little stronger I would take my cup, go down the stairs
+and into the yard and I would say, 'Boys, I'm awfully hungry; please give
+me some soup.'" Ah-ah-ah, laughed "Olean." "Say, Michigan, I'll bet you
+five cents you can't walk the length of your bed and touch the door knob."
+Upon this challenge, the other patients from their pillows exchanged
+glances, several braced up on the elbow and discussed the possibility of
+one of their number leaving his room without permission to forage for
+refreshments. The concensus of opinion was that he could not succeed.
+
+"Who are you talking to?" vigorously responded "Michigan." "You think I
+can't do it; I'll show you what I can do." Grasping the projecting window
+moulding he helped himself to his feet, carefully balancing his trembling
+steps along the narrow space between the beds on the floor, and
+triumphantly grasping the knob of the door exclaimed, "There now, Olean;
+I've done it; I've done it. Where is your five cents?" "Oh, I haven't any
+five cents," replied Olean, "but say, Michigan, you would look mighty fine
+going down those stairs, wouldn't you?"
+
+Thereupon the observing comrades laughed in great glee; in weakness, like
+little children, a very trifling incident amused them; they nodded their
+heads at each other and exchanged approving glances.
+
+Our regulation costume was a gray army shirt, drawers of like material,
+and a pair of socks. Thus appareled "Michigan" opened the door into the
+hall, peered over the railing down the two flights of stairs and, seeing
+the coast clear, worked along to the newel post and carefully lowered
+himself one or two steps.
+
+Thinking discretion might be the better part of valor, he tested his
+strength for the return by trying to retrace the steps down which he had
+come. He was quite unable to lift himself on the rising, so must needs
+continue down the two flights, resting his weight on the rail. Dizzy and
+breathless he stood by the stair post on the main floor. At this juncture
+the hospital steward suddenly entered and was amazed to find a very weak
+patient in a state of migration. "What are you doing here?" he hurriedly
+and angrily asked. "What room do you belong to and who said you might
+leave it?" "Oh, I'm just taking a little exercise," was the reply. The
+steward rang for an attendant, and with an oath said, "No more of this; I
+will order a man to help you to your room and there you stay."
+
+But no helper appeared, so our hero summoned all his determination and
+walked through the hall to the back porch. Here a stack of plain coffins
+greeted his view; and he fancied that one of them belonged to him. Going
+down the veranda steps he held to the rail and coming into the full rays
+of the sun turned faint and for a few minutes was helpless. Again, he
+summoned all the powers of his will and started down the gravel walk
+towards the servant's cottage.
+
+Reaching the porch of the same, he sank exhausted on the steps with head
+resting against the corner post. Just then the old "mamma" came out of her
+room and caught sight of the wasted form and pale face of the would-be
+soup hunter. Gazing pityingly upon his emaciation, and speaking to her
+assistant, she exclaimed, "Dinah, Dinah, come yeah, come yeah; look at dat
+ar' po' white chile; he bleached so white as linen!"
+
+Then addressing him, she said, "Wah yo' come from? Wah yo' come from?"
+"Oh, auntie," he gasped, "I came out of the hospital to get some soup and
+I can't get any further. Auntie, give me something to eat; I'm awfully
+hungry!" "Dinah, Dinah," she said. "Go to the cupboard and git a big slice
+ob de co'n pone; jes slip it undah you aprun and bring it yeah to me."
+Passing the generous slice under her own apron, the old mammy stood by the
+veranda post, looking the meanwhile intently at a distant object as if
+oblivious to all near concerns.
+
+Thus she partially screened the invalid from observation, and reaching the
+portion down to his hand, tenderly said, "Dar now, honey, yo eat dat
+bread." No second invitation to indulge his famished appetite was needed.
+The slice of "co'n pone" speedily disappeared. Strange to say, no
+inconvenience resulted. The food aroused the dormant vitality and the
+young fellow eagerly exclaimed, "Auntie, Auntie, that was so good. Give me
+some more." "No, honey," she said decisively, "de doctah see me do dis
+yah, I done go, suah." Then the invalid began to cry hysterically. The
+sympathy of the kind old heart was still further aroused and, spreading
+her great hand on his head, she said softly, "Po chile, po chile, he want
+ta see he muddah."
+
+"Mother, Mother!" How that word stirred his heart and aroused his memory
+so weakened by suffering. Physical vigor from the dark hand upon his head
+was surcharged with vitality that probably stimulated the depleted
+personality.
+
+Again the young man asked, "Aunty, aunty, give me some more," and again
+came the reply, "No, honey, de doctah see me do dis, he send me off for
+suah." Meanwhile "Olean" was pressing his face against the third-story
+window to see how "Michigan" was prospering in his quest for soup.
+
+A soldier nurse approached the cottage and "aunty," who seemed to be on
+good terms with all, interceded for her guest. "Dis ya chile done cum down
+fo a wok; he done tiad out, yo' help him back, won't yo', massa?" And he
+did.
+
+[Illustration: "Dinah, Dinah, look at dat ar po' white chile; he bleached
+so white as linen."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A SEQUEL.
+
+
+At the age of thirteen, the writer attended a series of religious meetings
+and became profoundly convicted of his obligation to accept Jesus Christ
+as his personal Savior. Lack of moral courage held him back from an open
+confession. He compromised by secretly pledging to become a Christian
+after he had entered upon his chosen profession of law. Thereupon his
+convictions ceased and the matter was forgotten.
+
+Now, in his illness in Andersonville prison, answer to prayer, as
+evidenced in the instance of Providence Spring, turned his attention to
+his own moral necessities. Well might this introspection occur; for, in
+this month of August, 1864, his prospects of surviving the surrounding
+conditions were swiftly diminishing. Blood poisoning, in the form of
+scurvy, had settled in his face. He tottered from weakness. His long days
+and weary nights were spent on his blanket, spread on the ground, just
+within the little shelter tent that was wedged in among others. When eyes
+were closed to awful sights, the ears must listen to dreadful sounds. As
+vitality was ebbing away, and the things of time and sense were
+withdrawing, the realities of eternity seemed to come to the front. Truly
+it was time to "prepare to meet thy God." This must be done at once. The
+reading of the little pocket testament began anew, and the thought was
+awakened to pray for self; when suddenly there came to mind the forgotten
+covenant of seven years ago, "I will be a Christian _after_ I become a
+lawyer."
+
+The obvious conclusion was, "Taken on your own terms, as you cannot be a
+lawyer, you cannot be a Christian." Total physical and mental weakness
+could not cope with this mental suggestion. The reflections that followed
+led to feelings of utter despair. Thus he soliloquized, "In the day of my
+strength I said 'No' to God; now, in the hour of my weakness, he will not
+hear me. He knows that from fear and not from sincerity I now seek to
+pray. Hypocritical prayer will but add insult to injury. I must not pray."
+These confused reasonings were largely due to an anemic brain and mental
+temptation. The weakened mind accepted a lie in place of the invigorating
+truth that "now is the day of salvation." Eternity seemed to open its
+portals to a realm of darkness into which the soul was being forced by the
+stress of its own past decision, while high over these gates enthroned in
+light appeared the radiant form of the Son of God. While this Personage
+seemed unspeakably lovely and "chief among ten thousand," the soliloquizer
+said, "He has been denied, he is lost to me." These cogitations filled the
+waking and sleeping hours of several nights. With a sense of woe
+unutterable the decision of doom was accepted. The sensations of a lost
+soul seemed to be real. Words are entirely inadequate to express the sense
+of eternal, irremediable loss by which the heart was oppressed. This
+exhaustive strain could not long continue. The evening of a day of
+unusually oppressive heat presaged the end. Vividly the thought stood
+before the mind, "This is my last night on earth." To the comrade who was
+blanket-mate the home address was given and a whispered good-bye. This was
+the fully accepted close of life.
+
+Sinking into an unrestful slumber, the small hours of the morning arrived,
+and a forgotten incident of the long ago was revived in a dream. The scene
+in vision occurred on a beautiful Sunday morning of spring, eleven years
+before. The location was a village on the old Ridge road in Niagara
+county, New York. The region was, and is, noted for its orchards of
+deciduous fruits. On this date the blossoms were out in full. Banks of
+pink and white embosomed the homesteads that lined the historic highway;
+sweet odors filled the air, and bevies of bees with droning song were
+industriously gathering the abundant nectar. Nothing could surpass the
+beauty of that quiet Lord's Day morning as the family, consisting of
+father, mother, older sister and younger brother, with the lad, wended its
+way to the brick church of the village. They habitually passed, on the
+outskirts of the same, the stone house of Col. N----, whose daughter's
+husband was absent in the West.
+
+The good lady taught in the Sunday school a class of boys who were from
+seven to ten years of age, and although they were possessed of
+irrepressible juvenile energy, and occasionally, to her distress, seemed
+to be irreverent; yet they regarded her with sincere respect and gave
+willing obedience.
+
+On the Saturday night, preceding this Sunday morning, a great burden of
+solicitude for the safety of her husband was suddenly pressed in upon her
+mind. To her imagination he seemed to be in extreme peril; perhaps he was
+unattended; he might be alone and facing a speedy and fatal termination.
+Possessing a strong faith in God, and believing his readiness to hear and
+answer prayer, at midnight she aroused from her bed and engaged in an
+irrepressible travail of soul for the far-away loved one. For several
+hours the burden of intercession continued. With the coming of the Sunday
+morning dawn, the light which made all nature bright and beautiful was
+suddenly duplicated in her heart. All at once the burden lifted.
+Instantaneously her being was filled with the sweet assurance that all was
+well with her husband; that whatever was his danger he was being saved
+therefrom. A tender gratitude possessed her heart. A sense of union with
+the mighty Jehovah suffused her being with a consciousness of strength and
+resource. Like Deborah of old a song of triumph arose in her soul.
+
+As the time of going to church approached, the above mentioned family came
+along, and, as was their custom, the teacher and her son, who was about
+the age of the writer, joined them on the way to the sanctuary. As the
+others were conversing by the way, the two boys ran on ahead and the one,
+having observed on the face of his teacher the marks of suffering, said to
+his chum, "Newton, what is the matter with your mamma?"
+
+"O, Johnny," was the reply; "My mamma has been feeling awful bad about my
+papa. I guess she thinks he is going to die, for in the night I heard her
+talking and talking to God about saving him and making him well. Say,
+Johnny, if God don't do what mamma asks I won't have any papa, will I?"
+
+With their hands joined in a common sympathy, and with mutual tears, the
+two lads sorrowed for a brief moment. But what parental anxiety could hold
+their abounding life from immediate sympathy with nature smiling all
+around? By the time the church was reached and cheery salutations had been
+exchanged with arriving classmates, all impressions of grief were
+forgotten.
+
+The teacher, in a mood of chastened gladness and confidence, listened to
+the sermon which the venerable pastor extended to an unusual length. This
+delay absorbed the brief period of time usually given to an intermission,
+during which the intermediates might straighten out the kinks which
+seemed to form in their lithe limbs while perched on cushioned seats so
+high that their feet dangled short of the carpet.
+
+The good superintendent, whose gracious face and form are remembered as
+but of yesterday, called the school to order immediately after the
+benediction was pronounced. "We are late," he said, "and cannot have
+intermission today; classes take their places at once."
+
+These irrepressible youngsters combined the movement of filing into the
+pew with motions not included in the regular order. One punched another.
+The lad who had recently shared the mental distress of his mother now
+inserted a bent pin under the descending form of his companion; resulting
+in a response that did not improve the discipline of the occasion. The
+boisterous impulse seized the entire class to the annoyance and
+discomfiture of the teacher, who was seated at their front in the
+adjoining pew. Several reproving glances directed towards the young
+insurgents quieted them during the opening exercises.
+
+After the vigil of prayer during much of the preceding night and the
+answer of peace that had been given, we can readily understand the state
+of mind which now possessed the teacher. The transient, sportive disorder
+of the little boys was but a harmless ripple on the surface of her
+thought. Her soul was in a continued attitude of prayer. Her victory in
+intercession made easy a renewal of request at the throne of grace. Not
+only her mother-heart but her Christian love yearned over the lads that
+were committed to her care. Not the surface question of behavior, but the
+issue of their conversion to Jesus Christ took possession of her mind. She
+thought to herself, "Why not now? Why not now?" Attracting the attention
+of the lads by tapping on the pew-top with her ivory-mounted fan, with
+countenance expressing unwonted strength, she said, "My boys, I want you
+to now be perfectly quiet, and to bow your heads and close your eyes
+while I pray for you."
+
+The spirit of quiet firmness which accompanied these words, the
+outreaching of her soul as in the interceding exercise of the previous
+night, profoundly impressed the lads. Instantly and willingly, they took
+the attitude of reverence; motionless they listened to the tender voice
+that pleaded in words like these: "O Lord, my heavenly Father, I ask Thee
+to help my little boys to give their hearts to Thee. Wilt Thou not, by the
+sacrifice of thy dear Son, cleanse their hearts from sin. Wilt Thou give
+to them a new heart, a clean heart? Bestow upon them freely of Thy Holy
+Spirit, and help them to live always for Thee. Amen."
+
+Although eleven years had passed away, and the immature experiences of
+boyhood had been replaced by the opening realities of manhood, the events
+above described formed the subject-matter of the dream on that memorable
+night in Andersonville. The panorama of what was largely forgotten
+unfolded before the mind in what was supposed to be the sleep of
+approaching death. These renewed impressions were so vivid that at the
+instant of awaking the reality seemed to be with the old-time home; the
+dream was the being in the prison pen.
+
+But a few moments of consciousness were required for the recognition of
+the actual circumstances of the present time and place.
+
+But, within, all was changed. In the place of despair an inspiring hope
+was in the ascendant. The forms and voices of loved ones had been seen and
+heard. The intercession of the teacher for her little boys had restored
+the right to pray. While yet in much physical weakness the day was mostly
+passed in silent prayer.
+
+During the second night a lessened impression of the dream was repeated.
+By the second morning all the processes of thought were restored to the
+normal condition. The mind and will were able to adopt the irreversible
+determination to henceforth implicitly trust in the living God and to
+live the life of faith and prayer. And up to the present hour that
+determination has sought to be unfalteringly kept.
+
+[Illustration: The Beloved Teacher in After Years.]
+
+
+
+
+"The mystic chord of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot
+grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will
+yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
+be, by better angels of our nature."--Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address,
+March 4, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A.
+
+CONTRIBUTORY TESTIMONY.
+
+
+Many narratives of experiences in the military prisons maintained by the
+government of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War have
+been written by Union officers and soldiers confined therein. With minor
+differences of statement arising from personal diversities these
+testimonies as a whole establish the fact of unprecedented suffering and
+mortality.
+
+Since the close of the Civil War our government has unstintedly employed
+ability and money in compiling and publishing an exhaustive exhibit of the
+Union and Confederate records. These statistics and memoranda afford to
+the later historian abundant and reliable data, and upon his calm verdict
+we may rely for the substantial truth.
+
+    The holding of prisoners during our civil war was a matter of large
+    concern. The number of Union soldiers captured was 211,411; paroled
+    on the field, 16,669; died in captivity, 30,218. These last figures
+    are defective. Of twelve Confederate prisons the "death registers" of
+    five are only partial and thousands of the emaciated men passed away
+    soon after release.
+
+    The number of Confederate soldiers captured was 462,635; paroled on
+    the field 257,769; died in captivity 25,976. The percentage of deaths
+    among the imprisoned Confederates, it will be seen, was far less than
+    among the Union prisoners.
+
+    The number of enlistments in the Union army was 2,898,304; in the
+    Confederate army from 1,239,000 to 1,400,000. The estimated cost of
+    war to the North was $5,000,000,000, and to the South $3,000,000,000.
+
+(The above figures are taken from a "History of the United States," by
+James Ford Rhodes, LL.D., Litt.D., who quotes from General F. C.
+Ainsworth, Chief of the Record and Pension Office.)
+
+
+
+
+"We raise our father's banner that it may bring back better blessings than
+those of old; ... that it may say to the sword, 'Return to thy sheath,'
+and to the plow and sickle, 'Go forth.' That it may heal all jealousies,
+unite all policies, inspire a new national life, com-pact our strength,
+ennoble our national ambitions, and make this people great and strong, not
+for aggression and quarrelsomeness, but for the peace of the world, giving
+to us the glorious prerogative of leading all nations to juster laws, to
+more humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to rational, instituted
+civil liberty, and to universal Christian brotherhood."--Address of H. W.
+Beecher at Fort Sumpter flag raising, April 15, 1865.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B.
+
+RESPONSIBILITY FOR PRISON TREATMENT.
+
+
+It is difficult, even after the lapse of years not a few, to consider
+dispassionately the treatment accorded by the Confederacy to her
+prisoners. War had fanned to a flame the fire of sectional animosity, and
+a spirit of retaliation was awakened. It is true the South was
+comparatively a poor country, and the hand of war had stripped her bare.
+The mighty armies of both sides carried on their vast operations on
+southern soil; the one as an army of defense, the other as an army of
+invasion.
+
+In the movements of strategy and battle, many combatants were taken
+prisoners; these were sent to the rear for safe keeping and maintenance.
+With practically unlimited resources this additional burden was scarcely
+felt at the North.
+
+At the South, the case was different. The extended territory occupied by
+the armies was practically unproductive for the people. It was, therefore,
+inevitable that the prisoners of war share the general limitation. As
+their numbers increased, it was necessary that they be conveyed to
+localities beyond the reach of rescue. Their increasing hosts could not
+wait upon the size of the stockades built for their confinement, and the
+limited forces that could be spared for their safe keeping must in some
+way hold them closely in hand.
+
+Moreover, unfriendly prejudices were increasing by the very fact of
+invasion, and as the North was held responsible for the war, the prisoners
+were the object of bitter hatred. In numerous minor particulars, such as
+ample supply of water, of shelter and of food and fuel, the obligations of
+the southern military authorities were criminally negligent; yet many of
+the features of the prison circumstances were probably unavoidable.
+
+The situation in the South is summed up in the following extract from "A
+History of the American People," by Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D., Litt.D., Vol.
+IV, pp. 306, 307:
+
+    "One of the most distressing evidences of the straits to which the
+    South had been brought was seen in the state of the prisons in which
+    she was forced to keep the thousands of prisoners who fell into the
+    hands of her armies.
+
+    "More than two hundred thousand, first and last, were taken, and only
+    some sixteen thousand of these were paroled upon the field....
+
+    "Not until the war seemed turning toward its end could an exchange of
+    prisoners be arranged. The Federal authorities knew their superiority
+    in fighting population and did not care to lose by returning fighting
+    men to the South. If her soldiers died in Southern prisons, they were
+    dying for their country there, General Grant said, as truly as if they
+    lost their lives in battle.
+
+    "In the south men could not be spared from the field to guard the
+    prisons; there were not guards enough; there was not food enough; and
+    many thousands were crowded together under a handful of men.
+
+    "Proper sanitary precautions were, in the circumstances, impossible.
+    The armies themselves lacked food and went without every comfort, and
+    the prisoners could fare no better--inevitably fared worse, because
+    they were penned within a narrow space and lacked the free air of the
+    camp. A subtle demoralization touched the government of the
+    Confederacy itself as the war went its desperate course, and those who
+    kept the prisons felt that demoralization with the rest."
+
+One recollection has burned itself into memory. At Andersonville there was
+a standing offer of immediate release to any prisoner of average strength
+who would take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and engage in
+non-combatant service. Officers who entered the prison with these
+proposals were shunned by our men. I recall a recently naturalized Federal
+prisoner who thus enlisted. When he re-entered the prison in Confederate
+uniform as a recruiting officer, his reception was such that he fled to
+the gate for his life; shouting to the guard to protect him. For flag and
+country our boys could uncomplainingly die a lingering death, but they
+could not turn traitor.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX C.
+
+WOMAN'S RELIEF CORPS MEMORIAL.
+
+
+Among the heroisms of the great Civil War none surpassed the
+self-sacrificing devotion manifested by the women of the North and of the
+South. The latter are represented by an organization known as "The
+Daughters of the Confederacy," within whose associations are kept alive
+ardent memories of heroic days.
+
+The former have wrought enduring deeds of patriotism and of mercy, chiefly
+in co-operation with the Grand Army of the Republic. The work of the
+Woman's Relief Corps in securing and improving the Andersonville prison
+grounds constitutes an imperishable memorial to their patriotic devotion.
+
+To the energy and executive ability of Mrs. Lizabeth A. Turner, Chairman
+of the Andersonville Prison Board, is due in large measure the complete
+success attending the movement to gain possession of and to beautify the
+site and surroundings of the historic Andersonville prison.
+
+The following letter written two years before the decease of Mrs. Turner
+explains in her own vigorous expressions how these great results were
+secured:
+
+"Woman's Headquarters Relief Corps, (Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
+Republic.) 46 Camp Street, New Britain, Conn., October 14, 1905."
+
+"Rev. John L. Maile.
+
+Dear Comrade: Some fifteen years ago the Department of Georgia, G. A. R.,
+considered the idea of buying the Andersonville prison pen and holding it
+in memory of the men who there died for the preservation of the Union.
+
+The committee bought all the land the owners would release and hoped to
+raise through the Northern posts and their friends a permanent fund for
+the care of the grounds.
+
+The plan proved a failure. The G. A. R. in the South is very poor. Its
+members are mostly colored men who are able to make little more than
+their living.
+
+On the property was a mortgage of about $750, which was paid by the
+Woman's Relief Corps, but money for the care of the place was lacking. The
+grounds were then offered to the United States Government on the condition
+of providing perpetual care. As Andersonville is not a battlefield, the
+authorities declined the proposition.
+
+On two occasions a like proposal was made to the National G. A. R.
+Encampment, but these veterans decided that the time is not far distant
+when they can care only for themselves.
+
+With better success the responsibility was tendered to the Woman's Relief
+Corps, which felt that if there is a place on God's earth that should be
+held sacred, it is that prison pen. The officials accepted the obligation,
+trusting to woman's patriotism for support and care, and they have not
+trusted in vain.
+
+The adage that "God helps those who help themselves" has been true in our
+case. When we accepted the sacred trust and looked the ground over, I
+found a large corner of the original pen and three forts we did not own.
+We bought the extra grounds and the forts, paying for them several hundred
+dollars more than they were worth. We ventured for all or nothing--and
+_all_ it was.
+
+This occurred in 1895, and in that year I was elected President of the W.
+R. C. At the convention we raised by personal contributions $700 as a
+beginning.
+
+During several years each member was asked to give from three to five
+cents; some responding, others refusing. Now all bills are paid from the
+general fund of the National organization.
+
+We own eighty-eight and one-half acres of land, including the seven forts;
+all the earthworks and rifle pits; also the wells dug by the men in trying
+to reach water. These are in as perfect condition as when the war closed.
+
+Not a well has caved in or a fort changed in shape. That hard, red clay
+seems as unyielding as stone.
+
+The grounds are inclosed with a high wire fence and suitable gates. Roads
+are laid out and bridges built over the creek. Bermuda grass roots planted
+on the north side will make an even lawn.
+
+Grass seed for a sward will not germinate in that soil. We have built over
+Providence Spring a stone pavilion, also a nine-room house, well
+furnished, and after the northern home pattern.
+
+We also have a barn, a henyard, a good mule and all kinds of work tools
+for such a place.
+
+We engage an old veteran and his wife as caretakers. From a pole 116 feet
+high floats in the air every day the flag those heroes died to save. At
+our last convention we voted to build a windmill the coming winter.
+
+Last fall we set out 300 roses and this autumn will add 200 more. We have
+also set out 150 four-year-old pecan trees that are from 10 to 15 feet
+high. They do finely in that soil and when from ten to twelve years old
+will bear a paying crop. A freeze does not affect them and they are
+marketable without decaying.
+
+Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Michigan have put up beautiful
+monuments in the prison pen. Wisconsin will have hers ready to dedicate on
+next Memorial Day.
+
+Pennsylvania, Iowa and Maine have placed monuments in the cemetery. All
+this has been done through the work of the W. R. C.
+
+While I believe the prison pen is the _only_ place for the monuments, I am
+thankful to have any State remember their Andersonville men wherever they
+think best.
+
+"Death Before Dishonor" is the motto on all the monuments within the
+prison grounds.
+
+Last year we had markers put down on all the places of special interest;
+also on the stockade and dead lines. Trees have grown up _through_ the
+forts forty feet high and are more than two feet through.
+
+The W. R. C. has started a fund for the perpetual care of the Prison Pen
+Park. We began last year and have already $3,000 in the fund. The yearly
+income is to be added to the principal, and none to be used until the
+proceeds are sufficient to support the place.
+
+We are to set aside annually _not less_ than $1,000 for the increase of
+the fund, besides caring for current expenses.
+
+You will, I am sure, be much interested in the situation. I have been
+Chairman of the Board from the beginning and hope to live long enough to
+see sufficient money set aside to care for the place _forever_.
+
+    Yours in F. C. and L.,
+      LIZABETH A. TURNER,
+
+    Chairman Andersonville Prison Board of Control."
+
+Mrs. Turner served as President of the Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to
+the Grand Army of the Republic, and was appointed by her compeers as Life
+Chairman of the Andersonville Prison Board. Her death occurred at
+Andersonville on April 27, 1907.
+
+A monument suitable to her memory, erected by the Woman's Relief Corps,
+adorns the prison grounds for which she spared not her life to preserve
+and beautify.
+
+From the Annual Address of Mrs. Fanny E. Minot, President of the Woman's
+National Relief Corps, at the Twenty-third Annual Convention, 1905:
+
+"In March it was my privilege, in company with Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Winans
+and Mrs. Kate E. Jones, to visit Prison Park at Andersonville. As I walked
+through the grounds and read and pondered on the suffering there endured,
+it seemed, indeed, a hallowed spot. Just beyond is the National Cemetery,
+in whose broad trenches are interred more soldiers in one group than upon
+any battlefield on the face of the globe. A whole army perished rather
+than deny the country which gave them birth! The bravery of the men at
+Thermopylae has been the theme of song and story; but they fought in the
+shadows of their soul-inspiring mountains, while these men, removed from
+the activities of war, the flash of arms, the long array of men eager for
+the contest, dragged out a miserable existence till death came to their
+relief. If ever men were loyal, true and brave, whose names should be
+inscribed on honor's roll, it was these."
+
+    "Who tasted death at every breath
+    And bravely met their martyrdom."
+
+"How fitting that the magic touch of woman should consecrate this prison
+pen and make it a prison park! Only patient, persistent effort has made
+the change possible; for the soil is unresponsive, and tangled vines and
+underbrush had run riot for many years. But on this visit we found the
+grounds suitably enclosed, the Bermuda grass taking root, the moats and
+creek cleared of the vines and the conopy erected over that wonderful
+Providence Spring. The house erected for the caretaker much exceeded my
+expectations for comfort and convenience. Honeysuckles and roses clambered
+over the porch, and the rose garden, planned by Mrs. Turner, gave promise
+of beauty and fragrance where formerly had been barrenness and foul odors.
+On these grounds Ohio has raised a beautiful granite shaft, Massachusetts
+has placed a substantial monument near by, Rhode Island has honored her
+dead in bronze and stone, and last Memorial Day the Governor of Michigan
+came with friends to dedicate with appropriate ceremonies a monument to
+the brave sons of that State. Wisconsin has selected a site near the spot
+where some of her men encamped; and other States are planning to erect
+monuments, but wish first to be assured that the park will have permanent
+care."
+
+
+    PLANTING THE FLAG AT ANDERSONVILLE.
+
+    BY MRS. ANNIE WITTENMYER.
+
+    We lift up the banner of freedom today,
+    And let the world know that due honor we pay
+    To liberty's martyrs, who starved for the right,
+    And crown them with heroes who fell in the fight.
+
+    Their chalice of woe was filled up to the brim;
+    They drank to the dregs with high courage and vim,
+    Nor faltered, nor wavered, but loyal and true,
+    Stood firm by their colors, the red, white and blue.
+
+    The earth was their pillow, their covering the sky;
+    And thousands lay down on the bare ground to die;
+    No artist can paint, no pen tell the story
+    Of all they endured for love of "Old Glory."
+
+
+    The Lord, in compassion, took note of their grief,
+    And came, in His majesty, to their relief;
+    He rode on the wind, where swift lightnings played,
+    And hallowed the ground where the prisoners laid.
+
+    They panted with thirst, ere the Presence passed by,
+    But flashes of glory lit up the dark sky;
+    A thunderbolt fell, with omnipotent ring,
+    And opened the fountain of Providence Spring.
+
+    And peace came at last. Ah! for thousands too late;
+    We mourn, as a people, their pitiful fate,
+    And hold the ground sacred, our care and our pride,
+    And plant the flag over the place where they died.
+
+    But the Nation is saved! They died not in vain;
+    Our people are all reunited again.
+    From ocean to ocean--the lakes to the sea--
+    One country, one people, one flag of the free!
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX D.
+
+A MEMORIAL DAY MEDITATION.
+
+
+By Rev. H. H. Proctor, D.D., of Atlanta, Ga., in The Congregationalist of
+May 2, 1905.
+
+"The thirtieth of May is sacred to the nation. With its return the heart
+of the country instinctively turns to those eighty-three national
+cemeteries, mostly on Southern soil, where in 194,492 known and 151,710
+unknown graves lie 346,202 men who fell fighting for the flag. And in all
+the land, fittingly enough, there are no spots more beautiful than these.
+For their care and improvement the national government spends $100,000 a
+year.
+
+The cemetery at Andersonville, Ga., gains additional interest in view of
+the famous prison connected with it. Of these I wish to speak. No one can
+spend a day there, as I did lately, without drinking deep of the patriotic
+spirit. The very ground on which you stand seems holy, when you think how
+brave men suffered and died there. The very air seems charged with their
+spirit still.
+
+Some disappointment is felt when over one hundred miles south of Atlanta
+you get off at a little station, with a few straggling houses here and
+there. But in the distance, a mile away, the national flag waving
+invitingly bids reassurance. At length you stand at the entrance of the
+cemetery, entering through the strong iron gates of the thick ivy-covered
+brick wall, 12,782 known and 923 unknown men are buried within.
+
+Many things at once interest you. Walks lead to every part of the grounds.
+Trees, shrubbery and flowers enhance the natural beauty of the place.
+Feathered songers of the South chant daily requiems. Each grave is marked
+by a white marble headstone, on which is generally carved the number,
+rank, name and state of the dead soldier. Here and there we read the sad
+inscription, "Unknown." The white stones contrasting with the fine
+greensward under the soft Southern sky make an impressive scene. This is
+especially true in that part of the grounds where stands the splendid
+monument of New Jersey, as shown by the accompanying illustration.
+
+In a convenient place there is located an octagonal rostrum, where every
+Memorial Day gathers a large concourse of people to pay homage to the
+sacred dead. After the exercises the most impressive act of all follows.
+Each grave, officers or private, white or black, known or unknown, is
+decorated with a miniature flag. And what a transformation! Instead of the
+monotonous rows of bare white stone a field of flags, by the magic of
+loving remembrance, appears!
+
+But as impressive as is this cemetery, more impressive still to me was the
+prison. It is only a few rods away. Its notoriety is universal. Blaine, in
+his memorable speech in Congress, immortalized its more than Siberian
+horrors.
+
+Some of the posts of the old stockade fence, survivors of that dread
+prison will be interested to know, still stand. There, within a space of
+thirteen acres, 52,345 men, the very flower of the Republic, were kept in
+a pen. For thirteen months they were exposed in that rude stockade to the
+heat in summer and the cold in winter, to blistering sun and chilling
+blasts. From cruelty and exposure, hunger and thirst, disease and dirt,
+they died like sheep. Every fourth man died!
+
+The story of "Providence Spring" is universally familiar. It proves that
+God is yet with men as of old. The water supply for these thousands in
+that small space consisted of but one little brook which of course soon
+became unspeakably foul. In their thirst they cried unto God for water. He
+who hears the cry of the raven could not be dumb to the prayer of the
+suffering soldier. It was night. Soon the sky was overcast with clouds,
+the lightnings flashed, the thunders rolled, and a great rain came that
+night. Next morning a fountain of living water sparkled in God's sunshine
+near where the devout soldier had knelt in prayer the night before.
+
+In recognition of God's providential gift they christened it "Providence
+Spring." Today a pavilion of stone, erected by the Woman's National Relief
+Corps, commemorates the spot. Two significant utterances are carved on
+marble tablets in the pavilion. On one we read these words: "The
+prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven. God heard and with his
+thunders cleft the earth, and poured forth his sweetest waters gushing
+here." Over the fountain, which has never ceased from that day to this,
+carved in Georgia marble are the great words of that great man in whose
+big soul the nation was born again: "With charity to all and malice toward
+none."
+
+As I stood by this spot and looked up on the hill I felt a new love of
+country stir within my heart. I could but say in my heart I would rather
+be a plain American citizen, though black, than a knighted Roman under
+Caesar.
+
+As we think of that prison we are thankful for the cemetery. The prison
+typifies suffering. The cemetery is the symbol of peace. Through that
+gateway of suffering our martyrs entered into peace. How typical of the
+nation! Through the crucible of suffering it entered into peace."
+
+[Illustration: FLAG DAY: ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY]
+
+[Illustration: THE MICHIGAN MONUMENT IN ANDERSONVILLE CEMETERY]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX E.
+
+SHALL THE GOVERNMENT CONFER PERMANENT HONORS ON CONFEDERATE HEROES?
+
+
+The magnanimity which dictated the terms of surrender at Appomattox was
+typical of the treatment extended by the Government of the United States
+to its defeated opponents. Well might this be so. The sinews of strength
+of the mighty North had through the four years of desperate conflict grown
+strong indeed.
+
+A Confederate Major General declared that the veterans of General
+Sherman's army, pushing their winter way through the swamps and rivers of
+the South; foraging widely for subsistance and always ready to fight,
+illustrated a type of soldier that the world had not seen since the days
+of Julius Caesar.
+
+The final parade of the Union army along Pennsylvania avenue before the
+President, the Cabinet, prominent Generals and notables of other nations,
+displayed a vast procession of seasoned veterans whose effectiveness had
+never been surpassed. They were the choice, steel-tempered residue of more
+than two millions of citizen soldiery who had enlisted to preserve the
+union of States, "one and inseparable," against the folly of secession.
+
+In the plentitude of their invincible strength, nursing no lust of power,
+they disbanded to peaceful homes from whence they came; subsiding from
+their regnant military life as the mighty storm-waves of the ocean sink
+away into pacific calm.
+
+Apart from wide-spread personal bereavement the North bore no serious
+scars of war. The perfection of agricultural machinery enabled rich
+harvests to be gathered in season notwithstanding the dearth of farm help
+which had gone to the army. Factories of every kind were, with large
+profits, turning out abundantly all sorts of goods. Our commerce with the
+world was unhindered, save by the eccentric raids of the Alabama; the
+muscle and brawn of an ample labor immigration supplied the manual force
+necessary to national expansion; as illustrated in the building of the
+trans-continental railroads. The huge war debt instead of being felt as an
+incubus was but a process of turning into ready cash the prosperity of the
+future.
+
+Contrast with this picture the condition of the Southern States at the
+close of the four dreadful years. Within a goodly portion of her borders
+the country was war-swept and harried by the consuming necessities of vast
+armies of both friend and foe; for hungry men and beasts on the march and
+in the fight must subsist largely upon the supplies which the foragers
+gather from the adjacent regions.
+
+Manufacture, as compared with the North, was a neglected art south of
+Mason's and Dixon's line.
+
+The most extensive and effective naval blockade of history hermetically
+sealed nearly every Southern port, thereby hopelessly shutting in untold
+wealth of cotton, the returns of which were otherwise available to every
+need.
+
+No millions of stalwart immigrants reinforced Southern industry; on the
+contrary her labor system and property tenure in human beings were
+shattered in pieces.
+
+The flower of her masculine youth perished; the prestige of ruling
+intelligence, culture and wealth was dethroned and, to crown her
+afflictions although she knew it not, the South lost her best and most
+powerful friend in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
+
+Then followed the agonies of political reconstruction and the ignoble
+invasion of carpet-bag adventurers who, in many instances, were valiant
+only for pelf.
+
+Surviving this wide-spread chaos the South, for the most part, believed in
+their lawful right of withdrawing from the Union. By many of their leading
+minds this contention had been long held, and that conception of
+government doubtless had filtered down through all classes of society so
+far as thought was developed on the subject.
+
+The defense of State rights probably was a more powerful incentive to
+civil war than was at first the purpose to defend slavery.
+
+The bravery of Southern soldiers has never been surpassed. The
+self-sacrificing patriotism of Southern women reached the high-water mark.
+
+The vitality and moral force of Southern chivalry was distinguished even
+in the remarkable loyalty of the slaves.
+
+If the foregoing briefly stated considerations form a truthful
+presentation of the case, why, it may be asked, may not the National
+Government expand the magninimity of President Lincoln and General Grant
+by engaging with Congress to erect monuments and other memorials to heroes
+of the army and navy of the Confederacy? The first step towards such
+procedure has already been taken in the form of proposed legislation at
+Washington.
+
+We would not imply that the most eminent leaders of the Southern forces
+were personally unworthy of posthumos honor.
+
+On the contrary it is our privilege to bear testimony to the exalted
+individual worth, the consecrated devotion to country as they understood
+the duty, and the pre-eminent ability in action that characterized the
+most noted leaders of the Confederacy.
+
+Nevertheless their relation to national history is determined, not by
+individual excellencies, but by the fact that they rebelled against the
+Government they were sworn to defend. To the utmost they did all they
+could to dismember the Union of which they were an integral part, to
+dishonor the flag that emblazoned the glory of a common origin and
+history.
+
+In the interest of perpetuating a far-reaching sentiment of loyalty to
+national life and well-being we would strenuously deny the moral right of
+Congress to make appropriations for the erection of memorials that are
+designed to crown Confederate valor with renown. If by private
+subscriptions admirers wish to build monuments they undoubtedly will be
+allowed to do so.
+
+Our Government has wisely extended high courtesies to prominent Southern
+Generals, and has on many occasions held out the olive branch of peace.
+But we must not forget that brotherly kindness and neighborly good-will
+cannot cancel the fact that the Southern conception of government by state
+rights, as against National sovereignty, meant the destruction of the
+Nation as such and was so intended.
+
+Had the war for the Union been a failure this fair continent on which has
+been nourished the hopes of the world would have been the arena of two
+general governments separated by no natural dividing lines and probably at
+last to be succeeded by contending states and communities.
+
+Thus the last condition of free civilization in America would have been
+more disgraceful than was the situation of the warring principalities of
+ancient Greece, because we had sinned against a greater light than they
+possessed.
+
+If National monuments are dedicated to commemorate Southern gallantry will
+not a subtle influence steadily flow out from these reminders of civil war
+to the effect that assault upon the Nation's existence is an offense so
+trivial as to be expiated by bravery on the field of battle?
+
+Who can tell what crises of peril may in the future break in upon our
+beloved land? And what if the youth of the North and of the South are,
+from generation to generation, taught by the influence of public memorials
+that there is no real distinction between those who fought to save the
+Nation and those who did all they could "that the government of the
+people, by the people, and for the people, shall (not) perish from the
+earth."
+
+We present a quotation from the judgment of the Supreme Court, as given by
+General N. P. Chipman on page 503 of his recent and informing book on
+Andersonville:
+
+    "The rebellion out of which the war grew was without any legal
+    sanction. In the eye of the law it had the same properties as if it
+    had been the insurrection of a country or smaller municipal territory
+    as against the State to which it belonged. The proportion and duration
+    of the struggle did not affect its character. Nor was there a rebel
+    government de facto in such a sense as to give any legal efficiency to
+    its acts.... The Union of the States, for all the purposes of the
+    constitution, is as perfect and indissoluble as the union of the
+    integral parts of the States themselves; and nothing but revolutionary
+    violence can in either case destroy the ties which hold the parties
+    together.
+
+    "For the sake of humanity certain belligerant rights were conceded to
+    the insurgents in arms. But the recognition did not extend to the
+    pretended government of the Confederacy.... The Rebellion was simply
+    an armed resistence of the rightful authority of the sovereign. Such
+    was its character, its rise, progress and downfall."
+
+The legal aspects of the case as thus expressed have their great value as
+indicating facts fundamental to organic National existence and they
+demonstrate the inherent inconsistency of devoting Federal appropriations
+to the erection of monuments to the honor of opponents of the Union. This
+can be but a transient purpose which should and, we believe will be,
+relinquished.
+
+We close this narrative with the words of a departed soldier who was a
+devoted friend of General Lee and afterwards a trusted counsellor of
+General Grant, as recorded in the Memoirs of Gen. John B. Gordon, pp. 464,
+465:
+
+"American youth in all sections should be taught to hold in perpetual
+remembrance all that was great and good on both sides; to comprehend the
+inherited convictions for which saintly women suffered and patriotic men
+died; to recognize the unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivalled
+courage; to appreciate the singular absence of personal animosity and the
+frequent manifestation between those brave antagonists of a
+good-fellowship such as had never before been witnessed between hostile
+armies. It will be a glorious day for our country when all the children
+within its borders shall learn that the four years of fratricidal war
+between the North and the South was waged by neither with criminal or
+unworthy intent, but by both to protect what they conceived to be
+threatened rights and imperiled liberty; that the issues which divided the
+sections _were born when the Republic was born_, and were forever buried
+in an ocean of fraternal blood. We shall then see that, under God's
+providence, every sheet of flame from the blazing rifles of the contending
+armies, every whizzing shell that tore through the forests at Shiloh and
+Chancellorsville, every cannon-shot that shook Chickamauga's hills or
+thundered around the heights of Gettysburg, and all the blood and the
+tears that were shed are yet to become contributions for the upbuilding of
+American manhood and for the future defense of American freedom. The
+Christian Church received its baptism of pentecostal power as it emerged
+from the shadows of Calvary, and went forth to its world-wide work with
+greater unity and a diviner purpose. So the Republic, rising from its
+baptism of blood with a national life more robust, a national union more
+complete, and a national influence ever widening, shall go forever
+forward in its benign mission to humanity."
+
+From the oldest to the youngest, let us all unite in the patriotic
+salutation, "I pledge my allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for
+which it stands. One Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for
+all."
+
+
+THE FINISH
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Toward the close of the war great bounties were paid for recruits in
+northern cities. Many desperate characters enlisted for this money,
+intending to desert at the first opportunity. The vigilence of Genl. Grant
+forced them into battle. Many were captured and landed in Andersonville.
+Here they conspired to rob and murder fellow prisoners. Capt. Wirtz
+convened a trial court composed of prisoners who observed all the forms of
+law in the trial of these desperadoes. Six of them were found guilty of
+murder and were hung.
+
+[2] Market Square was a piece of made ground on the edge of the swamp in
+the center of the prison. Here men came together to barter trinkets they
+had made to while away the time, to exchange parts of rations, and to
+indulge generally, so far as they could, in the Yankee instinct for trade.
+
+[3] On February 20th, 1912, the writer received a call from an old friend,
+Rev. M. L. Holt, of Neligh, Nebraska. He gives this confirmatory statement
+to Mr. Maile: "As Sergeant Major of the Third New Hampshire Veteran
+Volunteer Infantry I can certify to the military surroundings at the place
+of your release. Two days before your arrival from Goldsboro, General
+Terry ordered our Third New Hampshire to make a forced march to a point
+ten miles distant from Wilmington on the Northeast branch of the Cape Fear
+river and take from the enemy a pontoon bridge at that point.
+
+"We skirmished with the foe nearly the entire distance and came up to them
+just as they had cut the near end of the bridge from the bank. With our
+machine guns we drove them off and moored the bridge back to its place. On
+the second day after we received the old Andersonville prisoners and had
+the satisfaction of knowing we had prepared their way by having the bridge
+in readiness for them to cross the river into our lines. I shall never
+forget the impression made upon us by the condition of these survivors of
+Confederate prisons. These events occurred in March, 1861."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Prison Life in Andersonville, by John L. Maile
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