Oak Park Reporter Argus (Newspaper) - June 24, 1905, Oak Park, Illinois NO. 25. afe JUNK 24, 1905. PKR Y NEVER Current furnished by Park 60. for Power and Light so Low and Operation so Simple that it is being adopted Avenue and Lake 99. Travelers, issue a Traveler's Letter of Credit payable in foreign This letter allows you to draw expense money just as you need it. It also insures absolute PARK TRUST SAVINGS Surplus and Undivided C. N. A. W. Austin Coombs Dr. T 15 1UVANT T. S. C. Hansen George Eckart J. W SEASONABLE CHARGE FOR CONNECTING FIXTURES AND HOUSE PIPING AT HEATERS OAS COKE NORTH OAK PARK AVE. CASH OR OAK 8. Bakery Ice Cream and Confectionery at W. N. OAK PARK 773 Landscape am back in Oak Park ready for the Spring Call phone 9702. GEORGE L. General Jobbing and 1263 and 2504 158 William St. 111. accords every facility to it depositors consistent with Hound banking It solicits checking and savings Pays 3 per cent on Savings and Special It issues letters of credit and drafts upon New Chicago and the principal Safe deposit boxes for rental to the firm or E. President O. W. Cashier W. S. 2nd D. ROSS GEORGE WALKER SAMPSON 1 R. C C 1 P. E. S. A. CUMMINGS O. W. IN THE H. Pike Describes in School Commissioner of Georgia Dc murs from Charges of Cruelty to Federal the Bloomington of June 1, 190. r >, contained ing article regarding the Ivory a prominent member of Sheridan No. 015, Oak 111., that the Federal soldier prisoners were inhumanely treated the war at The discussion has aggravated southern but Comrade Pike deals not only plainly with the but has forgiven his captors and is ready to apply the balm of brotherly kindness to the unpleasant recollections of his experiences as a prisoner of war in the annual Memorial Day was between 1864, aud 1804. The confederate gov proposed to allow which we did not to be sent by the federal government to the prisoners held in the The federal refused this even when it was stated that federal surgeons might come along with the supplies of am pained when I think of the bias and bitter thought planted in the minds of the children of your state by you and Corporal Pike when lie states that was a repetition of the Black Hole of and the English language fails to furnish tongue cannot pen cannot nor brush portray the suffering of the union you will refer to the Congressional Record and read the speech of Hon. Benjamin Jl. of in the house of January 11, 187(i, on the general amnesty you will find some very wholesome historical facts which will be very profitable reading for you and Corporal Pike and will give the youth Of your state a different and better of our people than they will receive from the article which you have dignified by publishing in your Memorial truly B. School several by Alfred slate superintendent of public instruction of has called forth a caustic reply from William B. state school commissioner of the state of to whom a copy of the circular was The portion of the circular to which the Georgia school commissioner takes exception is a letter referring to Andersonville prison and the treatment accorded prisoners This letter was written by Ivory of Company the Sixty-eighth Illinois formerly ' a well-known citizen of and past senior vice commander of the Department of Illinois Grand Army of the Referring to Capt. Pike is a stigma upon any nation or people to mistreat a prisoner of I shall soon be Let history j record the fact that Andersonville was a repetition of the Black Hole of made worse by growth of genius ' in lapse of We will but we cannot the inhuman ment we received while I In his letter to Superintendent Commissioner Merritt | have received your Memorial Day circular No. 72, to directors and teachers of the common On page 34 of this intended for use in your you print a statement about the Andersonville prison life from ope Ivory Sixty-eighth corporal Company Sixteenth Illinois past senior vice department of G. A. former federal and a prominent member of the G. A. R. Corporal Pike states that the prison contained thirteen acres when it really contained twenty-two acres at first and was enlarged until it contained twenty-seven His 42,000, are incorrect as to the number of federal soldiers who died in As a lesson in arithmetic and history you should have your pupil divide his figures by two and add 1,570. Pike states that the greatest number of prisoners died at where lie was confined several It would be well for the children of Illinois and Georgia when these matters are brought to their that the death rate of confederates n federal prisons was over 12 per while that of federals in confederate prisoners was under U per The death rate of confederate prisoners in several federal prisons was as Deposits Stante to B. state commissioner of the State of who takes exceptions to some of Mr. Pike's statements in a letter by to our State Alfred on prison life at is as do not answer Mr. Merritt for the purpose of opening up the old but must insist that all 1 stated is true and I put it very he deducted the space between outside and inner the dead line about eight rods of swamp across the which could not be and a road wide enough for a team to turn which had to be kept he will find my figures about have no doubt but that my 42,000 federal who died in rebel foi the Confederates kept no record of the at least no true report was ever furnished the federal and the only way we had of arriving at the number was from reports of those who and where only a few were captured at a time and all died in prison no report was ever and they were marked on the company roll aa That cuts down the the children of Illinois and Georgia that federal troops most always made the advance and into Con federate territory and often sent out scouting parties which were neve heard but were marked missing on company that we never sent to the front any but able-bodied but when we captured a rebel command it most always included the wounded and worn-out that we recruited men from 16 to 45 years of while the all from 12 to 70, and if you should find a single person who believes tli death rate at Rock Island was 77.-1 per cent tell him we must have captured a cradle state that the policy of th Confederate government was that pris were to have the same rations 111.................16.8 por 111..........................9.9 por 111...................19,ti per 111...................77.4 per N. 32.6 per death rate of federal prisoners at Andersonville was 2t> per cent. Dr. C. H. a worthy successor of Dr. Joseph surgeon United Confederate made the following able and well authenticated statement of the policy of tbe confederate government iu regard to the treatment of prisoners of an act of the confederate con passed soon after the war was it was provided that prisoners of war should have the same rations in quantity and quality as confederate soldiers in the By an act afterward all hospitals for sick and wounded soldiers were put upon the same footing with hospitals for sick and wounded policy was never There was no discrimination in either par between federal soldiers and confederate do not agree with you and Corporal Pike that it is proper to bring to the minds of of our reunited country the horrors and the bitterness of the civil I have repeatedly advised teachers to withhold from their young pupils a full account of the cruel treatment that Jefferson Davis received at the hands of Gen. While you and Corporal Pike give your children some cloudy and mutilated historical scraps and the whole truth of history it seems to that you let your children know that the federal government broke the cartel for the exchange of prisoners and refused re lief tothe Andersonville prison through Later the confederate government proposed an exchange of the sick and This was refused In 1864, the confederate gov proposed to send the sick and wounded soldiers without equivalent and asked the federal authorities to send steamships of transportation to Savannah to get their sick and wounded who were That proposition was not answered until December of 1864. The chief ing at E. 330 Superior Oak Phone 290 9 Oak Park State Bank Building - Phone Native and Foreign Landscape Shrubs and all Botanical aod Van Buren St. and Wenonah Oak Telephone 6263 Oak being vested witli discretion as to the proper use and display of fireworks in the alleys and public places in the Village of Oak does in the exercise of such make that the use and display of torpedoes and other explosives within the Village will he permitted only on the Fourth day of July between the hours of four o'clock A. M. and The dis charge of pistols and dynamite crackers is hereby prohibited under penalty of for each in accordance with ordinance relating police officers will make effort to prevent setting off of fireworks or making other objectionable noise tending to disturb the and quiet of the community until the Fourth day of the day set apart for they are hereby ordered to be vigilant and execute discreet authority in the enforcement of this S. of the I of June 1905. and quality as Confederate in the and all hospitals for sick and wounded prisoners were put upon the same footing with hospitals for sick and wounded Confederates and that there was no discrimination in either there was a building of any kind in or outside of the stockade at Ander sonville from the first of March to th ast of where the siel were will you kindly tell where it was the mouth of August there were some days as high as 200 take out of the loaded on wagon liUe cord wood and hauled to a place Tell me from what part of th prison they were taken if not here and there where starvation and exposure left long and faithful services of Gen. Miles makes his word too good for any loyal much an to believe he ever mistreated Jefferson of and historical scraps and Where and what was Andersonville This so notorious in the history of the is situated in Sumter about 05 miles southwest from Macon and 50 miles from the Alabama state The prison consisted of about thirteen acres of ground we could afterwards increased about five enclosed by a high stockade of hewed pine logs set in the ground about six feet and about fourteen feet in the They were set close together and ou top were where the guard improved most every opportunity of shooting down a and more than one poor fellow have I seen shot down for no other offense than laying his hand on the dead which was a slender railing on top of stakes about twenty feet from the inner was a prisoner at this place from the first of March till the last of 1864. There were no houses or all we had was the cold ground for a bed and the canopy of heaven for a Those who were so fortunate as to fall into the hands of humane captors there were had a blanket left but thousands were robbed of their blankets and turned into that prison pen with hope left saw a prisoner turned into prison one day with the muscle of his arm torn till it hung below the and he said it was done by a bloodhound while the rebels stood by aud looked He received no medical treatment I saw a prisoner tied up by the thumbs till he was I saw a prisoner in the stocks and was afterwards told they released him he was lach offense was for trying to a son of Gen. who proved himself a coward at Bladenburg in 1S14, and gave the city of Washington to the was commissary general of and to whose account should be charged the death of more men than all the inquisitors of the world ever slew by the rack and It was he who in August could point to the I newly made graves for that month and exultingly tell his hearers that he was doing more for the confederacy than twenty Wirz was commander of the interior of the One morning he came into the and roll call was and he ordered all the squads to form and remain standing in ranks till ali were Because some broke ranks he ordered no rations for that The next day was as and because a few sick ones broke ranks again our rations were cut off. That afternoon we became plots were considered for a daring assault to force the gates or scale the the men were crazy enough to attempt anything rather than Hit down and Hundreds could be seen crying with The third day by the stronger ones holding the sick and half crazy with hunger in line we were able to satisfy Wirz and we received our rations for that but those of the other days were permanently say the federal government broke the cartel for the exchange of Why? Because the Confederates would not include the black Honor and praise to the government that stands by its be they white or was in October and 1804, that our government sent steam ships of transportation to Savannah to get the sick in mind there were but few It was the policy of the Confederates to parole on the or leave to care for them selves such as were permanently That also cut down the death and at 1 am there are 3,000 graves marked of prisoners returned too far gone to give their name or Charge them to the prison death roll say we could send medicine to our that the rebels had none What assurance had the federal gov that they would receive it when the rebels had received boxes of provisions from northern homes and did not deliver to the happened to be present and heard the Hon. Benjamin of Georgia on the amnesty and believed then that he set a trap for Mr. Blaine for the purpose of making history favorable to the Confederacy and well he did for Mr. while a a good he had not been a prisoner of war and probably had never talked with one on prison me ask Did the federal officers or soldiers ever torture prisoner for trying to Did a Confederate prisoner ever go hungry or without medical When or where did the federal government neglect to furnish shelter for the sick or Are there in the south graves marked prisoners were so reduced that they could not give their Did ever hear of a Yankee soldier receiving a furlough as a reward for shooting a Savages tortured and abused their but nowhere in history can be found among civilized people such cruelty as was to those who fell into the hands of those in charge of rebel my description of Andersonville is not correct let some one who was there come forward and contradict my and if it was not a repetition of the Black Hole of made worse by growth of genius in lapse of what was forgiven 1 have not written this answer to stir up your but to put you as you are one in charge of young minds and are supposed to teach that which will make good citizens It is said that the truth should not bespoken at all and maybe I ought not to have written the article; but certainly the truth should never be back and defend the accursed Judas but don't attempt to defend the treatment meted out to those who suffered and starved in Andersonville you were writing a contradiction to my true aud honest statements our G. A. It. state encampment at 111., was voting to return the rebel us have and close by be the tie that excursion train going to Lake Geneva next Wednesday will stop at going and This will afford the friends of the High School Cadets an opportunity to visit the boys and the day with It will be a very enjoyable take it you pack your trunk to go on vacation pay us a You will find things here that are just as necessary for that trip aa the truuk and it will prove much more satisfactory to stock up the prices are much at The New Store than at the ice cream is perfection our trade appreciates our
