Hide Article Text (OCR)
1 way down r-ourn where the cokntdpB'tw-vin two worlds life hovers use .’ Xwlxt ntgbt and morn, npna ih9 bouzin’a verge; How little do wa kuuw that which we are!How lesi what we may be! The eternal surge O.' lime and tide rolls on and b?rs atar Our bubbles; as »be old burst, new emerge. Lashed from the f am of ages; while the graves O! empire heave but like some passing waves. r;’ jTon“PQUBIKG IN OIL AND f IKE.”The mosl approved histories of this age do not record exclusively the affairs of government or military achievements; they strive to picture also the social life of a nation. Laave out this social element, and historical statistics, disconnected events, though in chronological order, are as vapid aB mile-stones which lead to no habitation of man. Since this, the faithful portraiture of the character and sentiments of a people, is a legitimate part of history, any fact, however small in itself, that indicates the prevailing sentiment in an eventful period is valuable, and should be preserved. It is not idle, then, to record some of the many acts of Christian charity which shone on the pa’h of the late war.The history of Andersonville has so often been written as scarcely to leave room on its tablet for auother pen point. Already it is almost illegible !rom the intersecting and coun-terwriting of so many d:ff;rent inscriptions. We do not propose to write over this tangled record, but only seek a little forgotten comer of the lablet, whereon to wriie of that we do know, and bear witrees of lhat we have seen.Tae kindly disposition of the people .iving in the communities near Andersonville was shown by sharing with tbo prisoners their own provisions, without money an.1 without price, when all over the Confederacy provisions were at a premium. A planter in thei eigl boring courty, Mr. Caarles E. M . arampant rebel, viBlied 'he prison. The physicians in cuarge toid him the men were dying for want cf meflicine and suffering greatly for vegetable food. lie returned to Lis piama tion, toook seven negro men, Iris wagons and teams, and spent several wc-. ks camping in noxious swamps and bncxocfes, at a crest nek of contracting fever, collecting medicinal b*rka. herbs and roots. He did this repeatedly, and the rosnits of his work w?re tent, free of c ost, in carloads to Andersonville. At other times ne sent in similar !srge quantities of peas, po-aties and pumpkins without remuneration. .Sahstquen’.iy the physicians appealed to him t j make blackberry wine for prison use. He seat on. a force which gathered b s'.v bushels of blackberries each day. which wi.h nice care he made into barrels of wine and seat to the prison as a giftThe families who lived nenr s*»nt daily to the prison whatever tsey could spare from their own tables. A conversation like this I myself heard between two ladies:Msg, what made you send all your nice pudding to that Yankee soldier?’*•‘Why. you send them tome:h:ng every day yourself. ’’ ‘*Yes, I se..d good bread and raiik and vegetables, and that's enough. I have never made pu'ding expressly for them.” “Well I promised to send f.im a pudding.” It is known that the man who ate the padding escaped, and it 1b thought, lhat he did so through the assistance of the lady who gave it to him. Of course this last is a surmise of the gossips, for how could any one testify as to who gave him money and fixed the time, and devised the manner of his escape, when it was done secretly.This generous gentleman and these kini women wtrr i o‘. exceptions to the rule. Such acts were of frequent occurrence, and with some were regarded as regular duties. Ex-cepJonaly, a pampered planter wouid bring himself into disagreeable prominence, by 3»y ing: “I wouldn't send them anything to save their lives. If they were at home where they ought to be, they would not be sick and in prison.” Bet generally the disposition of the people was all that enlightened philanthropy and the chiva jic sentiment of honorable warfare could demand. They did ail they could to alleviate ihe sufferirg; but the want was so great and continuous that their tfforts at re lief were like throwing tiny handsfnil of sand into the moQth of tte great maelstrom.A partisan writer says: “Tne men had novegeiAb © food.” In the main that was true; but it was not the result of cruelty, it was unavoidable. Toe re were 20,000 men at Ander-eoavii.e, the population of a considerable city, and it would take a regular and extensive system of market gardening to keep a city of tuat size comfortably supplied with vegetables, even f money and labor were both abundant.BL JCHS !.b-UAND THE SUGAR-CANE GROWS”One reason for locating th » ;risouat Ander-Kocville was, that this part o' Georgia was 'he Egypt of tne Confederacy, ai V* constantly sent by train-loads, corn, wbean peas, potatoes, and some syrcp and sugar to !e-s fvored pans. Many of the planter'- with commendable foresight, planted vert ittle cotton, bit heavily early varieties of ed \e product. The lands were very fertile r.i.' prod need abun-That iui g . ,,«.** : is s^cti^n seemed better prepared to receive a sudden and large inflax of popnJafion than any other. Yet wiih all this wise considerav;on, things were f*r from being lovely at Andersonville. It was a very Gehenna of suffering. Prisoners did endure mere the hardest conaeqaenoes of war. But the Confederate authorities could not prevent it, and were not responsible for it, unless the responsibility coold be made to rest on their acceptance of war.Jast rrfl-ct, what, a large portion of the country was in possession of the Federal®, or so threatened with invasion as to step ail agricultural work. Think too, of the great quantity of provisions needed for the men and horses of the Confederate army, who were rot producing anything, and had to be srpported by the few who could in favored spots remain at home and unmolested, plant and reap. With all outside sources of supply stopped, and a great crippling of internal resources, by the time our army was fed, and the widows and orphans, and the helpless families of absent soldiers were provided for, it wss truly little tbat we could spare to appease the hunger of these 36,000 idle consumers. If their support was meagre, the whole people at the same time were in straitness and in need of all thiDgs. How often were the Confederate sol diers compelled to live on parched corn for weeks at a time.The Bame writer before quoted says: ‘‘The prinonc.rs were compelled to nao unwholesome water ” It is true they were bo compelled; not by their keepprs, but by unavoidable necessity. Rotten limestone water is very unwholesome to many constitutions, espec ally af first u»e, aud most of the diseases which decimated the prisoners, could be attributed in pan to tte nBe of Lie wa.er. In that region, it was impossible to obtain any other kind of water. Taeiewas no Moses rook of lloreb there. In making a j via. r.ctiruaie, every cause of sickness must bo iakoninto accouut. The native residents accus orned to the climate and water, suffered for the want of mtdioines, wh cu were contraband, and the preoners of course feii this want more keenly. They often arrived sick and wounded, with health im psired dj the hardships of a soldier’s ire, and •' ou d more readily yield to the ufi itncs of disease from Iosb of exercise aud the depressing fact cf captivity.it is not at all strange that the prisoners when first released, with weakened, suffering bodies aud pusious inflamed, Bhould give ht art-rending accounts of the cruelties of prison life. The Confederate solders have dou8 the same, harrowing up bitter enmity by showinc a hand which had lost its fingers, “froz*D off a’. Jjhnson’s Inland,” or by report of some comrade as “starved to death, poor fellow, ’ or of another, “We rubbed him half the nigh:, but h® froz°; we had no fire.” Confederate eoidiers at Cincinnati, aud other places, weut through the tortures of imprisonment. But did they find no sympathy? 1 know of % gentleman of Cincinnati, an ardent Federalist, who at one time gave seven thousand dollars to relieve the wants ol the Confederate prisoners. His sister, the wife of a Unionist, went among the prisoners like a ministering angel. Ia how many Instances known to others did they receive in that inhospitable climate warm ciotbing, food aud money from the hands of gentlewomen and men.Iq Tcmkiasvilie, Ky., a Confederate Colonel lay mortally wounded, when the Federate took possession of the place. His command, in the huny of retreat, nad left him without surgical attention, with only a corporal to nurse him. The sentiment of the place was Union, but the saint-like women attended him with the vigilance and devotion of near relations. Bat they trembled for their charge when the Federal soldiers captured the corporal. One of the ladies appealed to the officers, telling them there was a wounded Confederate Colonel in her house, and that his corporal was hisnuis*. They immediately paroled the ccrporal and directed him to stay by his commander.They then visited the wounded man, supplying his wants aDd promptly sent a Federal surgeon to remove his shattered limb. Bat, alas, it was too late. Col. Hunt was a model of manly beamy, and the Federal officers expressed their admiration for his fine person and courtly and cbivalric manners, ana their deep regret ihat such a man should die for want of timely surgical attention. They buried him with Masonic honors and gave the corporal a pass which earned him safely through the lines, and under its protec ;ion, thefew moum’ul l.tlle relics of a solder’s property, his ha:, sword, and other personal effects, safely reached Ihe heart-broken widow in G-nrgia.Under the amar'ings of pain it is easy to judge unrighteous judgment. After twenty years, when distress has ended and passiou cooled, it does seem high time that the simple truth uhruld be appreciate l. We hail with delight tbo effort of tae “Century” to bring thisto p»es.1 Hexetotcra tbegras bo oi c . history being written and published ia one section, condemned everything Confederate. Ou the other hand, the “Rebs” have not rushed into printed revilings, and do not seem to brood much over the wrongs and suffering* of the war. It Is pissing strange that the vanquished people should more cheerfully accept tne arbitrament of arms than the conquerors. In local publics'ions at the South facts are recorded which reflect no credit upon some individual commander or some department of the Federal army, yet one looks in vain in current literature, for the set purpose, the systematic effort, to prove and fix it in history that the war was conducted by the Federals in a spirit and practice of brutality, unworthy of this age and na ion. Often that which appears like disparagement is in shape of a reply to some aspersion For example, in the Southern Hiatorlcal Papers, facts are recorded as an offset to the alleged cruelty at Andersonville. The statistics of the prison at Elmira, New York, show that in proportion to the numbers confined, more men died there than at Andersonville. The d“ath rate per month at Elmira was 387 out of 9,500, about 1 25h. At Andersonville it was 1 000 oat of 30 000, or 1-33:h. This is trne. History will yet exonerate. Even now there ia a more tolerant spirit everywhere. Even cow, our waitiDg eyes catch the dawn o' that bright day, in woich it shtll be said: “Mercy and truth ar* moi together, righteousness and peace have kissed earn other.” Mrs. E. H. Davis.[University of Virginia.A traveler. tolling oa a weary way.Found in his pub a piece ol fragrant clay.‘ This seems bat common earth,” says he, ’‘bat bow Delightful!—It Is fu'l of twee ness now!—Whence Is tuy fragrance? ’ From the clay thoregrowsA voice, I hive been vary near tte rose.”— [./ J Platt, translated from, the Persian.NAPOLEON’S TROOPS.S ?me of Ganeral S ;eridan’s friends are anxious to know whit his last directions were abrut a certain chapter in his memorials. Tnis chapter g»ve the whole history of the movements of Sheridan's troops to tbe Mexican border at ihe time General Graut con tern-* plat»d giving help to the Mex.cauB in driving cu: Mvx tniiian. Saenlaa was faliy aware of the purposes cf his commander, and was in hearty sympathy with them. Under him were 20,000 soldiers, who could within a few days have been thrown into Mexico. The Mexican patriot© under Juarez knew of the help that could be expected. Though Sheridan never crossed the border, as was at one time intended, the moral effect of his presence was great.There has baen more or less controversy about what Gaueral Grant intended to do, but of his determination that the United States should not countenance Max.miiian’s usurpation, there never has been any question. The reason wiy troops were never sect across the border has been understood to be the success whicu attended the mission of General Scho-firid to Francs. He convinced tae Emperor Napnleon that it would be a wise thing for the French troops to get out of Mexico, and they were withdrawn. Tee chapter which Sneri-dan wrote on the subject was full of interest aDd cleared up some historical matters. It was possibly because the affair was so delicate a one mat on revision he decided to leave this chapter cu- Some of those who had an inkling of its importance remonstrated with him, bn; it concerned so many living persona that he was loth to publish the facts. What he finally deefded on, no one seems to know. —[ Wash. Cor. Chicago Tribune.Elder F. W. Evans, the able leader of the New Lebanon (N. Y ) Shakers ia an Englishman who came to tnis country in 1825. lie is now eighty years of age bn, vigorous in mind and body. He has a large, square-shouidered frame, a thoughtful, gentle face, iron-gray beard, and keen, bright eyes. He is extremely indastrious. Not only does he manage the affairs of the Bociety, which he has made so sutcessful, bat he keeps a close wa ch of the affairs of the world, and is always pondering certain Utopian schemes for the relief of society’s miseries. He is a logical thinker and has a strong and stiking way of presenting hia views.
Newspaper Details
Atlanta Sunny South
Atlanta, Georgia, US
Sat, Nov 10, 1888
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 08 Oct 2023
Other Publications Near Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta Weekly Intelligencer and Cherokee Advocate
Atlanta Presbyterian of the South
Atlanta University Center Light
Atlanta Crogman Cycle
Atlanta Daily Constitution
