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Eliza Frances Andrews, The war-time journal of a Georgia girl, 1864-1865, chapter 3 (search)
had reached this condition because of their scant rations. They came from a mild climate to a rigorous Northern climate, and, although we gave them shelter and plenty to eat, they could not stand the change. This argument, intended as a defense of the North, is a boomerang whose force as a weapon for the other side it is unnecessary to point out. Whether the conditions at Andersonville might have been ameliorated by the personal efforts of those in charge, I do not know. I never met Capt. Wirz, but I do know that had he been an angel from heaven, he could not have changed the pitiful tale of suffering from privation and hunger unless he had possessed the power to repeat the miracle of the loaves and fishes. I do know, too, that the sufferings of the prisoners were viewed with the deepest compassion by the people of the neighborhood, as the diary will show, and they would gladly have relieved them if they had been able. In the fall of 1864, when it was feared that Sherman would
Jubal Anderson Early, Ruth Hairston Early, Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early , C. S. A., Chapter 26: treatment of prisoners, wounded and dead. (search)
treatment of the prisoners in our hands. After the close of the war a poor feeble foreigner, Captain Wirz, who had been in our service, and was then on the very verge of the grave from wounds receiveof the house and firing his revolver through a crack. Boston Corbet testified on the trial of Wirz, stating that he was a prisoner at Andersonville, and among other atrocities testified to, by him renegades and endeavor to propitiate their masters by turning against their comrades. Even poor Wirz himself was offered his life if he would testify against the high officials of the Confederate Goee or Stonewall Jackson. If such atrocities were committed as those alleged, why is it that poor Wirz is the solitary victim offered up in expiation of the thousands of victims who, it is said, died elt that there was danger of shocking the minds of the civilized world, and desisted. If poor Wirz was guilty, he was the least guilty of all those charged with the same crime, and was but a mere
Jubal Anderson Early, Ruth Hairston Early, Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early , C. S. A., Index. (search)
, 369, 383, 400, 402-03, 409 Willis' Church, 79 Willis, Colonel, Ed., 362 Willis, Lieutenant, Murat, 28 Wilson's Division (U. S. A.), 408-09, 417 Wilson, Major J. P., 144, 150, 187 Winchester, 163~ 240-41, 243-44, 249- 253, 284, 333-34, 367-70, 382, 385, 391, 397-400, 406, 408, 410, 412- 414, 417, 419-20, 425-26, 435, 439, 450-453, 455, 457, 475 Winchester & Potomac R. R., 163, 368, 414 Winder, General, 94, 95, 96, 97 Winston, Captain, 148 Winston, Colonel, 60 Wirz, Captain, 296, 297, 298 Wise, General, 76, 132 Woffard's Brigade, 444, 446, 449 Wolf Run Shoals, 10, 47, 48, 50 Woodson's Company 460, 461 Woodstock, 368, 430, 454 Wounding of Jackson, 212 Wright, General, 83, 231, 233, 255, 257 Wright, General (U. S. A.), 392, 393 Wrightsville 235, 255, 259, 260-61- 262-63-64 Wynn, Captain, 215 Wynn's Mill, 60, 61, 62, 63 Wytheville, 466, 467 Yates' Ford, 12, 13 York, 253, 255, 258-64, 267 York, General, 423 York
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 2. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), chapter 5.29 (search)
ying, To-day I wish he were here. Those touching words, too, of Home, sweet home flash before my memory, and I cannot restrain the tears that rush to my eyes. Over three months have passed since I have heard from home and mother. What changes may have occurred since my capture, the 19th of September! Two of my brothers are members of the First Georgia reserves, now guarding the 30,000 Yankee prisoners at Andersonville--one is major, and the other, a youth of sixteen years, is one of Captain Wirz's sergeants. These two are no doubt absent from the annual home reunion. Others may be too. I hope and feel that my brothers are civil and kind to the Yankees they are guarding. They are too brave to act otherwise. My poor prison dinner was in sad contrast with my Christmas dinners at home. It consisted of beef soup, a small piece of pickled beef, some rice and a slice of loaf bread. Lastly, to our astonishment, about three mouthsful each of bread pudding, not very sweet, were hande
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 2. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Book notices, (search)
hear the other side of this question. Dr. Stevenson was in position to know whereof he affirms. He was fortunate in preserving a large part of the Andersonville papers, and he has most abundantly made good the assertion in his preface: I propose in the following pages to show, from official Confederate and Federal documents: 1st. That the sufferings at Andersonville were the results of a malignant pestilence, coupled with the uncontrollable events of a fierce and bitter war;. 2d. That Captain Wirz expiated his alleged crimes under the form of a trial that can reflect no credit on the Government that tried him, and that his life was taken away by suborned testimony; 3d. That his alleged co-conspirators were entirely innocent of the crimes charged; 4th. That the Federal authorities at Washington prevented the exchange of prisoners of war, and that by exchanging the prisoners, three-fourths of all the lives lost in prisons North and South could have been saved. Dr. Stevenson give
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 3. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), The Nation on our discussion of the prison question. (search)
surprise to learn that Winder was a gallant hero and Wirz a saintly martyr, though the immediate responsibilit thinks that this refusal of General Winder and Lieutenant Wirz to furnish shelter was justified by an attempt em. The responsibility of General Winder and Lieutenant Wirz for all this cannot be rationally denied; but wwhatever on it. Nor did we intimate the opinion that Wirz was a saintly martyr. We simply showed that the chare similarly affected with gangrene and scurvy. Captain Wirz had gangrene in an old wound, which he had recei killing certain prisoners in August, 1864, when he (Wirz) was actually at that time absent on sick leave in A thinks that this refusal of General Winder and Lieutenant Wirz to furnish shelter was justified by an attempt did not justify a refusal of General Winder and Lieutenant Wirz to furnish shelter (on the contrary, if these jny other evidence, an attempt was made to bribe poor Wirz by offerring him, a short time before his execution,
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 3. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), chapter 5.38 (search)
to Fort Delaware. It told me of the reception of one of my letters by brother James, the latest and only one since October 27th, and pained and saddened me by news of my dearest of mothers having had her arm broken in December. She was reported nearly well though. No particulars were given, as all flag of truce letters are limited to one page. Brothers John and Lemuel are in service at Andersonville prison. The former is major of the First Georgia, and the latter is a sergeant under Captain Wirz. I know they are kind to the prisoners under their charge. Major Sherrar, of Maryland, slapped or kicked some cowardly fellow, who had solicited the oath and release from prison, and, when reported to Ahl, was ordered to the pen occupied by the galvanized men. Here he was seized, and placed violently and forcibly upon a blanket, and swinging him rapidly was hurled repeatedly high in air, until exhausted and almost dead from the shameful violence. All are justly indignant at such tyrann
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 6. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), The Historical Register on our Papers. (search)
ed without any attempt at amelioration through the year of 1864, the deaths reaching during that frightful summer ten thousand in the twenty thousand usually confined there. There had been some attempts to escape by prisoners employed on the works, and no doubt it was supposed that by exchange or removal the number might be diminished; but that surely cannot excuse the continued neglect of the most simple precautions when men were dying from fifty to a hundred a day. General Winder and Lieutenant Wirz can never be absolved from their awful responsibility for this wholesale slaughter which they could so easily have stopped in great part. As to how far President Davis is to be blamed, there will probably always be a difference of opinion. That he knew in a general way of the enormous mortality, and of the charges against General Winder, cannot be doubted, the agitation was so loud and long, and official reports so outspoken, and he admits that he knew them, but was always convinced t
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 7. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Meeting at the White Sulphur Springs. (search)
ejoice that the plan of salvation was accomplished, no Christian loves the Judas who for money betrayed Him with a kiss, nor the Pontius Pilate who dared not resist the clamor of the mob, crying for his crucifixion, nor the fierce fanatics who drove the nails into His flesh. And no Southern man can love the John Logans and Ben. Butlers, who were devoted disciples of secession until the hour came, and then betrayed us for office; nor the weakness of Andrew Johnson, who permitted the murder of Wirz and Mrs. Surrat; nor the fierce fanatics who dissolved the Union they professed to save, changed the constitution they pretended to fight for, and by reconstruction laws placed intelligence and virtue under the heels of ignorance and vice. While the loss of life was fearful and the destruction of property greatly to be deplored, there was much in the war of secession that will be remembered with pride by both Union men and Confederates. The very fact that there was a war growing out of
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 10. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), The true story of Andersonville told by a Federal prisoner (search)
d had all the high-souled chivalry and deportment of the best of the F. F. V's. In this connection, let me refer to Captain Wirz, the Commandant of the prison, who was generally regarded as being very harsh. But his position should be considered.d, there could not and never can be any peculiar love; but, under a rough exterior, more often assumed then felt, this Captain Wirz was as kind-hearted a man as I ever met. Being myself at headquarters I learned his character, and the opinion I formewhich was one of a bitter kind enough, I had to change when I came really to know the man. The first collision between Captain Wirz and his prisoners was, when on the 17th of March he wanted to squad them off, for the purpose of exactly ascertaining eir (sham) pedal bracelets every morning during the counting of the men by the Confederate sergeants. As an evidence that Wirz was actuated by no desire to inflict hardship upon our men, I heard him often exclaim, when a new batch of some five or si
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