John Levi Maile

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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 [Pg 33] 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 147] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.
[Pg 127] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 125] are able to make little more than their living. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 69] 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.” ”

“ 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 [Pg 40] 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 145] 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. ”

“ Possessing a strong faith in God, and believing his readiness to hear and answer prayer, at midnight she aroused from her bed [Pg 108] 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 39] upon the other. The relative size of any piece may be challenged by any member of the thirty, for his life is involved. ”