ANDERSONVILLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12085, 14 August 1917, Page 8

ANDERSONVILLE.

MEMOIRS OF THE CIVIL WAR. THE SAME OLD GERMAN. When so much is heard about the brutality of Germans towards prisoners of war, it is well to remember ii is no new thing with Teuton authority. America understands this better tlia,n most, as this historical reminiscence of the American Civil War, written by Miss Elsie Fogerty in "Land arid Water," explainsAmong the objects which the Allies have placed in the front rank of their demands, is due retribution for those* acts of inhumanity on the part of the enemy which are foreign to the spirit a.nd convention of military law. It is questionable whether any one act. has produced so overwhelming an impression on civilised opinion as the treatment which has been accorded by Germany to prisoners of war; especially is this the case in America. Fifty-two years ago on e name l the power above all others to send a thrill of horror through the United States, tho name of Anderson ville, the infamous prison compound where th© Confederates herded their Union prisoners. Among the minor causes of irritation with England at that time was the action of the ''Times," which, as the New York "Tribune" put it, refused "with characteristic meanness" to publish in an adequate manner details of the infamies perpetrated in this inferno ; horrors which culminated in the trial and execution of Wirz, their principal perpetrator. Wirz was a German Swiss born m Zurich. He emigrated to America in 1849, being at that time unable to speak English. He married a Kentucky woman and worked on a plantation in Louisiana. At the outbreak of war he 1 joined the Confederate Forces, obtaining hie captaincy and serving ns adjutant to Brigadier-General Widner, another German-American, who wa.s subsequently responsible for the creation of the prison camp. Wirz was wounded at Fair Oaks; his constitution, already undermined by dissipation and disease, broke down, and he travelled to Europe in 1863 in sefV;" of a cure for his wound. This be did not accomplish, but be was a man of exceptional physical strength and coarse visrour. Six feet in height, and on the evidence of many witnesses, capaWe of violent action, even when suffering from a disabled arm. PRISON CAMP UNDER. A GERMAN. On his return to America, the Prison Camp of Andersanvillo was placed in his charge. It consisted of fifty acres of country almost devoid of verdure except rank- weeds, but surrounded by wooch whence timber could easily have been obtained. A small stream ran through the camu and raauy -wells were afterwards made"ther o by tbe; prisoners themselves. The drinking water xrte supplied from the stream, and its condition of terrible-pollution became responsible for many deaths. The climate was atrocious; mibea.ra.ble heat during tho day and night, dews wkiciu penetrated all covering.-' . The prison area, was enclosed by a stockade, and within it Witz was responsible for the formation of a " Dead Line." Guns were trained upon this, and any prisoner touching it was shot without warning; incidentally part of the water supply, and that the healthiest, crossed this " Dead. Line" and many prisoners were shot in their attempt to r.eoure purer water. Generally the stockade was w;ell designed to cj-rry out the intention 'expressed by its Confederate builder, Captain W. S. Widner. 'Tin going J to build a pen here that will kill more | damned Yankees than, can b e destroyed in tho front," Wirz introduced himself to his charges by stopping the food ration for any small failure of discipline or for the escape of a prisoner, ad by the institution of most cruel punishments, such as the chain ga;ug, and the "buck and gag." Escaping prisoners were hunted and torn by savage dogs, several deaths were directly due to this cause:, others to the festering and gangrened wounds which ,- resulted from their bites. Wirz boasted he was doing more for the Confederate cause than any general at. the front. "This is the way I give tho Yankees the land they come to fight for," was his grim jest at a burial .party. On one occasion a, weak man rasked Wirz to let him go out of the stockade to get a little air. Wirz furiously inquired of him. in German what ho meant,.and then drew a, revolver and shot him dead. Ho would parado the chain gang for the amusement of his wife and daughters. _ In his official reports of the condition of the prison he wrote: ''lt is better _ to leave them (tho prisoners) in their present position until their numbers, have been reduced sufficiently by death to make the arrangements- sufficient for their accommodation." HORRIBLY FILTHY CONDITIONS. Arrangements were certainly a euphuism. The prison was in a' horrible state of 61th. Tho swamp on each side was so offensive ;.ud the stench so great, one witness reports, that it is to be wondered every man there did not die. Food was insufficient, men died of actual starvation, and a. system of petty peculation and trading in rations was encouraged by Wirz and one of his clerks, a Gorman from Frankfort-on-tho Main. The clothing of the dead was almost tho only source for tho clothing of the living; there were no shelters. A few wooden uprights covered with canvas roofs and a. few sheds ; the stronger prisoners dug shelters for themselves in tho soil. The hospital was without stores or medicine, except such as could .bo made from local roots and herbs. Prisoners suffering from dysentery were advised to eat blackberries, but when supplies of the fruit were sent in they were made into pies for the orderlies. One witness for the defence naively observed that he. had seen men cut their own throats and die, but he did not know the reason for their doing so, except that they were skin and hone and in a destitute condition. Dr John Bates, one of tho medical witnesses, gave a terrible and almost unquotable report, and confirmed the facts in his sworn evidence at Wirz's trial. " For the treatment of wounds." he writes, " wo have literally nothing but water. Another witness writes: "Gangrene sores were without bandages; tbe sores were filled with lice and nice;; one man,' I am assured, died of lice, which were as thick as the man's garments." Sev-enty-five per cent of those who died might have been saved had the patients been properly cared for. (According to tho "' : Encyclopaedia Britannica," over 13.000 deaths occurred in the Andersonville -camp.) After the war a Corn-mission visited tho camp and ordered, and as far as possible made decent, the graves of these martyrs. Tho buildings which had been used were ordered to stand till they fell to pieces as evidence of trie horrors they had witnessed. . One wonders do they stand there still! But Wirz was arrested and brought to civil trial. Hundreds of witnesses' were subpuntaed in bis defevicb, every facility was given him,.but ho could only plead in effect that ho was a subordinate obeying orders, and had shewn no personal inhumanity. The latter contention was disproved again and again by eye-witnesses, the former was unhesitatingly • brushed aside. "A superior officer," it was held, "cannot order a subordinate to do an illegial act, and' if the subordinate obeys such an order, and disastrous p n ,i ß A«nnn« oo v^ su ]t, both subordinate ust answer for it." After jrT.rinr lasting from August till November. \Virz zas; fnun'T .vnilLv. Ouo

of the most revolting feature? of his ca.se is found in the letters of fulsome piety aud religious exaltation, which he constantly wrote during his captivity. He was hanged on Friday, November 10, 1865, before a large number of persons* . . • ■ _ Is it not a little curious to notice the number of persons' of German name and, German nationality who were associated with the horrors of Andersonvijle? For these, horrors one at least of the perpetrators paid the full legal penalty. America, we are sure, will not forget the fact, and her own judgment in the matterj when a day of reckoning comes between the Allies and the Central Powers-