Andersonville (120 page)

He groped for a text and found none. Cato Dillard should be near to provide texts. But a great voice intoned somewhere, and Ira stopped to hear it.
Their memory has escaped the reproaches of men’s lips, but they bore instead on their bodies the marks of men’s hands.
Thucydides quoting Pericles
 . . . their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men’s lives.

He had a renewed sense of timelessness and its values. The song did not ring for a solitary moment, nor merely to enrich the spirit which had sung it, and to enrich admirers of that spirit; but it went echoing indefinitely. Thus the future became packed with a good accumulation. A vanished Pericles had lived anew when Thucydides counseled the listening Athenians to heed a forgotten funeral oration. Thucydides mixed his own dreams and opinions with those of Pericles; therefore the two became indissoluble, creatures in common, neither holding to his own part of the century. Rather they were the Fifth Century, they made it; so they and other honorable souls had manufactured the millennia.

Ira believed that a new Nation was made. It was one which he had prayed not to see; but here it was. His own fields, were he allowed to retain them, extended to Maine and Texas and to the Oregon country; because granule of soil lay next to granule of soil, and small roots were intertwined, and fences broke down in one patch of woods but rose in the next; and rivers were not bottomless, there were earth and rocks underneath, the rocks touched, it was the land, it was all the American land and the American waters belonging principally to America and not to individual planters, and not to New York or Georgia, as had been so cruelly demonstrated.

And now
came the strophic echo of the Grecian past (which was not truly the past, and not solely Grecian),
when you have finished your lamentation, let each of you depart.

There was no Each Of You about it. He was alone, with stains upon his shoes and the legs of his jeans, alone with the recovered shovel-handle for a cane. He moved toward the great gate with not another living man moving there.
For the battle . . . now to face is . . . against the foe in her own household, the desires and ambitions she herself has nurtured.
The Greek said America instead of Athens, and America was an undreamed wilderness beyond seas the Greeks never sailed; yet still he said America, because of the essential timelessness—once more—of clear thought and valuable deed.
Shall she welcome them in their fullness and seek to furnish them with all they need?

...How are you doing with the final stages of Greek, dear Sutherland?

...I must say, Father, that you will hear the valedictory spoken in July—but not by me, sir, oh not by me—but by my beloved classmate, Sidney Lanier. He takes as his topic, The Philosophy of History. . . .

Find the philosophy in history if you can, Ira directed himself.

He passed through that gate and felt the eyes of the dead Yankees watching him as he retreated. Were the bulk of the dead too young or too degraded to concern themselves with desires and ambitions of the America for which they had fought and which in turn had slain them; or did the process of extinction award them wisdom?
Or shall she try to put them from her, lest they corrupt her and wreck her peace?
Ira felt that he himself held no desire or ambition, but this bruised collection of States must hold ambition, else the Nation was not fit for the sun to shine upon it; and the sun was shining.
Or, while she is seeking a middle course, will they lay her glory in the dust?
He went past abandoned earthworks, abandoned camps, going directly to his plantation and into the future, and toward challenges waiting there. When he had nearly reached the lane, birds rose before him like an omen.

16 December, 1953.

25 May, 1955.

A
ndersonville
is a work of fiction, but is presented as an accurate history of the Andersonville prison insofar as specific details concerning the construction, administration, tenancy and supervision of the stockade, with its guards and inhabitants, are made clear.

Those persons portrayed as civilians of the neighborhood are fictitious. The majority of the prison’s officials, with certain officers commanding Confederate troops, are drawn from life to the best of the author’s ability; and, in his most earnest opinion, are portraits of individuals who did exist and contribute of their lives to this moment of history, whether with baleful or charitable intent. Captain Henry Wirz, the three Winders, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Persons, Father Peter Whelan, Colonel D. T. Chandler, Lieutenant Davis, and many others are of history and are not invented. A number of the prisoners described also existed in fact—such men as the several raider leaders, Chickamauga, John McElroy, John Ransom, Bateese, Leroy Key, Boston Corbett and a few more.

Whatever knowledge of the War for Southern Independence—or the Rebellion, or the Civil War, or whatever term is employed (the author no longer considers that there was a “War Between the States”)—is demonstrated in the writing of this book was gained through forty years of general reading on the War and those who fought it. A specific approach to the topic of Andersonville began in 1930, four years previous to the publication of
Long Remember
, and six years previous to the publication of
Arouse and Beware
. Therefore a bibliography relating to the Andersonville prison which did not include titles listed in bibliographies appertaining to the two books mentioned above, would not be complete. The student is referred to those bibliographies. Individuals whose assistance was appreciated in studies relating to the other two books also helped concurrently during first investigations of the Andersonville complex. Mentioned once more should be Mr. William A. Slade and Miss Clara Egli of the Library of Congress, and Mr. Randolph W. Church of the Virginia State Library. The author’s thanks are reaffirmed after nearly a quarter of a century.

More recently and more specifically again, relating to
Andersonville,
the author is indebted particularly to the following:

Mr. Edward W. Beattie, Jr.; Mr. Clifford Dowdey; Monsignor C. L. Elslander; Mr. Jerome Fried; Colonel W. A. Ganoe; Dr. Thomas Garrett; Mrs. Phyllis Gossling; Mr. Edgar Kimsey; Miss Jean L. McKechnie; Colonel William J. Morton, Jr., historian of the United States Military Academy; the Reverend Father John P. O’Connell, editor of the Catholic Press; Dr. William J. Petersen, superintendent of the Iowa State Historical Society, and Miss Mildred Throne of
the same organization; the Reverend Mr. David H. Pottie; Miss Hester Rich of the Maryland State Historical Society, and Mr. Fred Shelley, director of that society; Mrs. Elizabeth Service; Miss Ella May Thornton, formerly State Librarian of Georgia, and now honorary librarian; Mr. F. F. Van de Water; Mr. Sylvester Vigilante, formerly of the New York Public Library and more recently of the New-York Historical Society; and Mrs. Mary Gladys Perrin Watkins, only
surviving grandchild of Elizabeth and Henry Wirz.

There are general works, some of them original sources, some not:
tried and familiar standbys such as
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
edited by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Bull, New York, The Century Company, 1884; the
Photographic History of the Civil War,
edited by Francis Trevelyan Miller, New York, The Review of Reviews Company, 1912; the Official Records, War of the Rebellion; and various executive documents published by various United States Congresses. Excerpts from the reports of Confederate officers contained herein are taken verbatim from Executive Document No. 23, Fortieth Congress, Second Session. There has been no tampering with any of the remarks attributed to Confederate officers such as General Howell Cobb, General John H. Winder, Colonel T. Chandler and Captain Henry Wirz, when those remarks appear
solidly italicized
in the text.

A great debt is owed to the diaries of John Ransom and John McElroy especially; to the books of General N. P. Chipman; and to the defense published after the war by
a former Confederate Chief Surgeon, R. Randolph Stevenson.

A reasonably complete bibliography, each volume including some material employed by the author in the preparation of
Andersonville,
appears below:

A History of the 117th Regiment N. Y. Volunteers. James A. Mowris. Hartford, Conn. Case, Lockwood & Co. 1866.

A History of Popular Music in America. Sigmund Spaeth. New York. Random House. 1948.

A Journal of Hospital Life in
the Confederate Army. Kate Cumming. Louisville, Ky. Morton Printers. 1866.

A List of Union Soldiers Buried at Andersonville. Dorence Atwater. New York. The Tribune Association. 1890.

A Memorial Volume of the Hon. Howell Cobb. Edited by Samuel Boykin. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott Co. 1870.

A Narrative of Andersonville. Ambrose Spencer. New York. Harper & Bros. 1866.

A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary. J. B. Jones. New York. Old Hickory Bookshop. 1935.

A Yankee in Andersonville. T. H. Mann. New York. The Century Magazine, Vol. 18. 1890.

Adventures of an Escaped Union Prisoner from Andersonville. Thomas H. Howe. San Francisco. H. S. Crocker & Co. 1886.

Adventures of George A. Tod. George A. Tod. Edited by Mildred Throne. Iowa City, Iowa. Iowa Journal of History, Vol. 48, No. 4. 1951.

Andersonville. John W. Elarton. Aurora, Neb. Burr Publishing Co. 1913.

Andersonville. J. Frank Hanly. New York. Eaton and Mains. 1912.

Andersonville. John McElroy. Toledo, Ohio. D. R. Locke. 1879.

Andersonville, an Object Lesson in Protection. Herman A. Braun. Milwaukee, Wis. C. D. Fahsel Publishing Co. 1892.

Andersonville and Other War Prisons. Jefferson Davis. New York. Belford Co. 1890.

Andersonville, and the Trial of Henry Wirz. John Howard Stibbs. Iowa City, Iowa. The Clio Press. 1911.

Andersonville Diary. John L. Ransom. Auburn, N.Y. Published by the author. 1881.

Andersonville Prison Park. Compiled by James P. Averill. Atlanta. Byrd Printing Co. 1899.

Ante Bellum Southern Life As It Was. Mary Lennox. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott Co. 1868.

Billy and Dick from Andersonville Prison to the White House. Ralph O. Bates. Santa Cruz, Calif. Press Sentinel Publishing Co. 1910.

Captain Sam Grant. Lloyd Lewis. Boston. Little, Brown & Co. 1950.

The Capture, the Prison Pen, and the Escape. Willard W. Glazier. New York. United States Publishing Co. 1868.

Civil War Prisons. William H. Hesseltine. Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State University Press. 1930.

“Co. Aytch.” Samuel R. Watkins. Nashville, Tenn. Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House. 1882.

Collections of a Coffee Cooler. Samuel Creelman. Pittsburgh, Pa. Photo Engraving Co. 1890.

College Life at Old Oglethorpe. Allen P. Tankersley. Athens, Ga. University of Georgia Press. 1951.

Conscription in the C.S.A., 1862–65. Robert P. Brooks. Bulletin of the University of Georgia. Athens, Ga. 1917.

Contributions Relating to the Causation and Prevention of Disease, and to Camp Diseases. Austin Flint. New York. Published for the U.S. Sanitary Commission by Hurd and Houghton. 1867.

Country Life in Georgia in the Days of My Youth. Rebecca Latimer Felton. Atlanta. Index Printing Co. n.d.

The Demon of Andersonville. Anon. Philadelphia. Barclay & Co. 1865.

Doctor Chase’s Recipes. A. W. Chase. Ann Arbor, Mich. Published by the author. 1860.

Escape of a Confederate Officer from Prison. Samuel Boyer Davis. Norfolk, Va. The Landmark Publishing Co. 1892.

Florida Plantation Records. Edited by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips and James David Glunt. St. Louis. Missouri Historical Society. 1927.

From Andersonville to Freedom. Charles M. Smith. Providence, R.I. The Society. 1894.

The Gangs of New York. Herbert Asbury. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1928.

Gardening for the South. William N. White. New York. Orange Judd and Co. 1868.

Georgia and State Rights. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. Published by the American Historical Association. Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office. 1902.

The Gray Book. Published by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. n.p. 1920.

Henry Wirz and the Andersonville Prison. Mildred Lewis Rutherford. Athens, Ga. Published by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 1921.

Historical Record of Macon and Central Georgia. John C. Butler. Macon, Ga. J. W. Burke & Co. 1878.

History of O’Dea’s Famous Picture of Andersonville Prison. Thomas O’Dea. Cohoes, N.Y. Clark & Fister. 1887.

History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Edited by J. W. Muffly. Des Moines, Iowa. The Kenyon Co. 1904.

The Horrors of Andersonville Rebel Prison. Norton Parker Chipman. San Francisco. The Bancroft Co. 1891.

The Horrors of Southern Prisons During the War of the Rebellion. Wm. Henry Lightcap. Platteville, Wis. Journal Job Rooms. 1902.

In and Out of Andersonville Prison. Wm. Franklin Lyon. Detroit. G. Harland Company. 1905.

Jefferson Davis at West Point. Walter L. Fleming. Baton Rouge, La. Mississippi Historical Society. 1910.

Letter from an Eyewitness at Andersonville Prison. Edited by Spencer B. King, Jr. Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. 38, No. 1. 1954.

Letters by Hurieosco Austill. Alabama Historical Quarterly, Vol. 7. Wetumpka, Ala. 1945.

The Life and Adventures of Sergt. G. W. Murray. George W. Murray. Minneapolis. Herald Publishing House. 1872.

Life and Death in Rebel Prisons. Robert H. Kellogg. Hartford, Conn. L. Stebbins. 1866.

Life Struggles in Rebel Prisons. Joseph Ferguson. Philadelphia. Published by the author. 1865.

Little Aleck. E. Ramsay Richardson. Indianapolis. The Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1932.

Major Henry Wirz. Lyon G. Tyler. Williamsburg, Va. The William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 27. 1919.

Martyria; or, Andersonville Prison. Augustus Choate Hamlin. Boston. Lee and Shepard. 1866.

The Martyrs Who, etc. Published by the Quartermaster’s Dept. Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office. 1866.

The Melvin Memorial. Alfred Seelye Roe. Cambridge, Mass. The Riverside Press. 1910.

The Narrative of Amos E. Stearns. Amos Edward Stearns. Worcester, Mass. F. P. Rice. 1887.

Narrative of the Privations and Sufferings, etc. Printed for the U.S. Sanitary Commission by King and Baird, Ptrs. Philadelphia. 1864.

Necrology: or, Memorials of Deceased Ministers. John S. Wilson. Atlanta, Ga. Franklin Printing House. 1869.

Nineteen Months a Prisoner of War. Anon. Milwaukee, Wis. Starr & Son. 1865.

Out-Post. D. H. Mahan. New York. John Wiley. 1863.

Over the Dead-Line. K. C. Bullard. New York. The Neale Publishing Co. 1909.

Prison Life in Andersonville. John Levi Maile. Los Angeles. Grafton Publishing Co. 1912.

Prison Life in Dixie. John B. Vaughter. Chicago. Central Book Concern. 1880.

Prison Life in the South. A. O. Abbott. New York. Harper & Bros. 1865.

The Prisoner of War, and How Treated. Alva C. Roach. Indianapolis. Railroad City Publishing House. 1865.

Reminiscences of Andersonville and Other Rebel Prisons. M. O’Hara. Lyons, Iowa. J. C. Hopkins. 1880.

Report of an Expedition to Andersonville. Clara Barton. New York. The Tribune Association. 1866.

Secondary Education in Georgia. Elbert W. G. Boogher. Philadelphia. Published by the author(?). 1933.

Seven Months in Prison. David E. Russell. Milwaukee, Wis. Godfrey and Crandall. 1866.

Sherman: Fighting Prophet. Lloyd Lewis. New York. Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1932.

Smith’s “Knapsack” of Facts and Figures. Frank W. Smith. Toledo, Ohio. Spear, Johnson & Co. 1884.

The Soldier’s Story of His Captivity at Andersonville, etc. Warren Lee Goss. Boston. Lee and Shepard. 1869.

Some Records of the Winder Family of Maryland. Philip D. Laird. Baltimore. Maryland Original Research Society. 1913.

The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities. J. T. Trowbridge. Hartford, Conn. L. Stebbins. 1866.

The Southern Side, or Andersonville Prison. R. Randolph Stevenson. Baltimore. Turnbull Bros. 1876.

The Story of Andersonville and Florence. James Newton Miller. Des Moines, Iowa. Welch Printing Co. 1900.

To the Memory of My Brother, Edwin W. Niver. Emogene Niver Marshall. Sandusky, Ohio. Krewson Press. 1932.

The Tragedy of Andersonville. Norton Parker Chipman. San Francisco. Blair-Murdock Printing Co. 1911.

Travels in the Confederate States. E. Merton Coulter. Norman, Okla. University of Oklahoma Press. 1948.

The Trial and Death of Henry Wirz. Sarah W. Ashe. Raleigh, N.C. E. M. Uzzell & Co. 1908.

True History. Henry Hernbaker, Jr. Philadelphia. Merrihew & Son. 1876.

The True Story of Andersonville Prison. J. M. Page and M. J. Haley. New York. Neale Publishing Co. 1908.

Twelve Months in Andersonville. Lessel Long. Huntington, Ind. T. & M. Butler. 1886.

Vocabulum, or, the Rogue’s Lexicon. Compiled by George W. Matsell. New York. G. W. Matsell & Co. 1859.