Prison Life in Andersonville

the Wilderness in Virginia; the investment of Petersburg was about to begin, and General Lee was resisting the impact of the Federal forces with unsurp

dead was not difficult; but the care of the wounded was a grave concern to both armies. An affair of still greater magnitude was the gather

swept Virginia, nor to any great extent from the border States. In Georgia and Alabama, in parts of the Carolinas, Missi

ence the northward-bound trains were heavily laden. Those going southward were empty, and were available to carry away the thousands of Union prisoners. At several

ed about sixty-two miles from Macon. It consisted of a stockade made of pine logs twenty-five feet long, se

estern side, near the north and south ends respectively. It was commanded by several stands of artillery, comprising sixteen gun

re informed that if the men gathered in unusual crowds between the range

les of the stockade the prisoners would be mowed down by grapeshot. The fact is that one of his generals proposed a sortie that never was made. "About July 20, 1864, General S

rt, and were so constructed that the sentinel climbed a ladder and stood waist high abo

was ordered to closely watch the dead line before and

ny prisoner who touches the "dead line" was the standing order to the guards. Several companies from Georgia regiments were detailed for the duty, and their muskets were loaded with "buck and ball" (i. e., a large bullet a

was "moon blind" running against it, or anyone touching it with suicidal intent, would b

escape by this means the prisoners endeavored to emerge at night some distance from the stockade and take to the woods. To frustrate such attempts, which would inevitably be discovered at roll-

or bags drawn in and out by a cord. 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 disc

ertones of thousands of voices that murmured during the day at night died away into the low moans of the sick and the expiring, or rose into the overtones of the outcry of distressful dreams. In the edge of the gloom beyond the fires, patrols paced to and fro until the dawn. Every evening the watch-call sounded, "Post number one, nine o'clock and all is well." This cry was repeated by each sentinel until it had traveled around the stockade ba