WIVES AND SISTERS,

DAUGHTERS AND SWEETHEARTS,

OF THE UNION SOLDIERS, WHO BY HEROIC

SELF-SACRIFICE AND BY LOYAL DEVOTION TO THEIR COUNTRY, EQUAL TO THE WOMEN OF SPARTA,

GAVE THEIR

SONS, HUSBANDS, BROTHERS, FATHERS, AND LOVERS TO
THE UNION CAUSE, AND WHO BY THEIR STEADFAST

DEVOTION TO THE FLAG, DID SO MUCH TO
PRESERVE THE GOVERNMENT, THIS

VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY AND

VERY RESPECTFULLY

DEDICATED

BY

THE AUTHOR.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

NO event has ever occurred in the history of the world, greater in magnitude, or which has drawn to it more intense interest, than the great Civil War in the United States, or what is more generally known as the Southern Rebellion. This terrible conflict, so fiercely contested, and which swept to bloody graves more than half a million of able-bodied citizens of the country, will ever be a subject of attention to the historian, and to the reader.

Much has been written of this struggle, but the author would surely be presumptuous to imagine that he could fully cover the ground of the four years' mighty struggle that, like a tempest of death, swept over the land. Much also was written at the close of the war, which in the hurry and anxiety to get the literature of the war into the market, was erroneous.

The writer of the present day has an easy task, compared with his predecessors. Much that was then obscure has now become clear and vivid. No chapter in the history of the Civil War is so imperfectly understood as the one relating to the military prisons of the South. This part of the

history of our country can only be given by those who endured its horrors, and tasted of its bitterness. Survivors of these terrible dens will tell the story of their sufferings to friends, until the last of them have passed away; but much will remain with the unwritten history of the war.

The object of the author is to give a fair, truthful account of the course of, treatment adopted by the rebel authorities toward the poor unfortunate Union soldiers who fell into their hands, and to avoid all artificial coloring or statements that are not in strict conformity with the truth, in such a statement as he would be willing to answer for at the great day of final account. It must, however, be remembered that the stern reality of our prison-life, the horrible scenes there enacted, are more strange, exciting, and wonderful than the most brilliant romance, or stories of fiction; and, reader, if things should appear that may seem incredible to you, remember that in reality comparatively little is known of the terrible suffering of the inmates of these Southern hell-holes; and with all you may glean from those who endured their horrors, and relate their sufferings, yet will it be far short of the whole truth-for no human tongue or pen can describe the agony, wretchedness, and misery the poor soldiers endured who fell into the hands of the rebels.

In Andersonville alone, 13,269 Union prisoners, who were in the prime of life-strong, robust

and healthy--perished. And in all the Southern prisons, as near as could be ascertained, about 65,000 men fell victims to rebel brutality. Who can doubt but that it was a fairly concocted, premeditated plan of their captors to destroy them, and that, too, in a most horrible manner? The plea of inability to prevent the terrible mortality can avail them nothing. That thousands of their captives died in a land of lumber piles and forests, alone effectually destroys that defense. With such shelter, food, water, and medical attendance, as they could have furnished, and which the laws of humanity would have required, the mortality would not have been one-tenth of the number which perished. But, allowing even twenty per cent., which of itself would have been a fearful mortality, and the fact remains that at least 52,000 helpless men fell victims to inhuman treatment. It would, however, not be just to charge the people of the South with the great crime. The most and worst of these dens of death, the rebel authorities kept away from civilization as much as possible, and comparatively few of the people knew any thing of the barbarities practiced in them, and would have been powerless to prevent it. Especially was this so in Andersonville, the spot where the climax of barbarity was reached. Located in a sparsely-settled country, where but few persons would find out the horrible nature of the slaughter-house, it was well adapted for the