Andersonville - a story of Rebel military prisons, fifteen months a guest of the so-called southern confederacy - a private soldier's experience in Richmond, Andersonville, Savannah, Millen, (14739803806)

Identifier: andersonvilles00mcel (find matches)
Title: Andersonville : a story of Rebel military prisons, fifteen months a guest of the so-called southern confederacy : a private soldier's experience in Richmond, Andersonville, Savannah, Millen, Blackshear, and Florence
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: McElroy, John, 1846-1929
Subjects: Andersonville Prison United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865
Publisher: Toledo : D. R. Locke
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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foot wall of twenty ^ive-foot logs to make a box ofmatches. One afternoon — early in August — one of the violent rainstorms common to that section sprung up, and in a little whilethe water was falling in torrents. The little creek runnmgtlirough the camp swelled up immensely, and swept out largegaps in the Stockade, both in the west and east sides. TheEebels noticed the breaches as soon as the prisoners. Twoguns were fired from the Star Fort, and all the guards rushedout, and formed so as to prevent any egress, if one wasattempted. Taken by surprise, we were not in a condition toprofit by the opportunity until it was too late. The storm did one good thing: it swept away a great dealof filth, and left the camp much more wholesome. The foulstench rising from the camp made an excellent electricid con^ A STORY OF BEBEL MILITARY PRISONS. 35J ductor, and the lightning struck several times within one hun-dred feet of the prison. Toward the end of August there happened w^hat the reli^^-^
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TUE BREAK IN THE STOCKADE. onsly inclined termed a Providential Dispensation. The waterin the Creek was indescribably bad. No amount of familiaritywith it, no increase of intimacy with our offensive surroundings,could lessen the disgust at the polluted water. As I have saidpreviously, before the stream entered the Stockade, it was ren-dered too filthy for any use by the contaminations from thecamps of the guards, situated about a half-mile above. Imme-diately on entering the Stockade the contamination becameterrible. The oozy seep at the bottom of the hillsides draineddirectly into it all the mass of filth from a population of thirty-three thousand. Imagine the condition of an open sewer, pass-ing through the heart of a city of that many people, andreceiving all the offensive product of so dense a gathering intoa shallow, sluggish stream, a yard wide and five inches deep^ 352 AHDESSOlirYILLE. and heated by the burning rays of the sun in the thirty-seconddegree of latitude. Imagine, if