Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel PrisonsDay, W. W. (William Worthy)
History
Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel Prisons
Day, W. W. (William Worthy)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
Third. Dr. Jones in speaking of those prisoners who were paroled and
were at work on the outside of the stockade says: “These men were well
clothed, and presented a stout and healthy appearance, and as a general
rule they presented a much more robust appearance than the Confederate
troops guarding them.”
Why not? they had plenty of exercise, good water, fresh air, and enough
food so that they could purchase their good clothes with the surplus
which accrued after their own wants had been satisfied. They were
naturally more robust men than those Home Guards, and their situation
had enabled them to keep in a normal condition. Had the prisoners in the
stockade received the same treatment as the paroled men who were at work
outside of the stockade, they would have presented the same robust
appearance, but that stockade and those guards could not have held us
and the rebels knew it.
I have introduced the report of Dr. Jones for the benefit of a class of
persons who are inclined to doubt the statements of ex-prisoners, and I
submit that he tells a more terrible story than any of us can tell.
CHAPTER XII.
PROGRESS OF THE WAR.
“The news has flown frae mouth to mouth,
The North for ance has bang’d the South”;
SCOTT.
While we were waiting, and hoping, and starving, and dying at
Andersonville our armies were fast solving the problem of the Rebellion.
Jeff Davis had tired of the policy of General Joseph E. Johnson, who was
in command of the army which confronted Sherman, and about the middle of
July relieved him of his command and appointed Hood to his place.
Johnson’s policy during the Atlanta campaign had been that of defense.
Davis was in favor of aggressive warfare. He believed in driving the
invaders from the sacred soil of the South. A grand idea surely, but
then, the invaders had a word to say in that matter; they had come to
stay, and Jeff Davis’ manifestoes had no terrifying effect upon them.
Hood immediately assumed the aggressive and on the 2lst of July came out
from behind his entrenchments and attacked Sherman.
On the 22d the battle of Atlanta was fought, in which General McPherson
was killed. The command of the army of the Tennessee then fell upon
General John A. Logan for a few days, when he was superseded by General
O. O. Howard. There has been much criticism upon this act of General
Sherman. Logan had assumed command of the army of the Tennessee upon the
death of McPherson, during a hotly contested battle, and he had fought
the battle to a successful termination. He had fought his way from
colonel of a regiment, to Major General commanding an Army Corps, and
temporarily commanding an army. He had shown the highest type of
military ability shown by any volunteer officer, and yet he was
compelled to give place to a transplanted officer from the army of the
Potomac.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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