Prison Life in Andersonville Part 3

Instantly rivulets of water poured down over our bodies as if a hose were discharging its stream on our shoulders, and the surface of the filthy ground was soon covered with a rush of muddy water. The swamp s.p.a.ce as quickly filled with great swirling eddies. The upper stockade served as a dam across the creek, which in a few minutes became swollen into the dimensions of a river. Driftwood bore down upon the stockade, causing it to give way with a mighty crash. The heavy timbers were whirled across the prison as if they were mere straws, and by the force of their impact carried away the rear stockade. From the batteries solid shot was fired over our heads to warn us that if we attempted to escape through the opening in the wall we would be swept by the cannon. The roar of the guns chimed harmoniously with the thundering of the storm. In the awful suspense of such overwhelming conditions the progress of time could not be measured. The downpour may have continued twenty minutes, perhaps half an hour, or possibly longer. So great was its fury that we felt it must soon end or it would end us. Fortunately, it ceased as suddenly as it came.

Looking up, we saw the great water wall retreating. The sun burst forth with unwonted vigor and shone with brilliant effect upon the receding rain. A dense fog arose from the drying garments of thirty-five thousand human bodies and from the exhalations of surrounding surfaces. As the heavy mist cleared away, the drenched and forlorn prisoners tried to be merry. They viewed with complacency the breach in the walls of the infamous pen and wished that every timber had been leveled to the earth.

A witty comrade on the south hill of the prison, thinking to convey desired information to the north side, shouted at the top of his voice, "Water! Water!" Men on the north side, as by a common impulse, answered back, and the two great companies in turn shouted the magic word, much as the opposite hosts on Ebal and Gerazim alternately responded, "Amen."

Immediately after this antiphonal outburst a voice was heard from the north gate, ringing out in clear tones the thrilling words, "A spring! A spring! A spring has broken out!" "Where, where?" was the eager inquiry which arose at once from many lips. The writer tried to press his way towards the north gate, but the crowd was so dense that no progress could be made. The excitement of the moment was indescribable. During a lull some one sang out, "You fellows over by the north gate, tell us, has a spring broken out?" "Yes," was the reply, an emphatic "Yes." Then was further shouted the explanation, "Where the trench was dug the flood has torn up the earth and a spring has gushed out."

As soon as opportunity afforded we pressed our way to the spot, and there, just below the north gate, in the center of the s.p.a.ce between the stockade and the dead-line, at the point where the earth had been most deeply excavated, the sloping surfaces had gathered the waters of the flood. The bottom of the trench was torn up some twenty inches, uncovering the vent of a spring of purest crystal water, which shot up into the air in a column and, falling in a fanlike spray, went babbling down the grade into the noxious brook. Looking across the dead-line, we beheld with wondering eyes and grateful hearts the fountain spring.

But our relief was not yet realized; the question which now concerned us was how to bring its cooling waters within reach of our lips. In the afternoon and evening of that eventful Friday we prayed that G.o.d would so turn the heart of Capt. Wirtz that he would allow the precious water to be conveyed within our lines. We waited in suspense for the answer, and on Sat.u.r.day morning, to our delight, we saw the quartermaster again enter the gate with a gang of slaves, bringing fence boards, hammers, nails, axes and stakes. A double row of the latter was driven, so that the direction crossed the dead-line at a slight angle down the hill. A strip was nailed across each pair of stakes, and in the aperture rested a trough made of two fence boards nailed together. At the lower end of this chute in an excavation was set a sugar hogshead, around which clay was tamped so as to aid in making it watertight. When all was ready the upper end of the chute was thrust under the falling column of water, which swiftly ran down and filled to overflowing the large barrel. From this the men by crowds dipped freely of the refres.h.i.+ng, life-giving water.

Laughter, songs and thanksgiving abounded. Thus was wrought before our eyes a gracious work of Providence which to many of us was quite as wonderful and quite as manifestly the work of the All-Father as was the smitten rock in the Palestine desert from which the thirst of the fainting hosts of Israel was slacked in their desert wanderings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Stockade bursted by a flood which opened the wonderful "Providence Spring"]

CHAPTER VII.

WAS IT A MIRACLE?

A profound conviction has been cherished by many that the unsealing of Providence Spring was as marked an interposition of the hand of the Almighty as that recorded in the Book of Numbers where it is said, "And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly and the congregation drank." Num. 20:11.

Are they wrong in this conviction? The unwontedness of the incident admits of no dispute. In such a sober work as Rhodes History of the United States, we have the statement, "After a severe storm a spring broke out within the enclosure (Andersonville stockade) and this became one of the main reliances for drinking water." Vol. V., p. 492.

An eye witness records: "About the first of August showers fell that beat anything I ever saw. There was one good result, for where the stockade was washed away on the north side, it opened a spring of pure water, enough to supply nearly the whole of the prison." (The narrative of Amos E. Stearns, Co. A, 25th Regiment, Ma.s.s. Published by Franklin Pierce, 1887.)

While comparatively few of the prisoners knew of the days of prayer that preceded the storm, every one recognized that something out of the ordinary course of events had happened; and that a new spirit pervaded the camp. Before this, no one would give a dying man a drink, for water was scarce, and the scurvy in the recipient's mouth might contaminate the cup for its owner. And indeed, not many had the strength to wait upon others.

But now the dull, sombre, despairing mood was changed. The little stream of pure water, contrasted with the former slough that supplied us, murmured sweetly down through the night, and during the day it over-brimmed thousands of cups that eager hands reached forth.

In after days many of these men were gathered at Camp Chase, Ohio, and there detained until improved health rendered them presentable for return home.

We recall that when in the chapel of that place a Capt. Allen conducted evening religious services, hundreds of testimonies were given to the effect that the breaking out of the spring at Andersonville was a distinct answer to prayer and a convincing fact of the reality of help coming from above. Many of the speakers declared that their Christian faith began from that occurrence.

Questions such as the following naturally arise: Was Providence Spring a miracle? Would the saving relief have been withheld if prayer had not been offered?

The situation is not more difficult of a.n.a.lysis than is that described in the story of Queen Esther where is exhibited the interplay of natural and supernatural elements in human activity and Divine over-ruling. The northern section of the Andersonville inclosure was mainly a bank of clay, as evidenced by the many wells which were partially sunk, but filled, by order of Capt. Wirtz, because tunnels therefrom were dug for escape. The vein of water which issued in Providence Spring doubtless flowed from time immemorial, and being unable to work upward through a too great overpress of clay, had found a lower seam through which it seeped into the depths of the swamp below. This implied fact was learned as follows: As the prison administration was unable to cook meal and bacon for the increasing thousands of men, these articles were issued raw for two weeks alternately to the north and south sides of the enclosure.

A distressingly small lot of wood must suffice a detachment of two hundred and seventy men for three days. Often the individual portion would not make a fire that would scald, much less cook, the scant portion of cornmeal, which was sometimes coa.r.s.e and unbolted. It was said that more than ten thousand cases of b.l.o.o.d.y dysentery prevailed at one time; aggravated by irritation to stomach and intestines from the practically uncooked food. The awful unsanitary conditions which prevailed can be described, but respect for the sensibilities of the reader forbids.

Suffice it to say that the need for fuel was urgent, that a number of the stronger captives would lay aside their tattered remnants of clothing, wade into the slimy muck of the swamp, and, sinking to their armpits, would pull up fragments of wood that had long been submerged. This was mostly pitch pine and when broken up would quickly burn. The work of exhuming fuel under such repulsive conditions was chiefly done at night.

It was noticed that in the morning the partially remaining foot-prints and depression, from which the stick had been drawn, were filled with clear water. This fact was a mystery until after the spring was opened; then the conclusion was reached that the spring water followed a deep seam in the clay and oozed into the swamp some distance below the surface and rose up through the openings made by the wood-diggers.

Therefore Providence Spring was not especially created to order. Like Topsy, it had "allus" been. The providential aspects of the case may be thus stated; the spring existed, but was unknown. It was located under the s.p.a.ce between the dead-line and the stockade, through which digging for a well was not permitted; it therefore remained undiscovered. The out-of-plumb position of the stockade timbers had existed for a long time, but was not noticed by the officials until the time when prayer began to be offered for water. As the pet.i.tions of Esther and Mordecai, unknown to the King, in a manner unseen affected his action, so by a.n.a.logy, the prayer of Sergeant Shepard and his colleagues influenced the state of mind of the quartermaster and of Commandant Wirtz and they were moved to the repairing of the stockade which had long been neglected.

This decision led to the forming of a broad trench by digging away the ground to afford the needed watershed from the base of the stockade.

Thus a channel was formed which gathered the storm-water with force sufficient to tear away the ground over the spring and release the life-giving fountain. The slaves removed quite a depth of the earth directly over the unknown reservoir; thus the deepest part of the trench was brought so near the spring that the rush of the storm-flow could do the rest.

The spring water was uncovered and its pressure was sufficient to throw it into the air. However, as it was located on the forbidden margin, any prisoner reaching under or over the dead-line for a draught of the water would be instantly shot by the sentinel posted overhead on the wall.

Hence, after the spring was opened an object of much desire, and suitable as a subject of prayer, was that the hardness of Capt. Wirtz would be relaxed to the extent of allowing the prisoners to have access to the water. This result was accomplished and the relief was complete.

A recent writer commenting on the development of Providence Spring refers to the marble fountain erected by the Ex-Prisoners of War a.s.sociation inside the granite pavilion built over the spring by the Woman's Relief Corps, remarks, "The waters flow strong and sweet with a never-ceasing stream into the marble basin. It is said to be the best water in all Georgia; that which gushes forth from the side of the little hill in Andersonville." Confirmatory to this statement is the following incident:

In 1896, when the writer lectured in Warsaw, N. Y., on "Reminiscences of Battle-fields and Prisons," a prominent war veteran of the town, who had been a member of the staff of General Grant, showed him a bottle of water from Providence Spring which nine years before had been hermetically sealed by the Rev. G. Stanley Lathrop of Atlanta. So pure was the content that no sediment existed.

The further comment is: "The scientific fact of Providence Spring is that in the August electrical storm the rocks (clay) which held back this spring were cracked or broken open by a lightning bolt and the waters gushed forth. No one ever believed that it was a sort of Moses intervention for the prisoners, but it was undoubtedly looked upon in that light by the poor, thirsty, half-starved prisoners."

To which we reply that if we believe in prayer as an instrumentality by which human and divine forces cooperate to a beneficent end, and the result takes place, why should we question the efficacy of intercession?

The fact that a number of believing men in the prison were engaged for some days in protracted prayer for relief from water-famine was not ostentatiously announced at the time, and was little noticed by the crowd.

Thus has it ever been with the origin of great spiritual movements.

The relief came and a new spirit of hope and gladness, such as prevailing prayer engenders, swept through the mult.i.tude.

The scientific fact of a mightly rain storm being the visible agency of completing the opening of Providence Spring fitly coordinates with the moral force of prayer, as in numberless instances such convergence occurs in history. Nevertheless, this explanation will probably be accepted or challenged according to the personal experience of the reader in matters of Christian faith.

In the case of the smitten rock of the Palestine desert water doubtless existed in an abundant, although unknown supply. The Almighty, by the agency of Moses, brought it forth for the satisfying of a great mult.i.tude.

The prophet was commanded to speak to the rock and it would give forth water. The response could be from none other than the Creator of all mountains and flowing streams. And although Moses went beyond the Divine command, and struck with a rod instead of speaking with his voice, yet the Divine goodness was not withheld, "and the water came abundantly." So at Andersonville the sufficient, though unknown, supply was close at hand.

Human voices pleading for relief were answered by Him who spoke by the wind, the lightning and the flood.

It is said that the spiritual desires of our hearts are the reflection of what G.o.d is waiting to do for us through our own co-operation. Surely then, the prayers of the Andersonville prisoners for water were incited by Him who saw their dire necessity, and who waited only for human hands to aid in the release of the fountain of water which his Omnipotence had created.

During the subsequent years the writer has given the foregoing account in lectures and conversations to his comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic and to many others. Gentlemen of scientific and Christian attainments have said that this explanation of the phenomenon of Providence Spring is the most satisfactory of any that they have heard.

The event here chronicled is commemorated by the erection on the spot of a granite pavilion which is appropriately named "Providence Spring." The inscriptions are as follows:

This Fountain Erected by THE NATIONAL a.s.sOCIATION OF UNION EX-PRISONERS OF WAR In Memory of the 52,345 Comrades who were confined here as prisoners of war, and of the 13,900 comrades buried in the adjoining National Cemetery.

Dedicated Memorial Day, May Thirteenth, Nineteen Hundred and One.

James Atwell, National Commander.

S. M. Long, Adjt. Gen'l.

J. D. Walker, Cham. Ex. Committee.

A reverse tablet bears the words:

This Pavilion Was Erected by the WOMAN'S RELIEF CORPS Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic In grateful memory of the men who suffered and died in the Confederate Prison at Andersonville, Georgia, From February, 1864, to April, 1865.

"The prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven; G.o.d heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth And poured his sweetest waters gus.h.i.+ng here."

"Erected 1901."