Exodus: Law, Covenant, and Public Order

Truth About Andersonville Prison

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Old Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2008-04-27

Synopsis: John Weaver argues that the popular image of Andersonville Prison as a deliberate Confederate atrocity is a result of Northern propaganda and false witness. Using historical records, eyewitness accounts, and official statistics, he contends that the Confederacy treated Union prisoners as well as its own soldiers, while the Union government intentionally starved and mistreated Confederate prisoners and refused prisoner exchanges, leading to unnecessary deaths. The lecture concludes that bearing false witness against the South is a violation of the Ninth Commandment.

[John Weaver] We're thankful that you're here, so let's have a word of prayer, shall we? Our Father, we're so thankful today for the Lord Jesus Christ. For His grace and mercy and truth to us. Lord, help us to understand the principles of thy word and that all history is thy history. Give us, Lord, grace that we may serve thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In thy name we pray. Amen.

[John Weaver] I want to read from Exodus chapter 20 in verse 16. It happens to be the ninth commandment. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Bearing false witness, of course, is a sin against the law of God. If you really want to know what sin is, the Bible tells you in 1 John 3 and verse 4, the Bible said that sin is a transgression of the law. Whosoever committed sin transgresseth the law, for sin is a transgression of the law. So bearing false witness, then, is indeed a transgression of the law.

[John Weaver] Now you say, what in the world has this to do with history? Well, the message I want to bring today is the truth concerning Andersonville Prison. I want you to understand that when God says, thou shalt not bear false witness, it not only applies to people, but also families, churches, sections, and whole countries. I want to give you an illustration today of bearing false witness against the section of our country, that is, the southern section. When one hears the name of Andersonville, you cannot help but think of Andersonville Prison. And when you think of Andersonville Prison, automatically at the same time, there is conjured up in the minds thoughts of torture, inhumanity, and diabolical maltreatment of prisoners.

[John Weaver] Now that kind of thinking has been brought to you to the successful propaganda, slander, outright lies and false witnessing by the North and the Northern Empire. Yankee propaganda has successfully made most people think that Andersonville Prison It was nothing but a den of torture. Yes, it is true that men died in prison, especially Andersonville Prison. Many men died there of starvation, disease, and lack of medical attention. But may I point out the fact that Confederate men died in northern prisoners as well. In fact, there are people who die today in our modern-day prison system. So deaths in prison are not unique. It is one thing for prisoners to die in prison during the war while they're in captivity, and quite another thing for one section of the country to charge another section with deliberate and premeditated murder of those prisoners. Now, the Confederacy did not have a war policy as such that purposely crafted and was designed for the maltreatment of prisoners as did the norm. In fact, let me just point out.

[John Weaver] The South did indeed endeavor to treat the prisoners with humanity and compassion. In fact, as early as May 21, 1861, the Confederate Congress passed a law. Here's what it said, that all prisoners of war taken, whether on land or sea, during the pending hostilities with the United States, shall be transferred by the captors from time to time as often is convenient to the Department of War, that shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, with the approval of the President, to issue such instructions to the Quartermaster General and his subordinates, and shall provide for the safe custody and sustenance of prisoners of war, and the rations furnished prisoners of war shall be the same in quantity and quality as those furnished to enlisted men in the Army of the Confederacy." So here the Confederate government said, look, all of the Union prisoners in our prisons are going to get exactly the same rations in quantity and quality as our enlisted men do.

[John Weaver] However, the North had an official policy on the maltreatment of Southern prisoners. You can find this in SR 97. It's in the Congressional Records. It's also in the old law books in the universities and courthouses. But it was passed by the 38th Congress, the second session, and here is the official United States policy on Confederate prisoners of war, and I'm quoting. Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to treatment finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather." Isn't that amazing? The United States government put that out and said, look, what we're going to do is we're going to starve the southern prisoners. We're going to make sure that they don't have enough clothing to keep warm in these northern camps. We're going to make sure that they're treated worse than savage tribes treat their prisoners.

[John Weaver] Now, you cannot deny that there was a premeditated effort on the part of the North to murder southern prisoners. On July the 19th, 1866, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton published a federal report about prisoners during the war. Now, I'm going to tell you, if you read Stanton's report, you're going to find that he certainly waters down how the North treated Southern prisoners. But even from his report, from the first to the last, he says Confederate armies captured and held in prisons more than 270,000 Union men. The Union captured and held in their prisons 220,000 Confederates.

[John Weaver] Now listen to that again. The South had 270,000 Yankees and the North had 220,000 Confederates. But of the federal prisoners that were held in Confederate prisons, Only 22,576 died in captivity. While on the other hand, 26,576 Confederates died in Yankee captivity. In other words, the South held 50,000 more Union prisoners and had 4,000 fewer inmate deaths. So very obviously, when you just look at the figures, You've got to conclude something is wrong somewhere.

[John Weaver] Now, before I give you some eyewitness accounts, first-hand reports concerning Andersonville, let me just give you a quick synopsis of most of the prominent northern prisoners. I'm going to mention Andersonville just as a southern prisoner for one important fact, which you'll see just momentarily. But Camp Douglas in Illinois, was used as a prisoner of war camp from 1862 to 1865. It was originally designed as a training station, but it was converted to a prison due to the influx of the prisoners of war. It was designed for a capacity of 6,000, but 12,000 were crammed into it and almost 4,500 Confederates died in that prison. Then there was Elmira Prison in New York. Its capacity was designed for 5,000 and yet at one point they had over 9,400 in it. In just two years, under 3,000, just under 3,000 Confederates died there. Elmira has been called the Andersonville of the North or the Death Camp of the North because so many died there. And of course Andersonville, Georgia, which I'm going to be dealing with today, was a southern prison designed to hold 10,000 prisoners.

[John Weaver] But at its highest peak, there were 32,000 prisoners at Andersonville. 12,919 people died there due to the Confederacy's lack of resources. Point Lookout in Maryland, during the three years it was used there, 3,500 men died there. and its height was crowded and doubled its capacity, 22,000 were there. And then of course there was Camp Morton in Indiana, it was set up for 2,000 but it reached a height of 5,000. 1,700 Confederates died there. So when you start looking at all of these prisons around, you're going to find that every camp had prisoners who died.

[John Weaver] Reverend William Brown of the Central Presbyterian wrote this in talking about the Confederate prison camps. He said this, so far as the intentions and orders of the Confederate government were concerned, no blame can rest upon it. The places selected were healthy. In fact, that's one reason Andersonville was selected. It was out of the way, it was healthy, it had a lot of springs there. He says, the places selected were healthy and the food and medicines ordered were the same as those assigned to our own soldiers and hospitals. The fate of prisoners, especially if the number be large, is generally and unavoidably a hard one. The volume of testimony gathered from a large number of returned prisoners Men of undoubted veracity, we were invited by the kindness of Judge Watson to inspect.

[John Weaver] It was in the hands of the printer Richmond when the memorial fire occurred at the time of its evacuation in April of 1865, and unfortunately consumed in the great fire. But Camp Douglas, Rock Island, Johnson's Island, Elmira, Fort Delaware, and other federal prisons Could they find a tongue would tell a tale of horror that should forever silence all the clamor about Libby Prison, Bell Island, and Andersonville. So here's a man saying, look, it was far, far worse in those Yankee prisons than it ever was at Andersonville. So if the truth was actually known, if the truth was actually exposed, it was a whole lot worse for the Confederate prisoners held in Yankee prisons than it was for Yankees held in Southern prisons. And I can assure you, as bad as Andersonville was, and it was bad, but as bad as it was, Andersonville would probably look like a Sunday school picnic when compared to some of the atrocities and horrors of Northern prisoners. And why am I saying that? Because the horrors at Andersonville were mainly produced by the Lincoln administration.

[John Weaver] You say, how in the world can you say that? Well, you will find out in just a moment. You could accurately say that all prisons in the North and the prisons in the South were basically hell holes. But there is a difference between having the food and materials and medicine to prevent a hell hole and someone then deliberately withholding food and clothing and medicine in order to create a hellhole. In fact, when you talk about Andersonville, you're going to find that the guards suffered just as greatly as the prisoners did during that time. In fact, I'm going to take some eyewitness accounts. I'm going to take some accounts of individuals who lived through Andersonville and tell you what they had to say. One of the most common charges against the South, especially in Andersonville, was that the prisoners in Andersonville were starved. In other words, they did not have food given them. The food was withheld. In fact, all you have to do is go online or buy books and look at the pictures of some of those prisoners at Andersonville.

[John Weaver] And man, you can say, man, they were starved. Look at them. They're nothing but skin and bones. But it was not just prisoners who died of malnutrition in Andersonville. The Confederate guards also died of malnutrition in Andersonville. The testimony of Dr. Isaiah H. White, who is a surgeon in the Confederate Army, as to the treatment of prisoners, he says this, in refutation of the charge that prisoners were starved, Lennon noted that the Confederate Congress in May 1861 passed a bill providing that the rations furnished to prisoners of war should be the same in quality and quantity as those issued to the enlisted men in the Army of the Confederacy. And the prisoners at Andersonville received the same rations that were furnished to the Confederate Guard.

[John Weaver] That this was sometimes scant, every old rebel in the field can testify, but this was due to the poverty that existed in the South. Now, there were men in the North and the South who served and lived at Andersonville and through Andersonville. One of those men was Lemuel Madison Park. Lemuel Park was a Confederate soldier who worked there at Andersonville, and he says this, and by the way, in Ohio, and what he's going to demonstrate and explain, he toured Ohio, and in Ohio they had a historical exhibit of how prisoners were treated at Andersonville, and they had these little tiny portions of like, you know, three or four peas and a tiny little piece of bread and said, this was the daily ration given to the prisoners at Andersonville. And here's what Park says, I was for three months a clerk in the commissary department at Andersonville, and it was my business to weigh out rations to the guards and prisoners alike. And I solemnly assert or I solemnly swear that the prisoners got ounce for ounce and pound for pound of the same quantity and quality of food as did the guards.

[John Weaver] The state authorities of Ohio ought to blush at thus traducing and slandering a fallen foe and never in the first instance to have placed on exhibition for preservation of truth this fabrication of partisan hate. No Andersonville prisoner, unless he were lost to all sense of honor and shame, could make such a statement as that the rations were no more than the specimens shown." So he said, look, I know better.

[John Weaver] I was there in the commissary department. I weighed out those rations to the northern prisoners as well as the southern guards. Now, Mr. John F. Frost was a prisoner at Andersonville. He survived Andersonville. And here is his first-hand testimony. And I really like the way he concludes his testimony. Listen, he says, I was orderly of Captain Folger's company, 19th Maine, and was made prisoner at Petersburg in June 1864 and was at Andersonville 11 months or until the war ended.

[John Weaver] There was suffering among the men who were sick from the lack of medicines and delicacies. but all had their rations as fully and regularly as did the Confederate Guard. Remember now, this is a Yankee prisoner. There were times of scarcity when supply trains were cut off by Federal forces. And at such times, I've known the guards, the Confederate guards, to offer to buy rations for the prisoners being very short themselves. On these occasions, the guards would take a portion of their scanty supplies from the people of the country to feed the prisoners. The rebels were anxious to effect an exchange and to get the prisoners off their hands, but it was reported and believed among the prisoners that the federal authorities refused. At one time, I was with a detail of 3,000 prisoners who were marched 200 miles to the coast to be exchanged, and it was declined by the federal authorities. And as we reported, we marched back with no enviable feelings.

[John Weaver] I believe that the larger share of the responsibility for the sufferings in that prison belonged to our own government. But I believe the Confederate authorities did as well as they could for the prisoners in the matter of clothing, provisions, and medicines. This was a prisoner.

[John Weaver] Now listen to how he concludes his report. This, let it be remembered, is not the talk of a designing politician who stayed safely at home, but the testimony of a soldier of good record from an actual experience of 11 months in Andersonville Prison. So here, Mr. Frost is saying, I lived through it. And I can testify that the guards and the prisoners shared equally. And you've got to also consider this, that the guards at Andersonville died equally with the prisoners at Andersonville. Percentage-wise, the death of the guards at Andersonville was not much less than the inmate deaths. In fact, the highest number of guards at Andersonville was usually around 1,000.

[John Weaver] Most of these men were from the Georgia Reserves. Most of them were young boys or old men or wounded veterans who were not really fit enough for combat. But out of the thousand, 226 died. Thus you could say approximately 22.5% of the guards in Andersonville died when 24.5% of the prisoners in Andersonville died. In other words, the death rate among the guards was only 2% less than the death rate among the prisoners. because the guards did not have sufficient food themselves.

[John Weaver] Now, 2% of course is not a very large variation, I can assure you. When you stop and think about Andersonville, you've also got to remember that some of the Union prisoners died because of the aggression and violence of other Yankee prisoners. I don't know if you realize this or not, but in those prisons, and especially in Andersonville, They had cliques and clubs that would come along and steal from the new prisoners. Beat them. Some were murdered.

[John Weaver] Here's a first-hand testimony of Albert Schatzel. He was a private company, 1st Vermont Cavalry. May the 24th, 1864. Some of the old prisoners made a raid on the new prisoners and stole their blankets and rations. And the new fellows pitched in and there was a big fight. And Minneapolis got his head bashed in with clubs or stones. So here the prisoners that had been there longer were attacking their new fellow Yankee prisoners who just came in to steal their rations. Here's John Urban, who was a private company of the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry, June 28, 1864.

[John Weaver] He says that what extremes bad men will go to secure their own comfort was fully illustrated in the doings of a band of robbers in Andersonville. Now watch. Here's a band of robbers and Andersonville prisoners. They're Yankees, but the other Yankee prisoners refer to them as Mosby's Marauders. Why? Because these Yankee prisoners were going around stealing and beating up other Yankee prisoners.

[John Weaver] Now listen to what he said. As the rest of the prisoners called them, that is Mosby's Raiders. Their rendezvous was near the southwest end of the prison. So he's saying, look, here's a group of men that just make it their business to go around and to beat up and to steal other Yankee prisoners.

[John Weaver] Now, on July the 4th, 1864, Johnny Warren gave this testimony. You see, there was a police force organized among the Yankee prisoners to try to stop the thefts and the murders. In fact, Captain Wurst, later on Major Wurst, worked with these men to help capture these marauders. Here's what he said. So far as I know, the idea that brought about the overthrow of the murderous raiders came from Wirtz himself, and it is certain that the efforts of the Law and Order organization and of the police force, of all who deserve great credit in arresting the raiders, would have been fruitless but for the cooperation of Captain Wirtz. In other words, Here, Captain Wertz, who was over Andersonville, cooperating with the Yankee prisoners there to stop other Yankee prisoners from stealing and murdering their fellow inmates.

[John Weaver] Now, the North was well aware of the fact that the South did not have enough food, clothing, or medicine. In fact, we couldn't even feed and clothe our own troops. How in the world could we feed and clothe 32,000 men in one place? In fact, there were plenty of people in the North who were calling for retaliatory measures against the South. In other words, they're saying, look, the South is starving our men. Of course, the South was not. The South was starving itself.

[John Weaver] And it was Union General Dan Sickles who on August 10, 1864 made this statement. Now remember, this is a Union General. He says, apart from the objections which exist to the policy of retaliation, it is at least doubtful whether it would inure to the benefit of our men, for the reason that the enemy are reported to be without means to supply clothing, medicines, and other supplies even to their own troops. So here's a Union general saying, why in the world do we want to retaliate? There's no reason to retaliate. They can't even feed and clothe their own troops.

[John Weaver] What do you expect them to do to the prisoners? Now, Edward Wellington Boat was a Yankee soldier. He was also with the 42nd New York Infantry. He was a prisoner at Andersonville in 1864, and he wrote his experiences in the New York Times soon after the war was over. And here is what Edward Boat said. You rulers, and remember he's talking to the North, you rulers who make the charge that the rebels intentionally killed off our men, when I can honestly swear that they were doing everything in their power to sustain us, do not lay this flattering unction to your souls. You abandon your brave men in the hour of their coolest need.

[John Weaver] They fought for the Union. And you reached no hand out to save the old faithful, loyal, and devoted servants of our country. You may try to shift the blame from your own shoulders, but posterity will saddle the responsibility where it justly belongs." So here then is another Andersonville prisoner saying, look, the problem that we were having in Andersonville was from the Lincoln administration. It was from the rulers up there. In Rock Island, prisoner of war camp, a northern camp who held Confederate soldiers, John A.

[John Weaver] Bateson was a soldier there. His testimony is vouchsafed by a district judge. And here is what he said concerning how Rock Island treated Confederate prisoners. And I'm quoting. He says, during a period of 10 months, I was a member of the garrison of the Rock Island Military Prison. There were confined there about 10,000 men. These men were retained in a famishing that is a starving condition by order of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. That order was approved by Abraham Lincoln. It was read before the ensigned garrison of the prison sometime January 1864. It was read at assembly for duty on the second in front of the prison.

[John Weaver] It went into effect the following day. It continued in force until the expiration of my term of service which was the close of the war.

[John Weaver] Now listen to what he says. At the end of the war, Colonel Hoffman proudly turned over to the federal government $1.8 million, representing what he had saved from his budget and accumulated in the prison funds by reducing the rations of the prisoners. In other prisons, this accumulation of money often led to graft and corruption among prison officials. As Union authorities received reports of hunger and suffering among their men in Confederate hands, they instituted a policy of retaliation. From 1864 to 1865, Colonel Hoffman, backed by General Meigs, the quartermaster, and Edwin M. Stanton, intended to treat Confederate prisoners of war as they believed the Confederate government was treating Union captives. Hoffman ordered a further reduction of rations, reduced or restricted settlers' access to the prisoners, and eliminated the receipt of food packages from home.

[John Weaver] The result was an increase in disease from malnutrition as well as starvation. So here's a soldier in Rock Island saying, I can testify to the fact Edwin M. Stanton, General Meigs, Abraham Lincoln, purposely, deliberately starved the prisoners of the South. And when he can turn back over, 1.8 million dollars from money that was given to buy food for Southern prisoners. Would you like to have a guess at what 1.8 million dollars would be today in today's money? Back then 1.8 million would probably have been in gold. So here he is purposely and deliberately starving Southern prisoners. You see the South had run out of food.

[John Weaver] The Union Army had burned homes, torched crops, shot the livestock. No medicine could be obtained practically at any price. You remember Sheridan said that he was going to torch and burn the Shenandoah Valley so that if a crow flew over it, he'd have to carry his own food because there'd be nothing there for the crow to find. Although the South was basically broke and had no food and no medical supplies, The North had plenty of food, plenty of supplies, and plenty of money.

[John Weaver] Yet they were starving Confederate prisoners. Dr. Stevenson, who was a Confederate surgeon and doctor, wrote this. He said, the greatest difficulty was experienced in procuring medicines and anti-scorbutics, which was a treatment for scurvy. These were made contraband of war by the federal government. And then he goes on to say that the most rigid discipline failed to make the prisoners pay that attention to cleanliness which was absolutely necessary. So what did the federal government do? They made any medicine, anything needed to treat their own men as a contraband of war.

[John Weaver] Now when you look at the pictures of those emaciated men at Andersonville Prison, And when you think that Andersonville was designed to hold 10,000 men, and yet at its height it held approximately 32,000 men, you have to stop and ask yourself this question. Was the South fighting that well? Were we really capturing that many prisoners at that time? I mean, if we weren't, how in the world did that prison camp go to 32,000 men? Well, there's an answer to that. The reason the South held so many prisoners was because the North refused to exchange prisoners. The Lincoln government refused to accept and care for their own men. By June of 1864, they had finished, or had just ended, exchanging prisoners.

[John Weaver] The Union had greater manpower, they had greater weaponry, they had greater finance, they had everything. And they decided, look, we don't need to exchange prisoners with the South. I'm going to give you first-hand quotes. Here's Union Brigadier General Seymour regarding the exchange of prisoners for Andersonville. Here's what he said. And not just Andersonville, but all Southern prisons. He said the southern authorities are exceedingly desirous of an immediate change of prisoners.

[John Weaver] Their urgency is unbounded, but it is the poorest policy for our government to deliver them 40,000 prisoners, better fed and clothed than ever before in their lives, in good condition for the field, while the United States received in return an equal number of men worn out with privations and neglects barely able to walk, enjoying their last breath, and unfit to take the field of soldiers. It is much wiser to leave the prisoners where they are." What did he say? Let them die. They're not going to do us any good. They can't fight. They're too sickly. They're too poor. They're too starved. Let them die.

[John Weaver] None other than Union General Ulysses S. Grant himself decided there was to be no exchange of prisoners. He says, and I'm quoting, the exchange of prisoners would mean a reinforcement of the rebel army. An exchanged rebel soldier behind barricades and fortifications fighting on the defenses was equivalent to three Union soldiers attacking him. If we hold these men caught, they're no more than dead men as the time of enlistment is over.

[John Weaver] If we liberate them, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. It is hard on our men to be held in Southern prisons, not to exchange them, but it is humanity, those left in the ranks, to fight our battles. At this particular time, to release all rebel prisoners in the North would ensure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here.

[John Weaver] Now, I'm sure that that announcement was very comforting to the sick and starving men, not only in Andersonville, but in some of the other southern prisoners as well. And here's what Grant said. Grant is saying, we're putting Sherman's activities and we're putting our safety ahead of our captured men who are dying and need to be exchanged. He said, it's not going to benefit us. The South will benefit from the exchange of prisoners, so since we're not going to derive any benefit from it, we're just not going to do it. Now, did those men in Andersonville know that their own government refused to exchange them?

[John Weaver] And the answer is yes. James Madison Page, who's a second lieutenant in Company A, 6th Michigan Cavalry, A union officer and a prisoner at Andersonville wrote a book entitled, The True Story of Andersonville Prison, and in that he vindicates Captain Wertz and demonstrates how the federal government refused to accept their own men. In July of 1864, Henry Wertz had paroled some men to act as emissaries for the prisoners.

[John Weaver] Now, since Grant and Seymour did not want to exchange prisoners. What Captain Wirtz did was this. He selected some men from Andersonville Prison and he sent them as emissaries to Washington, D.C. to plead with Abraham Lincoln and that administration to reopen prisoner exchange so that these men that are being starved in Andersonville for lack of food and lack of medicine could go back home. Well, when that delegation failed to achieve their goal, some returned to Andersonville Prison. And Page writes, when the Andersonville emissaries returned from Washington, there was not one word about the exchange of Negro soldiers being in the way of our release.

[John Weaver] It was not thought of. I know for the past 42 years that the matter has been publicly broadcast in the North as a reason why we were not exchanged. Grigsby, and I'm going to talk about him in a moment, he's another prisoner there, and he wrote an account of Andersonville. He said, Grigsby is writing this. The Washington authorities had concluded to stop the exchange before there were any Negro prisoners. So, some were saying, well, they didn't want to exchange the Negroes.

[John Weaver] But no, he said, that's not true. In spite of all the Northern post-moralizing, he says the real reason the Union soldiers were not exchanged is because the Northern government considered them expendable. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said, we will not exchange able-bodied men for skeletons, and we do not propose to reinforce the rebel army by exchanging prisoners. Let them die. That was the attitude of Edwin Stanton. Page goes on, he says, when we heard Secretary of War Stanton's reply in regard to exchange, we felt we were forsaken by our own government. The War Office at Washington preferred us to die rather than to exchange us. Many of the prisoners, being but human, raised their clenched fists, trembling hands toward heaven, and with fearful oaths, cursed the authorities at Washington, and also cursed the day that they were born. He says, oh, what hatred was engendered for our Secretary of War. So here were these Union prisoners. They sent their own ambassadors. And Lincoln and his administration refused to hear those prisoners.

[John Weaver] They carried a petition signed by practically every prisoner in Andersonville. And when they had to come back and say that they would not exchange those prisoners, they would not do one thing for the release of those Union prisoners, those Union men clenched their fists and cursed their own authorities. Melvin Grigsby, of whom Madison Page quotes, He also was a prisoner in Andersonville, and he states this, I do not know who's responsible for that fearful blunder, but a blunder it was, he's talking about the refusal to exchange prisoners. The prison authorities at Andersonville permitted the prisoners to send to Washington three of their own, chosen for that purpose, who took with them a petition to the President asking them that an immediate exchange be agreed on on the terms proposed by the rebels, and setting out fully and plainly the suffering that was

[John Weaver] being endured and the loss of daily life occurring. The petition was signed by thousands of prisoners and is probably now on file among the records of the War Department. There are many thousands of gravestones at Andersonville which would not be there, and many thousands would have been orphans caused by the mistaken zeal and cold-blooded principle of those in authority at that time. He goes further. When it was all over, and thousands of the poor, emaciated creatures that survived were sent home and scattered throughout the land, and the truth became known, and Harper's Weekly and other illustrated papers sent out pictures of the starved heroes, then a storm of indignation arose which threatened to burst over the heads of

[John Weaver] these misguided politicians who had refused to exchange. Then something must be done. Andersonville must be avenged. The storm must be averted. And something was done. Andersonville was avenged. Major Wirtz was hanged. What is Griggsbee saying? Wirtz was nothing but a scapegoat. They knew they were wrong. They knew they were wicked. And yet instead of saying, we're the ones responsible for those men dying, they trumped up charges against Major Wirtz and had him hanged. Andersonville prisoner John W.

[John Weaver] Urban, sometime after those men returned from Washington, said this, We sometimes felt embittered against the government for not making a greater effort to release us. And among ourselves, we often were tempted to say bitter things. But in the presence of our enemy, any insinuation of this kind against our own government would excite ire and indignation. It was a sad fact, however, that hundreds died feeling in their hearts that the government they loved so well and fought so hard to save was indifferent to their sad fate. Isn't that amazing? Well, One of the orders that General Ulysses S. Grant wrote, he was encouraging Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, to not allow General Foster to exchange prisoners. This order is dated August 21, 1864, and here is what Ulysses S. Grant states to Edwin Stanton. He says, please inform General Foster that under no circumstances will he be authorized to make an exchange of prisoners of war.

[John Weaver] Exchanges simply reinforce the enemy at once, while we do not get the benefit for two or three months and lose the majority entirely. I telegraphed this from just hearing that some 500 to 600 prisoners had been sent to General Foster, U.S. Grant, Lieutenant General. So here, General Grant is saying, Don't let Foster take those Yankee prisoners. No, no, no. Let them go back. Dr. Isaiah H.

[John Weaver] White, who's a surgeon with the Confederate Army, also says this from the private journal of this Confederate officer. This is just mind-boggling. He said, at one time, an order came to Camp Lawton, which was in Millon, Georgia, At one time, an order came to Camp Lawton to prepare 2,000 men for exchange. The order from Richmond was first to select the wounded, next the oldest prisoners and the most sickly, and then fill up the ranks with healthy men according to date. This party went first to Savannah, from Millon to Savannah, as arranged, but by some mistake the ships were at Charleston.

[John Weaver] And the poor wretches had to be taken there. And everyone who knew the southern railroads in those days and the difficulty, or rather impossibility, to procure food for such a crowd along the road will well know what those poor fellows suffered. At Charleston, they were refused. The commissioner declaring that he was not going to exchange able-bodied men for such specimens of humanity. The term was more brutal, he says. Now watch. Finding him obdurate, Colonel Ord requested that he take them without exchange. This he refused with a sneering laugh, and the crowd was ordered back to Camp Lawton.

[John Weaver] Never did the writer of this witness such woe begun. woebegone countenances, in which misery and hopelessness were more strongly painted than shown by these poor fellows on their return. And the curses leveled against the rulers who thus treated the defenders of their country were fearful, although certainly well-deserved. As the stockade gate closed upon them, the surgeon in charge said, Poor fellows, the world has closed upon them, and more than half of them, Their disappointment will be their death knell. His words prove true. Who murdered these men?

[John Weaver] He says, let history answer the question. So here, Dr. White is saying, Colonel Orr begged him, said, look, if you're not going to exchange, just take them. We can't feed them. We can't clothe them. We can't treat them. Just take your own men. And the Union officer sneered and laughed. Do you realize some of the Yankee prisoners there drew up some resolutions concerning Andersonville Prison? And here is one of them, signed by P. Bradley, who is chairman of the Committee on Behalf of Prisoners, and he says this in this resolution, that while allowing the Confederate government all due praise for the attention paid to prisoners, numbers of our men are consigned to early graves. resolved that 10,000 of our brave comrades have descended into untimely graves caused by differences in climate and food.

[John Weaver] And whereas these difficulties still remain, we would declare our firm belief that unless we are speedily exchanged, we have no other alternative but to share the same lamentable fate of our comrades. Must this thing still go on? Is there no hope? Resolved, we have suffered patiently and are still willing to suffer if by so doing we can benefit the country. But we most respectfully beg Lee to say that while we are willing to suffer for our country, we are not willing to suffer for any party or clique to the detriment of our families and our country. Isn't that interesting?

[John Weaver] They said while praising the Confederate government. In other words, these men realized that the Confederacy was doing everything they could to give them the proper quantity and quality of food. And yet, oh, you always hear about Andersonville. And you never hear of the fact that it was the North who refused to even take their own men when they were offered. Well, Senator Benjamin H. Hill carried on a controversy with Mr. Blaine of Maine. And they were talking about Andersonville and northern prisons in general and southern prisons in general. And Senator Ben Hill from Georgia said this, yet after all this has been said on the subject, the stubborn fact remains that over 3% more Confederates perished in northern prisons than of federal prisoners in southern prisons.

[John Weaver] The figures to prove this statement have been have been several times given in this discussion, but they are so significant that we give them again in the form in which they are presented. Now, he says to Mr. Blaine, will the gentleman believe testimony from the dead? The Bible says the tree is known by its fruits. And after all, what is the test of suffering of these prisoners north and south? The test is the result. Now, I call the intention of the gentleman in this fact that the report of Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, And he's writing a northern man. You will believe him, will you not? On the 19th of July, 1866, he says to the librarian, get it, exhibits the fact that the federal prisoners in Confederate hands during the war that died were 22,576, while the Confederate prisoners in federal hands died were 26,436. And he said, Surgeon General Barnes reports in an official report, I suppose that you'll believe him, that in round numbers, the Confederate prisoners in federal hands amounted 220,000, while the federal prisoners in Confederate hands amounted 270,000.

[John Weaver] Out of the 270,000 in Confederate hands, 22,000 died, while out of the 220,000 Confederates in federal hands, over 26,000 died. The ratio is this, more than 12% of the Confederates in Federal prisons died and less than 9% of the Federals in Confederate hands died. What is the logic of these facts according to the gentleman from Maine? I scorn, he says, to charge murder upon the officials of Northern prisoners as the gentleman has done upon the Confederate prison epistles. So, Ben Hill says, look, if you want facts, let's deal with facts. More Confederates died in Union hands than Union prisoners did in Confederate hands, and the Confederates still had 50,000 more prisoners.

[John Weaver] Bearing false witness is wrong. I don't care if you're doing it as an individual, as a family, as a church, as a state, as a nation, it doesn't matter. Bearing false witness is wicked and wrong regardless of whom, what, when, and where the sin is committed.

[John Weaver] Now let me just try to tie this together for you and show you what happens when you begin to bear false witness. Of course, Major Wirtz was lied about. He was slandered. He was regarded as a monster. And to avenge Andersonville, They had to try Major Wurtz and find him guilty and have him hanged. The one who gave the most damning testimony at Major Wurtz's trial, and by the way, like James Madison Page and some of these other men, they would not allow them to testify on behalf of Major Wurtz. But the man who gave the most damning testimony against Major Wurtz was a man by the name of Felix Dellabom. Now, Dellabom was the only witness who said that he could identify a victim by name that Major Wirtz just shot and killed. Wow.

[John Weaver] So here is an eyewitness. Here's a man that can say I saw Major Wertz shoot this man and murder him, and I can give you his name." Now that's a rather damning testimony, and yet Felix Delabombe, who is testifying against Major Wertz at his trial. Delabombe, by the way, claimed to be a Frenchman, and he claimed to be a descendant of Lafayette. But after the trial, And after Major Works was hanged, Felix Delabombe was found out to be Felix Osser. Felix Osser was born in Saxony, Prussia, and lied to help conceal the fact that he was a deserter from the 7th New York Volunteers and had deserted during the war. Osser had never set foot in Andersonville Prison. And yet he testified that he could give the name of a man that he knew firsthand that Major Wirtz shot and murdered. Wow. This man's testimony was so believed due to his skills as an orator, he so impressed the commission that was investigating Major Wirtz, that he was given a written commendation signed by all the members of the Commission concerning his testimony.

[John Weaver] He was also appointed a position in the Department of Interior before the trial ever ended. And 11 days after Major Wertz was hanged, it was found that this man had perjured himself He only did not know Major Wirtz. He only did not see Major Wirtz shoot anybody or know anybody that he did shot. He was never even at Andersonville. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

[John Weaver] Now, let me show you something. I want to close with a passage. But do you realize in this instance, The man who bore false witness lived, I don't know for how long. The man who had the false witness born against him died. But you know what God says? Listen to this. Deuteronomy 19, verse 17. Then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priest and the judges, which shall be in those days. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And behold, if a witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother, then shall you do unto him as he thought to have done unto his brother.

[John Weaver] So shalt thou put evil away from among you." Here was a man who bore false testimony against an innocent, and I might add, a very godly man, and had that man hanged. for something that he did not do. And do you realize what has happened to our history is it has been rewritten by the victor. And you are hearing all kinds of propaganda and all kinds of lies and slanders against major works, against Andersonville, against the Confederacy, against the South. And it is exactly what I just said, it is false witness. The truth is this, Andersonville did have men that died. Yes, they died of starvation. They died of malnourishment. They died of lack of medical supplies. There were numerous reasons why they died.

[John Weaver] But the main failure, the main charge has to be laid at their own government because the federal government refused to take the prisoners even when they were offered without exchange. And they said, We can get along better without them than we can with them. You keep them, let them die. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful today for Jesus Christ. We're thankful for truth, Lord. Thy word is truth.

[John Weaver] And all history is your history. And Lord, we just ask you, we beg of you today, To help us not be led astray by false accusations and lies and slander and innuendos, give us grace, Lord, to check the facts for ourselves that we may know and understand. And give us, Lord, grace to serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Help us, Lord, as we continue this day. May we honor those men who indeed fought for truth and righteousness and stood for Thy word. Thank you for your grace and mercy. In Christ's name, Amen.

Truth About Andersonville Prison

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	9708183577
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Exodus: Law, Covenant, and Public Order
Genre	Sermon
Date	2008-04-27
Dictation Name
Book	Book 080: Exodus Themes in Biblical Law and History — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	67

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and the Ninth Commandment

Weaver opens with prayer and reads Exodus 20:16, establishing that bearing false witness is a sin against God's law, applicable to individuals, families, and nations.

We're thankful that you're here, so let's have a word of prayer, shall we? Our Father, we're so thankful today for the Lord Jesus Christ, for His grace and mercy and truth to us. Lord, help us to understand the principles of Thy Word and that all history is Thy history. Give us, Lord, grace that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray. Amen. I want to read from Exodus chapter 20 and verse 16. It happens to be the ninth commandment:

Scripture Reading — Exodus 20:16

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Bearing false witness, of course, is a sin against the law of God. If you really want to know what sin is, the Bible tells you in 1 John 3 and verse 4, the Bible said that sin is a transgression of the law. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the law, for sin is a transgression of the law." So bearing false witness, then, is indeed a transgression of the law.

Now you say, what in the world has this to do with history? Well, the message I want to bring today is the truth concerning Andersonville Prison. I want you to understand that when God says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," it not only applies to people, but also families, churches, sections, and whole countries. I want to give you an illustration today of bearing false witness against the section of our country, that is, the southern section. When one hears the name of Andersonville, you cannot help but think of Andersonville Prison. And when you think of Andersonville Prison, automatically at the same time, there is conjured up in the minds thoughts of torture, inhumanity, and diabolical maltreatment of prisoners.

Northern Propaganda vs. Confederate Policy

The North's successful propaganda painted Andersonville as a den of torture, but the Confederacy officially mandated equal rations for prisoners and guards, while the North had a documented policy of deliberate maltreatment.

Now that kind of thinking has been brought to you by the successful propaganda, slander, outright lies, and false witnessing by the North and the Northern Empire. Yankee propaganda has successfully made most people think that Andersonville Prison was nothing but a den of torture. Yes, it is true that men died in prison, especially Andersonville Prison. Many men died there of starvation, disease, and lack of medical attention. But may I point out the fact that Confederate men died in northern prisons as well. In fact, there are people who die today in our modern-day prison system. So deaths in prison are not unique. It is one thing for prisoners to die in prison during the war while they're in captivity, and quite another thing for one section of the country to charge another section with deliberate and premeditated murder of those prisoners. Now, the Confederacy did not have a war policy as such that purposely crafted and was designed for the maltreatment of prisoners as did the North. In fact, let me just point out.

The South did indeed endeavor to treat the prisoners with humanity and compassion. In fact, as early as May 21, 1861, the Confederate Congress passed a law. Here's what it said: "That all prisoners of war taken, whether on land or sea, during the pending hostilities with the United States, shall be transferred by the captors from time to time as often as is convenient to the Department of War, that shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, with the approval of the President, to issue such instructions to the Quartermaster General and his subordinates, and shall provide for the safe custody and sustenance of prisoners of war, and the rations furnished prisoners of war shall be the same in quantity and quality as those furnished to enlisted men in the Army of the Confederacy." So here the Confederate government said, look, all of the Union prisoners in our prisons are going to get exactly the same rations in quantity and quality as our enlisted men do.

However, the North had an official policy on the maltreatment of Southern prisoners. You can find this in SR 97. It's in the Congressional Records. It's also in the old law books in the universities and courthouses. But it was passed by the 38th Congress, the second session, and here is the official United States policy on Confederate prisoners of war, and I'm quoting: "Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to treatment finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather." Isn't that amazing? The United States government put that out and said, look, what we're going to do is we're going to starve the southern prisoners. We're going to make sure that they don't have enough clothing to keep warm in these northern camps. We're going to make sure that they're treated worse than savage tribes treat their prisoners.

Now, you cannot deny that there was a premeditated effort on the part of the North to murder southern prisoners. On July the 19th, 1866, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton published a federal report about prisoners during the war. Now, I'm going to tell you, if you read Stanton's report, you're going to find that he certainly waters down how the North treated Southern prisoners. But even from his report, from the first to the last, he says Confederate armies captured and held in prisons more than 270,000 Union men. The Union captured and held in their prisons 220,000 Confederates.

Comparative Death Statistics

Official figures show the South held 50,000 more Union prisoners yet had 4,000 fewer deaths, indicating worse conditions in Northern prisons.

Now listen to that again. The South had 270,000 Yankees and the North had 220,000 Confederates. But of the federal prisoners that were held in Confederate prisons, only 22,576 died in captivity. While on the other hand, 26,576 Confederates died in Yankee captivity. In other words, the South held 50,000 more Union prisoners and had 4,000 fewer inmate deaths. So very obviously, when you just look at the figures, you've got to conclude something is wrong somewhere.

Now, before I give you some eyewitness accounts, first-hand reports concerning Andersonville, let me just give you a quick synopsis of most of the prominent northern prisons. I'm going to mention Andersonville just as a southern prison for one important fact, which you'll see just momentarily. But Camp Douglas in Illinois was used as a prisoner of war camp from 1862 to 1865. It was originally designed as a training station, but it was converted to a prison due to the influx of the prisoners of war. It was designed for a capacity of 6,000, but 12,000 were crammed into it and almost 4,500 Confederates died in that prison. Then there was Elmira Prison in New York. Its capacity was designed for 5,000 and yet at one point they had over 9,400 in it. In just two years, just under 3,000 Confederates died there. Elmira has been called the Andersonville of the North or the Death Camp of the North because so many died there. And of course Andersonville, Georgia, which I'm going to be dealing with today, was a southern prison designed to hold 10,000 prisoners.

Eyewitness Accounts of Equal Treatment

Testimonies from Confederate clerk Lemuel Park and Union prisoner John Frost confirm that prisoners received the same rations as guards, and suffering was due to overall scarcity, not deliberate starvation.

And man, you can say, man, they were starved. Look at them. They're nothing but skin and bones. But it was not just prisoners who died of malnutrition in Andersonville. The Confederate guards also died of malnutrition in Andersonville. The testimony of Dr. Isaiah H. White, who is a surgeon in the Confederate Army, as to the treatment of prisoners, he says this: "In refutation of the charge that prisoners were starved, let it be noted that the Confederate Congress in May 1861 passed a bill providing that the rations furnished to prisoners of war should be the same in quality and quantity as those issued to the enlisted men in the Army of the Confederacy. And the prisoners at Andersonville received the same rations that were furnished to the Confederate Guard."

That this was sometimes scant, every old rebel in the field can testify, but this was due to the poverty that existed in the South. Now, there were men in the North and the South who served and lived at Andersonville and through Andersonville. One of those men was Lemuel Madison Park. Lemuel Park was a Confederate soldier who worked there at Andersonville, and he says this—and by the way, in Ohio, and what he's going to demonstrate and explain, he toured Ohio, and in Ohio they had a historical exhibit of how prisoners were treated at Andersonville, and they had these little tiny portions of like, you know, three or four peas and a tiny little piece of bread and said, this was the daily ration given to the prisoners at Andersonville. And here's what Park says: "I was for three months a clerk in the commissary department at Andersonville, and it was my business to weigh out rations to the guards and prisoners alike. And I solemnly assert, or I solemnly swear, that the prisoners got ounce for ounce and pound for pound of the same quantity and quality of food as did the guards.

The state authorities of Ohio ought to blush at thus traducing and slandering a fallen foe and never in the first instance to have placed on exhibition for preservation of truth this fabrication of partisan hate. No Andersonville prisoner, unless he were lost to all sense of honor and shame, could make such a statement as that the rations were no more than the specimens shown." So he said, look, I know better. I was there in the commissary department. I weighed out those rations to the northern prisoners as well as the southern guards. Now, Mr. John F. Frost was a prisoner at Andersonville. He survived Andersonville. And here is his first-hand testimony. And I really like the way he concludes his testimony. Listen, he says: "I was orderly of Captain Folger's company, 19th Maine, and was made prisoner at Petersburg in June 1864 and was at Andersonville 11 months or until the war ended.

There was suffering among the men who were sick from the lack of medicines and delicacies, but all had their rations as fully and regularly as did the Confederate Guard." Remember now, this is a Yankee prisoner. "There were times of scarcity when supply trains were cut off by Federal forces. And at such times, I've known the guards, the Confederate guards, to offer to buy rations for the prisoners being very short themselves. On these occasions, the guards would take a portion of their scanty supplies from the people of the country to feed the prisoners. The rebels were anxious to effect an exchange and to get the prisoners off their hands, but it was reported and believed among the prisoners that the federal authorities refused. At one time, I was with a detail of 3,000 prisoners who were marched 200 miles to the coast to be exchanged, and it was declined by the federal authorities. And as we reported, we marched back with no enviable feelings.

I believe that the larger share of the responsibility for the sufferings in that prison belonged to our own government. But I believe the Confederate authorities did as well as they could for the prisoners in the matter of clothing, provisions, and medicines." This was a prisoner. Now listen to how he concludes his report: "This, let it be remembered, is not the talk of a designing politician who stayed safely at home, but the testimony of a soldier of good record from an actual experience of 11 months in Andersonville Prison." So here, Mr. Frost is saying, I lived through it. And I can testify that the guards and the prisoners shared equally. And you've got to also consider this, that the guards at Andersonville died equally with the prisoners at Andersonville. Percentage-wise, the death of the guards at Andersonville was not much less than the inmate deaths. In fact, the highest number of guards at Andersonville was usually around 1,000.

Most of these men were from the Georgia Reserves. Most of them were young boys or old men or wounded veterans who were not really fit enough for combat. But out of the thousand, 226 died. Thus you could say approximately 22.5% of the guards in Andersonville died when 24.5% of the prisoners in Andersonville died. In other words, the death rate among the guards was only 2% less than the death rate among the prisoners, because the guards did not have sufficient food themselves.

Violence Among Prisoners and Wirtz's Cooperation

Some Union deaths resulted from internal prisoner violence, and Captain Wirtz cooperated with a prisoner police force to stop the raiders.

Here's a first-hand testimony of Albert Schatzel. He was a private, Company A, 1st Vermont Cavalry. May the 24th, 1864: "Some of the old prisoners made a raid on the new prisoners and stole their blankets and rations. And the new fellows pitched in and there was a big fight. And Minneapolis got his head bashed in with clubs or stones." So here the prisoners that had been there longer were attacking their new fellow Yankee prisoners who just came in to steal their rations. Here's John Urban, who was a private, Company A, 1st Pennsylvania Infantry, June 28, 1864. He says that "what extremes bad men will go to secure their own comfort was fully illustrated in the doings of a band of robbers in Andersonville." Now watch. Here's a band of robbers in Andersonville prisoners. They're Yankees, but the other Yankee prisoners refer to them as Mosby's Marauders. Why? Because these Yankee prisoners were going around stealing and beating up other Yankee prisoners.

Now listen to what he said: "As the rest of the prisoners called them, that is Mosby's Raiders. Their rendezvous was near the southwest end of the prison." So he's saying, look, here's a group of men that just make it their business to go around and to beat up and to steal other Yankee prisoners. Now, on July the 4th, 1864, Johnny Warren gave this testimony. You see, there was a police force organized among the Yankee prisoners to try to stop the thefts and the murders. In fact, Captain Wirtz, later on Major Wirtz, worked with these men to help capture these marauders. Here's what he said: "So far as I know, the idea that brought about the overthrow of the murderous raiders came from Wirtz himself, and it is certain that the efforts of the Law and Order organization and of the police force, of all who deserve great credit in arresting the raiders, would have been fruitless but for the cooperation of Captain Wirtz." In other words, here, Captain Wirtz, who was over Andersonville, cooperating with the Yankee prisoners there to stop other Yankee prisoners from stealing and murdering their fellow inmates.

Now, the North was well aware of the fact that the South did not have enough food, clothing, or medicine. In fact, we couldn't even feed and clothe our own troops. How in the world could we feed and clothe 32,000 men in one place? In fact, there were plenty of people in the North who were calling for retaliatory measures against the South. In other words, they're saying, look, the South is starving our men. Of course, the South was not. The South was starving itself.

Union Refusal to Exchange Prisoners

The Lincoln administration, including Grant and Stanton, deliberately halted prisoner exchanges, considering Union captives expendable and refusing even to accept them without exchange.

The Union had greater manpower, they had greater weaponry, they had greater finance, they had everything. And they decided, look, we don't need to exchange prisoners with the South. I'm going to give you first-hand quotes. Here's Union Brigadier General Seymour regarding the exchange of prisoners for Andersonville. Here's what he said. And not just Andersonville, but all Southern prisons. He said: "The southern authorities are exceedingly desirous of an immediate change of prisoners.

Their urgency is unbounded, but it is the poorest policy for our government to deliver them 40,000 prisoners, better fed and clothed than ever before in their lives, in good condition for the field, while the United States received in return an equal number of men worn out with privations and neglects barely able to walk, enjoying their last breath, and unfit to take the field of soldiers. It is much wiser to leave the prisoners where they are." What did he say? Let them die. They're not going to do us any good. They can't fight. They're too sickly. They're too poor. They're too starved. Let them die.

None other than Union General Ulysses S. Grant himself decided there was to be no exchange of prisoners. He says, and I'm quoting: "The exchange of prisoners would mean a reinforcement of the rebel army. An exchanged rebel soldier behind barricades and fortifications fighting on the defenses was equivalent to three Union soldiers attacking him. If we hold these men caught, they're no more than dead men as the time of enlistment is over. If we liberate them, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. It is hard on our men to be held in Southern prisons, not to exchange them, but it is humanity, those left in the ranks, to fight our battles. At this particular time, to release all rebel prisoners in the North would ensure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here.

Now, I'm sure that that announcement was very comforting to the sick and starving men, not only in Andersonville, but in some of the other southern prisons as well. And here's what Grant said. Grant is saying, we're putting Sherman's activities and we're putting our safety ahead of our captured men who are dying and need to be exchanged. He said, it's not going to benefit us. The South will benefit from the exchange of prisoners, so since we're not going to derive any benefit from it, we're just not going to do it. Now, did those men in Andersonville know that their own government refused to exchange them? And the answer is yes. James Madison Page, who's a second lieutenant in Company A, 6th Michigan Cavalry, a Union officer and a prisoner at Andersonville, wrote a book entitled, "The True Story of Andersonville Prison," and in that he vindicates Captain Wirtz and demonstrates how the federal government refused to accept their own men. In July of 1864, Henry Wirtz had paroled some men to act as emissaries for the prisoners.

Now, since Grant and Seymour did not want to exchange prisoners, what Captain Wirtz did was this. He selected some men from Andersonville Prison and he sent them as emissaries to Washington, D.C. to plead with Abraham Lincoln and that administration to reopen prisoner exchange so that these men that are being starved in Andersonville for lack of food and lack of medicine could go back home. Well, when that delegation failed to achieve their goal, some returned to Andersonville Prison. And Page writes: "When the Andersonville emissaries returned from Washington, there was not one word about the exchange of Negro soldiers being in the way of our release. It was not thought of. I know for the past 42 years that the matter has been publicly broadcast in the North as a reason why we were not exchanged. Grigsby"—and I'm going to talk about him in a moment, he's another prisoner there, and he wrote an account of Andersonville—he said, "Grigsby is writing this. The Washington authorities had concluded to stop the exchange before there were any Negro prisoners." So, some were saying, well, they didn't want to exchange the Negroes.

But no, he said, that's not true. In spite of all the Northern post-moralizing, he says the real reason the Union soldiers were not exchanged is because the Northern government considered them expendable. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said, "We will not exchange able-bodied men for skeletons, and we do not propose to reinforce the rebel army by exchanging prisoners. Let them die." That was the attitude of Edwin Stanton. Page goes on, he says: "When we heard Secretary of War Stanton's reply in regard to exchange, we felt we were forsaken by our own government. The War Office at Washington preferred us to die rather than to exchange us. Many of the prisoners, being but human, raised their clenched fists, trembling hands toward heaven, and with fearful oaths, cursed the authorities at Washington, and also cursed the day that they were born." He says, "Oh, what hatred was engendered for our Secretary of War." So here were these Union prisoners. They sent their own ambassadors. And Lincoln and his administration refused to hear those prisoners.

The Scapegoating and Execution of Major Wirtz

To deflect blame, the North prosecuted and hanged Major Wirtz based on perjured testimony from a man who had never been at Andersonville.

these misguided politicians who had refused to exchange. Then something must be done. Andersonville must be avenged. The storm must be averted. And something was done. Andersonville was avenged. Major Wirtz was hanged." What is Grigsby saying? Wirtz was nothing but a scapegoat. They knew they were wrong. They knew they were wicked. And yet instead of saying, we're the ones responsible for those men dying, they trumped up charges against Major Wirtz and had him hanged. Andersonville prisoner John W.

Urban, sometime after those men returned from Washington, said this: "We sometimes felt embittered against the government for not making a greater effort to release us. And among ourselves, we often were tempted to say bitter things. But in the presence of our enemy, any insinuation of this kind against our own government would excite ire and indignation. It was a sad fact, however, that hundreds died feeling in their hearts that the government they loved so well and fought so hard to save was indifferent to their sad fate." Isn't that amazing? Well, one of the orders that General Ulysses S. Grant wrote, he was encouraging Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, to not allow General Foster to exchange prisoners. This order is dated August 21, 1864, and here is what Ulysses S. Grant states to Edwin Stanton. He says: "Please inform General Foster that under no circumstances will he be authorized to make an exchange of prisoners of war.

Exchanges simply reinforce the enemy at once, while we do not get the benefit for two or three months and lose the majority entirely. I telegraphed this from just hearing that some 500 to 600 prisoners had been sent to General Foster. U.S. Grant, Lieutenant General." So here, General Grant is saying, don't let Foster take those Yankee prisoners. No, no, no. Let them go back. Dr. Isaiah H.

White, who's a surgeon with the Confederate Army, also says this from the private journal of this Confederate officer. This is just mind-boggling. He said: "At one time, an order came to Camp Lawton, which was in Millen, Georgia. At one time, an order came to Camp Lawton to prepare 2,000 men for exchange. The order from Richmond was first to select the wounded, next the oldest prisoners and the most sickly, and then fill up the ranks with healthy men according to date. This party went first to Savannah, from Millen to Savannah, as arranged, but by some mistake the ships were at Charleston. And the poor wretches had to be taken there. And everyone who knew the southern railroads in those days and the difficulty, or rather impossibility, to procure food for such a crowd along the road will well know what those poor fellows suffered. At Charleston, they were refused. The commissioner declaring that he was not going to exchange able-bodied men for such specimens of humanity. The term was more brutal," he says. "Now watch. Finding him obdurate, Colonel Ord requested that he take them without exchange. This he refused with a sneering laugh, and the crowd was ordered back to Camp Lawton.

Never did the writer of this witness such woe-begone countenances, in which misery and hopelessness were more strongly painted than shown by these poor fellows on their return. And the curses leveled against the rulers who thus treated the defenders of their country were fearful, although certainly well-deserved. As the stockade gate closed upon them, the surgeon in charge said, 'Poor fellows, the world has closed upon them, and more than half of them, their disappointment will be their death knell.' His words prove true. Who murdered these men? He says, 'Let history answer the question.'" So here, Dr. White is saying, Colonel Ord begged him, said, look, if you're not going to exchange, just take them. We can't feed them. We can't clothe them. We can't treat them. Just take your own men. And the Union officer sneered and laughed. Do you realize some of the Yankee prisoners there drew up some resolutions concerning Andersonville Prison? And here is one of them, signed by P. Bradley, who is chairman of the Committee on Behalf of Prisoners, and he says this in this resolution: "That while allowing the Confederate government all due praise for the attention paid to prisoners, numbers of our men are consigned to early graves. Resolved that 10,000 of our brave comrades have descended into untimely graves caused by differences in climate and food.

And whereas these difficulties still remain, we would declare our firm belief that unless we are speedily exchanged, we have no other alternative but to share the same lamentable fate of our comrades. Must this thing still go on? Is there no hope? Resolved, we have suffered patiently and are still willing to suffer if by so doing we can benefit the country. But we most respectfully beg leave to say that while we are willing to suffer for our country, we are not willing to suffer for any party or clique to the detriment of our families and our country." Isn't that interesting? They said while praising the Confederate government. In other words, these men realized that the Confederacy was doing everything they could to give them the proper quantity and quality of food. And yet, oh, you always hear about Andersonville. And you never hear of the fact that it was the North who refused to even take their own men when they were offered. Well, Senator Benjamin H. Hill carried on a controversy with Mr. Blaine of Maine. And they were talking about Andersonville and northern prisons in general and southern prisons in general. And Senator Ben Hill from Georgia said this: "Yet after all this has been said on the subject, the stubborn fact remains that over 3% more Confederates perished in northern prisons than of federal prisoners in southern prisons.

The figures to prove this statement have been several times given in this discussion, but they are so significant that we give them again in the form in which they are presented." Now, he says to Mr. Blaine: "Will the gentleman believe testimony from the dead? The Bible says the tree is known by its fruits. And after all, what is the test of suffering of these prisoners north and south? The test is the result. Now, I call the intention of the gentleman in this fact that the report of Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War"—and he's writing a northern man—"you will believe him, will you not? On the 19th of July, 1866, he says to the librarian, get it, exhibits the fact that the federal prisoners in Confederate hands during the war that died were 22,576, while the Confederate prisoners in federal hands died were 26,436. And he said, Surgeon General Barnes reports in an official report, I suppose that you'll believe him, that in round numbers, the Confederate prisoners in federal hands amounted to 220,000, while the federal prisoners in Confederate hands amounted to 270,000.

Out of the 270,000 in Confederate hands, 22,000 died, while out of the 220,000 Confederates in federal hands, over 26,000 died. The ratio is this: more than 12% of the Confederates in Federal prisons died and less than 9% of the Federals in Confederate hands died. What is the logic of these facts according to the gentleman from Maine? I scorn," he says, "to charge murder upon the officials of Northern prisons as the gentleman has done upon the Confederate prison officials." So, Ben Hill says, look, if you want facts, let's deal with facts. More Confederates died in Union hands than Union prisoners did in Confederate hands, and the Confederates still had 50,000 more prisoners. Bearing false witness is wrong. I don't care if you're doing it as an individual, as a family, as a church, as a state, as a nation, it doesn't matter. Bearing false witness is wicked and wrong regardless of whom, what, when, and where the sin is committed.

Now let me just try to tie this together for you and show you what happens when you begin to bear false witness. Of course, Major Wirtz was lied about. He was slandered. He was regarded as a monster. And to avenge Andersonville, they had to try Major Wirtz and find him guilty and have him hanged. The one who gave the most damning testimony at Major Wirtz's trial—and by the way, like James Madison Page and some of these other men, they would not allow them to testify on behalf of Major Wirtz. But the man who gave the most damning testimony against Major Wirtz was a man by the name of Felix Delabombe. Now, Delabombe was the only witness who said that he could identify a victim by name that Major Wirtz just shot and killed. Wow.

So here is an eyewitness. Here's a man that can say, "I saw Major Wirtz shoot this man and murder him, and I can give you his name." Now that's a rather damning testimony, and yet Felix Delabombe, who is testifying against Major Wirtz at his trial—Delabombe, by the way, claimed to be a Frenchman, and he claimed to be a descendant of Lafayette. But after the trial, and after Major Wirtz was hanged, Felix Delabombe was found out to be Felix Osser. Felix Osser was born in Saxony, Prussia, and lied to help conceal the fact that he was a deserter from the 7th New York Volunteers and had deserted during the war. Osser had never set foot in Andersonville Prison. And yet he testified that he could give the name of a man that he knew firsthand that Major Wirtz shot and murdered. Wow. This man's testimony was so believed due to his skills as an orator, he so impressed the commission that was investigating Major Wirtz, that he was given a written commendation signed by all the members of the Commission concerning his testimony.

He was also appointed a position in the Department of Interior before the trial ever ended. And 11 days after Major Wirtz was hanged, it was found that this man had perjured himself. He not only did not know Major Wirtz, he not only did not see Major Wirtz shoot anybody or know anybody that he did shoot, he was never even at Andersonville. "Thou shalt not bear false witness."

Conclusion: The Sin of False Witness

Weaver concludes that the North's rewriting of history is bearing false witness, and God's law demands that false witnesses suffer the fate they intended for the innocent.

Now, let me show you something. I want to close with a passage. But do you realize in this instance, the man who bore false witness lived, I don't know for how long. The man who had the false witness born against him died. But you know what God says? Listen to this. Deuteronomy 19, verse 17: "Then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priest and the judges, which shall be in those days. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And behold, if a witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother, then shall you do unto him as he thought to have done unto his brother.

So shalt thou put evil away from among you." Here was a man who bore false testimony against an innocent, and I might add, a very godly man, and had that man hanged for something that he did not do. And do you realize what has happened to our history is it has been rewritten by the victor. And you are hearing all kinds of propaganda and all kinds of lies and slanders against Major Wirtz, against Andersonville, against the Confederacy, against the South. And it is exactly what I just said, it is false witness. The truth is this: Andersonville did have men that died. Yes, they died of starvation. They died of malnourishment. They died of lack of medical supplies. There were numerous reasons why they died.

But the main failure, the main charge has to be laid at their own government because the federal government refused to take the prisoners even when they were offered without exchange. And they said, "We can get along better without them than we can with them. You keep them, let them die." "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful today for Jesus Christ. We're thankful for truth, Lord. Thy Word is truth. And all history is Your history. And Lord, we just ask You, we beg of You today, to help us not be led astray by false accusations and lies and slander and innuendos. Give us grace, Lord, to check the facts for ourselves that we may know and understand. And give us, Lord, grace to serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Help us, Lord, as we continue this day. May we honor those men who indeed fought for truth and righteousness and stood for Thy Word. Thank you for Your grace and mercy. In Christ's name, Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Bearing False Witness

Summary: The lecture frames the historical narrative of Andersonville as a violation of the Ninth Commandment, with the North bearing false witness against the South.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'Bearing false witness is wrong. I don't care if you're doing it as an individual, as a family, as a church, as a state, as a nation, it doesn't matter.'

Northern Propaganda and Historical Revisionism

Summary: The popular image of Andersonville as a deliberate atrocity is attributed to successful Yankee propaganda and lies.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'That kind of thinking has been brought to you by the successful propaganda, slander, outright lies, and false witnessing by the North and the Northern Empire.'

Confederate Humanity vs. Union Cruelty

Summary: The Confederacy officially mandated humane treatment, while the Union had a documented policy of deliberate starvation and exposure.

Evidence: Weaver quotes the Confederate Congress law of May 1861 and the Union's SR 97 policy of subjecting prisoners to 'slow but designed process of starvation.'

Statistical Evidence of Worse Union Treatment

Summary: Official death rates show a higher percentage of Confederates died in Union prisons than Union prisoners in Confederate prisons.

Evidence: Weaver cites Stanton's report: 22,576 Union deaths out of 270,000 vs. 26,576 Confederate deaths out of 220,000.

Union Refusal of Prisoner Exchange

Summary: The Lincoln administration deliberately stopped exchanges, considering Union prisoners expendable, which caused unnecessary suffering and death.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Grant: 'It is hard on our men to be held in Southern prisons, not to exchange them, but it is humanity, those left in the ranks, to fight our battles.'

Scapegoating of Major Wirtz

Summary: Major Wirtz was unjustly hanged based on perjured testimony to divert blame from Northern authorities.

Evidence: Weaver details how Felix Delabombe (actually Felix Osser) lied about witnessing Wirtz commit murder and was never at Andersonville.

Key Arguments

The South did not have a policy of deliberate maltreatment

Summary: The Confederate Congress mandated equal rations for prisoners and guards, and eyewitnesses confirm this was practiced.

Evidence: Weaver quotes the May 1861 Confederate law and testimonies of Lemuel Park and John Frost.

The North had an official policy of starving Confederate prisoners

Summary: SR 97 and testimonies from Union soldiers confirm deliberate starvation and exposure ordered by Stanton and Lincoln.

Evidence: Weaver reads SR 97 and quotes John Bateson about the order to starve prisoners at Rock Island.

Death rates prove worse conditions in Northern prisons

Summary: More Confederates died in Union hands despite the South holding more prisoners, indicating worse treatment.

Evidence: Weaver presents Stanton's statistics and Senator Ben Hill's ratio analysis.

The Union deliberately refused prisoner exchanges

Summary: Grant, Stanton, and other officials admitted they would not exchange because it would reinforce the enemy, sacrificing their own men.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Grant's letter and General Seymour's statement.

Major Wirtz was a scapegoat executed on false testimony

Summary: The key witness against Wirtz was a perjurer who had never been at Andersonville, and exculpatory witnesses were not allowed.

Evidence: Weaver describes Felix Osser's perjury and the refusal to allow James Madison Page to testify.

Scripture References

Exodus 20:16

Context: Weaver reads the Ninth Commandment as the foundation for the message against bearing false witness.

1 John 3:4

Context: Weaver defines sin as transgression of the law, linking false witness to sin.

Deuteronomy 19:17-19

Context: Weaver closes by citing the law that a false witness should suffer the fate he intended for the innocent.

Historical References

Andersonville Prison

Context: The main subject of the lecture; a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Georgia.

Confederate Congress law of May 21, 1861

Context: Mandated equal rations for prisoners and Confederate soldiers.

SR 97, 38th Congress, 2nd Session

Context: Official U.S. policy for deliberate maltreatment of Confederate prisoners.

Edwin M. Stanton's report of July 19, 1866

Context: Provided official death statistics for prisoners on both sides.

Camp Douglas, Elmira Prison, Point Lookout, Camp Morton

Context: Northern prisons with high death rates, mentioned for comparison.

Major Henry Wirtz

Context: Confederate commandant of Andersonville, hanged after the war on false charges.

Felix Delabombe / Felix Osser

Context: Perjured witness whose false testimony led to Wirtz's conviction.

General Ulysses S. Grant

Context: Union general who ordered the halt of prisoner exchanges.

Senator Benjamin H. Hill

Context: Georgia senator who debated Mr. Blaine on prison death statistics.

Important Quotes

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Significance: The foundational scripture for the entire lecture, framing the historical discussion as a moral issue.

Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to treatment finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather.

Significance: Weaver quotes the official Union policy to prove deliberate cruelty, contrasting with Confederate policy.

I was for three months a clerk in the commissary department at Andersonville, and it was my business to weigh out rations to the guards and prisoners alike. And I solemnly assert, or I solemnly swear, that the prisoners got ounce for ounce and pound for pound of the same quantity and quality of food as did the guards.

Significance: Eyewitness testimony from a Confederate clerk refuting the starvation charge.

I believe that the larger share of the responsibility for the sufferings in that prison belonged to our own government.

Significance: A Union prisoner's firsthand conclusion that the U.S. government was to blame.

It is hard on our men to be held in Southern prisons, not to exchange them, but it is humanity, those left in the ranks, to fight our battles.

Significance: Grant's own words admitting the deliberate sacrifice of Union prisoners for military advantage.

When we heard Secretary of War Stanton's reply in regard to exchange, we felt we were forsaken by our own government.

Significance: Union prisoners' reaction to being abandoned by their own leaders.

Andersonville was avenged. Major Wirtz was hanged.

Significance: Succinctly states the scapegoating of Wirtz to divert blame.

Then shall you do unto him as he thought to have done unto his brother.

Significance: The biblical principle of justice for false witnesses, applied to the historical case.

Discussion Questions

How does the Ninth Commandment apply to the way we remember and teach history?

Context: Weaver argues that bearing false witness can be committed against sections of a country, not just individuals.

What evidence does Weaver present that the Confederacy attempted to treat prisoners humanely?

Context: He cites the 1861 Confederate law and eyewitness accounts of equal rations.

Why does Weaver believe the Union government was primarily responsible for the deaths at Andersonville?

Context: He points to the refusal of prisoner exchanges and the deliberate starvation policy.

How do the official death statistics challenge the common narrative about Andersonville?

Context: Weaver shows that a higher percentage of Confederates died in Union prisons.

What role did perjured testimony play in the conviction of Major Wirtz?

Context: Weaver details the case of Felix Osser, who lied about witnessing a murder.

How should Christians respond when they discover that accepted historical narratives may be based on falsehoods?

Context: Weaver urges checking facts and not being led astray by propaganda.

Applications

Commitment to Truth

Summary: Believers must diligently seek and uphold the truth, rejecting propaganda and slander, even when it is culturally accepted.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Give us grace, Lord, to check the facts for ourselves that we may know and understand.'

Guarding Against False Witness

Summary: We must be careful not to bear false witness against individuals, groups, or regions, recognizing it as a serious sin.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'Bearing false witness is wicked and wrong regardless of whom, what, when, and where the sin is committed.'

Historical Discernment

Summary: Christians should not uncritically accept historical narratives but should examine evidence and recognize that history is often written by the victors.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'All history is Your history. And Lord, we just ask You, we beg of You today, to help us not be led astray by false accusations and lies and slander and innuendos.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:57:09Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T03:50:06Z

Clean Transcript

Truth About Andersonville Prison

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

We're thankful that you're here, so let's have a word of prayer, shall we? Our Father, we're so thankful today for the Lord Jesus Christ, for His grace and mercy and truth to us. Lord, help us to understand the principles of Thy Word and that all history is Thy history. Give us, Lord, grace that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray. Amen.
#1 | 0:01 to 0:25 | cleaned
I want to read from Exodus chapter 20 and verse 16. It happens to be the ninth commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Bearing false witness, of course, is a sin against the law of God. If you really want to know what sin is, the Bible tells you in 1 John 3 and verse 4, the Bible said that sin is a transgression of the law. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the law, for sin is a transgression of the law." So bearing false witness, then, is indeed a transgression of the law.
#2 | 0:27 to 1:04 | cleaned
Now you say, what in the world has this to do with history? Well, the message I want to bring today is the truth concerning Andersonville Prison. I want you to understand that when God says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," it not only applies to people, but also families, churches, sections, and whole countries. I want to give you an illustration today of bearing false witness against the section of our country, that is, the southern section. When one hears the name of Andersonville, you cannot help but think of Andersonville Prison. And when you think of Andersonville Prison, automatically at the same time, there is conjured up in the minds thoughts of torture, inhumanity, and diabolical maltreatment of prisoners.
#3 | 1:05 to 1:53 | cleaned
Now that kind of thinking has been brought to you by the successful propaganda, slander, outright lies, and false witnessing by the North and the Northern Empire. Yankee propaganda has successfully made most people think that Andersonville Prison was nothing but a den of torture. Yes, it is true that men died in prison, especially Andersonville Prison. Many men died there of starvation, disease, and lack of medical attention. But may I point out the fact that Confederate men died in northern prisons as well. In fact, there are people who die today in our modern-day prison system. So deaths in prison are not unique. It is one thing for prisoners to die in prison during the war while they're in captivity, and quite another thing for one section of the country to charge another section with deliberate and premeditated murder of those prisoners. Now, the Confederacy did not have a war policy as such that purposely crafted and was designed for the maltreatment of prisoners as did the North. In fact, let me just point out.
#4 | 1:54 to 3:11 | cleaned
The South did indeed endeavor to treat the prisoners with humanity and compassion. In fact, as early as May 21, 1861, the Confederate Congress passed a law. Here's what it said: "That all prisoners of war taken, whether on land or sea, during the pending hostilities with the United States, shall be transferred by the captors from time to time as often as is convenient to the Department of War, that shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, with the approval of the President, to issue such instructions to the Quartermaster General and his subordinates, and shall provide for the safe custody and sustenance of prisoners of war, and the rations furnished prisoners of war shall be the same in quantity and quality as those furnished to enlisted men in the Army of the Confederacy." So here the Confederate government said, look, all of the Union prisoners in our prisons are going to get exactly the same rations in quantity and quality as our enlisted men do.
#5 | 3:12 to 4:18 | cleaned
However, the North had an official policy on the maltreatment of Southern prisoners. You can find this in SR 97. It's in the Congressional Records. It's also in the old law books in the universities and courthouses. But it was passed by the 38th Congress, the second session, and here is the official United States policy on Confederate prisoners of war, and I'm quoting: "Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to treatment finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather." Isn't that amazing? The United States government put that out and said, look, what we're going to do is we're going to starve the southern prisoners. We're going to make sure that they don't have enough clothing to keep warm in these northern camps. We're going to make sure that they're treated worse than savage tribes treat their prisoners.
#6 | 4:19 to 5:27 | cleaned
Now, you cannot deny that there was a premeditated effort on the part of the North to murder southern prisoners. On July the 19th, 1866, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton published a federal report about prisoners during the war. Now, I'm going to tell you, if you read Stanton's report, you're going to find that he certainly waters down how the North treated Southern prisoners. But even from his report, from the first to the last, he says Confederate armies captured and held in prisons more than 270,000 Union men. The Union captured and held in their prisons 220,000 Confederates.
#7 | 5:28 to 6:17 | cleaned
Now listen to that again. The South had 270,000 Yankees and the North had 220,000 Confederates. But of the federal prisoners that were held in Confederate prisons, only 22,576 died in captivity. While on the other hand, 26,576 Confederates died in Yankee captivity. In other words, the South held 50,000 more Union prisoners and had 4,000 fewer inmate deaths. So very obviously, when you just look at the figures, you've got to conclude something is wrong somewhere.
#8 | 6:17 to 7:07 | cleaned
Now, before I give you some eyewitness accounts, first-hand reports concerning Andersonville, let me just give you a quick synopsis of most of the prominent northern prisons. I'm going to mention Andersonville just as a southern prison for one important fact, which you'll see just momentarily. But Camp Douglas in Illinois was used as a prisoner of war camp from 1862 to 1865. It was originally designed as a training station, but it was converted to a prison due to the influx of the prisoners of war. It was designed for a capacity of 6,000, but 12,000 were crammed into it and almost 4,500 Confederates died in that prison. Then there was Elmira Prison in New York. Its capacity was designed for 5,000 and yet at one point they had over 9,400 in it. In just two years, just under 3,000 Confederates died there. Elmira has been called the Andersonville of the North or the Death Camp of the North because so many died there. And of course Andersonville, Georgia, which I'm going to be dealing with today, was a southern prison designed to hold 10,000 prisoners.
#9 | 7:07 to 8:30 | cleaned
But at its highest peak, there were 32,000 prisoners at Andersonville. 12,919 people died there due to the Confederacy's lack of resources. Point Lookout in Maryland, during the three years it was used there, 3,500 men died there, and at its height was crowded and doubled its capacity, 22,000 were there. And then of course there was Camp Morton in Indiana, it was set up for 2,000 but it reached a height of 5,000. 1,700 Confederates died there. So when you start looking at all of these prisons around, you're going to find that every camp had prisoners who died.
#10 | 8:31 to 9:22 | cleaned
Reverend William Brown of the Central Presbyterian wrote this in talking about the Confederate prison camps. He said this: "So far as the intentions and orders of the Confederate government were concerned, no blame can rest upon it. The places selected were healthy." In fact, that's one reason Andersonville was selected. It was out of the way, it was healthy, it had a lot of springs there. He says, "The places selected were healthy and the food and medicines ordered were the same as those assigned to our own soldiers and hospitals. The fate of prisoners, especially if the number be large, is generally and unavoidably a hard one. The volume of testimony gathered from a large number of returned prisoners, men of undoubted veracity, we were invited by the kindness of Judge Watson to inspect.
#11 | 9:22 to 10:14 | cleaned
It was in the hands of the printer in Richmond when the memorial fire occurred at the time of its evacuation in April of 1865, and unfortunately consumed in the great fire. But Camp Douglas, Rock Island, Johnson's Island, Elmira, Fort Delaware, and other federal prisons, could they find a tongue, would tell a tale of horror that should forever silence all the clamor about Libby Prison, Belle Island, and Andersonville." So here's a man saying, look, it was far, far worse in those Yankee prisons than it ever was at Andersonville. So if the truth was actually known, if the truth was actually exposed, it was a whole lot worse for the Confederate prisoners held in Yankee prisons than it was for Yankees held in Southern prisons. And I can assure you, as bad as Andersonville was, and it was bad, but as bad as it was, Andersonville would probably look like a Sunday school picnic when compared to some of the atrocities and horrors of Northern prisons. And why am I saying that? Because the horrors at Andersonville were mainly produced by the Lincoln administration.
#12 | 10:15 to 11:33 | cleaned
You say, how in the world can you say that? Well, you will find out in just a moment. You could accurately say that all prisons in the North and the prisons in the South were basically hell holes. But there is a difference between having the food and materials and medicine to prevent a hell hole and someone then deliberately withholding food and clothing and medicine in order to create a hellhole. In fact, when you talk about Andersonville, you're going to find that the guards suffered just as greatly as the prisoners did during that time. In fact, I'm going to take some eyewitness accounts. I'm going to take some accounts of individuals who lived through Andersonville and tell you what they had to say. One of the most common charges against the South, especially in Andersonville, was that the prisoners in Andersonville were starved. In other words, they did not have food given them. The food was withheld. In fact, all you have to do is go online or buy books and look at the pictures of some of those prisoners at Andersonville.
#13 | 11:35 to 12:46 | cleaned
And man, you can say, man, they were starved. Look at them. They're nothing but skin and bones. But it was not just prisoners who died of malnutrition in Andersonville. The Confederate guards also died of malnutrition in Andersonville. The testimony of Dr. Isaiah H. White, who is a surgeon in the Confederate Army, as to the treatment of prisoners, he says this: "In refutation of the charge that prisoners were starved, let it be noted that the Confederate Congress in May 1861 passed a bill providing that the rations furnished to prisoners of war should be the same in quality and quantity as those issued to the enlisted men in the Army of the Confederacy. And the prisoners at Andersonville received the same rations that were furnished to the Confederate Guard."
#14 | 12:46 to 13:38 | cleaned
That this was sometimes scant, every old rebel in the field can testify, but this was due to the poverty that existed in the South. Now, there were men in the North and the South who served and lived at Andersonville and through Andersonville. One of those men was Lemuel Madison Park. Lemuel Park was a Confederate soldier who worked there at Andersonville, and he says this—and by the way, in Ohio, and what he's going to demonstrate and explain, he toured Ohio, and in Ohio they had a historical exhibit of how prisoners were treated at Andersonville, and they had these little tiny portions of like, you know, three or four peas and a tiny little piece of bread and said, this was the daily ration given to the prisoners at Andersonville. And here's what Park says: "I was for three months a clerk in the commissary department at Andersonville, and it was my business to weigh out rations to the guards and prisoners alike. And I solemnly assert, or I solemnly swear, that the prisoners got ounce for ounce and pound for pound of the same quantity and quality of food as did the guards.
#15 | 13:39 to 14:59 | cleaned
The state authorities of Ohio ought to blush at thus traducing and slandering a fallen foe and never in the first instance to have placed on exhibition for preservation of truth this fabrication of partisan hate. No Andersonville prisoner, unless he were lost to all sense of honor and shame, could make such a statement as that the rations were no more than the specimens shown." So he said, look, I know better.
#16 | 15:00 to 15:26 | cleaned
I was there in the commissary department. I weighed out those rations to the northern prisoners as well as the southern guards. Now, Mr. John F. Frost was a prisoner at Andersonville. He survived Andersonville. And here is his first-hand testimony. And I really like the way he concludes his testimony. Listen, he says: "I was orderly of Captain Folger's company, 19th Maine, and was made prisoner at Petersburg in June 1864 and was at Andersonville 11 months or until the war ended.
#17 | 15:26 to 16:01 | cleaned
There was suffering among the men who were sick from the lack of medicines and delicacies, but all had their rations as fully and regularly as did the Confederate Guard." Remember now, this is a Yankee prisoner. "There were times of scarcity when supply trains were cut off by Federal forces. And at such times, I've known the guards, the Confederate guards, to offer to buy rations for the prisoners being very short themselves. On these occasions, the guards would take a portion of their scanty supplies from the people of the country to feed the prisoners. The rebels were anxious to effect an exchange and to get the prisoners off their hands, but it was reported and believed among the prisoners that the federal authorities refused. At one time, I was with a detail of 3,000 prisoners who were marched 200 miles to the coast to be exchanged, and it was declined by the federal authorities. And as we reported, we marched back with no enviable feelings.
#18 | 16:02 to 17:06 | cleaned
I believe that the larger share of the responsibility for the sufferings in that prison belonged to our own government. But I believe the Confederate authorities did as well as they could for the prisoners in the matter of clothing, provisions, and medicines." This was a prisoner.
#19 | 17:07 to 17:23 | cleaned
Now listen to how he concludes his report: "This, let it be remembered, is not the talk of a designing politician who stayed safely at home, but the testimony of a soldier of good record from an actual experience of 11 months in Andersonville Prison." So here, Mr. Frost is saying, I lived through it. And I can testify that the guards and the prisoners shared equally. And you've got to also consider this, that the guards at Andersonville died equally with the prisoners at Andersonville. Percentage-wise, the death of the guards at Andersonville was not much less than the inmate deaths. In fact, the highest number of guards at Andersonville was usually around 1,000.
#20 | 17:23 to 18:12 | cleaned
Most of these men were from the Georgia Reserves. Most of them were young boys or old men or wounded veterans who were not really fit enough for combat. But out of the thousand, 226 died. Thus you could say approximately 22.5% of the guards in Andersonville died when 24.5% of the prisoners in Andersonville died. In other words, the death rate among the guards was only 2% less than the death rate among the prisoners, because the guards did not have sufficient food themselves.
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Now, 2% of course is not a very large variation, I can assure you. When you stop and think about Andersonville, you've also got to remember that some of the Union prisoners died because of the aggression and violence of other Yankee prisoners. I don't know if you realize this or not, but in those prisons, and especially in Andersonville, they had cliques and clubs that would come along and steal from the new prisoners. Beat them. Some were murdered.
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Here's a first-hand testimony of Albert Schatzel. He was a private, Company A, 1st Vermont Cavalry. May the 24th, 1864: "Some of the old prisoners made a raid on the new prisoners and stole their blankets and rations. And the new fellows pitched in and there was a big fight. And Minneapolis got his head bashed in with clubs or stones." So here the prisoners that had been there longer were attacking their new fellow Yankee prisoners who just came in to steal their rations. Here's John Urban, who was a private, Company A, 1st Pennsylvania Infantry, June 28, 1864.
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He says that "what extremes bad men will go to secure their own comfort was fully illustrated in the doings of a band of robbers in Andersonville." Now watch. Here's a band of robbers in Andersonville prisoners. They're Yankees, but the other Yankee prisoners refer to them as Mosby's Marauders. Why? Because these Yankee prisoners were going around stealing and beating up other Yankee prisoners.
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Now listen to what he said: "As the rest of the prisoners called them, that is Mosby's Raiders. Their rendezvous was near the southwest end of the prison." So he's saying, look, here's a group of men that just make it their business to go around and to beat up and to steal other Yankee prisoners.
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Now, on July the 4th, 1864, Johnny Warren gave this testimony. You see, there was a police force organized among the Yankee prisoners to try to stop the thefts and the murders. In fact, Captain Wirtz, later on Major Wirtz, worked with these men to help capture these marauders. Here's what he said: "So far as I know, the idea that brought about the overthrow of the murderous raiders came from Wirtz himself, and it is certain that the efforts of the Law and Order organization and of the police force, of all who deserve great credit in arresting the raiders, would have been fruitless but for the cooperation of Captain Wirtz." In other words, here, Captain Wirtz, who was over Andersonville, cooperating with the Yankee prisoners there to stop other Yankee prisoners from stealing and murdering their fellow inmates.
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Now, the North was well aware of the fact that the South did not have enough food, clothing, or medicine. In fact, we couldn't even feed and clothe our own troops. How in the world could we feed and clothe 32,000 men in one place? In fact, there were plenty of people in the North who were calling for retaliatory measures against the South. In other words, they're saying, look, the South is starving our men. Of course, the South was not. The South was starving itself.
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And it was Union General Dan Sickles who on August 10, 1864 made this statement. Now remember, this is a Union General. He says: "Apart from the objections which exist to the policy of retaliation, it is at least doubtful whether it would inure to the benefit of our men, for the reason that the enemy are reported to be without means to supply clothing, medicines, and other supplies even to their own troops." So here's a Union general saying, why in the world do we want to retaliate? There's no reason to retaliate. They can't even feed and clothe their own troops.
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What do you expect them to do to the prisoners? Now, Edward Wellington Boate was a Yankee soldier. He was also with the 42nd New York Infantry. He was a prisoner at Andersonville in 1864, and he wrote his experiences in the New York Times soon after the war was over. And here is what Edward Boate said: "You rulers"—and remember he's talking to the North—"you rulers who make the charge that the rebels intentionally killed off our men, when I can honestly swear that they were doing everything in their power to sustain us, do not lay this flattering unction to your souls. You abandon your brave men in the hour of their coolest need.
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They fought for the Union. And you reached no hand out to save the old faithful, loyal, and devoted servants of our country. You may try to shift the blame from your own shoulders, but posterity will saddle the responsibility where it justly belongs." So here then is another Andersonville prisoner saying, look, the problem that we were having in Andersonville was from the Lincoln administration. It was from the rulers up there. In Rock Island, prisoner of war camp, a northern camp who held Confederate soldiers, John A.
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Bateson was a soldier there. His testimony is vouchsafed by a district judge. And here is what he said concerning how Rock Island treated Confederate prisoners. And I'm quoting. He says: "During a period of 10 months, I was a member of the garrison of the Rock Island Military Prison. There were confined there about 10,000 men. These men were retained in a famishing, that is a starving, condition by order of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. That order was approved by Abraham Lincoln. It was read before the ensigned garrison of the prison sometime January 1864. It was read at assembly for duty on the second in front of the prison.
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It went into effect the following day. It continued in force until the expiration of my term of service which was the close of the war.
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Now listen to what he says: "At the end of the war, Colonel Hoffman proudly turned over to the federal government $1.8 million, representing what he had saved from his budget and accumulated in the prison funds by reducing the rations of the prisoners. In other prisons, this accumulation of money often led to graft and corruption among prison officials. As Union authorities received reports of hunger and suffering among their men in Confederate hands, they instituted a policy of retaliation. From 1864 to 1865, Colonel Hoffman, backed by General Meigs, the quartermaster, and Edwin M. Stanton, intended to treat Confederate prisoners of war as they believed the Confederate government was treating Union captives. Hoffman ordered a further reduction of rations, reduced or restricted settlers' access to the prisoners, and eliminated the receipt of food packages from home.
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The result was an increase in disease from malnutrition as well as starvation." So here's a soldier in Rock Island saying, I can testify to the fact Edwin M. Stanton, General Meigs, Abraham Lincoln, purposely, deliberately starved the prisoners of the South. And when he can turn back over $1.8 million from money that was given to buy food for Southern prisoners. Would you like to have a guess at what $1.8 million would be today in today's money? Back then $1.8 million would probably have been in gold. So here he is purposely and deliberately starving Southern prisoners. You see the South had run out of food.
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The Union Army had burned homes, torched crops, shot the livestock. No medicine could be obtained practically at any price. You remember Sheridan said that he was going to torch and burn the Shenandoah Valley so that if a crow flew over it, he'd have to carry his own food because there'd be nothing there for the crow to find. Although the South was basically broke and had no food and no medical supplies, the North had plenty of food, plenty of supplies, and plenty of money.
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Yet they were starving Confederate prisoners. Dr. Stevenson, who was a Confederate surgeon and doctor, wrote this. He said: "The greatest difficulty was experienced in procuring medicines and anti-scorbutics," which was a treatment for scurvy. "These were made contraband of war by the federal government." And then he goes on to say that "the most rigid discipline failed to make the prisoners pay that attention to cleanliness which was absolutely necessary." So what did the federal government do? They made any medicine, anything needed to treat their own men as a contraband of war.
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Now when you look at the pictures of those emaciated men at Andersonville Prison, and when you think that Andersonville was designed to hold 10,000 men, and yet at its height it held approximately 32,000 men, you have to stop and ask yourself this question: Was the South fighting that well? Were we really capturing that many prisoners at that time? I mean, if we weren't, how in the world did that prison camp go to 32,000 men? Well, there's an answer to that. The reason the South held so many prisoners was because the North refused to exchange prisoners. The Lincoln government refused to accept and care for their own men. By June of 1864, they had finished, or had just ended, exchanging prisoners.
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The Union had greater manpower, they had greater weaponry, they had greater finance, they had everything. And they decided, look, we don't need to exchange prisoners with the South. I'm going to give you first-hand quotes. Here's Union Brigadier General Seymour regarding the exchange of prisoners for Andersonville. Here's what he said. And not just Andersonville, but all Southern prisons. He said: "The southern authorities are exceedingly desirous of an immediate change of prisoners.
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Their urgency is unbounded, but it is the poorest policy for our government to deliver them 40,000 prisoners, better fed and clothed than ever before in their lives, in good condition for the field, while the United States received in return an equal number of men worn out with privations and neglects barely able to walk, enjoying their last breath, and unfit to take the field of soldiers. It is much wiser to leave the prisoners where they are." What did he say? Let them die. They're not going to do us any good. They can't fight. They're too sickly. They're too poor. They're too starved. Let them die.
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None other than Union General Ulysses S. Grant himself decided there was to be no exchange of prisoners. He says, and I'm quoting: "The exchange of prisoners would mean a reinforcement of the rebel army. An exchanged rebel soldier behind barricades and fortifications fighting on the defenses was equivalent to three Union soldiers attacking him. If we hold these men caught, they're no more than dead men as the time of enlistment is over.
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If we liberate them, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. It is hard on our men to be held in Southern prisons, not to exchange them, but it is humanity, those left in the ranks, to fight our battles. At this particular time, to release all rebel prisoners in the North would ensure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here.
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Now, I'm sure that that announcement was very comforting to the sick and starving men, not only in Andersonville, but in some of the other southern prisons as well. And here's what Grant said. Grant is saying, we're putting Sherman's activities and we're putting our safety ahead of our captured men who are dying and need to be exchanged. He said, it's not going to benefit us. The South will benefit from the exchange of prisoners, so since we're not going to derive any benefit from it, we're just not going to do it. Now, did those men in Andersonville know that their own government refused to exchange them?
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And the answer is yes. James Madison Page, who's a second lieutenant in Company A, 6th Michigan Cavalry, a Union officer and a prisoner at Andersonville, wrote a book entitled, "The True Story of Andersonville Prison," and in that he vindicates Captain Wirtz and demonstrates how the federal government refused to accept their own men. In July of 1864, Henry Wirtz had paroled some men to act as emissaries for the prisoners.
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Now, since Grant and Seymour did not want to exchange prisoners, what Captain Wirtz did was this. He selected some men from Andersonville Prison and he sent them as emissaries to Washington, D.C. to plead with Abraham Lincoln and that administration to reopen prisoner exchange so that these men that are being starved in Andersonville for lack of food and lack of medicine could go back home. Well, when that delegation failed to achieve their goal, some returned to Andersonville Prison. And Page writes: "When the Andersonville emissaries returned from Washington, there was not one word about the exchange of Negro soldiers being in the way of our release.
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It was not thought of. I know for the past 42 years that the matter has been publicly broadcast in the North as a reason why we were not exchanged. Grigsby"—and I'm going to talk about him in a moment, he's another prisoner there, and he wrote an account of Andersonville—he said, "Grigsby is writing this. The Washington authorities had concluded to stop the exchange before there were any Negro prisoners." So, some were saying, well, they didn't want to exchange the Negroes.
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But no, he said, that's not true. In spite of all the Northern post-moralizing, he says the real reason the Union soldiers were not exchanged is because the Northern government considered them expendable. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said, "We will not exchange able-bodied men for skeletons, and we do not propose to reinforce the rebel army by exchanging prisoners. Let them die." That was the attitude of Edwin Stanton. Page goes on, he says: "When we heard Secretary of War Stanton's reply in regard to exchange, we felt we were forsaken by our own government. The War Office at Washington preferred us to die rather than to exchange us. Many of the prisoners, being but human, raised their clenched fists, trembling hands toward heaven, and with fearful oaths, cursed the authorities at Washington, and also cursed the day that they were born." He says, "Oh, what hatred was engendered for our Secretary of War." So here were these Union prisoners. They sent their own ambassadors. And Lincoln and his administration refused to hear those prisoners.
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They carried a petition signed by practically every prisoner in Andersonville. And when they had to come back and say that they would not exchange those prisoners, they would not do one thing for the release of those Union prisoners, those Union men clenched their fists and cursed their own authorities. Melvin Grigsby, of whom Madison Page quotes, he also was a prisoner in Andersonville, and he states this: "I do not know who's responsible for that fearful blunder, but a blunder it was"—he's talking about the refusal to exchange prisoners. "The prison authorities at Andersonville permitted the prisoners to send to Washington three of their own, chosen for that purpose, who took with them a petition to the President asking them that an immediate exchange be agreed on on the terms proposed by the rebels, and setting out fully and plainly the suffering that was
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being endured and the loss of daily life occurring. The petition was signed by thousands of prisoners and is probably now on file among the records of the War Department. There are many thousands of gravestones at Andersonville which would not be there, and many thousands would have been orphans caused by the mistaken zeal and cold-blooded principle of those in authority at that time." He goes further: "When it was all over, and thousands of the poor, emaciated creatures that survived were sent home and scattered throughout the land, and the truth became known, and Harper's Weekly and other illustrated papers sent out pictures of the starved heroes, then a storm of indignation arose which threatened to burst over the heads of
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these misguided politicians who had refused to exchange. Then something must be done. Andersonville must be avenged. The storm must be averted. And something was done. Andersonville was avenged. Major Wirtz was hanged." What is Grigsby saying? Wirtz was nothing but a scapegoat. They knew they were wrong. They knew they were wicked. And yet instead of saying, we're the ones responsible for those men dying, they trumped up charges against Major Wirtz and had him hanged. Andersonville prisoner John W.
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Urban, sometime after those men returned from Washington, said this: "We sometimes felt embittered against the government for not making a greater effort to release us. And among ourselves, we often were tempted to say bitter things. But in the presence of our enemy, any insinuation of this kind against our own government would excite ire and indignation. It was a sad fact, however, that hundreds died feeling in their hearts that the government they loved so well and fought so hard to save was indifferent to their sad fate." Isn't that amazing? Well, one of the orders that General Ulysses S. Grant wrote, he was encouraging Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, to not allow General Foster to exchange prisoners. This order is dated August 21, 1864, and here is what Ulysses S. Grant states to Edwin Stanton. He says: "Please inform General Foster that under no circumstances will he be authorized to make an exchange of prisoners of war.
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Exchanges simply reinforce the enemy at once, while we do not get the benefit for two or three months and lose the majority entirely. I telegraphed this from just hearing that some 500 to 600 prisoners had been sent to General Foster. U.S. Grant, Lieutenant General." So here, General Grant is saying, don't let Foster take those Yankee prisoners. No, no, no. Let them go back. Dr. Isaiah H.
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White, who's a surgeon with the Confederate Army, also says this from the private journal of this Confederate officer. This is just mind-boggling. He said: "At one time, an order came to Camp Lawton, which was in Millen, Georgia. At one time, an order came to Camp Lawton to prepare 2,000 men for exchange. The order from Richmond was first to select the wounded, next the oldest prisoners and the most sickly, and then fill up the ranks with healthy men according to date. This party went first to Savannah, from Millen to Savannah, as arranged, but by some mistake the ships were at Charleston.
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And the poor wretches had to be taken there. And everyone who knew the southern railroads in those days and the difficulty, or rather impossibility, to procure food for such a crowd along the road will well know what those poor fellows suffered. At Charleston, they were refused. The commissioner declaring that he was not going to exchange able-bodied men for such specimens of humanity. The term was more brutal," he says. "Now watch. Finding him obdurate, Colonel Ord requested that he take them without exchange. This he refused with a sneering laugh, and the crowd was ordered back to Camp Lawton.
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Never did the writer of this witness such woe-begone countenances, in which misery and hopelessness were more strongly painted than shown by these poor fellows on their return. And the curses leveled against the rulers who thus treated the defenders of their country were fearful, although certainly well-deserved. As the stockade gate closed upon them, the surgeon in charge said, 'Poor fellows, the world has closed upon them, and more than half of them, their disappointment will be their death knell.' His words prove true. Who murdered these men?
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He says, 'Let history answer the question.'" So here, Dr. White is saying, Colonel Ord begged him, said, look, if you're not going to exchange, just take them. We can't feed them. We can't clothe them. We can't treat them. Just take your own men. And the Union officer sneered and laughed. Do you realize some of the Yankee prisoners there drew up some resolutions concerning Andersonville Prison? And here is one of them, signed by P. Bradley, who is chairman of the Committee on Behalf of Prisoners, and he says this in this resolution: "That while allowing the Confederate government all due praise for the attention paid to prisoners, numbers of our men are consigned to early graves. Resolved that 10,000 of our brave comrades have descended into untimely graves caused by differences in climate and food.
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And whereas these difficulties still remain, we would declare our firm belief that unless we are speedily exchanged, we have no other alternative but to share the same lamentable fate of our comrades. Must this thing still go on? Is there no hope? Resolved, we have suffered patiently and are still willing to suffer if by so doing we can benefit the country. But we most respectfully beg leave to say that while we are willing to suffer for our country, we are not willing to suffer for any party or clique to the detriment of our families and our country." Isn't that interesting?
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They said while praising the Confederate government. In other words, these men realized that the Confederacy was doing everything they could to give them the proper quantity and quality of food. And yet, oh, you always hear about Andersonville. And you never hear of the fact that it was the North who refused to even take their own men when they were offered. Well, Senator Benjamin H. Hill carried on a controversy with Mr. Blaine of Maine. And they were talking about Andersonville and northern prisons in general and southern prisons in general. And Senator Ben Hill from Georgia said this: "Yet after all this has been said on the subject, the stubborn fact remains that over 3% more Confederates perished in northern prisons than of federal prisoners in southern prisons.
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The figures to prove this statement have been several times given in this discussion, but they are so significant that we give them again in the form in which they are presented." Now, he says to Mr. Blaine: "Will the gentleman believe testimony from the dead? The Bible says the tree is known by its fruits. And after all, what is the test of suffering of these prisoners north and south? The test is the result. Now, I call the intention of the gentleman in this fact that the report of Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War"—and he's writing a northern man—"you will believe him, will you not? On the 19th of July, 1866, he says to the librarian, get it, exhibits the fact that the federal prisoners in Confederate hands during the war that died were 22,576, while the Confederate prisoners in federal hands died were 26,436. And he said, Surgeon General Barnes reports in an official report, I suppose that you'll believe him, that in round numbers, the Confederate prisoners in federal hands amounted to 220,000, while the federal prisoners in Confederate hands amounted to 270,000.
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Out of the 270,000 in Confederate hands, 22,000 died, while out of the 220,000 Confederates in federal hands, over 26,000 died. The ratio is this: more than 12% of the Confederates in Federal prisons died and less than 9% of the Federals in Confederate hands died. What is the logic of these facts according to the gentleman from Maine? I scorn," he says, "to charge murder upon the officials of Northern prisons as the gentleman has done upon the Confederate prison officials." So, Ben Hill says, look, if you want facts, let's deal with facts. More Confederates died in Union hands than Union prisoners did in Confederate hands, and the Confederates still had 50,000 more prisoners.
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Bearing false witness is wrong. I don't care if you're doing it as an individual, as a family, as a church, as a state, as a nation, it doesn't matter. Bearing false witness is wicked and wrong regardless of whom, what, when, and where the sin is committed.
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Now let me just try to tie this together for you and show you what happens when you begin to bear false witness. Of course, Major Wirtz was lied about. He was slandered. He was regarded as a monster. And to avenge Andersonville, they had to try Major Wirtz and find him guilty and have him hanged. The one who gave the most damning testimony at Major Wirtz's trial—and by the way, like James Madison Page and some of these other men, they would not allow them to testify on behalf of Major Wirtz. But the man who gave the most damning testimony against Major Wirtz was a man by the name of Felix Delabombe. Now, Delabombe was the only witness who said that he could identify a victim by name that Major Wirtz just shot and killed. Wow.
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So here is an eyewitness. Here's a man that can say, "I saw Major Wirtz shoot this man and murder him, and I can give you his name." Now that's a rather damning testimony, and yet Felix Delabombe, who is testifying against Major Wirtz at his trial—Delabombe, by the way, claimed to be a Frenchman, and he claimed to be a descendant of Lafayette. But after the trial, and after Major Wirtz was hanged, Felix Delabombe was found out to be Felix Osser. Felix Osser was born in Saxony, Prussia, and lied to help conceal the fact that he was a deserter from the 7th New York Volunteers and had deserted during the war. Osser had never set foot in Andersonville Prison. And yet he testified that he could give the name of a man that he knew firsthand that Major Wirtz shot and murdered. Wow. This man's testimony was so believed due to his skills as an orator, he so impressed the commission that was investigating Major Wirtz, that he was given a written commendation signed by all the members of the Commission concerning his testimony.
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He was also appointed a position in the Department of Interior before the trial ever ended. And 11 days after Major Wirtz was hanged, it was found that this man had perjured himself. He not only did not know Major Wirtz, he not only did not see Major Wirtz shoot anybody or know anybody that he did shoot, he was never even at Andersonville. "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
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Now, let me show you something. I want to close with a passage. But do you realize in this instance, the man who bore false witness lived, I don't know for how long. The man who had the false witness born against him died. But you know what God says? Listen to this. Deuteronomy 19, verse 17: "Then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priest and the judges, which shall be in those days. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And behold, if a witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother, then shall you do unto him as he thought to have done unto his brother.
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So shalt thou put evil away from among you." Here was a man who bore false testimony against an innocent, and I might add, a very godly man, and had that man hanged for something that he did not do. And do you realize what has happened to our history is it has been rewritten by the victor. And you are hearing all kinds of propaganda and all kinds of lies and slanders against Major Wirtz, against Andersonville, against the Confederacy, against the South. And it is exactly what I just said, it is false witness. The truth is this: Andersonville did have men that died. Yes, they died of starvation. They died of malnourishment. They died of lack of medical supplies. There were numerous reasons why they died.
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But the main failure, the main charge has to be laid at their own government because the federal government refused to take the prisoners even when they were offered without exchange. And they said, "We can get along better without them than we can with them. You keep them, let them die." "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful today for Jesus Christ. We're thankful for truth, Lord. Thy Word is truth.
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And all history is Your history. And Lord, we just ask You, we beg of You today, to help us not be led astray by false accusations and lies and slander and innuendos. Give us grace, Lord, to check the facts for ourselves that we may know and understand. And give us, Lord, grace to serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Help us, Lord, as we continue this day. May we honor those men who indeed fought for truth and righteousness and stood for Thy Word. Thank you for Your grace and mercy. In Christ's name, Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:57:09Z

Truth About Andersonville Prison

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver argues that the popular image of Andersonville Prison as a deliberate Confederate atrocity is a result of Northern propaganda and false witness. Using historical records, eyewitness accounts, and official statistics, he contends that the Confederacy treated Union prisoners as well as its own soldiers, while the Union government intentionally starved and mistreated Confederate prisoners and refused prisoner exchanges, leading to unnecessary deaths. The lecture concludes that bearing false witness against the South is a violation of the Ninth Commandment.

Introduction and the Ninth Commandment

Weaver opens with prayer and reads Exodus 20:16, establishing that bearing false witness is a sin against God's law, applicable to individuals, families, and nations.

Scripture Reading — Exodus 20:16

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Northern Propaganda vs. Confederate Policy

Comparative Death Statistics

Official figures show the South held 50,000 more Union prisoners yet had 4,000 fewer deaths, indicating worse conditions in Northern prisons.

Eyewitness Accounts of Equal Treatment

Violence Among Prisoners and Wirtz's Cooperation

Some Union deaths resulted from internal prisoner violence, and Captain Wirtz cooperated with a prisoner police force to stop the raiders.

Union Refusal to Exchange Prisoners

The Lincoln administration, including Grant and Stanton, deliberately halted prisoner exchanges, considering Union captives expendable and refusing even to accept them without exchange.

The Scapegoating and Execution of Major Wirtz

To deflect blame, the North prosecuted and hanged Major Wirtz based on perjured testimony from a man who had never been at Andersonville.

Conclusion: The Sin of False Witness

Weaver concludes that the North's rewriting of history is bearing false witness, and God's law demands that false witnesses suffer the fate they intended for the innocent.

Truth About Andersonville Prison

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	9708183577
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Exodus: Law, Covenant, and Public Order
Genre	Sermon
Date	2008-04-27
Dictation Name
Book	Book 080: Exodus Themes in Biblical Law and History — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	67

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and the Ninth Commandment: Weaver opens with prayer and reads Exodus 20:16, establishing that bearing false witness is a sin against God's law, applicable to individuals, families, and nations.
Northern Propaganda vs. Confederate Policy: The North's successful propaganda painted Andersonville as a den of torture, but the Confederacy officially mandated equal rations for prisoners and guards, while the North had a documented policy of deliberate maltreatment.
Comparative Death Statistics: Official figures show the South held 50,000 more Union prisoners yet had 4,000 fewer deaths, indicating worse conditions in Northern prisons.
Eyewitness Accounts of Equal Treatment: Testimonies from Confederate clerk Lemuel Park and Union prisoner John Frost confirm that prisoners received the same rations as guards, and suffering was due to overall scarcity, not deliberate starvation.
Violence Among Prisoners and Wirtz's Cooperation: Some Union deaths resulted from internal prisoner violence, and Captain Wirtz cooperated with a prisoner police force to stop the raiders.
Union Refusal to Exchange Prisoners: The Lincoln administration, including Grant and Stanton, deliberately halted prisoner exchanges, considering Union captives expendable and refusing even to accept them without exchange.
The Scapegoating and Execution of Major Wirtz: To deflect blame, the North prosecuted and hanged Major Wirtz based on perjured testimony from a man who had never been at Andersonville.
Conclusion: The Sin of False Witness: Weaver concludes that the North's rewriting of history is bearing false witness, and God's law demands that false witnesses suffer the fate they intended for the innocent.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

The South did not have a policy of deliberate maltreatment

The Confederate Congress mandated equal rations for prisoners and guards, and eyewitnesses confirm this was practiced.

Weaver quotes the May 1861 Confederate law and testimonies of Lemuel Park and John Frost.

The North had an official policy of starving Confederate prisoners

SR 97 and testimonies from Union soldiers confirm deliberate starvation and exposure ordered by Stanton and Lincoln.

Weaver reads SR 97 and quotes John Bateson about the order to starve prisoners at Rock Island.

Death rates prove worse conditions in Northern prisons

More Confederates died in Union hands despite the South holding more prisoners, indicating worse treatment.

Weaver presents Stanton's statistics and Senator Ben Hill's ratio analysis.

The Union deliberately refused prisoner exchanges

Grant, Stanton, and other officials admitted they would not exchange because it would reinforce the enemy, sacrificing their own men.

Weaver quotes Grant's letter and General Seymour's statement.

Major Wirtz was a scapegoat executed on false testimony

The key witness against Wirtz was a perjurer who had never been at Andersonville, and exculpatory witnesses were not allowed.

Weaver describes Felix Osser's perjury and the refusal to allow James Madison Page to testify.

Scripture References

Exodus 20:16: Weaver reads the Ninth Commandment as the foundation for the message against bearing false witness.
1 John 3:4: Weaver defines sin as transgression of the law, linking false witness to sin.
Deuteronomy 19:17-19: Weaver closes by citing the law that a false witness should suffer the fate he intended for the innocent.

Historical References

Andersonville Prison: The main subject of the lecture; a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Georgia.
Confederate Congress law of May 21, 1861: Mandated equal rations for prisoners and Confederate soldiers.
SR 97, 38th Congress, 2nd Session: Official U.S. policy for deliberate maltreatment of Confederate prisoners.
Edwin M. Stanton's report of July 19, 1866: Provided official death statistics for prisoners on both sides.
Camp Douglas, Elmira Prison, Point Lookout, Camp Morton: Northern prisons with high death rates, mentioned for comparison.
Major Henry Wirtz: Confederate commandant of Andersonville, hanged after the war on false charges.
Felix Delabombe / Felix Osser: Perjured witness whose false testimony led to Wirtz's conviction.
General Ulysses S. Grant: Union general who ordered the halt of prisoner exchanges.
Senator Benjamin H. Hill: Georgia senator who debated Mr. Blaine on prison death statistics.

Important Quotes

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

The foundational scripture for the entire lecture, framing the historical discussion as a moral issue.

Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to treatment finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather.

Weaver quotes the official Union policy to prove deliberate cruelty, contrasting with Confederate policy.

I was for three months a clerk in the commissary department at Andersonville, and it was my business to weigh out rations to the guards and prisoners alike. And I solemnly assert, or I solemnly swear, that the prisoners got ounce for ounce and pound for pound of the same quantity and quality of food as did the guards.

Eyewitness testimony from a Confederate clerk refuting the starvation charge.

I believe that the larger share of the responsibility for the sufferings in that prison belonged to our own government.

A Union prisoner's firsthand conclusion that the U.S. government was to blame.

It is hard on our men to be held in Southern prisons, not to exchange them, but it is humanity, those left in the ranks, to fight our battles.

Grant's own words admitting the deliberate sacrifice of Union prisoners for military advantage.

When we heard Secretary of War Stanton's reply in regard to exchange, we felt we were forsaken by our own government.

Union prisoners' reaction to being abandoned by their own leaders.

Andersonville was avenged. Major Wirtz was hanged.

Succinctly states the scapegoating of Wirtz to divert blame.

Then shall you do unto him as he thought to have done unto his brother.

The biblical principle of justice for false witnesses, applied to the historical case.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does the Ninth Commandment apply to the way we remember and teach history?

[Context]

Weaver argues that bearing false witness can be committed against sections of a country, not just individuals.

[Question]

What evidence does Weaver present that the Confederacy attempted to treat prisoners humanely?

[Context]

He cites the 1861 Confederate law and eyewitness accounts of equal rations.

[Question]

Why does Weaver believe the Union government was primarily responsible for the deaths at Andersonville?

[Context]

He points to the refusal of prisoner exchanges and the deliberate starvation policy.

[Question]

How do the official death statistics challenge the common narrative about Andersonville?

[Context]

Weaver shows that a higher percentage of Confederates died in Union prisons.

[Question]

What role did perjured testimony play in the conviction of Major Wirtz?

[Context]

Weaver details the case of Felix Osser, who lied about witnessing a murder.

[Question]

How should Christians respond when they discover that accepted historical narratives may be based on falsehoods?

[Context]

Weaver urges checking facts and not being led astray by propaganda.

Applications

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