NEWS: The Alleghanian; 19 Nov 1863; Ebensburg, Cambria Cnty., PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Millich Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ _________________________________________ The Alleghanian Ebensburg, Pa. Thursday, 19 Nov 1863 Volume 5, Number 8 Local and Personal Rev. A. J. Hartsock, pastor of the United Brethren congregation at Johnstown and Chaplain of the 133d P. V., during the nine months campaign, has been elected to the Chaplaincy of the 110th P. V. Local Correspondence Johnstown, Nov. 16, 1863 On Saturday morning last, a shoemaker whose family reside here, met with a fatal accident near Penn Station on the Pennsylvania Railroad where he had been for some time working at his trade. It appears he had been at some house in the neighborhood until four o'clock that morning and while passing along the track in the direction of his boarding house, an approaching train caused him to move hastily to one side, and not paying particular attention to where he was stepping, he fell over the side of a culvert some thirty feet deep. His condition was not discovered until about nine o'clock when assistance was procured and he conveyed to the residence of his son-in-law, a short distance off. At this time he talked rationally, detailing the manner in which the accident occurred, but when one of the persons present attempted to remove his overcoat, he expired. It is supposed the spinal column was injured just beneath the neck. The remains of the deceased were brought to this place the same evening for interment. The boy whom I noticed some time ago as having been badly burned by his clothes taking fire died last week from the effects of injuries received. [son of Daniel Lucas, Conemaugh Boro, from Nov. 5, 1863 edition of THE ALLEGHANIAN] Rev. Peter Zahm, several years ago pastor of the English Lutheran congregation of this place, has been assisting in holding a series of religious exercises in that church during the past and present weeks. Mr. Z. is a deep, earnest thinker and a unique and pleasant speaker and I have no doubt his efforts will be productive of much good. The wintry weather of last week changed into Indian Summer and for several days we enjoyed the mild, ethereal atmosphere peculiar to that brief season. It appears to me as if autumn had chosen these dreamy days for it expiring throes. "No funeral train, Is sweeping past; yet, on the stream and wood, With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest Like a pale spotless shroud; the air is stirred As by a mourner's sigh; and, on yon cloud That floats so still and placidly thro' heaven, The spirits of the Seasons seem to stand." "A change comes o'er the spirit of the dream;" and the romance of yesterday is succeeded by the rainy and very disagreeable reality of today. "Revolutions sweep O'er earth like troubled visions o'er the breast Of dreaming sorrow." Thus with the weather – the changes which occur are like the fitful varying scenes of a perturbed vision. Yours, [Signed] May Leon Accident A smash-up occurred at Lily's this county on the Penna. RR., on Thursday last. A "pusher," pushing hard without due regard to time and place, ran into the Local Freight west, wrecking a couple of cars, running the rest off the track and playing smash generally. No person was injured thereby. Col. Jacob M. Campbell A correspondent of the Baltimore AMERICAN writes as follows from Cumberland, Md., Nov. 4: "By arrangements just perfected I learn that Col. Jacob M. Campbell of the 54th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers has been assigned to the command of all the troops along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Sleepy Creek, Va., and Cumberland, Md., in addition to his present command at Romney and Burlington, Va. This will be most gratifying intelligence to the loyal citizens of Morgan and Hampshire counties as well as to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. and their employees." Col. Campbell is a resident of this county and was one of the first to buckle on the sword when hostilities were declared by the South. We are glad to hear of his preferment. Blair County Items The streets of Hollidaysburg were, for the first time, lighted with gas on Saturday evening week. The First National Bank of Hollidaysburg has gone into operation. Henry Brunell of Williamsburg was seriously if not fatally injured by a railroad accident at the Williamsburg Furnace on the 28th ult. Capt. John Piper of Hollidaysburg was thrown from a buggy on Sunday week, his shoulder bone dislocated and he otherwise severely injured. Mr. W. A. B. Satterfield has vacated the tripod of the Hollidaysburg WHIG. John Brotherline, its former editor, succeeding him. Major White and the State Senate [extract] Our well posted readers generally know that the next Senate of Pennsylvania stands 17 Union to 16 Democratic. They may not so generally know that one of the Union Senators was a Major of a cavalry regiment and taken prisoner last June at Winchester and has been for some months in Libby prison. The rebels at Richmond and their allies in Pennsylvania, are said to be acting in concert and the rebels by holding on to Senator White hope to aid their friends at Harrisburg in embarrassing Gov. Curtin's Administration. It is certain that all proffers of exchange have been refused and the reasons lead to the conviction that these parties are in correspondence. The rebels have refused to even pass Senator White's resignation. Unless Speaker Penny receives this within a few days in time to order a special election in Armstrong and Indiana counties, the Senate will be a tie when it meets and until his release or resignation. If things continue in this condition, we have no doubt Speaker Penny and all the old organizations will hold on to their respective posts until displaced by a positive majority. The Senate never dies – of course all the officers once elected must hold on until a positive majority elects somebody else to fill these stations. [Snip] Mason and Dixon's Line This once famous line, because it marked the separation of the free and slave States, will soon cease to mark any such barrier. The western portion of that line, separating Western Virginia from Pennsylvania, has already lost its interest in this respect. Western Virginia is practically as free as any of the Northern States though it may take twenty years for the mass of our emigrating population to understand it. At the extreme eastern end of the line is little Delaware; she holds her election next week and the question of Emancipation is the leading element of the contest. The number of her slaves is only about 2,000, mostly in the Southern county of the State. Her people sympathize with Maryland and Pennsylvania and there is no possible danger that she will decide differently from what they have recently done. In the recent election in Maryland, the emancipationists had it all their own way. The Legislature in both branches are overwhelmingly in favor of the emancipation of her slaves. The strong mechanic interests of Baltimore have for years been in favor of free and against slave labor. These sentiments have heretofore been kept under by the slave aristocracy who claimed a sort of divine right to rule "my Maryland." But the events of the last two years have dissipated that dream. The leading element in Maryland is today more radial than we are in the old Keystone State. They have felt the iron rule of a slave holding oligarchy and are more fully prepared than the mass at least of our so called Democratic citizens to realize the advantages of a free State. No candidate in Maryland at the late election appears on a platform one-fourth so pro-slavery as were the Democratic platforms in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We doubt if any leading public men in this State made speeches so positively antislavery as those of Henry Winter Davis and Col. Matthews. The time, therefore, when this famous line was to mark continuous free and slave States is a thing of the past. Where Slavery in the future shall find a resting place is not for us to say. Certainly it requires no prophet to foretell that it will not much longer be bounded by Mason and Dixon's line. The War in Tennessee The National cause in Tennessee has escaped a great peril. It will do no harm to say now that the Army of the Cumberland was in less danger of destruction at Chickamauga than since its seemingly safe retreat to Chattanooga. Against all the hazards of battle it bore up bravely but against the imminent certainly of starvation, what fortitude could have held out? Yet until the recent seizure of Lookout Mountain, the army was almost destitute of communication with its base of supplies, and if its condition had been known to the Rebels, and if they had obstinately held the advantage they possessed, we could have had no right to expect anything but an appalling disaster. Little as the public seem to have suspected it, Gen. Rosecrans was besieged at Chattanooga. The position was strong against assault but the Rebels commanded the river which was the only practicable route for the transportation of food and ammunition. By wagons it was next to impossible to carry anything. The roads over the mountains and along the bottom lands were equally bad. And so long as the Rebels held Lookout Mountain they held the Army of the Cumberland almost in their grasp. From this situation the army has been relieved by a movement equally brilliant and audacious. Correspondence confirming some particulars has just come to hand. A force from Chattanooga itself, cooperating with a heavy column under Hooker that marched from Bridgeport succeeded in completely surprising the Rebel force in possession of Lookout Mountain. But even against a surprise the position was strong and it was not till Gen. Hazen resorted to the daring expedience of deploying nearly his whole force as skirmishers covering a line of three miles in extent, and forming, apparently the advance of the main body that the Rebels fell back. The mountain was gained and once again became impregnable to any effort of the Rebels to retake it. An attack upon a portion of Hooker's forces was repulsed by Gen. Geary and Gen. Howard, with heavy losses to the Rebels and the South bank of the Tennessee remains in our possession. The beleaguered forces in Chattanooga are not merely relieved from danger but may assume at once an offensive attitude whether for an advance toward Atlanta or for the relief of Burnside. Within a week the whole aspect of the campaign is changed. Gen. Sherman in command now of the Army of the Tennessee is reported to have occupied Tuscumbia in the face of considerable opposition and there remains no probability that the Rebels can prevent the junction of his forces with the main body, near Chattanooga, or his direct cooperation with that column if it advances from that point. How they Treat Union Prisoners in Richmond Rev. George H. Hammer, Chaplain of the Twelfth Pennsylvania cavalry, who was recently released from Libby Prison furnishes the Philadelphia INQUIRER a long account of his captivity and of the sufferings endured by our soldiers who have fallen into the Rebel clutch. In reference to the treatment in Libby Prison, he says: "Many sank under it and failing away into living skeletons, were passed over to the hospital in the other end of the building, where they lived or died as circumstances might declare. How often have I seen this; so often that it had long ceased to call forth special attention. Did men fall down exhausted upon the floor, those stronger, picked them up and strove to have them removed to the hospital. Did they die, their bodies were carelessly thrown to one side until convenience suited them to hurry them underground. During this time the heat was intense and the suffering from this cause alone was very great. Add to this the fact that from diet and other causes the prisoners suffered greatly from dysentery, aggravated by the disagreeable water we were obliged to drink, and I know not, indeed, how we passed the summer or bore up under the accumulated woes of our situation. "Do you ask me as to the amount of food received daily by each officer? One- fourth pound of very tough raw beef and bones, very little over ten ounces of bread, heavy and sour, a little rice and infinitesimal quantities of salt and vinegar. This was the amount of rations received, tho' I will do the authorities the justice to say that it was hardly the amount allowed, the remainder being appropriated by officials. However small the appetite of the prisoner, if well, he could eat the whole of his day's ration at one meal and look around for more. At the time of which I speak, the officers were not allowed to purchase or receive any food but that furnished by the authorities as the daily ration. The bread was very unpalatable and unwholesome; the beef often times tainted; and sometimes evidently diseased, as we could see where tumors had been extracted. If in lieu of rice we obtained beans or peas we received with them no small quantity of animated life, in the form of worms, fat and plump. "The treatment received by the officers during this trying time was bad and only bad continually. One seemed to vie with the others in their endeavors to annoy us and make our situation intolerable. Did one under this debilitating process stretch himself upon the floor during the day upon his blanket, unless he had first obtained the consent of the prison inspector to spread his blanket, and he was never around when wanted, he was rudely aroused, his blanket taken from him and carried down stairs to be given to some needy rebel or placed under the saddle for one of these ruffians to ride upon. If by any means we offended his supreme highness, the commandant, our supply of water was cut off for a half a day and night and this during the suffocating weather of summer; or to vary the punishment and add zest to the regimen we would be left without wood for three-fourths of a day wherewith to cook our food, but then we saved our rations and had more the next day. "I have seen a captain of cavalry, for the simple offense of missing the spittoon and spitting upon the floor, thrown into a dark, damp dungeon for two days and nights, on bread and water, causing a serious inflammation on the lungs. At this time it was required that the officers should perform the most menial services connected with cooking, washing, scrubbing and the cleanliness of the rooms. Lieut. Welch of the Eighty-seventh Pa. Infantry lay for six weeks in a dungeon under the building because, as an orderly sergeant, acting under appointment as a lieutenant, though not yet mustered in, and of course, not recognized as such, he had rightly classed himself with the enlisted men. When brought up among the other officers, his clothes, shoes &c. were covered with a green mold. Lieut. Dutton of the Sixty-seventh Pa. Infantry has been doomed to a dungeon to the close of the war and is now suffering therein for a similar offense with the additional fact that he assumed the name of another. Captain Litchfield of the Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania was confined in a dungeon for five or eight days on bread and water for forming a plan of escape which was frustrated. "Colonel Powell, I think of the Twelfth Virginia Union cavalry, wounded severely in the back from a window in Wytheville and left behind was carried to Richmond and placed in the hospital. A few days after, one of the Richmond papers rallied out against him in a most brutal manner and suggested that he be executed. The same Prison Inspector entered the hospital and without the knowledge of the rebel surgeons ordered him to get up from his bed and follow him. He was placed in one of the dungeons spoken of and upon asking what were the charges again him was answered, "God -- you, you will soon find out.' Here, with a ball in his back, he remained five weeks and four days, part of the time without a blanket, rarely receiving any medical care and sometimes his rations withheld. A guard was stationed constantly at the door of his cell, to prevent either escape or communication with others. While confined there the entry way was frequently blocked up with dead bodies, remaining there several days and this during the heat of summer. This entry performed another important part, it being the place where men and women were daily brought to receive their lawful allowance of lashes at the hands of the Prison Inspector. A letter was sent to Gen. Winder by the colonel asking the charges against him and protesting against his treatment. He denied any knowledge of the matter and suggested that perhaps Gen. Jones was acquainted with the facts. "The Colonel was released, I know not how and placed among us. This officer was the victim of irresponsible authority and fiendish cruelty as wielded by this prison inspector. While confined in the cell, the colonel, who is a Christian, asked in writing twice for a Bible, but no notice was taken of the request. One officer, taken at Gettysburg, was slapped in his face by this inspector for saying that he thought he had no right to take from him a small fragment of shell which he had in this pocket as a relic. "I have so far only given an outline of the treatment and condition of the officers, which, in comparison was a favored one. I cannot describe the condition of the enlisted men as seen by the officers and learned from sources at present nameless. Hunger, bad treatment and exposure have done their work too surely for many brave souls who have gone up to testify at the bar of God to the barbarities practiced on them. Many of them, also, were shot by the guard upon the most frivolous pretense. Belle Isle, our place of confinement, is supplied with tents only sufficient for a part of the men; the rest were compelled during the cold nights to pace up and down the island and keep warm and while the sun was shining during the day, they would sleep. I have seen them marched through the city barefooted, bareheaded, without coats and with only the remnants of other articles of clothing. "I have seen them brought from this island in the evening, to ship them in the morning for City Point, so weak from hunger and disease that they were unable to stand upon their feet. Never have I witnessed such misery and want amongst any class of human beings. "There are also about a hundred free negroes of the North, officers' servants, from the army and navy. They are used at the present about the prisons or upon the fortification around Richmond. One of the many nights spent in Libby is deeply engraved upon my mind. A free negro of Philadelphia captured in the navy, nearly white, received three hundred and twenty-five lashes in a room immediately beneath us, his loud cries and pleadings penetrating every part of the building as blow followed blow. He was then wrapped in a blanket saturated with salt water and cast into one of the dungeons for a month or more. Such scenes and cries were frequent. Those of our number who entered there as advocates of slavery or at least as sympathizers, are such no more."