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Civil War American National Cemeteries
The great forest stood almost near enough to shade them. There were men of all trades in that pen. Everybody knows how quickly and neatly soldiers housed themselves in their own camps when they had time. These men would have gladly built shelter of some sort, or even handsome barracks. It was only necessary to take out a few at a time under guard and let them cut and hew. Yet, from five to 35, 000 men were there under the blazing sun of a Georgia summer, shadeless and houseless, drinking from the stream that trickled through their filth, and lying upon the bare, open ground, or crawling into the burrows they dug. The bloodhounds to track the fugitives were housed just outside. Who can explain away the fact that the men would gladly have built themselves a shelter, but were now refused the privilege. The writer of this paragraph received in March, 1865, at Wilmington, N. C, 9, 000 Union prisoners who had been in Salisbury, Florence, Millen, and Andersonville.
National Cemeteries of the Civil War
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