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THBAndersonville POW Cane Owned by David G. James, Author of the Andersonville Monument Commission, Plus
About Seller
6270 Este Ave.
Cincinnati , OH 45232
United States
With offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Denver, Cowan’s holds over 40 auctions each year, with annual sales exceeding $16M. We reach buyers around the globe, and take pride in our reputation for integrity, customer service and great results. A full-service house, Cowan’s Auctions specializes in Am...Read more
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About Auction
LiveJun 22, 2018
Cowan’s American History: Premier Auction, scheduled for June 22, 2018 is comprised of early photographs, documents, manuscripts, broadsides, flags, and more dating from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Late Indian Wars, World War I and II and beyond. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com
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- Lot Description
Lot of 3, featuring a cane belonging to David G. James, an Andersonville Prison Camp survivor. Cane is 35 in. long, with metal tip and engraved silver handle, inscribed, "D.G. James / Admitted into Andersonville / July 22-1864 / Cane cut July 22-1883 / Forget, Never"; and two books autographed by James, including:
Report of the Wisconsin Monument Commission Appointed to Erect a Monument at Andersonville, Georgia: With Other Interesting Matter Pertaining to the Prison. Madison, WI: Democrat Printing Company, 1911. Autographed and inscribed, "Compliments of D.G. James, June 16, 191(sic)" on first page.
Wisconsin at Shiloh: Report of the Commission. Compiled by Capt. F. H. Magdeburg. Madison, WI: Issued by the Wisconsin Shiloh Monument Commission, 1909. Autographed and inscribed, "Compliments of D.G. James" on first page.
Captain David G. James of the 16th Wisconsin Infantry, served as a POW at the Confederate prison camp, Andersonville, sometimes called Camp Sumter, in Georgia. After surviving his imprisonment and the war, James led the commission to create a monument at Andersonville, GA, honoring those who suffered and died at the infamous camp. Described in detail in the commission report featured here, the monument was ceremoniously dedicated on October 17, 1907, with prayer, songs, addresses, and an official acceptance of the monument. James also provides a description of Andersonville Prison, a personal account of his confinement at Andersonville, details of investigations into southern prisons and the trial of Captain Henry Wirz (Commandant of Andersonville), and other primary sources concerning the camp including an 1865 report by Clara Barton and a desperate poem written by a prisoner.
In his personal remembrances, David G. James relates, "When the gate was opened and we got a view of what was before us, the scene was indescribable. Over thirty thousand men on nineteen acres of ground,—without shelter; some naked, others bareheaded, barefooted, deformed, and almost unrecognizable as human beings. To a man looking at it from a distance, it gave the appearance of a huge ant-hill, with one moving mass of humanity only visible. As we were going through the throng, staring eyes protruding from their sockets looked us over to see if there might not be some acquaintance among the new arrivals...As we passed along, a poor weak boy lay beside the path with a pail made of a bootleg, begging for some one to get him a drink of water...I took the pail and went to the creek. This took some time, as it was very difficult to locate any one in that miserable mass. Poor boy! when I reached him he had breathed his last. I was too late" (Report, 67).
The dark history of Andersonville during the Civil War, particularly the actions (or inaction) of its commandant, Henry Wirz, have been described as unforgivable. Even Walt Whitman famously commented on the horror of the prison camp, stating, "It steeps its perpetrators in blackest, escapeless, endless damnation." Such strong feelings were common when news of the camp and its deadly results reached the North: 13,000 Union soldiers died from starvation, disease, exposure, medical neglect, and murder at the camp during the fourteen month period that Wirz was in charge. James spends a large amount of time in his report discussing the "fiend incarnate," Wirz, including his controversial trial and conviction. Wirz became one of only two people to be executed for war crimes committed during the Civil War. Approximately 250 witnesses attended the hanging, and when the fall did not break his neck, shouts of "Wirz, remember Andersonville!" rang out from the crowd at the imperiled commandant strangling to death below the gallows. Certainly those same sentiments are present in the prescient inscription on James' cane, "Forget, Never."
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