Note—You will see that there are three witnesses to these statements of Mr. Souber. I saw each of them "separate and apart" from the others, and no one knew what the others had said, and their statements agreed in every particular.
Benjamin Weston states to me that Major Anthony gave him permission to raise a crop east of the stockade, where the small-pox hospital was located. That he cleared and fenced about six acres; that there was no clearing on the land—only some of the underbrush was cut out; that there was not a rail on the place; that he cut and split all the rails and made a good fence, and raised a crop of corn; that about the first of August Mr. Crawford came to him and said the land was his, and demanded thirty-five bushels of corn for rent, and required him to sign a contract and give security for that amount; that the place only yielded about twenty bushels, of which his family and stock used ten bushels, and he gave ten bushels for rent.
Mr. Weston states that he heard that Mr. Souber had charge of the land, and about the first of January he applied to him to rent what he had cleared and fenced. Mr. Souber told him that he had charge of the land but it was not for rent; he was agoing to tend it himself. He then asked me what Mr. Williams was agoing to do. I told him I did not know. He said well, he had better hunt him a house, for I am agoing to tend that place myself. Mr. Weston says he has never had any pay for clearing and fencing the land, only about ten bushels of corn, as above stated. He says he will make oath to the above statements.
General: I do not know the boundaries of the land claimed by Crawford, but as far as I am able to learn, the mob that burnt the buildings here last summer, and threats and treatment like that detailed above, have driven off all the families that occupied these grounds by authority of officers of the United States Government, except Mr. Williams, and Mr. Rhodes who occupies a building in the large stockade, which he tells me he has been warned to leave. Through the means above detailed Mr. C. has very nearly secured possession, which is nine-tenths in law.
With great respect, yours, very truly,
H. W. PIERSON.
To Major General Meade.
On the 10th of February, 1869, Captain Bean called on me and introduced himself as a member of General Meade's staff, and said he had come from Atlanta to Andersonville by order of General Meade to make investigations in regard to the matters referred to in my letters. I went with him to the stockade and pointed out the new fences made and the grounds claimed by Mr. Souber. At his request I went with him to the office of Mr. Williams, the superintendent of the cemetery, and in my presence he told him to notify Mr. Souber to suspend all work upon these grounds.
I confess that I was exceedingly gratified at this complete success of my efforts. I felt that these historic grounds, this Gethsemane of the nation, had been rescued from what I could but esteem a sacrilegious use and possession, and that the flag that floated over the dead at Andersonville had been honored by this order. When I told the Freedmen the result of Captain Bean's visit their joy was great. In describing to me, as they often had, the suffering and losses they had endured when they were driven from their homes, and their cabins were burnt last summer, they always, in their simplicity, spoke of it as the time "when the Government busted up." And this truly described the condition of the Government from that time to the present, so far as they were concerned, for these facts show that no matter how horrible and brutal the outrage and personal violence committed upon them there had been no punishment to the perpetrators and no redress to the Freedmen. Now they felt that the Government would again afford them some protection.