WAS IT A MIRACLE?

A profound conviction has been cherished by many that the unsealing of Providence Spring was as marked an interposition of the hand of the Almighty as that recorded in the Book of Numbers where it is said, “And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly and the congregation drank.” Num. 20:11.

Are they wrong in this conviction? The unwontedness of the incident admits of no dispute. In such a sober work as Rhodes History of the United States, we have the statement, “After a severe storm a spring broke out within the enclosure (Andersonville stockade) and this became one of the main reliances for drinking water.” Vol. V., p. 492.An eye witness records: “About the first of August showers fell that beat anything I ever saw. There was one good result, for where the stockade was washed away on the north side, it opened a spring of pure water, enough to supply nearly the whole of the prison.” (The narrative of Amos E. Stearns, Co. A, 25th Regiment, Mass. Published by Franklin Pierce, 1887.)

While comparatively few of the prisoners knew of the days of prayer that preceded the storm, every one recognized that something out of the ordinary course of events had happened; and that a new spirit pervaded the camp. Before this, no one would give a dying man a drink, for water was scarce, and the scurvy in the recipient’s mouth might contaminate the cup for its owner. And indeed, not many had the strength to wait upon others. But now the dull, sombre, despairing mood was changed. The little stream of pure water, contrasted with the former slough that supplied us, murmured sweetly down through the night, and during the day it over-brimmed thousands of cups that eager hands reached forth.

In after days many of these men were gathered at Camp Chase, Ohio, and there detained until improved health rendered them presentable for return home.

We recall that when in the chapel of that place a Capt. Allen conducted evening religious services, hundreds of testimonies were given to the effect that the breaking out of the spring at Andersonville was a distinct answer to prayer and a convincing fact of the reality of help coming from above. Many of the speakers declared that their Christian faith began from that occurrence.

Questions such as the following naturally arise: Was Providence Spring a miracle? Would the saving relief have been withheld if prayer had not been offered?

The situation is not more difficult of analysis than is that described in the story of Queen Esther where is exhibited the interplay of natural and supernatural elements in human activity and Divine over-ruling. The northern section of the Andersonville inclosure was mainly a bank of clay, as evidenced by the many wells which were partially sunk, but filled, by order of Capt. Wirtz, because tunnels therefrom were dug for escape. The vein of water which issued in Providence Spring doubtless flowed from time immemorial, and being unable to work upward through a too great overpress of clay, had found a lower seam through which it seeped into the depths of the swamp below. This implied fact was learned as follows: As the prison administration was unable to cook meal and bacon for the increasing thousands of men, these articles were issued raw for two weeks alternately to the north and south sides of the enclosure.

A distressingly small lot of wood must suffice a detachment of two hundred and seventy men for three days. Often the individual portion would not make a fire that would scald, much less cook, the scant portion of cornmeal, which was sometimes coarse and unbolted. It was said that more than ten thousand cases of bloody dysentery prevailed at one time; aggravated by irritation to stomach and intestines from the practically uncooked food. The awful unsanitary conditions which prevailed can be described, but respect for the sensibilities of the reader forbids. Suffice it to say that the need for fuel was urgent, that a number of the stronger captives would lay aside their tattered remnants of clothing, wade into the slimy muck of the swamp, and, sinking to their armpits, would pull up fragments of wood that had long been submerged. This was mostly pitch pine and when broken up would quickly burn. The work of exhuming fuel under such repulsive conditions was chiefly done at night.

It was noticed that in the morning the partially remaining foot-prints and depression, from which the stick had been drawn, were filled with clear water. This fact was a mystery until after the spring was opened; then the conclusion was reached that the spring water followed a deep seam in the clay and oozed into the swamp some distance below the surface and rose up through the openings made by the wood-diggers.

Therefore Providence Spring was not especially created to order. Like Topsy, it had “allus” been. The providential aspects of the case may be thus stated; the spring existed, but was unknown. It was located under the space between the dead-line and the stockade, through which digging for a well was not permitted; it therefore remained undiscovered. The out-of-plumb position of the stockade timbers had existed for a long time, but was not noticed by the officials until the time when prayer began to be offered for water. As the petitions of Esther and Mordecai, unknown to the King, in a manner unseen affected his action, so by analogy, the prayer of Sergeant Shepard and his colleagues influenced the state of mind of the quartermaster and of Commandant Wirtz and they were moved to the repairing of the stockade which had long been neglected.

This decision led to the forming of a broad trench by digging away the ground to afford the needed watershed from the base of the stockade.

Thus a channel was formed which gathered the storm-water with force sufficient to tear away the ground over the spring and release the life-giving fountain. The slaves removed quite a depth of the earth directly over the unknown reservoir; thus the deepest part of the trench was brought so near the spring that the rush of the storm-flow could do the rest.

The spring water was uncovered and its pressure was sufficient to throw it into the air. However, as it was located on the forbidden margin, any prisoner reaching under or over the dead-line for a draught of the water would be instantly shot by the sentinel posted overhead on the wall.

Hence, after the spring was opened an object of much desire, and suitable as a subject of prayer, was that the hardness of Capt. Wirtz would be relaxed to the extent of allowing the prisoners to have access to the water. This result was accomplished and the relief was complete.

A recent writer commenting on the development of Providence Spring refers to the marble fountain erected by the Ex-Prisoners of War Association inside the granite pavilion built over the spring by the Woman’s Relief Corps, remarks, “The waters flow strong and sweet with a never-ceasing stream into the marble basin. It is said to be the best water in all Georgia; that which gushes forth from the side of the little hill in Andersonville.” Confirmatory to this statement is the following incident:

In 1896, when the writer lectured in Warsaw, N. Y., on “Reminiscences of Battle-fields and Prisons,” a prominent war veteran of the town, who had been a member of the staff of General Grant, showed him a bottle of water from Providence Spring which nine years before had been hermetically sealed by the Rev. G. Stanley Lathrop of Atlanta. So pure was the content that no sediment existed.

The further comment is: “The scientific fact of Providence Spring is that in the August electrical storm the rocks (clay) which held back this spring were cracked or broken open by a lightning bolt and the waters gushed forth. No one ever believed that it was a sort of Moses intervention for the prisoners, but it was undoubtedly looked upon in that light by the poor, thirsty, half-starved prisoners.”

To which we reply that if we believe in prayer as an instrumentality by which human and divine forces cooperate to a beneficent end, and the result takes place, why should we question the efficacy of intercession?

The fact that a number of believing men in the prison were engaged for some days in protracted prayer for relief from water-famine was not ostentatiously announced at the time, and was little noticed by the crowd. Thus has it ever been with the origin of great spiritual movements.

The relief came and a new spirit of hope and gladness, such as prevailing prayer engenders, swept through the multitude.The scientific fact of a mightly rain storm being the visible agency of completing the opening of Providence Spring fitly coordinates with the moral force of prayer, as in numberless instances such convergence occurs in history. Nevertheless, this explanation will probably be accepted or challenged according to the personal experience of the reader in matters of Christian faith.

In the case of the smitten rock of the Palestine desert water doubtless existed in an abundant, although unknown supply. The Almighty, by the agency of Moses, brought it forth for the satisfying of a great multitude.

The prophet was commanded to speak to the rock and it would give forth water. The response could be from none other than the Creator of all mountains and flowing streams. And although Moses went beyond the Divine command, and struck with a rod instead of speaking with his voice, yet the Divine goodness was not withheld, “and the water came abundantly.” So at Andersonville the sufficient, though unknown, supply was close at hand. Human voices pleading for relief were answered by Him who spoke by the wind, the lightning and the flood.

It is said that the spiritual desires of our hearts are the reflection of what God is waiting to do for us through our own co-operation. Surely then, the prayers of the Andersonville prisoners for water were incited by Him who saw their dire necessity, and who waited only for human hands to aid in the release of the fountain of water which his Omnipotence had created.

During the subsequent years the writer has given the foregoing account in lectures and conversations to his comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic and to many others. Gentlemen of scientific and Christian attainments have said that this explanation of the phenomenon of Providence Spring is the most satisfactory of any that they have heard.

The event here chronicled is commemorated by the erection on the spot of a granite pavilion which is appropriately named “Providence Spring.” The inscriptions are as follows:

This Fountain Erected by
The National Association of Union
Ex-Prisoners of War
In Memory of the 52,345 Comrades
who were confined here as prisoners of
war, and of
the 13,900 comrades buried in the
adjoining National Cemetery.
Dedicated Memorial Day,
May Thirteenth, Nineteen Hundred
and One.
James Atwell, National Commander.
S. M. Long, Adjt. Gen’l.
J. D. Walker, Cham. Ex. Committee.

A reverse tablet bears the words:

This Pavilion Was Erected by the
Woman’s Relief Corps
Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
Republic
In grateful memory of the men who
suffered and died in the
Confederate Prison at Andersonville,
Georgia,
From February, 1864, to April, 1865.

“Erected 1901.”