Andersonville Page #7

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If we do to them what they did to us?

- I think he's right!

- No!

All right, all right. A trial. That's gonna

take time. What are we supposed to do...

...with them in the meantime? If we keep

them here with us, someone'll kill them.

- Yeah, they will.

- All right.

- We'll ask Wirz.

- Wirz!

We'll ask Wirz to keep them

under guard outside the walls...

...and deliver them back to us

for trial when ready.

Bring them all in.

How would this trial be conducted?

According to the rule of law, captain.

Both sides would have lawyers

to speak for them.

The Raiders would be allowed to

speak for themselves...

...question the witnesses, provide...

- You would have a jury?

Yes, sir. New men who come in

after today...

...so they wouldn't be prejudiced

against the defendants.

I've never in my life

heard of anything like this.

These men, these Raiders,

they are as bad as they say?

Animals, captain.

Cutthroats and murderers.

Even as Yankees go,

these are the worst of the worst.

If I allow this, it will make your task easier...

...keeping order in the stockade?

Might just do that, sir.

They're real troublemakers.

I've seen you before, haven't I?

I was one of the men caught escaping.

You had me in the stocks for a week.

And you won't make

that mistake again, will you?

- As a lawbreaker, you agree with this?

- Yes, I do, captain.

I will get you the law books.

Keep the proceedings in writing.

You will send the findings and the sentences

to me, and if everything is in order...

...the sentence will be ordered for execution.

Keep the ringleaders under lock and key

until they ask for them.

Sir.

Well?

Have your trial.

Quiet down! Let's have order!

- Quiet down! Quiet!

- Quiet!

- Who's speaking first?

- I am, Your Honor.

Sgt. Horace Trimble,

9th Indiana Volunteers...

...appearing for the prosecution.

And may I present to this court

the Honorable Jared Hopkins, Esquire.

I want order!

102nd New York Volunteers

appearing for the defense.

- All right!

- Order!

It is my job to prove to these men...

...who arrived here but yesterday...

...that the men here on trial

behaved like savages...

Damn right!

...barbarians and worse in this camp...

...while the rest of you are soldiers

in the Federal Army...

...who conducted and

will conduct yourselves accordingly.

I trust there'll be no more such outbursts.

Mr. Hopkins, I beg your pardon.

Please say what you have to say, sir.

What could you have to say?

I do not envy you men at all.

Yesterday, you arrived in hell.

I do not speak lightly.

Andersonville is not just

a place without food to eat...

...or water to drink...

...or a place to come in out of the rain from.

- Save your crap!

It is not just a place where guards...

...murder us for their sport.

Hang them! Kill them all!

It is a place without civilization.

It is a place without law!

Stop this farce now!

Order!

- Let's have some order here!

- And you will hear how men...

...good Union men...

Traitor!

Traitors!

Were driven mad!

- Now, I will not be silenced!

- You're gonna hang!

These men were driven

by these circumstances...

...not of their own making...

Not of their own making to commit,

understandably...

Liar! No! No!

...acts of desperation they never would

otherwise have committed!

We stood it!

This is hogwash! Hang the bastards!

I will be heard!

Order! Order! Order!

I will be heard!

That is the second reason

I do not envy you men.

You are being asked to sit in judgment...

...on soldiers in your own Federal Army.

These men are victims as well...

...and their conduct

must be understood...

...as being caused by the Rebels!

- The Rebels... The Rebels are the ones...

- I want justice!

...ought to be on trial before you...

- I followed the law!

...not the men of your own army.

Call your witnesses.

We charge these men here

with being thieves...

...who stole from their fellows...

- I'm no traitor!

...food, clothing,

possessions of every kind...

And more!

...always brutally and without mercy...

...frequently under cover of night.

You will have all the witnesses

to that you want.

Is there anyone here

who can say they did more...

Yeah!

...who saw one of these...?

I exempt the six ringleaders.

Who saw one of these commit

or order another to commit murder?

- Stealing food's just as bad as killing them!

- lf so, and he will swear to it...

...let him now come forward.

Is there anyone here who saw one

of these six commit murder...

Yeah!

...or order another to commit murder

of another federal soldier...

Yeah!

...to steal his goods

or for any other reason?

If so, and he will swear to it...

...let him come forward now.

I'll swear.

I swear!

I swear!

- I swear!

- I'll swear!

I'll swear, by God!

I swear!

Yeah, I'll swear!

- I'll swear!

- I'll swear. Collins will hang.

I swear.

Cpl. Day, take the stand.

Do you swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth...

...and nothing but the truth,

so help you God?

I do.

You can sit.

Cpl. Day...

...tell the jury what you've seen

with your own eyes, corporal.

Yes, sir.

l...

Before I do, sir, may I ask

Sgt. Hopkins a question?

Certainly.

Sgt. Hopkins...

...did I understand you to say

that no law applies in here?

You did indeed, corporal.

And that is the very point.

There is no law here.

There is starvation...

...roasting heat, freezing cold.

There is disease, acts of barbarism...

...and cruelty on all sides.

But what law?

Rebel law!

We do not obey Rebel law!

The fact is...

...there is no law here...

...for my clients to have broken!

You shyster!

There is law!

Therefore, they cannot be guilty!

You're wrong!

You're wrong! You're wrong!

Order! Order!

And I thank you, sir.

You are wise beyond your years.

Josie, what are you doing?

But that cannot be, sir.

- We live by laws here.

- The law of survival.

We do not stop belonging

to the Federal Army because we're here.

That's right!

We have our sergeants.

We maintain order and discipline

as best we can!

We stand in line to get

what little food they give us.

We don't steal or betray each other

to the Rebels.

I am saying that men can be excused...

...if they do extreme things,

necessary things...

...in order to stay alive

in a place like this!

What they did, they knew to be wrong,

every man knows to be wrong.

They are against every man's law and

understanding. None of us did those things!

They did them to live, corporal! To live!

All men want to live, sergeant!

But there are some things

men won't do just to live!

What things?

That's what we must hear here.

What has been done here?

- Murder was done here.

- Murder!

Tell them about Dick Potter.

Dick Potter...

Dick Potter and his father were the best

fishermen in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

He joined up the first summer of the war

because he wanted to...

...because he thought he ought to.

He was a good soldier...

...and was shot in both legs

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