inside, and punched off a part of the roofs, and got out in this
way. By about two P. M., all these people, with their furniture,
bedding, provisions, and everything that they possessed, were
turned out of doors.

"About four o'clock, the most violent rain storm, accompanied with
the most terrific thunder and lightning ever known here, commenced
and continued the most of the night. Every mill-dam and many of the
mills in a circle of ten miles were washed away and so completely
destroyed that but one of them has been repaired so as to be used.
The women--some of them about to be confined--children and invalids
were exposed to this storm during the night. Their beds, clothing,
provisions, and themselves were as completely drenched as if they
had been thrown into a brook. Some of these people got homes by
working for their board. Some able-bodied men got twenty-five cents
a day. Some of them, (Deacon Turner Hall, of the Congregational
Church, Andersonville, among the number,) walked from ten to twenty
miles a day, and could get neither homes nor work at any price at
all. Many women and children lay out of doors guarding their
things, and exposed to the weather nearly a week, before they could
get any shelter at all--their husbands and fathers roaming over the
country to find some kind of a home. The Rev. F. Haley, of the
American Missionary Association, arrived the next day, to look
after the property of the mission. His life was threatened, but the
colored people rallied around him to protect him, and he left the
next day unharmed. Large numbers of the white people, from the
neighborhood, assembled at Andersonville every day until Saturday
night, when they set fire to nine (9) of the buildings, that had
been built by the colored people, and burnt them up, and tore down
their fences and destroyed their crops. The colored people,
supposing that they intended to burn the buildings occupied for the
"Teacher's Home" and the "Freedmen's School," rallied and protected
them. No one of the men engaged in these outrages, has ever been
arrested or punished in any way, and no one of these freedmen has
ever had any redress for his sufferings and losses. I will make
oath to these statements."

ANDERSONVILLE, GA., _Feb. 12, 1869_.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE SMIT