The dense pine forests on either side still attest the luxuriant growth,
which was regarded at the time of its selection as the finest timbered
land of all Georgia. These immense pines are even yet so near as to cast
their lengthened shadows, at morning and evening, over the accursed area
where so many noble men perished for want of shelter from the heat of the
noonday sun, the chilling dews of evening, and the frequent rain. The
shade temperature of this place sometimes rose to the height of 105 deg., even
110 deg. Fahrenheit. The sun temperature within the stockade must have
risen to 120 deg. and upwards, for the height of the walls prevented the free
circulation of the air. The heat of this region during the days of summer
is unusually great.
[Illustration: VIEW OF OFFICERS' STOCKADE, with rebel camps and hospitals
in the distance.--Page 21.]
Its elevation above the tide level is only about three hundred feet; and
the hot blasts from the burning surface of the Gulf of Mexico, which is
only about one hundred and fifty miles distant, sweep up over it
northward, without being deviated or modified by ranges of mountains. The
intervening country is unbroken, from distance to distance, by the
undulation of the soil, and resembles more the level of a wide, green sea
than the usual configurations of the solid earth. It bears the reputation
of being unhealthy, and it is not strange; for there are certain isolated
local climates which are absolutely pestilential, as we observe in the
detached mountain groups and table lands of India and Southern Europe. Its
isothermal line passes through Tunis and Algiers, and the hyetal charts
show it to be one of the most humid regions in America.
Fifty-five inches of rain fall here annually, whilst Maine, with her
constant fogs, receives but forty-two and England but thirty-two.
Was it possible for human life to endure these extremes of heat, rendered
still more positive by exposure to the damp and chilly dews of the nights
of southern latitude? It is a well-known fact, that neither men nor
animals can labor or expose themselves with impunity to the rays of the
noonday sun of tropical climes. Man, of all terrestrial animals, is the
least supplied with natural protectives.