iiendo flourish, which seems apt andrnmore than a little funny. Mv friendrnGusov rang up a few weeks ago, to reportrnthat he had spoken with a woman fromrnthe recording compan)-, “I asked themrnwhat they thought of the Bocelli photos,”rnhe said, already chuckling in anticipation.rn”‘He is delighted!’ the woman said.rnI said, ‘How do you mean, he is delighted?rn. . . I mean, he i s . . . ‘ ‘Well,’ said thernwoman, ‘you know what I mean. Hisrnmanager is delighted.'” And then, again,rnhissing into the phone, that leitmotif ofrnour Forte dei Marmi days:rnCulture for the people,rnA store where you shop for free!rnAndrei Navrozov is Chronicles’rnEuropean correspondent.rnLetter FromrnMarylandrnby Joyce BennettrnThe Andersonville of the NorthrnAfter the Battle of Gettysburg, a prisonrncamp was established in occupied Marylandrnon a low peninsula lapped b- thernwaters of the Potomac River and GhesapeakernBay. All told, 52,000 p e o p l e -rnGonfederate soldiers, Maryland and Virginiarncivilians, blockade runners, andrnspies—passed through the portals of thern”Andersonville of the North.” In 1910,rnbecause erosion threatened Confederaterncemeteries near Tanner Greek north ofrnwhat had been the prison compound, thernprisoners’ remains were moved up thernpeninsula to a patch of land owned byrnthe federal government near Scotland,rnMarvland. There, a monument markingrnthe Gonfederate graves was erected byrnfederal officials. A little girl who lived atrnScotland Beach passed the new nationalrncemetery on her way to and from schoolrnand witnessed this re-intermeni. Manyrnyears later, she described to her grandson,rnDonald Hammett, now a veteran rangerrnat Point Lookout State Park, what shernhad seen: wagons heaped with the bonesrnand skulls of the fallen Confederates andrnthe mounds of excavated earth. To thisrnday, according to Ranger Hammett, fragmentsrnof human remains are found inrnthe vicinih’ of the prison camp’s burialrngrounds. Although the federal governmentrnclaims that approximately 3,500rnperished, the number of men who died atrnPoint Lookout is unknov’n. The hypothesisrnthat the death rate was high — perhapsrn25 percent—because President Lincolnrnhad hardened his heart to the plightrnof the Confederates in his custody isrnworth investigating, not with an eye towardrna “balanced” picture of how prisonersrnwere treated by the North and thernSouth or to present “both sides of the stor’,”rnbutsimpK’to discoxerthe truth aboutrnwhat happened at Point Lookout.rnhi the meanhmc, the living must rememberrnthe men who suffered there.rnFor the last two years, I have participatedrnin the Point Lookout Prisoners of Warrn(PLPOW) Organization’s annual pilgrimagernto Point Lookout. Unfortunately,rna sour note was sounded as last year’srnSaturday morning program was gettingrnunder way. As Robin Pohlman of thernVeterans Administration stepped to thernlectern to speak, someone shouted,rn”Where’s our flag?” The PLPOW descendants,rnangry oer the VA’s recent decisionrnto take down the Confederate BattlernFlag at the cemeter, were unmovedrnby Mrs. Pohlman’s response that theyrnwere gathered not to honor emblems butrnthe men who had died at Point Lookout.rnTired of the crumbs thrown by bland bureaucrats,rnthey greeted w itii silence herrnannouncements that the VA had documentedrna few more deaths at the prisonrncamp and that the cemetery’s wroughtironrnfence would soon be painted.rnFollowing Mrs. Pohlman, PatriciarnBradley Buck, founder and president ofrnthe PLPOW Organization, stepped tornthe microphone and shared with us somerninformation challenging the federal government’srnarithmetic. She had discoveredrnthe writings of Dr. Joseph Jones, arncivilian who had been captured byrnUnion troops at Isle of Wight, Virginia,rnand sent to Point Lookcnit, where he wasrnput to work at Hammond Hospital. Dr.rnJones estimated that 8,000 died duringrnthe time he spent there. Patricia Buck alsornhas in her possession Pvt. JamesrnSpicer’s firsthand account of the conditionsrnat the camp. Pt. Spicer, who wasrnwith the 7th Virginia Infantr)’, CompanyrnK, wrote that looking through a knotholernin the stockade fence, he saw “acres ofrncoffins stacked one on the other.” Final-rnIv, we learned that the contractor whornhad exhumed and moved the prisoners’rnremains in 1910 had calculated that overrn10,000 had succumbed to the hardshipsrnof the prison camp. Mrs. Buck ended herrnspeech bv imploring the Veterans Administrationrnto restore the battle flag andrnto acknowledge the number of Confederatesrnwho had died while in the care of arngovernment flush with resources — thernsame government that could have alleviatedrnthe suffering of both Yankees andrnConfederates by agreeing to the prisonerrnexchanges repeatedly proposed by thernSouth.rnPatricia Buck’s address and an a cappelhirnrendition of “Dixie” performed bvrnCarolyn Billups of the United Daughtersrnof the Confederacy’s Colonel RichardrnThomas Zarona Chapter were the highlightsrnof the morning. After wreaths werernplaced at the base of the monument andrnthe colors were retired, we left the cemeter)’rnand drove down to the exhibit arearnnear the site of the prison camp. Representingrnthe local historical society, I hadrnearlier in the da’ set up a table decoratedrnwith black-eyed susans, miniature Confederate,rnMarvland, and Virginia flags,rnand a Troilani print depicting a SecondrnMaryland CSA Infantr}- rifleman. Duringrnthe morning and afternoon, PLPOWrndescendants from all over the Southrnstopped by to see me and to talk about thernwar. Having manned a table the previousrnyear, I was prepared for the occasionalrnunkind remark concerning my homernstate. One man, sure enough, leaningrndown to inspect the print, said to his companion,rn”Look —a Northerner fightingrnfor the South.”rnAs the da grew warmer and the sheeprnflies were biting, my thoughts turned tornthe prisoners eaten alive by insects fromrnearly May to late October. I also consideredrnthe winter months that the men enduredrnwithout adequate firewood andrnprovisions. While Point Lookout is hotrnand humid in the summer, its wintersrncan be bitter cold, as salt-water-ladenrnwinds blow from the Potomac to thernChesapeake. On a frosty morning, it wasrnnot unusual to find prisoners who hadrnfrozen to deafli during the night, evenrnthough abundant Yankee blankets andrnsurplus uniforms were stored in ships justrnoffshore. The hours from dusk to dawnrnwere perilous at Point Lookout. Guardsrnentertained themselves by firing into Sibleyrntents filled with sleeping men. Thosernwho sur’ived the cold and the sport of thernguards faced starvation, in spite of the effortsrnof local people such as the legendaryrn40/CHRONICLESrnrnrn