| And now it only remains that we make a brief
SUMMING UP. of this
whole question of the treatment of prisoners during the war. We think that
we have established the following points:
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1. The laws of the Confederate Congress, the orders of the War Department,
the regulations
of the Surgeon-General, action of our Generals in field, and the orders
of those who had the immediate charge of the prisoners, all provided that
prisoners in the hands of the Confederates should be kindly treated, supplied
with the same rations which our soldiers had, and cared for when sick in
hospitals placed on precisely the same footing as the hospitals for Confederate
soldiers.
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* NOTE.- This and the former statement concerning Mr. Stevens are confirmed
to me by his literary executor and biographer, Hon. Mr. Dickey, of Pennsylvania.-
G. S.
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2. If these regulations were violated in individual instances, and
of subordinates were sometimes cruel to prisoners, it was without the knowledge
or consent of the Confederate Government, which always took prompt action
on any case reported to them.
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3. If the prisoners failed to get their full rations, and had those
of inferior quality, the Confederate soldiers suffered in precisely the
same way, and to the same extent, and it resulted from that system of warfare
adopted by the federal authorities, which carried desolation and ruin to
every part of the south they could reach, and which in starving the Confederates
into submission brought the same evils upon their own men in Southern prisons.
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4. The mortality in southern prisons (fearfully large, although over
three per cent. less than the mortality in Northern prisons), resulted
from causes beyond the control of our authorities - from epidemics, &c.,
which might have been avoided, or greatly mitigated, had not the Federal
Government declared medicines "contraband of war" - refused the proposition
of Judge Ould, that each government should send its own surgeons with medicines,
hospitals stores, &c., to minister to soldiers in prison - declined
his proposition to send medicines to its own men in Southern prisons, without
being required to allow the Confederates the same privilege - refused to
allow the Confederate Government to buy medicines for gold, tobacco or
cotton, which it offered to pledge its honor should be used only for Federal
Prisoners in its hands - refused to exchange sick and wounded - and neglected
from August to December, 1864, to accede to Judge Ould's proposition to
send transportation to Savannah and receive without equivalent from ten
to fifteen thousand Federal prisoners, notwithstanding the fact
that this offer was accompanied with a statement of the utter inability
of the Confederacy to provide for these prisoners, and a detailed report
of the monthly mortality at Andersonville, and that Judge Ould, again and
again, urged compliance with his humane proposal.
5. We have proven, by the most unimpeachable testimony, that the sufferings
of Confederate prisoners, in Northern"prison pens," were terrible beyond
description - that they were starved
in a land of plenty - that they were frozen where fuel and clothing
were abundant - that they suffered untold horrors for want of medicines,
hospital stores and proper medical attention -
that they were shot by sentinels, beaten by officers, and subjected
to the most cruel punishments upon the slightest pretexts - that friends
at the North were refused the privilege of clothing their nakedness or
feeding them when starving - and that these outrages were perpetrated not
only with the full knowledge of, but under the order of E. M. STANTON,
U. S. SECRETARY OF WAR. We have proved these things by Federal as well
as Confederate testimony.
6. We have shown that all the suffering of prisoners on both sides could
have been avoided
by simply carrying out the terms of the cartel, and that for the failure
to do this the Federal authorities alone were responsible; that the Confederate
Government originally proposed the cartel, and were always ready to carry
it out in both letter and spirit; that the Federal authorities observed
its terms only so long as it was to their interest to do so, and then repudiated
their plighted faith, and proposed other terms, which were greatly to the
disadvantage of the Confederates; that when the Government at Richmond
agreed to accept the hard terms of exchange offered them, these were at
once repudiated by the Federal authorities; that when Judge Ould agreed
upon a new cartel with General Butler, Lieutenant-General Grant refused
to approve it, and Mr. Stanton repudiated it; and that the policy of
the Federal Government
was to refuse all exchanges, while they "fired the Northern heart"
by placing the whole blame upon the "Rebels," and by circulating the most
heartrending stories of "Rebel barbarity" to prisoners.
If either of the above points has not been made clear to any sincere
seeker after the truth,
we would be most happy to produce further testimony. And we hold ourselves
prepared to maintain, against all comers, the truth of every proposition
we have laid down in this discussion. Let the calm verdict of history decide
between the Confederate Government and their calumniators.
Editorial Paragraphs
OUR MARCH NUMBER has excited great interest, and has received the
warmest commendation from the press generally throughout the South. Some
of the Northern papers have contained very kindly notices. we have seen
no attempt to refute the points made; and we would esteem it a favor if
our friends would forward us anything of the kind which they may observe.
We have letters from leading Confederates warmly endorsing our array of
documents and facts, and have reason to feel that in defending the Confederate
Government from the charge of systematic cruelty to prisoners, we have
rendered a service highly appreciated by our Southern people.
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