True Democrat., 1863-04-15
Federal Outrages on Confederate
 Prisoners.

oN STEAMER NEBRASKA, MISSISSIPPI RIVER,
 Jan ary 1863. EDIroRs APPEAL: In justice to the brave men .rpo5ug the Texas bri gade under my c)m- mand, which was comprised in Gen. Churchill s division, Captured at the Post of Arkansas, on the l lth inst, by Genera! McClcrnand's gra q Mississippi army and totilla. | deem it my daty to make public the following facts relative to their treatment since the surrender.
 According to the cartel of exchange agreed upon last July, by the United States and the Confederate States governments, through their com miss oners, Generals Dix and Hill, we shQul have been exchanged or paroed witho in ten days. This cartel however was utterly d'sregarded, and were p paced up ill steamboat Is and sent up the Mississippi river. Ny brigade was crowded upon the steamer Nebraska. H a manner entirely inconsistent with the health of the men, to say nothing of the comfort or decency. It consists of the 10th Texas infant, ry, and tie 10th, l7th, and 18th Texas dis mounted cavalry. In addition, Captain Alr 1olnsons spy company and few sailors and marines belonging to the Confederate gunboat Ponchetrain, were also placed on this boat, making between eighteen hundred and two thrusand prisoners, in addition, six compaies of the 4th Iowa. (C0lCne Clarke) were placed on board guard, making altogether prob~
  ty-tive hundred persons on this boat.
 Many of the prisoners were sick and so much were they crowded that many could not get a place to spread their blankets without being exposed to rain and snow, or else laying them in filth too disgusting to mention, consequent " they had to stand or sit, night and day. Under these circumstances, of course sickness increased rapidly. We were kept in this state from the night of Janaary l2 h until the 23d, when the boat getting aground, good many of the men were removed in order to tighten her.
 All the above, however, sinks into absolute inSignifcance, when compared with the inhu- man and malignant act of selecting for our guard regiment infected with the smallpox, and known to be so infected by the officers who ordered it. Ot the companies of the ltn Iowa on the Nebraska, one has nor SIX cases of smallpox. How many cases there may be in other companies do not know, but l presume that altogether there are not less than twenty cases among the companies now composing our guard. These sick have been kept in the same cabin with many of the sick prisoners From the very nature of things, crowded a8. we have been, 1t has been utterly impossible to preserve the men from exposure to the conta> zion.
 For the conception and execution of this iendish act Mai. Gen. Sherman. United States army, commanding corps of Mcclellan grand Vcksburg army, is responsible am informed on creditable authority that before leaving the Post of Arkansas it was represented to General Sherman, through the proper chan- nel, that the 3Ith Iowa had smallpox, aud it was requested by General Steele, and perhars other officers, to place 1t in quarters where the disease might be properly treated. This he not only se'used to do, but ordered 1t to be sent as guard to the Confederate prisoners.
 Inhuman as such conduct Is, still 1t is noth- ing more than might be expected from a black hearted wretch like General Sherman, who told Colonel R. R. Garland, also commanding a Texas brigade, and risoner of war, that he (Shermsn) would, if he had the power, ezter- minate every man, woman and child, along the Mississippi river, in case another boat was fired into by the Confederate troops.
 Such acts and sentiments as the above ought to hand down to future infamy the name o General Sherman, coupled with that of his brother brute, Butler, the beast.
 JAMES DESHLER, Colonel C. S. Artillery, commanding Texas brigade.