Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1863-12-31

surplus paroled prisoners dilivered up by
us were established in the United States,
where the men were enabled TO receive
the comforts and solace Of constant com .
munication with their homes and fami.
lies.
In July last the fortunes of war again
favored the enemy, and they were enabled
to exchange for duty tho men previously
delivered to them, against those captured
and parolled at Wick, burg and Port Hud
son. The prisoners taken at Gettysburg,
however. remained in their hands, and
should have been returned to our lines on
parole, to await exchange. Instead Of
executing a duty imposed by the plainest
dictates Of justice and good faith, pretexts
were instantly sought for holding them in
permanent captivity. General orders
rapidly succeeded each other from the Bu.
reau at Washington, placing new con
structions on an agreement that bad given
rise to no dispute while we retained the
advantage in the mber CT prisoners.
With disregard Of honorable obligations
almost unexampled, the enemy did not
hesitate, in addition to retaining the pris
oners captured by them,to declare null the
paroles given the prisoners captured by
us in the same series Of engagements. and
liberated on condition Of not again serv.
ing till exchanged. They since openly in
sisted on treating the paroles given by
their own soldiers as invalid, and those Of
our soldiers, given under precisely smi-
lar circumstances, as binding. a success
sion Of similar unjust pretensions has been
set up in CORES spondence tediously pro.
longed, and every device employed to
cover the disregard of an obligation which,
between belligerent nations, is only to be
enforced by sense of honor.
No further comment is is needed on
this subject; but may be permitted to
direct your special attention to the close
of the correspondence submitted to you,
from which you will perceive that the f.
nal proposal made by the enemy in settle-
ment of all disputes under the cartel, is
that we should liberate all prisoners held
by US, without the offer to release from
captivity any of those held by them.
In the meantime systematic and con.
certed effort has been made to quiet the
complaints in the United States Of those
relatives and friends of the prisoners in
our hands who are unable to understand
why the cartel is not executed in their
favor, by the groundess assertion that
we are the parties who refuse compliance
| Attempts are also made to shield them
selves from the execration excited by
their own odious treatment of our officers
and soldiers now captive in their hands
by misstatements, such as that the priso
ers held by us are deprived of food. To
this last accusation the conclusive answer
! has been made that in accordance will
our law and the general laws of the de-
partment, the rations of the prisoners are
precisely the same, in quantity and quail.
ity, as those served out TO our own gal
liant soldiers in the field, and which have
been found sufficient to support them in
their arduous campaigns, while it is not
pretended by the enemy that they treat
prisoners by the same generous rule. By
an indulgence, perhaps unprecedented,
we have even allowed the prisoners in
our hands to be supplied by their friends
at home with comforts not enjoyed by the
men who captured them in battle. In
contrasting this treatment. the most re-
voting inhumanity has characterized the
conduct of the United States toward pris-
oners held by them. One prominent fact
which admits no denial or paliation-
must suffice as test. The officers Of our
army, natives of southern and semi,trop-
ical climates, and unprepared for the cold
= -
ed for Imprisonment during the rigors of
the present season to the most northern
and exposed situation that could be selec-
ted by the enemy. There, beyond the
reach OF comforts, and even of news from
home and family, exposed to the piercing
cold of the northern lakes, they are held
by men who cannot be ignorant Of, even
if they do not design, the probable result.
How many Of our unfortunate friends
and comrades, who have passed unscath-
ed through numerous battles, will perish
on Johnson's Island, under the cruel tri-
al to which they are subjected, none but
the Omnicient can foretell. That they
will endure this barbarous treatment with
the same forlitude that they have ever
cNluCcu III tHtlT cUuutiN y sciN We N@u-
not doubt. But who can be found to be-
! lieye the assertion that it is our refusal
to execute the cartel, and not the malig-
nifty of the foe. which has caused the in
Fiction OF such intolerable cruelty on our
own loved and honored defenders
CONDUCT OF THE ENEMY.
| cannot close this message without
again averting to the savage ierocity
which still marks the conduct of the en-.
emy in the prosecution of the war. AT
ter their repulso from the defenses before
Charleston they first sought revenge by
an abortive attempt to destroy the city
with an incendiary compo sition, thrown
by improved artillery from distance of
four miles. Failing in this they changed
their missiles. but fortunately have thus
far succeeded only in killing two women
in the city. Their commanders-Butler.
Mcneil and Turchin-whose horrible bar
barities have made them widely notorious
and everywhere execrable, are still hon
ored and cherished by tho authorities al
Washington. The firstnamed, after
having been withdrawn from the scenes
of his cruelties against women and pris
oners of war (in reluctant concession to
the demands Of outraged humanity il
Europe has just been put in a new com
mand MT Norfolk where the helpless wo,