The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-12-12
The Exchange of PrisOners-1m.
DOrtant from Major General
GTifchQ0ck

DOft0nG IfOM "oJVA C"CA 90
Hitchcock.
Major General Hitchcock has written an
important statement to the New York
Times on the subject Of the exchange of
prisoners, which throws. new light on the
subject, explaining why the exchange was
stopped and revealing the rebel .subter-
fuges. After quoting from Jetf.a Davis
nc Usage to the reEtsi States jnd5anuaTy
last. declaring it was to be his deterrnina-
ton TO deliver TO the STATE authorities all
commissioned officers captured within the
States embraced by the Emancipation Pro-
clamation, and that the practice of the
South has been in keeping with that decla-
ration. The writer says:
1t has been supposed, even in many parts
of the North, that the proposition Of Mr..
Ould, of the Goth of October, for an ex-
change of prisoners is fair, and ought to be
accepted; but 1t does not appear to be con-
sidered that Mr.. Ould has not proposed to
yield to us certain number OF prisoners OF
war and receive a like number in return,
which would be most happy consumma-
ton that would be at once accepted by this
Government. But his proposition is that
we shall deliver to him all OF the prisoners
in our possession, amounting now to about
10000 men, leaving about q 900 men who
might, for a few days, be considered on
parole not to take arms unless duly eX-
changed; and then what would Mr.. Ould
do with those men?
Judging by what he has actually recent
ly done, he would undoubtedly assume to
discharge those men from all obligations
under their parole, and put them into the
field to fight against national troops, stand
ing under an unstained national tlag-the
very troops who gallantly captured those
men upon bloody battle fields within the
past few months.
To show the extreme probability Of this
g tn m q faV
beginning with the statement of Mr.. Ould
to Gen. Meredith, officially communicated
to me, that he, Mr.. Ould, would "proceed
to make declarations of exchanges when
ever he conscientiously felt the right SO do,
for the purpose of putting men into the
field" thus openly setting aside the car
tel and the laws and usages of war in favor
of his individual sense of right-which
Sense of right, in Mr.. Ould. is so obtuse
and wild as to justify him in making use
of tabular statement of alleged cap
lures, principally in the Western States,
amounting to over Is, 600 men, considera-
BILE portion of whom were undoubtedly
captured by guerrilla parties, and were not
soldiers, but, for the most part, peaceable
citizens of the country, probably known as
friends of the Union, who for that reason
were seized and compelled to make an
oath not to taSe up arms against the South.
ern Confederacy; and this class of persons
Mr.. Ould expects US to accept IN exchange
for rebel troops, captured mostly at Vicks-
burg, who, having been paroled in the
South, were declared" exchanged by Mr..
Ould, without any conference or under
standing with our agent, in violation of the
provisions of the cartel, and in violation OF
the usages of war.
1t must be borne in mind that the car.
tel was virtually abrogated by the message
of Mr.. Davis; not, indeed, as to its binding
character upon the South, for Mr.. Davis
had no power under the laws of war to alb.
rogate the provisions of that instrument
but his declared purposes, in violation Of
the cartel, would have fully justified the
United States Government in declaring its
provisions null and void; while, at the same
time, the Government has been at liberty
to require its observance on the part of the
South.
do not mean to deny, in the reference
just made to the tabular statement pre-.
pared by Mr.. Ould, but that there were
some men included in that statement who
had been legitimately made prisoners OF
war, though not delivered according to the
cartel: but, for the most part, the prisoners
included in that tabular statement were
not set down as having been captured upon
any known battle field, or as having been
taken from or with any known Federal
commander; nor are they reported as hav.
ing been delivered to any Federal com.
been captured at large in the State of Ken.
tucky, nobody knows where; or in the
State of Tennessee, or in other States of the
West and South; whilst, in no less than
four instances, they are reported as having
been captured in Kentucky and Tennes.
see'-the two States being thus coupled to-
gether-making it impossible, from the
tabular statement itself, to determine
where they were captured, or whether, in
deed, any military captures whatever were
made, except a few at Chickamauga, and
possibly a few at one or two other places.
Mr.. Ould is mere agent under the ear
tel, and has no powers beyond those recog-
nized in the cartel for the execution of its
provisions, yet he has recently assumed to
decide an important question, in which he
undertook to liberate from the obligations
of their parole the whole of the prisoners,
some six or seven thousand, captured by
Gen. Banks at Port Hudson, and parolled
bv Gen. Banks under special agreement
with the rebel commander.
The world knows that those prisoners
fell Internationally into the hands of Gen.
Banks at the surrender of Port Hudson,
and Gen Banks had the power to send
them to the North if it had been his pleas
ure to do so but he made an agreement
with the rebel commander to release them
on parole, and released them at Mobile in
conformity with the agreement.
The carter 1Or the eXcuduS0 VI pTISOucIS
provided two places for the delivery, to-
wit: City Point, on James River, and at
Vicksburgh, on the Mississippi; but it pro-
vided also, that when either of these pla-
ces should become unavailable by the ext
gencies of war for the delivery Of prison
ers, other points might be agreed upon
by the commanders in the field. This was
precisely what happened. Vicksburg hav-
ing fallen into the hands of Gen. Grant,
had, by:that exigency, become unavailable
for the delivery Of captured rebel soldiers,
and when, subsequently, Gen. Banks came
into possession Of several thousand pris-
oners by the unconditional surrender OF
Port Hudson, he made an agreement with
rebel Gen. Gardner, their commander, to
deliver his prisoners on parole at Mobile,
aud did so.
Mr.. Ould, without any proper authority
whatever, assumed to write q letter on the