Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-05-21
A Rebel View of Numbering Prisoners of War.
From the Richmond Enquirer
THE PLYMOUTH MASSACRE.

Gen. Hoke, judging from the large number Of
his grisOneJs. does not seem 10 haze made such
thorough woTk as that By aChich Forrest has so
shocked tie tender souls and frozen the carna
blood of the Yankees. The resistance he en-
countered was, probably, not so desperate,
and the blood of the victors was not so heat
ed :; though in a fortifcation carried by
storm, the loss of the garrison must inevita-
bly, be large.
THE strict Laws of civilized garfare Gek5soaol-
e1qe the po,cer of tie victor to put all TO the SwOrd
IN s,sch cases Hoacever Seeere such az example
naiqht seem, It ecoeld strike s0Iata1y terror IN
tie Yankees, acs.ch acM be useful to them IN the
end, and their melancholy acltie at meeting part
of tie punishment their 6ar6drities merit IS ab-
savd
In the rapid fall of these positions which
the Yankees gained so easily, we see some
thing like a revulsion of the gunbOat mania.
At that period they made most of the acqui-
sitions which they have since held apparent
ly in firm grasp. The refux of the tide is
no less sudden than its advance. The year
1864 NAV undo the work of 1852, and sug-
gest a solution of many difficulties which
seemed almost insurmountable.
From the Richmond Examiner, April IS.
THE FORT PILLOW MASSACRE.
But it is evident that Lineoln's heart was
not in his Introductory congratulations to
these many people" nor in his new edition
of the old fable. The confederates have
succeeded in establishing a raw, "raw,"
"raw," on his callous hide; have at last
succeeded in making him feel his responsible
ty. Nor is the responsibility a pleasant one.
Indeed, it is so unpleasant that while she
fears, he believes" yet he takes care to say
that he does not know that the report of the
Fort Pillow massacre is true. "To take the
life of any one of their prisoners, on the as
sumption that they murder ours, when it is
short of certainty that they do murder ours,
might be too serious, too cruel a mistake"
How tender hearted This serious, this
cruel mistake, has been made times out of
number since the beginning of the war. Why
does it suddenly too serious, too cruel? Sim
ply because we have shown that we, as peO-
pie, are heartily tired of policy dictated
partly by sentimentslity, partly by foolish
Difference to the good opinion of the world
partly by an official awe at WashingtOn-a
policy to which we have sacrificed too long
the lives of our brave soldiers and our Sol
emn sense of duty. We are not nation of
butchers. We are not, like ancient Pistol,
thirsting "to suck, to suck, the very blood to
suck" But we have deal with race of
butchers, of Pistols, of McNeilS, and Buffers
and we must mete out to them strict justice
even the letter of the law. "All hell shall
cape for this" says Lincoln in effect. "Ret-
ribution shall certainly come" and these
brave words may mean something if we re-
cede from our position. They may mean
something, if the fortune of war or the mis-
management of our military leaders should
give the Yankees an overwhelming advan
tage in prisoners. Repeat Fort Pillow. Re-
peat Plymouth a few times; and we shall
bring the Yankees to their senses, and, what
is even better, our government will rise to
proper sense of its position as an organ of
nation, and no longer act as if it were the
iunta of a set of revOlted prisoners.