Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-12-08
Contrasting pietures-The Exchanged Prisoners

and reasonable attempt to destroy Govern
them, but on the contrary distinguished for
its kindness and benefcence, are humanely
cared for, protected from the inclemency of
the weather and beautifully fed. The Union
prisoners, captured while defending their
country and its flag, are on the other hand
exposed to every contumely, and treated
with a severity such as in no civilized
country Is visited upon the vilest malefac-
tors. They are robbed of their money; strip
ped OF their clothing; exposed, unsheltered
in all seasons kept upon the scantiest pos
sibly pittance of food and that rendered as
unpalatable as it is capable of being made;
huddled together in the narrowest limits, as
II Tor the express purpose of rendering their
condition as horrible as possible and, as If
with premeditated purpose, the combined
agencies of famine, filth, and burning or
1reezlng skies left to engender disease and
death among them, while, if they attempt to
escape from the erueltes of their loathsome
and deadly confinement, they are hunted with
blood-hounds like wild beasts.
The comparative condition Of the two
classes of prisoners as they were brought
forward for exchange at Savannah recently,
shows the results of the different methods of
treatment The Savannah Republican of the
l4th says that up to the previous evening
about 1000 rebel prisoners had been brought
to that city, and adds
"The prisoners, for the most part, look
| far better than we expected, after the hard
| ships Of their long confinement, and in many
| instances british treatment. Many say they
wish no furlough, but desire to be sent lmme-
| diately to the 'front.' where they will have an
opportunity of getting even with their cap
| tors"
The charges of "brutish treatment and
"hardships of confinement are best answer
ed by the condition of the prisoners, who are
reported ready to proceed at once to the front
and resume their places in the army OF trail
tors. No doubt their quarters and their food
while prisoners were luxurious compared with
the rebel army fare.
Now mark the contrast presented by the
condition of the Union prisoners exchanged
for these sturdy, well-fed, able-bodied rebels.
| The correspondent of the New York Times
who accompanied our feet with the rebel
prisoners, writing from Savannah, describes
the Union men received as follows: MEN
looking like living skeletons, almost naked,
| shoeless, hatless, and spiritless; men with no
| other garment than overcoats; men whose
skins are blackened by dirt, and hang on pro-
truding bones as loosely as the bark on tree;
men whose very presence is simply disgust
| ing, exhaling odor so fetid that 1t almost
| stops the breath of those unaccustomed to it.
Reports Of rebel surgeons show that for the
period of month through which the reports
extend, there is constant, monotonous COM
| plant against the treatment to which the
| sick are subjected. Men in the last stages Of
| emacation from chronic diarrhGa received
no nourishment and starved TO death on coarse
rations which the stomach of strong man
would reject. Others, suffering gangrene and
ulcers, were compelled to tester in putridity
| without even sufficient water to cleans their
| loathsome sores. Week after week the dis
eased and dying were kept without shelter,
and many without clothing, on the bare
! ground, exposed to the torrid sun and rains
at all times"
The same correspondent speaking of the
treatment of Union prisoners in Georgia
| says: " For months they have been deprived
of sufficient palatable food. The little they
received had been rarely cooked, because in
country Astounding with fuel, their jailers
| forbade them adequate fires. At the prison
| pen near Millen, Ca, for some weeks, there
has been no meal or -four given to the priso-
ners, and sweet potatoes in lieu thereof have
| been eaten raw"
There are doubtless sympathizers with the
| rebellion in the North who will attempt to
| extenuate the monstrous guilt of these bar
| barous acts of cruelty. They will plead in
| behalf of the rebels their straitened condition
and the lack of clothing and of food in the
rebel army, and they will urge it is not to be
expected, under such circumstances, that they
| can or will treat their prisoners as we treat
| ours. To this plea there is one all sufficient
means of carrying on war, it is time for
them to cease fighting. If the South cannot
treat prisoners in accordance with the useges
of civilized nations, they have no bust
ness with prisoners; they are no longer
entitled to be regarded by any nation as bel
igerents they forego their claim to be re-
eognized as civilized society; they can on
ly be considered in the light of lawless and
| irresponsible savages, of banded pirates and
| murderers. If they attempt to excuse their
treatment of Union prisoners upon their ina
bility to feed and shelter them in accordance
with the rules Of warfare between civilized
nations, they confess that they have pushed
their resistance to the just authority of the
United States beyond the limits of the broad
est construction of the right Of revolution
They acknowledge that they are brought to
the point of exhaustion by the war, and if
they persist in continuing it, under such cir
cumstances, the United States will be justi-
fed in adopting any rules Of retaliation, in
the future conduct of the war, which would
be proper in contest with savages, with
Sioux or Camanches, to whose level the
Southern leaders descend in their treatment
of Union prisoners.
1t NAV be true that the rebels are unable
to provide proper food for their prisoner
But it is not a deficiency of food alone that is
complained Of There are other circumstan-
ces of mere, cold-blooded, inexcusable,