Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-12-10
Contrasting pIetures-The Exchanged Prisoners

0@s.S'
The rebel prisoners, men taken with arms
in their hands, while engaged in wicked
and reasonable attempt to destroy Govern
ment guilty of no act of oppression towards
them, but on the contrary distinguished for
its kindness and benehcence, are humanely
cared for. protected from the inclemency of
| the weather and bounti'ully fed The Union
prisoners, captured while defending their
| country and stag, are on the other hand
exposed to every contumely, and treated
with a severity such as in no civilized
lcountry is visited, upon the vilest malefaes
tors. They are robbed OF their money; strip
| ped of their clothing; exposed, unsheitered
in all seasons; kept uponsthe 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
if for 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
freezing skies left to engender disease and
death among them, while, if they attempt TO
escape from the cruelties of their loathsome
and deadly confinement, they are hunted with
blood-hounds ike wild beasts. .'is'
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
14th says that up to the previous evening
about 1000 rebel prisoners had been brought
to that city, and adds:
1.-THE prisoners, for the most part, look
far better than we expected, after the hard
ships of their long confinement, and in many
| instances brutish treatment. Many say they
| wish no furlough, but desire to be sent imme-
| diately to the front, where they will have an
opportunity of getting even with their cap
| tors" 3t5V tf
The charges of "brutish treatment and
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 it almost
i 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 diarrhOa received
| no nourishment and starved to death on coarse
rations which the stomach of strong man
would reject. Others, suffering gangrene and
| ulcers, we're 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
/ -. al. L. g. ba
received had been rarely cooked, because in
a 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" f.s-,.t.
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
answer When people are destitute OF the
means of carrying on war, it is time for
them to cease fighting. If the South cannot
treat prisoners in accordance with the usvges
of civilized nations, they have no bust
ness with prisoners; they are no longer
entitled to be regarded by any nation as bel
ligerents; they forego their claim to be re-
cognized 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
he nroner in a contest with sayaOes with