Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-05-19
A Rebel View of Numbering Prisoners of War
THE PLYMOUTH MASSACRE.

Gen. Hoke, j1dging from the large number Of
his prisoners, does not seem to hare made such
thorough srork as that By ac7tich Forrest has so
shocked tie tc7tde' souls and frozen the aca1ma
blood of tie 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 fertilization carried by
storm, the loss of the garrison must ineVita-
bly, be large
THE strict lars of clviIized agartare achnoacl-
edge the pomey of tie Victor to put all to tie sacord
, IN such cases. Howeuer Seeere such an example
might seem, It ac0aAd strike sanitary terror IN
tie Yankees, oc7t1ch uW be useful to them IL tie
end, and their melancholy actigse at meeting apart
of the punishment their 6ar6aJities merit is ob-
| Su2d
In the rapid fall Of these positions which
| the Yankees gained so easily, we see some
thing like revulsion OF the gunboat mania.
| At that period they made most Of the acqui-
sitions which they have since held apparent
| " in a firm grasp. The refux of the tide is
no less sudden than its advance. The year
| 1864 may undo the work Of 1862, and sug-
gest a solution of many difficulties which
seemed almost insurmountable.
from the Richmond Examiner, April Isl
THE FORT PILLOW MASSACRE.
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 calous hide; have at last
succeeded in making him feel his responsible
ty Nor is the responsibility pleasant one.
Indeed, it is so unpleasant that while he
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 PEG.
| pie, are heartily tired Of a policy dictated
partly by sentimentality, 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 a nation OF
butchers We are not, like ancient Pistol
thirsting /" to suck, to suck, the very blood to
suck" But we have deal with a race OF
butchers of Pistols, of NcNeilS, 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 near
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 a
proper sense of its position as an organ of a
nation, and no longer act as if it were the
| iunta of a set of rnvnlted nrisnnnrs