Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-02-09
Our Prisoners I'm the SOutb--
what cam be dome to Relieve
them--Hm mediate Exchange,
or Special Retaliation.
[snecinl Corresrondenl Of lhe \

SPGCtshh |
Especial Correspondent Of the NJ Y. TriSunel
After Salisbury became a receptacle tor
regular prisoners of war, II was silent like the
tomb. 1t sent back no echo. No man was
exchanged from it; few escaped. We used
to long-O how earnestly!-that some
intelligent and trustworthy voice might go
up to the North, and tell the condition OF
those dying prisoners. After our escape.
when it seemed impossible that We could all
survive the trials and perils which snvironed
US, we promised each other, repeatedly and
solernnly, that ifany one of us did live to |
regain home and freedom, he should give to
the matter his earliest and most earnest
efforts.
We have,endeavored, under the soleu' mites
of an oath, to give the plain, simple facts,
without exaggeration or coloring, to the
Government and the public That the
Rebels are deliberately killing our men by
hunger and cold when they have an abund-
ance of corn and fuel, are truths which can
not bo denied. When the prisoners went
there, they were newly captured, and. like
the most OF our soldiers in the field, young
men in robust health. Yet, seventy days
later we left them dying at the rate of thir-
teen per cent month"; mortality which in
forty-eighr hours would depopulate any city
in the world and send its inhabitants flying
from il as from a pcstilence And my
associate. Mr.. Browne, who had the very
best factiIities for orknowing, testifios that out
of an average Of nearly eight thousand
prisoners there we're not at any one time i've
hundred we'll men-an estimate which the
Rebel surgeons frequently and emphatically
confirmed, in my own bearing.
Mr. Liucolns we'll known kindness OF
heart makes him reluctant to adopt me aeures
of severity. But surely it cannot be possible
that his strong sense Of justice and his
peculiarly logical mind, accept for moment
the monstrnus propositions: I'VE cannot as
a na:ioa afford to do any inhuman and
our ears to tho agoniZlng cry which comes
an from 40 many Southern PRISONS
The power is in our swn hands. We hold
the long and of lever We have an excess
of prisoners, by at least fifteen or twentythou-
sand. We can exchange man for man, and yet
retain Rebsis enough to insure the good treat
mcnt of any capiives black or white, whom
they may take hereafter If exchange Is
impracticable. We can compel them 10 stop
this atrocious and systematic barbarity. Ii
any man believes that we can afford to be
inhurhaa and unchristiaA to the last extent,
toward those who wear our flag and figh,
our battles, but cannot afford to exercise
the least severity toward men whose hands
are red with the blood of our bravest and--in
short, that Humanity aud Christianity
require us to connive at the murder OF our
own soldiers, then may God mend his
understanding!
1t is easy very for well-fed and well-olothed
Senators, in their warm chamber, to rise up
from thoir cushioned chairs and talk about
Humanity and Christianity. | wish they
could be prisoners themselves long enough
to look at this SUBJECT from the other side.
wish they could, live awhile among the
duly and nightly horrors; which ior sixty
days surrounded us, ana purnad into our
memories like ahot iron. ! wlsh they coula
look into those fo9i pens AZ pai,soury, Whlen
by,a perver:ien OF me hngllsh tHngue arg
called hospitals; where poor isa isilows are
CROWDED upon sn1 vSu natSu r ,asp Uv,s .
without one WORD OF sympathy or one tear y
aHeotioni wNnout evo" .na' uesiee "
warmth ana oean,,nsss rnIn W. fu fOrna y
our ouuiD usS'.I, ,aa;.~ onoa S, I w;sh ,ho,
anu ine,I sau p,eaIhoa h ~ n. n;gh, % mn;
couiu wan, n ;. =. sa' "va, Snosr a. ,hat ,ar,;hI
neari on ,,n an siass .Va ma',naaa;" ,a. ,ona
amos. every pr,sonv' 'JS Ssoh. W ~ ~
| .-.tk Sc y; id gornno tNilaH
d,ad cart wl5n i's r'slo ,o,, p'ieu sar;U uIU
eacn o'Ier n; Iks "SsI S,Im fs.ss . w;sh ,bs;
! arms-sne wnue, sha;:.V r' "m s."m, 'aUa ana
y droppeu AVE anu tne'r s'sns'; s'UnS So;S' ;Sv
en Ia',,eS I,o"s, o. :,o ,.annhss M Ur .n
irelgnt, 70 oe r.u .alo~u n. .n'o th;UL ca,
covereu w.n ht1ae .:,, oa' s.s;.o,
!, hours IN ths ssnc.s ;,ak:. y, III S". na",s
q enhvenso py no nisIity or Ma'e.io ksms
= oreksn 3y no sSand Q. Iaufn.of v o. y. S'"s
: wou'd cnanse 'he,r s,ew o. :ue ma''sr'
y say nothing OF tns aeaoeta.e aSas muIis, ;',
when are odreauens' osHIaSs ;.S IN the r;n
+ nesS ;msSss n's whIs % thp Soav nrovs wssksr an
If weaker, aud tho morbid, vacant, despairin
g mind preys upon itself until The lamp Of il
Q goes out. If there is no early relief in stol
s. for those Salisbury prisoners, believe, b.
70 fore God, il would be mercy to them
y their keepers, any morning, were to dra
1t them up 10 line and shoot them, to the la
IT man.
of Mr.. Stauton's long cherished theor
A. that we can't afford 10 exchange well-fe,
rugged men, for SIX keletons and invalids--th
a. returned soldiers are ten times as valuab