The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-09-23

which we take, from thefNew York
Times, a Republican paper. Indivi-
dual acts of cruelty Rere no doubt
were, and the perpetrators should be
held to q rigid accountability. We
have no sympathy for any man who
would exercise cruelty upon prisoner
Of war:
:. In what I have to say, I wish to
distinguish. between what I saw and
what 1 heard. What L say about the
Libby Pnson:in Richmond I saw with
my own eyes. What I say about
AndersonTille; where ] never was, I
merely heard.
[ was resident in Richmond, with
occasional intervals of absence, from
October, 1862, till April, 1868. Dur
ing this period, I repeatedly visited
the Libby Prison. Up to th1 end of
1853, l believe that nowhere have
prisoners of war ever been better
treated. They had the very best
that could be procured, seasoned
with kindness. Those prisoners who
will perhaps hereafter deny this state
ment, were probably never in any
other war prison except the Libby,
and know nothing of the hardships.
which, in every country, no less than
in the North and South, prisoners of
war have had to endure. Upon the
Goth Of December, 1868, I went over
the prison, accompanied by an Aus
trian, a Prussian, and French officer,
and by other foreigners Each Of
these officers knew war well, and each
said land two of them have since re-
peated in prize that they had never
seen prisoners of war better treated.
A young Englishman, who was an
officer in the Federal army and a pri-
soner, sent through me message to
his friends and to his brother in the
Sixtieth Rifles, to the effect that che
was well and kindly treated" At this
moment. the Northern press was de-
void of war news, and: #as flied with
narrowing tales of cruelty ip the ESb-
by. Permission hadprevi6dsly been
given to- the Federals to send boxes
to their captured brethren. Before
long accusations appeared in the
Northern journals that Southern Of
ficers were robbing the boxes and
selling their contents at the. exorbi-
tant rates which the destitution of
Secessia facilitated, The only chance
of stopping these accusations was by
stopping the Northern supplies and
demanding that Northern officers
should clear this matter up. The. ac-
cusations were withdrawn, and the
supplies We're. re-conmenccd. I my
self frequently saw Northern officers
dispensing the contents Of Northern
boxes to the prisoners on Belle Isle
and in the Libby. may remark, eu
passont, that nine prisoners out of
ten on Belle Isle habitually snapped
what they got for execrsble whiskey-
proof, at any rate, that they were
not starving.
Letters from Confederate prisoners
in Johnson Island, Camp Chaseand
Camp Douglas, appeared every day,
exhibiting that whatever the Libby
was, other War prisons were at least
as bad. The war was at its savagest.
Complacent armchair critics., who
have never seen war, know little the
meaning OF these half dozen words.
Food in Richmond was for each
family daily effort. Every one was
on the shortest commons. If, as on
more than one occasion (but not on
many happened, meat ratons for
one or two or three days were not
issued to the prisoners in the Libby,
this was because there were no meat
rations TO issue. Up to the very last,
the best that could be done was done.
Whatever may have happened else
where, and whatever may have been
the provocation in Richmond, inten-
tional cruelty there was none. Ispeak
advisedly when I say that through
1864 not prisoner in the Libby pri
son Jared habitually harder than Gen.
Lee. In the middle of 1864, Mr..
Seddon, the Secretary of War, told
me he had given orders that delica-
cies, such as chickens, which not