The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1865-04-20

Adnissioa of confsasrats A,roclsa,.,


The Confederate Congress appointed
committee to rake up charges to off.
set our record of their barbarous treat.
ment OF our captive soldiers. The re.
sult is what might be expected from =
concern whose first principle is false
hood: There is no hesitation or Auali.
hcation in making their case. They
zmake the bold assertion that the pris-
ioners we hold are as badly treated as
tholrs. They instance several cases of
'eIRaeiated persons returned in the OK
changes of the sick. Their defense
against the evidence of starving our
Soldiers is Of two p0rts; 1st, they as
1sert that the rations furnished the pris-
zoners were never less Aan those of
their soldiers who guarded them I'd.
stbat the short rations were in conse,
zqucncc Of our destruction of their SUP.
7plies.
AS TO the exposure of the prisoners
ION Belle Isle to the in.lemcncies ofthe
weather, the Committee makes the
sbrazen assertion that they all had tents
5and fires 1t insults their sufferings
4by charging their filth and vermin to
sthcir own habits, and that it might be
expected that "the scrapings and rak-
sings Of Europe would be filthy in their
shabits. , -
Even this committee has not the as
ssnrancc 10 charge that the rations fur
spishcd rebel prisoners are insufficient.
! 3Thc people OF the South have had many
zwitnceses in their own returned sol.
sdiers that the rations were abundant.
5We have The evidence Ufthe dead. and
.of thousands who have escaped out of
! lthc jaws Of death, that the course of
sthe rebel authorities toward our pris-
soners, whether in scarcity or abun.
ldancc, Is deliberate starvation.'
1 The scarcity Of food is no excuse for
seiarying prisoners, cvenifit were true.
I'm fact, there never has been any
sscarcity that made it impossible to
sprocurc food. NJ beiligercnt has the
Fright to hold prisoners Of war whom
sit cannot feed There is always the
saIlcrnalive ofdischarging them. The
eCouiederatcs might lavc done it on
Sparo.c. We may allow that belliger-
Gents always have expenses enough
swithoat supporting prisoners. Our
sGoyerEmcnt finds il Lcovy charge,
fand SO, doubtless, DO the Confederates.
9But there is abundant evidence that
ssthc barbarit.cs to our soldiers were in
sstig1ted BY something more than neces-
ssity Or cc0noIhy-by u domoniacal
tcruelty. We have evidence of their
sbeing starved in the midst of plenty
zof their being refused opportunity to
sproyidethemse,ycs shelter in the midst
sof timbcred country; Of their being
sshot for the amusement Of the guard
2of thousands beng confined where for
amonihs, there was not water enough
afDr drinking And our correspondent
Ehss described how, st Wilmington, the
sprisoners WHO had been brought there
stor exchange, after having been de-
sprivcd Of food for three days, had the
aiood which the pity Of some Of the in
8habitants had brought to relieve their
Changer taken and trampled in the
9mud before their eyes by Confederate
3soldiers. There is fcndish spirit of
scruelty in the treatment Of our men in
zthe South that is inhuman in our north
Germ civilization and is TO us almost in
4crcdible.
Z But this report Of The Committee ad-
smits the charge that was made at the
stme, but which seemed too strocious
Sfor belief, that during Colonel DAHL
SGREy's expedition against Richmond,
athe Confederate authorities prepared
"a mine under Libby Prison, and as
Sthey say, placed in it quantity of
sgnnpowdcr for the purpose of blowing
Cup the buildings with their inmates in
sscase Of an attempt to rescue them
AThe Committee defends this plot to
Eblow up five or six thousand prisoners
sof war with gunpowder in case of a
5prospect OF DAnLGREN's success in en-
ktering the city. A docament which
aadmIts such an atrocity wastes words
/ in denying any other.-[Cincinnati
EGazcttc.