The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-08-15
nm. Tru,h OF Hi.lory.

prisons during the war. The record OF
wretcbedness, starvation and death which
has been published has caused thrill OF
horror all over the land. There has been
a disposition to affix the guilt of these
things upon the southern people and hold
up those who had charge of our prisoners
to the execration of the world as mon
sters in human form. But by degrees
the truth Of history is being revealed and
the responsibility for the suferings IN
dergoue by our soldiers is being shifted
upon other shoulders than those upon
which it was originally placed. 1t is be-
coming more and more apparent and Is
being more and morr generally believed
that the rebels did not wilfully starve
orr prisoners, but that they cared for
their comfort as well rs the military and
financial straits to which they were re-
duced by the operations of our armies
and the stringency of our blockade would
permit The prisoners were fed upon the
same rations given to rebel soldiers in
the field, but still they suffered intensely
and thousands OF them died horrible
deaths Public attention is now being
directed to the persons who are response
BILE tor the retention of our soldiers in the
prison pens of the South and facts are
being produced to show that the rebel
authorities were anxious to exchange
prisoners, anxious to relieve our men and
send them home from the climate and
the diet ard the confinement which were
causing them to die at the rate of one
hundred per day, but one man in author
ity at the North said it should not be
done. That man was EDWIN VI. ST ANTON.
With full knowledge that ont men were
dying by thousands in pestilential south
ern swamps aud that every sentiment of
humanity dictated that they should be
Immediately released even though it
should cost US some sacrifice which would
enure to the advantage of the South, Mr..
STANTON stopped the exchange of prso-
ners and purposely so complicated the
questions growing out OF the cartel as
that the rebels were compelled To retain
our men in the prisons in which they NET
their death and from which they would
have released them gladly.
Upon this point General BUTLER fur
nishes some testimony Having been for
some time Commissioner Of Exchange
be is prepared to speak with authority
concerning these things In his speech
al Lowell, after the Fort Fisher affair,
General BUTLER referred to the demand
which had been made upon the rebels fol
the exchange Of negro troops Or none. and
said these questions were argued obtru-
sively with OULD, not for me parposs Of
f.rthaiag an erchGagN IF prisoners, 6nt ,or
The purpose Of preesnting and stopping tls
srchaaSs, and furnishing Il ground on r1jct
IRE could fairly stand"
Still further testimony upon the sub
iect is furnished by Mr. j II BROwN,
who was a war spondent of tie New
York Tribune; was captured By the rsbels;
imprisoned at several places in Tie
Soutb; and finally madehis escape Since
ihe war he bias published book entitled
-Four Yesrs in Secessia," in which he
charges upon STANTON tie responsibility
for the suffeIiugs OF our prisoners in the
Senth Nj c. A DANA, late of the war
Office, but now of the Chicago Republican,,
entered the list as STATIONS defender =
His defeuse is eimply an evasion Of the
charge Of Mr. Brown, and is TINS replied
TO By the latter gentleman, in the n Y
Tribune of Friday:
Mr.. Dana does hot undertake to meet
toe main and only important question
beyond the general and incidental decla-
ration that not one of all the prisoners
In the South could make Stanton respon-
sible for the tortures he suffered in the
South. This is simply not true, as all
who bad any acquaintance with the adj
ministration of affairs ut Washington
during two years previous to the close of
the war must, should think, have been
aware. ...rs. g,
MIR Richardson and myself spent
nearly week in the National Capital af-
ter our escape, endeavoring to do all that
was possible for the release u the brave
men in the hands of ne enemy; and
every one We met there told the same
story, that the S',retary Of IYdr ,cos the OBJ
stacle In the ray Of the resumption Of The
erchonce.
Moreover, General Butlerin his speech
at Lowell, Mass, stated positively that
ne had been ordered by Dir Stanton to
put forward the negro question to COM
plicate and prevent the exchange Col
4. 3. Straight, of Indianapolis. Ind, a
fellow prisoner with us in the Libby,
told Mr.. Richardson after our return to
freedom, that, in an interview between
the Secretary and himself. the former dc
slared to him that the Government could
not afford 10 erckaRge ab'e-bOdied men for
skeletons. Other officers and civilians.
whose names l cannot now remember,
have assured me that he had used to
them the same language in effect and
there is no doubt whatever that that was
his policy and his determination until
, the clamors OF the people compelled him
to retire FROM his baraarous position.
Every one is aware that, when the
exchange did take place not The slightest
alteration had occurred in the question.
hot l.,