Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1867-04-25
VOL 3S-WH0LE NO. 2O6 CLEARFIELD PA, THURS1

and in the Southern prisons That
question has not fully been settled,
but history will tell on whose heads
tho guilt for those sacrificed heca-
tombs of human beings is to be placed.
1t was certainly not the fault of poor
Captain Wirz, when, in consequence
of medicines having been declared
contraband Of war by the North, the
Union prisoners died for the want OF
the same How often have we read,
during the war, that ladies', going
South, had been arrested and placed
in the Old Capitol Prison by the
Union authorities, because some qui-
nine or other medicines, had been
found concealed in their petticoats
Our navy prevented the ingress OF
medical stores from the sea side, and
our troops repeatedly destroyed drug
stores, and even the supplies of pri-
vate physicians in the South. Thus,
the scarcity of medicines became gen.
eral all over the South. Surgeon J.
c. Pilot writes, September 6, 1864,
from Andersonville, (this letter was
produced by the Judge Advocate in
the Wirz trial) "We have but little
more than the Indigenous barks and
roots with which to treat the numer-
ous forms of disease to which our at
tention is daily called. For tho treat
ment of wounds, ulcers, etc, we have
literally nothing, except water. Our
wards, some of them, are wild with
gangrene, and we are compelled to
fold our arms and look quietly upon
its ravages, not even having stimulants
to support the system under its de-
pressing influence, the article being
so limited in supply that it can only
be issued for cases under the knife"
That provisions in the South were
scarce will astonish nobody, when it
is remembered how the war was car.
ried on. General Sheridan boasted in
his official report that, in the Shenan-
doah Valley alone, he burned two
thousand barns filed with wheat and
corn, and all the mills in the whole
tract of country; that he destroyed
all factories of cloths, and killed, OF
drove off, every animal, even to the
poultry, that could contribute to hu.
man sustenanee. And those desola-
tions were repeated in different parts
of the South, and that so thoroughly
that last month, two years after the
end of the war, Congress had to ap-
propriate a million of dollars, 10 save
the people Of those regions from actu.
al starvation. The destruction of rail
roads and other means of transporta
ton, by which food could be supplied
by abundant districts to those without
it, increased the difficulties in giving
sufficient food TO our prisoners.
The Confederate authorities, aware
Of their inability to sustain their pris-
oners, informed the Northern agents
of the great mortality, and urgently
requested that the prisoners should be
exchanged, even without regard Ia
the surplus which the Confederates
had on the exchange rolls from former
exchanges, that is, man for man. But
our War Department did not consent
to an exchange. They did not want
TO "exchange skeletons for healthy
men," : Finally, when all hopes Of cx
change were gone, Colonel Ould, the
Confederate Commissioner, offered
early in August, 1864, 10 deliver uI
all the Federal sick and wounded
without requiring an equivalent in re
turn, and pledged that the number
would amount TO ten or fifteen thou
sand, and fit did not, he would make
up that number with well men. AL
though this offer was made in August
the transportation was not sent fol
them (to Savannah) until December
although he urged and implored (tC
use his own words) that haste shoulC
be made. During that very perioC
the most of the deaths at Anderson
vile occurred. Congressman Covodc
who lost two sons in Southern pris
ons, will do well if he inquiries wht
those skeletons" were which th'
Hon. Secretary of War did not wan
to exchange for healthy men. If b,
docs, he will hereafter be perhaps les
bitter against the people of the South
{ But has the North treated her South
ern prisoners so well that she shoul'
lift up her hands and cry "anathema
over the South. Mr. Stanton report
to Congress, July 10, 1866, that o
Southern prisoners, there died in tn
} North, 26,436, and of Northern pris
oners in the South, 22,577. What
fearful record! Over 10000 Of pris
+ oners dying in the midst of plenty
, Mr.. Stanton gives the total numbc
of prisoners in the North at 100000
and in the South at l26,9l0. Suppos
this to be correct, though this state
ment comes certainly from no impair
r tial source, there died Of prisoners j
the South, without medicines an
provisions, the fifth part, and in th
North, with medicines and provisions
: the eighth part But in the numbe
+ of Southern prisoners in the Mort
are probably included the parole
prisoners of Lees, Johnston's an
: Smiths armies, who never entered
r Northern prison. If that be so, tb
mortality of Southern prisoners in th
5 North will be even greater than tina
Of the Federal prisoners in the South
h. We used justly TO proclaim in form
9 or times that ours was "the land {
f the free, and the home of the brave.
+ But when one-half of the coantry'
shrouded in a despotism, which no'
S only finds a parallel in Russian P'
D land. and when our generals and so