The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-07-09
From the Rochester Union.
The Horrors OF AndersOnV1lle.
1.-The Truth at Last.

! Federal SOtUleTS, TAKEN ny LAG W
starve and rot in rebel prison pens, and have
at last struck upon evidence that appears to
remove all doubt. This evidence, we are
glad to say, is of a character and comes
from a source that at once carrys conviction
| and relieves US of the liability to suspicion
of unfairness that might otherwise be enter
tanned by our Republican friends. We Ind
It in the documentary record OF that lmmac-
uate authority, the ''Committee on the Con-
duct of the War"-in a report made TO that
body by the chief of the impeachment
Managers, Maj. Gen. 3. +. Butler. The
position occupied by Gen. Butler at this
! time, in the eyes of the Radical party of the
country. especially adds great weight to his
/ testimony and serves TO give additional i'm
/ portarce and interest to the subject under
| consideration.
| In his report Gen. Butler recites the facts
! concerning the disagreement about the ex-
change of prisoners existing when he was
entrusted with the duties OF Commissioner
/ by the Secretary Of War. in December 1868.
/ He succeeded during the following three
months, alter much trouble, in arranging
the basis of an exchange, mar for man and
/ officer for officer, with the rebel Commission
I cr Mr.. Ould, with whom lie held conference
at Fortress Monroe. He then says:
''8Ir. Oud left on the lst of March, with
JIit uuGGISldlt4lLS IIldt "Ouid S6l Ah(uOIl
ty and information from my government, by
which all disputed points possible could be
adjusted, and would then confer with him
further, either meeting him at City Point or
elsewhere for that purpose. In the mean
time the exchanges of sick and wounded and
special exchanges should so on.
Lieut. Gen Grant visited Fortress Mon
roe on .he 1st of April, being the first time
/ had ever met him.
! ITO him the state Of the negotiations as to
/ exchange was verbally communicated, and
most emphatic rer5aE directions R,ere receiDed
from tie Lieutenant General not to take aay
step 6y 1cHich another a6ie-6odieR man should
be crchaRged until further orders from
ten,''
On the l4th Of April. General Grant at
/ Washington states that the whole subject OF
exchange of prisoners had been referred to
him as follows
WASHINGTON, II p. m, April Ia, 1864
MAJ. GEN. BUTLER Your report respecting
negotiations with Commissioner Ould for the
exchange Of prisoners of war, HAS BEEN EKFKR-
Ed To NE FOR sfY oRpEEE.
Until examined by NE. and my orders there
on are re"eived by you, DECLINE ALL FURTHER
DEMONSTRATIONS
U S. GRANT, Lieut.. Gen.
Six DAYS later, after General Grant had
"exGmined," he sent a long Telegram to
General Butler. stating that he had been
empowered to give such instructions as /
may deem proper" and he gave instruc-
tions of which General Butler says:
"Of course these instructions, in the then
state of negotiations, rendered any further
exchange impossible, and retaliation useless"
General Butler says he then made effort
to have the sick and wounded excepted, go
that they might be exchanged, and be re-
ceived the following telegram in reply:
WASHINGTON. 9 30 p. M, April 30. 1864.
MAJ. GES. B. +. BUTLER: Receive all the
sick and wounded the Confederate authorities
viii send you, SEND NO MORE IN EXCHANGE.
U. S. GRANT, Lieut.. Gen.
Upon this extraordinary instruction"
General Butler remarks as follows:
ITO obtain delivery of even sick and
wounded prisoners without any return would
be somewhat difficult operation, save that
toe enemy, by giving US our wounded aud
/ sick in their hand, we retaining all the rebel
| sick and wounded in ours, burdened us with
! the care and cost of all the sick and wound
| ed of both sides-an operation of which it
is difficult to see the stragetic value, and
| only to be defended because of its humanity
! in rescuing our wounded from the destitu-
ton of suiferings permitted to them by the
! Confedcrates."
In August the question of exchanging
prisoners was again mp, the rebel >Commis
sioners having renewed the offer to give man
for man and officer for officer. But Gen.
Grant interposed, and in telegram to Gen.
Butter, dated CITY Point, August 1s, 1864,
said:
On the subject Of exchange, differ with
Gen. Hitchcock it is hard our men held in
Southern prisons not TO exchange them, but is
hum anity to those left in the ranks to fight our
battles. Every released on parole or
otherwise becomes an active soldier against US
ut once either directly OF indirectly. If We
commence a system of exchange which liber-
ates all prisoners taken we will have to fight
on until the whole South is exterminated. If
we hold these men caught they amount to no
more than dead men. At this particular time,
! to release all rebel prisoners North would in
sure Sherman's defeat, and would compromise
| our safety hero.
u. S. GRAKr, Lieut.. Gen.
Here we have full and free avowal that
| the leaving of tens of thousands of poor
| Federal soldiers, whose patriotism and
/ bravery carried them to the front of battle,
| to starve, and rot, and die in rebel prison
| pens was matter Of studied policy-a part
! of the tactics by which Gen. Grant made
war upon the rebellion. And the people
will remember that while this inhumaR pol
! icy was being meFcilessly carried out they
| were told by the government and by the Or
! gaus of tho administration that the whole
difficulty about the exchange was on the part
! of the rebels-that our government was will
! ing and anxious to set our poor fellows out
of the jaws of the terrible death that await
ed them in the rebel prisons, but could not.
| The dupioity wasin keeping with the worse
than bar rbarity.
Gen. Butler concludes his report in these
words =;
a. ss4have felt it my duty to give an account
with this particular carefulness of my par
ticipation in the business of exchange of
prisoners, the orders under which acted,
| and the negotiations attempted, whish COM
prises faithful narration of all that was done,
SO that all may become matter of history.
1.-The great Importance of the questions I,