Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-04-29
FROM BEAUREGARD.
Letter from the Famous Soldier 10
Governor Porter in RefeFsT cs TO
Ihe STRUCTURES of General
FFau& shermaa, Of
Chicago.
he war 10 she Knife" Proposition
EXpIsInsd d-EOBGEasIs between
Federal and Confederate
Treatment OF PriB-
0neFS OF war.
Nashville Union and American

I EE OeleI&A fEaDh sherman at Lle re
cent meeting In Chicsgo when the ques
ton OF inviting ex-ConfedeTates 10 par
ticipate in the national reunion ther
was under consideration. The letter i
in resp0nse to one from Governor Por
ter to General Beauregard on the sub
ject, and was received by the gOyernO
yesterday:
NEW ORLEANS, LA, April 26, 1870.
DEAR SIR-Your favor of the eigh
teenth instant has been received, encIos
ing the form Of an invitation adopted
| by general meeting OF the soldiers
sailors and citizens of Chicago, to b.
sent ito all who recognize the American
flag as an emblem OF nationality undi
vided and indiUisi6le, to attend q granC
reunion of all the soldiers and sailors o
! the United States, to be held at Chicago
| May H. Is and IA, 1852 and inquiIing
how much ruth there is in the remarks
| Of a certain General Frank Sherman
! who objected to the Invitation being ex.
! tended to me, as "he was not in ia Vor OF
| extending an invitation to a man who
| had said he was in favor of shooting al
| prisoners taken under the American
| flag" I had hoped that the passions
| aud enmities OccasiOned by the late wal
we're replaced by kindlier feelings, but
| 1t seems that there are hearts still ran.
corOus enough to be even anxious to
again stir into fame the dying embers
of the war. In this section of our cOun-
try, such exhibitions Of animnsity are
confined to those who, during the war,
were farthest from the enemy, gather.
ing up the spoils in the wake
OF the cOntendiDg armies. Is not
this General Frank Sherman one OF
those despicable characters? Not from
any regard for such windy defamation,
norfJr the man mean enough 10 sink to
such base pandering to popular passions,
but out Of respect to myself and to that
cause whose high and holy purpose his
tory will some day vindicate, will very
briefly and frankly state the position l
took in regard to the conduct of the late
civil war. Ss concerned Federal prison.
ers. After the battle Of the first Manas-
sas, when it was rep Drted that the Fed
eral government refused to recognize
Confederate prisoners as "prisoners of
war; hat christian hero and able sol
dier, General Thomas J. (StoneWall)
Jackson and myself advocated that the
Confederate government should then
proclaim "wsr to the Bnife,' neither
asking nor granting quarter. We more
over thought that the war would there
by come sooner to an end, with less de-
ztructiOn, finally, Of life and property,
We thought, also, that such q mode OF
warfare would inspire greater terror In
the armed invaders of Our soil and re-
duce gIeaUy the numEer Of army fol-
lowers, bummers, etc, who are ever the
curse Of all armed invasIOns. Subse-
quently, when the Federals had pene-
rrRted certain portions of the south
and developed system Of
warfare SO diametricslly opposed
10 the one prscticed by the
COnfederates, when theyinvaded Mary
isnd and Pennsylvania under the great
commander, General r K Lee, and l
saw the onaaoiGted forms and Wretched
condition Of our returned southern pTis-
0ners, l again advocated the hOi5ting of
the black flag, willing ct any time to
forfeit my lie in the deadly struggle.
Notwithstanding these views / always
treated my prisoners with humanity and
proper consideration. had the fortune
Of taking many thousands of them at
Manassas, Shiloh, charleston, Drury'o
Bluff, Bermuda Hundreds and Peters
burg, most Of whom are still alive, sup
pose, and can land certainly WOuld) tes-
tiiy to the fact. After the fall of Fort
Sumter In April, 1861, granted to the
garrison the same cOnsiderate terms
which / had offered before the attack.
Through my iUtercessiOn, the Federal
surgeons and ministers of the gospel,
taken at Manassas, We're released with
out exchange by the Confederate gov
erument. The day after that battle one
of the Federal officers (WhOse friends l
IL, \ Il 70 S...-
small loan for himself and friend, which
| furnished at once from my private
funds. 1t was faithfully returned
Shortly after the battle of Shiloh, l seut,
under a c8rtel, a certain number of able
bodied Federal prisoners to General
HSlleck, who, several weeks after, re-
turned an nequel,number Of cOnvGleScents
from st. Louis to Fort Pjlo1O; the Of
finer in command thsre refused to re.
ceive them, because several of them
we're just from g smallpox hospital.
General Halleck failed afterwsrd to
make the exchange. At Charleston l
authorized Admiral Danlgreen to send
supplies Of clothing, etc., to the pTis Iners
We had taken from him; those supplies
were scrupulously issued to them. At
Bermuda Hundreds, in May, 1854, when
passing in front OF q large body OF Fed.
eral prisoners, who had gsilantly de-
tended q position which considered in
dispensable to us, took off my hat to
them and they answered this sslutatiOn
with cheers. Terribly as | desired the
effects of the war to fall on all armed in
vaders OF our country, l wanted exs
empted from them the non-cOmbatants,
that is the old men, women and chill
dren, and wished also that private prop
erty, not cOutrabard of war and not
needed by the contending armies in the
field, should be entirely protected from
seizure or destruction. Such would
have been my course had l penetrated
with an army into Federal territory,
unless it we're in strict retaliation
for material departures by the
Federal forces from this civilized
mode of carrying on the war. In the
statement made abOvs relative TO the
system of warfare adopted Dy the Fed
erals, dramatically opposed to that
practiced by the Confederates, / had
reference 10 their operations in LOuisi-
ana, Mississippi and Virginia, and the
ineXcusable burning of Atlanta and CO.
lumbia, and the destructive march of
General Sherman through Georgia and
South Carolina, whose track was marked
ky smoking ruins and blackened CHM
neys; to the suggestion of General Hal.
Ieck to destroy Charleston and sprinkle
salt on the site, that not even grass
should grow thereon, TO which General
Sherman replied that no salt would be
needed, ss one Of bis most reliable corps
formed the right wing of his army, and
that it always did its work thoroughly;
to the devastating march Of GeBeTal
Sheridan thr )ugh the Shenandoah val.
ley, relative to which he reported to the
general in-chief Of the United States ar
mics that 'a crow flying over the coun-
try would have to carry its own ra-
tions;n but he did not say what bscame
OF the old men, women and children
who then lived In that fertile valiey
With regard to the mortality Of prisoners
on both sides the Washington Union
(Radical) of October, 1858, contained
the following article: "In reply TO q
resolution of the house OF representa-
tives calling upon the secretary Of war
Tor the number of prisoners OF either
side held and that died during the war,
he makes the following report: Mum
bar OF Union prisoners south, 26O, $40;
died, 22 sos; nunbe Of Confederate
prisoners north, 200, 900; died, 26, ,435."
That is OF the former out OF every Y,
and OF the latter out of every Is. Com
ment Is here unnecessary in view OF the
COL dition and resources Of those two
sections Of country. remain, dear sir,
yours most truly,
G. T. BRAUREGARD.
To His Excellency Jss, ID, Porter. yashTiIia