The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-06
GEN. BEAUREGARD.

Gen. Beauregard, in which it applies TO I'M
!. gentlemen the epithets of barbarian
Savage" "brute," "Modoc," "butcher, et'
4, The occasion of this attack is letter, write
] April 23d, 1875, to Gov. JAS d. Porter, {
Nashville, Tenn, in answer to letter
Porter relative to charge OF one FRANK onel
man. Soldiers sailors and citizens {
: Chicago had extended an invitation to re
. union of all soldiers and sailors of the Unite
States, to be held at Chicago, May IL, - an
. IA, the invitation being ''to all who recogniz
the American flag as an emblem of nationality,
etc. Frank Sherman objected to the sendin
Of an invitation to Gen. Beauregard becaus
, of the latter having declared himself Gin favo
of shooting all prisoners taken under tn
: American flag"
Gov. Porter wrote to Beauregard to ascer
tain the facts and the letter was written in re
ply. We gave it in full in our issue Of Apri
80. We reproduce two paragraphs from thu
letter, as follows:
After the battle Of the first Manassas, when il
Was reported that the Federal Government
refused to recognize Confederate prisoners as
"prisoners of war, that Christian hero and
able soldier, Gen. Thomfs J. (Stonewall)
jackson, and myself advocated that the Con-
tederate Government should then proclaim a
"war to the knife" neither asking nor grant
ing quarter. We, moreover, thought that the
war would thereby come sooner to an end,
with less destruction, finally, Of life and
property. We thought, also, that such q
| mode of warfare would inspire greater terror
| sv,< ha cd inv If nu nil md
greatly the number Of army followers, bum
mers, ETC., who are ever the curse of all
| armed invasions.
Subsequently, when the Federals had pene.
trated certain portions of the South, and de-
| veloped system of warfare in their opera
ton in Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia,
so Numerically opposed to the one pr.,cticed
by the Confederates, when they invaded
Maryland and Pennsylvania under their great
commander, Gen. R. E. Lee, and I saw the
emaciated forms and wretched condition of
our returned Southern prisoners, I again ad-
vocated the hosting of the black Dag, willing
at any time to forfeit my life in the deadly
struggle.
This policy was rendered still more justif.
able by the inexcusable burning of Atlanta
and Columbia, and the destructive passage of
Gen. Sherman through Georgia and South
Carolina, whose track was marked by smok-
ing ruins and blackened chimneys; by the
suggestion of Gen. Halleck to destroy Charles
ton and sprinkle salt on its site that not even
grass should grow thereon, to which Gen. s.
replied that no salt would be needed, as one
of his most reliable corps formed the right
wing of his army. and that it always did its
work thoroughly; by the devastating march
of Gen. Sheridan through the Shenandoah
Valley, relative to which he reported to the |
General-in-Chief of the armies that "a crow
flying over the country would have to carry
its own rations," but he did not say what be- |
came of the old men, women and children
who then lived in that fertile valley.
Gen. Beauregard, in spirit Of candor as
characteristic Of his noble nature, as it is far
removed from any idea of policy, frankly tells
Gov. Porter what he said and why he said it, |
We are not called upon to Justify what he
said, nor to attempt to vindicate him, nor to |
adduce arguments in favor of the policy of
making no prisoners of armed men. Inter-
esting as the subject is, and as plausible as
the arguments which might be used on either |
side, we are not now summoned to array our
selves in the negative or affirmative on the |
question which presented itself to many
minds during the war. We are not now pro-
voked to discuss the question whether the
abuses. starvation, torture, insults and humi-
iations of Southern soldiers who were car
led away captive to Northern prisons was, or
was not worse than immediate death on the
ield of battle. We need not recite the priva-
ions and barbarities which Southern prisoners
,ndured at the hands of those who were
Ibundantly supplied with clothing, rations
md medicine.
We need not count up the thousands and
ems of thousands of Confederate soldiers
Who were literally starved to death in prisons
nd within easy reach of thousands of tons
f meat and flour. A hundred years from
be close of the war the barbarities of North
m war prisons will blister the cheeks Of
lmericans with shame. To spare the lives
f the captured in war, in order that no
eedless damage or crime may result, is the
revalent rule of modern warfare; but to
orture captives with the pains of hunger is }
o better than to burn them to death, tied to
be trunks of trees. No wonder that our
eroic and humane Beauregard was con-
inced that immediate death upon the field !
battle was better than lingering death in .
ne Of the filthy pens in. which our Oonfed- e
rate prisoners were confined.
We will not speculate upon any possible or
robable result of the rule Of neither asking 9
or receiving quarter. Besides Gen. Beaure- 9
ard, the rule had its advocates on both
des. Many Union oficers thought that
lose who made war upon the flag of the =
MON deserved no quarter. Many Southern a
EN- in and out of the army thought that the a
ickedness of the invasion of the Southern p
ates deserved instant death. But these are !,
cts which pertain to the past, which none v
1t participants can pretend to understand. o
hese questions are not at issue, and we can il
lily claim in passing, that the declarations !; :
ID opinions of 1862, 3 and A. uttered on Il
e field of battle musk ha conafrnad hv thu ~