Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1876-01-29
TREATMENT OF CONFEDERATE PRIs-
ONERS,

y IhEAIMENTOf CONFEDERATE PRlS
It ONERS.
EDITOR REPUBLICAN l was si,
times prisoner of the Confederate
during the late war. ard, by virtue O
: personal experience as well as tn
Y testimony Of brother officers, hav
As authentic knowledge of the treat
ment experienced by captured Unio,
officers and soldiers as the Hon. Mr.
q Blaine eau possibly procure at second
hand.
The last time [ was released tn,
. Confederate officer in command re
= turned to me my watch, without IN,
ever having asked it. Another Con
federate paid me fifteen dollars il
greenbacks for pair of boots, il
, order to provide me with money t.
assist me III my return north. In eacf
anu every instance my word wa.
y taken as to the valuables in my DOS
session, and my person was neve,
searched. An expensive fielG-gla.
was twice returned to me as a matter
Of courtesy. On the occasion of on
escape, however, into the federal
, lines, the first Union command Ell.
l
Marine orig ade," at that time sta.
toned ut Carolina Landing, Missis.
Gppi-stole from me every single
thing they could lay their hands on,
and laughed at me for claiming re.
stitution although l was abundant
ly able to prove TO their entire satis-
faction that was all escaped Union
officer, crippled for life in the sup
port of tae principles they them
selves professed, and the cause they
supported.
In all engagement near Smyrna,
FLORIDA. early i'll the war-March,
1862-whem the bitterness and hos-
tility of the southerners toward their
northern assailants was at its highest
pitch, 1t happened that the writer
chanced to be one of small party of
forty-three Unionlsts who were at
tackled at disadvantage by a great
~ superior force of Confederates,
both of his superior officers being
Killed, himself wounded, and most Of
the remainder of the detachment
captured. From the official account
tol the engagement, reported in the
NOW ork Tribune of April z, 1862,
make the following extract:
"The bodies of Capts. Budd and
lMather were given up by the rebel
officer in command, Capt. Bird Of the
San Augustine Blues. With the bodies
were given up the watches, keys and
other personal property Of Capts-
lBudd aud Mather, and even the papers
Icentaining their orders aud instruc.
|ltions."
Instances of courtesy similar to the
foregoing might be multiplied indie
1t is perfectly we'll understood by
all the better informed among the
officers and soldiers who served on
the northern side during the recent
fratricidal and foolish war, that the
responsibility for the privations ex-
iperienced bv the captured federals
rests upon Edwin N. Stanton, and
U. 5. Grant, as those who deliberate.
ly refused to permit all exchange of
prisoners, i'll order to deprive the
'Confederates of the reinforcements
they would receive in the field from
the able-bodied soldiers that would |
Iotherwlse be returned TO them. The |
as all are now aware,
were frequently unable to provide |
suitable food for their own soldiers,
not to mention medical supplies, etc.
but the Confederatss were generally i
THEIR scahry *ffatlons;,' ana. seep them:
selves alive when their commissariat
proved inadequte by "foraging upon
the country" ;" in other words, by
begging, buying or taking the sup
plies they SO much needed. But the
Union prisoners within the stockade
at Andersonville were, of course, un-
able to thus relieve their necessities
and that their suffering in conse-
quence was extreme and terrible, is
beyo question. That hor-
rlole cruelties were perpetratpd by
wicked aud barbarous men on either
SIDE Is unfortunately too true. The
"death-line penalty" was enforced as
wantonly at the old capitol prison,
at Washington, D. c., as at Auder-
and for proof of this one
heeus but TO turn to chapter 10 of
s'Border and Baetile," by we'll
English author and cavalry
ohcer, who was himself All inmate of
that prison, and an eyewitness of the
shameful scenes he there depicts.
"Col. Osband's Union brigade of
whites and blacks in separate regi-
lnents was stationed in Central Mis-
slssIppi during 1864 and 1865, and
can affirm that the me-
groes of that notorious command.
not content with seldom or never
taking any prisoners or giving any
quarter themselves, used to attempt
to slaughter in cold blood the Con-
federstes captured by the white regi.
Ment serving with them. 1t would
be no difficult matter to multiply
similar atrocities to which the writer
was all unwilling witness, but what
9oou purpose could it serve at this
ate day War is bitter and cruel
hing at its humanest and it's best.
and civil warts ever the most malig-
laht. The good people Of the north
sfn r states dwell i'll happy ignorance,
,f the worst part of the conduct of
Many among their petted heroes, ut
,erly unmindful Of the Justice of the
maxim, audi alteram partem.
The plain truth OF the matter is ,
hat neither Federals nor Confeder-
lies nave anything to be proud of re- :
!arding the general treatment of
prisoners, while both have very much i,
o regret.
Firmly believing i'll doing eveu- $
J"otiCC ~ our OppOnentS, L
I'm happy i'll being able to state, in
:hat my earnest and hon
'st convictions in relation to the {
reatment OF federal prisoners by the a
are entirely in harmony
WIN the statements made by Mr..
Hill, Of Georgia.
ALBERT WARREN KELSEY. I
st. Louis, Jan. IA, 1876. @
L.,
"Phew" said u St. Louis merchant (
whom Chicago merchant had !
no VII his gas hill f,.nm Dnco,nla, !,