The National tribune., 1884-01-17
coTee-co oilers to the Rear,


At loss for better reasons the New York
Sun now opposes the pensioning of our ex-
prisoners on the ground that the latter, as it
alleges, were not exposed during their con-
finement to the dangers which confronted
their comrades at the front escaping also
the military service exacted of the soldier
in the feld-and that many of them were
camp followers and coffee coolers" who
allowed themselves to be captured in order
to avoid the hardships and perils of an active
campaign. How utterly false these insin-
uations are, our readers do not need to be
told, but since they have found a response
BILE author in the Sun, it may be as well to
expose their groundlessness once and for all.
The San intimates that the inmates Of rebel
prisons had an easy time of it, as compared
with those who escaped capture and re-
manned at the front doing their share of the
fighting, and in every battle running the
risk of being killed or wounded. And so
they might, had the treatment which they
. received at the hands of the Confederate
authorities been such as the usages Of civil
lied warfare demanded, but the fact is that
in every Southern prison, without excep
ton, they were tortured, starved, and other
wise maltreated to that degree that the NOR
tally among them exceeded that of any
ordinary campaign. This is not matter of
speculation; the facts are well known and
the official records accessible to every one
Compare the actual condition of the soldier
at the front and the soldier at Anderson
vile! 1t is true that the former ran the
risk of losing his life at any moment, but,
on the other hand, that was only chance
and if he fell it would be in some glorious
moment in the heat of battle, whereas there
was ever present to the wretched captive at
Andersonyiile the certainty of death by dis
ease and starvation, and grave barren of
honor and name. II, as the Sun SO rashly
IN its conditions to that of soldier in
the line of duty, how shall we account
fer that fierce desire for Goods coun-
try which burned in the hearts of
every captive and inspired so many des-
perate attempts at escape? The truth is
that just the reverse of the Sans proposition
is the fact. The condition OF the prisoner in
Dixie was infinitely worse at all times than
that of any soldier at the front could posi-
bly, have been. His was no chance encoun-
ter with death, but a perpetual struggle for
existence Of the most desperate sort and
amid surroundings SO revolving, so barbar-
Gus, and so fendish that no pen has yet
ventured to describe them in their awful
nakedness
Nor is there any greater warrant for the
SIMS assertion that many of our soldiers
allowed themselves to be taken prisoners in
order to escape the risks and burdens of
campaign service. On the contrary, so
frightful were the reports brought back to
our armies by those who succeeded in effect
ing their escape from Southern prison pens
that capture came to be feared as something
worse than death. Let the Chickamauga
and Gettysburg prisoners tell with what
desperate valor they held their ground and
at what sacrifice of life their submission
was finally compelled! All! well they
know who shared the privations of Ander-
sonyille together that there were gathered
there the bravest of the brave, the most
daring of the daring How often in the his
tory of Shermans and Grants campaigns
were detachments ordered to positions where
their capture was not only inevitable, but
anticipated as necessary result of the COM
manding generals plans. As for the cof-
fee-coolers,n it was to the rear that they
turned their coward steps when the day was
lost, or if perehance, they were carried off
in the confusion, it was to desert to the Con-
federacy at the first opportunity These
"coffee-coolers were of much the same stuff
as the politicians and editors who are now
so busily engaged in abusing the soldier
appear to be made of, and to the rear with
them also, say wei
A Chat with Our Contributors.
In proportion as the circulation of THE
NATIONAL TRIBUNE has increased, the vol
ume of its daily correspondence has enlarged
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