The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-11-06
THE Ex-PRrsoNERs OF WAR PENSION

certainly, IN no civilized war OF the pres
ent century was the fate Of prisoners of
war so wretched as was that of those men
who were so unfortunate as to be captured
by the rebels after the Both of June, 1863.
1t was then that, owing to the gross bad
faith of JEFF Davis's Government, the ex-
change was permanently interrupted, and
the men taken in the later operations were
! held in prison until released by death or
the close of the war 1t is true that some
portion of the responsibility for this inter
ruption rests upon our Government, rs
stern military necessity, but infinitely the
greater portion weighs upon that gang OF
reasonable conspirators, who deluged the
land with blood in the furtherance of their
wicked ambition. All the infamous mall
treatment was part of their settled policy.
They would have sent every man in the
North, and everyone in the South, but
themselves, TO his grave, without tinge of
conscience, to secure success.
At the outbreak of the rebellion our Gov
eminent was embarrassed in arranging for
exchanges of prisoners by the fear that il
would give such recognition of the legality
of the instruction as would afford England
and France the desired pretcxt for recog
nizing the Southern Confederacy. A cartel
was ut last arranged in the Spring of 1862,
by the terms of which all prisoners then
held on either side were paroIed and ex-
changed, and it was provided that all future
captures should be paroled on the field, and
reported TO their respective Exchange Blu
reaus. This arrangement was soon found to
work badly. Rebel guerrillas captured
the male inhabitants Of whole sections Of
country, and paroled them as offsets to
regular rebel soldiers captured by us.
Fictitious lists of men were sent in who had
never been in the rebel hands Then, on
both sides, men surrendered to get fur
Laughed home while waiting for exchange,
A modification of the cartel was made which
provided that all prisoners taken must be
reduced to possession, and delivered to the
respective parties at City Point, Va, or
Nicksburg, Miss" Under this arrangement
the surplus of prisoners to the credit of the
United States rapidly increased, much to
the chagrin of the rebel leaders.
The capture of the garrisons of Vicksburg
and Port Hudson increased this surplusage
enormously. Thousands of the Vicksburg
prisoners who had been impressed into the
rebel army took advantage of their being in
the Union lines 10 stay there. The rebel
leaders tried to balance the account by
ordering back TO duty all the paroled prison
/ ers within the Confederate lines They
| simply announced to our Government that
they had declared ali the prisoners ex-
changed, "sand that was the end Of the mat
ter As the little boys say, IF we didn't
| like II, we could lump IT," II is estimated
that fully 10000 of the men captured at
| Vicksburg fought as at Chickamauga, and
their assistance gave the rebels ali the success
that they attained. OF course we could not
20 on in this way, capturing soldiers and re-
leasing them to fight us again. The Govern
ment then adopted the policy Of offering TO
exchange man for man of oil prisoners in
hand. The rebels stubbornly insisted that
the surplus should be pRroled, becoming
more determined as the surplusage In our
hands grew from about 10000 at the close Of
the operations Of 1863 to more than 100, 900
at the end Of 1864. They deliberately made
the condition of the Union prisoners in their
hands as bad as possible, that their sufferings
and misery might arouse public sentiment
at the North which would force the Govern
ment to yield, and agree TO the rebel de-
mands for the release and sending home of
the vast army held in Northern prisons. 1t
would have been suicidal for the Govern
ment TO do this. Think of the result OF
giving JEFF Davis 100, 900 fresh, we'll fed, we'll
rested men to put in front of Grant aud
Shermanl
The lamentable consequence was that the
men in the hands Of the rebels had TO stay
there and be tortured by the malignant
scoundrels set over them TO wreak upon
them the disappointment Of JEFF Davis &
Co. How thoroughly this devlish work was
done is told only too well by tho statistics
Never was such awful mortality known ~
among the Union prisoners in the year 1864
and the early part of 1865. OF the AZ, OOC
men who so much as set foot in Anderson.
Vile 1926 died there, without taking into
J account the vast number who died after
J leaving, in other prisons. The records o.
; mortality of even the best month showed
that everybody in the prison would hav,
died inside Of year, while the rate in Sep
TENDER and October would have carried of
everybody in about 60 days. Here are th,
official figures, which w know TO be below
the terrible reality:
In April, 1864, one in every 10 died.