The record-union., 1891-11-27
WANTED NO PRISONERS
General Stonewan jackson and the
Black Flag.

Black tIfig.
One chapter, however, furnished by
another pen, is new and startling-that
which ascribes to Jackson at one moment
a proposal TO raise the black flag. This
is the last extremity Of war, and its most
horrible baTbarity. The very word sug-
gests slaughter without mercy. The
black flag floats only at the masthead of
pirate ships, telling by a sign that cannot
be misunderstood that quarter will nelth-
er be asked nor given. In warfare on
land it would be understood as a mas
sacre of prisoners. a thing unknown
among nations of the present day, and
that would bring upon any man or any
Government that should attempt 1t, the
execration of the whole civilized world
The very idea OF such a thing is so alien
to the character of StOneWaI Jackson
that q statement Of this kind must be re-
ceived with great reserve. 1t would not
be deemed worthy of moments atten-
ton were it net that it is given on the au-
thority of his own brOther-in- law, Gen
eral Rufus Barringer. of the Confederate
Army, who details 1T considerable length
q remarkable interview that took place
after the Seven Days battles, whlie the
army was still encamped near Richmond.
But the statement is explicit, and leaves
no doubt that Jackson believed IN the
Cromweliian way Of carrying on war;
that if war must be, the more tremendous
the blows, the sooner VIII it come to an
end; and he would push the war into the
/ North, and make it felt in all its severity
But he would never have dealt with pris-
oners as Cromwell did with the Irish gar
rison of Drogheda. or Napoleon with the
Turks at JafIa. The best proof of what
he would do is in what he did do when
! the fortune Of war threw a whole garri-
son into his hands. At Harper's Ferry
he captured eleven thousand men, and
verify, he paroled them all, by which, in
stead of being sent 10 Southern prisons.
they were transported to q camp near
Chicago, where they were kept in COM
parative comfort till they were exchanged.
OF course if they violated their parole
they would be exposed to the utmost
penalty Of war. But the policy, instead
o. being cruel, was the mildest that could
have been adopted. 1t was not, however,
on the ground of humanity, but to olsen
! cumber his army that he might move it
rapidly, which he could not do with thou
sands Of prisoners dragging on its heels.
If at Harper's Ferry he had stopped to
look after them, it would have delayed
his march 10 Join Lee for the approaching
he would keep no prisoners it was for
military reason. He had laid ont a
plan Of campaign, which he believed, If
vigorously pursued, would end the war
It was to form three or four great 'mova-
| BILE columns of forty thousand men
EACH which should be literally stripped
for battle, leaving behind not only pris-
oners but even fortified posts, that the
whole fighting force might be concen-
trated into few compact bodies, which
could be moved with great rapidity into
the Northern States and against Northern
cities. That this grand stragegy would
have succeeded we do not believe, for the
best of al reasons, that it was twice at
tempted and failed at Antietam and Get
tysburg-in the first of which jackson
himself took part. But at the time of the
interview this had not been attempted,
and he was very sanguine OF success,
even picturing to himself how he would
plant his guns with shelling distance of
Philadelphia and New Iork!-Rev. II.
NJ. Field, DID, in Harper's Magazine.