The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-12-08
WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF
PRISONERS DURING THE CIVIL WAR?
BY JOHN SHIRLEY WARD

IL Under the order of the war department,
which was dominated by Secretary STAN
ton. neither officer nor soldier captured
on the line of battle was allowed the
benefit OF parole, and if they accepted
| it they were dlsbonored for disobedience
and sent back into the ranks, to be treat
| ed bv the laws OF war as traitors as trait
ors if they should be recaptured by tho
| Confederates.
The confederates captured nearly 5000
| prisoners at Gettysburg, and proceeded
| to parole them on the field, but when
they had given parole to bout 1000 this
order of the dark ages from Secretary
! Stanton came to hand, and the other 1000
| had to foot 1t to Richmond, weary
| march OF several hundred miles, to under
| go the discomtorts OF Libby or Anderson
| Vile. Was this torturs needed to make
/ these brave men respect the dignity and
| power of their government, when each
| one knew that such an order was q VIC.
! lation of the solemn honor OF his govern
ment, which it had willingly carried out
whenever the south held more prisoners
| than it did?
After thousands Of union prisoners ha d
been paroled and allowed to 20 home
| until lhey were exchanged, the war de-
partmcnt of the federal government mod
| flied the cartel, under which general
exchange of prisoners was agreed on, and
| lin tied the exchange TO those held in
confinement" This order could only
mean, to people OF ordinary common
sense, this: That those who have been
paroled are safe at home. and we will not
allow the confederates to use them as sx-
changes for prisoners afterwards cap.
tured. Had the confederntes not regard
ed tn , honor of these they would have
keps them in prison. The confedreates
expected that the United States govern
ment would stand by the obligations of
her soldiers, many of whom mad been
aptured close by the lannon's mouth.
But this order returning them to the
army, though their parole OF nonor was
then in the hands of the confederate war
department, and ii violated brings them
10 the gallows or other ignominious form
of death by the laws and usages OF war.
This was fighting with halter around
their necks.
These 1000 prisoners captured at Gettys-
burg were marched back to Richmond
under all the hardships OF a government
not able to furnish anything except the
scantiest supplies TO her own soldiers.
and were sent to their necessary doom at
Libby or Andersonville, when according
to the cartel they should have been sent
home tn their families, as brave soldiers
OF the union. to be exchanged when the
number OF prisoners ON each side would
justify. They felt that they were entitled
to o parole on the field. but their govern
ment had restricted their exchange to
those in confinement.
90 not desire to avoid any question
which gave the federal government
plausible excuse for not carrying out the
cartel. One reason given by the United
States governments for failure to carry
out the conditions for the exchange Ut
prisoners under the cartel was that the
south had violated the cartel in refusing
to exchange negroes equally with white
soldiers. Did this refusal to recognize the
lats slaves OF the south as legitimate
prisoners OF war justify the federal gov
eminent in permitting her brave white
soloiers In southern prisons to die. in
order to force the confederate govern
ment to exchange as prisoners some OF
their former slaves?
The south's position on this question
Is best esta blished by review OF the ex-
pressed anImus of the United States gov
eminent at the beginning OF the war and
its aims,
When Mr.. Lincoln was on his way to be
inaugurated, and alsoIin his inaugural ad-
dress, be denied any desire to interfere
with slavery in the states, aud his pro-
clamation OF war against the south was
not because of her acceptance and en-
dorsement of slavery, but because OF her
effort to dissolve the union. 1t was this
call to save the union which thrilled ths
heart of the north from Maine to the Pa
citic. If these thousands had been called
to plot out negro slavery there would
never have been union army. Even
after the war was under full Roadway and
the federal army had crossed into Ken
lucky there was no evangel in Its front,
procIaiming emancipation of tho negro,
and there was not a day in the year 1862
when Kentucky Shareholder, who was
raising a regiment to save the union,
could not have sold his own negroes on
the block without m ole station. Mr.. Lin
CA1, in n 10 6rgt mol ma a or
congress to pass an act for the abolition
of slavery III the year nineteen hundred,
each Shareholder to be compensated for
his slaves. This he thought would save
the mon. He CLOSED this message with
paragraph that all the loyal OF the
south "shuuld be compensated for all
losses by acts of the United States, in
Guiding losses OF slaves"
In the first part of this message Mr..
Lincoln was in favor of paying for all
the slaves emancpiated, and in the last
clause he proposed paying for ali losses
brought about by the United States army
in addition to the valCe OF the slaves.
Mr.. Lincoln, in his emancipation procla-
nation, did not offer to every slave the
guerdon OF freedom, as he excepted thir-
teen counties in Western Louisiana, the
city of New Orleans, all OF West Virginia
and several counties in old Virginia.
The fac. tnat Mr.. Lincoln did not offer
above referred to, Is proof conclusive that
any man or set of men who were enlisted
in the war for the union had the legal
as we'll az the moral right to hold their
slaves. To every mimi capable of logical
deduction this meant that at that time
the moral obligation of slavery de-
pended on the loyalty Of ths owner to
the union. This fact led the southern
government to decline to retoog nize re.
groes as prisoners OF war who had been
decoyed from their homes by promises OF
large bounties for enlistment against
their old masters, and it was intended by
the cartel that 1t should include the ex-
change of only free spiders. This was not
a question of color, for the south was
willing to regard as prisoners tree ne
groes who had been captured in the
Union army.
1t follows, therefore, at the time of
making the Cartel neither congress nor
Mr.. L4Acoln had made any movement
looking to the emancipation OF the slaves.
Hence every reasonable mind must
oonGede that the negro soldier who under
the law was yet slave was used as a
mere subterfuge IN order to prevent all
exchanges. This may have been comfort
ing to the captured negroes, but 1T peo-
pied the graveyards of the south with
thousands of the north's best white SOL
diers. II the widows of those who died
at Andersonville, or the children OF
those who died in Ii bly,, can extract any
comfort from their death, from the fact
that they died as martyrs to preserve the
military equality OF the negro with the
white soldier, then pantheon should be
erected TO protect their remains when