Arizona daily citizen., 1901-10-02
ANDERSoNvILLE AND BERMUDA.

men and boys in the Boer prison
campsin Bermuda will revive recol-
lections Of Andersonville. That is
most unfair parallel. The British
Government has abundant means
at it's command to provide good
food in ample quantities for the
Boers who have been captured
and sent to military prisons. There
can be no justification for the fail
ure of the British government to
supply the captives with whole
some rations three times day. If
supplies cannot be obtained in
Bermuda they can be bought in
the United States or sent from
England. 1t is not matter of
ability to provide food, for Great
Britain is one of the richest ma
tions in the world and has gold
enough to feed great many more
Beers than have surrendered or
have been captured.
AS regards the Confederate
States government, the conditions
were entirely different. In the
last years of the Civil War it was
almost impossible for the Confe-
derate government to supply its
own troops with the plainest kind
of food. Women and children
were compelled to live on half ra-
tions. A little cornmeal and a
small piece of badly cured bacon
made meal which in the last days
of the Confederacy was considered
n luxury. The ports of the South
were blockaded, and no supplies
could be obtained from without.
For year before the collapse of
the Confederacy tho Southern
States were literally on the verge
of starvation. Under such condi-
tions, when it was impossible for
the Confederate Government to
provide food for its own soldiers
in sufficient quantities, it could
not, of course, supply the thous-
ands OF Northern soldiers who had
been captured with the abundant
and appetizing rations which the
Washington government had nc
difficulty in providing. Because
of its inability to feed the captives
when its own people were starving
the Confederate Government pro-
posed an exchange of prisoners.
Upon the advice of General Grant
and other commanders the Uni
ted States government refused to
make an exchange. Every Con.
federate prisoner released from a
Northern prison, wrote General
Grant in effect, will re-enlist in
the Confederate armies, and we
will have to fight them again.
Rather than take this risk Presi.
dent Lincoln concluded that it
would be better to leave the
Northern prisoners in the South
despite the insufficiency ofsupplies.
1t would have been easy enough
to take them to the North, where
there was no lack of food. If the
United States government had
been as solicitous about the well
fare of these captives than as it
was later, when the war was over,
it might have saved the lives of
some of these unfortunates.
Notwithstanding the poverty of
the South and the scarcity of food
in the last years of the war, it is a
fact that the number
of Confederate soldiers who died in
Northern prisons was greater than
that OF Northern soldiers who died
in Southern prisons. There was
no lack of provisions in the North
--- no dearth OF comfortable cloth
ing, no reason why prisoners should
not have been healthy. The condi-
tions at Andersonville may have
been far differe mt from what they
should have been. But the same
can be eaid, with less excuse, for
Northern prisons The mortality
statistics prove this beyond ques-
tion. But only ignorance could
draw a parallel between the treat
mant of the Beers by Britain and
The treatment OF Federal prisoners
by the Confederate government.
As wellexpect . panper to treat his
snforced guests as we'll as a mil