Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-10-26

month to get their consent to 1t. Cen
eral Mulfords reply is dated November
| G. 1864 AS early in that year as jan
uary 24th, Judge Guild had written Gen
eral Hitchcock, proposing that the pris-
| oners on each side be attended by their
| own surgeons, and that these surgeons
should "act as conm!ssaries. with power
to receive and distribute such contribu-
| tons of money food. clothing and nedl-
cines as may be forwarded for the re-
| lief of prisoners. I would further pro-
! pose" says he, that these surgeons be
| detailed by their own governments, and
that they shall have full liberty at any
and all times, through the agents Of ex-
| change, to make reports not only of
! their own acts, but of any matters re-
lating to the welfare of prisoners"
To this very important and humane
| letler. Judge Ould says, no reply was
ever made l S. II. S. Papers. Us
If it's terms had been accepted by the
Federals land nothing could have been
fairer), what suIerings would have been
prevented and how many lives would
have oeen saved! But. as we now know.
General Grant did not wish to keep these
men from dying in our prisons. On the
contrary, he preferred that the Confed-
crates should be burdened with caring
for them when living, and charged with
their deaths should they die, and in this
way he would continue to fire the
Northern heart against US. On the
same principle, and for the same reason
he not only refused to agree to let us
purchase medicines and other necessary
supplies for these sick prisoners. but re-
fused for months to receive from ten to
fifteen thousand. which we offered to
deliver up without receiving any equiv
alent in return. But above all these
he did not wish them exchanged, be-
cause of the recruits which would there
nv come to General Lees army.
SHERIDAN'S RAID.
Notwithstanding the fact, as shown by
our last report. it was by General Grants
order that General Sheridan devasted the
Valley of Virginia as he did. yet his con-
siderate treatment of General Lee and
his men at Appomattox, and his fidelity
to General Lees parole there given after
The war have caused US to think kindly
of him and to place him in a different
class from that in which we have placed
Stanton, Halleck. Sherman, Sheridan,
Pope Butler Hunter, Milroy, and other
Federal officers who took such delight in
treating our people with wicked and wan
ton brutality during the war But, as has
been recently said of him by a dstin.
guished Northern writer, who was an
officer IN his army, and therefore knew
nm better than We did, General Grant
was of coarse moral as we'll as physica
fibre; and nothing demonstrates this
more clearly than the cruel and heart
less way in which he treated his own as
we'll as our prisoners. He was so vim.
dictive and cruel that on February Z
1862 he refused to make any arrange
ment with Judge Guild whereby our pris-
oners could receive contributions of as
Il Of
Wol. Will. p. 400 And as we have jus.
seen, he preferred that his own men
should die in our prisons rather than re-
lieve them, when we offered to delive.
them. to him without any equivalent in
return, because of the great mortality
at Andersonville. which we were unable
to avert. and of which he was fully ap
prised.
AT the expense Of being tedious then
we have thought it right to give in much
detail facts in relation to the formal ton
and operation of the cartel for the ex-
change Of prisoners, and to show clearly
from the records why this cartel was
suspended and who was responsible
therefor. And we have done so, because
this conduct was the true cause OF sub
stantially all the sufferings and deaths
which came to prisoners on both sides
during the war. That we have shown
that the Federal government, with Ed
win NJ. Stanton, H. W. Halleck, and U.
S. Grant as it's representatives, is sole
ly responsible. we think cannot be de-
MED and that history will so attest.
WE WERE NOT RESPONSIBLE.
Mr.. Charles A. Dana, the Federal AS
sistant Secretary of War. in an editorial
in the New York Sun. commenting on
the letter of Mr.. Davis to Mr. James
Lyons, written in reference to the strict
ures of Mr.. Blaine. referred to in the
early part of this report, said as follows
This letter shows clearly. we think
that the Confederate authorities, and es-
pecially Mr.. Davis ought not to be held
responsible for the terrible privations
sufferirgs. and injuries which our men
had to endure while they were kept in
Confederate military prisons The fact
is unquestionabe that while the Con.
federates desired to exchange prisoners
to send our men home. and to get bach
their own, General Grant steadily and
strenuously resisted such an exchange.
'It is hard on our men held In South.
ern prisons" said Grant III an official
4communica ton, mot to exchange them:
but it is humane to those left in the
ranks to fight our battles. If we COM
#mence q system OF exchanges which
zItb.rates il rrt snrerr ii krn. we Viii