Year: 1864

proposed, between two private citizens,
could be perfected in twenty minutes. I
also urged upon him that the prompt and
thorough manner in which Mr.. Cowardin
had performed the commissions that had
imposed upon him had placed him high in
the estimation Of our people as a man of
honor and integrity and that if he would
undertake the general supervision of our
prisoners at Richmond, felt authorized
to become responsible to him for all the
expenses he might be under in so doing


That wagons and mules to provide him


with transportation could be forwarded
that as an agent in the cause of humanity,
he might be enabled to accomplish his
mission without the delays incident to
government transportation. Such an ar
rangelnent would at once ameliorate the
condition of their prisoners in our hands,
and that all de6cieEsiss IN supplies for
them from Richmond =: :. 20 made up
by our own people att stations. In
the course Of our conversation I was as
sured that the most unfOunded statements
had been made against the people and au-.
thorities of Richmond in the northern pa
pers, especially by the returned clergymen,
who he asserted had each endeavored to
excel the other in malignant falsehood1 OF
all men he thought the truth might have
been looked for from them. On the con.
trary, they had misrepresented everything,
and never told truth when falsehoOd
could be substituted No true soldier who
had gone North, he asserted, had corrobo-
rated or substantiated their slanderous
statements. To put stop to the misrep-
reservations he had made the proposition
to our government for the reception of
surgeons, whom we now mutually treated
az non-combatants, and he still had hopes
that so reasonable and feasible proposition
would be accepted. Warfare has enough
horrors inseparably connected with it,
without uselessly multiplying them by pro-
voking the most embittered animosity be-
tween the people of the "two countries I"
as to the condition Of their prisoners of
war. He admitted that there had also been
great Misrepresentation on this score
by some of their returned prisoners.
was assured that nothing could be more
erroneous than the statements that
these men were exposed to the
weather and brutally treated. He would
far prefer to take their places than be
confined to any of the tobacco warehouses.
They were all, he said, provided with tents,
as well sheltered as the soldiers who
guarded them. In addition to which they
enjoyed the free air, were less troubled
by vermin, had room for exercise, and
we're not subjected to the confined atmos-
phere inseparable from hospital or prison
life. He did not allude to the character
or extent of their rations, or to the char
acter of the shelter provided them. With
regard to fuel he assured me that an abun-
dance of it was supplied to the men on
Belle Isle, and that they were not crowded
there without regard to shelter; that when
any number of them had been taken away
similar number was added, and that the
Island was covered to its full capacity
with tents, and no more than could be
accommodated in those tents were at any
time placed there. The health of those
on the Island was better than that of those
in the prisons, and they Jared as well as
their own soldiers in tho field. bl 1r odI