CHAPTER LXXXVII.

THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS AND TREATMENT OF SOLDIERS.

The national government was at first disposed to deal with privateersmen as with pirates, but was forced to abandon that determination.

A cartel was agreed upon, but the exchange of prisoners was stopped by the refusal of the Confederate government to give up colored soldiers.

THE CONFEDERATE PRISON AT ANDERSONVILLE.

The United States Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and other organizations of mercy.

Government orders

tried as pirates.

It is forced to re

termination.

Ar the outbreak of the war, the government, not recog nizing the strength and determination of the privateersmen to be conspiracy, believed that it could, by a display of authority and a resort to the ordinary processes of law, do much to curb the insurgents. Under this impression, it ordered that the crew of the privateer Savannah, which was taken early in June, 1861, should be tried as pirates; but it was compelled to recede from that de- cede from its determination to punish them as such by the threat of the Confederates that they would retaliate on the prisoners captured by them soon afterward at Bull Run. Reluctant to do any thing that might seem to imply a recognition of the belligerent rights of the South, the government for a time took no steps in the matter of exchanges. But in December, 1861, a joint resolution was adopted by Congress Congress to pro- requesting the President to take immediate exchange. measures to effect a general exchange. Two commissioners were designated by Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, to visit prisoners belonging to the army of the United States in captivity in the Confederacy, and relieve their necessities. The Confederate government refused these commissioners admission, but declared its readiness to negotiate for a general exchange. An equal ex

Intervention of

cure a general

change was consequently agreed on; and as the Confeder ates had 300 in excess, these they proposed to release on parole on the understanding that the United States would release the same number of those who might be subsequently captured by them. This took place in February,

1862.

The following letter indicates the condition of the subject in the summer of 1862:

'War Department, Washington City, July 12, 1862. "The President directs me to say that he authorizes you to negotiate a general exchange of prisoners with the en

The Dix-Hill cartel.

emy.

'You will take immediate measures for that purpose, observing proper precaution against any recognition of the rebel government, and confining the negotiation to the subject of exchange. The cartel between the United States and Great Britain has been considered a proper regulation as to the relative exchange value of prisoners. "EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

"Major General John A. Dix, Fortress Monroe."

Accordingly, on the 22d of July, a cartel was agreed upon by Generals Dix and Hill, representing the two gov ernments. It was substantially based on that between the United States and Great Britain in 1812. It provided for an equal exchange, and for the release of prisoners on each side in ten days after their capture: those for whom no exchange could be provided were to be paroled.

Case of the Texas troops.

The first practical violation of the cartel was by the Confederate authorities in relation to the United States troops in Texas. In the early part of 1861 these troops had been seized, disarmed, and impris oned, and, by the direct order of Davis, were held as hostages to secure the good treatment of such Confederates as might thereafter be captured by the United States. They were in this condition when the cartel was executed, and were entitled to immediate delivery, if not to exchange; but they were not delivered until the 23d of April, 1863 -nine months instead of ten days.

Davis's proclamation respecting officers of colored troops.

The incidents of the war occasioned misunderstandings; the exchanges, however, went on, for the most part, with regularity until the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation. Davis, in his message of January 12th, 1863, announced that he should deliver over to the state authorities all commissioned offi cers of the United States thereafter captured in any of the states embraced in the Emancipation Proclamation, to be punished as criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrection. The two houses of the Confederate Congress jointly resolved that such captives ought to be dealt with and disposed of, not by "the states," but by the Confederate government; and, among other severe penalties, resolved that ev ery white prisoner who had commanded negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Confederate States should “be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the discretion of the court;" and that all negroes and mulattoes taken in arms should" be delivered over to the authorities of the state in which they were captured, to be dealt with according to the present or future laws of such state." This drew from President Lincoln a proclamation, July 30th, 1863, tory proclamation. declaring that the United States government would protect its soldiers, no matter of what color or condition they might be; that to sell or enslave any captured person on account of his color, and for no offense against the laws of war, is a relapse into barbarism, and a crime against the civilization of the age; and that for every sol dier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works."

Lincoln's retalia

Major General Hitchcock, the commissioner for the exchange of prisoners on the part of the United States, in his report to Mr. Stanton, says:

"Coincident with the proceedings with regard to the exchange of prisoners, the rebels inaugurated a system of seizing unoffending cit

zens by Lee.

The seizure of citi izens of the United States, and subjecting them to maltreatment in various ways, in order to effect a particular object, which became apparent when a demand was made for their release. For this purpose quite a number of citizens of Pennsylvania were carried into captivity by General Lee when he penetrated into that state in 1863.

seizures.

"When a demand was made for the release of this class of prisonObject of those ers, it was met by a most positive declaration that no citizen prisoner in rebel hands should be released unless the government would enter into an agreement with the rebel authorities not to arrest any one on account of his opinions, or on account of his sympathy with the rebel cause; and this declaration was repeated again and again by the rebel authorities whenever the government demanded the release or exchange of said citizen prisoners.

"It will require but the slightest glance at this subject to convince any one of the utter impossibility of acquiescing in the demand of the rebel authorities as a prerequisite to the release of the citizens thus held in bondage. Such an agreement on the part of the United States authorities would have been a virtual acknowledgment of the independence of the rebel government, and would have foreclosed all proceedings of the United States against all persons whomsoever engaged in the crimes of treason and rebellion. It was absolutely impossible to acquiesce in the demand of the South on that point, and this is the reason why this class of prisoners was beyond the reach of the government, except through the power of its armies, which finally settled the entire question by putting an end to the rebellion itself."

The Confederates

The Confederate government recognized at once the serious consequences that would ensue from the refuse to exchange Emancipation Proclamation and the employcolored prisoners, ment of negro troops; it perceived that by these acts it was touched on a vital point, and it resolved to refuse to exchange negro prisoners. The United States could assent to no such determination. This, therefore, at once embarrassed the execution of the cartel, and eventu ally led to its suspension.

Lincoln's retaliatory proclamation checked the proposed excesses of the Confederate authorities, but it did not prevent them attempting to carry their point by indirect measures of cruelty. Their position was one of difficulty: the

conscription had failed to replenish their armies--they must have back their prisoners of war for that purpose; but, considering the social ideas of the South, and the objects for which the war had been undertaken, they could never face their people with the admission that a black man and a white man are equal.

and attempt to com

They therefore resolved to put such a pressure on the prisoners in their hands that the United pel the government States government might be compelled to yield its point, and submit to the exchange of white prisoners alone.

to exchange white prisoners only.

The Confederate authorities say that they adhered to their position until the 10th of August, 1864, when, moved by the sufferings of the men in the prisons of each belligerent, they determined to abate their just demand. On that day their agent notified the United States agent of exchange that he would accept the proposal which had been several times made to him to exchange the prisoners of war respectively held by the two belligerents, officer for officer, and man for man.

Reasons for their

But the correspondence captured at the fall of Richmond, now in possession of the United States, shows eventually aban- that the Confederate authorities were moved to this action by other influences.

doning that deter

mination.

The first of these was the fear that the prisoners at Andersonville and other points in the South would be recaptured by Sherman's army, and lost to the Confederates in exchange. This is shown by the correspondence of General Johnston and other Confederate generals, and Governor Brown and Howell Cobb with the authorities at Richmond. The proposition was not made until to resist Sherman's progress had become hopeless, nor until after Johnston himself had telegraphed to Richmond, "I strongly recommend the distribution of the United States prisoners at Andersonville immediately."

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The second was the political effect to be produced on