764 



PRISONERS, EXCHANGE OF. 



In the belief that the declaration of Mr. 

 Ould was made for the purpose of sending pa- 

 roled men to the assistance of Gen. Bragg in 

 Georgia, Gen. Meredith, on September 24th, 

 declared all officers and men of the United 

 States army, captured and paroled previous to 

 September 1st, 1863, to be duly exchanged. 

 The correspondence between the two agents 

 thenceforth increased in acerbity, and amidst 

 the assertions on the one side and the flat de- 

 nials on the other, it is more difficult than ever 

 to arrive at the facts. In justice to Mr. Ould, 

 however, it should be stated that, in reply to 

 Gen. Meredith's insinuation that the declara- 

 tion of September 12th was made " as if for the 

 express purpose of increasing the force of Gen. 

 Bragg against Gen. Rosecrans," he declared 

 that " not one of the officers and men named in 

 that declaration of exchange was on the battle 

 field of Chickamauga." 



On October 2d Mr. Ould wrote to Gen. 

 Meredith that thenceforth "the Confederate 

 authorities will consider themselves entirely at 

 liberty to pursue any course as to exchange or 

 paroles which they may deem right and prop- 

 er under all the circumstances of the case. At 

 the same time, I am directed to express their 

 entire willingness to adopt any fair, just, and 

 reciprocal rule in relation to those subjects 

 without any delay." 



On the 20th of the same month Mr. Ould 

 proposed " that all officers and men, on both 

 sides, bo released in conformity with the pro- 

 visions of the cartel, the excess on the one side 

 or the other to be on parole." This proposition 

 was rejected by Gen. Meredith for the reason, 

 among others, that the officers and privates of 

 the Federal colored regiments, not being rec- 

 ognized by the rebels as prisoners of wai^ 

 would not bo delivered by them with the other 

 prisoners. Another reason was the distrust 

 entertained of the good faith of the Confeder- 

 ates with respect to the paroled prisoners held 

 by the Federal authorities in excess of Con- 

 federate prisoners. On this subject General 

 Hitchcock speaks as follows : 



It has been supposed, even in many parts of the 

 North, that the proposition of Mr. Ould, of the 20th 

 October, for an exchange of prisoners is fair, and ought 

 to be accepted ; but it does not appear to be considered 

 that Mr. Ould has not proposed to yield to us a certain 

 number of prisoners of war and receive a like number 

 in return, which would be a most happy consummation 

 that would be at once accepted by this Government. 

 But his proposition is that we shall deliver to him all 

 of the prisoners in our possession, amounting now to 

 about 40,000 men, and receive in return about 13,000 

 men, leaving about 27,000 men, who might, for a few 

 days, be considered on parole not to take arms unless 

 duly exchanged. And then what would Mr. Ould do 

 with those men? Judging by what he has actually 

 recently done, he would undoubtedly assume to dis- 

 charge those men from all obligation under their parole, 

 and put them into the field to fight against national 

 troops, standing under an unstained flag the very 

 troops who gallantly captured those men upon bloody 

 battle fields within the past few months. 



From the 29th of October, the date of Gen. 

 Meredith's reply to this last proposition, all 



exchanges for a time ceased ; but for the pur- 

 pose of releasing the Union prisoners from the 

 hardships of Confederate prisons, Gen. Mere- 

 dith proposed in November to send Mr. Ould 

 12,000 or more Confederate prisoners (as many 

 as he might hold of Federals), and receive in 

 return an equal number of the latter. Mr. 

 Ould refused to accept this proposition, but 

 offered to agree to a general exchange. As the 

 effect of this, however, would be to cancel the 

 excess of prisoners in the hands of the Federal 

 authorities by a delivery of 40,000 men for 

 about 13,000, and to leave to the mercy of the 

 rebel authorities such colored troops and their 

 white officers as they then held, the offer was 

 rejected. Subsequently an offer was made to 

 Mr. Ould to receive all of the prisoners from 

 Richmond under a solemn pledge that they 

 should not be allowed to take arms unless duly 

 exchanged with the consent of the rebel au- 

 thorities, without reference to existing difficul- 

 ties on the subject of exchange ; and that the 

 Federal Government would pledge itself to 

 both feed and clothe all rebel prisoners in its 

 hands. This proposition also was rejected. 



In December Gen. Butler assumed command 

 of the Department of Virginia and North Caro- 

 lina, and, in accordance with his earnest re- 

 quest, was appointed agent of exchanges at For- 

 tress Monroe. In the hope of resuming the 

 exchange of prisoners he sent on the 25th of 

 the month 520 prisoners to City Point, whom 

 he offered to exchange for an equal number of 

 Union prisoners, leaving all controverted ques- 

 tions between the Confederate authorities and 

 his Government in abeyance. He received in 

 return an equal number of men, but was noti- 

 fied that no more would be sent until a general 

 exchange, as previously demanded, should be 

 agreed upon. He was also notified that the 

 Confederate Government would thenceforth 

 hold no communication with him on this 

 any other subject. With this proceeding n< 

 gotiations ended for the year. 



The report of the Commissary-General 

 Prisoners, accompanying the Secretary of "War's 

 annual report, shows that the number of Con- 

 federate officers and men captured by the Fed- 

 erals since the beginning of the war, is: 1 

 lieutenant-general, 5 major-generals, 25 briga- 

 dier-generals, 186 colonels, 146 lieutenant-col- 

 onels, 244 majors, 2,497 captains, 5,811 lieu- 

 tenants, 16,563 non-commissioned officers, 121,- 

 156 privates, and 5,800 citizens. Of these, the 

 Federals had on hand at the date of the re- 

 port, 29,229 officers and men, among whom 

 were 1 major-general and 7 brigadiers. There 

 have been 121,937 Confederates exchanged, 

 against 110,866 Federal soldiers returned. The 

 exchanges of officers on both sides are com- 

 puted at their exchangeable value in privates. 



Of the treatment of Federal prisoners by 

 the rebel authorities it is sufficient to say, that 

 the accounts of exchanged surgeons, officers, 

 and men, generally concur in describing it as 

 bad. Many have even denounced it as unneces- 



