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the prisoners paroled by Grant and Banks at Vicksburg and Port Hudson. And as at the close of the year we had in our possession about forty thousand rebel prisoners against thirteen thousand of our meh in rebel prisons, it was justly considered hazardous to permit the rebels to have the control of so large an excess as twenty-seven thousand men. Thenceforth exchanges ceased, except in a few special instances, and prisoners began to accumulate in large numbers on either side.

In the latter part of 1863 complaints began to be made of the treatment to which Union prisoners were subjected in rebel prisons. In those at Richmond, the mortality at certain periods reached fifty a day-a rate which, in the opinion of exchanged Union surgeons, was altogether unprecedented, and arose from neglect, insufficient food and clothing, and similar causes. In reply the rebels alleged that Union prisoners were placed on an equality, in respect to rations and clothing, with their own men, and that they did not receive the comforts which might reasonably have been expected, simply because it was not in the power of the Confederate government to give them. But this excuse, urged strenuously by the rebels and their friends, and half accepted by every one disposed to be moderate and just, accounted for only a small part of the conduct of the rebels to their captives. The latter were crowded in city warehouses of far too limited dimensions to lodge them with any approximation to comfort, or compelled to endure the rigors of winter in open encampments. They were almost invariably stripped of their private property, even to the clothing on their backs at the time of their capture, and the supplies of food and clothing, which, after much negotiation, they were permitted to receive from the North, were, in many instances, stolen or withheld. The rations issued to them were frequently of the most execrable description, and barely sufficient to sustain life. On the other hand, the rebels captured in war were, in nine cases out of ten, men in fine physical condition, well clad, and giving abundant evidence of having been well fed; while the few Union prisoners from time to time exchanged, exhibited such frightful evidences of suffering and privation, that photographic representations of their appearance were taken, in order that the accounts of their condition might not seem overdrawn. The allegation of the rebel government, that it was embarrassed for want of supplies, that its own soldiers were naked and hungry, and that even the prison-guards shared the privations of the prisoners, must therefore be dismissed as utterly unfounded.

A few months later the rebels threw off even this thin disguise, and in terms too plain to be mistaken announced by their acts their intention to systematically destroy their prisoners, for the purpose, apparently, of relieving themselves of the charge of such persons, and of thereby lessening the number of their enemies. As if the Libby Prison and Belle Isle at Richmond were not sufficient, refinements in cruelty

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This is a small island in the James River, opposite the Tredegar iron works, and in sight of the Libby Prison. Here, in an enclosure of less than six (acres, surrounded by an earthen wall and ditch, were confined at times from ten to twelve thousand prisoners, who were turned in like so many eattle to find what resting-place they could.

Some found a poor shelter in a number of Sibley tents, rotten and full of holes; but thousands hard no tents or shelter of any kind, and all were here subjected alike to the heat of midsummer or the cold of winter. Under such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the rate of mortality was large.

were attempted, and at Charlotte and Salisbury in North Carolina, and Millen and Andersonville in Georgia, prison-pens were erected, in which tens of thousands of Union prisoners were deliberately starved to death or destroyed by neglect and ill usage. The last-named place, in particular, has obtained a hideous reputation, and to the wretches who entered its precincts must have occurred the idea contained in Dante's inscription over the gates of Hell, "Who enters here must leave all hope behind." It comprised an open space of about twentyfive acres, and was surrounded by a high stockade, and by earthworks mounted with cannon. About one quarter of the enclosure was occupied by a swamp, through which crept a shallow muddy stream, or rather sewer, which had previously received the filth and refuse of a rebel camp beyond, and which formed the only supply of water to the prisoners. Here, in a country so covered with woods as to be nearly a forest, were frequently crowded thirty thousand men, with not so much as a simple shed to protect them from the rain, or the heat, or the cold. The unfortunate prisoners found a partial shelter by burrowing in the earth like wild animals, and upon the occupation of the place by the Union forces, the ground was discovered to be completely honeycombed by their digging. The details of the life which prisoners passed in this place would prove too sickening to our readers, and we willingly omit them. Probably more of the men admitted there died than left the prison, and of the latter class most will bear about them for life the marks of the privations which they there endured. In a memorial addressed to President Lincoln in August, 1864, by Union officers confined in Charleston, occurs the following passage with reference to the Andersonville prisoners: "They are fast losing hope and becoming utterly reckless of life. Numbers, crazed by their sufferings, wander about in a state of idiocy. Others deliberately cross the Dead Line' and are remorselessly shot down."

As accounts of the atrocities practised upon Union prisoners at Andersonville were made public by those persons who were fortunate to escape from the prison alive, a feeling of horror pervaded the North, and in the opinion of many persons their statements were too dreadful to believe. It was assumed that they must be greatly exaggerated, and that the rebel authorities were ignorant of the atrocities alleged to be committed there. Fortunately we are enabled to verify by rebel evidence the condition of things at Andersonville and the infamous purpose of General' J. H. Winder, the commanding officer in charge of the post. Some months after the termination of the war, Captain Henry Wirz, a subordinate, having immediate command of the prison, was arraigned before a military court in Washington for wanton and unnecessary cruelty to his prisoners. The facts we have stated above were corroborated by many Union soldiers, summoned as witnesses; but more valuable testimony, considering the source from which it emanated, was given by Colonel D. T. Chandler, formerly an inspectorgeneral in the rebel service. The following is an extract from an official report from this officer, addressed to Colonel Chilton at Richmond, under date of August 5, 1864 :

"My duty requires me respectfully to recommend a change in the officer in command of the post, Brigadier-General J. H. Winder, and the substitution in his place of some one who unites both energy and good judgment with some feelings of humanity and consideration for the welfare and comfort (so far as is consistent with their safe keeping) of the vast number of unfortunates placed under his control; some one who, at least, does not advocate deliberately and in cold blood the propriety of leaving them in their present condition until their number has been sufficiently reduced by death to make the present arrangements suffice for their accommodation; who will not consider it a matter of self-laudation, boasting that he has never been inside the stockade-a place the horrors of which it is difficult to describe, and which is a disgrace to civiliza. tion-the condition of which he might, by the exercise of a little energy and judgment, even with the limited means at his command, have considerably improved."

Colonel Chandler, upon being called to the stand, verified the foregoing report, adding that he had nothing to retract; and stating that during his inspection he had a conversation with General Winder, who seemed very indifferent to the welfare of the prisoners, and was indisposed to do any thing. He remonstrated with General Winder as well as he could. He spoke to him of the great mortality, and suggested that, as the sickly season was coming on, the swamp should be drained, better food furnished, and other sanitary measures adopted. Winder replied to him that he thought it would be better to let one-half die, so they could take care of the remainder. His (Chandler's) assistant, Major Hall, had previously reported that Winder had made a similar expression to him; and upon Chandler's remarking that he thought this incredible, Hall said Winder had repeated that expression to him several times.

This certainly shows that the rebel government in Richmond was made officially cognizant of the barbarities committed at Andersonville; and as the condition of the prisoners at Belle Isle had been so imme diately under their eyes that ignorance could not possibly be pleaded, the conclusion seems inevitable that they deliberately approved of the measures adopted by the commanding officers at both places. Finally, in November, 1864, the general exchange, interrupted in the previous year, was resumed, and the survivors of the rebel prison-pens released from their sufferings. In contrast with the treatment of Union prisoners was that accorded to captured rebels. They were comfortably housed and clad, drew abundant rations, and, when sick or wounded, received no less kind treatment than our own soldiers. To both Union men and rebels were also extended the beneficent offices of the Sanitary Commission and the Christian Commission, two noble private philanthropic associations, whose expenditures amounted to many mil lions, and whose agents were found in every camp and hospital, and on every battle field of the war, supplying to the sick and wounded the numberless little delicacies and comforts which the Government, amid the multiplicity of cares, could not well furnish, and affording by their acts a proof of the humanizing influences of free institutions. In contrast with this, the conduct of the rebels to their prisoners illustrates once more the barbarizing influences of slavery.

Soon after the commencement of hostilities in 1861 the Canadian provinces began to be a resort for rebel refugees, who gradually accumulated in Quebec, Montreal, and other cities, in large numbers.

!

Among these men were some of the most wily and determined enemies of the Union whom secession had begotten, and their presence so near qur Northern frontier was felt to be full of danger, as it was known they were prepared for any desperate enterprise. Their leaders, George N. Sanders, Beverly Tucker, Jacob Thompson, and men of like proclivities, spared no efforts to organize plots against the United States, in defiance of the neutrality of the country in which they resided, and, strange to say, the local authorities seemed indifferent to these attempts to abuse the right of asylum. In the latter part of 1863 a plot was set on foot by Sanders and his associates, under instructions from the government at Richmond, to release twenty-five hundred rebel officers imprisoned on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, who, in conjunction with a body of rebels in Canada, were to attack and destroy Buffalo and other lake cities. The American Consul-General at Montreal, having received timely notice of this plot, laid the details before the Governor-General of Canada, by whom they were communicated on November 11th to the United States Government. The prompt measures taken by the latter to guard against the danger prevented the execution of the plot. The British Government, however, seems to have taken no measures to arrest and punish the participators in this transaction. But though baffled in this attempt, the secessionists in Canada relaxed in no degree their efforts to harass the border towns of the United States. On the afternoon of October 19, 1864, a body of forty well-armed men, headed by one Young, suddenly attacked the village of St. Albans, in Vermont, fifteen miles from the Canadian frontier, and, after robbing the banks of over two hundred thousand dollars, and firing upon the defenceless and thoroughly astounded inhabitants, one of whom was mortally wounded, rode off to Canada, where nearly the whole gang was subsequently arrested. They were brought before the Court of Quarter Sessions at Montreal, and discharged by Justice Coursol on the ground of a want of jurisdiction. Subsequently, on being tried before the Superior Court of Lower Canada, they were all discharged. The St. Albans banks recovered a portion of the money stolen from them, but the United States Government received no reparation for this incursion upon their territory from a friendly state.

In September, 1864, John Y. Beall, an officer in the rebel army, organized in Canada a force for the purpose of a raid on the lakes, and succeeded in capturing and destroying two steamboats owned by citizens of the United States. In the succeeding December he was arrested near the suspension bridge over the Niagara River, in the State of New York, for attempting to throw a passenger train from Buffalo off the railroad track, which act he claimed to have perpetrated by virtue of his commission from the rebel government. He was tried and executed as a pirate, spy, and murderer, on Governor's Island, New York, on February 24th, 1865.

As if the attempt to rob defenceless towns, and murder their inhabitants, or to throw railroad trains off the track, were not sufficiently infamous, the Canadian refugees now organized a plot to fire the principal hotels of the city of New York. The attempt was made on the night of November 25th, and, if successful, might have resulted

in a frightful sacrifice of property and life; but fortunately, it was committed to timid and unskilful hands, and the fires kindled by them were soon extinguished. Captain Robert C. Kennedy, of the rebel service, was subsequently arrested in Detroit for complicity in this plot, and was tried and executed at Fort Lafayette, in New York Harbor, on March 24th, 1865.

Similar to the exploit of Beall on the lakes was that of a party of disguised rebels, who, embarking on the passenger steamer Chesa peake, at New York, on December 19th, 1863, murdered one of the officers, and carried the vessel into a Nova Scotian port. She was subsequently restored to her owners, but her piratical captors, like so many of their associates in British America, went unwhipped of justice. Finally, to cap the climax of horrors, we have to record the attempt, fortunately abortive, of a Dr. Blackburn, to introduce into the United States the yellow fever, by means of infected clothing brought from Bermuda. This, like the other acts just related, was done in the interest of the rebel Confederacy, by men claiming to act as Confederate soldiers, and indicated a lack of moral principle, which, for the sake of civilization, it is to be hoped was rare among the inhabitants of the seceded States, or their sympathizers.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

Peace Negotiations at Fortress Monroe.-Their Fruitless Issue.-Second Inauguration of Lincoln.-His Address.-Rejoicings at the Prospect of Peace.-Assassination of Lincoln.-The Public Mourning.-Funeral Procession.-Character of Lincoln.Booth, the Murderer, Pursued and Shot.-Trial and Execution of his Accomplices.Inauguration of Andrew Johnson as President.-Amnesty Proclamation.-Plan for Reconstruction.-Pursuit and Capture of Davis,--Capitulation of Generals Taylor and Kirby Smith.-Termination of the War and Disbanding of the Armies.-The National Debt.-Concluding Reflections.

WITH the opening of 1865, the air was filled, as it had been often before, with rumors that the rebels were anxious to negotiate for peace, and in order that no opportunity might be lost to effect a consummation so devoutly wished for by all classes of the people, Mr. Lincoln authorized Secretary Seward to proceed to Fortress Monroe, and there confer with Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, the rebel Vice-President, R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, and J. A. Campbell, of Alabama, who had been designated by Jefferson Davis as commissioners to act in behalf of the Confederacy. The President's instructions were conveyed to Mr. Seward in the following terms:

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
“January 31, 1865.

"Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State: "You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq, of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you have. You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to wit: First, the restoration of the national

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