The Treatment Of Prisoners During The War Between The States
The Treatment Of Prisoners During The War Between The States
CONFEDERATES "HUMANITY" CONFESSED
"Gentleman: The officers of the United States Army, now held as prisoners of war in Columbia, S.C., being about to return to their homes after their captivity of several months, deem it appropriate and due you to express their grateful feelings for the uniform kindness and consideration with which they and all the prisoners of war have been treated while in Columbia, S.C. "It gives the undersigned (a committee appointed unanimously on behalf of the officers) the greatest pleasure to bear testimony to the care you have exercised to deprive our imprisonment of as many as possible of its unpleasant parts, and in all respects to render our situation as comfortable as was in your power, and we feel that whatever enjoyment we have received while under your charge has been wholly owing to yourselves. During our incarceration as many privileges as were consistent with our safekeeping have been allowed us by you and those who constituted the guard. Whilst occupying the peculiar relations toward you that we have during the past two months, you have exhibited the traits of true soldiers in being just and considerate to those placed in your power; and the recollections of all the manliness and courtesy pleasant moments in our future lives. We earnestly hope that we may meet again under more favorable auspices, when our intercourse may be free and unrestrained and when we can associate together in all the relations of life as men and brothers." The paper was signed by George W. Neff, Lieutenant-Colonel Second Kentucky Infantry Joseph Decatur Potter, Major Thirty-Eighth New York Volunteers Edward W. Jenkins, Captain, First Company, Thirty-Second New York Volunteers P. E. Worchester, Lieutenant, Seventy-First Regiment, New York Volunteers Against the charge that the Confederates treated their prisoners inhumanely, the following is copied. During the war, a number of Federal Prisoners were guarded at Columbia, South Carolina. Then they were about to leave Columbia, they tendered to Captain Shiver of the Confederates, thanks for the kindness shown them. It is dated at Columbia, S. C., Feb. 23, 1862, and was addressed to Captain William Shiver and others of the Rebel Guards.Source: The Confederate Veteran Magazine Volume III, page 271 The National Historical Society ,1895
Republished by Clement A. Evans Camp, Decatur, Ga.
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