Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 01.djvu/164

156 At a second interview, the 1st March, General Wool informed General Cobb that his Government would not consent to pay these expenses, and thereupon General Cobb promptly receded from his demand, and agreed to the terms proposed by the other side. But General Wool, who had said at the beginning of the negotiation, "I am alone clothed with full power for the purpose of arranging for the exchange of prisoners," was now under the necessity of stating that "his Government had changed his instructions." And thus the negotiations were abruptly broken off, and the matter left where it was before. The vacilatingvacillating [sic] conduct of the Federal Government was of easy explanation and in perfect accord with their double dealing throughout the war. After these negotiations had begun, the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson had given the United States a considerable preponderance in the number of prisoners held by them, and they at once reverted to their original purpose of not treating with "Rebels" on equal terms.  But Jackson's Valley campaign, the Seven Days Battles around Richmond, and other Confederate successes, again reversed the "balance of power," and brought the Federal Government to terms to which the Confederate authorities were always willing. Accordingly negotiations were again entered into by General D. H. Hill, on the part of the Confederacy, and General John A. Dix, on the part of the United States, and the result was the adoption of the following