Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 04.djvu/101

Rh

July 18, 1867.

I have read the remarkable discussion in the House. Mr. Eldridge is substantially right in what he said. I offered early in August to deliver all the sick and wounded prisoners we had without requiring equivalents for them. I would have made the offer earlier but for the fact that some considerable time before I had made an offer of exchange, man for man, to which I could get no response. I waited for a response until early in August, and failing to receive one, I then made the offer above named, at the same time urging haste on the part of the United States government, as the mortality amongst the Federal prisoners was very great.

During the fall I again and again urged haste, giving the same reason. I informed the Federal authorities that if they would send transportation for fifteen thousand men to the mouth of the Savannah river I would furnish that number of sick and wounded, and that I would fill up any deficiency with well prisoners. I did not require a corresponding delivery of our prisoners, though I expressed a desire that they might be sent. From early in August we were not only ready, but anxious to make this delivery. It was our purpose, as well as our offer, to continue the delivery of the sick and wounded at all the depots of prisoners, and upon the terms mentioned—that is, without requiring equivalents. Transportation was not sent until December. The United States authorities brought in that month some three thousand prisoners to the mouth of the Savannah river, and received over thirteen thousand in return, many of whom were well men. The three thousand delivered presented as melancholy a spectacle as Andersonville ever disclosed. Most, if not all of them, had been brought from Elmira. Some died between Elmira and Baltimore—many between Baltimore and Savannah. I do not believe ten per cent. of the numbed are alive now.

All these facts are known to Federal officers. Rebels may lie, but yet the fact is fully established by other evidence that the