Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/478

 472 Southern Historical Society Papers.

for many months after his commission of an act, that can be viewed in no other light than as a dehberate murder, as well as of numerous other outrages and atrocities hereafter to be mentioned, afford evi dence only too conclusive that the said Government sanctions the conduct of said Butler, and is determined that he shall remain unpun- ished for his crimes.

Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate Stales of America, and in their name, do pronounce and declare the said Benjamin F. Butler to be a felon, deserving of capital punish- ment. I do order that he be no longer considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate States of America, but as an out- law or common enemy of mankind, and that in tfie event of his cap- ture, the officer in command of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately executed by hanging ; and I do further order that no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be released on parole before exchange, until the said Butler shall have met with due punishment lor his crimes.

And, whereas, the hostilities waged against this Confederacy by the forces of the United States under the command of said Benjamin F. Butler, have borne no resemblance to such warfare as is alone per- missible by the rules of international law or the usages of civiliza- tion, but have been characterized by repeated atrocities and outrages, among the large number of which the following may be cited as examples :

Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non-combat- ants, have been confined at hard labor with balls and chains attached to their limbs, and are still so held in dungeons and fortresses. ■Others have been subjected to a like degrading punishment for sell- ing medicines to the sick soldiers of the Confederacy.

The soldiers of the United States have been invited and encour aged by general orders to insult and outrage the wives, the mothers, and the sisters of our citizens.

Helpless women have been torn from their homes and subjected to solitary confinement, some in fortresses and prisons, and one, espe- cially, on an island of barren sand, under a tropical sun; have been fed with loathsome rations, that had been condemned as unfit for soldiers, and have been exposed to the vilest insults.

Prisoners of war, who surrendered to the naval forces of the United States on agreement that they should be released on parole, have been seized and kept in close confinement.

Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering