Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 30.djvu/95

 Treatment and Exchange of Prisoners. 87

and our possession who, by our agreement, made at the last inter- view, were declared exchanged. Such certainly ought to be mutually delivered up. The excess is on our side, but I will stand it because I have agreed to it. I must, however, insist upon the immediate delivery of such of our officers as are included in the agreement." P. 213.

On December 3Oth, 1862, the following order was issued by General H. W. Halleck, signing himself as " Gen'1-in-Chief : "

" No officers, prisoners of war, will be released on parole till fur- ther orders." Id., p. 248.

This, he said, was done in consequence of the course then being pursued by the Confederate authorities. But notwithstanding this order, and this action of the Confederate authorities here complained of, exchanges seemed to have gone on, the Commissioner on either side constantly complaining that his adversary had broken the cartel. And on April nth, 1863, we find Judge Ould again writing Colonel Ludlow, saying:

" I am very much surprised at your refusal to deliver officers for those of your own, who have been captured, paroled and released by us since the date of the proclamation and message of President Davis. The refusal is not only a flagrant breach of the cartel, but can be supported on no rule of reciprocity or equity. " * * ' ' You have charged us with breaking the cartel. With what sort of justice can that allegation be supported, when you delivered only a few days ago over ninety officers, most of whom had been forced to languish and surfer in prison for months before we were compelled, by that and other reasons, to issue the retaliatory order of which you com- plain ? Those ninety-odd are not half of those whom you unjustly held in prison. On the other hand, I defy you to name the case of one who is confined by us, whom our Government has declared ex- changed. Is it your idea that we are to be bound by every strictness of the cartel, while you are at liberty to violate it for months, and that, too, not only in a few cases, but hundreds ?" * * * " If captivity, privation and misery are to be the fate of officers on both sides hereafter, let God judge between us. I have struggled in this matter as if it had been a matter of life and death to me. I am heart-sick at the termination, but I have no self reproaches." Id., p. 469.

In Ludlow' s reply to this letter, he simply says Judge Ould was mistaken in his charges and complaints, but he did not succeed in