More Federal prisoners at Mobile
--
What They Say--The
Tribunes chronicles the arrival of a second batch of Federal prisoners in
Mobile, and says:
‘
These troops are composed of
Illinois,
Iowa,
Missouri,
Wisconsin,
Ohio and
Indiana regiments.
Among them was
Brig-Gen. Prentiss and 158 commissioned officers.
There were several prisoners who had lived in this city.--Some of the officers with whom we were speaking, and who had fought at
Manassas, report the
battle of Shiloh as a greater and more bloody fight than that of
Manassas.--They blame their
Generals for incompetency in not gaining the victory.
Even the prisoners are of the same character as those who preceded them.
Some of the officers are sullen and angry, and cannot conceal it. Others are gentlemen in their manners, and have discretion enough to express no opinions which are offensive.
Gen. Prentiss belongs to the former class.
He seems to be impressed with the belief that he is in durance only temporarily among those who he will soon be able to lord it over.
Some of the expressions which he has made show not only that he is a rude and insolent man, but that he is not at all conscious of the fact that he is at the mercy of those whom he was fighting to starve and subjugate.
Some of his fellow officers expressed great chagrin at his insolent manners.
These men say that they are not Abolitionists, that they defeat those fanatics; yet some of them declare that they are for free speech and free labor, coupling the two as though they were identical.
This part of them is composed mostly of men of foreign birth.
The more intelligent give no other reasons for the warfare than the Stars and Stripes, and the glory of the
Union.
Others harp on the sight of using the
Mississippi river, and attribute to the blockade of that river the low prices of their Western products — oats and corn at a few cents a bushel, and all other of their staples at a similarly low price, yielding nothing to labor, and not worth the cost of conveying to market.
Others do not know what they are fighting for, and can give no reason for it. Ignorance of the fundamental causes of the war seems to prevail among all of them.
It is now, we fear, nothing but hatred that is moving the enemy.
Contempt for our valor and resources started them, and being deceived in this respect, nothing is left but hatred to supply its place.
If these men are the kind of people who compose the enemy's armies, woeful will be the day when they shall have subjugated this country and occupied its soil!
’
