Exchange of prisoners.
--Among the immediate advantages desirable from the
Confederate successes in
Tennessee, the possession of
Gen. Frentiss and a large portion of his division as prisoners is not the slightest.
On this subject the New Orleans
Picayune remarks:
‘
In consequence of the unexpected successes at
Fort Donelson, the number of Confederate prisoners of war in the hands of the
Federals suddenly exceeded the number of Federals in our hands.
The change of position led the
Government at
Washington abruptly to break off from the arrangement they had proposed for exchanges.
Having received without equivalent a large number given up by us in reliance on their good faith, they kept and put into rigid imprisonment the men captured at
Fort Donelson.
We have now a full set off of troops captured on the same ground, and it is in the power of our Government to keep them until a fair arrangement is made, and secure measures provided that it shall not be eluded by any Yankee fraud.
The preponderance is on our side again, and the first use of it should be to demand equivalents for those who obtained their freedom from captivity by means of the perfidy of the
Government under the broken arrangement of last month.
It is particularly gratifying that we have obtained an officer of the rank of
Gen. Prentiss, to be made the security for the good treatment, as prisoner of war, if not for the immediate exchange, of
Gen Buckner.
It has been the threat of the
Federal Government that
Gen. Buckner should be treated, not as a prisoner of war, but as a prisoner of State, and for his acts as Confederate General brought to trial as a traitor to the
Federal Government.
Major General Prentise may be held as the hostage for
Gen. Buckner's security against such a villainous treatment — as
Major-General Prescott, of the
British army, was held during the Revolution as a hostage in the
American camp for the treatment of
Gen. Charles Lee, who had been threatened with trial as a deserter from the
British service.
’
