The Daily Dispatch: November 28, 1863., [Electronic resource]

A Specimen of Yankee Impudence — the Exchange question.

Washington City, D. C., November 13th, 1863.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners:
Sir:

--I am not yet informed whether any, or how far, relief may have reached our unfortunate prisoners of war in Richmond and its vicinity under the orders of the Secretary of War to send supplies to them of both food and clothing.

Mr. Ould should be notified, for the information of his Government, that whatever steps may have been, or may be, taken to extend relief, (to the prisoners of war in Richmond,) must, on no consideration, be appealed to by the enemy to relieve him from the obligation to treat prisoners according to the laws of civilized warfare. If, in other words, our prisoners in Richmond fail to receive such supplies as the laws alike of humanity and war require, the authorities in Richmond must be informed that it will not be considered a valid explanation or excuse for them to appeal to the fact, should it exist, that supplies from us have not reached them.

The action of our Government on this matter is dictated purely by humanity, and is only an effort to relieve our prisoners of sufferings inflicted upon them contrary to the claims of both humanity and the laws of war, and must not be understood as relieving the authorities of Richmond from responsibility to the Christian world in the premises.

If the authorities in Richmond will send us these prisoners we will not only feed and clothe them, but will continue to supply food and clothing as heretofore to such prisoners as may be in our possession, and you will propose to Mr. Ould that in this case we will agree, without any reserve, to respect the parole they may give according to the laws of war, from which they shall not be relieved in view of the past differences or pending questions on the subject of exchange, without the previously obtained consent of the authorities represented by Mr. Ould, as agent for the exchange under the cartel.

You will please lose no time in communicating a copy of this note, certified by yourself, to Mr. Ould, and will urge upon him its acceptance as due to the most solemn considerations in the face of the civilized world.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. A. Hitchcock,
Maj. Gen. Vols.,
Comm'r for Exchange of Prisoners.

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Judge Ould replied as follows:

Until the Confederate authorities appeal to be relieved "from the obligation to treat prisoners of war according to the laws of civilized warfare," or "offer, as an explanation or excuse" for insufficient food, that supplies have not been forwarded by your Government, it is entirely unnecessary to discuss what will be the views of your authorities in either contingency. Statements, most infamously false, have recently been made and circulated at the North by persons whose calling should have imposed a respect for truth, which their own personal honor seems to have failed to secure. Our regulations require that prisoners shall receive the same rations as soldiers in the field. Such your prisoners have received, and will continue to receive. Do you ask more? It so, what do you demand? We recognize, in the fullest form, our obligation to treat your prisoners with humanity, and

to serve them with the same food in quantity and quality as is given to our own soldiers. If the supply is scanty, you have only to blame the system of warfare you have waged against us. There is nothing in the action of the Confederate Government which gives any sort of countenance to the charge of cruelty or inhumanity to your prisoners. In the first place, we have importuned you to agree to a fair and honest proposition which would secure the release of all of them. When that was rejected, you have been permitted to send, without stint or limitation, all kinds of supplies to them.

General Hitchcock requests that the prisoners now in our hands be returned to your lines. This is not accompanied by any proposition to release our prisoners now in your hands. So far from that being the case, he promises "to continue to supply food and clothing as heretofore" to such.--General Hitchcock need not have urged you to "lose no time in communicating" his letter. No degree of haste would have secured the assent of the Confederate authorities to a proposition so flagrantly unequal.

We are ready to relieve your Government from the burthen of supplying "food and clothing as heretofore" to our people in your hands, and if they are sent to us, yours shall be returned to you — the excess one side or the other to be on parole. I hope you will "urge" on Gen. Hitchcock the acceptance of this proposition "as due to the most solemn considerations in the face of the civilized world."

We are content that the "civilized world" should draw its own conclusions when it contrasts the two offers. I will thank you to forward this communication to Gen. Hitchcock, or inform him that the Confederate authorities decline to accept his proposition.