New YorK, October 15, 1864.
. . . I dare say you have already attended to the subject I
am going to write about; still I feel prompted to say what follows. From the “New
York Times” of this day I observe that much noise is made about the Rebels
using our men, captured by them, for working in the fortifications, and that
General Butler seems to fall into the error of considering it a grievous
offence on the part of the enemy. We ought always to take care not to make
ourselves ridiculous. Not to speak of 76 of General Orders No. 100, the employment
of prisoners of war is universal: employment for domestic ends (such as when
Russia distributed Frenchmen to the farmers, or Napoleon set Prussians to dig
one of the chief canals of France) ; or for military purposes, such as working
in army factories; or, lastly, for actual army purposes, such as working at
fortifications, building roads, bridges near armies, &e. General Meigs asked
my opinion on this very subject some months ago, and I wrote him a somewhat
elaborate letter, which, were it necessary, might be referred to. That we have
abstained from doing so until now, and have fed all along some fifty thousand
idle prisoners, is another question. I believe it was done because we have a
barbarous and reckless enemy, who threatened to use our men in pestiferous
swamps if we should utilize the prisoners in our hands. That we tell them, “If
you use our men, we shall use yours,” is all right; but let us not talk of
unheard cruelty if they simply set the prisoners to work. We expose ourselves,
especially when we do this in the face of our own general order and our own
acknowledgment of the law of war. I, for one, am in favor of setting Rebel
prisoners to work, — especially now, when the Rebels have used United States
prisoners for fortifying Richmond, &c, although I think we must be prepared
for insolent resistance and proportionate coercion on our part. . . .
SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and
Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 351-2
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