Mr. A. ——, editor of the ——, recommends the Secretary of War
to get Congress to pass, in secret session, a resolution looking to a reconstruction
of the Union on the old basis, and send Commissioners to the Northern
Governors. Meantime, let the government organize an army of invasion, and march
into Pennsylvania. The object being to sow dissension among the parties of the
North.
A letter from a Mr. Stephens, Columbia, S. C, to the
President, says it is in his power to remove one of the evils which is bringing
the administration into disrepute, and causing universal indignation—Gen.
Winder. The writer says Winder drinks excessively, is brutish to all but
Marylanders, and habitually receives bribes, etc. The President indorsed on it
that he did not know the writer, and the absence of specifications usually
rendered action unnecessary. But perhaps the Secretary may find Mr. S.'s
character such as to deserve attention.
Captain Warner says it is believed there will be a riot,
perhaps, when Col. Northrop, the Commissary-General, may be immolated by the mob.
Flour sold to-day at $200 per barrel; butter, $8 per pound; and meat from $2 to
$4. This cannot continue long without a remedy.
The President has another reception to-night.
A
Yankee Account Of The Treatment Op Confederate Prisoners.—The Chicago
Times gives the account which follows of the treatment of our soldiers at
Camp Douglas.
It is said that about four weeks ago
one of the prisoners was kindling his fire, which act he had a right to
perform, when one of the guard accosted him with, “Here, what are you doing
there?” The prisoner replied, “That is not your business,” when the guard
instantly drew his musket and shot the fellow dead. It is said also that a
mulatto boy, a servant of one of the Confederate captains, and, of course, a
prisoner of war, who was well known to have a pass to go anywhere within the
lines, was walking inside the guard limits about a day after the above
occurrence, when the guard commanded him to halt. He did not stop, and was
instantly killed by a bullet.
It is also charged that, at the time
the discovery was made of an attempt on the part of some of the prisoners to
escape, a party of three or four hundred was huddled together and surrounded by
a guard; that one of them was pushed by a comrade and fell to the ground, and
that instantly the unfortunate man was shot, and that three or four others were
wounded. It is further stated that it is no uncommon thing for a soldier to
fire on the barracks without any provocation whatever, and that two men were
thus shot while sleeping in their bunks a week or two ago, no inquiry being
made into the matter. No court-martial has been held, no arrest has been made,
though within the past month ten or twelve of the prisoners have been thus put
out of the way. Another instance need only be given: one of the prisoners asked
the guard for a chew of tobacco, and he received the bayonet in his breast
without a word.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
128-9
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