had
a narrow escape. The South does not use such methods of warfare. Nor
will I permit our Government to fall to such level by an act of
retaliation. The prisoners we hold are soldiers of the enemy's army.
Their business is to obey orders--not plan campaigns--"

"We have captured officers also," Benjamin interrupted.

"Subordinate officers are not morally responsible for the plans of their
superiors."

No argument could move the Confederate Chieftain. He was adamant to all
appeals for harsh treatment. Even Lee had at last found it impossible to
maintain discipline in his army unless he prevented the review of his
court martial by Davis. The President was never known to sign the death
warrant of a Confederate soldier. Lincoln was a man of equally tender
heart and yet the Northern President did sign the death warrants of more
than two hundred Union soldiers during his administration.

The only action Davis would permit was the removal of the fifteen
thousand prisoners further south to places of safety where such raids
would be impossible. The prisons of Richmond were emptied and the
stockades at Salisbury and Andersonville over-crowded with these men.

Davis renewed his urgent appeal to the Federal Government for the
exchange of these men. His request was treated with discourtesy and
steadily refused. When the hot climate of Georgia caused the high death
rate at Andersonville he released thousands of those men without
exchange and notified the Washington Government to send transportation
for them to Savannah.

Lincoln had given Grant a free hand in assuming the command of all the
armies of the Union. But he watched his cruel policy of refusal to
exchange prisoners with increasing anguish. In every way possible,
without directly opposing his commanding general, the big-hearted
President at Washington managed to smuggle Southern prisoners back into
the South unknown to Grant and take an equal number of Union soldiers
home.

A crowd of Southern boys from the prison at Elmira, New York, were
announced to arrive in Richmond on the morning train from
Fredericksburg. Among them Jennie expected her brother Jimmie who had
been captured in battle six months ago. She hurried to the station to
meet them.

A great crowd had gathered. A row of coffins was placed on the ground at
the end of the long platform awaiting the train going south. A dozen men
were sitting on those rude caskets smoking, talking, laughing, their
feet