he was met by a formidable fleet of ironclads and men of
war, which were to accompany him by sailing along the coast in every
direction. These were to form a junction with another army at Newburn,
N.C.

Another matter that caused the South to despond of any other solution
of the war than the bloody end that soon followed, was the re-election
of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. The South
felt that as long as he was at the head of the nation nothing but
an unconditional surrender of our armies and the emancipation of the
slaves would suffice this great emancipator. To this the South could
not nor would not accede as long as there were rifles in the field
and men to wield them. A great problem now presented itself to the
Confederate authorities for solution, but who could cut the Gordion
knot? The South had taken during the war two hundred and seventy
thousand prisoners, as against two hundred and twenty-two thousand
taken by the Federals, leaving in excess to the credit of the South
near fifty thousand. For a time several feeble attempts had been made
for an equitable exchange of prisoners, but this did not suit the
policy of the North. Men at the North were no object, and to guard
this great swarm of prisoners in the South it took an army out of the
field, and the great number of Southern soldiers in Northern
prisons took quite another army from the service. In addition to the
difficulty of supplying our own army and people with the necessities
of life, we were put to the strain of feeding one hundred thousand or
more of Federal prisoners. Every inducement was offered the North to
grant some cortel of exchange or some method agreed upon to alienate
the sufferings of these unfortunates confined in the prison pens in
the North and South. The North was offered the privilege of feeding
and clothing their own prisoners, to furnish medical aid and
assistance to their sick. But this was rejected in the face of the
overwhelming sentiments of the fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers
of those who were suffering and dying like flies in the Southern pens.
Thousands and thousands of petitions were circulated, with strings of
signatures from all classes in the Union, urging Congress to come in
some way to the relief of their people. But a deaf ear was turned to
all entreaties, this being a war measure, and no suffering could be
too great when the good of the service required it. Taking it from a
military point of