The threatening manoeuvres of Sherman alone caused the rebel authorities
to diminish the number of inmates of this stockade, and thereby lessen the
dangers of recapture, and remove the temptation to the United States
authorities to make an effort for their rescue. It has been stated that
the rebels were anxious to exchange prisoners, man for man, and that the
obstructions were caused by the Federal authorities, and that Mr. Stanton,
in particular, was responsible for the stoppage of exchange and the
consequent death of so many thousands of our fellow-citizens detained in
the rebel prisons.
General Hitchcock, the United States commissioner of exchange, however,
denies most emphatically that Mr. Stanton was any way responsible for the
refusal to make exchanges, man for man, officer for officer, according to
grade, and he makes the following statement: "At no instance within my
knowledge did Mr. Stanton refuse to acquiesce in any proposition looking
to that result. There is not in my office, nor have I ever seen such a
proposition from a rebel commissioner or the rebel authorities. Nor have I
any reason to believe that any such proposition was ever made by Judge
Ould, or any of his superiors, except in a letter from Judge Ould
addressed to Major Mulford, which fell into the hands of Major-General
Butler. This is true, emphatically, as a protection against the
accusations levelled at Mr. Stanton. * * * * * Mr. Stanton has not only
been willing, but anxious to make exchanges referred to, as I have
abundant means of showing by indisputable documents, the aim and purpose
of Judge Ould was to draw from us all of the rebel prisoners held in
exchange for white troops of the United States held as prisoners in the
South, persistently refusing to exchange colored troops to a very late
date; when, to carry a special purpose, he receded so far as to agree to
exchange free colored men, leaving the general principle where it was on
his side against the just claims of a large body of colored prisoners held
in the South."