When General Stoneman made his attempt to rescue the prisoners, Winder
issued the order No. 13, which stamps the brute with infamy beyond
redemption. In this order, which has been preserved, Winder commanded the
officers in charge of the artillery to open their batteries, loaded with
grape-shot, as soon as the Federals approached within seven miles, and to
continue the slaughter until every prisoner was exterminated. Similar
threats were made all along the line of the prison stockades in North
Carolina and in Virginia. "Was the prison mined," said Colonel Farnsworth
to Turner, the jailer of Libby Prison, "when General Kilpatrick approached
Richmond to attempt to rescue the prisoners?" "Yes," was the brutal reply;
"and I would have blown you all to Hades before I would have suffered you
to be rescued." Twelve hundred men blown into atoms at one explosion!
Thirty thousand men to be torn into shreds by the iron bullets of the
cannon! Contrast the orders of these chivalric men with that of Aboukere,
the chief of a reputed barbarous horde of Bedouins of the desert:--
"Warriors of Islam! attend a moment, and listen well to the precepts which
I am about to promulge to you for observation in times of war. Fight with
bravery and loyalty. Never use artifice or perfidy towards your enemies.
Do not mutilate the fallen. Do not slay the aged, nor the children, nor
the women. You will find upon your route men living in solitude, in
meditation, in the adoration of God: do them no injury, give them no
offence."
In which are the evidences the most positive of a fraternal religion and
an advanced civilization?