THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
own responsibility; but I do say the authorities at Washington City did plan, order, and execute wantonly, cruelties upon Confederate prisoners of war that can not be justified under any pretext; and I claim that no proof can be produced that the Confederate Government did at any time countenance the slightest cruelty to its prisoners of war. The same rations given to the Confederate soldier in the field were issued to the Yankee prisoners of war in Confederate prisons. The greatest cruelty inflicted upon the Union prisoners of war in the South was inflicted by Edwin M. Stanton, United States Secretary of War, and Gen. U. S. Grant, when they refused to exchange prisoners of war. The records show that General Grant, by order of Stanton, stopped exchange and inflicted whatever hardships upon their own men they did suffer by this suspension of exchange; and it is a matter of recorded proof that both President Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee, to alleviate the suffering of the prisoners of
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