"
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.
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