by Thomas Dixon
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE CONSPIRATORS
The raid of Dahlgren and Kilpatrick had sent a thrill of horror throughRichmond. The people had suddenly waked to the realization of what itmeant to hold fifteen thousand desperate prisoners in their city with ahandful of soldiers to guard them.
The discovery on the young leader's body of the remarkable papers ofinstructions to burn the city and murder the Confederate President andhis Cabinet produced a sharp discussion between Jefferson Davis and hiscouncilors.
Not only did the people of Richmond demand that such methods of warfarebe met by retaliation of the most drastic kind but the Cabinet nowjoined in this demand. Hundreds of prisoners had been captured both fromDahlgren's and Kilpatrick's division.
It was urged on Davis with the most dogged determination that theseprisoners--in view of the character of their instructions to burn a citycrowded with unarmed men, women and children and murder in cold bloodthe civil officers of the Confederate Government--should be treated asfelons and executed by hanging.
The President had refused on every occasion to lend his power to brutalmeasures of retaliation. This time his Cabinet was persistent and indead earnest in their purpose to force his hand.
Davis faced his angry council with unruffled spirit.
"I understand your feelings, gentlemen," he said evenly. "You have hada narrow escape. The South does not use such methods of warfare. Norwill I permit our Government to fall to such level by an act ofretaliation. The prisoners we hold are soldiers of the enemy's army.Their business is to obey orders--not plan campaigns--"
"We have captured officers also," Benjamin interrupted.
"Subordinate officers are not morally responsible for the plans of theirsuperiors."
No argument could move the Confederate Chieftain. He was adamant to allappeals for harsh treatment. Even Lee had at last found it impossible tomaintain discipline in his army unless he prevented the review of hiscourt martial by Davis. The President was never known to sign the deathwarrant of a Confederate soldier. Lincoln was a man of equally tenderheart and yet the Northern President did sign the death warrants of morethan two hundred Union soldiers during his administration.
The only action Davis would permit was the removal of the fifteenthousand prisoners further south to places of safety where such raidswould be impossible. The prisons of Richmond were emptied and thestockades at Salisbury and Andersonville over-crowded with these men.
Davis renewed his urgent appeal to the Federal Government for theexchange of these men. His request was treated with discourtesy andsteadily refused. When the hot climate of Georgia caused the high deathrate at Andersonville he released thousands of those men withoutexchange and notified the Washington Government to send transportationfor them to Savannah.
Lincoln had given Grant a free hand in assuming the command of all thearmies of the Union. But he watched his cruel policy of refusal toexchange prisoners with increasing anguish. In every way possible,without directly opposing his commanding general, the big-heartedPresident at Washington managed to smuggle Southern prisoners back intothe South unknown to Grant and take an equal number of Union soldiershome.
A crowd of Southern boys from the prison at Elmira, New York, wereannounced to arrive in Richmond on the morning train fromFredericksburg. Among them Jennie expected her brother Jimmie who hadbeen captured in battle six months ago. She hurried to the station tomeet them.
A great crowd had gathered. A row of coffins was placed on the ground atthe end of the long platform awaiting the train going south. A dozen menwere sitting on those rude caskets smoking, talking, laughing, theirfeet drawn up tailor-fashion to keep them out of the mud.
With a shiver the girl hurried to the other gate.
Her eager eyes searched in vain among the ragged wretches who shambledfrom the cars. A man from Baton Rouge, whom she failed to recognize,lifted his faded hat and handed her a letter.
She read it through her tears and hurried to the Confederate White Houseto show it to the President. Davis scanned the scrawl with indignantsympathy:
"_Dear Little Sis_:
"This is the last message I shall ever send. Before it can reach you I shall be dead--for which I'll thank God. I'm sorry now I didn't take my chances with the other fellows, bribe the guard and escape from Camp Douglas in Chicago. A lot of the boys did it. Somehow I couldn't stoop. Maybe the fear of the degrading punishment they gave McGoffin, the son of the Governor of Kentucky, when he failed, influenced me, weak and despondent as I was. They hung him by the thumbs to make him confess the name of his accomplices. He refused to speak and they left him hanging until the balls of his thumbs both burst open and he fainted.
"The last month at Camp Douglas was noted for scant rations. Hunger was the prevailing epidemic. At one end of our barracks was the kitchen, and by the door stood a barrel into which was thrown beef bones and slops. I saw a starving boy fish out one of these bones and begin to gnaw it. A guard discovered him. He snatched the bone from the prisoner's hand, cocked his pistol, pressed it to his head and ordered him to his all-fours and made him bark for the bone he held above him--
"We expected better treatment when transferred to Elmira. But I've lost hope. I'm too weak to ever pull up again. I've made friends with a guard who has given me the list of the men who have died here in the five months since we came. In the first four months out of five thousand and twenty-seven men held here, one thousand three hundred and eleven died--six and one-half per cent a month--"
Davis paused and shook his head--
"The highest rate we have ever known at Salisbury or Andersonvilleduring those spring months was three per cent!"
He finished the last line in quivering tones.
"There's not a chance on earth that I'll live to see you again. See the President and beg him for God's sake to save as many of the boys as he can. With a heart full of love.
"Jimmie."
The President took both of Jennie's hands in his.
"I need not tell you, my dear, that I have done and am doing my levelbest. The policy of the new Federal Commander is to refuse all offers ofexchange. You understand my position?"
"Perfectly," was the sorrowful answer. "I only came as a duty to bearhis dying message--"
"Express to your father and mother my deepest sympathy."
With a gentle pressure of the Chieftain's hand the girl answered:
"I need not tell you I appreciate it--"
The President watched her go with a look of helpless anguish. Histroubles for the moment had only begun. The returned prisoners hadmarched in a body to his office to thank their Chief for his sympathyand help and asked him to say something to them.
Jennie paused and stared in a dazed way into the poor shrunken faces.When the President appeared every ragged hat was in the air and theycheered with all the might of the strength that was left in them. Thegirl burst into tears. These men, so forlorn, so dried up with astrange, half-animal, hunted look in their eyes--others restless andwild-looking--others calmly vacant in their stare as if they had beendead for years!
A poor mother was rushing in and out among them hunting for her son.
"He was coming with you boys, you know!" she cried.
She stopped suddenly and laughed at her own anxiety and confusion.
"He's here somewhere--I just can't find him--help me, men!"
She hadn't spoken his name, in her eager search for his loved face. Shekept lifting the cloth from a basket of provisions which she had cookedthat morning.
"I've got his breakfast here--poor boy--I expect he's hungry."
She had lost all consciousness of the crowd now.
She was talking to herself, trying to keep her courage up.
The President looked into the emaciated faces before him and lifted hislong arm in solemn salutation.
"_Soldiers of the South_:
"I thank y
ou from the bottom of my heart for this tribute of your loyalty. You were offered your freedom in prison at any moment if you would take the oath and forswear your allegiance to the South. You deliberately chose the living death to the betrayal of your faith. I stand with uncovered head before you. I am proud to be the Chief Executive of such men!"
Again they cheered.
The old mother with her basket was searching again for her boy.
Jennie slipped an arm gently around her and led her away.
On the day Lee left Richmond for the front to meet Grant's invadinghost, the Confederate President was in agony over a letter from GeneralWinder portraying the want and suffering among the prisoners confined atAndersonville.
"If we could only get them across the Mississippi," Davis cried, "wherebeef and supplies of all kind are abundant--but what can we do for themhere?"
"Our men are in the same fix," Lee answered quickly, "except thatthey're free. These sufferings are the result of our necessity, not ofour policy. Do not distress yourself."
The South was entering now the darkest hours of her want. The marketprice of food was beyond the reach of the poor or even the moderatelywell-to-do. Turkeys sold for $60 each. Flour was $300 a barrel, cornmeal $50 a bushel. Boots were $200 a pair. A man's coat cost $350--histrousers $100. He could get along without a vest. Wood was $50 a cord.It took $1,800 to buy $100 in gold.
In the midst of this universal suffering the yellow journals of theSouth, led by the Richmond _Examiner_, made the most bitter anddetermined assaults on Davis to force him to a policy of retaliation onNorthern prisoners.
"Hoist the black flag!" shrieked the _Examiner_. "Retaliate on theseYankee prisoners for the starvation and abuse of our men in the North--aland teeming with plenty." The President was held up to the scorn andcurses of the Southern people because with quiet dignity he refused tolower the standard of his Government to a policy of revenge on helplesssoldiers in his power.
To a Committee of the Confederate Congress who waited on him with theseinsane demands he answered with scorn:
"You dare ask me to torture helpless prisoners of war! I will resign myoffice at the call of my country. But no people have the right to demandsuch deeds at my hands!"
In answer to this brave, humane stand of the Southern President the_Examiner_ had the unspeakable effrontery to accuse him of clemency tohis captives that he might curry favor with the North and shield himselfif the South should fail.
No characteristic of Davis was more marked than his regard for the weak,the helpless and the captive. His final answer to his assailants was torepeat with emphasis his orders to General Winder to see to it that thesame rations issued to Confederate soldiers in the field should be givento all prisoners of war, though taken from a starving army and people.
Enraged by the defeat of their mad schemes, the conspirators drewtogether now to depose Davis and set up a military dictatorship.