The prisoner parole and exchange system had not totally broken down by 150 years ago this week.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 16, 1863:
Exchange of Surgeons.
The exchange of Surgeons, we learn, has been agreed upon by the C. S. and U. S. Governments. The next flag-of-truce boat will bring our Surgeons to Richmond. We have nearly one hundred of theirs to deliver.
An editorial in the same issue looked at the breakdown of the Dix–Hill Cartel from a Southern perspective: paroled Union prisoners at Gettysburg were immediately put back in the army.
The Abolition of the cartel.
No person can read the correspondence between Commissioners Ould and Meredith without becoming convinced, if he had any doubt before, that the Yankee Government acted in bad faith in the matter. Mr. Ould, in fact, does not hesitate to make the charge in direct terms, and he is borne out so fully by the facts of the case that even the New York World–a paper not very friendly, it is true, to Lincoln’s Administration, yet still as warmly in favor of reconstructing the Union by force as Seward himself — is obliged to admit it. The whole transaction is eminently characteristic of Seward, and not less so of the Yankee nation, whose peculiarities have become proverbial all over the world. It was, in a word, an elaborate attempt to take an advantage — a thorough Yankee trick — an exhibition of contempt for good faith when it stood in the way of a low scheme for getting the better in a trade — a substitution of low cunning for genuine ability — a mistake of policy common to knaves, who cannot be taught to look beyond their noses or to see that rascality, though successful for the moment, puts an extinguisher upon all future hope of advantage by the distrust which it engenders. A large number of prisoners was taken at Gettysburg and paroled by the officer to whom they surrendered, as had always been the practice under the cartel. They were passed through our lines and into those of the enemy. It struck Meade that they would be very useful in the battle then raging, and he made them fall into the ranks. An apology had already been provided for him. The Yankee Government, in view of this very thing, had decided that paroles to be binding must be signed by the Commander-in-Chief. An honorable man would have scorned to profit by such knavery. But Meade is not an honorable man. He is a Yankee. He took advantage of it, and put the men to work at once. It so happened that a very few days after Port Hudson surrendered to the Yankees. The officer commanding had heard nothing of the new interpretation put upon the cartel. He paroled the prisoners; he was not the Commander-in Chief; and so by the rascality of the Yankees themselves we recovered a brave army of seven thousand men. Knavery thus reacted upon itself, and recoiled upon the heads of those who first set it in motion. The cunning Yankees were too “smart” for themselves.
The reasons why the Yankee Government put an end to the cartel are obvious enough. They believe their own supply of men to be inexhaustible. The degeneration, therefore, of the prisoners they lose can easily be cured by fresh recruits. At the same time, they think our means of recruiting are exhausted. Every man they retain, therefore, they regard as a drain to that extent which cannot be made up. They think it is the same thing as killing the like number in the field of battle. At the same time they hope to gain another advantage by leaving their men with us. They think they will assist them in their favorite policy of starving us out. They are mistaken in this, but that is the true interpretation to be put upon their conduct. The whole transaction is genuine Yankee–utterly base, as everything originating with the Yankee is — wretchedly short sighted, as knavery always must be — miserably awkward and bungling, as all things originating in falsehood must be. Dean Swift says he never heard more than three well constructed lies in his life, and he was the most acute of observers.–Meredith’s defences of the rascally conduct of his Government are certainly not among the most ingenious of inventions.
There is no evil out of which good may not come. Our troops have been in the habit of surrendering too easily heretofore. The object, in too many instances, has been to get exchanged, and pay a visit to their homes. Under the present system they will have no chance to see home during the war if they are taken prisoners. Besides, the Yankees are preparing to make their prisoners more unendurable than they have ever been. Our men in future will not be taken so easily.
The parolees at Gettysburg are referenced at Civil War Chronologies for July 4, 1863: “At Gettysburg, Lee offers to exchange prisoners with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, but Meade declines. Confederates parole their prisoners before retreating, but the paroles are declared invalid by Federal authorities and the men are returned to duty.”
More prisoners probably meant more escape attempts. The November 16th Dispatch detailed an escape from Richmond’s Castle Thunder.
