Confederate POW tells of Yankees’ psychological warfare during American Civil War

30 Nov 2012

The Times, 12 November 1864
The following is an extract from a letter from a Confederate Prisoner of War at Point Lookout, Maryland, dated 10 October 1864:
“This letter will not be sent through the regular channel of United States’ officials, but will go by private hand to Baltimore and be mailed there. I shall thus be enabled to write you more freely.
There are 7,000 of our prisoners at this point. Most of them having been in prison 12 months have suffered many indignities, and been subject to the most galling ordeal of sacrifice and hardship, which none but themselves can realize. The Yankees, with characteristic malignity, use the most cowardly means and inducements to cause our men to desert that country which they love so well. Our rations are curtailed, our blankets taken from us, no wood furnished; our men shot down in cold blood.
Then comes the comedy. The officials, in the livery of the United States’ Government, with faces radiant with smiles, ride through our prison. The oath of allegiance to the United States is offered us, and our men are entreated to leave the “so-called Confederacy,” and fight under the glorious “stars and stripes,” and be relieved from the horrors and suffering of prison life. These are only a few of the means employed. Everything that Yankee ingenuity and Black Republican malice can suggest is used to accomplish this purpose.
But, thank God! these Southern patriots, though tortured and persecuted by the representatives of ‘the best Government the world ever saw’, still remain true and faithful to the cause which they have espoused; they reject with indignation and contempt the offers of our magnanimous Yankee philanthropists, and anxiously, hopefully look forward to the future, when they shall once more, with musket in hand, be under the folds of that banner which on more than a hundred fields has waved triumphantly in the face of the United States’ army. Our confidence in the final success of our arms has not been lessened by the ordeal through which we have passed. True, a cloud hangs over us now, but we still feel hopeful and sanguine of ultimate success in the future. With such men as Davis, Lee, Beauregard, and a host of others, we cannot be conquered, but we will fight on till our independence is gained, or until the Southern people are ‘numbered with the things that were’. The Southern spirit is invincible, it will surmount all obstacles; and overcome all hardships, and endure all privations to secure our people a separate nationality, distinct from this modern mobocracy established at Washington.
We are told every day by our gaolers that Richmond has fallen, that our armies are beaten and demoralized, that our people are discontented and starving, that our troops are deserting, and that we are in the last ditch, etc. Of course such rumours and reports have no other effect upon us than to make us more determined, if ever the opportunity offers, to revenge these base calumnies and insulting taunts. The worst feature of our imprisonment is the being guarded by ‘negro soldiers’ – our own slaves stolen from us by our magnanimous ‘Northern brethren’; but there is no alternative, we must remain and suffer for conscience and for country’s sake until our Government can effect an exchange.
These privations, however, are only for a time. The Southern people are only suffering temporary hardships and sacrifices; for I am forced to believe that a glorious future is in store for the Confederate States, and that after passing through this terrible ordeal of war we as a people and a separate nation shall be better able to enjoy that independence for which we have suffered and battled, and which we are determined to extort from our bitter enemies.
No doubt I weary you with this lengthy history of the sufferings of myself and comrades at the hands of United States’ officers; but I feel certain that I am writing to one who deeply sympathizes with our people, and who has done all in his power to ameliorate and lessen the sufferings of myself during a long imprisonment here. My health is still quite good, and my spirits as buoyant as could be expected under the circumstances.”