Georgia Weekly Telegraph, May 9, 1862 -- page 1
THE NORTHERN PRISONERS
The department spent an hour or two with the Northern Prisoners who arrived here Sunday morning and are now comfortably quartered, much to their satisfaction at Camp Oglethorpe. They started from Mobile with 893, but sixty were left on the way, at different points, sick and unable to proceed further, Eight hundred and thirty three was consequently the sum to be turned over to the custody of the officer of the guard. Of this number we learned upwards of three hundred were volunteers from Northern Missouri - Some were from Tennessee three are reported ( we know not how correctly to be Georgians by birth, only one from Eastern States, not probably more than a tenth of the whole number foreigners, and the remainder from Northwestern States and New York.
They are all, or nearly all, laboring men, accustomed probably to earn from ten to twenty dollars a month, and made littel or no pecuniary sacrifice in volunteering. All ( that is all we heard speak upon the subject) profess themselves heartily sick of the war - say it was the work of extremists North and South, but the South begub the fight and forced the North to the issue, or to submit to disunion, which would be fatal to her. If the could be paroled, they would gladly embrace that plan of getting out of military service, but they do not want to be exchanged and be sent back to the Federal Camps to fight. They had enough of it and rather remain here, prisoners of war, than go back in that way.
They wonder they should be called "Yankees." and take the name in dudgeon, declaring there is but one Yankee in the crowd. They repudiate with equal spirit the charge of being abolitionists, and say there are several sons of slaveholders in Missouri among them, but not a single abolitionist.
As to the personnel of the prisoners it would be unfair to hold them to present appearances. They were captured just a month ago at Shiloh, and marched to the rear with nothing more than the clothing they wore, which has probably never been washed since that time. They were first sent to Corinth, then to Memphis,m then to Cahaba and lastly to Macon, with little or no chance at any place, to attend to personal cleanliness. But making due allowance for all this, though many pronounce the physically superior to our own men, we failed altogether to detect any superiority, either in stamina, weight, or intelligence and comliness of countenance. We are confident the same number of Georgians would out weigh them and cut a better figure in every way in the same condition.
All Prisoners appear to be very docile and well behaved. They have been told that the measure of liberty and privileged granted them will be graduated by their own demeanor, and they promise as fairly as men can. In regard to the battle in which they were taken, those whom we conversed were under the impression that they were victimized to superior numbers. Tehy said the whole force or Grant did not exceed twenty five thousand men, while they were confident that Beauregard had at least wighty thousand. Nevertheless, they saey say our men fought like furies, and they never wish to see another battle of that kind.
They report all the privates of the Federal Army heartily sick of the war and anxious above all things for peace, and say this is the general sentiment of the western people.
All those prisoners were in both the fights of Donelson and Shiloh, and have lively impressions of the horrors of war. One among them says he was in ten battles against Price in Missouri and whipped every time.
The prisoner are much pleased with their locality and treatment at Camp Oglethorpe, and the officer who brought them is so well satisfied with the place that he says he shall bring on a thousand more. We hope not. If it were left with us,We would put every one of them, officers excepted, on parole and send them out of the country.
Bringing the