How Many Confederates Would Rather Suffer in a Prison Camp than Be Exchanged for Black Union Soldiers?

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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I read this today and I wondered how widespread this opinion was:

Curtis Burke expressed the opinion of many Confederate soldiers regarding exchange for African Americans: "Friday January 8th 1864. We have had rumors for several days that all prisoners of war were ordered to Point Lookout, under Gen. Butler’s jurisdiction to be kept till the Confederate Government will consent to recognize Butler and exchange negro soldiers captured. As far as I can learn most of the prisoners would rather remain prisoners a year longer than be exchanged through Beast Butler (as we call him) for negro troops."

Keller, David L.. The Story of Camp Douglas: Chicago's Forgotten Civil War Prison (Civil War Series) (p. 101). Arcadia Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.
 
Here is the footnote:

foot.JPG
 
Beast Butler commented on this in his autobiography as follows:

Will you suffer your soldier, captured in fighting your battles, to be in confinement for months rather than release him by giving for him that which you call a piece of property, and which we are willing to accept as a man? You certainly appear to place less value upon your soldier than you do upon your negro. I assure you, much as we of the North are accused of loving property, our citizens would have no difficulty in yielding up any piece of property they have in exchange for one of their brothers or sons languishing in your prisons.

Benjamin Butler, Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences, 1892, pp. 604-605, wikiquote
 
I have read a lot of letters, diaries, and period newspaper reports and have never run across mention of anyone being reluctant to be properly exchanged - for black Union soldiers or anyone else. If Burke did, it seems he is an anomaly.
 
Here is a New York Times article about the plight of Union Color POW's ... Many cases it was the Confederacy who refuse to exchange the Color troops in prisoner swaps... basically killing the prisoner swap programs... Even find the Color troops old masters and return them to their old masters...

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/the-plight-of-the-black-p-o-w/

Snippet...

Davis publicly denounced Lincoln’s order, but it did, for the most part, have the desired effect, as most black prisoners were not treated with the harsh justice mandated by Confederate policy, even though the Confederacy never officially acknowledged African-Americans as P.O.W.’s. Instead, what emerged were inconsistent practices in dealing with captured black troops, depending on the time, place and the commander into whose hands they fell. Indeed, some Confederate officers encouraged the killing of African-American soldiers rather than taking them prisoner, and the atrocities committed against surrendering black soldiers at Poison Spring, Fort Pillow and Petersburg are now well known.

Snippet... Andersonville?

While an unknown number of black prisoners were either pressed into Confederate service or returned to slavery, records mention African-American troops being held in at least nine Confederate prison camps, often segregated from white prisoners. At Andersonville, about 100 black prisoners and their white officers established the “Negro Squad,” segregated from the rest of the prisoners. Guards at Andersonville were notoriously hard on the black prisoners. “The rebels refused to do anything for them; they received no medicine or medical treatment,” recalled one white P.O.W. “They were compelled to load and unload the dead who died daily in the stockade.”

Snippet...

With the demise of the Confederacy, black P.O.W.’s were either paroled from the remaining Southern prison camps or simply walked away as their guards abandoned them. While it is unknown how many black troops may have been executed after they surrendered, according to a Congressional committee report (which undoubtedly underestimates the number of captured black soldiers), 79 black Union soldiers died in Confederate prisons, 77 escaped, 384 were recaptured by Union forces, 236 were paroled at the end of the war – and “not one enlisted in the service of the enemy, or deserted the flag of the country.”
 
Here is a New York Times article about the plight of Union Color POW's ... Many cases it was the Confederacy who refuse to exchange the Color troops in prisoner swaps... basically killing the prisoner swap programs... Even find the Color troops old masters and return them to their old masters...

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/the-plight-of-the-black-p-o-w/

Snippet...

Davis publicly denounced Lincoln’s order, but it did, for the most part, have the desired effect, as most black prisoners were not treated with the harsh justice mandated by Confederate policy, even though the Confederacy never officially acknowledged African-Americans as P.O.W.’s. Instead, what emerged were inconsistent practices in dealing with captured black troops, depending on the time, place and the commander into whose hands they fell. Indeed, some Confederate officers encouraged the killing of African-American soldiers rather than taking them prisoner, and the atrocities committed against surrendering black soldiers at Poison Spring, Fort Pillow and Petersburg are now well known.

Snippet... Andersonville?

While an unknown number of black prisoners were either pressed into Confederate service or returned to slavery, records mention African-American troops being held in at least nine Confederate prison camps, often segregated from white prisoners. At Andersonville, about 100 black prisoners and their white officers established the “Negro Squad,” segregated from the rest of the prisoners. Guards at Andersonville were notoriously hard on the black prisoners. “The rebels refused to do anything for them; they received no medicine or medical treatment,” recalled one white P.O.W. “They were compelled to load and unload the dead who died daily in the stockade.”

Snippet...

With the demise of the Confederacy, black P.O.W.’s were either paroled from the remaining Southern prison camps or simply walked away as their guards abandoned them. While it is unknown how many black troops may have been executed after they surrendered, according to a Congressional committee report (which undoubtedly underestimates the number of captured black soldiers), 79 black Union soldiers died in Confederate prisons, 77 escaped, 384 were recaptured by Union forces, 236 were paroled at the end of the war – and “not one enlisted in the service of the enemy, or deserted the flag of the country.”

I knew blacks and American Indian enlisted personnel were sent to Andersonville, but how can an officer be there? I thought it was customary to separate enlisted personnel from officers. Officers went to places like Libby Prison, Salisbury, etc.
If I were a POW, you could exchange me for a pork chop, I wouldn't mind!! :wink:
I feel the same way, but would want to eat the pork chop first. Well done please. I don't like trichinosis.
 
I have read a lot of letters, diaries, and period newspaper reports and have never run across mention of anyone being reluctant to be properly exchanged - for black Union soldiers or anyone else. If Burke did, it seems he is an anomaly.
Concur. I don't think it was within the knowledge of a prisoner to know for whom he was to be exchanged.

I can see Burke's reluctance though (but I don't agree with it). Exchange for a USCT would be an admission that blacks were equal to whites. That would be an insult.

The only other time there was inequity in swaps would be something like, "I give you ten first lieutenants for Major XYZ." Race, in that matter, was irrelevant since virtually all officers on both sides were white. The Louisiana Native Guards had a lot of their colored officers dismissed by the Union and replaced with white officers.
 
I knew blacks and American Indian enlisted personnel were sent to Andersonville, but how can an officer be there? I thought it was customary to separate enlisted personnel from officers. Officers went to places like Libby Prison, Salisbury, etc.


I read it as the white union officers that were in charge of Color Troops in the field.... Were put to work with Color Troop prisoners...
 
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