Yeah, well. That's not true. The rebels never agreed to exchange black Union POW's.
The rebel armies were melting away through desertion. The de facto policy of the insurgent government seems to have been to abuse Union POW's in order to pressure the federals to return to the exchange cartel.
The federal government refused to exchange prisoners on several grounds:
The rebels refused to return black POW's.
The rebels violated the cartel by returning the bulk of the men captured at Vicksburg to service -- large numbers were captured again at Chattanooga; they had not been exchanged.
The rebels were running out of man power; exchanges benefited them more than the Union.
Oh, just a by the way:
Dr. Freehling's book "The South Vs The South" notes that the war was decided (on one level) by great sieges. The Union won them all:
Vicksburg, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Petersburg.
Rebel success? Nil.
Walt
Basically you are saying that a Union general lied.
I don't know whether or not black prisoners were ever exchanged by the South. It is clear that if the blacks were former escaped slaves, then the South would not return them. After all, if the South was willing to go to war to protect slavery, why would they return escaped slaves?
Writing to the lurkers again, Walt? I've shown you before that the paroles were invalid and that a Union general agreed the North could have no complaint.
do you think "the beast" selling CSA POWs & freemen INTO slavery in New Orleans was A-OK???
free dixie,sw