Union troops used Confederate officers as human shields

newsleader ^ | April 24, 2004 | Terry Shulman

[stainlessbanner]

Saddam Hussein's devilish practice of using human shields isn't exactly new. It was pioneered by an American, in fact, during the last year of the Civil War.

"Your officers, now in my hands, will be placed by me under your fire, as an act of retaliation," Union departmental commander Gen. John G. Foster wrote his Southern counterpart in an edict, and with that a sordid new standard was set in the conduct of war.

[mass55th]

The article fails to mention that Stanton ordered the transfer of Confederate officers to Morris Island because he had received word that there were 600 Union officers being held within the City of Charleston. The Union officers were in direct line of Federal artillery. It was a tit for tat move. "The standoff continued until a yellow fever epidemic forced Confederate Major General S. Jones to remove the prisoners from the city limits.  The federal command then transferred the surviving Confederate officers from the open stockade at Morris Island to Fort Pulaski."

[PeaRidge]

"When there is added to this the irregularities of the soldierly-such as taking poultry, pigs, milk, butter, preserves, potatoes, horses, and in fact everything they want.

"Entering and searching houses, and stealing in many cases; committing rapes on the negroes and such like things.

"These things are not exaggerated by me, and, though they do not characterize all the troops, several regiments have conducted in this way, and have also repeatedly fired on peaceable citizens-sometimes from trains as they passed-and no punishment, or none of any account, has been meted out to them."

'Extracts from letter of J. T. K. Hayward to J. W. Brooks, dated "Steamer Jennie Deans, August 14, 1861"', The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, the Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 3, p. 459.

[Alberta's Child]

And today, the Federal government has pretty much become a large-scale agent of wealth transfer in this country, primarily from the former Union states to the South and West.

In retrospect, I'd say the Confederacy actually won.

[azhenfud]

"They have not forgotten or forgiven."

[Leisler]

'Spose no one's read Thucydides. The Old Testament. The Romans in the second Punic war....it goes on.

[Lee Heggy]

Hell has special places for such as Foster.

[Pilsner]

There was great deal of hunger in prison camps on both sides during the Civil War, and undoubtely the Confederate camps were worse. But Federal prisoners in the South starved at a time when Confederate armies were melting away from hunger and the population of Richmond was rioting over food shortages. Confederate prisoners in the North starved while the United States was exporting record amounts of grain to Europe.

[upcountryhorseman]

Also, Union armies violated articles of war that were in effect at that time. Sherman's "march" through Georgia,
destroying every thing in sight, for example.

[Eva]

My great great grandfather's brother was imprisoned at Andersonville. He enlisted at the age of nineteen and was released from Andersonville, a twenty-three year old old man. The only part of him that still looked young were his feet, which were bare in the photograph that the army took of him after he made his way back from the Florida swamps where he was released.

[azhenfud]

"...The Old Testament."

Is there an account where the Israelite captives were carried onto a battlefield as HS's? or of those taken captive by Israel being used as the same?

[sheltonmac]

I view these posts as attempts to damage American pride and to establish moral equivalency between the US and its enemies. ... Attemps to bring us down to their level will ultimately fail because their level is far below anything we were capable of even 150 years ago.

Thinking that we cannot sink to the level of our enemies is the epitome of pride. To believe that no matter what we do we are justified simply because we think our motives are more pure lowers us to the level of our enemies. That, however, is another debate. This thread is focusing on the War for Southern Independence.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Using hostages in war is as old as time.

[CurlyBill]

WP wqill probably be here soon trying to come up with some atrocity he feels was perpetrated by the south... rather than addressing the issue. I just can't understand these people who march to the drum of political correctness and are so ridden with guilt that they cannot at least look at history with an objective eye.

[stand watie]

GM, cyborg!

#3fan, the racist FOOL of the FR unionist lunatic fringe, will be along SOON, i would guess. and whisky papa, the MUCH banned scalawag & traitor to his native state,too.

the ONLY one of the unionists with a BRAIN is N-S, the Damnyankee Minister of Propaganda. haven't seen or heard from him in several days.PITY.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

GOOD MORNING, ma'am! (said with downward sweep of plumed, gray slouch hat!)

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

WELL SAID!

free dixie,sw

[cyborg]

GM stand watie :)

I'm not shocked at this article. WBTS was not a 'gentleman's war' all the time.

[Terry Mross]

I would say, judging by the "shape" of the South today compared to the "shape" of the North, WE WON! Or, at least, it ain't over yet!

[stand watie]

starving/torturing/abusing/MURDERING helpless CSA prisoners of war was OFFICIAL POLICY of the lincoln regime.

a JOINT RESOLUTION of the US Congress from 1861 proves that what happened in yankee POW/DEATH CAMPS was PLANNED!

free dixie,sw