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prisoners at 260,000, instead of 220,000, as Davis puts it on the strength of General Barnes' estimate.
Then Mr. Davis says that 26,000 of the rebel prisoners died in our hands, and only 20,000 of ours died in the hands of the Confederates, making an aggregate death of twelve per cent. more of rebel prisoners than Union prisoners.
I have an authority for the statement of the number of Confederate.
prisoners held by us which would relieve substantially the imputation, but it is hardly necessary to go into such examination to do so. Can anybody doubt upon the statement of Davis even, considering the condition of his men in the field, especially of those wounded, that there would not be twelve per cent. more of them die than there would be of our prisoners?
He places his imputation only upon the fact of death in general and not death of wounded.1
1 Owing to the very great difficulty in getting at the exact number of our prisoners and the exact number of the Confederate prisoners, and especially the number of our men who died within the rebel prisons, as no reliable data or regular official reports of those facts have yet been discovered,--if they were ever made,--the “Board of publication,” acting under the direction of the Secretary of War, engaged in publishing all the data of the operations of war that can be obtained, have not yet been able to publish the official reports of the facts in this regard which I have just been discussing. At the time of my writing I have been unable to pursue the subject with the minuteness and exactness that I would desire. I have asked for such data, and if they can be got, I know through the kindness of the Board they will be furnished me as soon as collected; and if they are received before my work is finished they will be inserted in the Appendix.
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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