December 30, 1863
---Kate
Cumming, Confederate Army nurse, writes bitterly of the effects of Lincoln’s
decision to discontinue prisoner exchanges:
Lincoln has again refused to exchange prisoners.
I do think this is the cruelest act of which he has been guilty, not only to
us, but his own men. He is fully aware that we can scarcely get enough of the
necessaries of life to feed our own men; and how can he expect us to feed his.
Human lives are nothing to him; all the prisoners we have might die of
starvation, and I do not expect they would cost him a thought, as all he has to
do is to issue a call for so many more thousands to be offered up on his altars
of sacrifice. How long will the people of the North submit to this Moloch. He
knows that every one of our men is of value to us, for we have not the dregs of
the earth to draw from; but our every man is a patriot, battling for all that
is dear to him.
---Col.
Rutherford B. Hayes, in command of the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment,
writes in his journal of his marriage anniversary, and of the challenges to
getting more of his regiment to re-enlist:
December 30, [1863]. — Eleven years ago married.
Lucy and I talked of it and lived it over on this eleventh anniversary. A happy
day.
[In the] evening, spoke to the men again about
re-enlisting as veterans. I want three-fourths of the present. We have two
hundred and fifty-five. Our present total five hundred; of these we deduct
officers twenty-five, invalids fifteen, recruits having more than one year to
serve seventy-five — total one hundred and fifteen, [leaving] three hundred and
eighty-five. Three-fourths [would be] two hundred and eighty-eight.
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