the soap maker. Such are the rations upon which Union soldiers are fed by there bell authorities and by which they are barely

holding on to life. But to starvation and exposure, to sun and storm, and the sickness which prevails to almost alarming and terrible extent, on an average 100 die daily. It is impossible that any Union soldiers should know all the facts pertaining to this terrible mortality, as they are not paraded by there rebel authorities.

Such statements as the following made by Sergeant Hindman, Ninety -eighth Ohio Infantry, speak eloquent testimony. Said the sergeant: "Of twelve of us who were captured, six died, four are in the hospital - I never expect to see them again -there are butt woof us left. "

In 1862 at Montgomery, Ala., under farm or favorable circumstances, the prisoners being protected by sheds, from 150 to 200 were sick from diarrhea and chills to of 700; the same percentage would give 7,000 sick at Andersonville. It needs no comment, no efforts at word - painting to make such a pictures and out boldly in most horrible colors, nor it this all. Among V,- fated of the many who have suffered amputation in consequence of injuries received before capture, sent from rebel hospitals before their wounds were healed; they are eloquent witnesses against the barbarities of which they are victims. If to these facts is added this, that nothing more demoralizes soldiers and develops the evil passions of man than starvation, the terrible

condition of Union prisoners at Andersonville can be readily imagined. They are fast losing hope and becoming utterly reckless of life. Numbers crazed by their sufferings wander about in a state of idiocy; others deliberately cross the "dead -line" and are remorselessly shot down. In behalf of these men we most earnestly appeal to the President of the United States.

Few of them have been captured except in the front of battle in the deadly encounter, and only when over powered by numbers; they constitute as

gallant a portion of our armies as carry our banner any where. If released they would on return to again do vigorous battle for our cause. We are told that the only obstacle in the way of exchange is the status of enlisted negroes captured form our armies; the United States claiming that the cartel covers all who serve under its flag and the Confederate States refusing to consider the negro soldiers heretofore slaves, as prisoners of war. We beg leave to suggest some facts bearing upon the question of exchange

which we would urge upon this consideration.

Is it not consistent with the national honor, without waiving the claim that the negro soldiers shall be treated as prisoners of war, yet to effect an exchange of the white soldiers? The two classes are treated differently by the enemy, the white is confined in such prisons as Libby and Andersonville, starved and treated with a barbarism unknown to civilized nations, the black, on the contrary, is seldom imprisoned; they are distributed among the citizens or employed upon Government works. Under these circumstances they receive enough to eat and are worked no harder than accustomed to; they are neither starved nor killed off by the pestilence in the dungeons of Richmond and Charleston. It is true they are again made slaves, but their slavery is freedom and happiness compared with the cruel existence imposed upon our

gallant men. They are not bereft of hope, as are the Union soldiers dying by inches. Their chances of escape are ten told greater than those of the white soldiers, and their condition, viewed in all its lights, is tolerable in comparison with that of the prisoners of war now languishing in the dens and pens of "Secession. "