In February 1865 the Joint Select Committee of the Confederate Congress appointed to investigate the conditions and treatment of prisoners of war issued a report that defends a plan by the Confederates to blow up the prisoners at Libby Prison should there be an attempt to liberate them. Here is the relevant section of the report:
Your committee proceed next to notice the allegation that the Confederate authorities had prepared a mine under the Libby prison, and placed in it a quantity of gunpowder for the purpose of blowing up the buildings with their inmates, in case of an attempt to rescue them. After ascertaining all the facts bearing on this subject, your committee believe that what was done under the circumstances, will meet a verdict of approval from all whose prejudices do not blind them to the truth.
The state of things was unprecedented in history, and must be judged of according to the motives at work, and the result accomplished. A large body of Northern raiders, under one Col. Dahlgren, was approaching Richmond. It was ascertained, by the reports of prisoners captured from them, and other evidence, that their design was to enter the city, to set fire to the buildings, public and private, for which purpose turpentine balls in great number had been prepared; to murder the President of the Confederate States, and other prominent men; to release the prisoners of war, then numbering five or six thousand; to put arms into their hands, and to turn over the city to indiscriminate pillage, rape, and slaughter. At the same time a plot was discovered among the prisoners to co-operate in this scheme, and a large number of knives and slung-shot (made by putting stones into woollen stockings) were detected in places of concealment about their quarters.
To defeat a plan so diabolical, assuredly the sternest means were justified. If it would have been right to put to death any one prisoner attempting to escape under such circumstances, it seems logically certain that it would have been equally right to put to death any number making such attempt. But in truth the means adopted were those of humanity and prevention, rather than of execution. The Confederate authorities felt able to meet and repulse Dahlgren and his raiders, if they could prevent the escape of the prisoners. [Found in Edward Alfred Pollard. The Lost Cause; a New Southern History of the War of the Confederates (Kindle Locations 13110-13111). Waxkeep Publishing. Kindle Edition. NOTE: The above excerpt appears as one paragraph in Pollard’s book. I broke it up for easier reading. -Pat]
The joint committee claimed that the mass killing would be done in the interests of humanity:
The real object was to save their lives, as well as those of our citizens. The guard force at the prisons was small, and all the local troops in and around Richmond were needed to meet the threatened attack. Had the prisoners escaped, the women and children of the city, as well as their homes, would have been at the mercy of five thousand outlaws. Humanity required that the most summary measures should be used to deter them from any attempt at escape.
More from the report:
A mine was prepared under the Libby prison; a sufficient quantity of gunpowder was put into it, and pains were taken to inform the prisoners that any attempt at escape made by them would be effectually defeated. The plan succeeded perfectly. The prisoners were awed and kept quiet. Dahlgren and his party were defeated and scattered. The danger passed away, and in a few weeks the gunpowder was removed. Such are the facts. Your committee do not hesitate to make them known, feeling assured that the conscience of the enlightened world and the great law of self-preservation will justify all that was done by our country and her officers. [Edward Alfred Pollard. The Lost Cause; a New Southern History of the War of the Confederates (Kindle Locations 13115-13119). Waxkeep Publishing. Kindle Edition. The report can be found in Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 1. Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.]
It can also be found in the OR Series II Volume 8 p. 343-344. March 3, 1865 Report of the Joint Select Committee Appointed to Investigate the Condition and Treatment of Prisoners of War (Confederate Congress).
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