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3 Parole Camp For thousands of families, Northern and Southern, whose relatives were being held as prisoners of war, the signing of the exchange cartel was a source of tremendous relief. For Union officials it quickly became a source of problems. Chief among them was the realization by Union soldiers that capture now meant a quick release and a furlough home until they were exchanged.This produced a strong incentive to straggle in the direction of an enemy camp to obtain what one referred to as a “little rest from soldiering.”Generals in the field quickly realized this,but under the terms of the cartel they could do little to stop the practice.1 It was Governor Tod who offered a solution. Writing to Stanton on September 9, 1862, following a Union defeat at Richmond, Kentucky,Tod complained, “The freedom in giving paroles by our troops in Kentucky is very prejudicial to the service and should be stopped.” Stanton agreed, noting, “There is reason to fear that many voluntarily surrender for the sake of getting home.” The secretary admitted that it was “difficult to see what remedy can be applied.”The governor had one in mind. Realizing the Sioux in Minnesota were on the warpath, he asked,“If the Indian troubles in Minnesota are serious and the paroled Union soldiers are not soon to be exchanged, would it not be well to send them to Minnesota?” Stanton pronounced the suggestion “excellent” and assured Tod that it would be “immediately acted upon.”2 Tod’s concern was pressing because Camp Chase had become the rendezvous for thousands of unruly parolees. On June 28, nearly a month before the cartel was formally signed, the War Department had issued a set of orders governing “sick men [and] paroled prisoners.”The orders stated that no more furloughs would be granted to paroled prisoners. Those already granted were revoked. Parolees from eastern states were ordered to report to a camp of instruction near Annapolis, Maryland, soon to be re- 48 / Chapter 3 christened Camp Parole. Soldiers from regiments raised in Virginia,Tennessee ,Kentucky,Ohio,Indiana,and Michigan were sent to Camp Chase. Those from points farther west would head to Benton Barracks in Missouri . In his message to Stanton suggesting that the soldiers be sent to Minnesota, the governor explained,“It is with great difficulty we can preserve order among them [the paroled men] at Camp Chase.”3 Although he promised to act upon Tod’s suggestion, Stanton’s reply to the governor may have been less than reassuring.He informedTod that he was sending fifteen hundred more men to the camp.Stanton wanted them “kept in close quarters and drilled diligently every day, with no leave of absence.”To carry out these instructions, Stanton sent Gen. Lew Wallace to Columbus with orders to organize the paroled men into regiments and brigades for service in Minnesota. Gen. Halleck informed Wallace of his orders on September 17 and ordered Brig. Gen. James Cooper, already in Columbus, to remain and assist him. Halleck gave Wallace a hint of the challenges ahead when he noted, “Officers will be sent to you as soon as possible.”4 “That . . . order,” Wallace wrote in his autobiography, “was intended deliberately and with malice aforethought to put me to shame.” The future novelist considered declining the assignment and resigning his commission .Wallace wrestled all that night,he wrote,with his decision,finally deciding to pack his bags for Columbus. Upon arriving he was shocked by the quarters the paroled men were occupying. According to Wallace, “They were stained a rusty black; the windows were stuffed with old hats and caps; greasy blankets did duty for doors; the roofs were of plank, and in places planks were gone, leaving gaping crevices to skylight the dismal interior.” As for the men, Wallace recalled, “Such a sight I had never seen or imagined.” Their hair and whiskers had grown long, and most lacked coats, caps, or shoes. Many did not even have shirts, covering themselves instead with blankets. “I could see vermin crawling over their unwashed bodies,” Wallace wrote, “while the smell with which the mass thickened the air was pungent and peculiar.”5 On September 21 Wallace reported the situation to Adj. Gen.Thomas. He pronounced the men’s quarters “uninhabitable” and “filthy beyond description . Why a plague has not visited the camp this summer will always be a mystery to me.” Fewer than two thousand of the five thousand men...

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