After this massacre, cold-blooded murders were very frequent. Any guard, standing upon the fence, at any hour of the day or night, could deliberately raise his musket and shoot into any group of prisoners, black or white, without the slightest rebuke from the authorities. He would not even be taken off his post for it.
One Union officer was thus killed when there could be no pretext that he was violating any prison rule.
Massacre of Union Prisoners attempting to Escape from Salisbury, North Carolina.
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Moses Smith, a negro soldier of the Seventh Maryland Infantry, was shot through the head while standing inoffensively beside my own quarters, conversing with John Lovell. One of many instances was that of two white Connecticut soldiers who were shot within their tents. We induced one of the surgeons to inquire at head-quarters the cause of the homicide. The answer received was, that the guard saw three negroes in range, and, knowing he would never have so good an opportunity again, fired at them, but missed aim and killed the wrong men! It seemed to be regarded as a harmless jest.
Hostility to "Tribune" Correspondents.
Though my comrades and myself, either by finesse or bribery, often succeeded in obtaining special privileges from the prison officers, the hostility of the Confederate authorities was unrelenting. Our attorney, Mr. Blackmer, after visiting Richmond on our behalf, returned and assured us that he saw no hope of our release before the end of the war, unless we could effect our escape. Robert Ould, who usually denied that he regarded us with special hostility, on one occasion, in his cups, remarked to the United States Commissioner: