Amenities of War

From the Covington Journal  of August 31, 1861.

"Amenities of War"
We are sure that every reader must have rejoiced to learn from the testimony of the released physicians and others lately held as prisoners of war in Virginia that the reports, so currently disseminated, soon after the battle of Bull Run, respecting the alleged inhumanity of the Southern troops towards the wounded and prisoners who fell into their hands, were without foundation. We have repeatedly cited, in our columns, from the Secession press, voluntary tributes paid to the amenities practiced by the National troops to such of the Confederate soldiers who were found disabled or dying on the battlefield.

In proportion as men are more likely to believe evil than good of their adversaries, is the danger that vague reports, calculated to exasperate the spirit of war, may give a savage ferocity to the conflict in which the whole country is engaged. And the readiness with which such ill-omened rumors were received and circulated by a portion of the press in both sections deserves perhaps to be regarded as a portentous sign of the evil times upon which we have fallen.But, happily, in almost every instance where investigation  was practicable, these stories have proved to be entirely groundless. The American name is thus rescued from the disgrace which these calumnies, if uncontradicted, must have left upon it in the eyes of the civilized world. [National Intelligencer]