Dix-Hill Cartel

The Dix–Hill Cartel was the first official system for exchanging prisoners during the American Civil War. It was signed by Union Major General John A. Dix and Confederate Major General D. H. Hill at Haxall's Landing on the James River in Virginia on July 22, 1862.

The agreement established a scale of equivalents for captured officers to be exchanged for fixed numbers of enlisted men, and agents from each side were appointed to conduct the exchanges at particular locations. Prisoners could also be released on parole.

The system began to break down when the Confederates classified Afro-American captives as fugitive slaves, who ought to be returned to their owners instead of being exchanged. On July 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued General Orders 252, which effectively suspended the Dix-Hill Cartel until the Confederate forces agreed to treat black prisoners the same as white prisoners. In August 1864, General Grant refused to re-instate the full agreement because the Union by that time held many more Confederate soldiers as prisoners than there were Union soldiers held by the Confederacy, though some exchanges continued, and they officially resumed in January 1865.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Federal government adopted a tough attitude toward the rebels. The Lincoln administration wanted to avoid any action that might appear as an official recognition of the Confederate government in Richmond, including the formal transfer of military captives. In the North, public opinion on prisoner exchanges began to soften after the First Battle of Bull Run, when the rebels captured about one thousand Union soldiers.

Prior to the cartel's creation, Union and Confederate forces exchanged prisoners sporadically, usually as an act of humanity between opposing field commanders. In some cases, a transfer of only sick and wounded captives took place. Exchanges for just a couple of prisoners between sides could prove very time-consuming to achieve. A few military commanders unfamiliar with the practice were reluctant to engage in exchanges without explicit approval and instruction from their superiors.

Throughout the initial months of the Civil War, support for prisoner exchanges grew in the North. Petitions from prisoners in Southern captivity and articles in Northern newspapers increased pressure on the Lincoln administration. On December 11, 1861, the US Congress passed a joint resolution calling on President Lincoln to "inaugurate systematic measures for the exchange of prisoners in the present rebellion."

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