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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
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+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      ANDERSONVILLE--Complete | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
+    <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
+    <style>
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+
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+  <body>
+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Andersonville, complete, by John McElroy</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Andersonville, complete</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: John McElroy</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 22, 2006 [EBook #3072]<br>
+[Most recently updated: August 24, 2023]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDERSONVILLE, COMPLETE ***</div>
+
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Format Choice
+    </h3>
+    <div class="mynote">
+      The present format is best for most <b>laptops</b> and <b>computers</b>,
+      and generates well to <b>.mobi</b> and <b>.epub</b> files. The higher
+      quality images in this file do not reduce in size to fit the small screens
+      of Tablets and Smart Phones&mdash;part of the larger images may run off
+      the side. Two other formats are available by clicking on the following
+      lines:<br><br> <i><a
+      href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3072/old/orig3072-h/main.htm">1. The
+      original ebook which was split into several small files.</a></i><br><br>
+      <i><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3072/old/files/relative.htm">2.
+      A file with images which automatically accomodate to any screen size; this
+      is the best choice for the small screens of <b>Tablets</b> and <b>Smart
+      Phones</b>. </a></i>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      ANDERSONVILLE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      A STORY OF REBEL MILITARY PRISONS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      FIFTEEN MONTHS A GUEST OF THE SO-CALLED
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      A PRIVATE SOLDIERS EXPERIENCE
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      IN
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      RICHMOND, ANDERSONVILLE, SAVANNAH, MILLEN
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      BLACKSHEAR AND FLORENCE
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BY JOHN McELROY
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      Late of Co. L. 16th Ill Cav.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      1879
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="cover" id="cover"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="bookcover.jpg (204K)" src="images/bookcover.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      TO THE HONORABLE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      NOAH H. SWAYNE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      A JURIST OF DISTINGUISHED TALENTS AND EXALTED CHARACTER;
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      ONE OF THE LAST OF THAT
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      ADMIRABLE ARRAY OF PURE PATRIOTS AND SAGACIOUS COUNSELORS,
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      WHO, IN
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      THE YEARS OF THE NATION'S TRIAL,
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      FAITHFULLY SURROUNDED THE GREAT PRESIDENT,
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      AND, WITH HIM, BORE THE BURDEN
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      OF
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      THOSE MOMENTOUS DAYS;
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      AND WHOSE WISDOM AND FAIRNESS HAVE DONE SO MUCH SINCE
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      TO
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      CONSERVE WHAT WAS THEN WON,
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH RESPECT AND APPRECIATION,
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE AUTHOR.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p000" id="p000"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p000.jpg (129K)" src="images/p000.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    
+    <h2>
+      CONTENTS:
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a>
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#AUTHOR_PREFACE">AUTHOR'S PREFACE</a>
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</a>
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch1">CHAPTER I.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      A STRANGE LAND--THE HEART OF THE APPALACHIANS--THE GATEWAY OF AN EMPIRE
+      --A SEQUESTERED VALE, AND A PRIMITIVE, ARCADIAN, NON-PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch2">CHAPTER II.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SCARCITY OF FOOD FOR THE ARMY--RAID FOR FORAGE--ENCOUNTER WIT THE REBELS
+      --SHARP CAVALRY FIGHT--DEFEAT OF THE &ldquo;JOHNNIES"--POWELL'S
+      VALLEY OPENED UP.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch3">CHAPTER III.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      LIVING OFF THE ENEMY--REVELING IN THE FATNESS OF THE COUNTRY--SOLDIERLY
+      PURVEYING AND CAMP COOKERY--SUSCEPTIBLE TEAMSTERS AND THEIR TENDENCY TO
+      FLIGHTINESS--MAKING SOLDIER'S BED.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch4">CHAPTER IV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      A BITTER COLD MORNING AND A WARM AWAKENING--TROUBLE ALL ALONG THE LINE--
+      FIERCE CONFLICTS, ASSAULTS AND DEFENSE--PROLONGED AND DESPERATE STRUGGLE
+      ENDING WITH A SURRENDER.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch5">CHAPTER V.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE REACTION--DEPRESSION--BITTING COLD--SHARP HUNGER AND SAD REFLEXION.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch6">CHAPTER VI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;ON TO RICHMOND!&rdquo;--MARCHING ON FOOT OVER THE MOUNTAINS--MY
+      HORSE HAS A NEW RIDER--UNSOPHISTICATED MOUNTAIN GIRLS--DISCUSSING THE
+      ISSUES OF THE WAR--PARTING WITH &ldquo;HIATOGA
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch7">CHAPTER VII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      ENTERING RICHMOND--DISAPPOINTMENT AT ITS APPEARANCE--EVERYBODY IN
+      UNIFORM--CURLED DARLINGS OF THE CAPITAL--THE REBEL FLAG--LIBBY PRISON--
+      DICK TURNER--SEARCHING THE NEW COMERS.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch8">CHAPTER VIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      INTRODUCTION TO PRISON LIFE--THE PEMBERTON BUILDING AND ITS OCCUPANTS--
+      NEAT SAILORS--ROLL CALL--RATIONS AND CLOTHING--CHIVALRIC &ldquo;CONFISCATION.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch9">CHAPTER IX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      BRANS OR PEAS--INSUFFICIENCY OF DARKY TESTIMONY--A GUARD KILLS A
+      PRISONER--PRISONERS TEAZE THE GUARDS--DESPERATE OUTBREAK.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch10">CHAPTER X.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE EXCHANGE AND THE CAUSE OF ITS INTERRUPTION--BRIEF RESUME OF THE
+      DIFFERENT CARTELS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES THAT LED TO THEIR SUSPENSION.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch11">CHAPTER XI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      PUTTING IN THE TIME--RATIONS--COOKING UTENSILS--&ldquo;FIAT SOUP--&ldquo;SPOONING"--
+      AFRICAN NEWSPAPER VENDERS--TRADING GREENBACKS FOR CONFEDERATE MONEY--
+      VISIT FROM JOHN MORGAN.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch12">CHAPTER XII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      REMARKS AS TO NOMENCLATURE--VACC1NATION AND ITS EFFECTS--&ldquo;N'YAARKER'S,"--
+      THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR METHODS OF OPERATING.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch13">CHAPTER XIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      BELLE ISLE--TERRIBLE SUFFERING FROM COLD AND HUNGER--FATE OF LIEUTENANT
+      BOISSEUX'S DOG--OUR COMPANY MYSTERY--TERMINATION OF ALL HOPES OF ITS
+      SOLUTION.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch14">CHAPTER XIV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      HOPING FOR EXCHANGE--AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHANCES-- OFF FOR
+      ANDERSONVILLE--UNCERTAINTY AS TO OUR DESTINATION--ARRIVAL AT
+      ANDERSONVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch15">CHAPTER XV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      GEORGIA--A LEAN AND HUNGRY LAND--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UPPER AND LOWER
+      GEORGIA--THE PILLAGE OF ANDERSONVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch16">CHAPTER XVI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      WAKING UP IN ANDERSONVILLE--SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE--OUR FIRST
+      MAIL--BUILDING SHELTER--GEN. WINDER--HIMSELF AND LINEAGE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch17">CHAPTER XVII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE PLANTATION NEGROS--NOT STUPID TO BE LOYAL--THEIR DITHYRAMBIC MUSIC--
+      COPPERHEAD OPINION OF LONGFELLOW.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SCHEMES AND PLANS TO ESCAPE--SCALING THE STOCKADE--ESTABLISHING THE DEAD
+      LINE--THE FIRST MAN KILLED. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch19">CHAPTER XIX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      CAPT. HENRI WIRZ--SOME DESCRIPTION OF A SMALL-MINDED PERSONAGE, WHO GAINED
+      GREAT NOTORIETY--FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH HIS DISCIPLINARY METHOD.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch20">CHAPTER XX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      PRIZE-FIGHT AMONG THE N'YAARKERS--A GREAT MANY FORMALITIES, AND
+      LITTLE BLOOD SPILT--A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO RECOVER A WATCH--DEFEAT OF THE LAW
+      AND ORDER PARTY.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch21">CHAPTER XXI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DIMINISHING RATIONS--A DEADLY COLD RAIN--HOVERING OVER PITCH PINE FIRES
+      --INCREASE ON MORTALITY--A THEORY OF HEALTH.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch22">CHAPTER XXII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ALABAMIANS AND GEORGIANS--DEATH OF &ldquo;POLL
+      PARROTT"-- A GOOD JOKE UPON THE GUARD--A BRUTAL RASCAL.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      A NEW LOT OF PRISONERS--THE BATTLE OF OOLUSTEE--MEN SACRIFICED TO A
+      GENERAL'S INCOMPETENCY--A HOODLUM REINFORCEMENT--A QUEER CROWD--
+      MISTREATMENT OF AN OFFICER OF A COLORED REGIMENT--KILLING THE SERGEANT OF
+      A NEGRO SQUAD.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      APRIL--LONGING TO GET OUT--THE DEATH RATE--THE PLAGUE OF LICE --THE
+      SO-CALLED HOSPITAL.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch25">CHAPTER XXV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE &ldquo;PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS"--SAD TRANSITION FROM COMFORTABLE BARRACKS TO
+      ANDERSONVILLE--A CRAZED PENNSYLVANIAN--DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUTLER BUSINESS.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch26">CHAPTER XXVI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      LONGINGS FOR GOD'S COUNTRY--CONSIDERATIONS OF THE METHODS OF GETTING
+      THERE--EXCHANGE AND ESCAPE--DIGGING TUNNELS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES
+      CONNECTED THEREWITH--PUNISHMENT OF A TRAITOR.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch27">CHAPTER XXVII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE HOUNDS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES THEY PUT IN THE WAY OF ESCAPE-- THE WHOLE
+      SOUTH PATROLLED BY THEM.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch28">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      MAY--INFLUX OF NEW PRISONERS--DISPARITY IN NUMBERS BETWEEN THE EASTERN AND
+      WESTERN ARMIES--TERRIBLE CROWDING--SLAUGHTER OF MEN AT THE CREEK.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch29">CHAPTER XXIX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SOME DISTINCTION BETWEEN SOLDIERLY DUTY AND MURDER--A PLOT TO ESCAPE-- IT
+      IS REVEALED AND FRUSTRATED.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch30">CHAPTER XXX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      JUNE--POSSIBILITIES OF A MURDEROUS CANNONADE--WHAT WAS PROPOSED TO BE DONE
+      IN THAT EVENT--A FALSE ALARM--DETERIORATION OF THE RATIONS-- FEARFUL
+      INCREASE OF MORTALITY.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch31">CHAPTER XXXI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DYING BY INCHES--SEITZ, THE SLOW, AND HIS DEATH--STIGGALL AND EMERSON--
+      RAVAGES ON THE SCURVY.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch32">CHAPTER XXXII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;OLE BOO,&rdquo; AND &ldquo;OLE SOL, THE HAYMAKER"--A FETID, BURNING
+      DESERT--NOISOME WATER, AND THE EFFECTS OF DRINKING IT--STEALING SOFT SOAP.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch33">CHAPTER XXXIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;POUR PASSER LE TEMPS"--A SET OF CHESSMEN PROCURED UNDER
+      DIFFICULTIES-- RELIGIOUS SERVICES--THE DEVOTED PRIEST--WAR SONG.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch34">CHAPTER XXXIV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      MAGGOTS, LICE AND RAIDERS--PRACTICES OF THESE HUMAN VERMIN--PLUNDERING THE
+      SICK AND DYING--NIGHT ATTACKS, AND BATTLES BY DAY--HARD TIMES FOR THE
+      SMALL TRADERS.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch35">CHAPTER XXXV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      A COMMUNITY WITHOUT GOVERNMENT--FORMATION OF THE REGULATORS--RAIDERS
+      ATTACK KEY BUT ARE BLUFFED OFF--ASSAULT OF THE REGULATORS ON THE RAIDERS
+      --DESPERATE BATTLE--OVERTHROW OF THE RAIDERS.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch36">CHAPTER XXXVI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      WHY THE REGULATORS WERE NOT ASSISTED BY THE ENTIRE CAMP--PECULIARITIES OF
+      BOYS FROM DIFFERENT SECTIONS--HUNTING THE RAIDERS DOWN--EXPLOITS OF MY
+      LEFT-HANDED LIEUTENANT--RUNNING THE GAUNTLET.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch37">CHAPTER XXXVII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE EXECUTION--BUILDING THE SCAFFOLD--DOUBTS OF THE CAMP-CAPTAIN WIRZ
+      THINKS IT IS PROBABLY A RUSE TO FORCE THE STOCKADE--HIS PREPARATIONS
+      AGAINST SUCH AN ATTEMPT--ENTRANCE OF THE DOOMED ONES--THEY REALIZE THEIR
+      FATE--ONE MAKES A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE--HIS RECAPTURE--INTENSE
+      EXCITEMENT--WIRZ ORDERS THE GUNS TO OPEN--FORTUNATELY THEY DO NOT--THE SIX
+      ARE HANGED--ONE BREAKS HIS ROPE--SCENE WHEN THE RAIDERS ARE CUT DOWN.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch38">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      AFTER THE EXECUTION--FORMATION OF A POLICE FORCE--ITS FIRST CHIEF--
+      &ldquo;SPANKING&rdquo; AN OFFENDER.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch39">CHAPTER XXXIX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      JULY--THE PRISON BECOMES MORE CROWDED, THE WEATHER HOTTER, NATIONS POORER,
+      AND MORTALITY GREATER--SOME OF THE PHENOMENA OF SUFFERING AND DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch40">CHAPTER XL.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE BATTLE OF THE 22D OF JULY--THE ARMS OF THE TENNESSEE ASSAULTED FRONT
+      AND REAR--DEATH OF GENERAL MCPHERSON--ASSUMPTION OF COMMAND BY GENERAL
+      LOGAN--RESULT OF THE BATTLE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch41">CHAPTER XLI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      CLOTHING: ITS RAPID DETERIORATION, AND DEVICES TO REPLENISH IT--DESPERATE
+      EFFORTS TO COVER NAKEDNESS--&ldquo;LITTLE RED CAP&rdquo; AND HIS LETTER.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch42">CHAPTER XLII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SOME FEATURES OF THE MORTALITY--PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS TO THOSE LIVING-- AN
+      AVERAGE MEAN ONLY STANDS THE MISERY THREE MONTHS--DESCRIPTION OF THE
+      PRISON AND THE CONDITION OF THE MEN THEREIN, BY A LEADING SCIENTIFIC MAN
+      OF THE SOUTH.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch43">CHAPTER XLIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DIFFICULTY OF EXERCISING--EMBARRASSMENTS OF A MORNING WALK--THE RIALTO OF
+      THE PRISON--CURSING THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY--THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF
+      SPOTTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch44">CHAPTER XLIV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      REBEL MUSIC--SINGULAR LACK OF THE CREATIVE POWER AMONG THE SOUTHERNERS--
+      CONTRAST WITH SIMILAR PEOPLE ELSEWHERE--THEIR FAVORITE MUSIC, AND WHERE IT
+      WAS BORROWED FROM--A FIFER WITH ONE TUNE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch45">CHAPTER XLV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      AUGUST--NEEDLES STUCK IN PUMPKIN SEEDS--SOME PHENOMENA OF STARVATION--
+      RIOTING IN REMEMBERED LUXURIES.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch46">CHAPTER XLVI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SURLY BRITON--THE STOLID COURAGE THAT MAKES THE ENGLISH FLAG A BANNER OF
+      TRIUMPH--OUR COMPANY BUGLER, HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND HIS DEATH--URGENT
+      DEMAND FOR MECHANICS--NONE WANT TO GO--TREATMENT OF A REBEL SHOEMAKER--
+      ENLARGEMENT OF THE STOCKADE--IT IS BROKEN BY A STORM-- THE WONDERFUL
+      SPRING.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch47">CHAPTER XLVII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;SICK CALL,&rdquo; AND THE SCENES THAT ACCOMPANIED IT--MUSTERING THE
+      LAME, HALT AND DISEASED AT THE SOUTH GATE--AN UNUSUALLY BAD CASE--GOING
+      OUT TO THE HOSPITAL--ACCOMMODATION AND TREATMENT OF THE PATIENTS
+      THERE--THE HORRIBLE SUFFERING IN THE GANGRENE WARD--BUNGLING AMPUTATIONS
+      BY BLUNDERING PRACTITIONERS--AFFECTION BETWEEN A SAILOR AND HIS WARD--
+      DEATH OF MY COMRADE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch48">CHAPTER XLVIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DETERMINATION TO ESCAPE--DIFFERENT PLANS AND THEIR MERITS--I PREFER THE
+      APPALACHICOLA ROUTE--PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE--A HOT DAY--THE FENCE
+      PASSED SUCCESSFULLY PURSUED BY THE HOUNDS--CAUGHT-- RETURNED TO THE
+      STOCKADE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch49">CHAPTER XLIX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      AUGUST--GOOD LUCK IN NOT MEETING CAPTAIN WIRZ--THAT WORTHY'S
+      TREATMENT OF RECAPTURED PRISONERS--SECRET SOCIETIES IN PRISON--SINGULAR
+      MEETING AND ITS RESULT--DISCOVERY AND REMOVAL OF THE OFFICERS AMONG THE
+      ENLISTED MEN.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch50">CHAPTER L</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      FOOD--THE MEAGERNESS, INFERIOR QUALITY, AND TERRIBLE SAMENESS-- REBEL
+      TESTIMONY ON THE SUBJECT--FUTILITY OF SUCCESSFUL EXPLANATION.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch51">CHAPTER LI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SOLICITUDE AS TO THE FATE OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S ARMY--PAUCITY OF
+      NEWS --HOW WE HEARD THAT ATLANTA HAD FALLEN--ANNOUNCEMENT OF A GENERAL
+      EXCHANGE--WE LEAVE ANDERSONVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch52">CHAPTER LII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SAVANNAH--DEVICES TO OBTAIN MATERIALS FOR A TENT--THEIR ULTIMATE SUCCESS
+      --RESUMPTION OF TUNNELING--ESCAPING BY WHOLESALE AND BEING RECAPTURED EN
+      MASSE--THE OBSTACLES THAT LAY BETWEEN US AND OUR LINES.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch53">CHAPTER LIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      FRANK REVERSTOCK'S ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE--PASSING OFF AS REBEL BOY HE
+      REACHES GRISWOLDVILLE BY RAIL, AND THEN STRIKES ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR
+      SHERMAN, BUT IS CAUGHT WITHIN TWENTY MILES OF OUR LINES.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch54">CHAPTER LIV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SAVANNAH PROVES TO BE A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER--ESCAPE FROM THE BRATS OF
+      GUARDS--COMPARISON BETWEEN WIRZ AND DAVIS--A BRIEF INTERVAL OF GOOD
+      RATIONS--WINDER, THE MAN WITH THE EVIL EYE-- THE DISLOYAL WORK OF A
+      SHYSTER.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch55">CHAPTER LV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      WHY WE WERE HURRIED OUT OF ANDERSONVILLE--THE OF THE FALL OF ATLANTA-- OUR
+      LONGING TO HEAR THE NEWS--ARRIVAL OF SOME FRESH FISH--HOW WE KNEW THEY
+      WERE WESTERN BOYS--DIFFERENCE IN THE APPEARANCE OF THE SOLDIERS OF THE TWO
+      ARMIES.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch56">CHAPTER LVI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      WHAT CAUSED THE FALL OF ATLANTA--A DISSERTATION UPON AN IMPORTANT
+      PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM--THE BATTLE OF JONESBORO--WHY IT WAS FOUGHT-- HOW
+      SHERMAN DECEIVED HOOD--A DESPERATE BAYONET CHARGE, AND THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL
+      ONE IN THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN--A GALLANT COLONEL AND HOW HE DIED--THE
+      HEROISM OF SOME ENLISTED MEN--GOING CALMLY INTO CERTAIN DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch57">CHAPTER LVII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      A FAIR SACRIFICE--THE STORY OF ONE BOY WHO WILLINGLY GAVE HIS YOUNG LIFE
+      FOR HIS COUNTRY.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch58">CHAPTER LVIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      WE LEAVE SAVANNAH--MORE HOPES OF EXCHANGE--SCENES AT DEPARTURE-- &ldquo;FLANKERS"--ON
+      THE BACK TRACK TOWARD ANDERSONVILLE--ALARM THEREAT-- AT THE PARTING OF TWO
+      WAYS--WE FINALLY BRING UP AT CAMP LAWTON.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch59">CHAPTER LIX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      OUR NEW QUARTERS AT CAMP LAWTON--BUILDING A HUT--AN EXCEPTIONAL
+      COMMANDANT--HE IS a GOOD MAN, BUT WILL TAKE BRIBES--RATIONS.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch60">CHAPTER LX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE RAIDERS REAPPEAR ON THE SCENE--THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THOSE WHO
+      WERE CONCERNED IN THE EXECUTION--A COUPLE OF LIVELY FIGHTS, IN WHICH THE
+      RAIDERS ARE DEFEATED--HOLDING AN ELECTION.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch61">CHAPTER LXI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE REBELS FORMALLY PROPOSE TO US TO DESERT TO THEM--CONTUMELIOUS
+      TREATMENT OF THE PROPOSITION--THEIR RAGE--AN EXCITING TIME--AN OUTBREAK
+      THREATENED--DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING DESERTION TO THE REBELS.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch62">CHAPTER LXII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SERGEANT LEROY L. KEY--HIS ADVENTURES SUBSEQUENT TO THE EXECUTIONS-- HE
+      GOES OUTSIDE AT ANDERSONVILLE ON PAROLE--LABORS IN THE COOK-HOUSE--
+      ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE--IS RECAPTURED AND TAKEN TO MACON--ESCAPES FROM THERE,
+      BUT IS COMPELLED TO RETURN--IS FINALLY EXCHANGED AT SAVANNAH.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch63">CHAPTER LXIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DREARY WEATHER--THE COLD RAINS DISTRESS ALL AND KILL HUNDREDS--EXCHANGE OF
+      TEN THOUSAND SICK--CAPTAIN BOWES TURNS A PRETTY, BUT NOT VERY HONEST,
+      PENNY.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch64">CHAPTER LXIV</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      ANOTHER REMOVAL--SHERMAN'S ADVANCE SCARES THE REBELS INTO RUNNING US
+      AWAY FROM MILLEN--WE ARE TAKEN TO SAVANNAH, AND THENCE DOWN THE ATLANTIC
+      &amp; GULF ROAD TO BLACKSHEAR
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch65">CHAPTER LXV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      BLACKSHEAR AND PIERCE COUNTRY--WE TAKE UP NEW QUARTERS, BUT ARE CALLED OUT
+      FOR EXCHANGE--EXCITEMENT OVER SIGNING THE PAROLE--A HAPPY JOURNEY TO
+      SAVANNAH--GRIEVOUS DISAPPOINTMENT
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch66">CHAPTER LXVI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      SPECIMEN CONVERSATION WITH AN AVERAGE NATIVE GEORGIAN--WE LEARN THAT
+      SHERMAN IS HEADING FOR SAVANNAH--THE RESERVES GET A LITTLE SETTLING DOWN.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch67">CHAPTER LXVII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      OFF TO CHARLESTON--PASSING THROUGH THE RICE SWAMPS--TWO EXTREMES OF
+      SOCIETY--ENTRY INTO CHARLESTON--LEISURELY WARFARE--SHELLING THE CITY AT
+      REGULAR INTERVALS--WE CAMP IN A MASS OF RUINS--DEPARTURE FOR FLORENCE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch68">CHAPTER LXVIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      FIRST DAYS AT FLORENCE--INTRODUCTION TO LIEUTENANT BARRETT, THE RED-
+      HEADED KEEPER--A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF OUR NEW QUARTERS--WINDERS MALIGN
+      INFLUENCE MANIFEST.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch69">CHAPTER LXIX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      BARRETT'S INSANE CRUELTY--HOW HE PUNISHED THOSE ALLEGED TO BE
+      ENGAGED IN TUNNELING--THE MISERY IN THE STOCKADE--MEN'S LIMBS
+      ROTTING OFF WITH DRY GANGRENE.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch70">CHAPTER LXX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      HOUSE AND CLOTHES--EFFORTS TO ERECT A SUITABLE RESIDENCE--DIFFICULTIES
+      ATTENDING THIS--VARIETIES OF FLORENTINE ARCHITECTURE--WAITING FOR DEAD MEN'S
+      CLOTHES--CRAVING FOR TOBACCO.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch71">CHAPTER LXXI.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DECEMBER--RATIONS OF WOOD AND FOOD GROW LESS DAILY--UNCERTAINTY AS TO THE
+      MORTALITY AT FLORENCE--EVEN THE GOVERNMENT'S STATISTICS ARE VERY
+      DEFICIENT--CARE FOB THE SICK.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch72">CHAPTER LXXII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      DULL WINTER DAYS--TOO WEAK AND TOO STUPID To AMUSE OURSELVES--ATTEMPTS OF
+      THE REBELS TO RECRUIT US INTO THEIR ARMY--THE CLASS OF MEN THEY OBTAINED
+      --VENGEANCE ON &ldquo;THE GALVANIZED"--A SINGULAR EXPERIENCE--RARE
+      GLIMPSES OF FUN--INABILITY OF THE REBELS TO COUNT.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch73">CHAPTER LXXIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      CHRISTMAS--AND THE WAY THE WAS PASSED--THE DAILY ROUTINE OF RATION
+      DRAWING--SOME PECULIARITIES OF LIVING AND DYING.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch74">CHAPTER LXXIV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      NEW YEAR'S DAY--DEATH OF JOHN H. WINDER--HE DIES ON HIS WAY TO A
+      DINNER --SOMETHING AS TO CHARACTER AND CAREER--ONE OF THE WORST MEN THAT
+      EVER LIVED.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch75">CHAPTER LXXV.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      ONE INSTANCE OF A SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE--THE ADVENTURES OF SERGEANT WALTER
+      HARTSOUGH, OF COMPANY K, SIXTEENTH ILLINOIS CAVALRY--HE GETS AWAY FROM THE
+      REBELS AT THOMASVILLE, AND AFTER A TOILSOME AND DANGEROUS JOURNEY OF
+      SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES, REACHES OUR LINES IN FLORIDA.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch76">CHAPTER LXXVI</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE PECULIAR TYPE OF INSANITY PREVALENT AT FLORENCE--BARRETT'S
+      WANTONNESS OF CRUELTY--WE LEARN OF SHERMAN'S ADVANCE INTO SOUTH
+      CAROLINA--THE REBELS BEGIN MOVING THE PRISONERS AWAY--ANDREWS AND I CHANGE
+      OUR TACTICS, AND STAY BEHIND--ARRIVAL OF FIVE PRISONERS FROM SHERMAN'S
+      COMMAND--THEIR UNBOUNDED CONFIDENCE IN SHERMAN'S SUCCESS, AND ITS
+      BENEFICIAL EFFECT UPON US.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch77">CHAPTER LXXVII</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      FRUITLESS WAITING FOR SHERMAN--WE LEAVE FLORENCE--INTELLIGENCE OF THE FALL
+      OF WILMINGTON COMMUNICATED TO US BY A SLAVE--THE TURPENTINE REGION OF
+      NORTH CAROLINA--WE COME UPON A REBEL LINE OF BATTLE--YANKEES AT BOTH ENDS
+      OF THE ROAD.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch78">CHAPTER LXXVIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      RETURN TO FLORENCE AND A SHORT SOJOURN THERE--OFF TOWARDS WILMINGTON
+      AGAIN--CRUISING A REBEL OFFICER'S LUNCH--SIGNS OF APPROACHING OUR
+      LINES --TERROR OF OUR RASCALLY GUARDS--ENTRANCE INTO GOD'S COUNTRY
+      AT LAST.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch79">CHAPTER LXXIX.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      GETTING USED TO FREEDOM--DELIGHTS OF A LAND WHERE THERE IS ENOUGH OF
+      EVERYTHING--FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE OLD FLAG--WILMINGTON AND ITS HISTORY
+      --LIEUTENANT CUSHING--FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE COLORED TROOPS--LEAVING
+      FOR HOME--DESTRUCTION OF THE &ldquo;THORN&rdquo; BY A TORPEDO--THE MOCK
+      MONITOR'S ACHIEVEMENT.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch80">CHAPTER LXXX</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      VISIT TO FORT FISHER, AND INSPECTION OF THAT STRONGHOLD--THE WAY IT WAS
+      CAPTURED--OUT ON THE OCEAN SAILING--TERRIBLY SEASICK--RAPID RECOVERY--
+      ARRIVAL AT ANNAPOLIS--WASHED, CLOTHED AND FED--UNBOUNDED LUXURY, AND DAYS
+      OF UNADULTERATED HAPPINESS.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch82">CHAPTER LXXXII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      CAPTAIN WIRZ THE ONLY ONE OF THE PRISON-KEEPERS PUNISHED--HIS ARREST,
+      TRIAL AND EXECUTION.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#ch83">CHAPTER LXXXIII.</a>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      THE RESPONSIBILITY--WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR ALL THE MISERY--AN EXAMINATION OF
+      THE FLIMSY EXCUSES MADE FOR THE REBELS--ONE DOCUMENT THAT CONVICTS
+      THEM--WHAT IS DESIRED. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+    </h2>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        (The Skipped Numbers were drawings unsuitable for copying.)<br> <br><a
+        href="#p000">1. Frontpiece</a> <br><a href="#p032">2. &ldquo;War"</a>
+        <br><a href="#p033">8. Cumberland Gap, Looking Eastward</a> <br><a
+        href="#p038">4. A Cavalry Squad</a> <br><a href="#p040">5. The 'Rebels
+        Marching Through Jonesville</a> <br><a href="#p042">6. 'Leven
+        Yards Killing the Rebel</a> <br><a href="#p046">7. A Scared Mule Driver</a>
+        <br><a href="#p050">8. Bugler Sounding &ldquo;Taps"</a> <br><a
+        href="#p054">9. Company L Gathering to Meet the Rebel Attack</a> <br><a
+        href="#p059">10. The Major Refuses to Surrender</a> <br><a href="#p063">11.
+        Ned Johnson Trying to Kill the Rebel Colonel</a> <br><a href="#p067">12.
+        Girls Astonished at the Jacket Tabs</a> <br><a href="#p075">14. An East
+        Tennesseean</a> <br><a href="#p077">15. A Rebel Dandy</a> <br><a
+        href="#p080">17. Turner in Quest of British Gold</a> <br><a href="#p084">18.
+        Barnacle backs Discouraging a Visit from a Soldier</a> <br><a
+        href="#p086">19. Ross Calling the Roll</a> <br><a href="#p091">20. An
+        Evening's Amusement with the Guards</a> <br><a href="#p102">21.
+        Prisoners' Culinary Outfit</a> <br><a href="#p103">23. Skimming,
+        the Bugs From My Soup</a> <br><a href="#p104">23. &ldquo;Spooning"</a>
+        <br><a href="#p105">24. A Richmond News Boy</a> <br><a href="#p106">25.
+        &ldquo;Say, Guard: Do You Want to Buy Some Greenbacks?"</a> <br><a
+        href="#p111">26. A &ldquo;N'Yaarker"</a> <br><a href="#p115">27.
+        Decoying Boisseux's Dog to Its Death</a> <br><a href="#p117">28.
+        The Dead Scotchman</a> <br><a href="#p123">29. Map of Georgia, South
+        Carolina and part of North Carolina</a> <br><a href="#p130">30. Cooking
+        Rations</a> <br><a href="#p132">31. General John W. Winder</a> <br><a
+        href="#p135">32. A Field hand</a> <br><a href="#p139">33. Scaling the
+        Stockade </a> <br><a href="#p143">34. Captain llenri Wirz</a> <br><a
+        href="#p147">35. The Prize-fight for the Skillet</a> <br><a href="#p165">36.
+        Killing Lice by Singeing</a> <br><a href="#p167">37. Stripping the Dead
+        for Clothes</a> <br><a href="#p169">38. A Plymouth Pilgrim</a> <br><a
+        href="#p172">40. Midnight Attack of the Raiders</a> <br><a href="#p176">41.
+        Ignominious End of a Tunnel Enterprize</a> <br><a href="#p177">42.
+        Tunneling</a> <br><a href="#p179">43. Tattooing the Tunnel Traitor</a>
+        <br><a href="#p182">44. Overpowering a Guard</a> <br><a href="#p184">45.
+        A Master of the Hounds</a> <br><a href="#p185">46. Hounds Tearing a
+        Prisoner</a> <br><a href="#p189">47. Shot at the Creek by the Guard</a>
+        <br><a href="#p199">48. Cooking Mush</a> <br><a href="#p201">49. Seitz
+        on Horseback</a> <br><a href="#p203">50. Finding Seitz Dead</a> <br><a
+        href="#p205">51. A Case of Scurvy</a> <br><a href="#p211">52.
+        Confiscating Soft Soap</a> <br><a href="#p215">63. Religious Services</a>
+        <br><a href="#p216">54. The Priest Anointing the Dying</a> <br><a
+        href="#p223">55. Raider Fight with one of Ellett's Marine Brigade</a>
+        <br><a href="#p228">56. Key Bluffing His Would-be Assassins</a> <br><a
+        href="#p231">67. Rebel Artillerists Training the Cannon on the Prison</a>
+        <br><a href="#p232">58. Overthrow of the Raiders</a> <br><a
+        href="#p237">59. Arrest of Pete Donnelly</a> <br><a href="#p240">60.
+        Death of the Sailor</a> <br><a href="#p245">61. Execution of the
+        Raiders</a> <br><a href="#p253">63. Sergeant A. R, Hill, 100th O. V. I.</a>
+        <br><a href="#p256">63. &ldquo;Spanking&rdquo; a Thief</a> <br><a
+        href="#p261">64. The Wounded Illinois Sergeant</a> <br><a href="#p262">65.
+        The Idiotic Flute-Player</a> <br><a href="#p268">66. One of Sherman's
+        &ldquo;Veterans"</a> <br><a href="#p270">67. &ldquo;You Hear Me"</a>
+        <br><a href="#p273">68. Logan Taking Command of the Army of the
+        Tennessee</a> <br><a href="#p276">69. Death of M'Pherson</a>
+        <br><a href="#p278">70. The Work of a Shell</a> <br><a href="#p281">71.
+        The Fight for the Flag</a> <br><a href="#p283">72. In the Rifle-pit
+        After the Battle</a> <br><a href="#p285">73. Taken In</a> <br><a
+        href="#p287">74. The Author's Appearance on Entering Prison</a>
+        <br><a href="#p288">75. His Appearance in July, 1864</a> <br><a
+        href="#p291">76. Little Red Cap</a> <br><a href="#p293">77. &ldquo;Fresh
+        Fish"</a> <br><a href="#p295">78. Interior of the Stockade, Viewed from
+        the Southwest</a> <br><a href="#p307">79. Burying the Dead</a> <br><a
+        href="#p312">80. The Graveyard at Andersonville, as the Rebels Left It</a>
+        <br><a href="#p325">81. Denouncing the Southern Confederacy</a> <br><a
+        href="#p328">82. The Charge</a> <br><a href="#p338">83. &ldquo;Flagstaff"</a>
+        <br><a href="#p339">84. Nursing a Sick Comrade</a> <br><a href="#p344">65.
+        A Dream</a> <br><a href="#p346">86. The English Bugler</a> <br><a
+        href="#p351">87. The Break in the Stockade</a> <br><a href="#p353">88.
+        At the Spring</a> <br><a href="#p356">89. Morning Assemblage of Sick at
+        the South Gate</a> <br><a href="#p361">91. Old Sailor and Chicken</a>
+        <br><a href="#p363">92. Death of Watts</a> <br><a href="#p365">93.
+        Planning Escape</a> <br><a href="#p370">94. Our Progress was Terribly
+        Slow--Every Step Hurt Fearfully</a> <br><a href="#p372">95. &ldquo;Come
+        Ashore, There, Quick"</a> <br><a href="#p375">96. He Shrieked
+        Imprecations and Curses</a> <br><a href="#p376">97. The Chain Gang</a>
+        <br><a href="#p386">98. Interior of the Stockade--The Creek at the East
+        Side</a> <br><a href="#p389">99. A Section from the East Side of the
+        Prison Showing the Dead Line</a> <br><a href="#p395">100. &ldquo;Half-past
+        Eight O'clock, and Atlanta's Gone to H--l!&rdquo;</a> <br><a
+        href="#p397">101. Off for &ldquo;God's Country"</a> <br><a
+        href="#p399">102. Georgian Development of the &ldquo;Proud Caucasian"</a>
+        <br><a href="#p405">103. It was Very Unpleasant When a Storm Came Up</a>
+        <br><a href="#p406">104. When We Matched Our Intellects Against a Rebel's</a>
+        <br><a href="#p410">107. His New Idea was to have a Heavily Laden Cart
+        Driven Around Inside the Dead Line</a> <br><a href="#p411">108. They
+        Stood Around the Gate and Yelled Derisively</a> <br><a href="#p413">110.
+        &ldquo;See Heah; You Must Stand Back!&rdquo;</a> <br><a href="#p415">111.
+        He Bade Them Goodbye</a> <br><a href="#p422">112. &ldquo;Wha-ah-ye!&rdquo;</a>
+        <br><a href="#p445">114. One of Ferguson's Cavalry</a> <br><a
+        href="#p448">115. Then the Clear Blue Eyes and Well-remembered Smile</a>
+        <br><a href="#p454">117. Millen</a> <br><a href="#p457">118. A House
+        Builded With Our Own Own Hands</a> <br><a href="#p459">119. Our First
+        Meat</a> <br><a href="#p463">120. A Lucky Find</a> <br><a href="#p472">121.
+        Sergeant L. L. Key</a> <br><a href="#p482">124. &ldquo;Where Are You
+        Going, You D--d Yank?"</a> <br><a href="#p506">127. &ldquo;Who Mout
+        These Be?"</a> <br><a href="#p509">128. A Roadside View</a> <br><a
+        href="#p510">129. The Charleston &amp; Savannah Railroad</a> <br><a
+        href="#p514">131. A Rice Field Girl</a> <br><a href="#p515">132. A Rice
+        Swamp</a> <br><a href="#p518">133. A Scene in the &ldquo;Burnt
+        District"</a> <br><a href="#p519">134. The Part Where We Lay Was a Mass
+        of Ruins</a> <br><a href="#p521">135. Ruins of St. Finbar Cathedral</a>
+        <br><a href="#p523">136. The Unlucky Negro Fell, Pierced by a Score of
+        Bullets</a> <br><a href="#p530">137. Recapture of the Runaways</a>
+        <br><a href="#p536">139. &ldquo;Take These Shears and Cut My Toes Off"</a>
+        <br><a href="#p545">140. Corporal John W. January</a> <br><a
+        href="#p594">142. Andrews Managed to Fish Out the Bag and Pass to Me
+        Three Roasted Chickens</a> <br><a href="#p600">143. In God's
+        Country at Last</a> <br><a href="#p603">144. Map of Wilmington and
+        Neighborhood</a> <br><a href="#p617">148. The Infantry Assault on Fort
+        Fisher</a> <br><a href="#p624">149. They Removed Every Trace of Prison
+        Grime</a> <br><a href="#p642">152. Trial of Captain Wirz</a> <br><a
+        href="#p643">153. Execution of Captain Wirz</a> <br><a href="#p655">154.
+        &ldquo;Peace"</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br> <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</a>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The fifth part of a century almost has sped with the flight of time since
+      the outbreak of the Slaveholder's Rebellion against the United
+      States. The young men of to-day were then babes in their cradles, or, if
+      more than that, too young to be appalled by the terror of the times. Those
+      now graduating from our schools of learning to be teachers of youth and
+      leaders of public thought, if they are ever prepared to teach the history
+      of the war for the Union so as to render adequate honor to its martyrs and
+      heroes, and at the same time impress the obvious moral to be drawn from
+      it, must derive their knowledge from authors who can each one say of the
+      thrilling story he is spared to tell: &ldquo;All of which I saw, and part
+      of which I was.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The writer is honored with the privilege of introducing to the reader a
+      volume written by an author who was an actor and a sufferer in the scenes
+      he has so vividly and faithfully described, and sent forth to the public
+      by a publisher whose literary contributions in support of the loyal cause
+      entitle him to the highest appreciation. Both author and publisher have
+      had an honorable and efficient part in the great struggle, and are
+      therefore worthy to hand down to the future a record of the perils
+      encountered and the sufferings endured by patriotic soldiers in the
+      prisons of the enemy. The publisher, at the beginning of the war, entered,
+      with zeal and ardor upon the work of raising a company of men, intending
+      to lead them to the field. Prevented from carrying out this design, his
+      energies were directed to a more effective service. His famous &ldquo;Nasby
+      Letters&rdquo; exposed the absurd and sophistical argumentations of rebels
+      and their sympathisers, in such broad, attractive and admirable burlesque,
+      as to direct against them the &ldquo;loud, long laughter of a world!&rdquo;
+      The unique and telling satire of these papers became a power and
+      inspiration to our armies in the field and to their anxious friends at
+      home, more than equal to the might of whole battalions poured in upon the
+      enemy. An athlete in logic may lay an error writhing at his feet, and
+      after all it may recover to do great mischief. But the sharp wit of the
+      humorist drives it before the world's derision into shame and
+      everlasting contempt. These letters were read and shouted over gleefully
+      at every camp-fire in the Union Army, and eagerly devoured by crowds of
+      listeners when mails were opened at country post-offices. Other humorists
+      were content when they simply amused the reader, but &ldquo;Nasby's&rdquo;
+      jests were arguments&mdash;they had a meaning&mdash;they were suggested by the
+      necessities and emergencies of the Nation's peril, and written to
+      support, with all earnestness, a most sacred cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The author, when very young, engaged in journalistic work, until the drum
+      of the recruiting officer called him to join the ranks of his country's
+      defenders. As the reader is told, he was made a prisoner. He took with him
+      into the terrible prison enclosure not only a brave, vigorous, youthful
+      spirit, but invaluable habits of mind and thought for storing up the
+      incidents and experiences of his prison life. As a journalist he had
+      acquired the habit of noticing and memorizing every striking or thrilling
+      incident, and the experiences of his prison life were adapted to enstamp
+      themselves indelibly on both feeling and memory. He speaks from personal
+      experience and from the stand-paint of tender and complete sympathy with
+      those of his comrades who suffered more than he did himself. Of his
+      qualifications, the writer of these introductory words need not speak. The
+      sketches themselves testify to his ability with such force that no
+      commendation is required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This work is needed. A generation is arising who do not know what the
+      preservation of our free government cost in blood and suffering. Even the
+      men of the passing generation begin to be forgetful, if we may judge from
+      the recklessness or carelessness of their political action. The soldier is
+      not always remembered nor honored as he should be. But, what to the future
+      of the great Republic is more important, there is great danger of our
+      people under-estimating the bitter animus and terrible malignity to the
+      Union and its defenders cherished by those who made war upon it. This is a
+      point we can not afford to be mistaken about. And yet, right at this point
+      this volume will meet its severest criticism, and at this point its
+      testimony is most vital and necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many will be slow to believe all that is here told most truthfully of the
+      tyranny and cruelty of the captors of our brave boys in blue. There are no
+      parallels to the cruelties and malignities here described in Northern
+      society. The system of slavery, maintained for over two hundred years at
+      the South, had performed a most perverting, morally desolating, and we
+      might say, demonizing work on the dominant race, which people bred under
+      our free civilization can not at once understand, nor scarcely believe
+      when it is declared unto them. This reluctance to believe unwelcome truths
+      has been the snare of our national life. We have not been willing to
+      believe how hardened, despotic, and cruel the wielders of irresponsible
+      power may become.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the anti-slavery reformers of thirty years ago set forth the
+      cruelties of the slave system, they were met with a storm of indignant
+      denial, villification and rebuke. When Theodore D. Weld issued his &ldquo;Testimony
+      of a Thousand Witnesses,&rdquo; to the cruelty of slavery, he introduced
+      it with a few words, pregnant with sound philosophy, which can be applied
+      to the work now introduced, and may help the reader better to accept and
+      appreciate its statements. Mr. Weld said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into
+      the field, and make you work without pay as long as you lived. Would that
+      be justice? Would it be kindness? Or would it be monstrous injustice and
+      cruelty? Now, is the man who robs you every day too tender-hearted ever to
+      cuff or kick you? He can empty your pockets without remorse, but if your
+      stomach is empty, it cuts him to the quick. He can make you work a
+      life-time without pay, but loves you too well to let you go hungry. He
+      fleeces you of your rights with a relish, but is shocked if you work
+      bare-headed in summer, or without warm stockings in winter. He can make
+      you go without your liberty, but never without a shirt. He can crush in
+      you all hope of bettering your condition by vowing that you shall die his
+      slave, but though he can thus cruelly torture your feelings, he will never
+      lacerate your back&mdash;he can break your heart, but is very tender of
+      your skin. He can strip you of all protection of law, and all comfort in
+      religion, and thus expose you to all outrages, but if you are exposed to
+      the weather, half-clad and half-sheltered, how yearn his tender bowels!
+      What! talk of a man treating you well while robbing you of all you get,
+      and as fast as you get it? And robbing you of yourself, too, your hands
+      and feet, your muscles, limbs and senses, your body and mind, your liberty
+      and earnings, your free speech and rights of conscience, your right to
+      acquire knowledge, property and reputation, and yet you are content to
+      believe without question that men who do all this by their slaves have
+      soft hearts oozing out so lovingly toward their human chattles that they
+      always keep them well housed and well clad, never push them too hard in
+      the field, never make their dear backs smart, nor let their dear stomachs
+      get empty!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In like manner we may ask, are not the cruelties and oppressions described
+      in the following pages what we should legitimately expect from men who,
+      all their lives, have used whip and thumb-screw, shot-gun and bloodhound,
+      to keep human beings subservient to their will? Are we to expect nothing
+      but chivalric tenderness and compassion from men who made war on a
+      tolerant government to make more secure their barbaric system of
+      oppression?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These things are written because they are true. Duty to the brave dead, to
+      the heroic living, who have endured the pangs of a hundred deaths for
+      their country's sake; duty to the government which depends on the
+      wisdom and constancy of its good citizens for its support and perpetuity,
+      calls for this &ldquo;round, unvarnished tale&rdquo; of suffering endured
+      for freedom's sake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The publisher of this work urged his friend and associate in journalism to
+      write and send forth these sketches because the times demanded just such
+      an expose of the inner hell of the Southern prisons. The tender mercies of
+      oppressors are cruel. We must accept the truth and act in view of it.
+      Acting wisely on the warnings of the past, we shall be able to prevent
+      treason, with all its fearful concomitants, from being again the scourge
+      and terror of our beloved land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ROBERT
+      McCUNE. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="AUTHOR_PREFACE" id="AUTHOR_PREFACE"></a>AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Fifteen months ago&mdash;and one month before it was begun&mdash;I had no
+      more idea of writing this book than I have now of taking up my residence
+      in China.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I have always been deeply impressed with the idea that the public
+      should know much more of the history of Andersonville and other Southern
+      prisons than it does, it had never occurred to me that I was in any way
+      charged with the duty of increasing that enlightenment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No affected deprecation of my own abilities had any part is this. I
+      certainly knew enough of the matter, as did every other boy who had even a
+      month's experience in those terrible places, but the very magnitude
+      of that knowledge overpowered me, by showing me the vast requirements of
+      the subject-requirements that seemed to make it presumption for any but
+      the greatest pens in our literature to attempt the work. One day at
+      Andersonville or Florence would be task enough for the genius of Carlyle
+      or Hugo; lesser than they would fail preposterously to rise to the level
+      of the theme. No writer ever described such a deluge of woes as swept over
+      the unfortunates confined in Rebel prisons in the last year-and-a-half of
+      the Confederacy's life. No man was ever called upon to describe the
+      spectacle and the process of seventy thousand young, strong, able-bodied
+      men, starving and rotting to death. Such a gigantic tragedy as this stuns
+      the mind and benumbs the imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I no more felt myself competent to the task than to accomplish one of
+      Michael Angelo's grand creations in sculpture or painting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Study of the subject since confirms me in this view, and my only claim for
+      this book is that it is a contribution&mdash;a record of individual
+      observation and experience&mdash;which will add something to the material
+      which the historian of the future will find available for his work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work was begun at the suggestion of Mr. D. R. Locke, (Petroleum V.
+      Nasby), the eminent political satirist. At first it was only intended to
+      write a few short serial sketches of prison life for the columns of the
+      TOLEDO BLADE. The exceeding favor with which the first of the series was
+      received induced a great widening of their scope, until finally they took
+      the range they now have.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know that what is contained herein will be bitterly denied. I am
+      prepared for this. In my boyhood I witnessed the savagery of the Slavery
+      agitation&mdash;in my youth I felt the fierceness of the hatred directed
+      against all those who stood by the Nation. I know that hell hath no fury
+      like the vindictiveness of those who are hurt by the truth being told of
+      them. I apprehend being assailed by a sirocco of contradiction and
+      calumny. But I solemnly affirm in advance the entire and absolute truth of
+      every material fact, statement and description. I assert that, so far from
+      there being any exaggeration in any particular, that in no instance has
+      the half of the truth been told, nor could it be, save by an inspired pen.
+      I am ready to demonstrate this by any test that the deniers of this may
+      require, and I am fortified in my position by unsolicited letters from
+      over 3,000 surviving prisoners, warmly indorsing the account as thoroughly
+      accurate in every respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been charged that hatred of the South is the animus of this work.
+      Nothing can be farther from the truth. No one has a deeper love for every
+      part of our common country than I, and no one to-day will make more
+      efforts and sacrifices to bring the South to the same plane of social and
+      material development with the rest of the Nation than I will. If I could
+      see that the sufferings at Andersonville and elsewhere contributed in any
+      considerable degree to that end, and I should not regret that they had
+      been. Blood and tears mark every step in the progress of the race, and
+      human misery seems unavoidable in securing human advancement. But I am
+      naturally embittered by the fruitlessness, as well as the uselessness of
+      the misery of Andersonville. There was never the least military or other
+      reason for inflicting all that wretchedness upon men, and, as far as
+      mortal eye can discern, no earthly good resulted from the martyrdom of
+      those tens of thousands. I wish I could see some hope that their wantonly
+      shed blood has sown seeds that will one day blossom, and bear a rich
+      fruitage of benefit to mankind, but it saddens me beyond expression that I
+      can not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The years 1864-5 were a season of desperate battles, but in that time many
+      more Union soldiers were slain behind the Rebel armies, by starvation and
+      exposure, than were killed in front of them by cannon and rifle. The
+      country has heard much of the heroism and sacrifices of those loyal youths
+      who fell on the field of battle; but it has heard little of the still
+      greater number who died in prison pen. It knows full well how grandly her
+      sons met death in front of the serried ranks of treason, and but little of
+      the sublime firmness with which they endured unto the death, all that the
+      ingenious cruelty of their foes could inflict upon them while in
+      captivity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is to help supply this deficiency that this book is written. It is a
+      mite contributed to the better remembrance by their countrymen of those
+      who in this way endured and died that the Nation might live. It is an
+      offering of testimony to future generations of the measureless cost of the
+      expiation of a national sin, and of the preservation of our national
+      unity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is all. I know I speak for all those still living comrades who went
+      with me through the scenes that I have attempted to describe, when I say
+      that we have no revenges to satisfy, no hatreds to appease. We do not ask
+      that anyone shall be punished. We only desire that the Nation shall
+      recognize and remember the grand fidelity of our dead comrades, and take
+      abundant care that they shall not have died in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the great mass of Southern people we have only the kindliest feeling.
+      We but hate a vicious social system, the lingering shadow of a darker age,
+      to which they yield, and which, by elevating bad men to power, has proved
+      their own and their country's bane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following story does not claim to be in any sense a history of
+      Southern prisons. It is simply a record of the experience of one
+      individual&mdash;one boy&mdash;who staid all the time with his comrades
+      inside the prison, and had no better opportunities for gaining information
+      than any other of his 60,000 companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The majority of the illustrations in this work are from the skilled pencil
+      of Captain O. J. Hopkins, of Toledo, who served through the war in the
+      ranks of the Forty-second Ohio. His army experience has been of peculiar
+      value to the work, as it has enabled him to furnish a series of
+      illustrations whose life-like fidelity of action, pose and detail are
+      admirable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some thirty of the pictures, including the frontispiece, and the
+      allegorical illustrations of War and Peace, are from the atelier of Mr. O.
+      Reich, Cincinnati, O.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A word as to the spelling: Having always been an ardent believer in the
+      reformation of our present preposterous system&mdash;or rather, no system&mdash;of
+      orthography, I am anxious to do whatever lies in my power to promote it.
+      In the following pages the spelling is simplified to the last degree
+      allowed by Webster. I hope that the time is near when even that advanced
+      spelling reformer will be left far in the rear by the progress of a people
+      thoroughly weary of longer slavery to the orthographical absurdities
+      handed down to us from a remote and grossly unlearned ancestry. <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Toledo, O., Dec. 10, 1879.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JOHN McELROY. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p032" id="p032"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p032.jpg (36K)" src="images/p032.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p>
+            We wait beneath the furnace blast
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            The pangs of transformation;
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Not painlessly doth God recast
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            And mold anew the nation.
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Hot burns the fire
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Where wrongs expire;
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Nor spares the hand
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            That from the land
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Uproots the ancient evil. <br>
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            The hand-breadth cloud the sages feared
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Its bloody rain is dropping;
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            The poison plant the fathers spared
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            All else is overtopping.
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            East, West, South, North,
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            It curses the earth;
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            All justice dies,
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            And fraud and lies
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Live only in its shadow. <br>
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Then let the selfish lip be dumb
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            And hushed the breath of sighing;
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Before the joy of peace must come
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            The pains of purifying.
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            God give us grace
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Each in his place
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            To bear his lot,
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            And, murmuring not,
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            Endure and wait and labor!
+          </p>
+          <p>
+            &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;WHITTIER
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br> <br><br><br><br> <a name="p033" id="p033"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p033.jpg (57K)" src="images/p033.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p class="xbig center">
+      ANDERSONVILLE
+   <br>
+      A STORY OF REBEL MILITARY PRISONS
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch1" id="ch1"></a>CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A STRANGE LAND&mdash;THE HEART OF THE APPALACHIANS&mdash;THE GATEWAY OF AN
+      EMPIRE &mdash;A SEQUESTERED VALE, AND A PRIMITIVE, ARCADIAN,
+      NON-PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A low, square, plainly-hewn stone, set near the summit of the eastern
+      approach to the formidable natural fortress of Cumberland Gap, indicates
+      the boundaries of&mdash;the three great States of Virginia, Kentucky and
+      Tennessee. It is such a place as, remembering the old Greek and Roman
+      myths and superstitions, one would recognize as fitting to mark the
+      confines of the territories of great masses of strong, aggressive, and
+      frequently conflicting peoples. There the god Terminus should have had one
+      of his chief temples, where his shrine would be shadowed by barriers
+      rising above the clouds, and his sacred solitude guarded from the rude
+      invasion of armed hosts by range on range of battlemented rocks, crowning
+      almost inaccessible mountains, interposed across every approach from the
+      usual haunts of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Roundabout the land is full of strangeness and mystery. The throes of some
+      great convulsion of Nature are written on the face of the four thousand
+      square miles of territory, of which Cumberland Gap is the central point.
+      Miles of granite mountains are thrust up like giant walls, hundreds of
+      feet high, and as smooth and regular as the side of a monument.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Huge, fantastically-shaped rocks abound everywhere&mdash;sometimes rising
+      into pinnacles on lofty summits&mdash;sometimes hanging over the verge of
+      beetling cliffs, as if placed there in waiting for a time when they could
+      be hurled down upon the path of an advancing army, and sweep it away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Large streams of water burst out in the most unexpected planes, frequently
+      far up mountain sides, and fall in silver veils upon stones beaten round
+      by the ceaseless dash for ages. Caves, rich in quaintly formed stalactites
+      and stalagmites, and their recesses filled with metallic salts of the most
+      powerful and diverse natures; break the mountain sides at frequent
+      intervals. Everywhere one is met by surprises and anomalies. Even the rank
+      vegetation is eccentric, and as prone to develop into bizarre forms as are
+      the rocks and mountains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dreaded panther ranges through the primeval, rarely trodden forests;
+      every crevice in the rocks has for tenants rattlesnakes or stealthy
+      copperheads, while long, wonderfully swift &ldquo;blue racers&rdquo; haunt
+      the edges of the woods, and linger around the fields to chill his blood
+      who catches a glimpse of their upreared heads, with their great, balefully
+      bright eyes, and &ldquo;white-collar&rdquo; encircled throats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The human events happening here have been in harmony with the natural
+      ones. It has always been a land of conflict. In 1540&mdash;339 years ago
+      &mdash;De Soto, in that energetic but fruitless search for gold which
+      occupied his later years, penetrated to this region, and found it the
+      fastness of the Xualans, a bold, aggressive race, continually warring with
+      its neighbors. When next the white man reached the country&mdash;a century
+      and a half later&mdash;he found the Xualans had been swept away by the
+      conquering Cherokees, and he witnessed there the most sanguinary contest
+      between Indians of which our annals give any account&mdash;a pitched
+      battle two days in duration, between the invading Shawnees, who lorded it
+      over what is now Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana&mdash;and the Cherokees, who
+      dominated the country the southeast of the Cumberland range. Again the
+      Cherokees were victorious, and the discomfited Shawnees retired north of
+      the Gap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the white man delivered battle for the possession the land, and
+      bought it with the lives of many gallant adventurers. Half a century later
+      Boone and his hardy companion followed, and forced their way into
+      Kentucky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another half century saw the Gap the favorite haunt of the greatest of
+      American bandits&mdash;the noted John A. Murrell&mdash;and his gang. They
+      infested the country for years, now waylaying the trader or drover
+      threading his toilsome way over the lone mountains, now descending upon
+      some little town, to plunder its stores and houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length Murrell and his band were driven out, and sought a new field of
+      operations on the Lower Mississippi. They left germs behind them, however,
+      that developed into horse thieve counterfeiters, and later into guerrillas
+      and bushwhackers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Rebellion broke out the region at once became the theater of
+      military operations. Twice Cumberland Gap was seized by the Rebels, and
+      twice was it wrested away from them. In 1861 it was the point whence
+      Zollicoffer launched out with his legions to &ldquo;liberate Kentucky,&rdquo;
+      and it was whither they fled, beaten and shattered, after the disasters of
+      Wild Cat and Mill Springs. In 1862 Kirby Smith led his army through the
+      Gap on his way to overrun Kentucky and invade the North. Three months
+      later his beaten forces sought refuge from their pursuers behind its
+      impregnable fortifications. Another year saw Burnside burst through the
+      Gap with a conquering force and redeem loyal East Tennessee from its Rebel
+      oppressors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the South ever been able to separate from the North the boundary would
+      have been established along this line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between the main ridge upon which Cumberland Gap is situated, and the next
+      range on the southeast which runs parallel with it, is a narrow, long,
+      very fruitful valley, walled in on either side for a hundred miles by tall
+      mountains as a City street is by high buildings. It is called Powell's
+      Valley. In it dwell a simple, primitive people, shut out from the world
+      almost as much as if they lived in New Zealand, and with the speech,
+      manners and ideas that their fathers brought into the Valley when they
+      settled it a century ago. There has been but little change since then. The
+      young men who have annually driven cattle to the distant markets in
+      Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, have brought back occasional stray bits
+      of finery for the &ldquo;women folks,&rdquo; and the latest improved
+      fire-arms for themselves, but this is about all the innovations the
+      progress of the world has been allowed to make. Wheeled vehicles are
+      almost unknown; men and women travel on horseback as they did a century
+      ago, the clothing is the product of the farm and the busy looms of the
+      women, and life is as rural and Arcadian as any ever described in a
+      pastoral. The people are rich in cattle, hogs, horses, sheep and the
+      products of the field. The fat soil brings forth the substantials of life
+      in opulent plenty. Having this there seems to be little care for more.
+      Ambition nor avarice, nor yet craving after luxury, disturb their
+      contented souls or drag them away from the non-progressive round of simple
+      life bequeathed them by their fathers. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch2" id="ch2"></a>CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SCARCITY OF FOOD FOR THE ARMY&mdash;RAID FOR FORAGE&mdash;ENCOUNTER WIT
+      THE REBELS &mdash;SHARP CAVALRY FIGHT&mdash;DEFEAT OF THE &ldquo;JOHNNIES&rdquo;&mdash;POWELL'S
+      VALLEY OPENED UP.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Autumn of 1863 advanced towards Winter the difficulty of supplying
+      the forces concentrated around Cumberland Gap&mdash;as well as the rest of
+      Burnside's army in East Tennessee&mdash;became greater and greater.
+      The base of supplies was at Camp Nelson, near Lexington, Ky., one hundred
+      and eighty miles from the Gap, and all that the Army used had to be hauled
+      that distance by mule teams over roads that, in their best state were
+      wretched, and which the copious rains and heavy traffic had rendered
+      well-nigh impassable. All the country to our possession had been drained
+      of its stock of whatever would contribute to the support of man or beast.
+      That portion of Powell's Valley extending from the Gap into Virginia
+      was still in the hands of the Rebels; its stock of products was as yet
+      almost exempt from military contributions. Consequently a raid was
+      projected to reduce the Valley to our possession, and secure its much
+      needed stores. It was guarded by the Sixty-fourth Virginia, a mounted
+      regiment, made up of the young men of the locality, who had then been in
+      the service about two years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maj. C. H. Beer's third Battalion, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry&mdash;four
+      companies, each about 75 strong&mdash;was sent on the errand of driving
+      out the Rebels and opening up the Valley for our foraging teams. The
+      writer was invited to attend the excursion. As he held the honorable, but
+      not very lucrative position of &ldquo;high, private&rdquo; in Company L,
+      of the Battalion, and the invitation came from his Captain, he did not
+      feel at liberty to decline. He went, as private soldiers have been in the
+      habit of doing ever since the days of the old Centurion, who said with the
+      characteristic boastfulness of one of the lower grades of commissioned
+      officers when he happens to be a snob:
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        For I am also a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I
+        say unto one, Go; and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and
+        to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      Rather &ldquo;airy&rdquo; talk that for a man who nowadays would take rank
+      with Captains of infantry. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p038" id="p038"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p038.jpg (51K)" src="images/p038.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three hundred of us responded to the signal of &ldquo;boots and saddles,&rdquo;
+      buckled on three hundred more or less trusty sabers and revolvers, saddled
+      three hundred more or less gallant steeds, came into line &ldquo;as
+      companies&rdquo; with the automatic listlessness of the old soldiers,
+      &ldquo;counted off by fours&rdquo; in that queer gamut-running style that
+      makes a company of men &ldquo;counting off&rdquo;&mdash;each shouting a
+      number in a different voice from his neighbor&mdash;sound like running the
+      scales on some great organ badly out of tune; something like this:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as the bugle sounded &ldquo;Right forward! fours right!&rdquo; we
+      moved off at a walk through the melancholy mist that soaked through the
+      very fiber of man and horse, and reduced the minds of both to a condition
+      of limp indifference as to things past, present and future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whither we were going we knew not, nor cared. Such matters had long since
+      ceased to excite any interest. A cavalryman soon recognizes as the least
+      astonishing thing in his existence the signal to &ldquo;Fall in!&rdquo;
+      and start somewhere. He feels that he is the &ldquo;Poor Joe&rdquo; of the
+      Army&mdash;under perpetual orders to &ldquo;move on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down we wound over the road that zig-tagged through the forts, batteries
+      and rifle-pits covering the eastern ascent to the Flap-past the wonderful
+      Murrell Spring&mdash;so-called because the robber chief had killed, as he
+      stooped to drink of its crystal waters, a rich drover, whom he was
+      pretending to pilot through the mountains&mdash;down to where the &ldquo;Virginia
+      road&rdquo; turned off sharply to the left and entered Powell's
+      Valley. The mist had become a chill, dreary rain, through, which we
+      plodded silently, until night closed in around us some ten miles from the
+      Gap. As we halted to go into camp, an indignant Virginian resented the
+      invasion of the sacred soil by firing at one of the guards moving out to
+      his place. The guard looked at the fellow contemptuously, as if he hated
+      to waste powder on a man who had no better sense than to stay out in such
+      a rain, when he could go in-doors, and the bushwhacker escaped, without
+      even a return shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fires were built, coffee made, horses rubbed, and we laid down with feet
+      to the fire to get what sleep we could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before morning we were awakened by the bitter cold. It had cleared off
+      during the night and turned so cold that everything was frozen stiff. This
+      was better than the rain, at all events. A good fire and a hot cup of
+      coffee would make the cold quite endurable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daylight the bugle sounded &ldquo;Right forward! fours right!&rdquo;
+      again, and the 300 of us resumed our onward plod over the rocky,
+      cedar-crowned hills. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p040" id="p040"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p040.jpg (54K)" src="images/p040.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, other things were taking place elsewhere. Our esteemed
+      friends of the Sixty-fourth Virginia, who were in camp at the little town
+      of Jonesville, about 40 miles from the Gap, had learned of our starting up
+      the Valley to drive them out, and they showed that warm reciprocity
+      characteristic of the Southern soldier, by mounting and starting down the
+      Valley to drive us out. Nothing could be more harmonious, it will be
+      perceived. Barring the trifling divergence of yews as to who was to drive
+      and who be driven, there was perfect accord in our ideas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our numbers were about equal. If I were to say that they considerably
+      outnumbered us, I would be following the universal precedent. No
+      soldier-high or low-ever admitted engaging an equal or inferior force of
+      the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About 9 o'clock in the morning&mdash;Sunday&mdash;they rode through
+      the streets of Jonesville on their way to give us battle. It was here that
+      most of the members of the Regiment lived. Every man, woman and child in
+      the town was related in some way to nearly every one of the soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The women turned out to wave their fathers, husbands, brothers and lovers
+      on to victory. The old men gathered to give parting counsel and
+      encouragement to their sons and kindred. The Sixty-fourth rode away to
+      what hope told them would be a glorious victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At noon we are still straggling along without much attempt at soldierly
+      order, over the rough, frozen hill-sides. It is yet bitterly cold, and men
+      and horses draw themselves together, as if to expose as little surface as
+      possible to the unkind elements. Not a word had been spoken by any one for
+      hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The head of the column has just reached the top of the hill, and the rest
+      of us are strung along for a quarter of a mile or so back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly a few shots ring out upon the frosty air from the carbines of the
+      advance. The general apathy is instantly, replaced by keen attention, and
+      the boys instinctively range themselves into fours&mdash;the cavalry unit
+      of action. The Major, who is riding about the middle of the first Company&mdash;I&mdash;dashes
+      to the front. A glance seems to satisfy him, for he turns in his saddle
+      and his voice rings out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Company I! FOURS LEFT INTO LINE!&mdash;MARCH!!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Company swings around on the hill-top like a great, jointed toy snake.
+      As the fours come into line on a trot, we see every man draw his saber and
+      revolver. The Company raises a mighty cheer and dashes forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Company K presses forward to the ground Company I has just left, the fours
+      sweep around into line, the sabers and revolvers come out spontaneously,
+      the men cheer and the Company flings itself forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time we of Company L can see nothing except what the companies
+      ahead of us are doing. We are wrought up to the highest pitch. As Company
+      K clears its ground, we press forward eagerly. Now we go into line just as
+      we raise the hill, and as my four comes around, I catch a hurried glimpse
+      through a rift in the smoke of a line of butternut and gray clad men a
+      hundred yards or so away. Their guns are at their faces, and I see the
+      smoke and fire spurt from the muzzles. At the same instant our sabers and
+      revolvers are drawn. We shout in a frenzy of excitement, and the horses
+      spring forward as if shot from a bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I see nothing more until I reach the place where the Rebel line stood.
+      Then I find it is gone. Looking beyond toward the bottom of the hill, I
+      see the woods filled with Rebels, flying in disorder and our men yelling
+      in pursuit. This is the portion of the line which Companies I and K
+      struck. Here and there are men in butternut clothing, prone on the frozen
+      ground, wounded and dying. I have just time to notice closely one
+      middle-aged man lying almost under my horse's feet. He has received
+      a carbine bullet through his head and his blood colors a great space
+      around him. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p042" id="p042"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p042.jpg (51K)" src="images/p042.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One brave man, riding a roan horse, attempts to rally his companions. He
+      halts on a little knoll, wheels his horse to face us, and waves his hat to
+      draw his companions to him. A tall, lank fellow in the next four to me&mdash;who
+      goes by the nickname of &ldquo;'Leven Yards&rdquo;&mdash;aims his
+      carbine at him, and, without checking his horse's pace, fires. The
+      heavy Sharpe's bullet tears a gaping hole through the Rebel's
+      heart. He drops from his saddle, his life-blood runs down in little rills
+      on either side of the knoll, and his riderless horse dashes away in a
+      panic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this instant comes an order for the Company to break up into fours and
+      press on through the forest in pursuit. My four trots off to the road at
+      the right. A Rebel bugler, who hag been cut off, leaps his horse into the
+      road in front of us. We all fire at him on the impulse of the moment. He
+      falls from his horse with a bullet through his back. Company M, which has
+      remained in column as a reserve, is now thundering up close behind at a
+      gallop. Its seventy-five powerful horses are spurning the solid earth with
+      steel-clad hoofs. The man will be ground into a shapeless mass if left
+      where he has fallen. We spring from our horses and drag him into a fence
+      corner; then remount and join in the pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This happened on the summit of Chestnut Ridge, fifteen miles from
+      Jonesville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late in the afternoon the anxious watchers at Jonesville saw a single
+      fugitive urging his well-nigh spent horse down the slope of the hill
+      toward town. In an agony of anxiety they hurried forward to meet him and
+      learn his news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first messenger who rushed into Job's presence to announce the
+      beginning of the series of misfortunes which were to afflict the upright
+      man of Uz is a type of all the cowards who, before or since then, have
+      been the first to speed away from the field of battle to spread the news
+      of disaster. He said:
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        &ldquo;And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they
+        have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am
+        escaped alone to tell thee.&rdquo;
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      So this fleeing Virginian shouted to his expectant friends:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boys are all cut to pieces; I'm the only one that got
+      away.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrible extent of his words was belied a little later, by the
+      appearance on the distant summit of the hill of a considerable mob of
+      fugitives, flying at the utmost speed of their nearly exhausted horses. As
+      they came on down the hill as almost equally disorganized crowd of
+      pursuers appeared on the summit, yelling in voices hoarse with continued
+      shouting, and pouring an incessant fire of carbine and revolver bullets
+      upon the hapless men of the Sixty-fourth Virginia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two masses of men swept on through the town. Beyond it, the road
+      branched in several directions, the pursued scattered on each of these,
+      and the worn-out pursuers gave up the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning to Jonesville, we took an account of stock, and found that we
+      were &ldquo;ahead&rdquo; one hundred and fifteen prisoners, nearly that
+      many horses, and a considerable quantity of small arms. How many of the
+      enemy had been killed and wounded could not be told, as they were
+      scattered over the whole fifteen miles between where the fight occurred
+      and the pursuit ended. Our loss was trifling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Comparing notes around the camp-fires in the evening, we found that our
+      success had been owing to the Major's instinct, his grasp of the
+      situation, and the soldierly way in which he took advantage of it. When he
+      reached the summit of the hill he found the Rebel line nearly formed and
+      ready for action. A moment's hesitation might have been fatal to us.
+      At his command Company I went into line with the thought-like celerity of
+      trained cavalry, and instantly dashed through the right of the Rebel line.
+      Company K followed and plunged through the Rebel center, and when we of
+      Company L arrived on the ground, and charged the left, the last vestige of
+      resistance was swept away. The whole affair did not probably occupy more
+      than fifteen minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the way Powell's Valley was opened to our foragers. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch3" id="ch3"></a>CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      LIVING OFF THE ENEMY&mdash;REVELING IN THE FATNESS OF THE COUNTRY&mdash;SOLDIERLY
+      PURVEYING AND CAMP COOKERY&mdash;SUSCEPTIBLE TEAMSTERS AND THEIR TENDENCY
+      TO FLIGHTINESS&mdash;MAKING SOLDIER'S BED.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For weeks we rode up and down&mdash;hither and thither&mdash;along the
+      length of the narrow, granite-walled Valley; between mountains so lofty
+      that the sun labored slowly over them in the morning, occupying half the
+      forenoon in getting to where his rays would reach the stream that ran
+      through the Valley's center. Perpetual shadow reigned on the
+      northern and western faces of these towering Nights&mdash;not enough
+      warmth and sunshine reaching them in the cold months to check the growth
+      of the ever-lengthening icicles hanging from the jutting cliffs, or melt
+      the arabesque frost-forms with which the many dashing cascades decorated
+      the adjacent rocks and shrubbery. Occasionally we would see where some
+      little stream ran down over the face of the bare, black rocks for many
+      hundred feet, and then its course would be a long band of sheeny white,
+      like a great rich, spotless scarf of satin, festooning the war-grimed
+      walls of some old castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our duty now was to break up any nuclei of concentration that the Rebels
+      might attempt to form, and to guard our foragers&mdash;that is, the
+      teamsters and employee of the Quartermaster's Department&mdash;who
+      were loading grain into wagons and hauling it away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This last was an arduous task. There is no man in the world that needs as
+      much protection as an Army teamster. He is worse in this respect than a
+      New England manufacturer, or an old maid on her travels. He is given to
+      sudden fears and causeless panics. Very innocent cedars have a fashion of
+      assuming in his eyes the appearance of desperate Rebels armed with
+      murderous guns, and there is no telling what moment a rock may take such a
+      form as to freeze his young blood, and make each particular hair stand on
+      end like quills upon the fretful porcupine. One has to be particular about
+      snapping caps in his neighborhood, and give to him careful warning before
+      discharging a carbine to clean it. His first impulse, when anything occurs
+      to jar upon his delicate nerves, is to cut his wheel-mule loose and retire
+      with the precipitation of a man having an appointment to keep and being
+      behind time. There is no man who can get as much speed out of a mule as a
+      teamster falling back from the neighborhood of heavy firing. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p046" id="p046"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p046.jpg (33K)" src="images/p046.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This nervous tremor was not peculiar to the engineers of our
+      transportation department. It was noticeable in the gentry who carted the
+      scanty provisions of the Rebels. One of Wheeler's cavalrymen told me
+      that the brigade to which he belonged was one evening ordered to move at
+      daybreak. The night was rainy, and it was thought best to discharge the
+      guns and reload before starting. Unfortunately, it was neglected to inform
+      the teamsters of this, and at the first discharge they varnished from the
+      scene with such energy that it was over a week before the brigade
+      succeeded in getting them back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why association with the mule should thus demoralize a man, has always
+      been a puzzle to me, for while the mule, as Col. Ingersoll has remarked,
+      is an animal without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity, he is still
+      not a coward by any means. It is beyond dispute that a full-grown and
+      active lioness once attacked a mule in the grounds of the Cincinnati
+      Zoological Garden, and was ignominiously beaten, receiving injuries from
+      which she died shortly afterward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The apparition of a badly-scared teamster urging one of his wheel mules at
+      break-neck speed over the rough ground, yelling for protection against
+      &ldquo;them Johnnies,&rdquo; who had appeared on some hilltop in sight of
+      where he was gathering corn, was an almost hourly occurrence. Of course
+      the squad dispatched to his assistance found nobody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, there were plenty of Rebels in the country, and they hung around
+      our front, exchanging shots with us at long taw, and occasionally treating
+      us to a volley at close range, from some favorable point. But we had the
+      decided advantage of them at this game. Our Sharpe's carbines were
+      much superior in every way to their Enfields. They would shoot much
+      farther, and a great deal more rapidly, so that the Virginians were not
+      long in discovering that they were losing more than they gained in this
+      useless warfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once they played a sharp practical joke upon us. Copper River is a deep,
+      exceedingly rapid mountain stream, with a very slippery rocky bottom. The
+      Rebels blockaded a ford in such a way that it was almost impossible for a
+      horse to keep his feet. Then they tolled us off in pursuit of a small
+      party to this ford. When we came to it there was a light line of
+      skirmishers on the opposite bank, who popped away at us industriously. Our
+      boys formed in line, gave the customary, cheer, and dashed in to carry the
+      ford at a charge. As they did so at least one-half of the horses went down
+      as if they were shot, and rolled over their riders in the swift running,
+      ice-cold waters. The Rebels yelled a triumphant laugh, as they galloped
+      away, and the laugh was re-echoed by our fellows, who were as quick to see
+      the joke as the other side. We tried to get even with them by a sharp
+      chase, but we gave it up after a few miles, without having taken any
+      prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, after all, there was much to make our sojourn in the Valley
+      endurable. Though we did not wear fine linen, we fared sumptuously&mdash;for
+      soldiers&mdash;every day. The cavalryman is always charged by the infantry
+      and artillery with having a finer and surer scent for the good things in
+      the country than any other man in the service. He is believed to have an
+      instinct that will unfailingly lead him, in the dankest night, to the
+      roosting place of the most desirable poultry, and after he has camped in a
+      neighborhood for awhile it would require a close chemical analysis to find
+      a trace of ham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We did our best to sustain the reputation of our arm of the service. We
+      found the most delicious hams packed away in the ash-houses. They were
+      small, and had that; exquisite nutty flavor, peculiar to mast-fed bacon.
+      Then there was an abundance of the delightful little apple known as
+      &ldquo;romanites.&rdquo; There were turnips, pumpkins, cabbages, potatoes,
+      and the usual products of the field in plenty, even profusion. The corn in
+      the fields furnished an ample supply of breadstuff. We carried it to and
+      ground it in the quaintest, rudest little mills that can be imagined
+      outside of the primitive affairs by which the women of Arabia coarsely
+      powder the grain for the family meal. Sometimes the mill would consist
+      only of four stout posts thrust into the ground at the edge of some
+      stream. A line of boulders reaching diagonally across the stream answered
+      for a dam, by diverting a portion of the volume of water to a channel at
+      the side, where it moved a clumsily constructed wheel, that turned two
+      small stones, not larger than good-sized grindstones. Over this would be a
+      shed made by resting poles in forked posts stuck into the ground, and
+      covering these with clapboards held in place by large flat stones. They
+      resembled the mills of the gods&mdash;in grinding slowly. It used to seem
+      that a healthy man could eat the meal faster than they ground it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what savory meals we used to concoct around the campfires, out of the
+      rich materials collected during the day's ride! Such stews, such
+      soups, such broils, such wonderful commixtures of things diverse in nature
+      and antagonistic in properties such daring culinary experiments in
+      combining materials never before attempted to be combined. The French say
+      of untasteful arrangement of hues in dress &ldquo;that the colors swear at
+      each other.&rdquo; I have often thought the same thing of the
+      heterogeneities that go to make up a soldier's pot-a feu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But for all that they never failed to taste deliciously after a long day's
+      ride. They were washed down by a tincupful of coffee strong enough to tan
+      leather, then came a brier-wood pipeful of fragrant kinnikinnic, and a
+      seat by the ruddy, sparkling fire of aromatic cedar logs, that diffused at
+      once warmth, and spicy, pleasing incense. A chat over the events of the
+      day, and the prospect of the morrow, the wonderful merits of each man's
+      horse, and the disgusting irregularities of the mails from home, lasted
+      until the silver-voiced bugle rang out the sweet, mournful tattoo of the
+      Regulations, to the flowing cadences of which the boys had arranged the
+      absurdly incongruous words:
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          &ldquo;S-a-y&mdash;D-e-u-t-c-h-e-r-will-you fight-mit Sigel!<br>
+          Zwei-glass of lager-bier, ja! ja! JA!&rdquo;<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      Words were fitted to all the calls, which generally bore some relativeness
+      to the signal, but these were as, destitute of congruity as of sense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tattoo always produces an impression of extreme loneliness. As its weird,
+      half-availing notes ring out and are answered back from the distant rocks
+      shrouded in night, and perhaps concealing the lurking foe, the soldier
+      remembers that he is far away from home and friends&mdash;deep in the
+      enemy's country, encompassed on every hand by those in deadly
+      hostility to him, who are perhaps even then maturing the preparations for
+      his destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the tattoo sounds, the boys arise from around the fire, visit the horse
+      line, see that their horses are securely tied, rub off from the fetlocks
+      and legs such specks of mud as may have escaped the cleaning in the early
+      evening, and if possible, smuggle their faithful four-footed friends a few
+      ears of corn, or another bunch of hay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If not too tired, and everything else is favorable, the cavalryman has
+      prepared himself a comfortable couch for the night. He always sleeps with
+      a chum. The two have gathered enough small tufts of pine or cedar to make
+      a comfortable, springy, mattress-like foundation. On this is laid the
+      poncho or rubber blanket. Next comes one of their overcoats, and upon this
+      they lie, covering themselves with the two blankets and the other
+      overcoat, their feet towards the fire, their boots at the foot, and their
+      belts, with revolver, saber and carbine, at the sides of the bed. It is
+      surprising what an amount of comfort a man can get out of such a couch,
+      and how, at an alarm, he springs from it, almost instantly dressed and
+      armed. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p050" id="p050"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p050.jpg (42K)" src="images/p050.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour after tattoo the bugle rings out another sadly sweet strain,
+      that hath a dying sound. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p050b" id="p050b"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p050b.jpg (12K)" src="images/p050b.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch4" id="ch4"></a>CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A BITTER COLD MORNING AND A WARM AWAKENING&mdash;TROUBLE ALL ALONG THE
+      LINE&mdash;FIERCE CONFLICTS, ASSAULTS AND DEFENSE&mdash;PROLONGED AND
+      DESPERATE STRUGGLE ENDING WITH A SURRENDER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night had been the most intensely cold that the country had known for
+      many years. Peach and other tender trees had been killed by the frosty
+      rigor, and sentinels had been frozen to death in our neighborhood. The
+      deep snow on which we made our beds, the icy covering of the streams near
+      us, the limbs of the trees above us, had been cracking with loud noises
+      all night, from the bitter cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were camped around Jonesville, each of the four companies lying on one
+      of the roads leading from the town. Company L lay about a mile from the
+      Court House. On a knoll at the end of the village toward us, and at a
+      point where two roads separated,&mdash;one of which led to us,&mdash;stood
+      a three-inch Rodman rifle, belonging to the Twenty-second Ohio Battery. It
+      and its squad of eighteen men, under command of Lieutenant Alger and
+      Sergeant Davis, had been sent up to us a few days before from the Gap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The comfortless gray dawn was crawling sluggishly over the mountain-tops,
+      as if numb as the animal and vegetable life which had been shrinking all
+      the long hours under the fierce chill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major's bugler had saluted the morn with the lively, ringing
+      tarr-r-r-a-ta-ara of the Regulation reveille, and the company buglers, as
+      fast as they could thaw out their mouth-pieces, were answering him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay on my bed, dreading to get up, and yet not anxious to lie still. It
+      was a question which would be the more uncomfortable. I turned over, to
+      see if there was not another position in which it would be warmer, and
+      began wishing for the thousandth time that the efforts for the
+      amelioration of the horrors of warfare would progress to such a point as
+      to put a stop to all Winter soldiering, so that a fellow could go home as
+      soon as cold weather began, sit around a comfortable stove in a country
+      store; and tell camp stories until the Spring was far enough advanced to
+      let him go back to the front wearing a straw hat and a linen duster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I began wondering how much longer I would dare lie there, before the
+      Orderly Sergeant would draw me out by the heels, and accompany the
+      operation with numerous unkind and sulphurous remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This cogitation, was abruptly terminated by hearing an excited shout from
+      the Captain:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn Out!&mdash;COMPANY L!! TURNOUT ! ! !&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost at the same instant rose that shrill, piercing Rebel yell, which
+      one who has once heard it rarely forgets, and this was followed by a
+      crashing volley from apparently a regiment of rifles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I arose-promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was evidently something of more interest on hand than the weather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cap, overcoat, boots and revolver belt went on, and eyes opened at about
+      the same instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I snatched up my carbine, I looked out in front, and the whole woods
+      appeared to be full of Rebels, rushing toward us, all yelling and some
+      firing. My Captain and First Lieutenant had taken up position on the right
+      front of the tents, and part of the boys were running up to form a line
+      alongside them. The Second Lieutenant had stationed himself on a knoll on
+      the left front, and about a third of the company was rallying around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My chum was a silent, sententious sort of a chap, and as we ran forward to
+      the Captain's line, he remarked earnestly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well: this beats hell!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought he had a clear idea of the situation. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p054" id="p054"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p054.jpg (52K)" src="images/p054.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this occupied an inappreciably short space of time. The Rebels had not
+      stopped to reload, but were rushing impetuously toward us. We gave them a
+      hot, rolling volley from our carbines. Many fell, more stopped to load and
+      reply, but the mass surged straight forward at us. Then our fire grew so
+      deadly that they showed a disposition to cover themselves behind the rocks
+      and trees. Again they were urged forward; and a body of them headed by
+      their Colonel, mounted on a white horse, pushed forward through the gap
+      between us and the Second Lieutenant. The Rebel Colonel dashed up to the
+      Second Lieutenant, and ordered him to surrender. The latter-a gallant old
+      graybeard&mdash;cursed the Rebel bitterly and snapped his now empty
+      revolver in his face. The Colonel fired and killed him, whereupon his
+      squad, with two of its Sergeants killed and half its numbers on the
+      ground, surrendered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels in our front and flank pressed us with equal closeness. It
+      seemed as if it was absolutely impossible to check their rush for an
+      instant, and as we saw the fate of our companions the Captain gave the
+      word for every man to look out for himself. We ran back a little distance,
+      sprang over the fence into the fields, and rushed toward Town, the Rebels
+      encouraging us to make good time by a sharp fire into our backs from the
+      fence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While we were vainly attempting to stem the onset of the column dashed
+      against us, better success was secured elsewhere. Another column swept
+      down the other road, upon which there was only an outlying picket. This
+      had to come back on the run before the overwhelming numbers, and the
+      Rebels galloped straight for the three-inch Rodman. Company M was the
+      first to get saddled and mounted, and now came up at a steady, swinging
+      gallop, in two platoons, saber and revolver in hand, and led by two
+      Sergeants-Key and McWright,&mdash;printer boys from Bloomington, Illinois.
+      They divined the object of the Rebel dash, and strained every nerve to
+      reach the gun first. The Rebels were too near, and got the gun and turned
+      it. Before they could fire it, Company M struck them headlong, but they
+      took the terrible impact without flinching, and for a few minutes there
+      was fierce hand-to-hand work, with sword and pistol. The Rebel leader sank
+      under a half-dozen simultaneous wounds, and fell dead almost under the
+      gun. Men dropped from their horses each instant, and the riderless steeds
+      fled away. The scale of victory was turned by the Major dashing against
+      the Rebel left flank at the head of Company I, and a portion of the
+      artillery squad. The Rebels gave ground slowly, and were packed into a
+      dense mass in the lane up which they had charged. After they had been
+      crowded back, say fifty yards, word was passed through our men to open to
+      the right and left on the sides of the road. The artillerymen had turned
+      the gun and loaded it with a solid shot. Instantly a wide lane opened
+      through our ranks; the man with the lanyard drew the fatal cord, fire
+      burst from the primer and the muzzle, the long gun sprang up and recoiled,
+      and there seemed to be a demoniac yell in its ear-splitting crash, as the
+      heavy ball left the mouth, and tore its bloody way through the bodies of
+      the struggling mass of men and horses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This ended it. The Rebels gave way in disorder, and our men fell back to
+      give the gun an opportunity to throw shell and canister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels now saw that we were not to be run over like a field of
+      cornstalks, and they fell back to devise further tactics, giving us a
+      breathing spell to get ourselves in shape for defense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dullest could see that we were in a desperate situation. Critical
+      positions were no new experience to us, as they never are to a cavalry
+      command after a few months in the field, but, though the pitcher goes
+      often to the well, it is broken at last, and our time was evidently at
+      hand. The narrow throat of the Valley, through which lay the road back to
+      the Gap, was held by a force of Rebels evidently much superior to our own,
+      and strongly posted. The road was a slender, tortuous one, winding through
+      rocks and gorges. Nowhere was there room enough to move with even a
+      platoon front against the enemy, and this precluded all chances of cutting
+      out. The best we could do was a slow, difficult movement, in column of
+      fours, and this would have been suicide. On the other side of the Town the
+      Rebels were massed stronger, while to the right and left rose the steep
+      mountain sides. We were caught-trapped as surely as a rat ever was in a
+      wire trap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we learned afterwards, a whole division of cavalry, under command of
+      the noted Rebel, Major General Sam Jones, had been sent to effect our
+      capture, to offset in a measure Longstreet's repulse at Knoxville. A
+      gross overestimate of our numbers had caused the sending of so large a
+      force on this errand, and the rough treatment we gave the two columns that
+      attacked us first confirmed the Rebel General's ideas of our
+      strength, and led him to adopt cautious tactics, instead of crushing us
+      out speedily, by a determined advance of all parts of his encircling
+      lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lull in the fight did not last long. A portion of the Rebel line on
+      the east rushed forward to gain a more commanding position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We concentrated in that direction and drove it back, the Rodman assisting
+      with a couple of well-aimed shells.&mdash;This was followed by a similar
+      but more successful attempt by another part of the Rebel line, and so it
+      went on all day&mdash;the Rebels rushing up first on this side, and then
+      on that, and we, hastily collecting at the exposed points, seeking to
+      drive them back. We were frequently successful; we were on the inside, and
+      had the advantage of the short interior lines, so that our few men and our
+      breech-loaders told to a good purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were frequent crises in the struggle, that at some times gave
+      encouragement, but never hope. Once a determined onset was made from the
+      East, and was met by the equally determined resistance of nearly our whole
+      force. Our fire was so galling that a large number of our foes crowded
+      into a house on a knoll, and making loopholes in its walls, began replying
+      to us pretty sharply. We sent word to our faithful artillerists, who
+      trained the gun upon the house. The first shell screamed over the roof,
+      and burst harmlessly beyond. We suspended fire to watch the next. It
+      crashed through the side; for an instant all was deathly still; we thought
+      it had gone on through. Then came a roar and a crash; the clapboards flew
+      off the roof, and smoke poured out; panic-stricken Rebels rushed from the
+      doors and sprang from the windows-like bees from a disturbed hive; the
+      shell had burst among the confined mass of men inside! We afterwards heard
+      that twenty-five were killed there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At another time a considerable force of rebels gained the cover of a fence
+      in easy range of our main force. Companies L and K were ordered to charge
+      forward on foot and dislodge them. Away we went, under a fire that seemed
+      to drop a man at every step. A hundred yards in front of the Rebels was a
+      little cover, and behind this our men lay down as if by one impulse. Then
+      came a close, desperate duel at short range. It was a question between
+      Northern pluck and Southern courage, as to which could stand the most
+      punishment. Lying as flat as possible on the crusted snow, only raising
+      the head or body enough to load and aim, the men on both sides, with their
+      teeth set, their glaring eyes fastened on the foe, their nerves as tense
+      as tightly-drawn steel wires, rained shot on each other as fast as excited
+      hands could crowd cartridges into the guns and discharge them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a word was said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shallower enthusiasm that expresses itself in oaths and shouts had
+      given way to the deep, voiceless rage of men in a death grapple. The Rebel
+      line was a rolling torrent of flame, their bullets shrieked angrily as
+      they flew past, they struck the snow in front of us, and threw its cold
+      flakes in faces that were white with the fires of consuming hate; they
+      buried themselves with a dull thud in the quivering bodies of the enraged
+      combatants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Minutes passed; they seemed hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Would the villains, scoundrels, hell-hounds, sons of vipers never go?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length a few Rebels sprang up and tried to fly. They were shot down
+      instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the whole line rose and ran!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The relief was so great that we jumped to our feet and cheered wildly,
+      forgetting in our excitement to make use of our victory by shooting down
+      our flying enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was an element of fun lacking. A Second Lieutenant was ordered to take
+      a party of skirmishers to the top of a hill and engage those of the Rebels
+      stationed on another hill-top across a ravine. He had but lately joined us
+      from the Regular Army, where he was a Drill Sergeant. Naturally, he was
+      very methodical in his way, and scorned to do otherwise under fire than he
+      would upon the parade ground. He moved his little command to the hill-top,
+      in close order, and faced them to the front. The Johnnies received them
+      with a yell and a volley, whereat the boys winced a little, much to the
+      Lieutenant's disgust, who swore at them; then had them count off
+      with great deliberation, and deployed them as coolly as if them was not an
+      enemy within a hundred miles. After the line deployed, he &ldquo;dressed&rdquo;
+      it, commanded &ldquo;Front!&rdquo; and &ldquo;Begin, firing!&rdquo; his
+      attention was called another way for an instant, and when he looked back
+      again, there was not a man of his nicely formed skirmish line visible. The
+      logs and stones had evidently been put there for the use of skirmishers,
+      the boys thought, and in an instant they availed themselves of their
+      shelter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never was there an angrier man than that Second Lieutenant; he brandished
+      his saber and swore; he seemed to feel that all his soldierly reputation
+      was gone, but the boys stuck to their shelter for all that, informing him
+      that when the Rebels would stand out in the open field and take their
+      fire, they would likewise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Despite all our efforts, the Rebel line crawled up closer an closer to us;
+      we were driven back from knoll to knoll, and from one fence after another.
+      We had maintained the unequal struggle for eight hours; over one-fourth of
+      our number were stretched upon the snow, killed or badly wounded. Our
+      cartridges were nearly all gone; the cannon had fired its last shot long
+      ago, and having a blank cartridge left, had shot the rammer at a gathering
+      party of the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as the Winter sun was going down upon a day of gloom the bugle called
+      us all up on the hillside. Then the Rebels saw for the first time how few
+      there were, and began an almost simultaneous charge all along the line.
+      The Major raised piece of a shelter tent upon a pole. The line halted. An
+      officer rode out from it, followed by two privates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Approaching the Major, he said, &ldquo;Who is in command this force?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major replied: &ldquo;I am.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, Sir, I demand your sword.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your rank, Sir!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Adjutant of the Sixty-fourth Virginia.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The punctillious soul of the old &ldquo;Regular&rdquo;&mdash;for such the
+      Major was swelled up instantly, and he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By &mdash;-, sir, I will never surrender to my inferior in rank!&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p059" id="p059"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p059.jpg (29K)" src="images/p059.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Adjutant reined his horse back. His two followers leveled their pieces
+      at the Major and waited orders to fire. They were covered by a dozen
+      carbines in the hands of our men. The Adjutant ordered his men to &ldquo;recover
+      arms,&rdquo; and rode away with them. He presently returned with a
+      Colonel, and to him the Major handed his saber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the men realized what was being done, the first thought of many of them
+      was to snatch out the cylinder's of their revolvers, and the slides
+      of their carbines, and throw them away, so as to make the arms useless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were overcome with rage and humiliation at being compelled to yield to
+      an enemy whom we had hated so bitterly. As we stood there on the bleak
+      mountain-side, the biting wind soughing through the leafless branches, the
+      shadows of a gloomy winter night closing around us, the groans and shrieks
+      of our wounded mingling with the triumphant yells of the Rebels plundering
+      our tents, it seemed as if Fate could press to man's lips no cup
+      with bitterer dregs in it than this. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch5" id="ch5"></a>CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE REACTION&mdash;DEPRESSION&mdash;BITTING COLD&mdash;SHARP HUNGER AND
+      SAD REFLEXION. &ldquo;Of being taken by the Insolent foe.&rdquo;&mdash;Othello.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night that followed was inexpressibly dreary: The high-wrought nervous
+      tension, which had been protracted through the long hours that the fight
+      lasted, was succeeded by a proportionate mental depression, such as
+      naturally follows any strain upon the mind. This was intensified in our
+      cases by the sharp sting of defeat, the humiliation of having to yield
+      ourselves, our horses and our arms into the possession of the enemy, the
+      uncertainty as to the future, and the sorrow we felt at the loss of so
+      many of our comrades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Company L had suffered very severely, but our chief regret was for the
+      gallant Osgood, our Second Lieutenant. He, above all others, was our
+      trusted leader. The Captain and First Lieutenant were brave men, and good
+      enough soldiers, but Osgood was the one &ldquo;whose adoption tried, we
+      grappled to our souls with hooks of steel.&rdquo; There was never any
+      difficulty in getting all the volunteers he wanted for a scouting party. A
+      quiet, pleasant spoken gentleman, past middle age, he looked much better
+      fitted for the office of Justice of the Peace, to which his
+      fellow-citizens of Urbana, Illinois, had elected and reelected him, than
+      to command a troop of rough riders in a great civil war. But none more
+      gallant than he ever vaulted into saddle to do battle for the right. He
+      went into the Army solely as a matter of principle, and did his duty with
+      the unflagging zeal of an olden Puritan fighting for liberty and his soul's
+      salvation. He was a superb horseman&mdash;as all the older Illinoisans are
+      and, for all his two-score years and ten, he recognized few superiors for
+      strength and activity in the Battalion. A radical, uncompromising
+      Abolitionist, he had frequently asserted that he would rather die than
+      yield to a Rebel, and he kept his word in this as in everything else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for him, it was probably the way he desired to die. No one believed
+      more ardently than he that
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Whether on the scaffold high,<br> Or in the battle's van;<br>
+          The fittest place for man to die,<br> Is where he dies for man.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      Among the many who had lost chums and friends was Ned Johnson, of Company
+      K. Ned was a young Englishman, with much of the suggestiveness of the
+      bull-dog common to the lower class of that nation. His fist was readier
+      than his tongue. His chum, Walter Savage was of the same surly type. The
+      two had come from England twelve years before, and had been together ever
+      since. Savage was killed in the struggle for the fence described in the
+      preceding chapter. Ned could not realize for a while that his friend was
+      dead. It was only when the body rapidly stiffened on its icy bed, and the
+      eyes which had been gleaming deadly hate when he was stricken down were
+      glazed over with the dull film of death, that he believed he was gone from
+      him forever. Then his rage was terrible. For the rest of the day he was at
+      the head of every assault upon the enemy. His voice could ever be heard
+      above the firing, cursing the Rebels bitterly, and urging the boys to
+      &ldquo;Stand up to 'em! Stand right up to 'em! Don't
+      give a inch! Let them have the best you got in the shop! Shoot low, and
+      don't waste a cartridge!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we surrendered, Ned seemed to yield sullenly to the inevitable. He
+      threw his belt and apparently his revolver with it upon the snow. A guard
+      was formed around us, and we gathered about the fires that were started.
+      Ned sat apart, his arms folded, his head upon his breast, brooding
+      bitterly upon Walter's death. A horseman, evidently a Colonel or
+      General, clattered up to give some directions concerning us. At the sound
+      of his voice Ned raised his head and gave him a swift glance; the gold
+      stars upon the Rebel's collar led him to believe that he was the
+      commander of the enemy. Ned sprang to his feet, made a long stride
+      forward, snatched from the breast of his overcoat the revolver he had been
+      hiding there, cocked it and leveled it at the Rebel's breast. Before
+      he could pull the trigger Orderly Sergeant Charles Bentley, of his
+      Company, who was watching him, leaped forward, caught his wrist and threw
+      the revolver up. Others joined in, took the weapon away, and handed it
+      over to the officer, who then ordered us all to be searched for arms, and
+      rode away. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p063" id="p063"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p063.jpg (45K)" src="images/p063.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All our dejection could not make us forget that we were intensely hungry.
+      We had eaten nothing all day. The fight began before we had time to get
+      any breakfast, and of course there was no interval for refreshments during
+      the engagement. The Rebels were no better off than we, having been marched
+      rapidly all night in order to come upon us by daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late in the evening a few sacks of meal were given us, and we took the
+      first lesson in an art that long and painful practice afterward was to
+      make very familiar to us. We had nothing to mix the meal in, and it looked
+      as if we would have to eat it dry, until a happy thought struck some one
+      that our caps would do for kneading troughs. At once every cap was devoted
+      to this. Getting water from an adjacent spring, each man made a little wad
+      of dough&mdash;unsalted&mdash;and spreading it upon a flat stone or a
+      chip, set it up in front of the fire to bake. As soon as it was browned on
+      one side, it was pulled off the stone, and the other side turned to the
+      fire. It was a very primitive way of cooking and I became thoroughly
+      disgusted with it. It was fortunate for me that I little dreamed that this
+      was the way I should have to get my meals for the next fifteen months.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After somewhat of the edge had been taken off our hunger by this food, we
+      crouched around the fires, talked over the events of the day, speculated
+      as to what was to be done with us, and snatched such sleep as the biting
+      cold would permit. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch6" id="ch6"></a>CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;ON TO RICHMOND!&rdquo;&mdash;MARCHING ON FOOT OVER THE MOUNTAINS&mdash;MY
+      HORSE HAS A NEW RIDER&mdash;UNSOPHISTICATED MOUNTAIN GIRLS&mdash;DISCUSSING
+      THE ISSUES OF THE WAR&mdash;PARTING WITH &ldquo;HIATOGA.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At dawn we were gathered together, more meal issued to us, which we cooked
+      in the same way, and then were started under heavy guard to march on foot
+      over the mountains to Bristol, a station at the point where the Virginia
+      and Tennessee Railroad crosses the line between Virginia and Tennessee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we were preparing to set out a Sergeant of the First Virginia cavalry
+      came galloping up to us on my horse! The sight of my faithful &ldquo;Hiatoga&rdquo;
+      bestrid by a Rebel, wrung my heart. During the action I had forgotten him,
+      but when it ceased I began to worry about his fate. As he and his rider
+      came near I called out to him; he stopped and gave a whinny of
+      recognition, which seemed also a plaintive appeal for an explanation of
+      the changed condition of affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Sergeant was a pleasant, gentlemanly boy of about my own age. He rode
+      up to me and inquired if it was my horse, to which I replied in the
+      affirmative, and asked permission to take from the saddle pockets some
+      letters, pictures and other trinkets. He granted this, and we became
+      friends from thence on until we separated. He rode by my side as we
+      plodded over the steep, slippery hills, and we beguiled the way by
+      chatting of the thousand things that soldiers find to talk about, and
+      exchanged reminiscences of the service on both sides. But the subject he
+      was fondest of was that which I relished least: my&mdash;now his&mdash;horse.
+      Into the open ulcer of my heart he poured the acid of all manner of
+      questions concerning my lost steed's qualities and capabilities:
+      would he swim? how was he in fording? did he jump well! how did he stand
+      fire? I smothered my irritation, and answered as pleasantly as I could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon of the third day after the capture, we came up to where a
+      party of rustic belles were collected at &ldquo;quilting.&rdquo; The
+      &ldquo;Yankees&rdquo; were instantly objects of greater interest than the
+      parade of a menagerie would have been. The Sergeant told the girls we were
+      going to camp for the night a mile or so ahead, and if they would be at a
+      certain house, he would have a Yankee for them for close inspection. After
+      halting, the Sergeant obtained leave to take me out with a guard, and I
+      was presently ushered into a room in which the damsels were massed in
+      force, &mdash;a carnation-checked, staring, open-mouthed, linsey-clad
+      crowd, as ignorant of corsets and gloves as of Hebrew, and with a
+      propensity to giggle that was chronic and irrepressible. When we entered
+      the room there was a general giggle, and then a shower of comments upon my
+      appearance,&mdash;each sentence punctuated with the chorus of feminine
+      cachination. A remark was made about my hair and eyes, and their risibles
+      gave way; judgment was passed on my nose, and then came a ripple of
+      laughter. I got very red in the face, and uncomfortable generally.
+      Attention was called to the size of my feet and hands, and the usual
+      chorus followed. Those useful members of my body seemed to swell up as
+      they do to a young man at his first party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I saw that in the minds of these bucolic maidens I was scarcely, if
+      at all, human; they did not understand that I belonged to the race; I was
+      a &ldquo;Yankee&rdquo;&mdash;a something of the non-human class, as the
+      gorilla or the chimpanzee. They felt as free to discuss my points before
+      my face as they would to talk of a horse or a wild animal in a show. My
+      equanimity was partially restored by this reflection, but I was still too
+      young to escape embarrassment and irritation at being thus dissected and
+      giggled at by a party of girls, even if they were ignorant Virginia
+      mountaineers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned around to speak to the Sergeant, and in so doing showed my back
+      to the ladies. The hum of comment deepened into surprise, that half
+      stopped and then intensified the giggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was puzzled for a minute, and then the direction of their glances, and
+      their remarks explained it all. At the rear of the lower part of the
+      cavalry jacket, about where the upper ornamental buttons are on the tail
+      of a frock coat, are two funny tabs, about the size of small pin-cushions.
+      They are fastened by the edge, and stick out straight behind. Their use is
+      to support the heavy belt in the rear, as the buttons do in front. When
+      the belt is off it would puzzle the Seven Wise Men to guess what they are
+      for. The unsophisticated young ladies, with that swift intuition which is
+      one of lovely woman's salient mental traits, immediately jumped at
+      the conclusion that the projections covered some peculiar conformation of
+      the Yankee anatomy&mdash;some incipient, dromedary-like humps, or
+      perchance the horns of which they had heard so much. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p067" id="p067"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p067.jpg (30K)" src="images/p067.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This anatomical phenomena was discussed intently for a few minutes, during
+      which I heard one of the girls inquire whether &ldquo;it would hurt him to
+      cut 'em off?&rdquo; and another hazarded the opinion that &ldquo;it
+      would probably bleed him to death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then a new idea seized them, and they said to the Sergeant &ldquo;Make him
+      sing! Make him sing!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was too much for the Sergeant, who had been intensely amused at the
+      girls' wonderment. He turned to me, very red in the face, with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sergeant: the girls want to hear you sing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I replied that I could not sing a note. Said he:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, come now. I know better than that; I never seed or heerd of a
+      Yankee that couldn't sing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I nevertheless assured him that there really were some Yankees that did
+      not have any musical accomplishments, and that I was one of that
+      unfortunate number. I asked him to get the ladies to sing for me, and to
+      this they acceded quite readily. One girl, with a fair soprano, who seemed
+      to be the leader of the crowd, sang &ldquo;The Homespun Dress,&rdquo; a
+      song very popular in the South, and having the same tune as the &ldquo;Bonnie
+      Blue Flag.&rdquo; It began,
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          I envy not the Northern girl<br> Their silks and jewels fine,<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      and proceeded to compare the homespun habiliments of the Southern women to
+      the finery and frippery of the ladies on the other side of Mason and Dixon's
+      line in a manner very disadvantageous to the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rest of the girls made a fine exhibition of the lung-power acquired in
+      climbing their precipitous mountains, when they came in on the chorus
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Hurra! Hurra! for southern rights Hurra!<br> Hurra for the homespun
+          dress,<br> The Southern ladies wear.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      This ended the entertainment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On our journey to Bristol we met many Rebel soldiers, of all ranks, and a
+      small number of citizens. As the conscription had then been enforced
+      pretty sharply for over a year the only able-bodied men seen in civil life
+      were those who had some trade which exempted them from being forced into
+      active service. It greatly astonished us at first to find that nearly all
+      the mechanics were included among the exempts, or could be if they chose;
+      but a very little reflection showed us the wisdom of such a policy. The
+      South is as nearly a purely agricultural country as is Russia or South
+      America. The people have, little inclination or capacity for anything else
+      than pastoral pursuits. Consequently mechanics are very scarce, and
+      manufactories much scarcer. The limited quantity of products of mechanical
+      skill needed by the people was mostly imported from the North or Europe.
+      Both these sources of supply were cutoff by the war, and the country was
+      thrown upon its own slender manufacturing resources. To force its
+      mechanics into the army would therefore be suicidal. The Army would gain a
+      few thousand men, but its operations would be embarrassed, if not stopped
+      altogether, by a want of supplies. This condition of affairs reminded one
+      of the singular paucity of mechanical skill among the Bedouins of the
+      desert, which renders the life of a blacksmith sacred. No matter how
+      bitter the feud between tribes, no one will kill the other's workers
+      of iron, and instances are told of warriors saving their lives at critical
+      periods by falling on their knees and making with their garments an
+      imitation of the action of a smith's bellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All whom we met were eager to discuss with us the causes, phases and
+      progress of the war, and whenever opportunity offered or could be made,
+      those of us who were inclined to talk were speedily involved in an
+      argument with crowds of soldiers and citizens. But, owing to the polemic
+      poverty of our opponents, the argument was more in name than in fact. Like
+      all people of slender or untrained intellectual powers they labored under
+      the hallucination that asserting was reasoning, and the emphatic
+      reiteration of bald statements, logic. The narrow round which all from
+      highest to lowest&mdash;traveled was sometimes comical, and sometimes
+      irritating, according to one's mood! The dispute invariably began by
+      their asking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what are you 'uns down here a-fightin' we 'uns
+      for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this was replied to the newt one followed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are you'uns takin' our niggers away from we 'uns
+      for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you 'uns put our niggers to fightin' we'uns
+      for?&rdquo; The windup always was: &ldquo;Well, let me tell you, sir, you
+      can never whip people that are fighting for liberty, sir.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even General Giltner, who had achieved considerable military reputation as
+      commander of a division of Kentucky cavalry, seemed to be as slenderly
+      furnished with logical ammunition as the balance, for as he halted by us
+      he opened the conversation with the well-worn formula:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well: what are you 'uns down here a-fighting we'uns
+      for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question had become raspingly monotonous to me, whom he addressed, and
+      I replied with marked acerbity:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because we are the Northern mudsills whom you affect to despise,
+      and we came down here to lick you into respecting us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The answer seemed to tickle him, a pleasanter light came into his sinister
+      gray eyes, he laughed lightly, and bade us a kindly good day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Four days after our capture we arrived in Bristol. The guards who had
+      brought us over the mountains were relieved by others, the Sergeant bade
+      me good by, struck his spurs into &ldquo;Hiatoga's&rdquo; sides, and
+      he and my faithful horse were soon lost to view in the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A new and keener sense of desolation came over me at the final separation
+      from my tried and true four-footed friend, who had been my constant
+      companion through so many perils and hardships. We had endured together
+      the Winter's cold, the dispiriting drench of the rain, the fatigue
+      of the long march, the discomforts of the muddy camp, the gripings of
+      hunger, the weariness of the drill and review, the perils of the vidette
+      post, the courier service, the scout and the fight. We had shared in
+      common
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          The whips and scorns of time,<br> The oppressor's wrong, the
+          proud man's contumely,<br> The insolence of office, and the
+          spurns<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      which a patient private and his horse of the unworthy take; we had had our
+      frequently recurring rows with other fellows and their horses, over
+      questions of precedence at watering places, and grass-plots, had had
+      lively tilts with guards of forage piles in surreptitious attempts to get
+      additional rations, sometimes coming off victorious and sometimes being
+      driven off ingloriously. I had often gone hungry that he might have the
+      only ear of corn obtainable. I am not skilled enough in horse lore to
+      speak of his points or pedigree. I only know that his strong limbs never
+      failed me, and that he was always ready for duty and ever willing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now at last our paths diverged. I was retired from actual service to a
+      prison, and he bore his new master off to battle against his old friends.
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ........................... <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Packed closely in old, dilapidated stock and box cars, as if cattle in
+      shipment to market, we pounded along slowly, and apparently interminably,
+      toward the Rebel capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The railroads of the South were already in very bad condition. They were
+      never more than passably good, even in their best estate, but now, with a
+      large part of the skilled men engaged upon them escaped back to the North,
+      with all renewal, improvement, or any but the most necessary repairs
+      stopped for three years, and with a marked absence of even ordinary skill
+      and care in their management, they were as nearly ruined as they could
+      well be and still run.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the severe embarrassments under which the roads labored was a lack
+      of oil. There is very little fatty matter of any kind in the South. The
+      climate and the food plants do not favor the accumulation of adipose
+      tissue by animals, and there is no other source of supply. Lard oil and
+      tallow were very scarce and held at exorbitant prices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Attempts were made to obtain lubricants from the peanut and the cotton
+      seed. The first yielded a fine bland oil, resembling the ordinary grade of
+      olive oil, but it was entirely too expensive for use in the arts. The
+      cotton seed oil could be produced much cheaper, but it had in it such a
+      quantity of gummy matter as to render it worse than useless for employment
+      on machinery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This scarcity of oleaginous matter produced a corresponding scarcity of
+      soap and similar detergents, but this was a deprivation which caused the
+      Rebels, as a whole, as little inconvenience as any that they suffered
+      from. I have seen many thousands of them who were obviously greatly in
+      need of soap, but if they were rent with any suffering on that account
+      they concealed it with marvelous self-control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There seemed to be a scanty supply of oil provided for the locomotives,
+      but the cars had to run with unlubricated axles, and the screaking and
+      groaning of the grinding journals in the dry boxes was sometimes almost
+      deafening, especially when we were going around a curve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our engine went off the wretched track several times, but as she was not
+      running much faster than a man could walk, the worst consequence to us was
+      a severe jolting. She was small, and was easily pried back upon the track,
+      and sent again upon her wheezy, straining way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The depression which had weighed us down for a night and a day after our
+      capture had now been succeeded by a more cheerful feeling. We began to
+      look upon our condition as the fortune of war. We were proud of our
+      resistance to overwhelming numbers. We knew we had sold ourselves at a
+      price which, if the Rebels had it to do over again, they would not pay for
+      us. We believed that we had killed and seriously wounded as many of them
+      as they had killed, wounded and captured of us. We had nothing to blame
+      ourselves for. Moreover, we began to be buoyed up with the expectation
+      that we would be exchanged immediately upon our arrival at Richmond, and
+      the Rebel officers confidently assured us that this would be so. There was
+      then a temporary hitch in the exchange, but it would all be straightened
+      out in a few days, and it might not be a month until we were again
+      marching out of Cumberland Gap, on an avenging foray against some of the
+      force which had assisted in our capture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortunately for this delusive hopefulness there was no weird and boding
+      Cassandra to pierce the veil of the future for us, and reveal the length
+      and the ghastly horror of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, through which
+      we must pass for hundreds of sad days, stretching out into long months of
+      suffering and death. Happily there was no one to tell us that of every
+      five in that party four would never stand under the Stars and Stripes
+      again, but succumbing to chronic starvation, long-continued exposure, the
+      bullet of the brutal guard, the loathsome scurvy, the hideous gangrene,
+      and the heartsickness of hope deferred, would find respite from pain low
+      in the barren sands of that hungry Southern soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Were every doom foretokened by appropriate omens, the ravens along our
+      route would have croaked themselves hoarse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, far from being oppressed by any presentiment of coming evil, we began
+      to appreciate and enjoy the picturesque grandeur of the scenery through
+      which we were moving. The rugged sternness of the Appalachian mountain
+      range, in whose rock-ribbed heart we had fought our losing fight, was now
+      softening into less strong, but more graceful outlines as we approached
+      the pine-clad, sandy plains of the seaboard, upon which Richmond is built.
+      We were skirting along the eastern base of the great Blue Ridge, about
+      whose distant and lofty summits hung a perpetual veil of deep, dark, but
+      translucent blue, which refracted the slanting rays of the morning and
+      evening sun into masses of color more gorgeous than a dreamer's
+      vision of an enchanted land. At Lynchburg we saw the famed Peaks of Otter&mdash;twenty
+      miles away&mdash;lifting their proud heads far into the clouds, like giant
+      watch-towers sentineling the gateway that the mighty waters of the James
+      had forced through the barriers of solid adamant lying across their path
+      to the far-off sea. What we had seen many miles back start from the
+      mountain sides as slender rivulets, brawling over the worn boulders, were
+      now great, rushing, full-tide streams, enough of them in any fifty miles
+      of our journey to furnish water power for all the factories of New
+      England. Their amazing opulence of mechanical energy has lain unutilized,
+      almost unnoticed; in the two and one-half centuries that the white man has
+      dwelt near them, while in Massachusetts and her near neighbors every rill
+      that can turn a wheel has been put into harness and forced to do its share
+      of labor for the benefit of the men who have made themselves its masters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here is one of the differences between the two sections: In the North man
+      was set free, and the elements made to do his work. In the South man was
+      the degraded slave, and the elements wantoned on in undisturbed freedom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we went on, the Valleys of the James and the Appomattox, down which our
+      way lay, broadened into an expanse of arable acres, and the faces of those
+      streams were frequently flecked by gem-like little islands. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch7" id="ch7"></a>CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ENTERING RICHMOND&mdash;DISAPPOINTMENT AT ITS APPEARANCE&mdash;EVERYBODY
+      IN UNIFORM&mdash;CURLED DARLINGS OF THE CAPITAL&mdash;THE REBEL FLAG&mdash;LIBBY
+      PRISON &mdash;DICK TURNER&mdash;SEARCHING THE NEW COMERS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early on the tenth morning after our capture we were told that we were
+      about to enter Richmond. Instantly all were keenly observant of every
+      detail in the surroundings of a City that was then the object of the hopes
+      and fears of thirty-five millions of people&mdash;a City assailing which
+      seventy-five thousand brave men had already laid down their lives,
+      defending which an equal number had died, and which, before it fell, was
+      to cost the life blood of another one hundred and fifty thousand valiant
+      assailants and defenders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much had been said and written about Richmond that our boyish minds had
+      wrought up the most extravagant expectations of it and its defenses. We
+      anticipated seeing a City differing widely from anything ever seen before;
+      some anomaly of nature displayed in its site, itself guarded by imposing
+      and impregnable fortifications, with powerful forts and heavy guns,
+      perhaps even walls, castles, postern gates, moats and ditches, and all the
+      other panoply of defensive warfare, with which romantic history had made
+      us familiar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were disappointed&mdash;badly disappointed&mdash;in seeing nothing of
+      this as we slowly rolled along. The spires and the tall chimneys of the
+      factories rose in the distance very much as they had in other Cities we
+      had visited. We passed a single line of breastworks of bare yellow sand,
+      but the scrubby pines in front were not cut away, and there were no signs
+      that there had ever been any immediate expectation of use for the works. A
+      redoubt or two&mdash;without guns&mdash;could be made out, and this was
+      all. Grim-visaged war had few wrinkles on his front in that neighborhood.
+      They were then seaming his brow on the Rappahannock, seventy miles away,
+      where the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac lay
+      confronting each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At one of the stopping places I had been separated from my companions by
+      entering a car in which were a number of East Tennesseeans, captured in
+      the operations around Knoxville, and whom the Rebels, in accordance with
+      their usual custom, were treating with studied contumely. I had always had
+      a very warm side for these simple rustics of the mountains and valleys. I
+      knew much of their unwavering fidelity to the Union, of the firm
+      steadfastness with which they endured persecution for their country's
+      sake, and made sacrifices even unto death; and, as in those days I
+      estimated all men simply by their devotion to the great cause of National
+      integrity, (a habit that still clings to me) I rated these men very
+      highly. I had gone into their car to do my little to encourage them, and
+      when I attempted to return to my own I was prevented by the guard. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p075" id="p075"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p075.jpg (46K)" src="images/p075.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing the long bridge, our train came to a halt on the other side of
+      the river with the usual clamor of bell and whistle, the usual seemingly
+      purposeless and vacillating, almost dizzying, running backward and forward
+      on a network of sidetracks and switches, that seemed unavoidably
+      necessary, a dozen years ago, in getting a train into a City.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still unable to regain my comrades and share their fortunes, I was marched
+      off with the Tennesseeans through the City to the office of some one who
+      had charge of the prisoners of war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The streets we passed through were lined with retail stores, in which
+      business was being carried on very much as in peaceful times. Many people
+      were on the streets, but the greater part of the men wore some sort of a
+      uniform. Though numbers of these were in active service, yet the wearing
+      of a military garb did not necessarily imply this. Nearly every
+      able-bodied man in Richmond was; enrolled in some sort of an organization,
+      and armed, and drilled regularly. Even the members of the Confederate
+      Congress were uniformed and attached, in theory at least, to the Home
+      Guards. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p077" id="p077"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p077.jpg (10K)" src="images/p077.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was obvious even to the casual glimpse of a passing prisoner of war,
+      that the City did not lack its full share of the class which formed so
+      large an element of the society of Washington and other Northern Cities
+      during the war&mdash;the dainty carpet soldiers, heros of the promenade
+      and the boudoir, who strutted in uniforms when the enemy was far off, and
+      wore citizen's clothes when he was close at hand. There were many
+      curled darlings displaying their fine forms in the nattiest of uniforms,
+      whose gloss had never suffered from so much as a heavy dew, let alone a
+      rainy day on the march. The Confederate gray could be made into a very
+      dressy garb. With the sleeves lavishly embroidered with gold lace, and the
+      collar decorated with stars indicating the wearer's rank&mdash;silver
+      for the field officers, and gold for the higher grade,&mdash;the feet
+      compressed into high-heeled, high-instepped boots, (no Virginian is
+      himself without a fine pair of skin-tight boots) and the head covered with
+      a fine, soft, broad-brimmed hat, trimmed with a gold cord, from which a
+      bullion tassel dangled several inches down the wearer's back, you
+      had a military swell, caparisoned for conquest&mdash;among the fair sex.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On our way we passed the noted Capitol of Virginia&mdash;a handsome marble
+      building,&mdash;of the column-fronted Grecian temple style. It stands in
+      the center of the City. Upon the grounds is Crawford's famous
+      equestrian statue of Washington, surrounded by smaller statues of other
+      Revolutionary patriots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Confederate Congress was then in session in the Capitol, and also the
+      Legislature of Virginia, a fact indicated by the State flag of Virginia
+      floating from the southern end of the building, and the new flag of the
+      Confederacy from the northern end. This was the first time I had seen the
+      latter, which had been recently adopted, and I examined it with some
+      interest. The design was exceedingly plain. Simply a white banner, with a
+      red field in the corner where the blue field with stars is in ours. The
+      two blue stripes were drawn diagonally across this field in the shape of a
+      letter X, and in these were thirteen white stars, corresponding to the
+      number of States claimed to be in the Confederacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The battle-flag was simply the red field. My examination of all this was
+      necessarily very brief. The guards felt that I was in Richmond for other
+      purposes than to study architecture, statuary and heraldry, and besides
+      they were in a hurry to be relieved of us and get their breakfast, so my
+      art-education was abbreviated sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We did not excite much attention on the streets. Prisoners had by that
+      time become too common in Richmond to create any interest. Occasionally
+      passers by would fling opprobrious epithets at &ldquo;the East Tennessee
+      traitors,&rdquo; but that was all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant of the prisons directed the Tennesseeans to be taken to
+      Castle Lightning&mdash;a prison used to confine the Rebel deserters, among
+      whom they also classed the East Tennesseeans, and sometimes the West
+      Virginians, Kentuckians, Marylanders and Missourians found fighting
+      against them. Such of our men as deserted to them were also lodged there,
+      as the Rebels, very properly, did not place a high estimate upon this
+      class of recruits to their army, and, as we shall see farther along,
+      violated all obligations of good faith with them, by putting them among
+      the regular prisoners of war, so as to exchange them for their own men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Back we were all marched to a street which ran parallel to the river and
+      canal, and but one square away from them. It was lined on both sides by
+      plain brick warehouses and tobacco factories, four and five stories high,
+      which were now used by the Rebel Government as prisons and military
+      storehouses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first we passed was Castle Thunder, of bloody repute. This occupied
+      the same place in Confederate history, that, the dungeons beneath the
+      level of the water did in the annals of the Venetian Council of Ten. It
+      was believed that if the bricks in its somber, dirt-grimed walls could
+      speak, each could tell a separate story of a life deemed dangerous to the
+      State that had gone down in night, at the behest of the ruthless
+      Confederate authorities. It was confidently asserted that among the
+      commoner occurrences within its confines was the stationing of a doomed
+      prisoner against a certain bit of blood-stained, bullet-chipped wall, and
+      relieving the Confederacy of all farther fear of him by the rifles of a
+      firing party. How well this dark reputation was deserved, no one but those
+      inside the inner circle of the Davis Government can say. It is safe to
+      believe that more tragedies were enacted there than the archives of the
+      Rebel civil or military judicature give any account of. The prison was
+      employed for the detention of spies, and those charged with the convenient
+      allegation of &ldquo;treason against the Confederate States of America.&rdquo;
+      It is probable that many of these were sent out of the world with as
+      little respect for the formalities of law as was exhibited with regard to
+      the 'suspects' during the French Revolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next we came to Castle Lightning, and here I bade adieu to my Tennessee
+      companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few squares more and we arrived at a warehouse larger than any of the
+      others. Over the door was a sign
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS LIBBY &amp; SON,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SHIP CHANDLERS AND GROCERS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the notorious &ldquo;Libby Prison,&rdquo; whose name was
+      painfully familiar to every Union man in the land. Under the sign was a
+      broad entrance way, large enough to admit a dray or a small wagon. On one
+      side of this was the prison office, in which were a number of dapper,
+      feeble-faced clerks at work on the prison records.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I entered this space a squad of newly arrived prisoners were being
+      searched for valuables, and having their names, rank and regiment recorded
+      in the books. Presently a clerk addressed as &ldquo;Majah Tunnah,&rdquo;
+      the man who was superintending these operations, and I scanned him with
+      increased interest, as I knew then that he was the ill-famed Dick Turner,
+      hated all over the North for his brutality to our prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked as if he deserved his reputation. Seen upon the street he would
+      be taken for a second or third class gambler, one in whom a certain amount
+      of cunning is pieced out by a readiness to use brute force. His face,
+      clean-shaved, except a &ldquo;Bowery-b'hoy&rdquo; goatee, was white,
+      fat, and selfishly sensual. Small, pig-like eyes, set close together,
+      glanced around continually. His legs were short, his body long, and made
+      to appear longer, by his wearing no vest&mdash;a custom common them with
+      Southerners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His faculties were at that moment absorbed in seeing that no person
+      concealed any money from him. His subordinates did not search closely
+      enough to suit him, and he would run his fat, heavily-ringed fingers
+      through the prisoner's hair, feel under their arms and elsewhere
+      where he thought a stray five dollar greenback might be concealed. But
+      with all his greedy care he was no match for Yankee cunning. The prisoners
+      told me afterward that, suspecting they would be searched, they had taken
+      off the caps of the large, hollow brass buttons of their coats, carefully
+      folded a bill into each cavity, and replaced the cap. In this way they
+      brought in several hundred dollars safely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one dirty old Englishman in the party, who, Turner was
+      convinced, had money concealed about his person. He compelled him to strip
+      off everything, and stand shivering in the sharp cold, while he took up
+      one filthy rag after another, felt over each carefully, and scrutinized
+      each seam and fold. I was delighted to see that after all his nauseating
+      work he did not find so much as a five cent piece. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p080" id="p080"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p080.jpg (40K)" src="images/p080.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It came my turn. I had no desire, in that frigid atmosphere, to strip down
+      to what Artemus Ward called &ldquo;the skanderlous costoom of the Greek
+      Slave;&rdquo; so I pulled out of my pocket my little store of wealth&mdash;ten
+      dollars in greenbacks, sixty dollars in Confederate graybacks&mdash;and
+      displayed it as Turner came up with, &ldquo;There's all I have, sir.&rdquo;
+      Turner pocketed it without a word, and did not search me. In after months,
+      when I was nearly famished, my estimation of &ldquo;Majah Tunnah&rdquo;
+      was hardly enhanced by the reflection that what would have purchased me
+      many good meals was probably lost by him in betting on a pair of queens,
+      when his opponent held a &ldquo;king full.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I ventured to step into the office to inquire after my comrades. One of
+      the whey-faced clerks said with the supercilious asperity characteristic
+      of gnat-brained headquarters attaches:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get out of here!&rdquo; as if I had been a stray cur wandering in
+      in search of a bone lunch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wanted to feed the fellow to a pile-driver. The utmost I could hope for
+      in the way of revenge was that the delicate creature might some day make a
+      mistake in parting his hair, and catch his death of cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guard conducted us across the street, and into the third story of a
+      building standing on the next corner below. Here I found about four
+      hundred men, mostly belonging to the Army of the Potomac, who crowded
+      around me with the usual questions to new prisoners: What was my Regiment,
+      where and when captured, and:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What were the prospects of exchange?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It makes me shudder now to recall how often, during the dreadful months
+      that followed, this momentous question was eagerly propounded to every new
+      comer: put with bated breath by men to whom exchange meant all that they
+      asked of this world, and possibly of the next; meant life, home, wife or
+      sweet-heart, friends, restoration to manhood, and self-respect &mdash;everything,
+      everything that makes existence in this world worth having.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered as simply and discouragingly as did the tens of thousands that
+      came after me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not hear anything about exchange.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A soldier in the field had many other things of more immediate interest to
+      think about than the exchange of prisoners. The question only became a
+      living issue when he or some of his intimate friends fell into the enemy's
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus began my first day in prison. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch8" id="ch8"></a>CHAPTER VIII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      INTRODUCTION TO PRISON LIFE&mdash;THE PEMBERTON BUILDING AND ITS OCCUPANTS
+      &mdash;NEAT SAILORS&mdash;ROLL CALL&mdash;RATIONS AND CLOTHING&mdash;CHIVALRIC
+      &ldquo;CONFISCATION.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I began acquainting myself with my new situation and surroundings. The
+      building into which I had been conducted was an old tobacco factory,
+      called the &ldquo;Pemberton building,&rdquo; possibly from an owner of
+      that name, and standing on the corner of what I was told were Fifteenth
+      and Carey streets. In front it was four stories high; behind but three,
+      owing to the rapid rise of the hill, against which it was built.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It fronted towards the James River and Kanawha Canal, and the James River&mdash;both
+      lying side by side, and only one hundred yards distant, with no
+      intervening buildings. The front windows afforded a fine view. To the
+      right front was Libby, with its guards pacing around it on the sidewalk,
+      watching the fifteen hundred officers confined within its walls. At
+      intervals during each day squads of fresh prisoners could be seen entering
+      its dark mouth, to be registered, and searched, and then marched off to
+      the prison assigned them. We could see up the James River for a mile or
+      so, to where the long bridges crossing it bounded the view. Directly in
+      front, across the river, was a flat, sandy plain, said to be General
+      Winfield Scott's farm, and now used as a proving ground for the guns
+      cast at the Tredegar Iron Works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The view down the river was very fine. It extended about twelve miles, to
+      where a gap in the woods seemed to indicate a fort, which we imagined to
+      be Fort Darling, at that time the principal fortification defending the
+      passage of the James.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between that point and where we were lay the river, in a long, broad
+      mirror-like expanse, like a pretty little inland lake. Occasionally a busy
+      little tug would bustle up or down, a gunboat move along with noiseless
+      dignity, suggestive of a reserved power, or a schooner beat lazily from
+      one side to the other. But these were so few as to make even more
+      pronounced the customary idleness that hung over the scene. The tug's
+      activity seemed spasmodic and forced&mdash;a sort of protest against the
+      gradually increasing lethargy that reigned upon the bosom of the waters
+      &mdash;the gunboat floated along as if performing a perfunctory duty, and
+      the schooners sailed about as if tired of remaining in one place. That
+      little stretch of water was all that was left for a cruising ground.
+      Beyond Fort Darling the Union gunboats lay, and the only vessel that
+      passed the barrier was the occasional flag-of-truce steamer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The basement of the building was occupied as a store-house for the
+      taxes-in-kind which the Confederate Government collected. On the first
+      floor were about five hundred men. On the second floor&mdash;where I was&mdash;were
+      about four hundred men. These were principally from the First Division,
+      First Corps distinguished by a round red patch on their caps; First
+      Division, Second Corps, marked by a red clover leaf; and the First
+      Division, Third Corps, who wore a red diamond. They were mainly captured
+      at Gettysburg and Mine Run. Besides these there was a considerable number
+      from the Eighth Corps, captured at Winchester, and a large infusion of
+      Cavalry-First, Second and Third West Virginia&mdash;taken in Averill's
+      desperate raid up the Virginia Valley, with the Wytheville Salt Works as
+      an objective.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the third floor were about two hundred sailors and marines, taken in
+      the gallant but luckless assault upon the ruins of Fort Sumter, in the
+      September previous. They retained the discipline of the ship in their
+      quarters, kept themselves trim and clean, and their floor as white as a
+      ship's deck. They did not court the society of the &ldquo;sojers&rdquo;
+      below, whose camp ideas of neatness differed from theirs. A few old
+      barnacle-backs always sat on guard around the head of the steps leading
+      from the lower rooms. They chewed tobacco enormously, and kept their
+      mouths filled with the extracted juice. Any luckless &ldquo;sojer&rdquo;
+      who attempted to ascend the stairs usually returned in haste, to avoid the
+      deluge of the filthy liquid. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p084" id="p084"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p084.jpg (26K)" src="images/p084.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For convenience in issuing rations we were divided into messes of twenty,
+      each mess electing a Sergeant as its head, and each floor electing a
+      Sergeant-of-the-Floor, who drew rations and enforced what little
+      discipline was observed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though we were not so neat as the sailors above us, we tried to keep our
+      quarters reasonably clean, and we washed the floor every morning; getting
+      down on our knees and rubbing it clean and dry with rags. Each mess
+      detailed a man each day to wash up the part of the floor it occupied, and
+      he had to do this properly or no ration would be given him. While the
+      washing up was going on each man stripped himself and made close
+      examination of his garments for the body-lice, which otherwise would have
+      increased beyond control. Blankets were also carefully hunted over for
+      these &ldquo;small deer.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About eight o'clock a spruce little lisping rebel named Ross would
+      appear with a book, and a body-guard, consisting of a big Irishman, who
+      had the air of a Policeman, and carried a musket barrel made into a cane.
+      Behind him were two or three armed guards. The Sergeant-of-the-Floor
+      commanded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fall in in four ranks for roll-call.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p086" id="p086"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p086.jpg (54K)" src="images/p086.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We formed along one side of the room; the guards halted at the head of the
+      stairs; Ross walked down in front and counted the files, closely followed
+      by his Irish aid, with his gun-barrel cane raised ready for use upon any
+      one who should arouse his ruffianly ire. Breaking ranks we returned to our
+      places, and sat around in moody silence for three hours. We had eaten
+      nothing since the previous noon. Rising hungry, our hunger seemed to
+      increase in arithmetical ratio with every quarter of an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These times afforded an illustration of the thorough subjection of man to
+      the tyrant Stomach. A more irritable lot of individuals could scarcely be
+      found outside of a menagerie than these men during the hours waiting for
+      rations. &ldquo;Crosser than, two sticks&rdquo; utterly failed as a
+      comparison. They were crosser than the lines of a check apron. Many could
+      have given odds to the traditional bear with a sore head, and run out of
+      the game fifty points ahead of him. It was astonishingly easy to get up a
+      fight at these times. There was no need of going a step out of the way to
+      search for it, as one could have a full fledged article of overwhelming
+      size on his hands at any instant, by a trifling indiscretion of speech or
+      manner. All the old irritating flings between the cavalry, the artillery
+      and the infantry, the older &ldquo;first-call&rdquo; men, and the later or
+      &ldquo;Three-Hundred-Dollar-men,&rdquo; as they were derisively dubbed,
+      between the different corps of the Army of the Potomac, between men of
+      different States, and lastly between the adherents and opponents of
+      McClellan, came to the lips and were answered by a blow with the fist,
+      when a ring would be formed around the combatants by a crowd, which would
+      encourage them with yells to do their best. In a few minutes one of the
+      parties to the fistic debate, who found the point raised by him not well
+      taken, would retire to the sink to wash the blood from his battered face,
+      and the rest would resume their seats and glower at space until some fresh
+      excitement roused them. For the last hour or so of these long waits hardly
+      a word would be spoken. We were too ill-natured to talk for amusement, and
+      there was nothing else to talk for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This spell was broken about eleven o'clock by the appearance at the
+      head of the stairway of the Irishman with the gun-barrel cane, and his
+      singing out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sargint uv the flure: fourtane min and a bread-box!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly every man sprang to his feet, and pressed forward to be one of
+      the favored fourteen. One did not get any more gyrations or obtain them
+      any sooner by this, but it was a relief, and a change to walk the half
+      square outside the prison to the cookhouse, and help carry the rations
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a little while after our arrival in Richmond, the rations were
+      tolerably good. There had been so much said about the privations of the
+      prisoners that our Government had, after much quibbling and negotiation,
+      succeeded in getting the privilege of sending food and clothing through
+      the lines to us. Of course but a small part of that sent ever reached its
+      destination. There were too many greedy Rebels along its line of passage
+      to let much of it be received by those for whom it was intended. We could
+      see from our windows Rebels strutting about in overcoats, in which the box
+      wrinkles were still plainly visible, wearing new &ldquo;U. S.&rdquo;
+      blankets as cloaks, and walking in Government shoes, worth fabulous prices
+      in Confederate money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortunately for our Government the rebels decided to out themselves off
+      from this profitable source of supply. We read one day in the Richmond
+      papers that &ldquo;President Davis and his Cabinet had come to the
+      conclusion that it was incompatible with the dignity of a sovereign power
+      to permit another power with which it was at war, to feed and clothe
+      prisoners in its hands.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will not stop to argue this point of honor, and show its absurdity by
+      pointing out that it is not an unusual practice with nations at war. It is
+      a sufficient commentary upon this assumption of punctiliousness that the
+      paper went on to say that some five tons of clothing and fifteen tons of
+      food, which had been sent under a flag of truce to City Point, would
+      neither be returned nor delivered to us, but &ldquo;converted to the use
+      of the Confederate Government.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And surely they are all honorable men!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Heaven save the mark. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch9" id="ch9"></a>CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      BRANS OR PEAS&mdash;INSUFFICIENCY OF DARKY TESTIMONY&mdash;A GUARD KILLS A
+      PRISONER&mdash;PRISONERS TEAZE THE GUARDS&mdash;DESPERATE OUTBREAK.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, to return to the rations&mdash;a topic which, with escape or
+      exchange, were to be the absorbing ones for us for the next fifteen
+      months. There was now issued to every two men a loaf of coarse bread&mdash;made
+      of a mixture of flour and meal&mdash;and about the size and shape of an
+      ordinary brick. This half loaf was accompanied, while our Government was
+      allowed to furnish rations, with a small piece of corned beef.
+      Occasionally we got a sweet potato, or a half-pint or such a matter of
+      soup made from a coarse, but nutritious, bean or pea, called variously
+      &ldquo;nigger-pea,&rdquo; &ldquo;stock-pea,&rdquo; or &ldquo;cow-pea.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This, by the way, became a fruitful bone of contention during our stay in
+      the South. One strong party among us maintained that it was a bean,
+      because it was shaped like one, and brown, which they claimed no pea ever
+      was. The other party held that it was a pea because its various names all
+      agreed in describing it as a pea, and because it was so full of bugs
+      &mdash;none being entirely free from insects, and some having as many as
+      twelve by actual count&mdash;within its shell. This, they declared, was a
+      distinctive characteristic of the pea family. The contention began with
+      our first instalment of the leguminous ration, and was still raging
+      between the survivors who passed into our lines in 1865. It waxed hot
+      occasionally, and each side continually sought evidence to support its
+      view of the case. Once an old darky, sent into the prison on some errand,
+      was summoned to decide a hot dispute that was raging in the crowd to which
+      I belonged. The champion of the pea side said, producing one of the
+      objects of dispute:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, boys, keep still, till I put the question fairly. Now, uncle,
+      what do they call that there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The colored gentleman scrutinized the vegetable closely, and replied,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, dey mos' generally calls 'em stock-peas, round
+      hyar aways.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; said the pea-champion triumphantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; broke in the leader of the bean party, &ldquo;Uncle,
+      don't they also call them beans?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes, chile, I spec dat lots of 'em does.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this was about the way the matter usually ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will not attempt to bias the reader's judgment by saying which
+      side I believed to be right. As the historic British showman said, in
+      reply to the question as to whether an animal in his collection was a
+      rhinoceros or an elephant, &ldquo;You pays your money and you takes your
+      choice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rations issued to us, as will be seen above, though they appear
+      scanty, were still sufficient to support life and health, and months
+      afterward, in Andersonville, we used to look back to them as sumptuous. We
+      usually had them divided and eaten by noon, and, with the gnawings of
+      hunger appeased, we spent the afternoon and evening comfortably. We told
+      stories, paced up and down, the floor for exercise, played cards, sung,
+      read what few books were available, stood at the windows and studied the
+      landscape, and watched the Rebels trying their guns and shells, and so on
+      as long as it was daylight. Occasionally it was dangerous to be about the
+      windows. This depended wholly on the temper of the guards. One day a
+      member of a Virginia regiment, on guard on the pavement in front,
+      deliberately left his beat, walked out into the center of the street,
+      aimed his gun at a member of the Ninth West Virginia, who was standing at
+      a window near, and firing, shot him through the heart, the bullet passing
+      through his body, and through the floor above. The act was purely
+      malicious, and was done, doubtless, in revenge for some injury which our
+      men had done the assassin or his family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were not altogether blameless, by any means. There were few
+      opportunities to say bitterly offensive things to the guards, let pass
+      unimproved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoners in the third floor of the Smith building, adjoining us, had
+      their own way of teasing them. Late at night, when everybody would be
+      lying down, and out of the way of shots, a window in the third story would
+      open, a broomstick, with a piece nailed across to represent arms, and
+      clothed with a cap and blouse, would be protruded, and a voice coming from
+      a man carefully protected by the wall, would inquire:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;S-a-y, g-uarr-d, what time is it?&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p091" id="p091"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p091.jpg (35K)" src="images/p091.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the guard was of the long suffering kind he would answer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take yo' head back in, up dah; you kno hits agin all odahs to
+      do dat?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the voice would say, aggravatingly, &ldquo;Oh, well, go to &mdash;&mdash;
+      you &mdash;&mdash; Rebel &mdash;&mdash;, if you can't answer a civil
+      question.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the speech was ended the guard's rifle would be at his
+      shoulder and he would fire. Back would come the blouse and hat in haste,
+      only to go out again the next instant, with a derisive laugh, and,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thought you were going to hurt somebody, didn't you, you
+      &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;.
+      But, Lord, you can't shoot for sour apples; if I couldn't
+      shoot no better than you, Mr. Johnny Reb, I would &mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the guard, having his gun loaded again, would cut short the
+      remarks with another shot, which, followed up with similar remarks, would
+      provoke still another, when an alarm sounding, the guards at Libby and all
+      the other buildings around us would turn out. An officer of the guard
+      would go up with a squad into the third floor, only to find everybody up
+      there snoring away as if they were the Seven Sleepers. After relieving his
+      mind of a quantity of vigorous profanity, and threats to &ldquo;buck and
+      gag&rdquo; and cut off the rations of the whole room, the officer would
+      return to his quarters in the guard house, but before he was fairly
+      ensconced there the cap and blouse would go out again, and the maddened
+      guard be regaled with a spirited and vividly profane lecture on the
+      depravity of Rebels in general, and his own unworthiness in particular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night in January things took a more serious turn. The boys on the
+      lower floor of our building had long considered a plan of escape. There
+      were then about fifteen thousand prisoners in Richmond&mdash;ten thousand
+      on Belle Isle and five thousand in the buildings. Of these one thousand
+      five hundred were officers in Libby. Besides there were the prisoners in
+      Castles Thunder and Lightning. The essential features of the plan were
+      that at a preconcerted signal we at the second and third floors should
+      appear at the windows with bricks and irons from the tobacco presses,
+      which a should shower down on the guards and drive them away, while the
+      men of the first floor would pour out, chase the guards into the board
+      house in the basement, seize their arms, drive those away from around
+      Libby and the other prisons, release the officers, organize into regiments
+      and brigades, seize the armory, set fire to the public buildings and
+      retreat from the City, by the south side of the James, where there was but
+      a scanty force of Rebels, and more could be prevented from coming over by
+      burning the bridges behind us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a magnificent scheme, and might have been carried out, but there
+      was no one in the building who was generally believed to have the
+      qualities of a leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while it was being debated a few of the hot heads on the lower floor
+      undertook to precipitate the crisis. They seized what they thought was a
+      favorable opportunity, overpowered the guard who stood at the foot of the
+      stairs, and poured into the street. The other guards fell back and opened
+      fire on them; other troops hastened up, and soon drove them back into the
+      building, after killing ten or fifteen. We of the second and third floors
+      did not anticipate the break at that time, and were taken as much by
+      surprise as were the Rebels. Nearly all were lying down and many were
+      asleep. Some hastened to the windows, and dropped missiles out, but before
+      any concerted action could be taken it was seen that the case was
+      hopeless, and we remained quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among those who led in the assault was a drummer-boy of some New York
+      Regiment, a recklessly brave little rascal. He had somehow smuggled a
+      small four-shooter in with him, and when they rushed out he fired it off
+      at the guards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the prisoners were driven back, the Rebel officers came in and
+      vapored around considerably, but confined themselves to big words. They
+      were particularly anxious to find the revolver, and ordered a general and
+      rigorous search for it. The prisoners were all ranged on one side of the
+      room and carefully examined by one party, while another hunted through the
+      blankets and bundles. It was all in vain; no pistol could be found. The
+      boy had a loaf of wheat bread, bought from a baker during the day. It was
+      a round loaf, set together in two pieces like a biscuit. He pulled these
+      apart, laid the fourshooter between them, pressed the two halves together,
+      and went on calmly nibbling away at the loaf while the search was
+      progressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two gunboats were brought up the next morning, and anchored in the canal
+      near us, with their heavy guns trained upon the building. It was thought
+      that this would intimidate as from a repetition of the attack, but our
+      sailors conceived that, as they laid against the shore next to us, they
+      could be easily captured, and their artillery made to assist us. A scheme
+      to accomplish this was being wrought out, when we received notice to move,
+      and it came to naught. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch10" id="ch10"></a>CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE EXCHANGE AND THE CAUSE OF ITS INTERRUPTION&mdash;BRIEF RESUME OF THE
+      DIFFERENT CARTELS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES THAT LED TO THEIR SUSPENSION.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Few questions intimately connected with the actual operations of the
+      Rebellion have been enveloped with such a mass of conflicting statement as
+      the responsibility for the interruption of the exchange. Southern writers
+      and politicians, naturally anxious to diminish as much as possible the
+      great odium resting upon their section for the treatment of prisoners of
+      war during the last year and a half of the Confederacy's existence,
+      have vehemently charged that the Government of the United States
+      deliberately and pitilessly resigned to their fate such of its soldiers as
+      fell into the hands of the enemy, and repelled all advances from the Rebel
+      Government looking toward a resumption of exchange. It is alleged on our
+      side, on the other hand, that our Government did all that was possible,
+      consistent with National dignity and military prudence, to secure a
+      release of its unfortunate men in the power of the Rebels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Over this vexed question there has been waged an acrimonious war of words,
+      which has apparently led to no decision, nor any convictions&mdash;the
+      disputants, one and all, remaining on the sides of the controversy
+      occupied by them when the debate began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I may not be in possession of all the facts bearing upon the case, and may
+      be warped in judgment by prejudices in favor of my own Government's
+      wisdom and humanity, but, however this may be, the following is my firm
+      belief as to the controlling facts in this lamentable affair:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. For some time after the beginning of hostilities our Government refused
+      to exchange prisoners with the Rebels, on the ground that this might be
+      held by the European powers who were seeking a pretext for acknowledging
+      the Confederacy, to be admission by us that the war was no longer an
+      insurrection but a revolution, which had resulted in the 'de facto'
+      establishment of a new nation. This difficulty was finally gotten over by
+      recognizing the Rebels as belligerents, which, while it placed them on a
+      somewhat different plane from mere insurgents, did not elevate them to the
+      position of soldiers of a foreign power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Then the following cartel was agreed upon by Generals Dig on our side
+      and Hill on that of the Rebels:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      HAXALL'S LANDING, ON JAMES RIVER, July 22, 1882.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The undersigned, having been commissioned by the authorities they
+      respectively represent to make arrangements for a general exchange of
+      prisoners of war, have agreed to the following articles:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE I.&mdash;It is hereby agreed and stipulated, that all prisoners of
+      war, held by either party, including those taken on private armed vessels,
+      known as privateers, shall be exchanged upon the conditions and terms
+      following:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prisoners to be exchanged man for man and officer for officer. Privateers
+      to be placed upon the footing of officers and men of the navy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men and officers of lower grades may be exchanged for officers of a higher
+      grade, and men and officers of different services may be exchanged
+      according to the following scale of equivalents:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A General-commanding-in-chief, or an Admiral, shall be exchanged for
+      officers of equal rank, or for sixty privates or common seamen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Commodore, carrying a broad pennant, or a Brigadier General, shall be
+      exchanged for officers of equal rank, or twenty privates or common seamen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Captain in the Navy, or a Colonel, shall be exchanged for officers of
+      equal rank, or for fifteen privates or common seamen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Lieutenant Colonel, or Commander in the Navy, shall be exchanged for
+      officers of equal rank, or for ten privates or common seamen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Lieutenant, or a Master in the Navy, or a Captain in the Army or marines
+      shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or six privates or common
+      seamen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Master's-mates in the Navy, or Lieutenants or Ensigns in the Army,
+      shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or four privates or common
+      seamen. Midshipmen, warrant officers in the Navy, masters of merchant
+      vessels and commanders of privateers, shall be exchanged for officers of
+      equal rank, or three privates or common seamen; Second Captains,
+      Lieutenants or mates of merchant vessels or privateers, and all petty
+      officers in the Navy, and all noncommissioned officers in the Army or
+      marines, shall be severally exchanged for persons of equal rank, or for
+      two privates or common seamen; and private soldiers or common seamen shall
+      be exchanged for each other man for man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE II.&mdash;Local, State, civil and militia rank held by persons not
+      in actual military service will not be recognized; the basis of exchange
+      being the grade actually held in the naval and military service of the
+      respective parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE III.&mdash;If citizens held by either party on charges of
+      disloyalty, or any alleged civil offense, are exchanged, it shall only be
+      for citizens. Captured sutlers, teamsters, and all civilians in the actual
+      service of either party, to be exchanged for persons in similar positions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE IV.&mdash;All prisoners of war to be discharged on parole in ten
+      days after their capture; and the prisoners now held, and those hereafter
+      taken, to be transported to the points mutually agreed upon, at the
+      expense of the capturing party. The surplus prisoners not exchanged shall
+      not be permitted to take up arms again, nor to serve as military police or
+      constabulary force in any fort, garrison or field-work, held by either of
+      the respective parties, nor as guards of prisoners, deposits or stores,
+      nor to discharge any duty usually performed by soldiers, until exchanged
+      under the provisions of this cartel. The exchange is not to be considered
+      complete until the officer or soldier exchanged for has been actually
+      restored to the lines to which he belongs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE V.&mdash;Each party upon the discharge of prisoners of the other
+      party is authorized to discharge an equal number of their own officers or
+      men from parole, furnishing, at the same time, to the other party a list
+      of their prisoners discharged, and of their own officers and men relieved
+      from parole; thus enabling each party to relieve from parole such of their
+      officers and men as the party may choose. The lists thus mutually
+      furnished, will keep both parties advised of the true condition of the
+      exchange of prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE VI.&mdash;The stipulations and provisions above mentioned to be of
+      binding obligation during the continuance of the war, it matters not which
+      party may have the surplus of prisoners; the great principles involved
+      being, First, An equitable exchange of prisoners, man for man, or officer
+      for officer, or officers of higher grade exchanged for officers of lower
+      grade, or for privates, according to scale of equivalents. Second, That
+      privates and officers and men of different services may be exchanged
+      according to the same scale of equivalents. Third, That all prisoners, of
+      whatever arm of service, are to be exchanged or paroled in ten days from
+      the time of their capture, if it be practicable to transfer them to their
+      own lines in that time; if not, so soon thereafter as practicable. Fourth,
+      That no officer, or soldier, employed in the service of either party, is
+      to be considered as exchanged and absolved from his parole until his
+      equivalent has actually reached the lines of his friends. Fifth, That
+      parole forbids the performance of field, garrison, police, or guard or
+      constabulary duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JOHN A. DIX, Major General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      D. H. HILL, Major General, C. S. A.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SUPPLEMENTARY ARTICLES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE VII.&mdash;All prisoners of war now held on either side, and all
+      prisoners hereafter taken, shall be sent with all reasonable dispatch to
+      A. M. Aiken's, below Dutch Gap, on the James River, in Virginia, or
+      to Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, in the State of Mississippi, and
+      there exchanged of paroled until such exchange can be effected, notice
+      being previously given by each party of the number of prisoners it will
+      send, and the time when they will be delivered at those points
+      respectively; and in case the vicissitudes of war shall change the
+      military relations of the places designated in this article to the
+      contending parties, so as to render the same inconvenient for the delivery
+      and exchange of prisoners, other places bearing as nearly as may be the
+      present local relations of said places to the lines of said parties, shall
+      be, by mutual agreement, substituted. But nothing in this article
+      contained shall prevent the commanders of the two opposing armies from
+      exchanging prisoners or releasing them on parole, at other points mutually
+      agreed on by said commanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE VIII.&mdash;For the purpose of carrying into effect the foregoing
+      articles of agreement, each party will appoint two agents for the exchange
+      of prisoners of war, whose duty it shall be to communicate with each other
+      by correspondence and otherwise; to prepare the lists of prisoners; to
+      attend to the delivery of the prisoners at the places agreed on, and to
+      carry out promptly, effectually, and in good faith, all the details and
+      provisions of the said articles of agreement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ARTICLE IX.&mdash;And, in case any misunderstanding shall arise in regard
+      to any clause or stipulation in the foregoing articles, it is mutually
+      agreed that such misunderstanding shall not affect the release of
+      prisoners on parole, as herein provided, but shall be made the subject of
+      friendly explanation, in order that the object of this agreement may
+      neither be defeated nor postponed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JOHN A. DIX, Major General. D. H. HILL, Major General. C. S. A.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This plan did not work well. Men on both sides, who wanted a little rest
+      from soldiering, could obtain it by so straggling in the vicinity of the
+      enemy. Their parole&mdash;following close upon their capture, frequently
+      upon the spot&mdash;allowed them to visit home, and sojourn awhile where
+      were pleasanter pastures than at the front. Then the Rebels grew into the
+      habit of paroling everybody that they could constrain into being a
+      prisoner of war. Peaceable, unwarlike and decrepit citizens of Kentucky,
+      East Tennessee, West Virginia, Missouri and Maryland were &ldquo;captured&rdquo;
+      and paroled, and setoff against regular Rebel soldiers taken by us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. After some months of trial of this scheme, a modification of the cartel
+      was agreed upon, the main feature of which was that all prisoners must be
+      reduced to possession, and delivered to the exchange officers either at
+      City Point, Va., or Vicksburg, Miss. This worked very well for some
+      months, until our Government began organizing negro troops. The Rebels
+      then issued an order that neither these troops nor their officers should
+      be held as amenable to the laws of war, but that, when captured, the men
+      should be returned to slavery, and the officers turned over to the
+      Governors of the States in which they were taken, to be dealt with
+      according to the stringent law punishing the incitement of servile
+      insurrection. Our Government could not permit this for a day. It was bound
+      by every consideration of National honor to protect those who wore its
+      uniform and bore its flag. The Rebel Government was promptly informed that
+      rebel officers and men would be held as hostages for the proper treatment
+      of such members of colored regiments as might be taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. This discussion did not put a stop to the exchange, but while it was
+      going on Vicksburg was captured, and the battle of Gettysburg was fought.
+      The first placed one of the exchange points in our hands. At the opening
+      of the fight at Gettysburg Lee captured some six thousand Pennsylvania
+      militia. He sent to Meade to have these exchanged on the field of battle.
+      Meade declined to do so for two reasons: first, because it was against the
+      cartel, which prescribed that prisoners must be reduced to possession; and
+      second, because he was anxious to have Lee hampered with such a body of
+      prisoners, since it was very doubtful if he could get his beaten army back
+      across the Potomac, let alone his prisoners. Lee then sent a communication
+      to General Couch, commanding the Pennsylvania militia, asking him to
+      receive prisoners on parole, and Couch, not knowing what Meade had done,
+      acceded to the request. Our Government disavowed Couch's action
+      instantly, and ordered the paroles to be treated as of no force, whereupon
+      the Rebel Government ordered back into the field twelve thousand of the
+      prisoners captured by Grant's army at Vicksburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. The paroling now stopped abruptly, leaving in the hands of both sides
+      the prisoners captured at Gettysburg, except the militia above mentioned.
+      The Rebels added considerably to those in their hands by their captures at
+      Chickamauga, while we gained a great many at Mission Ridge, Cumberland Gap
+      and elsewhere, so that at the time we arrived in Richmond the Rebels had
+      about fifteen thousand prisoners in their hands and our Government had
+      about twenty-five thousand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. The rebels now began demanding that the prisoners on both sides be
+      exchanged&mdash;man for man&mdash;as far as they went, and the remainder
+      paroled. Our Government offered to exchange man for man, but declined&mdash;on
+      account of the previous bad faith of the Rebels&mdash;to release the
+      balance on parole. The Rebels also refused to make any concessions in
+      regard to the treatment of officers and men of colored regiments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. At this juncture General B. F. Butler was appointed to the command of
+      the Department of the Blackwater, which made him an ex-officio
+      Commissioner of Exchange. The Rebels instantly refused to treat with him,
+      on the ground that he was outlawed by the proclamation of Jefferson Davis.
+      General Butler very pertinently replied that this only placed him nearer
+      their level, as Jefferson Davis and all associated with him in the Rebel
+      Government had been outlawed by the proclamation of President Lincoln. The
+      Rebels scorned to notice this home thrust by the Union General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. On February 12, 1864, General Butler addressed a letter to the Rebel
+      Commissioner Ould, in which be asked, for the sake of humanity, that the
+      questions interrupting the exchange be left temporarily in abeyance while
+      an informal exchange was put in operation. He would send five hundred
+      prisoners to City Point; let them be met by a similar number of Union
+      prisoners. This could go on from day to day until all in each other's
+      hands should be transferred to their respective flags.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The five hundred sent with the General's letter were received, and
+      five hundred Union prisoners returned for them. Another five hundred, sent
+      the next day, were refused, and so this reasonable and humane proposition
+      ended in nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the condition of affairs in February, 1864, when the Rebel
+      authorities concluded to send us to Andersonville. If the reader will fix
+      these facts in his minds I will explain other phases as they develop.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch11" id="ch11"></a>CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      PUTTING IN THE TIME&mdash;RATIONS&mdash;COOKING UTENSILS&mdash;&ldquo;FIAT&rdquo;
+      SOUP&mdash;&ldquo;SPOONING&rdquo; &mdash;AFRICAN NEWSPAPER VENDERS&mdash;TRADING
+      GREENBACKS FOR CONFEDERATE MONEY &mdash;VISIT FROM JOHN MORGAN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Winter days passed on, one by one, after the manner described in a
+      former chapter,&mdash;the mornings in ill-nature hunger; the afternoons
+      and evenings in tolerable comfort. The rations kept growing lighter and
+      lighter; the quantity of bread remained the same, but the meat diminished,
+      and occasional days would pass without any being issued. Then we receive a
+      pint or less of soup made from the beans or peas before mentioned, but
+      this, too, suffered continued change, in the gradually increasing
+      proportion of James River water, and decreasing of that of the beans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The water of the James River is doubtless excellent: it looks well&mdash;at
+      a distance&mdash;and is said to serve the purposes of ablution and
+      navigation admirably. There seems to be a limit however, to the extent of
+      its advantageous combination with the bean (or pea) for nutritive
+      purposes. This, though, was or view of the case, merely, and not shared in
+      to any appreciably extent by the gentlemen who were managing our boarding
+      house. We seemed to view the matter through allopathic spectacles, they
+      through homoeopathic lenses. We thought that the atomic weight of peas (or
+      beans) and the James River fluid were about equal, which would indicate
+      that the proper combining proportions would be, say a bucket of beans (or
+      peas) to a bucket of water. They held that the nutritive potency was
+      increased by the dilution, and the best results were obtainable when the
+      symptoms of hunger were combated by the trituration of a bucketful of the
+      peas-beans with a barrel of 'aqua jamesiana.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My first experience with this &ldquo;flat&rdquo; soup was very
+      instructive, if not agreeable. I had come into prison, as did most other
+      prisoners, absolutely destitute of dishes, or cooking utensils. The
+      well-used, half-canteen frying-pan, the blackened quart cup, and the
+      spoon, which formed the usual kitchen outfit of the cavalryman in the
+      field, were in the haversack on my saddle, and were lost to me when I
+      separated from my horse. Now, when we were told that we were to draw soup,
+      I was in great danger of losing my ration from having no vessel in which
+      to receive it. There were but few tin cups in the prison, and these were,
+      of course, wanted by their owners. By great good fortune I found an empty
+      fruit can, holding about a quart. I was also lucky enough to find a piece
+      from which to make a bail. I next manufactured a spoon and knife combined
+      from a bit of hoop-iron. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p102" id="p102"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p102.jpg (19K)" src="images/p102.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two humble utensils at once placed myself and my immediate chums on
+      another plane, as far as worldly goods were concerned. We were better off
+      than the mass, and as well off as the most fortunate. It was a curious
+      illustration of that law of political economy which teaches that so-called
+      intrinsic value is largely adventitious. Their possession gave us
+      infinitely more consideration among our fellows than would the possession
+      of a brown-stone front in an eligible location, furnished with hot and
+      cold water throughout, and all the modern improvements. It was a place
+      where cooking utensils were in demand, and title-deeds to brown-stone
+      fronts were not. We were in possession of something which every one needed
+      every day, and, therefore, were persons of consequence and consideration
+      to those around us who were present or prospective borrowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On our side we obeyed another law of political economy: We clung to our
+      property with unrelaxing tenacity, made the best use of it in our
+      intercourse with our fellows, and only gave it up after our release and
+      entry into a land where the plenitude of cooking utensils of superior
+      construction made ours valueless. Then we flung them into the sea, with
+      little gratitude for the great benefit they had been to us. We were more
+      anxious to get rid of the many hateful recollections clustering around
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, to return to the alleged soup: As I started to drink my first ration
+      it seemed to me that there was a superfluity of bugs upon its surface.
+      Much as I wanted animal food, I did not care for fresh meat in that form.
+      I skimmed them off carefully, so as to lose as little soup as possible.
+      But the top layer seemed to be underlaid with another equally dense. This
+      was also skimmed off as deftly as possible. But beneath this appeared
+      another layer, which, when removed, showed still another; and so on, until
+      I had scraped to the bottom of the can, and the last of the bugs went with
+      the last of my soup. I have before spoken of the remarkable bug fecundity
+      of the beans (or peas). This was a demonstration of it. Every scouped out
+      pea (or bean) which found its way into the soup bore inside of its shell
+      from ten to twenty of these hard-crusted little weevil. Afterward I drank
+      my soup without skimming. It was not that I hated the weevil less, but
+      that I loved the soup more. It was only another step toward a closer
+      conformity to that grand rule which I have made the guiding maxim of my
+      life:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When I must, I had better.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I recommend this to other young men starting on their career. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p103" id="p103"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p103.jpg (16K)" src="images/p103.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room in which we were was barely large enough for all of us to lie
+      down at once. Even then it required pretty close &ldquo;spooning&rdquo;
+      together &mdash;so close in fact that all sleeping along one side would
+      have to turn at once. It was funny to watch this operation. All, for
+      instance, would be lying on their right sides. They would begin to get
+      tired, and one of the wearied ones would sing out to the Sergeant who was
+      in command of the row&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sergeant: let's spoon the other way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That individual would reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. Attention! LEFT SPOON!!&rdquo; and the whole line would
+      at once flop over on their left sides. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p104" alt="p104.jpg (17K)" src="images/p104.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The feet of the row that slept along the east wall on the floor below us
+      were in a line with the edge of the outer door, and a chalk line drawn
+      from the crack between the door and the frame to the opposite wall would
+      touch, say 150 pairs of feet. They were a noisy crowd down there, and one
+      night their noise so provoked the guard in front of the door that he
+      called out to them to keep quiet or he would fire in upon them. They
+      greeted this threat with a chorus profanely uncomplimentary to the purity
+      of the guard's ancestry; they did not imply his descent a la Darwin,
+      from the remote monkey, but more immediate generation by a common domestic
+      animal. The incensed Rebel opened the door wide enough to thrust his gun
+      in, and he fired directly down the line of toes. His piece was apparently
+      loaded with buckshot, and the little balls must have struck the legs,
+      nipped off the toes, pierced the feet, and otherwise slightly wounded the
+      lower extremities of fifty men. The simultaneous shriek that went up was
+      deafening. It was soon found out that nobody had been hurt seriously, and
+      there was not a little fun over the occurrence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the prisoners in Libby was Brigadier General Neal Dow, of Maine,
+      who had then a National reputation as a Temperance advocate, and the
+      author of the famous Maine Liquor Law. We, whose places were near the
+      front window, used to see him frequently on the street, accompanied by a
+      guard. He was allowed, we understood, to visit our sick in the hospital.
+      His long, snowy beard and hair gave him a venerable and commanding
+      appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Newsboys seemed to be a thing unknown in Richmond. The papers were sold on
+      the streets by negro men. The one who frequented our section with the
+      morning journals had a mellow; rich baritone for which we would be glad to
+      exchange the shrill cries of our street Arabs. We long remembered him as
+      one of the peculiar features of Richmond. He had one unvarying formula for
+      proclaiming his wares. It ran in this wise:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nooze in de papahs!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nooze from Orange Coaht House, Virginny!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nooze from Alexandry, Virginny!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nooze from Washington City!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nooze from Chattanoogy, Tennessee!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nooze from Chahlston, Sou' Cahlina!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nooze in depapahs!&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p105" alt="p105.jpg (6K)" src="images/p105.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It did not matter to him that the Rebels had not been at some of these
+      places for months. He would not change for such mere trifles as the entire
+      evaporation of all possible interest connected with Chattanooga and
+      Alexandria. He was a true Bourbon Southerner&mdash;he learned nothing and
+      forgot nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a considerable trade driven between the prisoners and the guard
+      at the door. This was a very lucrative position for the latter, and men of
+      a commercial turn of mind generally managed to get stationed there. The
+      blockade had cut off the Confederacy's supplies from the outer
+      world, and the many trinkets about a man's person were in good
+      demand at high prices. The men of the Army of the Potomac, who were paid
+      regularly, and were always near their supplies, had their pockets filled
+      with combs, silk handkerchiefs, knives, neckties, gold pens, pencils,
+      silver watches, playing cards, dice, etc. Such of these as escaped
+      appropriation by their captors and Dick Turner, were eagerly bought by the
+      guards, who paid fair prices in Confederate money, or traded wheat bread,
+      tobacco, daily papers, etc., for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was also considerable brokerage in money, and the manner of doing
+      this was an admirable exemplification of the folly of the &ldquo;fiat&rdquo;
+      money idea. The Rebels exhausted their ingenuity in framing laws to
+      sustain the purchasing power of their paper money. It was made legal
+      tender for all debts public and private; it was decreed that the man who
+      refused to take it was a public enemy; all the considerations of
+      patriotism were rallied to its support, and the law provided that any
+      citizens found trafficking in the money of the enemy&mdash;i.e.,
+      greenbacks, should suffer imprisonment in the Penitentiary, and any
+      soldier so offending should suffer death. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p106" alt="p106.jpg (31K)" src="images/p106.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding all this, in Richmond, the head and heart of the
+      Confederacy, in January, 1864&mdash;long before the Rebel cause began to
+      look at all desperate&mdash;it took a dollar to buy such a loaf of bread
+      as now sells for ten cents; a newspaper was a half dollar, and everything
+      else in proportion. And still worse: There was not a day during our stay
+      in Richmond but what one could go to the hole in the door before which the
+      guard was pacing and call out in a loud whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Guard: do you want to buy some greenbacks?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And be sure that the reply would be, after a furtive glance around to see
+      that no officer was watching:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; how much do you want for them?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reply was then: &ldquo;Ten for one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right; how much have you got?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Yankee would reply; the Rebel would walk to the farther end of his
+      beat, count out the necessary amount, and, returning, put up one hand with
+      it, while with the other he caught hold of one end of the Yankee's
+      greenback. At the word, both would release their holds simultaneously, the
+      exchange was complete, and the Rebel would pace industriously up and down
+      his beat with the air of the school boy who &ldquo;ain't been a-doin'
+      nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was never any risk in approaching any guard with a proposition of
+      this kind. I never heard of one refusing to trade for greenbacks, and if
+      the men on guard could not be restrained by these stringent laws, what
+      hope could there be of restraining anybody else?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day we were favored with a visit from the redoubtable General John H.
+      Morgan, next to J. E. B. Stuart the greatest of Rebel cavalry leaders. He
+      had lately escaped from the Ohio Penitentiary. He was invited to Richmond
+      to be made a Major General, and was given a grand ovation by the citizens
+      and civic Government. He came into our building to visit a number of the
+      First Kentucky Cavalry (loyal)&mdash;captured at New Philadelphia, East
+      Tennessee&mdash;whom he was anxious to have exchanged for men of his own
+      regiment&mdash;the First Kentucky Cavalry (Rebel)&mdash;who were captured
+      at the same time he was. I happened to get very close to him while he was
+      standing there talking to his old acquaintances, and I made a mental
+      photograph of him, which still retains all its original distinctness. He
+      was a tall, heavy man, with a full, coarse, and somewhat dull face, and
+      lazy, sluggish gray eyes. His long black hair was carefully oiled, and
+      turned under at the ends, as was the custom with the rural beaux some
+      years ago. His face was clean shaved, except a large, sandy goatee. He
+      wore a high silk hat, a black broadcloth coat, Kentucky jeans pantaloons,
+      neatly fitting boots, and no vest. There was nothing remotely suggestive
+      of unusual ability or force of character, and I thought as I studied him
+      that the sting of George D. Prentice's bon mot about him was in its
+      acrid truth. Said Mr. Prentice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't somebody put a pistol to Basil Duke's head,
+      and blow John Morgan's brains out!&rdquo; [Basil Duke was John
+      Morgan's right hand man.] <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2 id="ch12">CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      REMARKS AS TO NOMENCLATURE&mdash;VACCINATION AND ITS EFFECTS&mdash;&ldquo;N'YAARKER'S&rdquo;
+      &mdash;THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR METHODS OF OPERATING.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before going any further in this narrative it may be well to state that
+      the nomenclature employed is not used in any odious or disparaging sense.
+      It is simply the adoption of the usual terms employed by the soldiers of
+      both sides in speaking to or of each other. We habitually spoke of them
+      and to them, as &ldquo;Rebels,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Johnnies ;&rdquo; they of
+      and to us, as &ldquo;Yanks,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Yankees.&rdquo; To have said
+      &ldquo;Confederates,&rdquo; &ldquo;Southerners,&rdquo; &ldquo;Secessionists,&rdquo;
+      or &ldquo;Federalists,&rdquo; &ldquo;Unionists,&rdquo; &ldquo;Northerners&rdquo;
+      or &ldquo;Nationalists,&rdquo; would have seemed useless euphemism. The
+      plainer terms suited better, and it was a day when things were more
+      important than names.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some inscrutable reason the Rebels decided to vaccinate us all. Why
+      they did this has been one of the unsolved problems of my life. It is true
+      that there was small pox in the City, and among the prisoners at Danville;
+      but that any consideration for our safety should have led them to order
+      general inoculation is not among the reasonable inferences. But, be that
+      as it may, vaccination was ordered, and performed. By great good luck I
+      was absent from the building with the squad drawing rations, when our room
+      was inoculated, so I escaped what was an infliction to all, and fatal to
+      many. The direst consequences followed the operation. Foul ulcers appeared
+      on various parts of the bodies of the vaccinated. In many instances the
+      arms literally rotted off; and death followed from a corruption of the
+      blood. Frequently the faces, and other parts of those who recovered, were
+      disfigured by the ghastly cicatrices of healed ulcers. A special friend of
+      mine, Sergeant Frank Beverstock&mdash;then a member of the Third Virginia
+      Cavalry, (loyal), and after the war a banker in Bowling Green, O.,&mdash;bore
+      upon his temple to his dying day, (which occurred a year ago), a fearful
+      scar, where the flesh had sloughed off from the effects of the virus that
+      had tainted his blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This I do not pretend to account for. We thought at the time that the
+      Rebels had deliberately poisoned the vaccine matter with syphilitic virus,
+      and it was so charged upon them. I do not now believe that this was so; I
+      can hardly think that members of the humane profession of medicine would
+      be guilty of such subtle diabolism&mdash;worse even than poisoning the
+      wells from which an enemy must drink. The explanation with which I have
+      satisfied myself is that some careless or stupid practitioner took the
+      vaccinating lymph from diseased human bodies, and thus infected all with
+      the blood venom, without any conception of what he was doing. The low
+      standard of medical education in the South makes this theory quite
+      plausible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We now formed the acquaintance of a species of human vermin that united
+      with the Rebels, cold, hunger, lice and the oppression of distraint, to
+      leave nothing undone that could add to the miseries of our prison life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were the fledglings of the slums and dives of New York&mdash;graduates
+      of that metropolitan sink of iniquity where the rogues and criminals of
+      the whole world meet for mutual instruction in vice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were men who, as a rule, had never known, a day of honesty and
+      cleanliness in their misspent lives; whose fathers, brothers and constant
+      companions were roughs, malefactors and, felons; whose mothers, wives and
+      sisters were prostitutes, procuresses and thieves; men who had from
+      infancy lived in an atmosphere of sin, until it saturated every fiber of
+      their being as a dweller in a jungle imbibes malaria by every one of his,
+      millions of pores, until his very marrow is surcharged with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They included representatives from all nationalities, and their
+      descendants, but the English and Irish elements predominated. They had an
+      argot peculiar to themselves. It was partly made up of the &ldquo;flash&rdquo;
+      language of the London thieves, amplified and enriched by the cant
+      vocabulary and the jargon of crime of every European tongue. They spoke it
+      with a peculiar accent and intonation that made them instantly
+      recognizable from the roughs of all other Cities. They called themselves
+      &ldquo;N'Yaarkers;&rdquo; we came to know them as &ldquo;Raiders.&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p111" alt="p111.jpg (13K)" src="images/p111.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If everything in the animal world has its counterpart among men, then
+      these were the wolves, jackals and hyenas of the race at once cowardly and
+      fierce&mdash;audaciously bold when the power of numbers was on their side,
+      and cowardly when confronted with resolution by anything like an equality
+      of strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like all other roughs and rascals of whatever degree, they were utterly
+      worthless as soldiers. There may have been in the Army some habitual
+      corner loafer, some fistic champion of the bar-room and brothel, some
+      Terror of Plug Uglyville, who was worth the salt in the hard tack he
+      consumed, but if there were, I did not form his acquaintance, and I never
+      heard of any one else who did. It was the rule that the man who was the
+      readiest in the use of fist and slungshot at home had the greatest
+      diffidence about forming a close acquaintance with cold lead in the
+      neighborhood of the front. Thousands of the so-called &ldquo;dangerous
+      classes&rdquo; were recruited, from whom the Government did not receive so
+      much service as would pay for the buttons on their uniforms. People
+      expected that they would make themselves as troublesome to the Rebels as
+      they were to good citizens and the Police, but they were only pugnacious
+      to the provost guard, and terrible to the people in the rear of the Army
+      who had anything that could be stolen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The highest type of soldier which the world has yet produced is the
+      intelligent, self-respecting American boy, with home, and father and
+      mother and friends behind him, and duty in front beckoning him on. In the
+      sixty centuries that war has been a profession no man has entered its
+      ranks so calmly resolute in confronting danger, so shrewd and energetic in
+      his aggressiveness, so tenacious of the defense and the assault, so
+      certain to rise swiftly to the level of every emergency, as the boy who,
+      in the good old phrase, had been &ldquo;well-raised&rdquo; in a Godfearing
+      home, and went to the field in obedience to a conviction of duty. His
+      unfailing courage and good sense won fights that the incompetency or
+      cankering jealousy of commanders had lost. High officers were occasionally
+      disloyal, or willing to sacrifice their country to personal pique; still
+      more frequently they were ignorant and inefficient; but the enlisted man
+      had more than enough innate soldiership to make amends for these
+      deficiencies, and his superb conduct often brought honors and promotions
+      to those only who deserved shame and disaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our &ldquo;N'Yaarkers,&rdquo; swift to see any opportunity for
+      dishonest gain, had taken to bounty-jumping, or, as they termed it,
+      &ldquo;leppin' the bounty,&rdquo; for a livelihood. Those who were
+      thrust in upon us had followed this until it had become dangerous, and
+      then deserted to the Rebels. The latter kept them at Castle Lightning for
+      awhile, and then, rightly estimating their character, and considering that
+      it was best to trade them off for a genuine Rebel soldier, sent them in
+      among us, to be exchanged regularly with us. There was not so much good
+      faith as good policy shown by this. It was a matter of indifference to the
+      Rebels how soon our Government shot these deserters after getting them in
+      its hands again. They were only anxious to use them to get their own men
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment they came into contact with us our troubles began. They stole
+      whenever opportunities offered, and they were indefatigable in making
+      these offer; they robbed by actual force, whenever force would avail; and
+      more obsequious lick-spittles to power never existed&mdash;they were
+      perpetually on the look-out for a chance to curry favor by betraying some
+      plan or scheme to those who guarded us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw one day a queer illustration of the audacious side of these fellows'
+      characters, and it shows at the same time how brazen effrontery will
+      sometimes get the better of courage. In a room in an adjacent building
+      were a number of these fellows, and a still greater number of East
+      Tennesseeans. These latter were simple, ignorant folks, but reasonably
+      courageous. About fifty of them were sitting in a group in one corner of
+      the room, and near them a couple or three &ldquo;N'Yaarkers.&rdquo;
+      Suddenly one of the latter said with an oath:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was robbed last night; I lost two silver watches, a couple of
+      rings, and about fifty dollars in greenbacks. I believe some of you
+      fellers went through me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all pure invention; he no more had the things mentioned than he
+      had purity of heart and a Christian spirit, but the unsophisticated
+      Tennesseeans did not dream of disputing his statement, and answered in
+      chorus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, mister; we didn't take your things; we ain't
+      that kind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was like the reply of the lamb to the wolf, in the fable, and the N'Yaarker
+      retorted with a simulated storm of passion, and a torrent of oaths:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; I know ye did; I know some uv yez has
+      got them; stand up agin the wall there till I search yez!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And that whole fifty men, any one of whom was physically equal to the N'Yaarker,
+      and his superior in point of real courage, actually stood against the
+      wall, and submitted to being searched and having taken from them the few
+      Confederate bills they had, and such trinkets as the searcher took a fancy
+      to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was thoroughly disgusted. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2 id="ch13">CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      BELLE ISLE&mdash;TERRIBLE SUFFERING FROM COLD AND HUNGER&mdash;FATE OF
+      LIEUTENANT BOISSEUX'S DOG&mdash;OUR COMPANY MYSTERY&mdash;TERMINATION
+      OF ALL HOPES OF ITS SOLUTION.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In February my chum&mdash;B. B. Andrews, now a physician in Astoria,
+      Illinois &mdash;was brought into our building, greatly to my delight and
+      astonishment, and from him I obtained the much desired news as to the fate
+      of my comrades. He told me they had been sent to Belle Isle, whither he
+      had gone, but succumbing to the rigors of that dreadful place, he had been
+      taken to the hospital, and, upon his convalesence, placed in our prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our men were suffering terribly on the island. It was low, damp, and swept
+      by the bleak, piercing winds that howled up and down the surface of the
+      James. The first prisoners placed on the island had been given tents that
+      afforded them some shelter, but these were all occupied when our battalion
+      came in, so that they were compelled to lie on the snow and frozen ground,
+      without shelter, covering of any kind, or fire. During this time the cold
+      had been so intense that the James had frozen over three times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rations had been much worse than ours. The so-called soup had been
+      diluted to a ridiculous thinness, and meat had wholly disappeared. So
+      intense became the craving for animal food, that one day when Lieutenant
+      Boisseux&mdash;the Commandant&mdash;strolled into the camp with his
+      beloved white bull-terrier, which was as fat as a Cheshire pig, the latter
+      was decoyed into a tent, a blanket thrown over him, his throat cut within
+      a rod of where his master was standing, and he was then skinned, cut up,
+      cooked, and furnished a savory meal to many hungry men. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img  id="p115" alt="p115.jpg (19K)" src="images/p115.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Boisseux learned of the fate of his four-footed friend he was, of
+      course, intensely enraged, but that was all the good it did him. The only
+      revenge possible was to sentence more prisoners to ride the cruel wooden
+      horse which he used as a means of punishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Four of our company were already dead. Jacob Lowry and John Beach were
+      standing near the gate one day when some one snatched the guard's
+      blanket from the post where he had hung it, and ran. The enraged sentry
+      leveled his gun and fired into the crowd. The balls passed through Lowry's
+      and Beach's breasts. Then Charley Osgood, son of our Lieutenant, a
+      quiet, fair-haired, pleasant-spoken boy, but as brave and earnest as his
+      gallant father, sank under the combination of hunger and cold. One
+      stinging morning he was found stiff and stark, on the hard ground, his
+      bright, frank blue eyes glazed over in death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the mysteries of our company was a tall, slender, elderly
+      Scotchman, who appeared on the rolls as William Bradford. What his past
+      life had been, where he had lived, what his profession, whether married or
+      single, no one ever knew. He came to us while in Camp of Instruction near
+      Springfield, Illinois, and seemed to have left all his past behind him as
+      he crossed the line of sentries around the camp. He never received any
+      letters, and never wrote any; never asked for a furlough or pass, and
+      never expressed a wish to be elsewhere than in camp. He was courteous and
+      pleasant, but very reserved. He interfered with no one, obeyed orders
+      promptly and without remark, and was always present for duty. Scrupulously
+      neat in dress, always as clean-shaved as an old-fashioned gentleman of the
+      world, with manners and conversation that showed him to have belonged to a
+      refined and polished circle, he was evidently out of place as a private
+      soldier in a company of reckless and none-too-refined young Illinois
+      troopers, but he never availed himself of any of the numerous
+      opportunities offered to change his associations. His elegant penmanship
+      would have secured him an easy berth and better society at headquarters,
+      but he declined to accept a detail. He became an exciting mystery to a
+      knot of us imaginative young cubs, who sorted up out of the reminiscential
+      rag-bag of high colors and strong contrasts with which the sensational
+      literature that we most affected had plentifully stored our minds, a
+      half-dozen intensely emotional careers for him. We spent much time in
+      mentally trying these on, and discussing which fitted him best. We were
+      always expecting a denouement that would come like a lightning flash and
+      reveal his whole mysterious past, showing him to have been the
+      disinherited scion of some noble house, a man of high station, who was
+      expiating some fearful crime; an accomplished villain eluding his pursuers&mdash;in
+      short, a Somebody who would be a fitting hero for Miss Braddon's or
+      Wilkie Collins's literary purposes. We never got but two clues of
+      his past, and they were faint ones. One day, he left lying near me a small
+      copy of &ldquo;Paradise Lost,&rdquo; that he always carried with him.
+      Turning over its leaves I found all of Milton's bitter invectives
+      against women heavily underscored. Another time, while on guard with him,
+      he spent much of his time in writing some Latin verses in very elegant
+      chirography upon the white painted boards of a fence along which his beat
+      ran. We pressed in all the available knowledge of Latin about camp, and
+      found that the tenor of the verses was very uncomplimentary to that
+      charming sex which does us the honor of being our mothers and sweethearts.
+      These evidences we accepted as sufficient demonstration that there was a
+      woman at the bottom of the mystery, and made us more impatient for further
+      developments. These were never to come. Bradford pined away an Belle Isle,
+      and grew weaker, but no less reserved, each day. At length, one bitter
+      cold night ended it all. He was found in the morning stone dead, with his
+      iron-gray hair frozen fast to the ground, upon which he lay. Our mystery
+      had to remain unsolved. There was nothing about his person to give any
+      hint as to his past. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img  id="p117" alt="p117.jpg (33K)" src="images/p117.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2 id="ch14">CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HOPING FOR EXCHANGE&mdash;AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHANCES &mdash;OFF
+      FOR ANDERSONVILLE&mdash;UNCERTAINTY AS TO OUR DESTINATION&mdash;ARRIVAL AT
+      ANDERSONVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As each lagging day closed, we confidently expected that the next would
+      bring some news of the eagerly-desired exchange. We hopefully assured each
+      other that the thing could not be delayed much longer; that the Spring was
+      near, the campaign would soon open, and each government would make an
+      effort to get all its men into the field, and this would bring about a
+      transfer of prisoners. A Sergeant of the Seventh Indiana Infantry stated
+      his theory to me this way:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know I'm just old lightnin' on chuck-a-luck. Now
+      the way I bet is this: I lay down, say on the ace, an' it don't
+      come up; I just double my bet on the ace, an' keep on doublin'
+      every time it loses, until at last it comes up an' then I win a
+      bushel o' money, and mebbe bust the bank. You see the thing's
+      got to come up some time; an' every time it don't come up
+      makes it more likely to come up the next time. It's just the same
+      way with this 'ere exchange. The thing's got to happen some
+      day, an' every day that it don't happen increases the chances
+      that it will happen the next day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some months later I folded the sanguine Sergeant's stiffening hands
+      together across his fleshless ribs, and helped carry his body out to the
+      dead-house at Andersonville, in order to get a piece of wood to cook my
+      ration of meal with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the evening of the 17th of February, 1864, we were ordered to get ready
+      to move at daybreak the next morning. We were certain this could mean
+      nothing else than exchange, and our exaltation was such that we did little
+      sleeping that night. The morning was very cold, but we sang and joked as
+      we marched over the creaking bridge, on our way to the cars. We were
+      packed so tightly in these that it was impossible to even sit down, and we
+      rolled slow ly away after a wheezing engine to Petersburg, whence we
+      expected to march to the exchange post. We reached Petersburg before noon,
+      and the cars halted there along time, we momentarily expecting an order to
+      get out. Then the train started up and moved out of the City toward the
+      southeast. This was inexplicable, but after we had proceeded this way for
+      several hours some one conceived the idea that the Rebels, to avoid
+      treating with Butler, were taking us into the Department of some other
+      commander to exchange us. This explanation satisfied us, and our spirits
+      rose again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night found us at Gaston, N. C., where we received a few crackers for
+      rations, and changed cars. It was dark, and we resorted to a little
+      strategy to secure more room. About thirty of us got into a tight box car,
+      and immediately announced that it was too full to admit any more. When an
+      officer came along with another squad to stow away, we would yell out to
+      him to take some of the men out, as we were crowded unbearably. In the
+      mean time everybody in the car would pack closely around the door, so as
+      to give the impression that the car was densely crowded. The Rebel would
+      look convinced, and demand:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, how many men have you got in de cah?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then one of us would order the imaginary host in the invisible recesses to&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand still there, and be counted,&rdquo; while he would gravely
+      count up to one hundred or one hundred and twenty, which was the utmost
+      limit of the car, and the Rebel would hurry off to put his prisoners
+      somewhere else. We managed to play this successfully during the whole
+      journey, and not only obtained room to lie down in the car, but also drew
+      three or four times as many rations as were intended for us, so that while
+      we at no time had enough, we were farther from starvation than our less
+      strategic companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second afternoon we arrived at Raleigh, the capitol of North Carolina,
+      and were camped in a piece of timber, and shortly after dark orders were
+      issued to us all to lie flat on the ground and not rise up till daylight.
+      About the middle of the night a man belonging to a New Jersey regiment,
+      who had apparently forgotten the order, stood up, and was immediately shot
+      dead by the guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For four or five days more the decrepit little locomotive strained along,
+      dragging after it the rattling' old cars. The scenery was intensely
+      monotonous. It was a flat, almost unending, stretch of pine barrens and
+      the land so poor that a disgusted Illinoisan, used to the fertility of the
+      great American Bottom, said rather strongly, that,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By George, they'd have to manure this ground before they
+      could even make brick out of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a surprise to all of us who had heard so much of the wealth of
+      Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to find the soil a
+      sterile sand bank, interspersed with swamps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had still no idea of where we were going. We only knew that our general
+      course was southward, and that we had passed through the Carolinas, and
+      were in Georgia. We furbished up our school knowledge of geography and
+      endeavored to recall something of the location of Raleigh, Charlotte,
+      Columbia and Augusta, through which we passed, but the attempt was not a
+      success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late on the afternoon of the 25th of February the Seventh Indiana Sergeant
+      approached me with the inquiry:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know where Macon is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place had not then become as well known as it was afterward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed to me that I had read something of Macon in Revolutionary
+      history, and that it was a fort on the sea coast. He said that the guard
+      had told him that we were to be taken to a point near that place, and we
+      agreed that it was probably a new place of exchange. A little later we
+      passed through the town of Macon, Ga, and turned upon a road that led
+      almost due south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About midnight the train stopped, and we were ordered off. We were in the
+      midst of a forest of tall trees that loaded the air with the heavy
+      balsamic odor peculiar to pine trees. A few small rude houses were
+      scattered around near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stretching out into the darkness was a double row of great heaps of
+      burning pitch pine, that smoked and flamed fiercely, and lit up a little
+      space around in the somber forest with a ruddy glare. Between these two
+      rows lay a road, which we were ordered to take.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene was weird and uncanny. I had recently read the &ldquo;Iliad,&rdquo;
+      and the long lines of huge fires reminded me of that scene in the first
+      book, where the Greeks burn on the sea shore the bodies of those smitten
+      by Apollo's pestilential-arrows
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          For nine long nights, through all the dusky air,<br> The pyres, thick
+          flaming shot a dismal glare.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      Five hundred weary men moved along slowly through double lines of guards.
+      Five hundred men marched silently towards the gates that were to shut out
+      life and hope from most of them forever. A quarter of a mile from the
+      railroad we came to a massive palisade of great squared logs standing
+      upright in the ground. The fires blazed up and showed us a section of
+      these, and two massive wooden gates, with heavy iron hinges and bolts.
+      They swung open as we stood there and we passed through into the space
+      beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were in Andersonville. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2 id="ch15"></a>CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      GEORGIA&mdash;A LEAN AND HUNGRY LAND&mdash;DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UPPER AND
+      LOWER GEORGIA&mdash;THE PILLAGE OF ANDERSONVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the next nine months of the existence of those of us who survived were
+      spent in intimate connection with the soil of Georgia, and, as it
+      exercised a potential influence upon our comfort and well-being, or rather
+      lack of these&mdash;a mention of some of its peculiar characteristics may
+      help the reader to a fuller comprehension of the conditions surrounding us&mdash;our
+      environment, as Darwin would say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Georgia, which, next to Texas, is the largest State in the South, and has
+      nearly twenty-five per cent. more area than the great State of New York,
+      is divided into two distinct and widely differing sections, by a
+      geological line extending directly across the State from Augusta, on the
+      Savannah River, through Macon, on the Ocmulgee, to Columbus, on the
+      Chattahoochie. That part lying to the north and west of this line is
+      usually spoken of as &ldquo;Upper Georgia;&rdquo; while that lying to the
+      south and east, extending to the Atlantic Ocean and the Florida line, is
+      called &ldquo;Lower Georgia.&rdquo; In this part of the State&mdash;though
+      far removed from each other&mdash;were the prisons of Andersonville,
+      Savannah, Millen and Blackshear, in which we were incarcerated one after
+      the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upper Georgia&mdash;the capital of which is Atlanta&mdash;is a fruitful,
+      productive, metalliferous region, that will in time become quite wealthy.
+      Lower Georgia, which has an extent about equal to that of Indiana, is not
+      only poorer now than a worn-out province of Asia Minor, but in all
+      probability will ever remain so. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img  id="p123" alt="p123.jpg (63K)" src="images/p123.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a starved, sterile land, impressing one as a desert in the first
+      stages of reclamation into productive soil, or a productive soil in the
+      last steps of deterioration into a desert. It is a vast expanse of arid,
+      yellow sand, broken at intervals by foul swamps, with a jungle-life growth
+      of unwholesome vegetation, and teeming With venomous snakes, and all
+      manner of hideous crawling thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The original forest still stands almost unbroken on this wide stretch of
+      thirty thousand square miles, but it does not cover it as we say of
+      forests in more favored lands. The tall, solemn pines, upright and
+      symmetrical as huge masts, and wholly destitute of limbs, except the
+      little, umbrella-like crest at the very top, stand far apart from each
+      other in an unfriendly isolation. There is no fraternal interlacing of
+      branches to form a kindly, umbrageous shadow. Between them is no genial
+      undergrowth of vines, shrubs, and demi-trees, generous in fruits, berries
+      and nuts, such as make one of the charms of Northern forests. On the
+      ground is no rich, springing sod of emerald green, fragrant with the
+      elusive sweetness of white clover, and dainty flowers, but a sparse, wiry,
+      famished grass, scattered thinly over the surface in tufts and patches,
+      like the hair on a mangy cur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The giant pines seem to have sucked up into their immense boles all the
+      nutriment in the earth, and starved out every minor growth. So wide and
+      clean is the space between them, that one can look through the forest in
+      any direction for miles, with almost as little interference with the view
+      as on a prairie. In the swampier parts the trees are lower, and their
+      limbs are hung with heavy festoons of the gloomy Spanish moss, or &ldquo;death
+      moss,&rdquo; as it is more frequently called, because where it grows
+      rankest the malaria is the deadliest. Everywhere Nature seems sad, subdued
+      and somber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have long entertained a peculiar theory to account for the decadence and
+      ruin of countries. My reading of the world's history seems to teach
+      me that when a strong people take possession of a fertile land, they
+      reduce it to cultivation, thrive upon its bountifulness, multiply into
+      millions the mouths to be fed from it, tax it to the last limit of
+      production of the necessities of life, take from it continually, and give
+      nothing back, starve and overwork it as cruel, grasping men do a servant
+      or a beast, and when at last it breaks down under the strain, it revenges
+      itself by starving many of them with great famines, while the others go
+      off in search of new countries to put through the same process of
+      exhaustion. We have seen one country after another undergo this process as
+      the seat of empire took its westward way, from the cradle of the race on
+      the banks of the Oxus to the fertile plains in the Valley of the
+      Euphrates. Impoverishing these, men next sought the Valley of the Nile,
+      then the Grecian Peninsula; next Syracuse and the Italian Peninsula, then
+      the Iberian Peninsula, and the African shores of the Mediterranean.
+      Exhausting all these, they were deserted for the French, German and
+      English portions of Europe. The turn of the latter is now come; famines
+      are becoming terribly frequent, and mankind is pouring into the virgin
+      fields of America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lower Georgia, the Carolinas and Eastern Virginia have all the
+      characteristics of these starved and worn-out lands. It would seem as if,
+      away back in the distance of ages, some numerous and civilized race had
+      drained from the soil the last atom of food-producing constituents, and
+      that it is now slowly gathering back, as the centuries pass, the elements
+      that have been wrung from the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lower Georgia is very thinly settled. Much of the land is still in the
+      hands of the Government. The three or four railroads which pass through it
+      have little reference to local traffic. There are no towns along them as a
+      rule; stations are made every ten miles, and not named, but numbered, as
+      &ldquo;Station No. 4&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No. 10&rdquo;, etc. The roads
+      were built as through lines, to bring to the seaboard the rich products of
+      the interior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andersonville is one of the few stations dignified with a same, probably
+      because it contained some half dozen of shabby houses, whereas at the
+      others there was usually nothing more than a mere open shed, to shelter
+      goods and travelers. It is on a rudely constructed, rickety railroad, that
+      runs from Macon to Albany, the head of navigation on the Flint River,
+      which is, one hundred and six miles from Macon, and two hundred and fifty
+      from the Gulf of Mexico. Andersonville is about sixty miles from Macon,
+      and, consequently, about three hundred miles from the Gulf. The camp was
+      merely a hole cut in the wilderness. It was as remote a point from, our
+      armies, as they then lay, as the Southern Confederacy could give. The
+      nearest was Sherman, at Chattanooga, four hundred miles away, and on the
+      other side of a range of mountains hundreds of miles wide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To us it seemed beyond the last forlorn limits of civilization. We felt
+      that we were more completely at the mercy of our foes than ever. While in
+      Richmond we were in the heart of the Confederacy; we were in the midst of
+      the Rebel military and, civil force, and were surrounded on every hand by
+      visible evidences of the great magnitude of that power, but this, while it
+      enforced our ready submission, did not overawe us depressingly, We knew
+      that though the Rebels were all about us in great force, our own men were
+      also near, and in still greater force&mdash;that while they were very
+      strong our army was still stronger, and there was no telling what day this
+      superiority of strength, might be demonstrated in such a way as to
+      decisively benefit us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But here we felt as did the Ancient Mariner:
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Alone on a wide, wide sea,<br> So lonely 'twas that God himself<br>
+          Scarce seemed there to be.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2 id="ch16">CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WAKING UP IN ANDERSONVILLE&mdash;SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE&mdash;OUR
+      FIRST MAIL&mdash;BUILDING SHELTER&mdash;GEN. WINDER&mdash;HIMSELF AND
+      LINEAGE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We roused up promptly with the dawn to take a survey of our new abiding
+      place. We found ourselves in an immense pen, about one thousand feet long
+      by eight hundred wide, as a young surveyor&mdash;a member of the
+      Thirty-fourth Ohio&mdash;informed us after he had paced it off. He
+      estimated that it contained about sixteen acres. The walls were formed by
+      pine logs twenty-five feet long, from two to three feet in diameter, hewn
+      square, set into the ground to a depth of five feet, and placed so close
+      together as to leave no crack through which the country outside could be
+      seen. There being five feet of the logs in the ground, the wall was, of
+      course, twenty feet high. This manner of enclosure was in some respects
+      superior to a wall of masonry. It was equally unscalable, and much more
+      difficult to undermine or batter down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pen was longest due north and south. It was divided in the center by a
+      creek about a yard wide and ten inches deep, running from west to east. On
+      each side of this was a quaking bog of slimy ooze one hundred and fifty
+      feet wide, and so yielding that one attempting to walk upon it would sink
+      to the waist. From this swamp the sand-hills sloped north and south to the
+      stockade. All the trees inside the stockade, save two, had been cut down
+      and used in its construction. All the rank vegetation of the swamp had
+      also been cut off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two entrances to the stockade, one on each side of the creek,
+      midway between it and the ends, and called respectively the &ldquo;North
+      Gate&rdquo; and the &ldquo;South Gate.&rdquo; These were constructed
+      double, by building smaller stockades around them on the outside, with
+      another set of gates. When prisoners or wagons with rations were brought
+      in, they were first brought inside the outer gates, which were carefully
+      secured, before the inner gates were opened. This was done to prevent the
+      gates being carried by a rush by those confined inside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At regular intervals along the palisades were little perches, upon which
+      stood guards, who overlooked the whole inside of the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only view we had of the outside was that obtained by looking from the
+      highest points of the North or South Sides across the depression where the
+      stockade crossed the swamp. In this way we could see about forty acres at
+      a time of the adjoining woodland, or say one hundred and sixty acres
+      altogether, and this meager landscape had to content us for the next half
+      year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before our inspection was finished, a wagon drove in with rations, and a
+      quart of meal, a sweet potato and a few ounces of salt beef were issued to
+      each one of us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes we were all hard at work preparing our first meal in
+      Andersonville. The debris of the forest left a temporary abundance of
+      fuel, and we had already a cheerful fire blazing for every little squad.
+      There were a number of tobacco presses in the rooms we occupied in
+      Richmond, and to each of these was a quantity of sheets of tin, evidently
+      used to put between the layers of tobacco. The deft hands of the mechanics
+      among us bent these up into square pans, which were real handy cooking
+      utensils, holding about&mdash;a quart. Water was carried in them from the
+      creek; the meal mixed in them to a dough, or else boiled as mush in the
+      same vessels; the potatoes were boiled; and their final service was to
+      hold a little meal to be carefully browned, and then water boiled upon it,
+      so as to form a feeble imitation of coffee. I found my education at
+      Jonesville in the art of baking a hoe-cake now came in good play, both for
+      myself and companions. Taking one of the pieces of tin which had not yet
+      been made into a pan, we spread upon it a layer of dough about a half-inch
+      thick. Propping this up nearly upright before the fire, it was soon nicely
+      browned over. This process made it sweat itself loose from the tin, when
+      it was turned over and the bottom browned also. Save that it was destitute
+      of salt, it was quite a toothsome bit of nutriment for a hungry man, and I
+      recommend my readers to try making a &ldquo;pone&rdquo; of this kind once,
+      just to see what it was like. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img  id="p130" alt="p130.jpg (10K)" src="images/p130.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The supreme indifference with which the Rebels always treated the matter
+      of cooking utensils for us, excited my wonder. It never seemed to occur to
+      them that we could have any more need of vessels for our food than cattle
+      or swine. Never, during my whole prison life, did I see so much as a tin
+      cup or a bucket issued to a prisoner. Starving men were driven to all
+      sorts of shifts for want of these. Pantaloons or coats were pulled off and
+      their sleeves or legs used to draw a mess's meal in. Boots were
+      common vessels for carrying water, and when the feet of these gave way the
+      legs were ingeniously closed up with pine pegs, so as to form rude
+      leathern buckets. Men whose pocket knives had escaped the search at the
+      gates made very ingenious little tubs and buckets, and these devices
+      enabled us to get along after a fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After our meal was disposed of, we held a council on the situation. Though
+      we had been sadly disappointed in not being exchanged, it seemed that on
+      the whole our condition had been bettered. This first ration was a decided
+      improvement on those of the Pemberton building; we had left the snow and
+      ice behind at Richmond&mdash;or rather at some place between Raleigh, N.
+      C., and Columbia, S. C.&mdash;and the air here, though chill, was not
+      nipping, but bracing. It looked as if we would have a plenty of wood for
+      shelter and fuel, it was certainly better to have sixteen acres to roam
+      over than the stiffing confines of a building; and, still better, it
+      seemed as if there would be plenty of opportunities to get beyond the
+      stockade, and attempt a journey through the woods to that blissful land
+      &mdash;&ldquo;Our lines.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We settled down to make the best of things. A Rebel Sergeant came in
+      presently and arranged us in hundreds. We subdivided these into messes of
+      twenty-five, and began devising means for shelter. Nothing showed the
+      inborn capacity of the Northern soldier to take care of himself better
+      than the way in which we accomplished this with the rude materials at our
+      command. No ax, spade nor mattock was allowed us by the Rebels, who
+      treated us in regard to these the same as in respect to culinary vessels.
+      The only tools were a few pocket-knives, and perhaps half-a-dozen hatchets
+      which some infantrymen-principally members of the Third Michigan&mdash;were
+      allowed to retain. Yet, despite all these drawbacks, we had quite a
+      village of huts erected in a few days,&mdash;nearly enough, in fact, to
+      afford tolerable shelter for the whole five hundred of us first-comers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wither and poles that grew in the swamp were bent into the shape of
+      the semi-circular bows that support the canvas covers of army wagons, and
+      both ends thrust in the ground. These formed the timbers of our dwellings.
+      They were held in place by weaving in, basket-wise, a network of briers
+      and vines. Tufts of the long leaves which are the distinguishing
+      characteristic of the Georgia pine (popularly known as the &ldquo;long-leaved
+      pine&rdquo;) were wrought into this network until a thatch was formed,
+      that was a fair protection against the rain&mdash;it was like the Irishman's
+      unglazed window-sash, which &ldquo;kep' out the coarsest uv the
+      cold.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The results accomplished were as astonishing to us as to the Rebels, who
+      would have lain unsheltered upon the sand until bleached out like
+      field-rotted flax, before thinking to protect themselves in this way. As
+      our village was approaching completion, the Rebel Sergeant who called the
+      roll entered. He was very odd-looking. The cervical muscles were distorted
+      in such a way as to suggest to us the name of &ldquo;Wry-necked Smith,&rdquo;
+      by which we always designated him. Pete Bates, of the Third Michigan, who
+      was the wag of our squad, accounted for Smith's condition by saying
+      that while on dress parade once the Colonel of Smith's regiment had
+      commanded &ldquo;eyes right,&rdquo; and then forgot to give the order
+      &ldquo;front.&rdquo; Smith, being a good soldier, had kept his eyes in the
+      position of gazing at the buttons of the third man to the right, waiting
+      for the order to restore them to their natural direction, until they had
+      become permanently fixed in their obliquity and he was compelled to go
+      through life taking a biased view of all things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Smith walked in, made a diagonal survey of the encampment, which, if he
+      had ever seen &ldquo;Mitchell's Geography,&rdquo; probably reminded
+      him of the picture of a Kaffir village, in that instructive but awfully
+      dull book, and then expressed the opinion that usually welled up to every
+      Rebel's lips:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'll be durned, if you Yanks don't just beat the
+      devil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, we replied with the well-worn prison joke, that we supposed we
+      did, as we beat the Rebels, who were worse than the devil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There rode in among us, a few days after our arrival, an old man whose
+      collar bore the wreathed stars of a Major General. Heavy white locks fell
+      from beneath his slouched hat, nearly to his shoulders. Sunken gray eyes,
+      too dull and cold to light up, marked a hard, stony face, the salient
+      feature of which was a thin-upped, compressed mouth, with corners drawn
+      down deeply&mdash;the mouth which seems the world over to be the index of
+      selfish, cruel, sulky malignance. It is such a mouth as has the school-boy&mdash;the
+      coward of the play ground, who delights in pulling off the wings of flies.
+      It is such a mouth as we can imagine some remorseless inquisitor to have
+      had&mdash;that is, not an inquisitor filled with holy zeal for what he
+      mistakenly thought the cause of Christ demanded, but a spleeny, envious,
+      rancorous shaveling, who tortured men from hatred of their superiority to
+      him, and sheer love of inflicting pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rider was John H. Winder, Commissary General of Prisoners, Baltimorean
+      renegade and the malign genius to whose account should be charged the
+      deaths of more gallant men than all the inquisitors of the world ever slew
+      by the less dreadful rack and wheel. It was he who in August could point
+      to the three thousand and eighty-one new made graves for that month, and
+      exultingly tell his hearer that he was &ldquo;doing more for the
+      Confederacy than twenty regiments.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p132" alt="p132.jpg (13K)" src="images/p132.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His lineage was in accordance with his character. His father was that
+      General William H. Winder, whose poltroonery at Bladensburg, in 1814,
+      nullified the resistance of the gallant Commodore Barney, and gave
+      Washington to the British.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The father was a coward and an incompetent; the son, always cautiously
+      distant from the scene of hostilities, was the tormentor of those whom the
+      fortunes of war, and the arms of brave men threw into his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Winder gazed at us stonily for a few minutes without speaking, and,
+      turning, rode out again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our troubles, from that hour, rapidly increased. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch17" id="ch17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE PLANTATION NEGROS&mdash;NOT STUPID TO BE LOYAL&mdash;THEIR DITHYRAMBIC
+      MUSIC &mdash;COPPERHEAD OPINION OF LONGFELLOW.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stockade was not quite finished at the time of our arrival&mdash;a gap
+      of several hundred feet appearing at the southwest corner. A gang of about
+      two hundred negros were at work felling trees, hewing legs, and placing
+      them upright in the trenches. We had an opportunity&mdash;soon to
+      disappear forever&mdash;of studying the workings of the &ldquo;peculiar
+      institution&rdquo; in its very home. The negros were of the lowest
+      field-hand class, strong, dull, ox-like, but each having in our eyes an
+      admixture of cunning and secretiveness that their masters pretended was
+      not in them. Their demeanor toward us illustrated this. We were the
+      objects of the most supreme interest to them, but when near us and in the
+      presence of a white Rebel, this interest took the shape of stupid,
+      open-eyed, open-mouthed wonder, something akin to the look on the face of
+      the rustic lout, gazing for the first time upon a locomotive or a steam
+      threshing machine. But if chance threw one of them near us when he thought
+      himself unobserved by the Rebels, the blank, vacant face lighted up with
+      an entirely different expression. He was no longer the credulous yokel who
+      believed the Yankees were only slightly modified devils, ready at any
+      instant to return to their original horn-and-tail condition and snatch him
+      away to the bluest kind of perdition; he knew, apparently quite as well as
+      his master, that they were in some way his friends and allies, and he lost
+      no opportunity in communicating his appreciation of that fact, and of
+      offering his services in any possible way. And these offers were sincere.
+      It is the testimony of every Union prisoner in the South that he was never
+      betrayed by or disappointed in a field-negro, but could always approach
+      any one of them with perfect confidence in his extending all the aid in
+      his power, whether as a guide to escape, as sentinel to signal danger, or
+      a purveyor of food. These services were frequently attended with the
+      greatest personal risk, but they were none the less readily undertaken.
+      This applies only to the field-hands; the house servants were treacherous
+      and wholly unreliable. Very many of our men who managed to get away from
+      the prisons were recaptured through their betrayal by house servants, but
+      none were retaken where a field hand could prevent it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were much interested in watching the negro work. They wove in a great
+      deal of their peculiar, wild, mournful music, whenever the character of
+      the labor permitted. They seemed to sing the music for the music's
+      sake alone, and were as heedless of the fitness of the accompanying words,
+      as the composer of a modern opera is of his libretto. One middle aged man,
+      with a powerful, mellow baritone, like the round, full notes of a French
+      horn, played by a virtuoso, was the musical leader of the party. He never
+      seemed to bother himself about air, notes or words, but improvised all as
+      he went along, and he sang as the spirit moved him. He would suddenly
+      break out with&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he's gone up dah, nevah to come back agin,&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this every darkey within hearing would roll out, in admirable
+      consonance with the pitch, air and time started by the leader&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then would ring out from the leader as from the throbbing lips of a silver
+      trumpet,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord bress him soul; I done hope he is happy now!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the antiphonal two hundred would chant back
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on for hours. They never seemed to weary of singing, and we
+      certainly did not of listening to them. The absolute independence of the
+      conventionalities of tune and sentiment, gave them freedom to wander
+      through a kaleideoscopic variety of harmonic effects, as spontaneous and
+      changeful as the song of a bird. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p135" alt="p135.jpg (28K)" src="images/p135.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat one evening, long after the shadows of night had fallen upon the
+      hillside, with one of my chums&mdash;a Frank Berkstresser, of the Ninth
+      Maryland Infantry, who before enlisting was a mathematical tutor in
+      college at Hancock, Maryland. As we listened to the unwearying flow of
+      melody from the camp of the laborers, I thought of and repeated to him
+      Longfellow's fine lines:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE SLAVE SINGING AT MIDNIGHT.
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          And the voice of his devotion<br> Filled my soul with strong emotion;<br>
+          For its tones by turns were glad<br> Sweetly solemn, wildly sad.<br>
+          Paul and Silas, in their prison,<br> Sang of Christ, the Lord arisen,<br>
+          And an earthquake's arm of might<br> Broke their dungeon gates
+          at night.<br> But, alas, what holy angel<br> Brings the slave this
+          glad evangel<br> And what earthquake's arm of might.<br>
+          Breaks his prison gags at night.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      Said I: &ldquo;Now, isn't that fine, Berkstresser?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a Democrat, of fearfully pro-slavery ideas, and he replied,
+      sententiously:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, the poetry's tolerable, but the sentiment's
+      damnable.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch18" id="ch18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SCHEMES AND PLANS TO ESCAPE&mdash;SCALING THE STOCKADE&mdash;ESTABLISHING
+      THE DEAD LINE&mdash;THE FIRST MAN KILLED.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The official designation of our prison was &ldquo;Camp Sumpter,&rdquo; but
+      this was scarcely known outside of the Rebel documents, reports and
+      orders. It was the same way with the prison five miles from Millen, to
+      which we were afterward transferred. The Rebels styled it officially
+      &ldquo;Camp Lawton,&rdquo; but we called it always &ldquo;Millen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having our huts finished, the next solicitude was about escape, and this
+      was the burden of our thoughts, day and night. We held conferences, at
+      which every man was required to contribute all the geographical knowledge
+      of that section of Georgia that he might have left over from his schoolboy
+      days, and also that gained by persistent questioning of such guards and
+      other Rebels as he had come in contact with. When first landed in the
+      prison we were as ignorant of our whereabouts as if we had been dropped
+      into the center of Africa. But one of the prisoners was found to have a
+      fragment of a school atlas, in which was an outline map of Georgia, that
+      had Macon, Atlanta, Milledgeville, and Savannah laid down upon it. As we
+      knew we had come southward from Macon, we felt pretty certain we were in
+      the southwestern corner of the State. Conversations with guards and others
+      gave us the information that the Chattahooche flowed some two score of
+      miles to the westward, and that the Flint lay a little nearer on the east.
+      Our map showed that these two united and flowed together into
+      Appalachicola Bay, where, some of us remembered, a newspaper item had said
+      that we had gunboats stationed. The creek that ran through the stockade
+      flowed to the east, and we reasoned that if we followed its course we
+      would be led to the Flint, down which we could float on a log or raft to
+      the Appalachicola. This was the favorite scheme of the party with which I
+      sided. Another party believed the most feasible plan was to go northward,
+      and endeavor to gain the mountains, and thence get into East Tennessee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the main thing was to get away from the stockade; this, as the French
+      say of all first steps, was what would cost. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p139" id="p139"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p139.jpg (37K)" src="images/p139.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our first attempt was made about a week after our arrival. We found two
+      logs on the east side that were a couple of feet shorter than the rest,
+      and it seemed as if they could be successfully scaled. About fifty of us
+      resolved to make the attempt. We made a rope twenty-five or thirty feet
+      long, and strong enough to bear a man, out of strings and strips of cloth.
+      A stout stick was fastened to the end, so that it would catch on the logs
+      on either side of the gap. On a night dark enough to favor our scheme, we
+      gathered together, drew cuts to determine each boy's place in the
+      line, fell in single rank, according to this arrangement, and marched to
+      the place. The line was thrown skillfully, the stick caught fairly in the
+      notch, and the boy who had drawn number one climbed up amid a suspense so
+      keen that I could hear my heart beating. It seemed ages before he reached
+      the top, and that the noise he made must certainly attract the attention
+      of the guard. It did not. We saw our comrade's. figure outlined
+      against the sky as he slid, over the top, and then heard the dull thump as
+      he sprang to the ground on the other side. &ldquo;Number two,&rdquo; was
+      whispered by our leader, and he performed the feat as successfully as his
+      predecessor. &ldquo;Number, three,&rdquo; and he followed noiselessly and
+      quickly. Thus it went on, until, just as we heard number fifteen drop, we
+      also heard a Rebel voice say in a vicious undertone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Halt! halt, there, d&mdash;n you!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was enough. The game was up; we were discovered, and the remaining
+      thirty-five of us left that locality with all the speed in our heels,
+      getting away just in time to escape a volley which a squad of guards,
+      posted in the lookouts, poured upon the spot where we had been standing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning the fifteen who had got over the Stockade were brought
+      in, each chained to a sixty-four pound ball. Their story was that one of
+      the N'Yaarkers, who had become cognizant of our scheme, had sought
+      to obtain favor in the Rebel eyes by betraying us. The Rebels stationed a
+      squad at the crossing place, and as each man dropped down from the
+      Stockade he was caught by the shoulder, the muzzle of a revolver thrust
+      into his face, and an order to surrender whispered into his ear. It was
+      expected that the guards in the sentry-boxes would do such execution among
+      those of us still inside as would prove a warning to other would-be
+      escapes. They were defeated in this benevolent intention by the readiness
+      with which we divined the meaning of that incautiously loud halt, and our
+      alacrity in leaving the unhealthy locality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traitorous N'Yaarker was rewarded with a detail into the
+      commissary department, where he fed and fattened like a rat that had
+      secured undisturbed homestead rights in the center of a cheese. When the
+      miserable remnant of us were leaving Andersonville months afterward, I saw
+      him, sleek, rotund, and well-clothed, lounging leisurely in the door of a
+      tent. He regarded us a moment contemptuously, and then went on conversing
+      with a fellow N'Yaarker, in the foul slang that none but such as he
+      were low enough to use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have always imagined that the fellow returned home, at the close of the
+      war, and became a prominent member of Tweed's gang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We protested against the barbarity of compelling men to wear irons for
+      exercising their natural right of attempting to escape, but no attention
+      was paid to our protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another result of this abortive effort was the establishment of the
+      notorious &ldquo;Dead Line.&rdquo; A few days later a gang of negros came
+      in and drove a line of stakes down at a distance of twenty feet from the
+      stockade. They nailed upon this a strip of stuff four inches wide, and
+      then an order was issued that if this was crossed, or even touched, the
+      guards would fire upon the offender without warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our surveyor figured up this new contraction of our space, and came to the
+      conclusion that the Dead Line and the Swamp took up about three acres, and
+      we were left now only thirteen acres. This was not of much consequence
+      then, however, as we still had plenty of room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first man was killed the morning after the Dead-Line was put up. The
+      victim was a German, wearing the white crescent of the Second Division of
+      the Eleventh Corps, whom we had nicknamed &ldquo;Sigel.&rdquo; Hardship
+      and exposure had crazed him, and brought on a severe attack of St. Vitus's
+      dance. As he went hobbling around with a vacuous grin upon his face, he
+      spied an old piece of cloth lying on the ground inside the Dead Line. He
+      stooped down and reached under for it. At that instant the guard fired.
+      The charge of ball-and-buck entered the poor old fellow's shoulder
+      and tore through his body. He fell dead, still clutching the dirty rag
+      that had cost him his Life. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch19" id="ch19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      CAPT. HENRI WIRZ&mdash;SOME DESCRIPTION OF A SMALL-MINDED PERSONAGE, WHO
+      GAINED GREAT NOTORIETY&mdash;FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH HIS DISCIPLINARY
+      METHOD.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The emptying of the prisons at Danville and Richmond into Andersonville
+      went on slowly during the month of March. They came in by train loads of
+      from five hundred to eight hundred, at intervals of two or three days. By
+      the end of the month there were about five thousand in the stockade. There
+      was a fair amount of space for this number, and as yet we suffered no
+      inconvenience from our crowding, though most persons would fancy that
+      thirteen acres of ground was a rather limited area for five thousand men
+      to live, move and have their being a upon. Yet a few weeks later we were
+      to see seven times that many packed into that space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning a new Rebel officer came in to superintend calling the roll.
+      He was an undersized, fidgety man, with an insignificant face, and a mouth
+      that protruded like a rabbit's. His bright little eyes, like those
+      of a squirrel or a rat, assisted in giving his countenance a look of
+      kinship to the family of rodent animals&mdash;a genus which lives by
+      stealth and cunning, subsisting on that which it can steal away from
+      stronger and braver creatures. He was dressed in a pair of gray trousers,
+      with the other part of his body covered with a calico garment, like that
+      which small boys used to wear, called &ldquo;waists.&rdquo; This was
+      fastened to the pantaloons by buttons, precisely as was the custom with
+      the garments of boys struggling with the orthography of words in two
+      syllables. Upon his head was perched a little gray cap. Sticking in his
+      belt, and fastened to his wrist by a strap two or three feet long, was one
+      of those formidable looking, but harmless English revolvers, that have ten
+      barrels around the edge of the cylinder, and fire a musket-bullet from the
+      center. The wearer of this composite costume, and bearer of this amateur
+      arsenal, stepped nervously about and sputtered volubly in very broken
+      English. He said to Wry-Necked Smith:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Py Gott, you don't vatch dem dam Yankees glose enough! Dey
+      are schlippin' rount, and peatin' you efery dimes.&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p143" alt="p143.jpg (16K)" src="images/p143.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was Captain Henri Wirz, the new commandant of the interior of the
+      prison. There has been a great deal of misapprehension of the character of
+      Wirz. He is usually regarded as a villain of large mental caliber, and
+      with a genius for cruelty. He was nothing of the kind. He was simply
+      contemptible, from whatever point of view he was studied. Gnat-brained,
+      cowardly, and feeble natured, he had not a quality that commanded respect
+      from any one who knew him. His cruelty did not seem designed so much as
+      the ebullitions of a peevish, snarling little temper, united to a mind
+      incapable of conceiving the results of his acts, or understanding the pain
+      he was Inflicting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never heard anything of his profession or vocation before entering the
+      army. I always believed, however, that he had been a cheap clerk in a
+      small dry-goods store, a third or fourth rate book-keeper, or something
+      similar. Imagine, if you please, one such, who never had brains or
+      self-command sufficient to control himself, placed in command of
+      thirty-five thousand men. Being a fool he could not help being an
+      infliction to them, even with the best of intentions, and Wirz was not
+      troubled with good intentions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I mention the probability of his having been a dry-goods clerk or
+      book-keeper, not with any disrespect to two honorable vocations, but
+      because Wirz had had some training as an accountant, and this was what
+      gave him the place over us. Rebels, as a rule, are astonishingly ignorant
+      of arithmetic and accounting, generally. They are good shots, fine
+      horsemen, ready speakers and ardent politicians, but, like all
+      noncommercial people, they flounder hopelessly in what people of this
+      section would consider simple mathematical processes. One of our constant
+      amusements was in befogging and &ldquo;beating&rdquo; those charged with
+      calling rolls and issuing rations. It was not at all difficult at times to
+      make a hundred men count as a hundred and ten, and so on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wirz could count beyond one hundred, and this determined his selection for
+      the place. His first move was a stupid change. We had been grouped in the
+      natural way into hundreds and thousands. He re-arranged the men in &ldquo;squads&rdquo;
+      of ninety, and three of these&mdash;two hundred and seventy men &mdash;into
+      a &ldquo;detachment.&rdquo; The detachments were numbered in order from
+      the North Gate, and the squads were numbered &ldquo;one, two, three.&rdquo;
+      On the rolls this was stated after the man's name. For instance, a
+      chum of mine, and in the same squad with me, was Charles L. Soule, of the
+      Third Michigan Infantry. His name appeared on the rolls:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chas. L. Soule, priv. Co. E, 8d Mich. Inf., 1-2.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is, he belonged to the Second Squad of the First Detachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where Wirz got his, preposterous idea of organization from has always been
+      a mystery to me. It was awkward in every way&mdash;in drawing rations,
+      counting, dividing into messes, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wirz was not long in giving us a taste of his quality. The next morning
+      after his first appearance he came in when roll-call was sounded, and
+      ordered all the squads and detachments to form, and remain standing in
+      ranks until all were counted. Any soldier will say that there is no duty
+      more annoying and difficult than standing still in ranks for any
+      considerable length of time, especially when there is nothing to do or to
+      engage the attention. It took Wirz between two and three hours to count
+      the whole camp, and by that time we of the first detachments were almost
+      all out of ranks. Thereupon Wirz announced that no rations would be issued
+      to the camp that day. The orders to stand in ranks were repeated the next
+      morning, with a warning that a failure to obey would be punished as that
+      of the previous day had been. Though we were so hungry, that, to use the
+      words of a Thirty-Fifth Pennsylvanian standing next to me&mdash;his
+      &ldquo;big intestines were eating his little ones up,&rdquo; it was
+      impossible to keep the rank formation during the long hours. One man after
+      another straggled away, and again we lost our rations. That afternoon we
+      became desperate. Plots were considered for a daring assault to force the
+      gates or scale the stockade. The men were crazy enough to attempt anything
+      rather than sit down and patiently starve. Many offered themselves as
+      leaders in any attempt that it might be thought best to make. The
+      hopelessness of any such venture was apparent, even to famished men, and
+      the propositions went no farther than inflammatory talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third morning the orders were again repeated. This time we succeeded
+      in remaining in ranks in such a manner as to satisfy Wirz, and we were
+      given our rations for that day, but those of the other days were
+      permanently withheld.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon Wirz ventured into camp alone. He was assailed with a storm
+      of curses and execrations, and a shower of clubs. He pulled out his
+      revolver, as if to fire upon his assailants. A yell was raised to take his
+      pistol away from him and a crowd rushed forward to do this. Without
+      waiting to fire a shot, he turned and ran to the gate for dear life. He
+      did not come in again for a long while, and never afterward without a
+      retinue of guards. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch20" id="ch20"></a>CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      PRIZE-FIGHT AMONG THE N'YAARKERS&mdash;A GREAT MANY FORMALITIES, AND
+      LITTLE BLOOD SPILT&mdash;A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO RECOVER A WATCH&mdash;DEFEAT
+      OF THE LAW AND ORDER PARTY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the train-loads from Richmond was almost wholly made up of our old
+      acquaintances&mdash;the N'Yaarkers. The number of these had swelled
+      to four hundred or five hundred&mdash;all leagued together in the
+      fellowship of crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We did not manifest any keen desire for intimate social relations with
+      them, and they did not seem to hunger for our society, so they moved
+      across the creek to the unoccupied South Side, and established their camp
+      there, at a considerable distance from us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon a number of us went across to their camp, to witness a fight
+      according to the rules of the Prize Ring, which was to come off between
+      two professional pugilists. These were a couple of bounty-jumpers who had
+      some little reputation in New York sporting circles, under the names of
+      the &ldquo;Staleybridge Chicken&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Haarlem Infant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the way from Richmond a cast-iron skillet, or spider, had been stolen
+      by the crowd from the Rebels. It was a small affair, holding a half
+      gallon, and worth to-day about fifty cents. In Andersonville its worth was
+      literally above rubies. Two men belonging to different messes each claimed
+      the ownership of the utensil, on the ground of being most active in
+      securing it. Their claims were strenuously supported by their respective
+      messes, at the heads of which were the aforesaid Infant and Chicken. A
+      great deal of strong talk, and several indecisive knock-downs resulted in
+      an agreement to settle the matter by wager of battle between the Infant
+      and Chicken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we arrived a twenty-four foot ring had been prepared by drawing a
+      deep mark in the sand. In diagonally opposite corners of these the seconds
+      were kneeling on one knee and supporting their principals on the other by
+      their sides they had little vessels of water, and bundles of rags to
+      answer for sponges. Another corner was occupied by the umpire, a
+      foul-mouthed, loud-tongued Tombs shyster, named Pete Bradley. A
+      long-bodied, short-legged hoodlum, nick-named &ldquo;Heenan,&rdquo; armed
+      with a club, acted as ring keeper, and &ldquo;belted&rdquo; back,
+      remorselessly, any of the spectators who crowded over the line. Did he see
+      a foot obtruding itself so much as an inch over the mark in the sand&mdash;and
+      the pressure from the crowd behind was so great that it was difficult for
+      the front fellows to keep off the line&mdash;his heavy club and a blasting
+      curse would fall upon the offender simultaneously. <br><br><br><br>
+
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p147" alt="p147.jpg (38K)" src="images/p147.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every effort was made to have all things conform as nearly as possible to
+      the recognized practices of the &ldquo;London Prize Ring.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Bradley's call of &ldquo;Time!&rdquo; the principals would rise
+      from their seconds' knees, advance briskly to the scratch across the
+      center of the ring, and spar away sharply for a little time, until one got
+      in a blow that sent the other to the ground, where he would lie until his
+      second picked him up, carried him back, washed his face off, and gave him
+      a drink. He then rested until the next call of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This sort of performance went on for an hour or more, with the knockdowns
+      and other casualities pretty evenly divided between the two. Then it
+      became apparent that the Infant was getting more than he had storage room
+      for. His interest in the skillet was evidently abating, the leering grin
+      he wore upon his face during the early part of the engagement had
+      disappeared long ago, as the successive &ldquo;hot ones&rdquo; which the
+      Chicken had succeeded in planting upon his mouth, put it out of his power
+      to &ldquo;smile and smile,&rdquo; &ldquo;e'en though he might still
+      be a villain.&rdquo; He began coming up to the scratch as sluggishly as a
+      hired man starting out for his day's work, and finally he did not
+      come up at all. A bunch of blood soaked rags was tossed into the air from
+      his corner, and Bradley declared the Chicken to be the victor, amid
+      enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We voted the thing rather tame. In the whole hour and a-half there was not
+      so much savage fighting, not so much damage done, as a couple of earnest,
+      but unscientific men, who have no time to waste, will frequently crowd
+      into an impromptu affair not exceeding five minutes in duration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our next visit to the N'Yaarkers was on a different errand. The
+      moment they arrived in camp we began to be annoyed by their depredations.
+      Blankets&mdash;the sole protection of men&mdash;would be snatched off as
+      they slept at night. Articles of clothing and cooking utensils would go
+      the same way, and occasionally a man would be robbed in open daylight. All
+      these, it was believed, with good reason, were the work of the N'Yaarkers,
+      and the stolen things were conveyed to their camp. Occasionally
+      depredators would be caught and beaten, but they would give a signal which
+      would bring to their assistance the whole body of N'Yaarkers, and
+      turn the tables on their assailants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had in our squad a little watchmaker named Dan Martin, of the Eighth
+      New York Infantry. Other boys let him take their watches to tinker up, so
+      as to make a show of running, and be available for trading to the guards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day Martin was at the creek, when a N'Yaarker asked him to let
+      him look at a watch. Martin incautiously did so, when the N'Yaarker
+      snatched it and sped away to the camp of his crowd. Martin ran back to us
+      and told his story. This was the last feather which was to break the camel's
+      back of our patience. Peter Bates, of the Third Michigan, the Sergeant of
+      our squad, had considerable confidence in his muscular ability. He flamed
+      up into mighty wrath, and swore a sulphurous oath that we would get that
+      watch back, whereupon about two hundred of us avowed our willingness to
+      help reclaim it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each of us providing ourselves with a club, we started on our errand. The
+      rest of the camp&mdash;about four thousand&mdash;gathered on the hillside
+      to watch us. We thought they might have sent us some assistance, as it was
+      about as much their fight as ours, but they did not, and we were too proud
+      to ask it. The crossing of the swamp was quite difficult. Only one could
+      go over at a time, and he very slowly. The N'Yaarkers understood
+      that trouble was pending, and they began mustering to receive us. From the
+      way they turned out it was evident that we should have come over with
+      three hundred instead of two hundred, but it was too late then to alter
+      the program. As we came up a stalwart Irishman stepped out and asked us
+      what we wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bates replied: &ldquo;We have come over to get a watch that one of your
+      fellows took from one of ours, and by &mdash;- we're going to have
+      it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Irishman's reply was equally explicit though not strictly
+      logical in construction. Said he: &ldquo;We havn't got your watch,
+      and be ye can't have it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This joined the issue just as fairly as if it had been done by all the
+      documentary formula that passed between Turkey and Russia prior to the
+      late war. Bates and the Irishman then exchanged very derogatory opinions
+      of each other, and began striking with their clubs. The rest of us took
+      this as our cue, and each, selecting as small a N'Yaarker as we
+      could readily find, sailed in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a very expressive bit of slang coming into general use in the
+      West, which speaks of a man &ldquo;biting off more than he can chew.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is what we had done. We had taken a contract that we should have
+      divided, and sub-let the bigger half. Two minutes after the engagement
+      became general there was no doubt that we would have been much better off
+      if we had staid on our own side of the creek. The watch was a very poor
+      one, anyhow. We thought we would just say good day to our N'Yaark
+      friends, and return home hastily. But they declined to be left so
+      precipitately. They wanted to stay with us awhile. It was lots of fun for
+      them, and for the four thousand yelling spectators on the opposite hill,
+      who were greatly enjoying our discomfiture. There was hardly enough of the
+      amusement to go clear around, however, and it all fell short just before
+      it reached us. We earnestly wished that some of the boys would come over
+      and help us let go of the N'Yaarkers, but they were enjoying the
+      thing too much to interfere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were driven down the hill, pell-mell, with the N'Yaarkers
+      pursuing hotly with yell and blow. At the swamp we tried to make a stand
+      to secure our passage across, but it was only partially successful. Very
+      few got back without some severe hurts, and many received blows that
+      greatly hastened their deaths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this the N'Yaarkers became bolder in their robberies, and more
+      arrogant in their demeanor than ever, and we had the poor revenge upon
+      those who would not assist us, of seeing a reign of terror inaugurated
+      over the whole camp. <br><br><br><br> <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch21" id="ch21"></a>CHAPTER XXI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DIMINISHING RATIONS&mdash;A DEADLY COLD RAIN&mdash;HOVERING OVER PITCH
+      PINE FIRES &mdash;INCREASE ON MORTALITY&mdash;A THEORY OF HEALTH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rations diminished perceptibly day by day. When we first entered we
+      each received something over a quart of tolerably good meal, a sweet
+      potato, a piece of meat about the size of one's two fingers, and
+      occasionally a spoonful of salt. First the salt disappeared. Then the
+      sweet potato took unto itself wings and flew away, never to return. An
+      attempt was ostensibly made to issue us cow-peas instead, and the first
+      issue was only a quart to a detachment of two hundred and seventy men.
+      This has two-thirds of a pint to each squad of ninety, and made but a few
+      spoonfuls for each of the four messes in the squad. When it came to
+      dividing among the men, the beans had to be counted. Nobody received
+      enough to pay for cooking, and we were at a loss what to do until somebody
+      suggested that we play poker for them. This met general acceptance, and
+      after that, as long as beans were drawn, a large portion of the day was
+      spent in absorbing games of &ldquo;bluff&rdquo; and &ldquo;draw,&rdquo; at
+      a bean &ldquo;ante,&rdquo; and no &ldquo;limit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a number of hours' diligent playing, some lucky or skillful
+      player would be in possession of all the beans in a mess, a squad, and
+      sometimes a detachment, and have enough for a good meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next the meal began to diminish in quantity and deteriorate in quality. It
+      became so exceedingly coarse that the common remark was that the next step
+      would be to bring us the corn in the shock, and feed it to us like stock.
+      Then meat followed suit with the rest. The rations decreased in size, and
+      the number of days that we did not get any, kept constantly increasing in
+      proportion to the days that we did, until eventually the meat bade us a
+      final adieu, and joined the sweet potato in that undiscovered country from
+      whose bourne no ration ever returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fuel and building material in the stockade were speedily exhausted.
+      The later comers had nothing whatever to build shelter with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, after the Spring rains had fairly set in, it seemed that we had not
+      tasted misery until then. About the middle of March the windows of heaven
+      opened, and it began a rain like that of the time of Noah. It was tropical
+      in quantity and persistency, and arctic in temperature. For dreary hours
+      that lengthened into weary days and nights, and these again into
+      never-ending weeks, the driving, drenching flood poured down upon the
+      sodden earth, searching the very marrow of the five thousand hapless men
+      against whose chilled frames it beat with pitiless monotony, and soaked
+      the sand bank upon which we lay until it was like a sponge filled with
+      ice-water. It seems to me now that it must have been two or three weeks
+      that the sun was wholly hidden behind the dripping clouds, not shining out
+      once in all that time. The intervals when it did not rain were rare and
+      short. An hour's respite would be followed by a day of steady,
+      regular pelting of the great rain drops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I find that the report of the Smithsonian Institute gives the average
+      annual rainfall in the section around Andersonville, at fifty-six inches
+      &mdash;nearly five feet&mdash;while that of foggy England is only
+      thirty-two. Our experience would lead me to think that we got the five
+      feet all at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We first comers, who had huts, were measurably better off than the later
+      arrivals. It was much drier in our leaf-thatched tents, and we were spared
+      much of the annoyance that comes from the steady dash of rain against the
+      body for hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The condition of those who had no tents was truly pitiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They sat or lay on the hill-side the live-long day and night, and took the
+      washing flow with such gloomy composure as they could muster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All soldiers will agree with me that there is no campaigning hardship
+      comparable to a cold rain. One can brace up against the extremes of heat
+      and cold, and mitigate their inclemency in various ways. But there is no
+      escaping a long-continued, chilling rain. It seems to penetrate to the
+      heart, and leach away the very vital force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only relief attainable was found in huddling over little fires kept
+      alive by small groups with their slender stocks of wood. As this wood was
+      all pitch-pine, that burned with a very sooty flame, the effect upon the
+      appearance of the hoverers was, startling. Face, neck and hands became
+      covered with mixture of lampblack and turpentine, forming a coating as
+      thick as heavy brown paper, and absolutely irremovable by water alone. The
+      hair also became of midnight blackness, and gummed up into elflocks of
+      fantastic shape and effect. Any one of us could have gone on the negro
+      minstrel stage, without changing a hair, and put to blush the most
+      elaborate make-up of the grotesque burnt-cork artists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No wood was issued to us. The only way of getting it was to stand around
+      the gate for hours until a guard off duty could be coaxed or hired to
+      accompany a small party to the woods, to bring back a load of such knots
+      and limbs as could be picked up. Our chief persuaders to the guards to do
+      us this favor were rings, pencils, knives, combs, and such trifles as we
+      might have in our pockets, and, more especially, the brass buttons on our
+      uniforms. Rebel soldiers, like Indians, negros and other imperfectly
+      civilized people, were passionately fond of bright and gaudy things. A
+      handful of brass buttons would catch every one of them as swiftly and as
+      surely as a piece of red flannel will a gudgeon. Our regular fee for an
+      escort for three of us to the woods was six over-coat or dress-coat
+      buttons, or ten or twelve jacket buttons. All in the mess contributed to
+      this fund, and the fuel obtained was carefully guarded and husbanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This manner of conducting the wood business is a fair sample of the
+      management, or rather the lack of it, of every other detail of prison
+      administration. All the hardships we suffered from lack of fuel and
+      shelter could have been prevented without the slightest expense or trouble
+      to the Confederacy. Two hundred men allowed to go out on parole, and
+      supplied with ages, would have brought in from the adjacent woods, in a
+      week's time, enough material to make everybody comfortable tents,
+      and to supply all the fuel needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mortality caused by the storm was, of course, very great. The official
+      report says the total number in the prison in March was four thousand six
+      hundred and three, of whom two hundred and eighty-three died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the first to die was the one whom we expected to live longest. He
+      was by much the largest man in prison, and was called, because of this,
+      &ldquo;BIG JOE.&rdquo; He was a Sergeant in the Fifth Pennsylvania
+      Cavalry, and seemed the picture of health. One morning the news ran
+      through the prison that &ldquo;Big Joe is dead,&rdquo; and a visit to his
+      squad showed his stiff, lifeless form, occupying as much ground as Goliath's,
+      after his encounter with David.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His early demise was an example of a general law, the workings of which
+      few in the army failed to notice. It was always the large and strong who
+      first succumbed to hardship. The stalwart, huge-limbed, toil-inured men
+      sank down earliest on the march, yielded soonest to malarial influences,
+      and fell first under the combined effects of home-sickness, exposure and
+      the privations of army life. The slender, withy boys, as supple and weak
+      as cats, had apparently the nine lives of those animals. There were few
+      exceptions to this rule in the army&mdash;there were none in
+      Andersonville. I can recall few or no instances where a large, strong,
+      &ldquo;hearty&rdquo; man lived through a few months of imprisonment. The
+      survivors were invariably youths, at the verge of manhood,&mdash;slender,
+      quick, active, medium-statured fellows, of a cheerful temperament, in whom
+      one would have expected comparatively little powers of endurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The theory which I constructed for my own private use in accounting for
+      this phenomenon I offer with proper diffidence to others who may be in
+      search of a hypothesis to explain facts that they have observed. It is
+      this:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      a. The circulation of the blood maintains health, and consequently life by
+      carrying away from the various parts of the body the particles of worn-out
+      and poisonous tissue, and replacing them with fresh, structure-building
+      material.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      b. The man is healthiest in whom this process goes on most freely and
+      continuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      c. Men of considerable muscular power are disposed to be sluggish; the
+      exertion of great strength does not favor circulation. It rather retards
+      it, and disturbs its equilibrium by congesting the blood in quantities in
+      the sets of muscles called into action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      d. In light, active men, on the other hand, the circulation goes on
+      perfectly and evenly, because all the parts are put in motion, and kept so
+      in such a manner as to promote the movement of the blood to every
+      extremity. They do not strain one set of muscles by long continued effort,
+      as a strong man does, but call one into play after another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no compulsion on the reader to accept this speculation at any
+      valuation whatever. There is not even any charge for it. I will lay down
+      this simple axiom:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No strong man, is a healthy man
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      from the athlete in the circus who lifts pieces of artillery and catches
+      cannon balls, to the exhibition swell in a country gymnasium. If my theory
+      is not a sufficient explanation of this, there is nothing to prevent the
+      reader from building up one to suit him better. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch22" id="ch22"></a>CHAPTER XXII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ALABAMIANS AND GEORGIANS&mdash;DEATH OF &ldquo;POLL
+      PARROTT&rdquo; &mdash;A GOOD JOKE UPON THE GUARD&mdash;A BRUTAL RASCAL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two regiments guarding us&mdash;the Twenty-Sixth Alabama and
+      the Fifty-Fifth Georgia. Never were two regiments of the same army more
+      different. The Alabamians were the superiors of the Georgians in every way
+      that one set of men could be superior to another. They were manly,
+      soldierly, and honorable, where the Georgians were treacherous and brutal.
+      We had nothing to complain of at the hands of the Alabamians; we suffered
+      from the Georgians everything that mean-spirited cruelty could devise. The
+      Georgians were always on the look-out for something that they could
+      torture into such apparent violation of orders, as would justify them in
+      shooting men down; the Alabamians never fired until they were satisfied
+      that a deliberate offense was intended. I can recall of my own seeing at
+      least a dozen instances where men of the Fifty-Fifth Georgia Killed
+      prisoners under the pretense that they were across the Dead Line, when the
+      victims were a yard or more from the Dead Line, and had not the remotest
+      idea of going any nearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only man I ever knew to be killed by one of the Twenty-Sixth Alabama
+      was named Hubbard, from Chicago, Ills., and a member of the Thirty-Eighth
+      Illinois. He had lost one leg, and went hobbling about the camp on
+      crutches, chattering continually in a loud, discordant voice, saying all
+      manner of hateful and annoying things, wherever he saw an opportunity.
+      This and his beak-like nose gained for him the name of &ldquo;Poll Parrot.&rdquo;
+      His misfortune caused him to be tolerated where another man would have
+      been suppressed. By-and-by he gave still greater cause for offense by his
+      obsequious attempts to curry favor with Captain Wirz, who took him outside
+      several times for purposes that were not well explained. Finally, some
+      hours after one of Poll Parrot's visits outside, a Rebel officer
+      came in with a guard, and, proceeding with suspicious directness to a tent
+      which was the mouth of a large tunnel that a hundred men or more had been
+      quietly pushing forward, broke the tunnel in, and took the occupants of
+      the tent outside for punishment. The question that demanded immediate
+      solution then was:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is the traitor who has informed the Rebels?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suspicion pointed very strongly to &ldquo;Poll Parrot.&rdquo; By the next
+      morning the evidence collected seemed to amount to a certainty, and a
+      crowd caught the Parrot with the intention of lynching him. He succeeded
+      in breaking away from them and ran under the Dead Line, near where I was
+      sitting in, my tent. At first it looked as if he had done this to secure
+      the protection of the guard. The latter&mdash;a Twenty-Sixth Alabamian
+      &mdash;ordered him out. Poll Parrot rose up on his one leg, put his back
+      against the Dead Line, faced the guard, and said in his harsh, cackling
+      voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; I won't go out. If I've lost the confidence of my
+      comrades I want to die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Part of the crowd were taken back by this move, and felt disposed to
+      accept it as a demonstration of the Parrot's innocence. The rest
+      thought it was a piece of bravado, because of his belief that the Rebels
+      would not injure, him after he had served them. They renewed their yells,
+      the guard again ordered the Parrot out, but the latter, tearing open his
+      blouse, cackled out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I won't go; fire at me, guard. There's my heart
+      shoot me right there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no help for it. The Rebel leveled his gun and fired. The charge
+      struck the Parrot's lower jaw, and carried it completely away,
+      leaving his tongue and the roof of his mouth exposed. As he was carried
+      back to die, he wagged his tongue rigorously, in attempting to speak, but
+      it was of no use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guard set his gun down and buried his face in his hands. It was the
+      only time that I saw a sentinel show anything but exultation at killing a
+      Yankee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A ludicrous contrast to this took place a few nights later. The rains had
+      ceased, the weather had become warmer, and our spirits rising with this
+      increase in the comfort of our surroundings, a number of us were sitting
+      around &ldquo;Nosey&rdquo;&mdash;a boy with a superb tenor voice&mdash;who
+      was singing patriotic songs. We were coming in strong on the chorus, in a
+      way that spoke vastly more for our enthusiasm for the Union than our
+      musical knowledge. &ldquo;Nosey&rdquo; sang the &ldquo;Star Spangled
+      Banner,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Battle Cry of Freedom,&rdquo; &ldquo;Brave Boys
+      are They,&rdquo; etc., capitally, and we threw our whole lungs into the
+      chorus. It was quite dark, and while our noise was going on the guards
+      changed, new men coming on duty. Suddenly, bang! went the gun of the guard
+      in the box about fifty feet away from us. We knew it was a Fifty-Fifth
+      Georgian, and supposed that, irritated at our singing, he was trying to
+      kill some of us for spite. At the sound of the gun we jumped up and
+      scattered. As no one gave the usual agonized yell of a prisoner when shot,
+      we supposed the ball had not taken effect. We could hear the sentinel
+      ramming down another cartridge, hear him &ldquo;return rammer,&rdquo; and
+      cock his rifle. Again the gun cracked, and again there was no sound of
+      anybody being hit. Again we could hear the sentry churning down another
+      cartridge. The drums began beating the long roll in the camps, and
+      officers could be heard turning the men out. The thing was becoming
+      exciting, and one of us sang out to the guard:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;S-a-y! What the are you shooting at, any how?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm a shootin' at that &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;
+      Yank thar by the Dead Line, and by &mdash;- if you'uns don't
+      take him in I'll blow the whole head offn him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What Yank? Where's any Yank?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, thar&mdash;right thar&mdash;a-standin' agin the Ded
+      Line.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you Rebel fool, that's a chunk of wood. You can't
+      get any furlough for shooting that!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this there was a general roar from the rest of the camp, which the
+      other guards took up, and as the Reserves came double-quicking up, and
+      learned the occasion of the alarm, they gave the rascal who had been so
+      anxious to kill somebody a torrent of abuse for having disturbed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A part of our crowd had been out after wood during the day, and secured a
+      piece of a log as large as two of them could carry, and bringing it in,
+      stood it up near the Dead Line. When the guard mounted to his post he was
+      sure he saw a temerarious Yankee in front of him, and hastened to slay
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an unusual good fortune that nobody was struck. It was very rare
+      that the guards fired into the prison without hitting at least one person.
+      The Georgia Reserves, who formed our guards later in the season, were
+      armed with an old gun called a Queen Anne musket, altered to percussion.
+      It carried a bullet as big as a large marble, and three or four buckshot.
+      When fired into a group of men it was sure to bring several down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was standing one day in the line at the gate, waiting for a chance to go
+      out after wood. A Fifty-Fifth Georgian was the gate guard, and he drew a
+      line in the sand with his bayonet which we should not cross. The crowd
+      behind pushed one man till he put his foot a few inches over the line, to
+      save himself from falling; the guard sank a bayonet through the foot as
+      quick as a flash. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch23" id="ch23"></a>CHAPTER XXIII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A NEW LOT OF PRISONERS&mdash;THE BATTLE OF OOLUSTEE&mdash;MEN SACRIFICED
+      TO A GENERAL'S INCOMPETENCY&mdash;A HOODLUM REINFORCEMENT&mdash;A
+      QUEER CROWD &mdash;MISTREATMENT OF AN OFFICER OF A COLORED REGIMENT&mdash;KILLING
+      THE SERGEANT OF A NEGRO SQUAD.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So far only old prisoners&mdash;those taken at Gettysburg, Chicamauga and
+      Mine Run&mdash;had been brought in. The armies had been very quiet during
+      the Winter, preparing for the death grapple in the Spring. There had been
+      nothing done, save a few cavalry raids, such as our own, and Averill's
+      attempt to gain and break up the Rebel salt works at Wytheville, and
+      Saltville. Consequently none but a few cavalry prisoners were added to the
+      number already in the hands of the Rebels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first lot of new ones came in about the middle of March. There were
+      about seven hundred of them, who had been captured at the battle of
+      Oolustee, Fla., on the 20th of February. About five hundred of them were
+      white, and belonged to the Seventh Connecticut, the Seventh New Hampshire,
+      Forty Seventh, Forty-Eighth and One Hundred and Fifteenth New York, and
+      Sherman's regular battery. The rest were colored, and belonged to
+      the Eighth United States, and Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts. The story they
+      told of the battle was one which had many shameful reiterations during the
+      war. It was the story told whenever Banks, Sturgis, Butler, or one of a
+      host of similar smaller failures were trusted with commands. It was a
+      senseless waste of the lives of private soldiers, and the property of the
+      United States by pretentious blunderers, who, in some inscrutable manner,
+      had attained to responsible commands. In this instance, a bungling
+      Brigadier named Seymore had marched his forces across the State of
+      Florida, to do he hardly knew what, and in the neighborhood of an enemy of
+      whose numbers, disposition, location, and intentions he was profoundly
+      ignorant. The Rebels, under General Finnegan, waited till he had strung
+      his command along through swamps and cane brakes, scores of miles from his
+      supports, and then fell unexpectedly upon his advance. The regiment was
+      overpowered, and another regiment that hurried up to its support, suffered
+      the same fate. The balance of the regiments were sent in in the same
+      manner&mdash;each arriving on the field just after its predecessor had
+      been thoroughly whipped by the concentrated force of the Rebels. The men
+      fought gallantly, but the stupidity of a Commanding General is a thing
+      that the gods themselves strive against in vain. We suffered a humiliating
+      defeat, with a loss of two thousand men and a fine rifled battery, which
+      was brought to Andersonville and placed in position to command the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The majority of the Seventh New Hampshire were an unwelcome addition to
+      our numbers. They were N'Yaarkers&mdash;old time colleagues of those
+      already in with us&mdash;veteran bounty jumpers, that had been drawn to
+      New Hampshire by the size of the bounty offered there, and had been
+      assigned to fill up the wasted ranks of the veteran Seventh regiment. They
+      had tried to desert as soon as they received their bounty, but the
+      Government clung to them literally with hooks of steel, sending many of
+      them to the regiment in irons. Thus foiled, they deserted to the Rebels
+      during the retreat from the battlefield. They were quite an accession to
+      the force of our N'Yaarkers, and helped much to establish the
+      hoodlum reign which was shortly inaugurated over the whole prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Forty-Eighth New Yorkers who came in were a set of chaps so odd in
+      every way as to be a source of never-failing interest. The name of their
+      regiment was 'L'Enfants Perdu' (the Lost Children),
+      which we anglicized into &ldquo;The Lost Ducks.&rdquo; It was believed
+      that every nation in Europe was represented in their ranks, and it used to
+      be said jocularly, that no two of them spoke the same language. As near as
+      I could find out they were all or nearly all South Europeans, Italians,
+      Spaniards; Portuguese, Levantines, with a predominance of the French
+      element. They wore a little cap with an upturned brim, and a strap resting
+      on the chin, a coat with funny little tales about two inches long, and a
+      brass chain across the breast; and for pantaloons they had a sort of a
+      petticoat reaching to the knees, and sewed together down the middle. They
+      were just as singular otherwise as in their looks, speech and uniform. On
+      one occasion the whole mob of us went over in a mass to their squad to see
+      them cook and eat a large water snake, which two of them had succeeded in
+      capturing in the swamps, and carried off to their mess, jabbering in high
+      glee over their treasure trove. Any of us were ready to eat a piece of
+      dog, cat, horse or mule, if we could get it, but, it was generally agreed,
+      as Dawson, of my company expressed it, that &ldquo;Nobody but one of them
+      darned queer Lost Ducks would eat a varmint like a water snake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Albert Bogle, of the Eighth United States, (colored) had fallen into
+      the hands of the rebels by reason of a severe wound in the leg, which left
+      him helpless upon the field at Oolustee. The Rebels treated him with
+      studied indignity. They utterly refused to recognize him as an officer, or
+      even as a man. Instead of being sent to Macon or Columbia, where the other
+      officers were, he was sent to Andersonville, the same as an enlisted man.
+      No care was given his wound, no surgeon would examine it or dress it. He
+      was thrown into a stock car, without a bed or blanket, and hauled over the
+      rough, jolting road to Andersonville. Once a Rebel officer rode up and
+      fired several shots at him, as he lay helpless on the car floor.
+      Fortunately the Rebel's marksmanship was as bad as his intentions,
+      and none of the shots took effect. He was placed in a squad near me, and
+      compelled to get up and hobble into line when the rest were mustered for
+      roll-call. No opportunity to insult, &ldquo;the nigger officer,&rdquo; was
+      neglected, and the N'Yaarkers vied with the Rebels in heaping abuse
+      upon him. He was a fine, intelligent young man, and bore it all with
+      dignified self-possession, until after a lapse of some weeks the Rebels
+      changed their policy and took him from the prison to send to where the
+      other officers were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negro soldiers were also treated as badly as possible. The wounded
+      were turned into the Stockade without having their hurts attended to. One
+      stalwart, soldierly Sergeant had received a bullet which had forced its
+      way under the scalp for some distance, and partially imbedded itself in
+      the skull, where it still remained. He suffered intense agony, and would
+      pass the whole night walking up and down the street in front of our tent,
+      moaning distressingly. The bullet could be felt plainly with the fingers,
+      and we were sure that it would not be a minute's work, with a sharp
+      knife, to remove it and give the man relief. But we could not prevail upon
+      the Rebel Surgeons even to see the man. Finally inflammation set in and he
+      died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negros were made into a squad by themselves, and taken out every day
+      to work around the prison. A white Sergeant was placed over them, who was
+      the object of the contumely of the guards and other Rebels. One day as he
+      was standing near the gate, waiting his orders to come out, the gate
+      guard, without any provocation whatever, dropped his gun until the muzzle
+      rested against the Sergeant's stomach, and fired, killing him
+      instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Sergeantcy was then offered to me, but as I had no accident policy, I
+      was constrained to decline the honor. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch24" id="ch24"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      APRIL&mdash;LONGING TO GET OUT&mdash;THE DEATH RATE&mdash;THE PLAGUE OF
+      LICE &mdash;THE SO-CALLED HOSPITAL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April brought sunny skies and balmy weather. Existence became much more
+      tolerable. With freedom it would have been enjoyable, even had we been no
+      better fed, clothed and sheltered. But imprisonment had never seemed so
+      hard to bear&mdash;even in the first few weeks&mdash;as now. It was easier
+      to submit to confinement to a limited area, when cold and rain were aiding
+      hunger to benumb the faculties and chill the energies than it was now,
+      when Nature was rousing her slumbering forces to activity, and earth, and
+      air and sky were filled with stimulus to man to imitate her example. The
+      yearning to be up and doing something-to turn these golden hours to good
+      account for self and country&mdash;pressed into heart and brain as the
+      vivifying sap pressed into tree-duct and plant cell, awaking all
+      vegetation to energetic life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be compelled, at such a time, to lie around in vacuous idleness &mdash;to
+      spend days that should be crowded full of action in a monotonous,
+      objectless routine of hunting lice, gathering at roll-call, and drawing
+      and cooking our scanty rations, was torturing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to many of our number the aspirations for freedom were not, as with
+      us, the desire for a wider, manlier field of action, so much as an intense
+      longing to get where care and comforts would arrest their swift progress
+      to the shadowy hereafter. The cruel rains had sapped away their stamina,
+      and they could not recover it with the meager and innutritious diet of
+      coarse meal, and an occasional scrap of salt meat. Quick consumption,
+      bronchitis, pneumonia, low fever and diarrhea seized upon these ready
+      victims for their ravages, and bore them off at the rate of nearly a score
+      a day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It now became a part of, the day's regular routine to take a walk
+      past the gates in the morning, inspect and count the dead, and see if any
+      friends were among them. Clothes having by this time become a very
+      important consideration with the prisoners, it was the custom of the mess
+      in which a man died to remove from his person all garments that were of
+      any account, and so many bodies were carried out nearly naked. The hands
+      were crossed upon the breast, the big toes tied together with a bit of
+      string, and a slip of paper containing the man's name, rank, company
+      and regiment was pinned on the breast of his shirt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of the dead was indescribably ghastly. The unclosed eyes
+      shone with a stony glitter&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          An orphan's curse would drag to hell<br> A spirit from on high:<br>
+          But, O, more terrible than that,<br> Is the curse in a dead man's
+          eye.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      The lips and nostrils were distorted with pain and hunger, the sallow,
+      dirt-grimed skin drawn tensely over the facial bones, and the whole framed
+      with the long, lank, matted hair and beard. Millions of lice swarmed over
+      the wasted limbs and ridged ribs. These verminous pests had become so
+      numerous&mdash;owing to our lack of changes of clothing, and of facilities
+      for boiling what we had&mdash;that the most a healthy man could do was to
+      keep the number feeding upon his person down to a reasonable limit&mdash;say
+      a few tablespoonfuls. When a man became so sick as to be unable to help
+      himself, the parasites speedily increased into millions, or, to speak more
+      comprehensively, into pints and quarts. It did not even seem exaggeration
+      when some one declared that he had seen a dead man with more than a gallon
+      of lice on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no doubt that the irritation from the biting of these myriads
+      materially the days of those who died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where a sick man had friends or comrades, of course part of their duty, in
+      taking care of him, was to &ldquo;louse&rdquo; his clothing. One of the
+      most effectual ways of doing this was to turn the garments wrong side out
+      and hold the seams as close to the fire as possible, without burning the
+      cloth. In a short time the lice would swell up and burst open, like
+      pop-corn. This method was a favorite one for another reason than its
+      efficacy: it gave one a keener sense of revenge upon his rascally little
+      tormentors than he could get in any other way. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p165" id="p165"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p165.jpg (10K)" src="images/p165.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the weather grew warmer and the number in the prison increased, the
+      lice became more unendurable. They even filled the hot sand under our
+      feet, and voracious troops would climb up on one like streams of ants
+      swarming up a tree. We began to have a full comprehension of the third
+      plague with which the Lord visited the Egyptians:
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and
+        smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice through all the land
+        of Egypt.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and
+        smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast; all
+        the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      The total number of deaths in April, according to the official report, was
+      five hundred and seventy-six, or an average of over nineteen a day. There
+      was an average of five thousand prisoner's in the pen during all but
+      the last few days of the month, when the number was increased by the
+      arrival of the captured garrison of Plymouth. This would make the loss
+      over eleven per cent., and so worse than decimation. At that rate we
+      should all have died in about eight months. We could have gone through a
+      sharp campaign lasting those thirty days and not lost so great a
+      proportion of our forces. The British had about as many men as were in the
+      Stockade at the battle of New Orleans, yet their loss in killed fell much
+      short of the deaths in the pen in April.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A makeshift of a hospital was established in the northeastern corner of
+      the Stockade. A portion of the ground was divided from the rest of the
+      prison by a railing, a few tent flies were stretched, and in these the
+      long leaves of the pine were made into apologies for beds of about the
+      goodness of the straw on which a Northern farmer beds his stock. The sick
+      taken there were no better off than if they had staid with their comrades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What they needed to bring about their recovery was clean clothing,
+      nutritious food, shelter and freedom from the tortures of the lice. They
+      obtained none of these. Save a few decoctions of roots, there were no
+      medicines; the sick were fed the same coarse corn meal that brought about
+      the malignant dysentery from which they all suffered; they wore and slept
+      in the same vermin-infested clothes, and there could be but one result:
+      the official records show that seventy-six per cent. of those taken to the
+      hospitals died there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The establishment of the hospital was specially unfortunate for my little
+      squad. The ground required for it compelled a general reduction of the
+      space we all occupied. We had to tear down our huts and move. By this time
+      the materials had become so dry that we could not rebuild with them, as
+      the pine tufts fell to pieces. This reduced the tent and bedding material
+      of our party&mdash;now numbering five&mdash;to a cavalry overcoat and a
+      blanket. We scooped a hole a foot deep in the sand and stuck our
+      tent-poles around it. By day we spread our blanket over the poles for a
+      tent. At night we lay down upon the overcoat and covered ourselves with
+      the blanket. It required considerable stretching to make it go over five;
+      the two out side fellows used to get very chilly, and squeeze the three
+      inside ones until they felt no thicker than a wafer. But it had to do, and
+      we took turns sleeping on the outside. In the course of a few weeks three
+      of my chums died and left myself and B. B. Andrews (now Dr. Andrews, of
+      Astoria, Ill.) sole heirs to and occupants of, the overcoat and blanket.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p167" alt="p167.jpg (17K)" src="images/p167.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch25" id="ch25"></a>CHAPTER XXV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE &ldquo;PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS&rdquo;&mdash;SAD TRANSITION FROM COMFORTABLE
+      BARRACKS TO ANDERSONVILLE&mdash;A CRAZED PENNSYLVANIAN&mdash;DEVELOPMENT
+      OF THE BUTLER BUSINESS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We awoke one morning, in the last part of April, to find about two
+      thousand freshly arrived prisoners lying asleep in the main streets
+      running from the gates. They were attired in stylish new uniforms, with
+      fancy hats and shoes; the Sergeants and Corporals wore patent leather or
+      silk chevrons, and each man had a large, well-filled knapsack, of the kind
+      new recruits usually carried on coming first to the front, and which the
+      older soldiers spoke of humorously as &ldquo;bureaus.&rdquo; They were the
+      snuggest, nattiest lot of soldiers we had ever seen, outside of the
+      &ldquo;paper collar&rdquo; fellows forming the headquarter guard of some
+      General in a large City. As one of my companions surveyed them, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hulloa! I'm blanked if the Johnnies haven't caught a
+      regiment of Brigadier Generals, somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By-and-by the &ldquo;fresh fish,&rdquo; as all new arrivals were termed,
+      began to wake up, and then we learned that they belonged to a brigade
+      consisting of the Eighty-Fifth New York, One Hundred and First and One
+      Hundred and Third Pennsylvania, Sixteenth Connecticut, Twenty-Fourth New
+      York Battery, two companies of Massachusetts heavy artillery, and a
+      company of the Twelfth New York Cavalry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been garrisoning Plymouth, N. C., an important seaport on the
+      Roanoke River. Three small gunboats assisted them in their duty. The
+      Rebels constructed a powerful iron clad called the &ldquo;Albemarle,&rdquo;
+      at a point further up the Roanoke, and on the afternoon of the 17th, with
+      her and three brigades of infantry, made an attack upon the post. The
+      &ldquo;Albemarle&rdquo; ran past the forts unharmed, sank one of the
+      gunboats, and drove the others away. She then turned her attention to the
+      garrison, which she took in the rear, while the infantry attacked in
+      front. Our men held out until the 20th, when they capitulated. They were
+      allowed to retain their personal effects, of all kinds, and, as is the
+      case with all men in garrison, these were considerable. <br><br><br><br>
+     
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p169" alt="p169.jpg (14K)" src="images/p169.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The One Hundred and First and One Hundred and Third Pennsylvania and
+      Eighty-Fifth New York had just &ldquo;veteranized,&rdquo; and received
+      their first instalment of veteran bounty. Had they not been attacked they
+      would have sailed for home in a day or two, on their veteran furlough, and
+      this accounted for their fine raiment. They were made up of boys from good
+      New York and Pennsylvania families, and were, as a rule, intelligent and
+      fairly educated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their horror at the appearance of their place of incarceration was beyond
+      expression. At one moment they could not comprehend that we dirty and
+      haggard tatterdemalions had once been clean, self-respecting, well-fed
+      soldiers like themselves; at the next they would affirm that they knew
+      they could not stand it a month, in here we had then endured it from four
+      to nine months. They took it, in every way, the hardest of any prisoners
+      that came in, except some of the 'Hundred-Days' men, who were
+      brought in in August, from the Valley of Virginia. They had served nearly
+      all their time in various garrisons along the seacoast&mdash;from Fortress
+      Monroe to Beaufort&mdash;where they had had comparatively little of the
+      actual hardships of soldiering in the field. They had nearly always had
+      comfortable quarters, an abundance of food, few hard marches or other
+      severe service. Consequently they were not so well hardened for
+      Andersonville as the majority who came in. In other respects they were
+      better prepared, as they had an abundance of clothing, blankets and
+      cooking utensils, and each man had some of his veteran bounty still in
+      possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was painful to see how rapidly many of them sank under the miseries of
+      the situation. They gave up the moment the gates were closed upon them,
+      and began pining away. We older prisoners buoyed ourselves up continually
+      with hopes of escape or exchange. We dug tunnels with the persistence of
+      beavers, and we watched every possible opportunity to get outside the
+      accursed walls of the pen. But we could not enlist the interest of these
+      discouraged ones in any of our schemes, or talk. They resigned themselves
+      to Death, and waited despondingly till he came. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p172" alt="p172.jpg (51K)" src="images/p172.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A middle-aged One Hundred and First Pennsylvanian, who had taken up his
+      quarters near me, was an object of peculiar interest. Reasonably
+      intelligent and fairly read, I presume that he was a respectable mechanic
+      before entering the Army. He was evidently a very domestic man, whose
+      whole happiness centered in his family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he first came in he was thoroughly dazed by the greatness of his
+      misfortune. He would sit for hours with his face in his hands and his
+      elbows on his knees, gazing out upon the mass of men and huts, with
+      vacant, lack-luster eyes. We could not interest him in anything. We tried
+      to show him how to fix his blanket up to give him some shelter, but he
+      went at the work in a disheartened way, and finally smiled feebly and
+      stopped. He had some letters from his family and a melaineotype of a
+      plain-faced woman&mdash;his wife&mdash;and her children, and spent much
+      time in looking at them. At first he ate his rations when he drew them,
+      but finally began to reject, them. In a few days he was delirious with
+      hunger and homesick ness. He would sit on the sand for hours imagining
+      that he was at his family table, dispensing his frugal hospitalities to
+      his wife and children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Making a motion, as if presenting a dish, he would say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Janie, have another biscuit, do!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Or,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eddie, son, won't you have another piece of this nice steak?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Or,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maggie, have some more potatos,&rdquo; and so on, through a whole
+      family of six, or more. It was a relief to us when he died in about a
+      month after he came in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As stated above, the Plymouth men brought in a large amount of money
+      &mdash;variously estimated at from ten thousand to one hundred thousand
+      dollars. The presence of this quantity of circulating medium immediately
+      started a lively commerce. All sorts of devices were resorted to by the
+      other prisoners to get a little of this wealth. Rude chuck-a-luck boards
+      were constructed out of such material as was attainable, and put in
+      operation. Dice and cards were brought out by those skilled in such
+      matters. As those of us already in the Stockade occupied all the ground,
+      there was no disposition on the part of many to surrender a portion of
+      their space without exacting a pecuniary compensation. Messes having
+      ground in a good location would frequently demand and get ten dollars for
+      permission for two or three to quarter with them. Then there was a great
+      demand for poles to stretch blankets over to make tents; the Rebels, with
+      their usual stupid cruelty, would not supply these, nor allow the
+      prisoners to go out and get them themselves. Many of the older prisoners
+      had poles to spare which they were saying up for fuel. They sold these to
+      the Plymouth folks at the rate of ten dollars for three&mdash;enough to
+      put up a blanket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most considerable trading was done through the gates. The Rebel guards
+      were found quite as keen to barter as they had been in Richmond. Though
+      the laws against their dealing in the money of the enemy were still as
+      stringent as ever, their thirst for greenbacks was not abated one whit,
+      and they were ready to sell anything they had for the coveted currency.
+      The rate of exchange was seven or eight dollars in Confederate money for
+      one dollar in greenbacks. Wood, tobacco, meat, flour, beans, molasses,
+      onions and a villainous kind of whisky made from sorghum, were the staple
+      articles of trade. A whole race of little traffickers in these articles
+      sprang up, and finally Selden, the Rebel Quartermaster, established a
+      sutler shop in the center of the North Side, which he put in charge of Ira
+      Beverly, of the One Hundredth Ohio, and Charlie Huckleby, of the Eighth
+      Tennessee. It was a fine illustration of the development of the commercial
+      instinct in some men. No more unlikely place for making money could be
+      imagined, yet starting in without a cent, they contrived to turn and twist
+      and trade, until they had transferred to their pockets a portion of the
+      funds which were in some one else's. The Rebels, of course, got nine
+      out of every ten dollars there was in the prison, but these middle men
+      contrived to have a little of it stick to their fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only the very few who were able to do this. Nine hundred and
+      ninety-nine out of every thousand were, like myself, either wholly
+      destitute of money and unable to get it from anybody else, or they paid
+      out what money they had to the middlemen, in exorbitant prices for
+      articles of food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The N'Yaarkers had still another method for getting food, money,
+      blankets and clothing. They formed little bands called &ldquo;Raiders,&rdquo;
+      under the leadership of a chief villain. One of these bands would select
+      as their victim a man who had good blankets, clothes, a watch, or
+      greenbacks. Frequently he would be one of the little traders, with a sack
+      of beans, a piece of meat, or something of that kind. Pouncing upon him at
+      night they would snatch away his possessions, knock down his friends who
+      came to his assistance, and scurry away into the darkness. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch26" id="ch26"></a>CHAPTER XXVI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      LONGINGS FOR GOD'S COUNTRY&mdash;CONSIDERATIONS OF THE METHODS OF
+      GETTING THERE&mdash;EXCHANGE AND ESCAPE&mdash;DIGGING TUNNELS, AND THE
+      DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED THEREWITH&mdash;PUNISHMENT OF A TRAITOR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To our minds the world now contained but two grand divisions, as widely
+      different from each other as happiness and misery. The first&mdash;that
+      portion over which our flag floated was usually spoken of as &ldquo;God's
+      Country;&rdquo; the other&mdash;that under the baneful shadow of the
+      banner of rebellion&mdash;was designated by the most opprobrious epithets
+      at the speaker's command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To get from the latter to the former was to attain, at one bound, the
+      highest good. Better to be a doorkeeper in the House of the Lord, under
+      the Stars and Stripes, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness, under the
+      hateful Southern Cross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To take even the humblest and hardest of service in the field now would be
+      a delightsome change. We did not ask to go home&mdash;we would be content
+      with anything, so long as it was in that blest place &ldquo;within our
+      lines.&rdquo; Only let us get back once, and there would be no more
+      grumbling at rations or guard duty&mdash;we would willingly endure all the
+      hardships and privations that soldier flesh is heir to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two ways of getting back&mdash;escape and exchange. Exchange
+      was like the ever receding mirage of the desert, that lures the thirsty
+      traveler on over the parched sands, with illusions of refreshing springs,
+      only to leave his bones at last to whiten by the side of those of his
+      unremembered predecessors. Every day there came something to build up the
+      hopes that exchange was near at hand&mdash;every day brought something to
+      extinguish the hopes of the preceding one. We took these varying phases
+      according to our several temperaments. The sanguine built themselves up on
+      the encouraging reports; the desponding sank down and died under the
+      discouraging ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Escape was a perpetual allurement. To the actively inclined among us it
+      seemed always possible, and daring, busy brains were indefatigable in
+      concocting schemes for it. The only bit of Rebel brain work that I ever
+      saw for which I did not feel contempt was the perfect precautions taken to
+      prevent our escape. This is shown by the fact that, although, from first
+      to last, there were nearly fifty thousand prisoners in Andersonville, and
+      three out of every five of these were ever on the alert to take French
+      leave of their captors, only three hundred and twenty-eight succeeded in
+      getting so far away from Andersonville as to leave it to be presumed that
+      they had reached our lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first, and almost superhuman difficulty was to get outside the
+      Stockade. It was simply impossible to scale it. The guards were too close
+      together to allow an instant's hope to the most sanguine, that he
+      could even pass the Dead Line without being shot by some one of them. This
+      same closeness prevented any hope of bribing them. To be successful half
+      those on post would have to be bribed, as every part of the Stockade was
+      clearly visible from every other part, and there was no night so dark as
+      not to allow a plain view to a number of guards of the dark figure
+      outlined against the light colored logs of any Yankee who should essay to
+      clamber towards the top of the palisades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gates were so carefully guarded every time they were opened as to
+      preclude hope of slipping out through theme. They were only unclosed twice
+      or thrice a day&mdash;once to admit, the men to call the roll, once to let
+      them out again, once to let the wagons come in with rations, and once,
+      perhaps, to admit, new prisoners. At all these times every precaution was
+      taken to prevent any one getting out surreptitiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This narrowed down the possibilities of passing the limits of the pen
+      alive, to tunneling. This was also surrounded by almost insuperable
+      difficulties. First, it required not less than fifty feet of subterranean
+      excavation to get out, which was an enormous work with our limited means.
+      Then the logs forming the Stockade were set in the ground to a depth of
+      five feet, and the tunnel had to go down beneath them. They had an
+      unpleasant habit of dropping down into the burrow under them. It added
+      much to the discouragements of tunneling to think of one of these massive
+      timbers dropping upon a fellow as he worked his mole-like way under it,
+      and either crushing him to death outright, or pinning him there to die of
+      suffocation or hunger. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p176" alt="p176.jpg (14K)" src="images/p176.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one instance, in a tunnel near me, but in which I was not interested,
+      the log slipped down after the digger had got out beyond it. He
+      immediately began digging for the surface, for life, and was fortunately
+      able to break through before he suffocated. He got his head above the
+      ground, and then fainted. The guard outside saw him, pulled him out of the
+      hole, and when he recovered sensibility hurried him back into the
+      Stockade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another tunnel, also near us, a broad-shouldered German, of the Second
+      Minnesota, went in to take his turn at digging. He was so much larger than
+      any of his predecessors that he stuck fast in a narrow part, and despite
+      all the efforts of himself and comrades, it was found impossible to move
+      him one way or the other. The comrades were at last reduced to the
+      humiliation of informing the Officer of the Guard of their tunnel and the
+      condition of their friend, and of asking assistance to release him, which
+      was given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great tunneling tool was the indispensable half-canteen. The inventive
+      genius of our people, stimulated by the war, produced nothing for the
+      comfort and effectiveness of the soldier equal in usefulness to this
+      humble and unrecognized utensil. It will be remembered that a canteen was
+      composed of two pieces of tin struck up into the shape of saucers, and
+      soldered together at the edges. After a soldier had been in the field a
+      little while, and thrown away or lost the curious and complicated kitchen
+      furniture he started out with, he found that by melting the halves of his
+      canteen apart, he had a vessel much handier in every way than any he had
+      parted with. It could be used for anything &mdash;to make soup or coffee
+      in, bake bread, brown coffee, stew vegetables, etc., etc. A sufficient
+      handle was made with a split stick. When the cooking was done, the handle
+      was thrown away, and the half canteen slipped out of the road into the
+      haversack. There seemed to be no end of the uses to which this ever-ready
+      disk of blackened sheet iron could be turned. Several instances are on
+      record where infantry regiments, with no other tools than this, covered
+      themselves on the field with quite respectable rifle pits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The starting point of a tunnel was always some tent close to the Dead
+      Line, and sufficiently well closed to screen the operations from the sight
+      of the guards near by. The party engaged in the work organized by giving
+      every man a number to secure the proper apportionment of the labor. Number
+      One began digging with his half canteen. After he had worked until tired,
+      he came out, and Number Two took his place, and so on. The tunnel was
+      simply a round, rat-like burrow, a little larger than a man's body.
+      The digger lay on his stomach, dug ahead of him, threw the dirt under him,
+      and worked it back with his feet till the man behind him, also lying on
+      his stomach, could catch it and work it back to the next. As the tunnel
+      lengthened the number of men behind each other in this way had to be
+      increased, so that in a tunnel seventy-five feet long there would be from
+      eight to ten men lying one behind the other. When the dirt was pushed back
+      to the mouth of the tunnel it was taken up in improvised bags, made by
+      tying up the bottoms of pantaloon legs, carried to the Swamp, and emptied.
+      The work in the tunnel was very exhausting, and the digger had to be
+      relieved every half-hour. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p177" alt="p177.jpg (18K)" src="images/p177.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest trouble was to carry the tunnel forward in a straight line.
+      As nearly everybody dug most of the time with the right hand, there was an
+      almost irresistible tendency to make the course veer to the left. The
+      first tunnel I was connected with was a ludicrous illustration of this.
+      About twenty of us had devoted our nights for over a week to the
+      prolongation of a burrow. We had not yet reached the Stockade, which
+      astonished us, as measurement with a string showed that we had gone nearly
+      twice the distance necessary for the purpose. The thing was inexplicable,
+      and we ceased operations to consider the matter. The next day a man
+      walking by a tent some little distance from the one in which the hole
+      began, was badly startled by the ground giving way under his feet, and his
+      sinking nearly to his waist in a hole. It was very singular, but after
+      wondering over the matter for some hours, there came a glimmer of
+      suspicion that it might be, in some way, connected with the missing end of
+      our tunnel. One of us started through on an exploring expedition, and
+      confirmed the suspicions by coming out where the man had broken through.
+      Our tunnel was shaped like a horse shoe, and the beginning and end were
+      not fifteen feet apart. After that we practised digging with our left
+      hand, and made certain compensations for the tendency to the sinister
+      side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another trouble connected with tunneling was the number of traitors and
+      spies among us. There were many&mdash;principally among the N'Yaarker
+      crowd who were always zealous to betray a tunnel, in order to curry favor
+      with the Rebel officers. Then, again, the Rebels had numbers of their own
+      men in the pen at night, as spies. It was hardly even necessary to dress
+      these in our uniform, because a great many of our own men came into the
+      prison in Rebel clothes, having been compelled to trade garments with
+      their captors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day in May, quite an excitement was raised by the detection of one of
+      these &ldquo;tunnel traitors&rdquo; in such a way as left no doubt of his
+      guilt. At first everybody was in favor of killing him, and they actually
+      started to beat him to death. This was arrested by a proposition to
+      &ldquo;have Captain Jack tattoo him,&rdquo; and the suggestion was
+      immediately acted upon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Jack&rdquo; was a sailor who had been with us in the
+      Pemberton building at Richmond. He was a very skilful tattoo artist, but,
+      I am sure, could make the process nastier than any other that I ever saw
+      attempt it. He chewed tobacco enormously. After pricking away for a few
+      minutes at the design on the arm or some portion of the body, he would
+      deluge it with a flood of tobacco spit, which, he claimed, acted as a kind
+      of mordant. Piping this off with a filthy rag, he would study the effect
+      for an instant, and then go ahead with another series of prickings and
+      tobacco juice drenchings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tunnel-traitor was taken to Captain Jack. That worthy decided to brand
+      him with a great &ldquo;T,&rdquo; the top part to extend across his
+      forehead and the stem to run down his nose. Captain Jack got his tattooing
+      kit ready, and the fellow was thrown upon the ground and held there. The
+      Captain took his head between his legs, and began operations. After an
+      instant's work with the needles, he opened his mouth, and filled the
+      wretch's face and eyes full of the disgusting saliva. The crowd
+      round about yelled with delight at this new process. For an hour, that was
+      doubtless an eternity to the rascal undergoing branding, Captain Jack
+      continued his alternate pickings and drenchings. At the end of that time
+      the traitor's face was disfigured with a hideous mark that he would
+      bear to his grave. We learned afterwards that he was not one of our men,
+      but a Rebel spy. This added much to our satisfaction with the manner of
+      his treatment. He disappeared shortly after the operation was finished,
+      being, I suppose, taken outside. I hardly think Captain Jack would be
+      pleased to meet him again. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p179" alt="p179.jpg (24K)" src="images/p179.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch27" id="ch27"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE HOUNDS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES THEY PUT IN THE WAY OF ESCAPE &mdash;THE
+      WHOLE SOUTH PATROLLED BY THEM.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those who succeeded, one way or another, in passing the Stockade limits,
+      found still more difficulties lying between them and freedom than would
+      discourage ordinarily resolute men. The first was to get away from the
+      immediate vicinity of the prison. All around were Rebel patrols, pickets
+      and guards, watching every avenue of egress. Several packs of hounds
+      formed efficient coadjutors of these, and were more dreaded by possible
+      &ldquo;escapes,&rdquo; than any other means at the command of our jailors.
+      Guards and patrols could be evaded, or circumvented, but the hounds could
+      not. Nearly every man brought back from a futile attempt at escape told
+      the same story: he had been able to escape the human Rebels, but not their
+      canine colleagues. Three of our detachment&mdash;members of the Twentieth
+      Indiana&mdash;had an experience of this kind that will serve to illustrate
+      hundreds of others. They had been taken outside to do some work upon the
+      cook-house that was being built. A guard was sent with the three a little
+      distance into the woods to get a piece of timber. The boys sauntered,
+      along carelessly with the guard, and managed to get pretty near him. As
+      soon as they were fairly out of sight of the rest, the strongest of them&mdash;Tom
+      Williams&mdash;snatched the Rebel's gun away from him, and the other
+      two springing upon him as swift as wild cats, throttled him, so that he
+      could not give the alarm. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p182" alt="p182.jpg (56K)" src="images/p182.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still keeping a hand on his throat, they led him off some distance, and
+      tied him to a sapling with strings made by tearing up one of their
+      blouses. He was also securely gagged, and the boys, bidding him a hasty,
+      but not specially tender, farewell, struck out, as they fondly hoped, for
+      freedom. It was not long until they were missed, and the parties sent in
+      search found and released the guard, who gave all the information he
+      possessed as to what had become of his charges. All the packs of hounds,
+      the squads of cavalry, and the foot patrols were sent out to scour the
+      adjacent country. The Yankees kept in the swamps and creeks, and no trace
+      of them was found that afternoon or evening. By this time they were ten or
+      fifteen miles away, and thought that they could safely leave the creeks
+      for better walking on the solid ground. They had gone but a few miles,
+      when the pack of hounds Captain Wirz was with took their trail, and came
+      after them in full cry. The boys tried to ran, but, exhausted as they
+      were, they could make no headway. Two of them were soon caught, but Tom
+      Williams, who was so desperate that he preferred death to recapture,
+      jumped into a mill-pond near by. When he came up, it was in a lot of saw
+      logs and drift wood that hid him from being seen from the shore. The dogs
+      stopped at the shore, and bayed after the disappearing prey. The Rebels
+      with them, who had seen Tom spring in, came up and made a pretty thorough
+      search for him. As they did not think to probe around the drift wood this
+      was unsuccessful, and they came to the conclusion that Tom had been
+      drowned. Wirz marched the other two back and, for a wonder, did not punish
+      them, probably because he was so rejoiced at his success in capturing
+      them. He was beaming with delight when he returned them to our squad, and
+      said, with a chuckle:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brisoners, I pring you pack two of dem tam Yankees wat got away
+      yesterday, unt I run de oder raskal into a mill-pont and trowntet him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was our astonishment, about three weeks later, to see Tom, fat and
+      healthy, and dressed in a full suit of butternut, come stalking into the
+      pen. He had nearly reached the mountains, when a pack of hounds,
+      patrolling for deserters or negros, took his trail, where he had crossed
+      the road from one field to another, and speedily ran him down. He had been
+      put in a little country jail, and well fed till an opportunity occurred to
+      send him back. This patrolling for negros and deserters was another of the
+      great obstacles to a successful passage through the country. The rebels
+      had put, every able-bodied white man in the ranks, and were bending every
+      energy to keep him there. The whole country was carefully policed by
+      Provost Marshals to bring out those who were shirking military duty, or
+      had deserted their colors, and to check any movement by the negros. One
+      could not go anywhere without a pass, as every road was continually
+      watched by men and hounds. It was the policy of our men, when escaping, to
+      avoid roads as much as possible by traveling through the woods and fields.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From what I saw of the hounds, and what I could learn from others, I
+      believe that each pack was made up of two bloodhounds and from twenty-five
+      to fifty other dogs. The bloodhounds were debased descendants of the
+      strong and fierce hounds imported from Cuba&mdash;many of them by the
+      United States Government&mdash;for hunting Indians, during the Seminole
+      war. The other dogs were the mongrels that are found in such plentifulness
+      about every Southern house&mdash;increasing, as a rule, in numbers as the
+      inhabitant of the house is lower down and poorer. They are like wolves,
+      sneaking and cowardly when alone, fierce and bold when in packs. Each pack
+      was managed by a well-armed man, who rode a mule; and carried, slung over
+      his shoulders by a cord, a cow horn, scraped very thin, with which he
+      controlled the band by signals. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p184" alt="p184.jpg (41K)" src="images/p184.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What always puzzled me much was why the hounds took only Yankee trails, in
+      the vicinity of the prison. There was about the Stockade from six thousand
+      to ten thousand Rebels and negros, including guards, officers, servants,
+      workmen, etc. These were, of course, continually in motion and must have
+      daily made trails leading in every direction. It was the custom of the
+      Rebels to send a pack of hounds around the prison every morning, to
+      examine if any Yankees had escaped during the night. It was believed that
+      they rarely failed to find a prisoner's tracks, and still more
+      rarely ran off upon a Rebel's. If those outside the Stockade had
+      been confined to certain path and roads we could have understood this,
+      but, as I understand, they were not. It was part of the interest of the
+      day, for us, to watch the packs go yelping around the pen searching for
+      tracks. We got information in this way whether any tunnel had been
+      successfully opened during the night. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p185" alt="p185.jpg (58K)" src="images/p185.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The use of hounds furnished us a crushing reply to the ever recurring
+      Rebel question:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are you-uns puttin' niggers in the field to fight we-uns
+      for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The questioner was always silenced by the return interrogatory:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that as bad as running white men down with blood hounds?&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch28" id="ch28"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MAY&mdash;INFLUX OF NEW PRISONERS&mdash;DISPARITY IN NUMBERS BETWEEN THE
+      EASTERN AND WESTERN ARMIES&mdash;TERRIBLE CROWDING&mdash;SLAUGHTER OF MEN
+      AT THE CREEK.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In May the long gathering storm of war burst with angry violence all along
+      the line held by the contending armies. The campaign began which was to
+      terminate eleven months later in the obliteration of the Southern
+      Confederacy. May 1, Sigel moved up the Shenandoah Valley with thirty
+      thousand men; May 3, Butler began his blundering movement against
+      Petersburg; May 3, the Army of the Potomac left Culpeper, and on the 5th
+      began its deadly grapple with Lee, in the Wilderness; May 6, Sherman moved
+      from Chattanooga, and engaged Joe Johnston at Rocky Face Ridge and Tunnel
+      Hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each of these columns lost heavily in prisoners. It could not be
+      otherwise; it was a consequence of the aggressive movements. An army
+      acting offensively usually suffers more from capture than one on the
+      defensive. Our armies were penetrating the enemy's country in close
+      proximity to a determined and vigilant foe. Every scout, every skirmish
+      line, every picket, every foraging party ran the risk of falling into a
+      Rebel trap. This was in addition to the risk of capture in action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bulk of the prisoners were taken from the Army of the Potomac. For
+      this there were two reasons: First, that there were many more men in that
+      Army than in any other; and second, that the entanglement in the dense
+      thickets and shrubbery of the Wilderness enabled both sides to capture
+      great numbers of the other's men. Grant lost in prisoners from May 5
+      to May 31, seven thousand four hundred and fifty; he probably captured
+      two-thirds of that number from the Johnnies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wirz's headquarters were established in a large log house which had
+      been built in the fort a little distant from the southeast corner of the
+      prison. Every day&mdash;and sometimes twice or thrice a day&mdash;we would
+      see great squads of prisoners marched up to these headquarters, where they
+      would be searched, their names entered upon the prison records, by clerks
+      (detailed prisoners; few Rebels had the requisite clerical skill) and then
+      be marched into the prison. As they entered, the Rebel guards would stand
+      to arms. The infantry would be in line of battle, the cavalry mounted, and
+      the artillerymen standing by their guns, ready to open at the instant with
+      grape and canister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The disparity between the number coming in from the Army of the Potomac
+      and Western armies was so great, that we Westerners began to take some
+      advantage of it. If we saw a squad of one hundred and fifty or thereabouts
+      at the headquarters, we felt pretty certain they were from Sherman, and
+      gathered to meet them, and learn the news from our friends. If there were
+      from five hundred to two thousand we knew they were from the Army of the
+      Potomac, and there were none of our comrades among them. There were three
+      exceptions to this rule while we were in Andersonville. The first was in
+      June, when the drunken and incompetent Sturgis (now Colonel of the Seventh
+      United States Cavalry) shamefully sacrificed a superb division at Guntown,
+      Miss. The next was after Hood made his desperate attack on Sherman, on the
+      22d of July, and the third was when Stoneman was captured at Macon. At
+      each of these times about two thousand prisoners were brought in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the end of May there were eighteen thousand four hundred and fifty-four
+      prisoners in the Stockade. Before the reader dismisses this statement from
+      his mind let him reflect how great a number this is. It is more active,
+      able-bodied young men than there are in any of our leading Cities, save
+      New York and Philadelphia. It is more than the average population of an
+      Ohio County. It is four times as many troops as Taylor won the victory of
+      Buena Vista with, and about twice as many as Scott went into battle with
+      at any time in his march to the City of Mexico.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These eighteen thousand four hundred and fifty-four men were cooped up on
+      less than thirteen acres of ground, making about fifteen hundred to the
+      acre. No room could be given up for streets, or for the usual arrangements
+      of a camp, and most kinds of exercise were wholly precluded. The men
+      crowded together like pigs nesting in the woods on cold nights. The
+      ground, despite all our efforts, became indescribably filthy, and this
+      condition grew rapidly worse as the season advanced and the sun's
+      rays gained fervency. As it is impossible to describe this adequately, I
+      must again ask the reader to assist with a few comparisons. He has an idea
+      of how much filth is produced, on an ordinary City lot, in a week, by its
+      occupation by a family say of six persons. Now let him imagine what would
+      be the result if that lot, instead of having upon it six persons, with
+      every appliance for keeping themselves clean, and for removing and
+      concealing filth, was the home of one hundred and eight men, with none of
+      these appliances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That he may figure out these proportions for himself, I will repeat some
+      of the elements of the problem: We will say that an average City lot is
+      thirty feet front by one hundred deep. This is more front than most of
+      them have, but we will be liberal. This gives us a surface of three
+      thousand square feet. An acre contains forty-three thousand five hundred
+      and sixty square feet. Upon thirteen of these acres, we had eighteen
+      thousand four hundred and fifty-four men. After he has found the number of
+      square feet that each man had for sleeping apartment, dining room,
+      kitchen, exercise grounds and outhouses, and decided that nobody could
+      live for any length of time in such contracted space, I will tell him that
+      a few weeks later double that many men were crowded upon that space that
+      over thirty-five thousand were packed upon those twelve and a-half or
+      thirteen acres.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I will not anticipate. With the warm weather the condition of the
+      swamp in the center of the prison became simply horrible. We hear so much
+      now-a-days of blood poisoning from the effluvia of sinks and sewers, that
+      reading it, I wonder how a man inside the Stockade, and into whose
+      nostrils came a breath of that noisomeness, escaped being carried off by a
+      malignant typhus. In the slimy ooze were billions of white maggots. They
+      would crawl out by thousands on the warm sand, and, lying there a few
+      minutes, sprout a wing or a pair of them. With these they would essay a
+      clumsy flight, ending by dropping down upon some exposed portion of a man's
+      body, and stinging him like a gad-fly. Still worse, they would drop into
+      what he was cooking, and the utmost care could not prevent a mess of food
+      from being contaminated with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the water that we had to use was that in the creek which flowed
+      through this seething mass of corruption, and received its sewerage. How
+      pure the water was when it came into the Stockade was a question. We
+      always believed that it received the drainage from the camps of the
+      guards, a half-a-mile away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A road was made across the swamp, along the Dead Line at the west side,
+      where the creek entered the pen. Those getting water would go to this
+      spot, and reach as far up the stream as possible, to get the water that
+      was least filthy. As they could reach nearly to the Dead Line this
+      furnished an excuse to such of the guards as were murderously inclined to
+      fire upon them. I think I hazard nothing in saying that for weeks at least
+      one man a day was killed at this place. The murders became monotonous;
+      there was a dreadful sameness to them. A gun would crack; looking up we
+      would see, still smoking, the muzzle of the musket of one of the guards on
+      either side of the creek. At the same instant would rise a piercing shriek
+      from the man struck, now floundering in the creek in his death agony. Then
+      thousands of throats would yell out curses and denunciations, and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, give the Rebel &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;
+      &mdash;&mdash; a furlough!&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p189" alt="p189.jpg (40K)" src="images/p189.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was our belief that every guard who killed a Yankee was rewarded with a
+      thirty-day furlough. Mr. Frederick Holliger, now of Toledo, formerly a
+      member of the Seventy-Second Ohio, and captured at Guntown, tells me, as
+      his introduction to Andersonville life, that a few hours after his entry
+      he went to the brook to get a drink, reached out too far, and was fired
+      upon by the guard, who missed him, but killed another man and wounded a
+      second. The other prisoners standing near then attacked him, and beat him
+      nearly to death, for having drawn the fire of the guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could be more inexcusable than these murders. Whatever defense
+      there might be for firing on men who touched the Dead Line in other parts
+      of the prison, there could be none here. The men had no intention of
+      escaping; they had no designs upon the Stockade; they were not leading any
+      party to assail it. They were in every instance killed in the act of
+      reaching out with their cups to dip up a little water. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch29" id="ch29"></a>CHAPTER XXIX
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SOME DISTINCTION BETWEEN SOLDIERLY DUTY AND MURDER&mdash;A PLOT TO ESCAPE
+      &mdash;IT IS REVEALED AND FRUSTRATED.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let the reader understand that in any strictures I make I do not complain
+      of the necessary hardships of war. I understood fully and accepted the
+      conditions of a soldier's career. My going into the field uniformed
+      and armed implied an intention, at least, of killing, wounding, or
+      capturing, some of the enemy. There was consequently no ground of
+      complaint if I was, myself killed, wounded, or captured. If I did not want
+      to take these chances I ought to stay at home. In the same way, I
+      recognized the right of our captors or guards to take proper precautions
+      to prevent our escape. I never questioned for an instant the right of a
+      guard to fire upon those attempting to escape, and to kill them. Had I
+      been posted over prisoners I should have had no compunction about shooting
+      at those trying to get away, and consequently I could not blame the Rebels
+      for doing the same thing. It was a matter of soldierly duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But not one of the men assassinated by the guards at Andersonville were
+      trying to escape, nor could they have got away if not arrested by a
+      bullet. In a majority of instances there was not even a transgression of a
+      prison rule, and when there was such a transgression it was a mere
+      harmless inadvertence. The slaying of every man there was a foul crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most of this was done by very young boys; some of it by old men. The
+      Twenty-Sixth Alabama and Fifty-Fifth Georgia, had guarded us since the
+      opening of the prison, but now they were ordered to the field, and their
+      places filled by the Georgia &ldquo;Reserves,&rdquo; an organization of
+      boys under, and men over the military age. As General Grant aptly-phrased
+      it, &ldquo;They had robbed the cradle and the grave,&rdquo; in forming
+      these regiments. The boys, who had grown up from children since the war
+      began, could not comprehend that a Yankee was a human being, or that it
+      was any more wrongful to shoot one than to kill a mad dog. Their young
+      imaginations had been inflamed with stories of the total depravity of the
+      Unionists until they believed it was a meritorious thing to seize every
+      opportunity to exterminate them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early one morning I overheard a conversation between two of these youthful
+      guards:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Bill, I heerd that you shot a Yank last night?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, you just bet I did. God! you jest ought to've heerd him
+      holler.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Evidently the juvenile murderer had no more conception that he had
+      committed crime than if he had killed a rattlesnake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among those who came in about the last of the month were two thousand men
+      from Butler's command, lost in the disastrous action of May 15, by
+      which Butler was &ldquo;bottled up&rdquo; at Bermuda Hundreds. At that
+      time the Rebel hatred for Butler verged on insanity, and they vented this
+      upon these men who were so luckless&mdash;in every sense&mdash;as to be in
+      his command. Every pains was taken to mistreat them. Stripped of every
+      article of clothing, equipment, and cooking utensils&mdash;everything,
+      except a shirt and a pair of pantaloons, they were turned bareheaded and
+      barefooted into the prison, and the worst possible place in the pen hunted
+      out to locate them upon. This was under the bank, at the edge of the Swamp
+      and at the eastern side of the prison, where the sinks were, and all filth
+      from the upper part of the camp flowed down to them. The sand upon which
+      they lay was dry and burning as that of a tropical desert; they were
+      without the slightest shelter of any kind, the maggot flies swarmed over
+      them, and the stench was frightful. If one of them survived the germ
+      theory of disease is a hallucination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The increasing number of prisoners made it necessary for the Rebels to
+      improve their means of guarding and holding us in check. They threw up a
+      line of rifle pits around the Stockade for the infantry guards. At
+      intervals along this were piles of hand grenades, which could be used with
+      fearful effect in case of an outbreak. A strong star fort was thrown up at
+      a little distance from the southwest corner. Eleven field pieces were
+      mounted in this in such a way as to rake the Stockade diagonally. A
+      smaller fort, mounting five guns, was built at the northwest corner, and
+      at the northeast and southeast corners were small lunettes, with a couple
+      of howitzers each. Packed as we were we had reason to dread a single round
+      from any of these works, which could not fail to produce fearful havoc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still a plot was concocted for a break, and it seemed to the sanguine
+      portions of us that it must prove successful. First a secret society was
+      organized, bound by the most stringent oaths that could be devised. The
+      members of this were divided into companies of fifty men each; under
+      officers regularly elected. The secrecy was assumed in order to shut out
+      Rebel spies and the traitors from a knowledge of the contemplated
+      outbreak. A man named Baker&mdash;belonging, I think, to some New York
+      regiment&mdash;was the grand organizer of the scheme. We were careful in
+      each of our companies to admit none to membership except such as long
+      acquaintance gave us entire confidence in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plan was to dig large tunnels to the Stockade at various places, and
+      then hollow out the ground at the foot of the timbers, so that a half
+      dozen or so could be pushed over with a little effort, and make a gap ten
+      or twelve feet wide. All these were to be thrown down at a preconcerted
+      signal, the companies were to rush out and seize the eleven guns of the
+      headquarters fort. The Plymouth Brigade was then to man these and turn
+      them on the camp of the Reserves who, it was imagined, would drop their
+      arms and take to their heels after receiving a round or so of shell. We
+      would gather what arms we could, and place them in the hands of the most
+      active and determined. This would give us frown eight to ten thousand
+      fairly armed, resolute men, with which we thought we could march to
+      Appalachicola Bay, or to Sherman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We worked energetically at our tunnels, which soon began to assume such
+      shape as to give assurance that they would answer our expectations in
+      opening the prison walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came the usual blight to all such enterprises: a spy or a traitor
+      revealed everything to Wirz. One day a guard came in, seized Baker and
+      took him out. What was done with him I know not; we never heard of him
+      after he passed the inner gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately afterward all the Sergeants of detachments were summoned
+      outside. There they met Wirz, who made a speech informing them that he
+      knew all the details of the plot, and had made sufficient preparations to
+      defeat it. The guard had been strongly reinforced, and disposed in such a
+      manner as to protect the guns from capture. The Stockade had been secured
+      to prevent its falling, even if undermined. He said, in addition, that
+      Sherman had been badly defeated by Johnston, and driven back across the
+      river, so that any hopes of co-operation by him would be ill-founded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Sergeants returned, he caused the following notice to be posted
+      on the gates:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      NOTICE.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        Not wishing to shed the blood of hundreds, not connected with those who
+        concocted a mad plan to force the Stockade, and make in this way their
+        escape, I hereby warn the leaders and those who formed themselves into a
+        band to carry out this, that I am in possession of all the facts, and
+        have made my dispositions accordingly, so as to frustrate it. No choice
+        would be left me but to open with grape and canister on the Stockade,
+        and what effect this would have, in this densely crowded place, need not
+        be told.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;May 25,1864.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;H. Wirz.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      The next day a line of tall poles, bearing white flags, were put up at
+      some little distance from the Dead Line, and a notice was read to us at
+      roll call that if, except at roll call, any gathering exceeding one
+      hundred was observed, closer the Stockade than these poles, the guns would
+      open with grape and canister without warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The number of deaths in the Stockade in May was seven hundred and eight,
+      about as many as had been killed in Sherman's army during the same
+      time. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch30" id="ch30"></a>CHAPTER XXX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      JUNE&mdash;POSSIBILITIES OF A MURDEROUS CANNONADE&mdash;WHAT WAS PROPOSED
+      TO BE DONE IN THAT EVENT&mdash;A FALSE ALARM&mdash;DETERIORATION OF THE
+      RATIONS &mdash;FEARFUL INCREASE OF MORTALITY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Wirz's threat of grape and canister upon the slightest
+      provocation, we lived in daily apprehension of some pretext being found
+      for opening the guns upon us for a general massacre. Bitter experience had
+      long since taught us that the Rebels rarely threatened in vain. Wirz,
+      especially, was much more likely to kill without warning, than to warn
+      without killing. This was because of the essential weakness of his nature.
+      He knew no art of government, no method of discipline save &ldquo;kill
+      them!&rdquo; His petty little mind's scope reached no further. He
+      could conceive of no other way of managing men than the punishment of
+      every offense, or seeming offense, with death. Men who have any talent for
+      governing find little occasion for the death penalty. The stronger they
+      are in themselves&mdash;the more fitted for controlling others&mdash;the
+      less their need of enforcing their authority by harsh measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general expression of determination among the prisoners to
+      answer any cannonade with a desperate attempt to force the Stockade. It
+      was agreed that anything was better than dying like rats in a pit or wild
+      animals in a battue. It was believed that if anything would occur which
+      would rouse half those in the pen to make a headlong effort in concert,
+      the palisade could be scaled, and the gates carried, and, though it would
+      be at a fearful loss of life, the majority of those making the attempt
+      would get out. If the Rebels would discharge grape and canister, or throw
+      a shell into the prison, it would lash everybody to such a pitch that they
+      would see that the sole forlorn hope of safety lay in wresting the arms
+      away from our tormentors. The great element in our favor was the shortness
+      of the distance between us and the cannon. We could hope to traverse this
+      before the guns could be reloaded more than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether it would have been possible to succeed I am unable to say. It
+      would have depended wholly upon the spirit and unanimity with which the
+      effort was made. Had ten thousand rushed forward at once, each with a
+      determination to do or die, I think it would have been successful without
+      a loss of a tenth of the number. But the insuperable trouble&mdash;in our
+      disorganized state&mdash;was want of concert of action. I am quite sure,
+      however, that the attempt would have been made had the guns opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, while the agitation of this matter was feverish, I was cooking my
+      dinner&mdash;that is, boiling my pitiful little ration of unsalted meal,
+      in my fruit can, with the aid of a handful of splinters that I had been
+      able to pick up by a half day's diligent search. Suddenly the long
+      rifle in the headquarters fort rang out angrily. A fuse shell shrieked
+      across the prison&mdash;close to the tops of the logs, and burst in the
+      woods beyond. It was answered with a yell of defiance from ten thousand
+      throats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sprang up-my heart in my mouth. The long dreaded time had arrived; the
+      Rebels had opened the massacre in which they must exterminate us, or we
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked across to the opposite bank, on which were standing twelve
+      thousand men&mdash;erect, excited, defiant. I was sure that at the next
+      shot they would surge straight against the Stockade like a mighty human
+      billow, and then a carnage would begin the like of which modern times had
+      never seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excitement and suspense were terrible. We waited for what seemed ages
+      for the next gun. It was not fired. Old Winder was merely showing the
+      prisoners how he could rally the guards to oppose an outbreak. Though the
+      gun had a shell in it, it was merely a signal, and the guards came
+      double-quicking up by regiments, going into position in the rifle pits and
+      the hand-grenade piles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we realized what the whole affair meant, we relieved our surcharged
+      feelings with a few general yells of execration upon Rebels generally, and
+      upon those around us particularly, and resumed our occupation of cooking
+      rations, killing lice, and discussing the prospects of exchange and
+      escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rations, like everything else about us, had steadily grown worse. A
+      bakery was built outside of the Stockade in May and our meal was baked
+      there into loaves about the size of brick. Each of us got a half of one of
+      these for a day's ration. This, and occasionally a small slice of
+      salt pork, was call that I received. I wish the reader would prepare
+      himself an object lesson as to how little life can be supported on for any
+      length of time, by procuring a piece of corn bread the size of an ordinary
+      brickbat, and a thin slice of pork, and then imagine how he would fare,
+      with that as his sole daily ration, for long hungry weeks and months. Dio
+      Lewis satisfied himself that he could sustain life on sixty cents, a week.
+      I am sure that the food furnished us by the Rebels would not, at present
+      prices cost one-third that. They pretended to give us one-third of pound
+      of bacon and one and one-fourth pounds of corn meal. A week's
+      rations then would be two and one-third pounds of bacon&mdash;worth ten
+      cents, and eight and three-fourths pounds of meal, worth, say, ten cents
+      more. As a matter of fact, I do not presume that at any time we got this
+      full ration. It would surprise me to learn that we averaged two-thirds of
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meal was ground very coarse and produced great irrition in the bowels.
+      We used to have the most frightful cramps that men ever suffered from.
+      Those who were predisposed intestinal affections were speedily carried off
+      by incurable diarrhea and dysentery. Of the twelve thousand and twelve men
+      who died, four thousand died of chronic diarrhea; eight hundred and
+      seventeen died of acute diarrhea, and one thousand three hundred and
+      eighty-four died of dysenteria, making total of six thousand two hundred
+      and one victims to enteric disorders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let the reader reflect a moment upon this number, till comprehends fully
+      how many six thousand two hundred and men are, and how much force, energy,
+      training, and rich possibilities for the good of the community and country
+      died with those six thousand two hundred and one young, active men. It may
+      help his perception of the magnitude of this number to remember that the
+      total loss of the British, during the Crimean war, by death in all shapes,
+      was four thousand five hundred and ninety-five, or one thousand seven
+      hundred and six less than the deaths in Andersonville from dysenteric
+      diseases alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The loathsome maggot flies swarmed about the bakery, and dropped into the
+      trough where the dough was being mixed, so that it was rare to get a
+      ration of bread not contaminated with a few of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not long until the bakery became inadequate to supply bread for all
+      the prisoners. Then great iron kettles were set, and mush was issued to a
+      number of detachments, instead of bread. There was not so much cleanliness
+      and care in preparing this as a farmer shows in cooking food for stock. A
+      deep wagon-bed would be shoveled full of the smoking paste, which was then
+      hailed inside and issued out to the detachments, the latter receiving it
+      on blankets, pieces of shelter tents, or, lacking even these, upon the
+      bare sand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As still more prisoners came in, neither bread nor mush could be furnished
+      them, and a part of the detachments received their rations in meal.
+      Earnest solicitation at length resulted in having occasional scanty issues
+      of wood to cook this with. My detachment was allowed to choose which it
+      would take&mdash;bread, mush or meal. It took the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cooking the meal was the topic of daily interest. There were three ways of
+      doing it: Bread, mush and &ldquo;dumplings.&rdquo; In the latter the meal
+      was dampened until it would hold together, and was rolled into little
+      balls, the size of marbles, which were then boiled. The bread was the most
+      satisfactory and nourishing; the mush the bulkiest&mdash;it made a bigger
+      show, but did not stay with one so long. The dumplings held an
+      intermediate position&mdash;the water in which they were boiled becoming a
+      sort of a broth that helped to stay the stomach. We received no salt, as a
+      rule. No one knows the intense longing for this, when one goes without it
+      for a while. When, after a privation of weeks we would get a teaspoonful
+      of salt apiece, it seemed as if every muscle in our bodies was
+      invigorated. We traded buttons to the guards for red peppers, and made our
+      mush, or bread, or dumplings, hot with the fiery-pods, in hopes that this
+      would make up for the lack of salt, but it was a failure. One pinch of
+      salt was worth all the pepper pods in the Southern Confederacy. My little
+      squad&mdash;now diminished by death from five to three&mdash;cooked our
+      rations together to economize wood and waste of meal, and quarreled among
+      ourselves daily as to whether the joint stock should be converted into
+      bread, mush or dumplings. The decision depended upon the state of the
+      stomach. If very hungry, we made mush; if less famished, dumplings; if
+      disposed to weigh matters, bread. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p199" alt="p199.jpg (11K)" src="images/p199.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This may seem a trifling matter, but it was far from it. We all remember
+      the man who was very fond of white beans, but after having fifty or sixty
+      meals of them in succession, began to find a suspicion of monotony in the
+      provender. We had now six months of unvarying diet of corn meal and water,
+      and even so slight a change as a variation in the way of combining the two
+      was an agreeable novelty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of June there were twenty-six thousand three hundred and
+      sixty-seven prisoners in the Stockade, and one thousand two hundred&mdash;just
+      forty per day&mdash;had died during the month. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch31" id="ch31"></a>CHAPTER XXXI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DYING BY INCHES&mdash;SEITZ, THE SLOW, AND HIS DEATH&mdash;STIGGALL AND
+      EMERSON &mdash;RAVAGES ON THE SCURVY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May and June made sad havoc in the already thin ranks of our battalion.
+      Nearly a score died in my company&mdash;L&mdash;and the other companies
+      suffered proportionately. Among the first to die of my company comrades,
+      was a genial little Corporal, &ldquo;Billy&rdquo; Phillips&mdash;who was a
+      favorite with us all. Everything was done for him that kindness could
+      suggest, but it was of little avail. Then &ldquo;Bruno&rdquo; Weeks&mdash;a
+      young boy, the son of a preacher, who had run away from his home in Fulton
+      County, Ohio, to join us, succumbed to hardship and privation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next to go was good-natured, harmless Victor Seitz, a Detroit cigar
+      maker, a German, and one of the slowest of created mortals. How he ever
+      came to go into the cavalry was beyond the wildest surmises of his
+      comrades. Why his supernatural slowness and clumsiness did not result in
+      his being killed at least once a day, while in the service, was even still
+      farther beyond the power of conjecture. No accident ever happened in the
+      company that Seitz did not have some share in. Did a horse fall on a
+      slippery road, it was almost sure to be Seitz's, and that imported
+      son of the Fatherland was equally sure to be caught under him. Did
+      somebody tumble over a bank of a dark night, it was Seitz that we soon
+      heard making his way back, swearing in deep German gutterals, with
+      frequent allusion to 'tausend teuflin.' Did a shanty blow
+      down, we ran over and pulled Seitz out of the debris, when he would
+      exclaim:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Zo! dot vos pretty vunny now, ain't it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he surveyed the scene of his trouble with true German phlegm, he
+      would fish a brier-wood pipe from the recesses of his pockets, fill it
+      with tobacco, and go plodding off in a cloud of smoke in search of some
+      fresh way to narrowly escape destruction. He did not know enough about
+      horses to put a snaffle-bit in one's mouth, and yet he would draw
+      the friskiest, most mettlesome animal in the corral, upon whose back he
+      was scarcely more at home than he would be upon a slack rope. It was no
+      uncommon thing to see a horse break out of ranks, and go past the
+      battalion like the wind, with poor Seitz clinging to his mane like the
+      traditional grim Death to a deceased African. We then knew that Seitz had
+      thoughtlessly sunk the keen spurs he would persist in wearing; deep into
+      the flanks of his high-mettled animal. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p201" alt="p201.jpg (25K)" src="images/p201.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These accidents became so much a matter-of-course that when anything
+      unusual occurred in the company our first impulse was to go and help Seitz
+      out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the bugle sounded &ldquo;boots and saddles,&rdquo; the rest of us
+      would pack up, mount, &ldquo;count off by fours from the right,&rdquo; and
+      be ready to move out before the last notes of the call had fairly died
+      away. Just then we would notice an unsaddled horse still tied to the
+      hitching place. It was Seitz's, and that worthy would be seen
+      approaching, pipe in mouth, and bridle in hand, with calm, equable steps,
+      as if any time before the expiration of his enlistment would be soon
+      enough to accomplish the saddling of his steed. A chorus of impatient and
+      derisive remarks would go up from his impatient comrades:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For heaven's sake, Seitz, hurry up!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seitz! you are like a cow's tail&mdash;always behind!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seitz, you are slower than the second coming of the Savior!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Christmas is a railroad train alongside of you, Seitz!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you ain't on that horse in half a second, Seitz, we'll
+      go off and leave you, and the Johnnies will skin you alive!&rdquo; etc.,
+      etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a ripple of emotion would roll over Seitz's placid features
+      under the sharpest of these objurgations. At last, losing all patience,
+      two or three boys would dismount, run to Seitz's horse, pack, saddle
+      and bridle him, as if he were struck with a whirlwind. Then Seitz would
+      mount, and we would move 'off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all this, we liked him. His good nature was boundless, and his
+      disposition to oblige equal to the severest test. He did not lack a grain
+      of his full share of the calm, steadfast courage of his race, and would
+      stay where he was put, though Erebus yawned and bade him fly. He was very
+      useful, despite his unfitness for many of the duties of a cavalryman. He
+      was a good guard, and always ready to take charge of prisoners, or be
+      sentry around wagons or a forage pile-duties that most of the boys
+      cordially hated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he came into the last trouble at Andersonville. He stood up pretty
+      well under the hardships of Belle Isle, but lost his cheerfulness&mdash;his
+      unrepining calmness&mdash;after a few weeks in the Stockade. One day we
+      remembered that none of us had seen him for several days, and we started
+      in search of him. We found him in a distant part of the camp, lying near
+      the Dead Line. His long fair hair was matted together, his blue eyes had
+      the flush of fever. Every part of his clothing was gray with the lice that
+      were hastening his death with their torments. He uttered the first
+      complaint I ever heard him make, as I came up to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Gott, M &mdash;&mdash;, dis is worse dun a dog's det!&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p203" alt="p203.jpg (55K)" src="images/p203.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few days we gave him all the funeral in our power; tied his big toes
+      together, folded his hands across his breast, pinned to his shirt a slip
+      of paper, upon which was written:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VICTOR E. SEITZ,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Co. L, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And laid his body at the South Gate, beside some scores of others that
+      were awaiting the arrival of the six-mule wagon that hauled them to the
+      Potter's Field, which was to be their last resting-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Emerson and John Stiggall, of my company, were two Norwegian boys,
+      and fine specimens of their race&mdash;intelligent, faithful, and always
+      ready for duty. They had an affection for each other that reminded one of
+      the stories told of the sworn attachment and the unfailing devotion that
+      were common between two Gothic warrior youths. Coming into Andersonville
+      some little time after the rest of us, they found all the desirable ground
+      taken up, and they established their quarters at the base of the hill,
+      near the Swamp. There they dug a little hole to lie in, and put in a layer
+      of pine leaves. Between them they had an overcoat and a blanket. At night
+      they lay upon the coat and covered themselves with the blanket. By day the
+      blanket served as a tent. The hardships and annoyances that we endured
+      made everybody else cross and irritable. At times it seemed impossible to
+      say or listen to pleasant words, and nobody was ever allowed to go any
+      length of time spoiling for a fight. He could usually be accommodated upon
+      the spot to any extent he desired, by simply making his wishes known. Even
+      the best of chums would have sharp quarrels and brisk fights, and this
+      disposition increased as disease made greater inroads upon them. I saw in
+      one instance two brothers-both of whom died the next day of scurvy&mdash;and
+      who were so helpless as to be unable to rise, pull themselves up on their
+      knees by clenching the poles of their tents &mdash;in order to strike each
+      other with clubs, and they kept striking until the bystanders interfered
+      and took their weapons away from them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Stiggall and Emerson never quarreled with each other. Their tenderness
+      and affection were remarkable to witness. They began to go the way that so
+      many were going; diarrhea and scurvy set in; they wasted away till their
+      muscles and tissues almost disappeared, leaving the skin lying fiat upon
+      the bones; but their principal solicitude was for each other, and each
+      seemed actually jealous of any person else doing anything for the other. I
+      met Emerson one day, with one leg drawn clear out of shape, and rendered
+      almost useless by the scurvy. He was very weak, but was hobbling down
+      towards the Creek with a bucket made from a boot leg. I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Johnny, just give me your bucket. I'll fill it for you, and
+      bring it up to your tent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; much obliged, M &mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; he wheezed out; &ldquo;my
+      pardner wants a cool drink, and I guess I'd better get it for him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stiggall died in June. He was one of the first victims of scurvy, which,
+      in the succeeding few weeks, carried off so many. All of us who had read
+      sea-stories had read much of this disease and its horrors, but we had
+      little conception of the dreadful reality. It usually manifested itself
+      first in the mouth. The breath became unbearably fetid; the gums swelled
+      until they protruded, livid and disgusting, beyond the lips. The teeth
+      became so loose that they frequently fell out, and the sufferer would pick
+      them up and set them back in their sockets. In attempting to bite the hard
+      corn bread furnished by the bakery the teeth often stuck fast and were
+      pulled out. The gums had a fashion of breaking away, in large chunks,
+      which would be swallowed or spit out. All the time one was eating his
+      mouth would be filled with blood, fragments of gums and loosened teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frightful, malignant ulcers appeared in other parts of the body; the
+      ever-present maggot flies laid eggs in these, and soon worms swarmed
+      therein. The sufferer looked and felt as if, though he yet lived and
+      moved, his body was anticipating the rotting it would undergo a little
+      later in the grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last change was ushered in by the lower parts of the legs swelling.
+      When this appeared, we considered the man doomed. We all had scurvy, more
+      or less, but as long as it kept out of our legs we were hopeful. First,
+      the ankle joints swelled, then the foot became useless. The swelling
+      increased until the knees became stiff, and the skin from these down was
+      distended until it looked pale, colorless and transparent as a tightly
+      blown bladder. The leg was so much larger at the bottom than at the thigh,
+      that the sufferers used to make grim jokes about being modeled like a
+      churn, &ldquo;with the biggest end down.&rdquo; The man then became
+      utterly helpless and usually died in a short time. <br><br><br><br>
+    
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p205" alt="p205.jpg (11K)" src="images/p205.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The official report puts down the number of deaths from scurvy at three
+      thousand five hundred and seventy-four, but Dr. Jones, the Rebel surgeon,
+      reported to the Rebel Government his belief that nine-tenths of the great
+      mortality of the prison was due, either directly or indirectly, to this
+      cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only effort made by the Rebel doctors to check its ravages was
+      occasionally to give a handful of sumach berries to some particularly bad
+      case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Stiggall died we thought Emerson would certainly follow him in a day
+      or two, but, to our surprise, he lingered along until August before dying.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch32" id="ch32"></a>CHAPTER XXXII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;OLE BOO,&rdquo; AND &ldquo;OLE SOL, THE HAYMAKER&rdquo;&mdash;A
+      FETID, BURNING DESERT&mdash;NOISOME WATER, AND THE EFFECTS OF DRINKING IT&mdash;STEALING
+      SOFT SOAP.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gradually lengthening Summer days were insufferably long and
+      wearisome. Each was hotter, longer and more tedious than its predecessors.
+      In my company was a none-too-bright fellow, named Dawson. During the
+      chilly rains or the nipping, winds of our first days in prison, Dawson
+      would, as he rose in, the morning, survey the forbidding skies with
+      lack-luster eyes and remark, oracularly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Ole Boo gits us agin, to-day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was so unvarying in this salutation to the morn that his designation of
+      disagreeable weather as &ldquo;Ole Boo&rdquo; became generally adopted by
+      us. When the hot weather came on, Dawson's remark, upon rising and
+      seeing excellent prospects for a scorcher, changed to: &ldquo;Well, Ole
+      Sol, the Haymaker, is going to git in his work on us agin to-day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As long as he lived and was able to talk, this was Dawson's
+      invariable observation at the break of day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was quite right. The Ole Haymaker would do some famous work before he
+      descended in the West, sending his level rays through the wide interstices
+      between the somber pines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By nine o'clock in the morning his beams would begin to fairly singe
+      everything in the crowded pen. The hot sand would glow as one sees it in
+      the center of the unshaded highway some scorching noon in August. The high
+      walls of the prison prevented the circulation inside of any breeze that
+      might be in motion, while the foul stench rising from the putrid Swamp and
+      the rotting ground seemed to reach the skies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One can readily comprehend the horrors of death on the burning sands of a
+      desert. But the desert sand is at least clean; there is nothing worse
+      about it than heat and intense dryness. It is not, as that was at
+      Andersonville, poisoned with the excretions of thousands of sick and dying
+      men, filled with disgusting vermin, and loading the air with the germs of
+      death. The difference is as that between a brick-kiln and a sewer. Should
+      the fates ever decide that I shall be flung out upon sands to perish, I
+      beg that the hottest place in the Sahara may be selected, rather than such
+      a spot as the interior of the Andersonville Stockade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be said that we had an abundance of water, which made a decided
+      improvement on a desert. Doubtless&mdash;had that water been pure. But
+      every mouthful of it was a blood poison, and helped promote disease and
+      death. Even before reaching the Stockade it was so polluted by the
+      drainage of the Rebel camps as to be utterly unfit for human use. In our
+      part of the prison we sank several wells&mdash;some as deep as forty feet&mdash;to
+      procure water. We had no other tools for this than our ever-faithful half
+      canteens, and nothing wherewith to wall the wells. But a firm clay was
+      reached a few feet below the surface, which afforded tolerable strong
+      sides for the lower part, ana furnished material to make adobe bricks for
+      curbs to keep out the sand of the upper part. The sides were continually
+      giving away, however, and fellows were perpetually falling down the holes,
+      to the great damage of their legs and arms. The water, which was drawn up
+      in little cans, or boot leg buckets, by strings made of strips of cloth,
+      was much better than that of the creek, but was still far from pure, as it
+      contained the seepage from the filthy ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intense heat led men to drink great quantities of water, and this
+      superinduced malignant dropsical complaints, which, next to diarrhea,
+      scurvy and gangrene, were the ailments most active in carrying men off.
+      Those affected in this way swelled up frightfully from day to day. Their
+      clothes speedily became too small for them, and were ripped off, leaving
+      them entirely naked, and they suffered intensely until death at last came
+      to their relief. Among those of my squad who died in this way, was a young
+      man named Baxter, of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry, taken at Chicamauga. He
+      was very fine looking&mdash;tall, slender, with regular features and
+      intensely black hair and eyes; he sang nicely, and was generally liked. A
+      more pitiable object than he, when last I saw him, just before his death,
+      can not be imagined. His body had swollen until it seemed marvelous that
+      the human skin could bear so much distention without disruption, All the
+      old look of bright intelligence had been. driven from his face by the
+      distortion of his features. His swarthy hair and beard, grown long and
+      ragged, had that peculiar repulsive look which the black hair of the sick
+      is prone to assume.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I attributed much of my freedom from the diseases to which others
+      succumbed to abstention from water drinking. Long before I entered the
+      army, I had constructed a theory&mdash;on premises that were doubtless as
+      insufficient as those that boyish theories are usually based upon&mdash;that
+      drinking water was a habit, and a pernicious one, which sapped away the
+      energy. I took some trouble to curb my appetite for water, and soon found
+      that I got along very comfortably without drinking anything beyond that
+      which was contained in my food. I followed this up after entering the
+      army, drinking nothing at any time but a little coffee, and finding no
+      need, even on the dustiest marches, for anything more. I do not presume
+      that in a year I drank a quart of cold water. Experience seemed to confirm
+      my views, for I noticed that the first to sink under a fatigue, or to
+      yield to sickness, were those who were always on the lookout for drinking
+      water, springing from their horses and struggling around every well or
+      spring on the line of march for an opportunity to fill their canteens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I made liberal use of the Creek for bathing purposes, however, visiting it
+      four or five times a day during the hot days, to wash myself all over.
+      This did not cool one off much, for the shallow stream was nearly as hot
+      as the sand, but it seemed to do some good, and it helped pass away the
+      tedious hours. The stream was nearly all the time filled as full of
+      bathers as they could stand, and the water could do little towards
+      cleansing so many. The occasional rain storms that swept across the prison
+      were welcomed, not only because they cooled the air temporarily, but
+      because they gave us a shower-bath. As they came up, nearly every one
+      stripped naked and got out where he could enjoy the full benefit of the
+      falling water. Fancy, if possible, the spectacle of twenty-five thousand
+      or thirty thousand men without a stitch of clothing upon them. The like
+      has not been seen, I imagine, since the naked followers of Boadicea
+      gathered in force to do battle to the Roman invaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was impossible to get really clean. Our bodies seemed covered with a
+      varnish-like, gummy matter that defied removal by water alone. I imagined
+      that it came from the rosin or turpentine, arising from the little pitch
+      pine fires over which we hovered when cooking our rations. It would yield
+      to nothing except strong soap-and soap, as I have before stated&mdash;was
+      nearly as scarce in the Southern Confederacy as salt. We in prison saw
+      even less of it, or rather, none at all. The scarcity of it, and our
+      desire for it, recalls a bit of personal experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had steadfastly refused all offers of positions outside the prison on
+      parole, as, like the great majority of the prisoners, my hatred of the
+      Rebels grew more bitter, day by day; I felt as if I would rather die than
+      accept the smallest favor at their hands, and I shared the common contempt
+      for those who did. But, when the movement for a grand attack on the
+      Stockade&mdash;mentioned in a previous chapter&mdash;was apparently
+      rapidly coming to a head, I was offered a temporary detail outside to,
+      assist in making up some rolls. I resolved to accept; first because I
+      thought I might get some information that would be of use in our
+      enterprise; and, next, because I foresaw that the rush through the gaps in
+      the Stockade would be bloody business, and by going out in advance I would
+      avoid that much of the danger, and still be able to give effective
+      assistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was taken up to Wirz's office. He was writing at a desk at one end
+      of a large room when the Sergeant brought me in. He turned around, told
+      the Sergeant to leave me, and ordered me to sit down upon a box at the
+      other end of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Turning his back and resuming his writing, in a few minutes he had
+      forgotten me. I sat quietly, taking in the details for a half-hour, and
+      then, having exhausted everything else in the room, I began wondering what
+      was in the box I was sitting upon. The lid was loose; I hitched it forward
+      a little without attracting Wirz's attention, and slipped my left
+      hand down of a voyage of discovery. It seemed very likely that there was
+      something there that a loyal Yankee deserved better than a Rebel. I found
+      that it was a fine article of soft soap. A handful was scooped up and
+      speedily shoved into my left pantaloon pocket. Expecting every instant
+      that Wirz would turn around and order me to come to the desk to show my
+      handwriting, hastily and furtively wiped my hand on the back of my shirt
+      and watched Wirz with as innocent an expression as a school boy assumes
+      when he has just flipped a chewed paper wad across the room. Wirz was
+      still engrossed in his writing, and did not look around. I was emboldened
+      to reach down for another handful. This was also successfully transferred,
+      the hand wiped off on the back of the shirt, and the face wore its
+      expression of infantile ingenuousness. Still Wirz did not look up. I kept
+      dipping up handful after handful, until I had gotten about a quart in the
+      left hand pocket. After each handful I rubbed my hand off on the back of
+      my shirt and waited an instant for a summons to the desk. Then the process
+      was repeated with the other hand, and a quart of the saponaceous mush was
+      packed in the right hand pocket. <br><br><br><br> 
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img id="p211" alt="p211.jpg (33K)" src="images/p211.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after Wirz rose and ordered a guard to take me away and keep me,
+      until he decided what to do with me. The day was intensely hot, and soon
+      the soap in my pockets and on the back of my shirt began burning like
+      double strength Spanish fly blisters. There was nothing to do but grin and
+      bear it. I set my teeth, squatted down under the shade of the parapet of
+      the fort, and stood it silently and sullenly. For the first time in my
+      life I thoroughly appreciated the story of the Spartan boy, who stole the
+      fox and suffered the animal to tear his bowels out rather than give a sign
+      which would lead to the exposure of his theft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between four and five o'clock-after I had endured the thing for five
+      or six hours, a guard came with orders from Wirz that I should be returned
+      to the Stockade. Upon hastily removing my clothes, after coming inside, I
+      found I had a blister on each thigh, and one down my back, that would have
+      delighted an old practitioner of the heroic school. But I also had a half
+      gallon of excellent soft soap. My chums and I took a magnificent wash, and
+      gave our clothes the same, and we still had soap enough left to barter for
+      some onions that we had long coveted, and which tasted as sweet to us as
+      manna to the Israelites. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch33" id="ch33"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;POUR PASSER LE TEMPS&rdquo;&mdash;A SET OF CHESSMEN PROCURED UNDER
+      DIFFICULTIES &mdash;RELIGIOUS SERVICES&mdash;THE DEVOTED PRIEST&mdash;WAR
+      SONG.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time moved with leaden feet. Do the best we could, there were very
+      many tiresome hours for which no occupation whatever could be found. All
+      that was necessary to be done during the day&mdash;attending roll call,
+      drawing and cooking rations, killing lice and washing&mdash;could be
+      disposed of in an hour's time, and we were left with fifteen or
+      sixteen waking hours, for which there was absolutely no employment. Very
+      many tried to escape both the heat and ennui by sleeping as much as
+      possible through the day, but I noticed that those who did this soon died,
+      and consequently I did not do it. Card playing had sufficed to pass away
+      the hours at first, but our cards soon wore out, and deprived us of this
+      resource. My chum, Andrews, and I constructed a set of chessmen with an
+      infinite deal of trouble. We found a soft, white root in the swamp which
+      answered our purpose. A boy near us had a tolerably sharp pocket-knife,
+      for the use of which a couple of hours each day, we gave a few spoonfuls
+      of meal. The knife was the only one among a large number of prisoners, as
+      the Rebel guards had an affection for that style of cutlery, which led
+      them to search incoming prisoners, very closely. The fortunate owner of
+      this derived quite a little income of meal by shrewdly loaning it to his
+      knifeless comrades. The shapes that we made for pieces and pawns were
+      necessarily very rude, but they were sufficiently distinct for
+      identification. We blackened one set with pitch pine soot, found a piece
+      of plank that would answer for a board and purchased it from its possessor
+      for part of a ration of meal, and so were fitted out with what served
+      until our release to distract our attention from much of the surrounding
+      misery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every one else procured such amusement as they could. Newcomers, who still
+      had money and cards, gambled as long as their means lasted. Those who had
+      books read them until the leaves fell apart. Those who had paper and pen
+      and ink tried to write descriptions and keep journals, but this was
+      usually given up after being in prison a few weeks. I was fortunate enough
+      to know a boy who had brought a copy of &ldquo;Gray's Anatomy&rdquo;
+      into prison with him. I was not specially interested in the subject, but
+      it was Hobson's choice; I could read anatomy or nothing, and so I
+      tackled it with such good will that before my friend became sick and was
+      taken outside, and his book with him, I had obtained a very fair knowledge
+      of the rudiments of physiology.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a little band of devoted Christian workers, among whom were
+      Orderly Sergeant Thomas J. Sheppard, Ninety-Seventh O. Y. L, now a leading
+      Baptist minister in Eastern Ohio; Boston Corbett, who afterward slew John
+      Wilkes Booth, and Frank Smith, now at the head of the Railroad Bethel work
+      at Toledo. They were indefatigable in trying to evangelize the prison. A
+      few of them would take their station in some part of the Stockade (a
+      different one every time), and begin singing some old familiar hymn like:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Thou fount of every blessing,&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      and in a few minutes they would have an attentive audience of as many
+      thousand as could get within hearing. The singing would be followed by
+      regular services, during which Sheppard, Smith, Corbett, and some others
+      would make short, spirited, practical addresses, which no doubt did much
+      good to all who heard them, though the grains of leaven were entirely too
+      small to leaven such an immense measure of meal. They conducted several
+      funerals, as nearly like the way it was done at home as possible. Their
+      ministrations were not confined to mere lip service, but they labored
+      assiduously in caring for the sick, and made many a poor fellow's
+      way to the grave much smoother for him. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p215" id="p215"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p215.jpg (36K)" src="images/p215.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was about all the religious services that we were favored with. The
+      Rebel preachers did not make that effort to save our misguided souls which
+      one would have imagined they would having us where we could not choose but
+      hear they might have taken advantage of our situation to rake us fore and
+      aft with their theological artillery. They only attempted it in one
+      instance. While in Richmond a preacher came into our room and announced in
+      an authoritative way that he would address us on religious subjects. We
+      uncovered respectfully, and gathered around him. He was a loud-tongued,
+      brawling Boanerges, who addressed the Lord as if drilling a brigade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke but a few moments before making apparent his belief that the
+      worst of crimes was that of being a Yankee, and that a man must not only
+      be saved through Christ's blood, but also serve in the Rebel army
+      before he could attain to heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course we raised such a yell of derision that the sermon was brought to
+      an abrupt conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only minister who came into the Stockade was a Catholic priest,
+      middle-aged, tall, slender, and unmistakably devout. He was unwearied in
+      his attention to the sick, and the whole day could be seen moving around
+      through the prison, attending to those who needed spiritual consolation.
+      It was interesting to see him administer the extreme unction to a dying
+      man. Placing a long purple scarf about his own neck and a small brazen
+      crucifix in the hands of the dying one, he would kneel by the latter's
+      side and anoint him upon the eyes, ears, nostrils; lips, hands, feet and
+      breast, with sacred oil; from a little brass vessel, repeating the while,
+      in an impressive voice, the solemn offices of the Church. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p216" id="p216"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p216.jpg (20K)" src="images/p216.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His unwearying devotion gained the admiration of all, no matter how little
+      inclined one might be to view priestliness generally with favor. He was
+      evidently of such stuff as Christian heros have ever been made of, and
+      would have faced stake and fagot, at the call of duty, with unquailing
+      eye. His name was Father Hamilton, and he was stationed at Macon. The
+      world should know more of a man whose services were so creditable to
+      humanity and his Church:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good father had the wisdom of the serpent, with the harmlessness of
+      the dove. Though full of commiseration for the unhappy lot of the
+      prisoners, nothing could betray him into the slightest expression of
+      opinion regarding the war or those who were the authors of all this
+      misery. In our impatience at our treatment, and hunger for news, we forgot
+      his sacerdotal character, and importuned him for tidings of the exchange.
+      His invariable reply was that he lived apart from these things and kept
+      himself ignorant of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, father,&rdquo; said I one day, with an impatience that I could
+      not wholly repress, &ldquo;you must certainly hear or read something of
+      this, while you are outside among the Rebel officers.&rdquo; Like many
+      other people, I supposed that the whole world was excited over that in
+      which I felt a deep interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my son,&rdquo; replied he, in his usual calm, measured tones.
+      &ldquo;I go not among them, nor do I hear anything from them. When I leave
+      the prison in the evening, full of sorrow at what I have seen here, I find
+      that the best use I can make of my time is in studying the Word of God,
+      and especially the Psalms of David.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were not any longer good company for each other. We had heard over and
+      over again all each other's stories and jokes, and each knew as much
+      about the other's previous history as we chose to communicate. The
+      story of every individual's past life, relations, friends, regiment,
+      and soldier experience had been told again and again, until the repetition
+      was wearisome. The cool nights following the hot days were favorable to
+      little gossiping seances like the yarn-spinning watches of sailors on
+      pleasant nights. Our squad, though its stock of stories was worn
+      threadbare, was fortunate enough to have a sweet singer in Israel &ldquo;Nosey&rdquo;
+      Payne&mdash;of whose tunefulness we never tired. He had a large repertoire
+      of patriotic songs, which he sang with feeling and correctness, and which
+      helped much to make the calm Summer nights pass agreeably. Among the best
+      of these was &ldquo;Brave Boys are They,&rdquo; which I always thought was
+      the finest ballad, both in poetry and music, produced by the War. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p218" id="p218"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p218.jpg (69K)" src="images/p218.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch34" id="ch34"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MAGGOTS, LICE AND RAIDERS&mdash;PRACTICES OF THESE HUMAN VERMIN&mdash;PLUNDERING
+      THE SICK AND DYING&mdash;NIGHT ATTACKS, AND BATTLES BY DAY&mdash;HARD
+      TIMES FOR THE SMALL TRADERS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With each long, hot Summer hour the lice, the maggot-flies and the N'Yaarkers
+      increased in numbers and venomous activity. They were ever-present
+      annoyances and troubles; no time was free from them. The lice worried us
+      by day and tormented us by night; the maggot-flies fouled our food, and
+      laid in sores and wounds larvae that speedily became masses of wriggling
+      worms. The N'Yaarkers were human vermin that preyed upon and harried
+      us unceasingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They formed themselves into bands numbering from five to twenty-five, each
+      led by a bold, unscrupulous, energetic scoundrel. We now called them
+      &ldquo;Raiders,&rdquo; and the most prominent and best known of the bands
+      were called by the names of their ruffian leaders, as &ldquo;Mosby's
+      Raiders,&rdquo; &ldquo;Curtis's Raiders,&rdquo; &ldquo;Delaney's
+      Raiders,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sarsfield's Raiders,&rdquo; &ldquo;Collins's
+      Raiders,&rdquo; etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As long as we old prisoners formed the bulk of those inside the Stockade,
+      the Raiders had slender picking. They would occasionally snatch a blanket
+      from the tent poles, or knock a boy down at the Creek and take his silver
+      watch from him; but this was all. Abundant opportunities for securing
+      richer swag came to them with the advent of the Plymouth Pilgrims. As had
+      been before stated, these boys brought in with them a large portion of
+      their first instalment of veteran bounty&mdash;aggregating in amount,
+      according to varying estimates, between twenty-five thousand and one
+      hundred thousand dollars. The Pilgrims were likewise well clothed, had an
+      abundance of blankets and camp equipage, and a plentiful supply of
+      personal trinkets, that could be readily traded off to the Rebels. An
+      average one of them&mdash;even if his money were all gone&mdash;was a
+      bonanza to any band which could succeed in plundering him. His watch and
+      chain, shoes, knife, ring, handkerchief, combs and similar trifles, would
+      net several hundred dollars in Confederate money. The blockade, which cut
+      off the Rebel communication with the outer world, made these in great
+      demand. Many of the prisoners that came in from the Army of the Potomac
+      repaid robbing equally well. As a rule those from that Army were not
+      searched so closely as those from the West, and not unfrequently they came
+      in with all their belongings untouched, where Sherman's men,
+      arriving the same day, would be stripped nearly to the buff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The methods of the Raiders were various, ranging all the way from sneak
+      thievery to highway robbery. All the arts learned in the prisons and
+      purlieus of New York were put into exercise. Decoys, &ldquo;bunko-steerers&rdquo;
+      at home, would be on the look-out for promising subjects as each crowd of
+      fresh prisoners entered the gate, and by kindly offers to find them a
+      sleeping place, lure them to where they could be easily despoiled during
+      the night. If the victim resisted there was always sufficient force at
+      hand to conquer him, and not seldom his life paid the penalty of his
+      contumacy. I have known as many as three of these to be killed in a night,
+      and their bodies&mdash;with throats cut, or skulls crushed in&mdash;be
+      found in the morning among the dead at the gates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All men having money or valuables were under continual espionage, and when
+      found in places convenient for attack, a rush was made for them. They were
+      knocked down and their persons rifled with such swift dexterity that it
+      was done before they realized what had happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first these depredations were only perpetrated at night. The quarry was
+      selected during the day, and arrangements made for a descent. After the
+      victim was asleep the band dashed down upon him, and sheared him of his
+      goods with incredible swiftness. Those near would raise the cry of &ldquo;Raiders!&rdquo;
+      and attack the robbers. If the latter had secured their booty they
+      retreated with all possible speed, and were soon lost in the crowd. If
+      not, they would offer battle, and signal for assistance from the other
+      bands. Severe engagements of this kind were of continual occurrence, in
+      which men were so badly beaten as to die from the effects. The weapons
+      used were fists, clubs, axes, tent-poles, etc. The Raiders were
+      plentifully provided with the usual weapons of their class&mdash;slung-shots
+      and brass-knuckles. Several of them had succeeded in smuggling
+      bowie-knives into prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had the great advantage in these rows of being well acquainted with
+      each other, while, except the Plymouth Pilgrims, the rest of the prisoners
+      were made up of small squads of men from each regiment in the service, and
+      total strangers to all outside of their own little band. The Raiders could
+      concentrate, if necessary, four hundred or five hundred men upon any point
+      of attack, and each member of the gangs had become so familiarized with
+      all the rest by long association in New York, and elsewhere, that he never
+      dealt a blow amiss, while their opponents were nearly as likely to attack
+      friends as enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the middle of June the continual success of the Raiders emboldened them
+      so that they no longer confined their depredations to the night, but made
+      their forays in broad daylight, and there was hardly an hour in the
+      twenty-four that the cry of &ldquo;Raiders! Raiders!&rdquo; did, not go up
+      from some part of the pen, and on looking in the direction of the cry, one
+      would see a surging commotion, men struggling, and clubs being plied
+      vigorously. This was even more common than the guards shooting men at the
+      Creek crossing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day I saw &ldquo;Dick Allen's Raiders,&rdquo; eleven in number,
+      attack a man wearing the uniform of Ellett's Marine Brigade. He was
+      a recent comer, and alone, but he was brave. He had come into possession
+      of a spade, by some means or another, and he used this with delightful
+      vigor and effect. Two or three times he struck one of his assailants so
+      fairly on the head and with such good will that I congratulated myself
+      that he had killed him. Finally, Dick Allen managed to slip around behind
+      him unnoticed, and striking him on the head with a slung-shot, knocked him
+      down, when the whole crowd pounced upon him to kill him, but were driven
+      off by others rallying to his assistance. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p223" id="p223"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p223.jpg (56K)" src="images/p223.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The proceeds of these forays enabled the Raiders to wax fat and lusty,
+      while others were dying from starvation. They all had good tents,
+      constructed of stolen blankets, and their headquarters was a large, roomy
+      tent, with a circular top, situated on the street leading to the South
+      Gate, and capable of accommodating from seventy-five to one hundred men.
+      All the material for this had been wrested away from others. While
+      hundreds were dying of scurvy and diarrhea, from the miserable,
+      insufficient food, and lack of vegetables, these fellows had flour, fresh
+      meat, onions, potatoes, green beans, and other things, the very looks of
+      which were a torture to hungry, scorbutic, dysenteric men. They were on
+      the best possible terms with the Rebels, whom they fawned upon and
+      groveled before, and were in return allowed many favors, in the way of
+      trading, going out upon detail, and making purchases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among their special objects of attack were the small traders in the
+      prison. We had quite a number of these whose genius for barter was so
+      strong that it took root and flourished even in that unpropitious soil,
+      and during the time when new prisoners were constantly coming in with
+      money, they managed to accumulate small sums&mdash;from ten dollars
+      upward, by trading between the guards and the prisoners. In the period
+      immediately following a prisoner's entrance he was likely to spend
+      all his money and trade off all his possessions for food, trusting to
+      fortune to get him out of there when these were gone. Then was when he was
+      profitable to these go-betweens, who managed to make him pay handsomely
+      for what he got. The Raiders kept watch of these traders, and plundered
+      them whenever occasion served. It reminded one of the habits of the
+      fishing eagle, which hovers around until some other bird catches a fish,
+      and then takes it away. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch35" id="ch35"></a>CHAPTER XXXV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A COMMUNITY WITHOUT GOVERNMENT&mdash;FORMATION OF THE REGULATORS&mdash;RAIDERS
+      ATTACK KEY BUT ARE BLUFFED OFF&mdash;ASSAULT OF THE REGULATORS ON THE
+      RAIDERS &mdash;DESPERATE BATTLE&mdash;OVERTHROW OF THE RAIDERS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To fully appreciate the condition of affairs let it be remembered that we
+      were a community of twenty-five thousand boys and young men&mdash;none too
+      regardful of control at best&mdash;and now wholly destitute of government.
+      The Rebels never made the slightest attempt to maintain order in the
+      prison. Their whole energies were concentrated in preventing our escape.
+      So long as we staid inside the Stockade, they cared as little what we did
+      there as for the performances of savages in the interior of Africa. I
+      doubt if they would have interfered had one-half of us killed and eaten
+      the other half. They rather took a delight in such atrocities as came to
+      their notice. It was an ocular demonstration of the total depravity of the
+      Yankees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among ourselves there was no one in position to lay down law and enforce
+      it. Being all enlisted men we were on a dead level as far as rank was
+      concerned&mdash;the highest being only Sergeants, whose stripes carried no
+      weight of authority. The time of our stay was&mdash;it was hoped&mdash;too
+      transient to make it worth while bothering about organizing any form of
+      government. The great bulk of the boys were recent comers, who hoped that
+      in another week or so they would be out again. There were no fat salaries
+      to tempt any one to take upon himself the duty of ruling the masses, and
+      all were left to their own devices, to do good or evil, according to their
+      several bents, and as fear of consequences swayed them. Each little squad
+      of men was a law unto themselves, and made and enforced their own
+      regulations on their own territory. The administration of justice was
+      reduced to its simplest terms. If a fellow did wrong he was pounded&mdash;if
+      there was anybody capable of doing it. If not he went free.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The almost unvarying success of the Raiders in&mdash;their forays gave the
+      general impression that they were invincible&mdash;that is, that not
+      enough men could be concentrated against them to whip them. Our
+      ill-success in the attack we made on them in April helped us to the same
+      belief. If we could not beat them then, we could not now, after we had
+      been enfeebled by months of starvation and disease. It seemed to us that
+      the Plymouth Pilgrims, whose organization was yet very strong, should
+      undertake the task; but, as is usually the case in this world, where we
+      think somebody else ought to undertake the performance of a disagreeable
+      public duty, they did not see it in the light that we wished them to. They
+      established guards around their squads, and helped beat off the Raiders
+      when their own territory was invaded, but this was all they would do. The
+      rest of us formed similar guards. In the southwest corner of the Stockade&mdash;where
+      I was&mdash;we formed ourselves into a company of fifty active boys&mdash;mostly
+      belonging to my own battalion and to other Illinois regiments&mdash;of
+      which I was elected Captain. My First Lieutenant was a tall, taciturn,
+      long-armed member of the One Hundred and Eleventh Illinois, whom we called
+      &ldquo;Egypt,&rdquo; as he came from that section of the State. He was
+      wonderfully handy with his fists. I think he could knock a fellow down so
+      that he would fall-harder, and lie longer than any person I ever saw. We
+      made a tacit division of duties: I did the talking, and &ldquo;Egypt&rdquo;
+      went through the manual labor of knocking our opponents down. In the
+      numerous little encounters in which our company was engaged, &ldquo;Egypt&rdquo;
+      would stand by my side, silent, grim and patient, while I pursued the
+      dialogue with the leader of the other crowd. As soon as he thought the
+      conversation had reached the proper point, his long left arm stretched out
+      like a flash, and the other fellow dropped as if he had suddenly come in
+      range of a mule that was feeling well. That unexpected left-hander never
+      failed. It would have made Charles Reade's heart leap for joy to see
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of our company and our watchfulness, the Raiders beat us badly on
+      one occasion. Marion Friend, of Company I of our battalion, was one of the
+      small traders, and had accumulated forty dollars by his bartering. One
+      evening at dusk Delaney's Raiders, about twenty-five strong, took
+      advantage of the absence of most of us drawing rations, to make a rush for
+      Marion. They knocked him down, cut him across the wrist and neck with a
+      razor, and robbed him of his forty dollars. By the time we could rally
+      Delaney and his attendant scoundrels were safe from pursuit in the midst
+      of their friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This state of things had become unendurable. Sergeant Leroy L. Key, of
+      Company M, our battalion, resolved to make an effort to crush the Raiders.
+      He was a printer, from Bloomington, Illinois, tall, dark, intelligent and
+      strong-willed, and one of the bravest men I ever knew. He was ably
+      seconded by &ldquo;Limber Jim,&rdquo; of the Sixty-Seventh Illinois, whose
+      lithe, sinewy form, and striking features reminded one of a young Sioux
+      brave. He had all of Key's desperate courage, but not his brains or
+      his talent for leadership. Though fearfully reduced in numbers, our
+      battalion had still about one hundred well men in it, and these formed the
+      nucleus for Key's band of &ldquo;Regulators,&rdquo; as they were
+      styled. Among them were several who had no equals in physical strength and
+      courage in any of the Raider chiefs. Our best man was Ned Carrigan,
+      Corporal of Company I, from Chicago&mdash;who was so confessedly the best
+      man in the whole prison that he was never called upon to demonstrate it.
+      He was a big-hearted, genial Irish boy, who was never known to get into
+      trouble on his own account, but only used his fists when some of his
+      comrades were imposed upon. He had fought in the ring, and on one occasion
+      had killed a man with a single blow of his fist, in a prize fight near St.
+      Louis. We were all very proud of him, and it was as good as an entertainment
+      to us to see the noisiest roughs subside into deferential silence as Ned
+      would come among them, like some grand mastiff in the midst of a pack of
+      yelping curs. Ned entered into the regulating scheme heartily. Other
+      stalwart specimens of physical manhood in our battalion were Sergeant
+      Goody, Ned Johnson, Tom Larkin, and others, who, while not approaching
+      Carrigan's perfect manhood, were still more than a match for the
+      best of the Raiders. <br><br><br><br> <a id="p228"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p228.jpg (47K)" src="images/p228.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Key proceeded with the greatest secrecy in the organization of his forces.
+      He accepted none but Western men, and preferred Illinoisans, Iowans,
+      Kansans, Indianians and Ohioans. The boys from those States seemed to
+      naturally go together, and be moved by the same motives. He informed Wirz
+      what he proposed doing, so that any unusual commotion within the prison
+      might not be mistaken for an attempt upon the Stockade, and made the
+      excuse for opening with the artillery. Wirz, who happened to be in a
+      complaisant humor, approved of the design, and allowed him the use of the
+      enclosure of the North Gate to confine his prisoners in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of Key's efforts at secrecy, information as to his scheme
+      reached the Raiders. It was debated at their headquarters, and decided
+      there that Key must be killed. Three men were selected to do this work.
+      They called on Key, a dusk, on the evening of the 2d of July. In response
+      to their inquiries, he came out of the blanket-covered hole on the
+      hillside that he called his tent. They told him what they had heard, and
+      asked if it was true. He said it was. One of them then drew a knife, and
+      the other two, &ldquo;billies&rdquo; to attack him. But, anticipating
+      trouble, Key had procured a revolver which one of the Pilgrims had brought
+      in in his knapsack and drawing this he drove them off, but without firing
+      a shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The occurrence caused the greatest excitement. To us of the Regulators it
+      showed that the Raiders had penetrated our designs, and were prepared for
+      them. To the great majority of the prisoners it was the first intimation
+      that such a thing was contemplated; the news spread from squad to squad
+      with the greatest rapidity, and soon everybody was discussing the chances
+      of the movement. For awhile men ceased their interminable discussion of
+      escape and exchange&mdash;let those over worked words and themes have a
+      rare spell of repose&mdash;and debated whether the Raiders would whip the
+      regulators, or the Regulators conquer the Raiders. The reasons which I
+      have previously enumerated, induced a general disbelief in the probability
+      of our success. The Raiders were in good health well fed, used to
+      operating together, and had the confidence begotten by a long series of
+      successes. The Regulators lacked in all these respects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Key had originally fixed on the next day for making the attack, or
+      whether this affair precipitated the crisis, I know not, but later in the
+      evening he sent us all order: to be on our guard all night, and ready for
+      action the next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was very little sleep anywhere that night. The Rebels learned
+      through their spies that something unusual was going on inside, and as
+      their only interpretation of anything unusual there was a design upon the
+      Stockade, they strengthened the guards, took additional precautions in
+      every way, and spent the hours in anxious anticipation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We, fearing that the Raiders might attempt to frustrate the scheme by an
+      attack in overpowering force on Key's squad, which would be
+      accompanied by the assassination of him and Limber Jim, held ourselves in
+      readiness to offer any assistance that might be needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Raiders, though confident of success, were no less exercised. They
+      threw out pickets to all the approaches to their headquarters, and
+      provided otherwise against surprise. They had smuggled in some canteens of
+      a cheap, vile whisky made from sorghum&mdash;and they grew quite hilarious
+      in their Big Tent over their potations. Two songs had long ago been
+      accepted by us as peculiarly the Raiders' own&mdash;as some one in
+      their crowd sang them nearly every evening, and we never heard them
+      anywhere else. The first began:
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          In Athol lived a man named Jerry Lanagan;<br> He battered away till
+          he hadn't a pound.<br> His father he died, and he made him a
+          man agin;<br> Left him a farm of ten acres of ground.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      The other related the exploits of an Irish highwayman named Brennan, whose
+      chief virtue was that What he rob-bed from the rich he gave unto the poor.
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this was the villainous chorus in which they all joined, and sang in
+      such a way as suggested highway robbery, murder, mayhem and arson:
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Brennan on the moor!<br> Brennan on the moor!<br> Proud and
+          undaunted stood<br> John Brennan on the moor.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      They howled these two nearly the live-long night. They became eventually
+      quite monotonous to us, who were waiting and watching. It would have been
+      quite a relief if they had thrown in a new one every hour or so, by way of
+      variety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morning at last came. Our companies mustered on their grounds, and then
+      marched to the space on the South Side where the rations were issued. Each
+      man was armed with a small club, secured to his wrist by a string.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels&mdash;with their chronic fear of an outbreak animating them&mdash;had
+      all the infantry in line of battle with loaded guns. The cannon in the
+      works were shotted, the fuses thrust into the touch-holes and the men
+      stood with lanyards in hand ready to mow down everybody, at any instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun rose rapidly through the clear sky, which soon glowed down on us
+      like a brazen oven. The whole camp gathered where it could best view the
+      encounter. This was upon the North Side. As I have before explained the
+      two sides sloped toward each other like those of a great trough. The
+      Raiders' headquarters stood upon the center of the southern slope,
+      and consequently those standing on the northern slope saw everything as if
+      upon the stage of a theater.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While standing in ranks waiting the orders to move, one of my comrades
+      touched me on the arm, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God! just look over there!&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p231" id="p231"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p231.jpg (41K)" src="images/p231.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned from watching the Rebel artillerists, whose intentions gave me
+      more uneasiness than anything else, and looked in the direction indicated
+      by the speaker. The sight was the strangest one my eyes ever encountered.
+      There were at least fifteen thousand perhaps twenty thousand&mdash;men
+      packed together on the bank, and every eye was turned on us. The slope was
+      such that each man's face showed over the shoulders of the one in
+      front of him, making acres on acres of faces. It was as if the whole broad
+      hillside was paved or thatched with human countenances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When all was ready we moved down upon the Big Tent, in as good order as we
+      could preserve while passing through the narrow tortuous paths between the
+      tents. Key, Limber Jim, Ned Carigan, Goody, Tom Larkin, and Ned Johnson
+      led the advance with their companies. The prison was as silent as a
+      graveyard. As we approached, the Raiders massed themselves in a strong,
+      heavy line, with the center, against which our advance was moving, held by
+      the most redoubtable of their leaders. How many there were of them could
+      not be told, as it was impossible to say where their line ended and the
+      mass of spectators began. They could not themselves tell, as the attitude
+      of a large portion of the spectators would be determined by which way the
+      battle went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a blow was struck until the lines came close together. Then the Raider
+      center launched itself forward against ours, and grappled savagely with
+      the leading Regulators. For an instant&mdash;it seemed an hour&mdash;the
+      struggle was desperate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strong, fierce men clenched and strove to throttle each other; great
+      muscles strained almost to bursting, and blows with fist and club-dealt
+      with all the energy of mortal hate&mdash;fell like hail. One&mdash;perhaps
+      two&mdash;endless minutes the lines surged&mdash;throbbed&mdash;backward and
+      forward a step or two, and then, as if by a concentration of mighty
+      effort, our men flung the Raider line back from it&mdash;broken&mdash;shattered.
+      The next instant our leaders were striding through the mass like raging
+      lions. Carrigan, Limber Jim, Larkin, Johnson and Goody each smote down a
+      swath of men before them, as they moved resistlessly forward. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p232" id="p232"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p232.jpg (43K)" src="images/p232.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We light weights had been sent around on the flanks to separate the
+      spectators from the combatants, strike the Raiders 'en revers,'
+      and, as far as possible, keep the crowd from reinforcing them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In five minutes after the first blow&mdash;was struck the overthrow of the
+      Raiders was complete. Resistance ceased, and they sought safety in flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the result became apparent to the&mdash;watchers on the opposite
+      hillside, they vented their pent-up excitement in a yell that made the
+      very ground tremble, and we answered them with a shout that expressed not
+      only our exultation over our victory, but our great relief from the
+      intense strain we had long borne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We picked up a few prisoners on the battle field, and retired without
+      making any special effort to get any more then, as we knew, that they
+      could not escape us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were very tired, and very hungry. The time for drawing rations had
+      arrived. Wagons containing bread and mush had driven to the gates, but
+      Wirz would not allow these to be opened, lest in the excited condition of
+      the men an attempt might be made to carry them. Key ordered operations to
+      cease, that Wirz might be re-assured and let the rations enter. It was in
+      vain. Wirz was thoroughly scared. The wagons stood out in the hot sun
+      until the mush fermented and soured, and had to be thrown away, while we
+      event rationless to bed, and rose the next day with more than usually
+      empty stomachs to goad us on to our work. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch36" id="ch36"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHY THE REGULATORS WERE NOT ASSISTED BY THE ENTIRE CAMP&mdash;PECULIARITIES
+      OF BOYS FROM DIFFERENT SECTIONS&mdash;HUNTING THE RAIDERS DOWN&mdash;EXPLOITS
+      OF MY LEFT-HANDED LIEUTENANT&mdash;RUNNING THE GAUNTLET.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I may not have made it wholly clear to the reader why we did not have the
+      active assistance of the whole prison in the struggle with the Raiders.
+      There were many reasons for this. First, the great bulk of the prisoners
+      were new comers, having been, at the farthest, but three or four weeks in
+      the Stockade. They did not comprehend the situation of affairs as we older
+      prisoners did. They did not understand that all the outrages&mdash;or very
+      nearly all&mdash;were the work of&mdash;a relatively small crowd of
+      graduates from the metropolitan school of vice. The activity and audacity
+      of the Raiders gave them the impression that at least half the able-bodied
+      men in the Stockade were engaged in these depredations. This is always the
+      case. A half dozen burglars or other active criminals in a town will
+      produce the impression that a large portion of the population are law
+      breakers. We never estimated that the raiding N'Yaarkers, with their
+      spies and other accomplices, exceeded five hundred, but it would have been
+      difficult to convince a new prisoner that there were not thousands of
+      them. Secondly, the prisoners were made up of small squads from every
+      regiment at the front along the whole line from the Mississippi to the
+      Atlantic. These were strangers to and distrustful of all out side their
+      own little circles. The Eastern men were especially so. The Pennsylvanians
+      and New Yorkers each formed groups, and did not fraternize readily with
+      those outside their State lines. The New Jerseyans held aloof from all the
+      rest, while the Massachusetts soldiers had very little in Common with
+      anybody&mdash;even their fellow New Englanders. The Michigan men were
+      modified New Englanders. They had the same tricks of speech; they said
+      &ldquo;I be&rdquo; for &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; and &ldquo;haag&rdquo; for
+      &ldquo;hog;&rdquo; &ldquo;Let me look at your knife half a second,&rdquo;
+      or &ldquo;Give me just a sup of that water,&rdquo; where we said simply
+      &ldquo;Lend me your knife,&rdquo; or &ldquo;hand me a drink.&rdquo; They
+      were less reserved than the true Yankees, more disposed to be social, and,
+      with all their eccentricities, were as manly, honorable a set of fellows
+      as it was my fortune to meet with in the army. I could ask no better
+      comrades than the boys of the Third Michigan Infantry, who belonged to the
+      same &ldquo;Ninety&rdquo; with me. The boys from Minnesota and Wisconsin
+      were very much like those from Michigan. Those from Ohio, Indiana,
+      Illinois, Iowa and Kansas all seemed cut off the same piece. To all
+      intents and purposes they might have come from the same County. They spoke
+      the same dialect, read the same newspapers, had studied McGuffey's
+      Readers, Mitchell's Geography, and Ray's Arithmetics at
+      school, admired the same great men, and held generally the same opinions
+      on any given subject. It was never difficult to get them to act in unison&mdash;they
+      did it spontaneously; while it required an effort to bring about harmony
+      of action with those from other sections. Had the Western boys in prison
+      been thoroughly advised of the nature of our enterprise, we could,
+      doubtless, have commanded their cordial assistance, but they were not, and
+      there was no way in which it could be done readily, until after the
+      decisive blow was struck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work of arresting the leading Raiders went on actively all day on the
+      Fourth of July. They made occasional shows of fierce resistance, but the
+      events of the day before had destroyed their prestige, broken their
+      confidence, and driven away from their support very many who followed
+      their lead when they were considered all-powerful. They scattered from
+      their former haunts, and mingled with the crowds in other parts of the
+      prison, but were recognized, and reported to Key, who sent parties to
+      arrest them. Several times they managed to collect enough adherents to
+      drive off the squads sent after them, but this only gave them a short
+      respite, for the squad would return reinforced, and make short work of
+      them. Besides, the prisoners generally were beginning to understand and
+      approve of the Regulators' movement, and were disposed to give all
+      the assistance needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Myself and &ldquo;Egypt,&rdquo; my taciturn Lieutenant of the sinewy left
+      arm, were sent with our company to arrest Pete Donnelly, a notorious
+      character, and leader of, a bad crowd. He was more &ldquo;knocker&rdquo;
+      than Raider, however. He was an old Pemberton building acquaintance, and
+      as we marched up to where he was standing at the head of his gathering
+      clan, he recognized me and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Illinoy,&rdquo; (the name by which I was generally known in
+      prison) &ldquo;what do you want here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I replied, &ldquo;Pete, Key has sent me for you. I want you to go to
+      headquarters.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What the &mdash;&mdash; does Key want with me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, I'm sure; he only said to bring you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I haven't had anything to do with them other snoozers you
+      have been a-having trouble with.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know anything about that; you can talk to Key as to
+      that. I only know that we are sent for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you don't think you can take me unless I choose to go?
+      You haint got anybody in that crowd big enough to make it worth while for
+      him to waste his time trying it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I replied diffidently that one never knew what&mdash;he could do till he
+      tried; that while none of us were very big, we were as willing a lot of
+      little fellows as he ever saw, and if it were all the same to him, we
+      would undertake to waste a little time getting him to headquarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation seemed unnecessarily long to &ldquo;Egypt,&rdquo; who
+      stood by my side; about a half step in advance. Pete was becoming angrier
+      and more defiant every minute. His followers were crowding up to us, club
+      in hand. Finally Pete thrust his fist in my face, and roared out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By &mdash;-, I ain't a going with ye, and ye can't take
+      me, you &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was &ldquo;Egypt's&rdquo; cue. His long left arm uncoupled like
+      the loosening of the weight of a pile-driver. It caught Mr. Donnelly under
+      the chin, fairly lifted him from his feet, and dropped him on his back
+      among his followers. It seemed to me that the predominating expression in
+      his face as he went, over was that of profound wonder as to where that
+      blow could have come from, and why he did not see it in time to dodge or
+      ward it off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Pete dropped, the rest of us stepped forward with our clubs, to engage
+      his followers, while &ldquo;Egypt&rdquo; and one or two others tied his
+      hands and otherwise secured him. But his henchmen made no effort to rescue
+      him, and we carried him over to headquarters without molestation. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p237" id="p237"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p237.jpg (35K)" src="images/p237.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work of arresting increased in interest and excitement until it
+      developed into the furore of a hunt, with thousands eagerly engaged in it.
+      The Raiders' tents were torn down and pillaged. Blankets, tent
+      poles, and cooking utensils were carried off as spoils, and the ground was
+      dug over for secreted property. A large quantity of watches, chains,
+      knives, rings, gold pens, etc., etc.&mdash;the booty of many a raid&mdash;was
+      found, and helped to give impetus to the hunt. Even the Rebel
+      Quartermaster, with the characteristic keen scent of the Rebels for
+      spoils, smelled from the outside the opportunity for gaining plunder, and
+      came in with a squad of Rebels equipped with spades, to dig for buried
+      treasures. How successful he was I know not, as I took no part in any of
+      the operations of that nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was claimed that several skeletons of victims of the Raiders were found
+      buried beneath the tent. I cannot speak with any certainty as to this,
+      though my impression is that at least one was found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By evening Key had perhaps one hundred and twenty-five of the most noted
+      Raiders in his hands. Wirz had allowed him the use of the small stockade
+      forming the entrance to the North Gate to confine them in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next thing was the judgment and punishment of the arrested ones. For
+      this purpose Key organized a court martial composed of thirteen Sergeants,
+      chosen from the latest arrivals of prisoners, that they might have no
+      prejudice against the Raiders. I believe that a man named Dick McCullough,
+      belonging to the Third Missouri Cavalry, was the President of the Court.
+      The trial was carefully conducted, with all the formality of a legal
+      procedure that the Court and those managing the matter could remember as
+      applicable to the crimes with which the accused were charged. Each of
+      these confronted by the witnesses who testified against him, and allowed
+      to cross-examine them to any extent he desired. The defense was managed by
+      one of their crowd, the foul-tongued Tombs shyster, Pete Bradley, of whom
+      I have before spoken. Such was the fear of the vengeance of the Raiders
+      and their friends that many who had been badly abused dared not testify
+      against them, dreading midnight assassination if they did. Others would
+      not go before the Court except at night. But for all this there was no
+      lack of evidence; there were thousands who had been robbed and maltreated,
+      or who had seen these outrages committed on others, and the boldness of
+      the leaders in their bight of power rendered their identification a matter
+      of no difficulty whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trial lasted several days, and concluded with sentencing quite a large
+      number to run the gauntlet, a smaller number to wear balls and chains, and
+      the following six to be hanged:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Sarsfield, One Hundred and Forty-Fourth New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      William Collins, alias &ldquo;Mosby,&rdquo; Company D, Eighty-Eighth
+      Pennsylvania,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charles Curtis, Company A, Fifth Rhode Island Artillery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Patrick Delaney, Company E, Eighty-Third Pennsylvania.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Muir, United States Navy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Terence Sullivan, Seventy-Second New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These names and regiments are of little consequence, however, as I believe
+      all the rascals were professional bounty-jumpers, and did not belong to
+      any regiment longer than they could find an opportunity to desert and join
+      another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those sentenced to ball-and-chain were brought in immediately, and had the
+      irons fitted to them that had been worn by some of our men as a punishment
+      for trying to escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not yet determined how punishment should be meted out to the
+      remainder, but circumstances themselves decided the matter. Wirz became
+      tired of guarding so large a number as Key had arrested, and he informed
+      Key that he should turn them back into the Stockade immediately. Key
+      begged for little farther time to consider the disposition of the cases,
+      but Wirz refused it, and ordered the Officer of the Guard to return all
+      arrested, save those sentenced to death, to the Stockade. In the meantime
+      the news had spread through the prison that the Raiders were to be sent in
+      again unpunished, and an angry mob, numbering some thousands, and mostly
+      composed of men who had suffered injuries at the hands of the marauders,
+      gathered at the South Gate, clubs in hand, to get such satisfaction as
+      they could out of the rascals. They formed in two long, parallel lines,
+      facing inward, and grimly awaited the incoming of the objects of their
+      vengeance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Officer of the Guard opened the wicket in the gate, and began forcing
+      the Raiders through it&mdash;one at a time&mdash;at the point of the
+      bayonet, and each as he entered was told what he already realized well&mdash;that
+      he must run for his life. They did this with all the energy that they
+      possessed, and as they ran blows rained on their heads, arms and backs. If
+      they could succeed in breaking through the line at any place they were
+      generally let go without any further punishment. Three of the number were
+      beaten to death. I saw one of these killed. I had no liking for the
+      gauntlet performance, and refused to have anything to do with it, as did
+      most, if not all, of my crowd. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p240" id="p240"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p240.jpg (24K)" src="images/p240.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the gauntlet was in operation, I was standing by my tent at the head
+      of a little street, about two hundred feet from the line, watching what
+      was being done. A sailor was let in. He had a large bowie knife concealed
+      about his person somewhere, which he drew, and struck savagely with at his
+      tormentors on either side. They fell back from before him, but closed in
+      behind and pounded him terribly. He broke through the line, and ran up the
+      street towards me. About midway of the distance stood a boy who had helped
+      carry a dead man out during the day, and while out had secured a large
+      pine rail which he had brought in with him. He was holding this straight
+      up in the air, as if at a &ldquo;present arms.&rdquo; He seemed to have
+      known from the first that the Raider would run that way. Just as he came
+      squarely under it, the boy dropped the rail like the bar of a toll gate.
+      It struck the Raider across the head, felled him as if by a shot, and his
+      pursuers then beat him to death. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch37" id="ch37"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE EXECUTION&mdash;BUILDING THE SCAFFOLD&mdash;DOUBTS OF THE CAMP-CAPTAIN
+      WIRZ THINKS IT IS PROBABLY A RUSE TO FORCE THE STOCKADE&mdash;HIS
+      PREPARATIONS AGAINST SUCH AN ATTEMPT&mdash;ENTRANCE OF THE DOOMED ONES&mdash;THEY
+      REALIZE THEIR FATE&mdash;ONE MAKES A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE&mdash;HIS
+      RECAPTURE&mdash;INTENSE EXCITEMENT&mdash;WIRZ ORDERS THE GUNS TO OPEN&mdash;FORTUNATELY
+      THEY DO NOT&mdash;THE SIX ARE HANGED&mdash;ONE BREAKS HIS ROPE&mdash;SCENE
+      WHEN THE RAIDERS ARE CUT DOWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It began to be pretty generally understood through the prison that six men
+      had been sentenced to be hanged, though no authoritative announcement of
+      the fact had been made. There was much canvassing as to where they should
+      be executed, and whether an attempt to hang them inside of the Stockade
+      would not rouse their friends to make a desperate effort to rescue them,
+      which would precipitate a general engagement of even larger proportions
+      than that of the 3d. Despite the result of the affairs of that and the
+      succeeding days, the camp was not yet convinced that the Raiders were
+      really conquered, and the Regulators themselves were not thoroughly at
+      ease on that score. Some five thousand or six thousand new prisoners had
+      come in since the first of the month, and it was claimed that the Raiders
+      had received large reinforcements from those,&mdash;a claim rendered
+      probable by most of the new-comers being from the Army of the Potomac.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Key and those immediately about him kept their own counsel in the matter,
+      and suffered no secret of their intentions to leak out, until on the
+      morning of the 11th, when it became generally known that the sentences
+      were too be carried into effect that day, and inside the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My first direct information as to this was by a messenger from Key with an
+      order to assemble my company and stand guard over the carpenters who were
+      to erect the scaffold. He informed me that all the Regulators would be
+      held in readiness to come to our relief if we were attacked in force. I
+      had hoped that if the men were to be hanged I would be spared the
+      unpleasant duty of assisting, for, though I believed they richly deserved
+      that punishment, I had much rather some one else administered it upon
+      them. There was no way out of it, however, that I could see, and so
+      &ldquo;Egypt&rdquo; and I got the boys together, and marched down to the
+      designated place, which was an open space near the end of the street
+      running from the South Gate, and kept vacant for the purpose of issuing
+      rations. It was quite near the spot where the Raiders' Big Tent had
+      stood, and afforded as good a view to the rest of the camp as could be
+      found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Key had secured the loan of a few beams and rough planks, sufficient to
+      build a rude scaffold with. Our first duty was to care for these as they
+      came in, for such was the need of wood, and plank for tent purposes, that
+      they would scarcely have fallen to the ground before they were spirited
+      away, had we not stood over them all the time with clubs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The carpenters sent by Key came over and set to work. The N'Yaarkers
+      gathered around in considerable numbers, sullen and abusive. They cursed
+      us with all their rich vocabulary of foul epithets, vowed that we should
+      never carry out the execution, and swore that they had marked each one for
+      vengeance. We returned the compliments in kind, and occasionally it seemed
+      as if a general collision was imminent; but we succeeded in avoiding this,
+      and by noon the scaffold was finished. It was a very simple affair. A
+      stout beam was fastened on the top of two posts, about fifteen feet high.
+      At about the height of a man's head a couple of boards stretched
+      across the space between the posts, and met in the center. The ends at the
+      posts laid on cleats; the ends in the center rested upon a couple of
+      boards, standing upright, and each having a piece of rope fastened through
+      a hole in it in such a manner, that a man could snatch it from under the
+      planks serving as the floor of the scaffold, and let the whole thing drop.
+      A rude ladder to ascend by completed the preparations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the arrangements neared completion the excitement in and around the
+      prison grew intense. Key came over with the balance of the Regulators, and
+      we formed a hollow square around the scaffold, our company marking the
+      line on the East Side. There were now thirty thousand in the prison. Of
+      these about one-third packed themselves as tightly about our square as
+      they could stand. The remaining twenty thousand were wedged together in a
+      solid mass on the North Side. Again I contemplated the wonderful,
+      startling, spectacle of a mosaic pavement of human faces covering the
+      whole broad hillside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside, the Rebel, infantry was standing in the rifle pits, the
+      artillerymen were in place about their loaded and trained pieces, the No.
+      4 of each gun holding the lanyard cord in his hand, ready to fire the
+      piece at the instant of command. The small squad of cavalry was drawn up
+      on the hill near the Star Fort, and near it were the masters of the
+      hounds, with their yelping packs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the hangers-on of the Rebel camp&mdash;clerks, teamsters, employer,
+      negros, hundreds of white and colored women, in all forming a motley crowd
+      of between one and two thousand, were gathered together in a group between
+      the end of the rifle pits and the Star Fort. They had a good view from
+      there, but a still better one could be had, a little farther to the right,
+      and in front of the guns. They kept edging up in that direction, as crowds
+      will, though they knew the danger they would incur if the artillery
+      opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day was broiling hot. The sun shot his perpendicular rays down with
+      blistering fierceness, and the densely packed, motionless crowds made the
+      heat almost insupportable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Key took up his position inside the square to direct matters. With him
+      were Limber Jim, Dick McCullough, and one or two others. Also, Ned
+      Johnson, Tom Larkin, Sergeant Goody, and three others who were to act as
+      hangmen. Each of these six was provided with a white sack, such as the
+      Rebels brought in meal in. Two Corporals of my company&mdash;&ldquo;Stag&rdquo;
+      Harris and Wat Payne&mdash;were appointed to pull the stays from under the
+      platform at the signal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little after noon the South Gate opened, and Wirz rode in, dressed in a
+      suit of white duck, and mounted on his white horse&mdash;a conjunction
+      which had gained for him the appellation of &ldquo;Death on a Pale Horse.&rdquo;
+      Behind him walked the faithful old priest, wearing his Church's
+      purple insignia of the deepest sorrow, and reading the service for the
+      condemned. The six doomed men followed, walking between double ranks of
+      Rebel guards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All came inside the hollow square and halted. Wirz then said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brizners, I return to you dose men so Boot as I got dem. You haf
+      tried dem yourselves, and found dem guilty&mdash;I haf had notting to do
+      wit it. I vash my hands of eferyting connected wit dem. Do wit dem as you
+      like, and may Gott haf mercy on you and on dem. Garts, about face!
+      Voryvarts, march!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this he marched out and left us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment the condemned looked stunned. They seemed to comprehend for
+      the first time that it was really the determination of the Regulators to
+      hang them. Before that they had evidently thought that the talk of hanging
+      was merely bluff. One of them gasped out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God, men, you don't really mean to hang us up there!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Key answered grimly and laconically:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That seems to be about the size of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this they burst out in a passionate storm of intercessions and
+      imprecations, which lasted for a minute or so, when it was stopped by one
+      of them saying imperatively:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All of you stop now, and let the priest talk for us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this the priest closed the book upon which he had kept his eyes bent
+      since his entrance, and facing the multitude on the North Side began a
+      plea for mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The condemned faced in the same direction, to read their fate in the
+      countenances of those whom he was addressing. This movement brought Curtis&mdash;a
+      low-statured, massively built man&mdash;on the right of their line, and
+      about ten or fifteen steps from my company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole camp had been as still as death since Wirz's exit. The
+      silence seemed to become even more profound as the priest began his
+      appeal. For a minute every ear was strained to catch what he said. Then,
+      as the nearest of the thousands comprehended what he was saying they
+      raised a shout of &ldquo;No! no!! NO!!&rdquo; &ldquo;Hang them! hang them!&rdquo;
+      &ldquo;Don't let them go! Never!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang the rascals! hang the villains!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang,'em! hang 'em! hang 'em!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was taken up all over the prison, and tens of thousands throats
+      yelled it in a fearful chorus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Curtis turned from the crowd with desperation convulsing his features.
+      Tearing off the broad-brimmed hat which he wore, he flung it on the ground
+      with the exclamation!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By God, I'll die this way first!&rdquo; and, drawing his head
+      down and folding his arms about it, he dashed forward for the center of my
+      company, like a great stone hurled from a catapult.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Egypt&rdquo; and I saw where he was going to strike, and ran down
+      the line to help stop him. As he came up we rained blows on his head with
+      our clubs, but so many of us struck at him at once that we broke each
+      other's clubs to pieces, and only knocked him on his knees. He rose
+      with an almost superhuman effort, and plunged into the mass beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excitement almost became delirium. For an instant I feared that
+      everything was gone to ruin. &ldquo;Egypt&rdquo; and I strained every
+      energy to restore our lines, before the break could be taken advantage of
+      by the others. Our boys behaved splendidly, standing firm, and in a few
+      seconds the line was restored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Curtis broke through, Delaney, a brawny Irishman standing next to him,
+      started to follow. He took one step. At the same instant Limber Jim's
+      long legs took three great strides, and placed him directly in front of
+      Delaney. Jim's right hand held an enormous bowie-knife, and as he
+      raised it above Delaney he hissed out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you dare move another step, I'll open you &mdash;&mdash;
+      &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;, I'll open you from one end to the
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Delaney stopped. This checked the others till our lines reformed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Wirz saw the commotion he was panic-stricken with fear that the
+      long-dreaded assault on the Stockade had begun. He ran down from the
+      headquarter steps to the Captain of the battery, shrieking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire! fire! fire!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Captain, not being a fool, could see that the rush was not towards the
+      Stockade, but away from it, and he refrained from giving the order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the spectators who had gotten before the guns, heard Wirz's
+      excited yell, and remembering the consequences to themselves should the
+      artillery be discharged, became frenzied with fear, and screamed, and fell
+      down over and trampled upon each other in endeavoring to get away. The
+      guards on that side of the Stockade ran down in a panic, and the ten
+      thousand prisoners immediately around us, expecting no less than that the
+      next instant we would be swept with grape and canister, stampeded
+      tumultuously. There were quite a number of wells right around us, and all
+      of these were filled full of men that fell into them as the crowd rushed
+      away. Many had legs and arms broken, and I have no doubt that several were
+      killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the stormiest five minutes that I ever saw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this was going on two of my company, belonging to the Fifth Iowa
+      Cavalry, were in hot pursuit of Curtis. I had seen them start and shouted
+      to them to come back, as I feared they would be set upon by the Raiders
+      and murdered. But the din was so overpowering that they could not hear me,
+      and doubtless would not have come back if they had heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Curtis ran diagonally down the hill, jumping over the tents and knocking
+      down the men who happened in his way. Arriving at the swamp he plunged in,
+      sinking nearly to his hips in the fetid, filthy ooze. He forged his way
+      through with terrible effort. His pursuers followed his example, and
+      caught up to him just as he emerged on the other side. They struck him on
+      the back of the head with their clubs, and knocked him down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time order had been restored about us. The guns remained silent,
+      and the crowd massed around us again. From where we were we could see the
+      successful end of the chase after Curtis, and could see his captors start
+      back with him. Their success was announced with a roar of applause from
+      the North Side. Both captors and captured were greatly exhausted, and they
+      were coming back very slowly. Key ordered the balance up on to the
+      scaffold. They obeyed promptly. The priest resumed his reading of the
+      service for the condemned. The excitement seemed to make the doomed ones
+      exceedingly thirsty. I never saw men drink such inordinate quantities of
+      water. They called for it continually, gulped down a quart or more at a
+      time, and kept two men going nearly all the time carrying it to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Curtis finally arrived, he sat on the ground for a minute or so, to
+      rest, and then, reeking with filth, slowly and painfully climbed the
+      steps. Delaney seemed to think he was suffering as much from fright as
+      anything else, and said to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on up, now, show yourself a man, and die game.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p245" id="p245"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p245.jpg (116K)" src="images/p245.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the priest resumed his reading, but it had no interest to Delaney,
+      who kept calling out directions to Pete Donelly, who was standing in the
+      crowd, as to dispositions to be made of certain bits of stolen property:
+      to give a watch to this one, a ring to another, and so on. Once the priest
+      stopped and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My son, let the things of this earth go, and turn your attention
+      toward those of heaven.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Delaney paid no attention to this admonition. The whole six then began
+      delivering farewell messages to those in the crowd. Key pulled a watch
+      from his pocket and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two minutes more to talk.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Delaney said cheerfully:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, good by, b'ys; if I've hurted any of y ez, I hope
+      ye'll forgive me. Shpake up, now, any of yez that I've hurted,
+      and say yell forgive me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We called upon Marion Friend, whose throat Delaney had tried to cut three
+      weeks before while robbing him of forty dollars, to come forward, but
+      Friend was not in a forgiving mood, and refused with an oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Key said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Time's up!&rdquo; put the watch back in his pocket and raised
+      his hand like an officer commanding a gun. Harris and Payne laid hold of
+      the ropes to the supports of the planks. Each of the six hangmen tied a
+      condemned man's hands, pulled a meal sack down over his head, placed
+      the noose around his neck, drew it up tolerably close, and sprang to the
+      ground. The priest began praying aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Key dropped his hand. Payne and Harris snatched the supports out with a
+      single jerk. The planks fell with a clatter. Five of the bodies swung
+      around dizzily in the air. The sixth that of &ldquo;Mosby,&rdquo; a large,
+      powerful, raw-boned man, one of the worst in the lot, and who, among other
+      crimes, had killed Limber Jim's brother-broke the rope, and fell
+      with a thud to the ground. Some of the men ran forward, examined the body,
+      and decided that he still lived. The rope was cut off his neck, the meal
+      sack removed, and water thrown in his face until consciousness returned.
+      At the first instant he thought he was in eternity. He gasped out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where am I? Am I in the other world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Limber Jim muttered that they would soon show him where he was, and went
+      on grimly fixing up the scaffold anew. &ldquo;Mosby&rdquo; soon realized
+      what had happened, and the unrelenting purpose of the Regulator Chiefs.
+      Then he began to beg piteously for his life, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O for God's sake, do not put me up there again! God has
+      spared my life once. He meant that you should be merciful to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Limber Jim deigned him no reply. When the scaffold was rearranged, and a
+      stout rope had replaced the broken one, he pulled the meal sack once more
+      over &ldquo;Mosby's&rdquo; head, who never ceased his pleadings.
+      Then picking up the large man as if he were a baby, he carried him to the
+      scaffold and handed him up to Tom Larkin, who fitted the noose around his
+      neck and sprang down. The supports had not been set with the same delicacy
+      as at first, and Limber Jim had to set his heel and wrench desperately at
+      them before he could force them out. Then &ldquo;Mosby&rdquo; passed away
+      without a struggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After hanging till life was extinct, the bodies were cut down, the
+      meal-sacks pulled off their faces, and the Regulators formal two parallel
+      lines, through which all the prisoners passed and took a look at the
+      bodies. Pete Donnelly and Dick Allen knelt down and wiped the froth off
+      Delaney's lips, and swore vengeance against those who had done him
+      to death. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch38" id="ch38"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AFTER THE EXECUTION&mdash;FORMATION OF A POLICE FORCE&mdash;ITS FIRST
+      CHIEF &mdash;&ldquo;SPANKING&rdquo; AN OFFENDER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the executions Key, knowing that he, and all those prominently
+      connected with the hanging, would be in hourly danger of assassination if
+      they remained inside, secured details as nurses and ward-masters in the
+      hospital, and went outside. In this crowd were Key, Ned Carrigan, Limber
+      Jim, Dick McCullough, the six hangmen, the two Corporals who pulled the
+      props from under the scaffold, and perhaps some others whom I do not now
+      remember.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile provision had been made for the future maintenance of
+      order in the prison by the organization of a regular police force, which
+      in time came to number twelve hundred men. These were divided into
+      companies, under appropriate officers. Guards were detailed for certain
+      locations, patrols passed through the camp in all directions continually,
+      and signals with whistles could summon sufficient assistance to suppress
+      any disturbance, or carry out any orders from the chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chieftainship was first held by Key, but when he went outside he
+      appointed Sergeant A. R. Hill, of the One Hundredth O. V. I.&mdash;now a
+      resident of Wauseon, Ohio,&mdash;his successor. Hill was one of the
+      notabilities of that immense throng. A great, broad-shouldered, giant, in
+      the prime of his manhood&mdash;the beginning of his thirtieth year&mdash;he
+      was as good-natured as big, and as mild-mannered as brave. He spoke
+      slowly, softly, and with a slightly rustic twang, that was very tempting
+      to a certain class of sharps to take him up for a &ldquo;luberly greeny.&rdquo;
+      The man who did so usually repented his error in sack-cloth and ashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hill first came into prominence as the victor in the most stubbornly
+      contested fight in the prison history of Belle Isle. When the squad of the
+      One Hundredth Ohio&mdash;captured at Limestone Station, East Tennessee, in
+      September,1863&mdash;arrived on Belle Isle, a certain Jack Oliver, of the
+      Nineteenth Indiana, was the undisputed fistic monarch of the Island. He
+      did not bear his blushing honors modestly; few of a right arm that
+      indefinite locality known as &ldquo;the middle of next week,&rdquo; is
+      something that the possessor can as little resist showing as can a girl
+      her first solitaire ring. To know that one can certainly strike a
+      disagreeable fellow out of time is pretty sure to breed a desire to do
+      that thing whenever occasion serves. Jack Oliver was one who did not let
+      his biceps rust in inaction, but thrashed everybody on the Island whom he
+      thought needed it, and his ideas as to those who should be included in
+      this class widened daily, until it began to appear that he would soon feel
+      it his duty to let no unwhipped man escape, but pound everybody on the
+      Island. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p253" id="p253"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p253.jpg (25K)" src="images/p253.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day his evil genius led him to abuse a rather elderly man belonging to
+      Hill's mess. As he fired off his tirade of contumely, Hill said with
+      more than his usual &ldquo;soft&rdquo; rusticity:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mister&mdash;I&mdash;don't&mdash;think&mdash;it&mdash;just&mdash;right&mdash;for&mdash;a&mdash;young&mdash;man&mdash;to&mdash;call&mdash;an&mdash;old&mdash;one&mdash;such&mdash;bad
+      names.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack Oliver turned on him savagely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well! may be you want to take it up?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grin on Hill's face looked still more verdant, as he answered
+      with gentle deliberation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;mister&mdash;I&mdash;don't&mdash;go&mdash;around&mdash;a&mdash;hunting&mdash;things&mdash;but&mdash;I
+      &mdash;ginerally&mdash;take&mdash;care&mdash;of&mdash;all&mdash;that's&mdash;sent&mdash;me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack foamed, but his fiercest bluster could not drive that infantile smile
+      from Hill's face, nor provoke a change in the calm slowness of his
+      speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evident that nothing would do but a battle-royal, and Jack had
+      sense enough to see that the imperturbable rustic was likely to give him a
+      job of some difficulty. He went off and came back with his clan, while
+      Hill's comrades of the One Hundredth gathered around to insure him
+      fair play. Jack pulled off his coat and vest, rolled up his sleeves, and
+      made other elaborate preparations for the affray. Hill, without removing a
+      garment, said, as he surveyed him with a mocking smile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mister&mdash;you&mdash;seem&mdash;to&mdash;be&mdash;one&mdash;of&mdash;them&mdash;partick-e-ler&mdash;fellers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack roared out,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By &mdash;-, I'll make you partickeler before I get through
+      with you. Now, how shall we settle this? Regular stand-up-and knock-down,
+      or rough and tumble?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If anything Hill's face was more vacantly serene, and his tones
+      blander than ever, as he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strike&mdash;any&mdash;gait&mdash;that&mdash;suits&mdash;you,&mdash;Mister;&mdash;I
+      guess&mdash;I&mdash;will&mdash;be &mdash;able&mdash;to&mdash;keep&mdash;up&mdash;with&mdash;you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They closed. Hill feinted with his left, and as Jack uncovered to guard,
+      he caught him fairly on the lower left ribs, by a blow from his mighty
+      right fist, that sounded&mdash;as one of the by-standers expressed it&mdash;&ldquo;like
+      striking a hollow log with a maul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The color in Jack's face paled. He did not seem to understand how he
+      had laid himself open to such a pass, and made the same mistake, receiving
+      again a sounding blow in the short ribs. This taught him nothing, either,
+      for again he opened his guard in response to a feint, and again caught a
+      blow on his luckless left, ribs, that drove the blood from his face and
+      the breath from his body. He reeled back among his supporters for an
+      instant to breathe. Recovering his wind, be dashed at Hill feinted
+      strongly with his right, but delivered a terrible kick against the lower
+      part of the latter's abdomen. Both closed and fought savagely at
+      half-arm's length for an instant; during which Hill struck Jack so
+      fairly in the mouth as to break out three front teeth, which the latter
+      swallowed. Then they clenched and struggled to throw each other. Hill's
+      superior strength and skill crushed his opponent to the ground, and he
+      fell upon him. As they grappled there, one of Jack's followers
+      sought to aid his leader by catching Hill by the hair, intending to kick
+      him in the face. In an instant he was knocked down by a stalwart member of
+      the One Hundredth, and then literally lifted out of the ring by kicks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was soon so badly beaten as to be unable to cry &ldquo;enough!&rdquo;
+      One of his friends did that service for him, the fight ceased, and
+      thenceforth Mr. Oliver resigned his pugilistic crown, and retired to the
+      shades of private life. He died of scurvy and diarrhea, some months
+      afterward, in Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The almost hourly scenes of violence and crime that marked the days and
+      nights before the Regulators began operations were now succeeded by the
+      greatest order. The prison was freer from crime than the best governed
+      City. There were frequent squabbles and fights, of course, and many petty
+      larcenies. Rations of bread and of wood, articles of clothing, and the
+      wretched little cans and half canteens that formed our cooking utensils,
+      were still stolen, but all these were in a sneak-thief way. There was an
+      entire absence of the audacious open-day robbery and murder &mdash;the
+      &ldquo;raiding&rdquo; of the previous few weeks. The summary punishment
+      inflicted on the condemned was sufficient to cow even bolder men than the
+      Raiders, and they were frightened into at least quiescence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sergeant Hill's administration was vigorous, and secured the best
+      results. He became a judge of all infractions of morals and law, and sat
+      at the door of his tent to dispense justice to all comers, like the Cadi
+      of a Mahometan Village. His judicial methods and punishments also reminded
+      one strongly of the primitive judicature of Oriental lands. The wronged
+      one came before him and told his tale: he had his blouse, or his quart
+      cup, or his shoes, or his watch, or his money stolen during the night. The
+      suspected one was also summoned, confronted with his accuser, and sharply
+      interrogated. Hill would revolve the stories in his mind, decide the
+      innocence or guilt of the accused, and if he thought the accusation
+      sustained, order the culprit to punishment. He did not imitate his
+      Mussulman prototypes to the extent of bowstringing or decapitating the
+      condemned, nor did he cut any thief's hands off, nor yet nail his
+      ears to a doorpost, but he introduced a modification of the bastinado that
+      made those who were punished by it even wish they were dead. The
+      instrument used was what is called in the South a &ldquo;shake&rdquo;
+      &mdash;a split shingle, a yard or more long, and with one end whittled
+      down to form a handle. The culprit was made to bend down until he could
+      catch around his ankles with his hands. The part of the body thus brought
+      into most prominence was denuded of clothing and &ldquo;spanked&rdquo;
+      from one to twenty times, as Hill ordered, by the &ldquo;shake&rdquo; in
+      same strong and willing hand. It was very amusing&mdash;to the bystanders.
+      The &ldquo;spankee&rdquo; never seemed to enter very heartily into the
+      mirth of the occasion. As a rule he slept on his face for a week or so
+      after, and took his meals standing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fear of the spanking, and Hill's skill in detecting the guilty
+      ones, had a very salutary effect upon the smaller criminals. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p256" id="p256"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p256.jpg (18K)" src="images/p256.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Raiders who had been put into irons were very restive under the
+      infliction, and begged Hill daily to release them. They professed the
+      greatest penitence, and promised the most exemplary behavior for the
+      future. Hill refused to release them, declaring that they should wear the
+      irons until delivered up to our Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the Raiders&mdash;named Heffron&mdash;had, shortly after his
+      arrest, turned State's evidence, and given testimony that assisted
+      materially in the conviction of his companions. One morning, a week or so
+      after the hanging, his body was found lying among the other dead at the
+      South Gate. The impression made by the fingers of the hand that had
+      strangled him, were still plainly visible about the throat. There was no
+      doubt as to why he had been killed, or that the Raiders were his
+      murderers, but the actual perpetrators were never discovered. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch39" id="ch39"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      JULY&mdash;THE PRISON BECOMES MORE CROWDED, THE WEATHER HOTTER, NATIONS
+      POORER, AND MORTALITY GREATER&mdash;SOME OF THE PHENOMENA OF SUFFERING AND
+      DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All during July the prisoners came streaming in by hundreds and thousands
+      from every portion of the long line of battle, stretching from the Eastern
+      bank of the Mississippi to the shores of the Atlantic. Over one thousand
+      squandered by Sturgis at Guntown came in; two thousand of those captured
+      in the desperate blow dealt by Hood against the Army of the Tennessee on
+      the 22d of the month before Atlanta; hundreds from Hunter's luckless
+      column in the Shenandoah Valley, thousands from Grant's lines in
+      front of Petersburg. In all, seven thousand one hundred and twenty-eight
+      were, during the month, turned into that seething mass of corrupting
+      humanity to be polluted and tainted by it, and to assist in turn to make
+      it fouler and deadlier. Over seventy hecatombs of chosen victims &mdash;of
+      fair youths in the first flush of hopeful manhood, at the threshold of a
+      life of honor to themselves and of usefulness to the community; beardless
+      boys, rich in the priceless affections of homes, fathers, mothers, sisters
+      and sweethearts, with minds thrilling with high aspirations for the bright
+      future, were sent in as the monthly sacrifice to this Minotaur of the
+      Rebellion, who, couched in his foul lair, slew them, not with the merciful
+      delivery of speedy death, as his Cretan prototype did the annual tribute
+      of Athenian youths and maidens, but, gloating over his prey, doomed them
+      to lingering destruction. He rotted their flesh with the scurvy, racked
+      their minds with intolerable suspense, burned their bodies with the slow
+      fire of famine, and delighted in each separate pang, until they sank
+      beneath the fearful accumulation. Theseus [Sherman. D.W.]&mdash;the
+      deliverer&mdash;was coming. His terrible sword could be seen gleaming as
+      it rose and fell on the banks of the James, and in the mountains beyond
+      Atlanta, where he was hewing his way towards them and the heart of the
+      Southern Confederacy. But he came too late to save them. Strike as swiftly
+      and as heavily as he would, he could not strike so hard nor so sure at his
+      foes with saber blow and musket shot, as they could at the hapless youths
+      with the dreadful armament of starvation and disease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though the deaths were one thousand eight hundred and seventeen more than
+      were killed at the battle of Shiloh&mdash;this left the number in the
+      prison at the end of the month thirty-one thousand six hundred and
+      seventy-eight. Let me assist the reader's comprehension of the
+      magnitude of this number by giving the population of a few important
+      Cities, according to the census of 1870: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Cambridge, Mass&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          89,639
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Charleston, S. C.
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          48,958
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Columbus, O.
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          31,274
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Dayton, O.
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          30,473
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Fall River, Mass
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          26,766
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Kansas City, Mo
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          32,260
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The number of prisoners exceeded the whole number of men between the ages
+      of eighteen and forty-five in several of the States and Territories in the
+      Union. Here, for instance, are the returns for 1870, of men of military
+      age in some portions of the country: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Arizona
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;5,157
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Colorado
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          15,166
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Dakota
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;5,301
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Idaho
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;9,431
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Montana
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          12,418
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Nebraska
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          35,677
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Nevada
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          24,762
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          New Hampshire&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          60,684
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Oregon
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          23,959
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Rhode Island
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          44,377
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Vermont
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          62,450
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          West Virginia
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;6,832
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was more soldiers than could be raised to-day, under strong pressure,
+      in either Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
+      Dakota, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine,
+      Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Medico, Oregon,
+      Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont or West Virginia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These thirty-one thousand six hundred and seventy-eight active young men,
+      who were likely to find the confines of a State too narrow for them, were
+      cooped up on thirteen acres of ground&mdash;less than a farmer gives for
+      play-ground for a half dozen colts or a small flock of sheep. There was
+      hardly room for all to lie down at night, and to walk a few hundred feet
+      in any direction would require an hour's patient threading of the
+      mass of men and tents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weather became hotter and hotter; at midday the sand would burn the
+      hand. The thin skins of fair and auburn-haired men blistered under the sun's
+      rays, and swelled up in great watery puffs, which soon became the breeding
+      grounds of the hideous maggots, or the still more deadly gangrene. The
+      loathsome swamp grew in rank offensiveness with every burning hour. The
+      pestilence literally stalked at noon-day, and struck his victims down on
+      every hand. One could not look a rod in any direction without seeing at
+      least a dozen men in the last frightful stages of rotting Death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let me describe the scene immediately around my own tent during the last
+      two weeks of July, as a sample of the condition of the whole prison: I
+      will take a space not larger than a good sized parlor or sitting room. On
+      this were at least fifty of us. Directly in front of me lay two brothers&mdash;named
+      Sherwood&mdash;belonging to Company I, of my battalion, who came
+      originally from Missouri. They were now in the last stages of scurvy and
+      diarrhea. Every particle of muscle and fat about their limbs and bodies
+      had apparently wasted away, leaving the skin clinging close to the bone of
+      the face, arms, hands, ribs and thighs&mdash;everywhere except the feet
+      and legs, where it was swollen tense and transparent, distended with
+      gallons of purulent matter. Their livid gums, from which most of their
+      teeth had already fallen, protruded far beyond their lips. To their left
+      lay a Sergeant and two others of their company, all three slowly dying
+      from diarrhea, and beyond was a fair-haired German, young and intelligent
+      looking, whose life was ebbing tediously away. To my right was a handsome
+      young Sergeant of an Illinois Infantry Regiment, captured at Kenesaw. His
+      left arm had been amputated between the shoulder and elbow, and he was
+      turned into the Stockade with the stump all undressed, save the ligating
+      of the arteries. Of course, he had not been inside an hour until the
+      maggot flies had laid eggs in the open wound, and before the day was gone
+      the worms were hatched out, and rioting amid the inflamed and
+      super-sensitive nerves, where their every motion was agony. Accustomed as
+      we were to misery, we found a still lower depth in his misfortune, and I
+      would be happier could I forget his pale, drawn face, as he wandered
+      uncomplainingly to and fro, holding his maimed limb with his right hand,
+      occasionally stopping to squeeze it, as one does a boil, and press from it
+      a stream of maggots and pus. I do not think he ate or slept for a week
+      before he died. Next to him staid an Irish Sergeant of a New York
+      Regiment, a fine soldierly man, who, with pardonable pride, wore,
+      conspicuously on his left breast, a medal gained by gallantry while a
+      British soldier in the Crimea. He was wasting away with diarrhea, and died
+      before the month was out. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p261" id="p261"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p261.jpg (13K)" src="images/p261.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was what one could see on every square rod of the prison. Where I was
+      was not only no worse than the rest of the prison, but was probably much
+      better and healthier, as it was the highest ground inside, farthest from
+      the Swamp, and having the dead line on two sides, had a ventilation that
+      those nearer the center could not possibly have. Yet, with all these
+      conditions in our favor, the mortality was as I have described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near us an exasperating idiot, who played the flute, had established
+      himself. Like all poor players, he affected the low, mournful notes, as
+      plaintive as the distant cooing of the dove in lowering, weather. He
+      played or rather tooted away in his &ldquo;blues”-inducing strain hour
+      after hour, despite our energetic protests, and occasionally flinging a
+      club at him. There was no more stop to him than to a man with a
+      hand-organ, and to this day the low, sad notes of a flute are the swiftest
+      reminder to me of those sorrowful, death-laden days. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p262" id="p262"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p262.jpg (15K)" src="images/p262.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had an illustration one morning of how far decomposition would progress
+      in a man's body before he died. My chum and I found a treasure-trove
+      in the streets, in the shape of the body of a man who died during the
+      night. The value of this &ldquo;find&rdquo; was that if we took it to the
+      gate, we would be allowed to carry it outside to the deadhouse, and on our
+      way back have an opportunity to pick up a chunk of wood, to use in
+      cooking. While discussing our good luck another party came up and claimed
+      the body. A verbal dispute led to one of blows, in which we came off
+      victorious, and I hastily caught hold of the arm near the elbow to help
+      bear the body away. The skin gave way under my hand, and slipped with it
+      down to the wrist, like a torn sleeve. It was sickening, but I clung to my
+      prize, and secured a very good chunk of wood while outside with it. The
+      wood was very much needed by my mess, as our squad had then had none for
+      more than a week. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch40" id="ch40"></a>CHAPTER XL.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE BATTLE OF THE 22D OF JULY&mdash;THE ARMS OF THE TENNESSEE ASSAULTED
+      FRONT AND REAR&mdash;DEATH OF GENERAL MCPHERSON&mdash;ASSUMPTION OF
+      COMMAND BY GENERAL LOGAN&mdash;RESULT OF THE BATTLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Naturally, we had a consuming hunger for news of what was being
+      accomplished by our armies toward crushing the Rebellion. Now, more than
+      ever, had we reason to ardently wish for the destruction of the Rebel
+      power. Before capture we had love of country and a natural desire for the
+      triumph of her flag to animate us. Now we had a hatred of the Rebels that
+      passed expression, and a fierce longing to see those who daily tortured
+      and insulted us trampled down in the dust of humiliation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The daily arrival of prisoners kept us tolerably well informed as to the
+      general progress of the campaign, and we added to the information thus
+      obtained by getting&mdash;almost daily&mdash;in some manner or another&mdash;a
+      copy of a Rebel paper. Most frequently these were Atlanta papers, or an
+      issue of the &ldquo;Memphis-Corinth-Jackson-Grenada-Chattanooga-Resacca-Marietta-Atlanta
+      Appeal,&rdquo; as they used to facetiously term a Memphis paper that left
+      that City when it was taken in 1862, and for two years fell back from
+      place to place, as Sherman's Army advanced, until at last it gave up
+      the struggle in September, 1864, in a little Town south of Atlanta, after
+      about two thousand miles of weary retreat from an indefatigable pursuer.
+      The papers were brought in by &ldquo;fresh fish,&rdquo; purchased from the
+      guards at from fifty cents to one dollar apiece, or occasionally thrown in
+      to us when they had some specially disagreeable intelligence, like the
+      defeat of Banks, or Sturgis, or Bunter, to exult over. I was particularly
+      fortunate in getting hold of these. Becoming installed as general reader
+      for a neighborhood of several thousand men, everything of this kind was
+      immediately brought to me, to be read aloud for the benefit of everybody.
+      All the older prisoners knew me by the nick-name of &ldquo;Illinoy&rdquo;
+      &mdash;a designation arising from my wearing on my cap, when I entered
+      prison, a neat little white metal badge of &ldquo;ILLS.&rdquo; When any
+      reading matter was brought into our neighborhood, there would be a general
+      cry of:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take it up to 'Illinoy,'&rdquo; and then hundreds would
+      mass around my quarters to bear the news read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebel papers usually had very meager reports of the operations of the
+      armies, and these were greatly distorted, but they were still very
+      interesting, and as we always started in to read with the expectation that
+      the whole statement was a mass of perversions and lies, where truth was an
+      infrequent accident, we were not likely to be much impressed with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a marled difference in the tone of the reports brought in from
+      the different armies. Sherman's men were always sanguine. They had
+      no doubt that they were pushing the enemy straight to the wall, and that
+      every day brought the Southern Confederacy much nearer its downfall. Those
+      from the Army of the Potomac were never so hopeful. They would admit that
+      Grant was pounding Lee terribly, but the shadow of the frequent defeats of
+      the Army of the Potomac seemed to hang depressingly over them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came a day, however, when our sanguine hopes as to Sherman were
+      checked by a possibility that he had failed; that his long campaign
+      towards Atlanta had culminated in such a reverse under the very walls of
+      the City as would compel an abandonment of the enterprise, and possibly a
+      humiliating retreat. We knew that Jeff. Davis and his Government were
+      strongly dissatisfied with the Fabian policy of Joe Johnston. The papers
+      had told us of the Rebel President's visit to Atlanta, of his bitter
+      comments on Johnston's tactics; of his going so far as to sneer
+      about the necessity of providing pontoons at Key West, so that Johnston
+      might continue his retreat even to Cuba. Then came the news of Johnston's
+      Supersession by Hood, and the papers were full of the exulting predictions
+      of what would now be accomplished &ldquo;when that gallant young soldier
+      is once fairly in the saddle.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this meant one supreme effort to arrest the onward course of Sherman.
+      It indicated a resolve to stake the fate of Atlanta, and the fortunes of
+      the Confederacy in the West, upon the hazard of one desperate fight. We
+      watched the summoning up of every Rebel energy for the blow with
+      apprehension. We dreaded another Chickamauga.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blow fell on the 22d of July. It was well planned. The Army of the
+      Tennessee, the left of Sherman's forces, was the part struck. On the
+      night of the 21st Hood marched a heavy force around its left flank and
+      gained its rear. On the 22d this force fell on the rear with the impetuous
+      violence of a cyclone, while the Rebels in the works immediately around
+      Atlanta attacked furiously in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an ordeal that no other army ever passed through successfully. The
+      steadiest troops in Europe would think it foolhardiness to attempt to
+      withstand an assault in force in front and rear at the same time. The
+      finest legions that follow any flag to-day must almost inevitably succumb
+      to such a mode of attack. But the seasoned veterans of the Army of the
+      Tennessee encountered the shock with an obstinacy which showed that the
+      finest material for soldiery this planet holds was that in which undaunted
+      hearts beat beneath blue blouses. Springing over the front of their
+      breastworks, they drove back with a withering fire the force assailing
+      them in the rear. This beaten off, they jumped back to their proper
+      places, and repulsed the assault in front. This was the way the battle was
+      waged until night compelled a cessation of operations. Our boys were
+      alternately behind the breastworks firing at Rebels advancing upon the
+      front, and in front of the works firing upon those coming up in the rear.
+      Sometimes part of our line would be on one side of the works, and part on
+      the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the prison we were greatly excited over the result of the engagement,
+      of which we were uncertain for many days. A host of new prisoners perhaps
+      two thousand&mdash;was brought in from there, but as they were captured
+      during the progress of the fight, they could not speak definitely as to
+      its issue. The Rebel papers exulted without stint over what they termed
+      &ldquo;a glorious victory.&rdquo; They were particularly jubilant over the
+      death of McPherson, who, they claimed, was the brain and guiding hand of
+      Sherman's army. One paper likened him to the pilot-fish, which
+      guides the shark to his prey. Now that he was gone, said the paper,
+      Sherman's army becomes a great lumbering hulk, with no one in it
+      capable of directing it, and it must soon fall to utter ruin under the
+      skilfully delivered strokes of the gallant Hood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We also knew that great numbers of wounded had been brought to the prison
+      hospital, and this seemed to confirm the Rebel claim of a victory, as it
+      showed they retained possession of the battle field. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p268" id="p268"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p268.jpg (18K)" src="images/p268.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About the 1st of August a large squad of Sherman's men, captured in
+      one of the engagements subsequent to the 22d, came in. We gathered around
+      them eagerly. Among them I noticed a bright, curly-haired, blue-eyed
+      infantryman&mdash;or boy, rather, as he was yet beardless. His cap was
+      marked &ldquo;68th O. Y. Y. L,&rdquo; his sleeves were garnished with
+      re-enlistment stripes, and on the breast of his blouse was a silver arrow.
+      To the eye of the soldier this said that he was a veteran member of the
+      Sixty-Eighth Regiment of Ohio Infantry (that is, having already served
+      three years, he had re-enlisted for the war), and that he belonged to the
+      Third Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps. He was so young and fresh
+      looking that one could hardly believe him to be a veteran, but if his
+      stripes had not said this, the soldierly arrangement of clothing and
+      accouterments, and the graceful, self-possessed pose of limbs and body
+      would have told the observer that he was one of those &ldquo;Old Reliables&rdquo;
+      with whom Sherman and Grant had already subdued a third of the
+      Confederacy. His blanket, which, for a wonder, the Rebels had neglected to
+      take from him, was tightly rolled, its ends tied together, and thrown over
+      his shoulder scarf-fashion. His pantaloons were tucked inside his stocking
+      tops, that were pulled up as far as possible, and tied tightly around his
+      ankle with a string. A none-too-clean haversack, containing the inevitable
+      sooty quart cup, and even blacker half-canteen, waft slung easily from the
+      shoulder opposite to that on which the blanket rested. Hand him his
+      faithful Springfield rifle, put three days' rations in his
+      haversack, and forty rounds in his cartridge bog, and he would be ready,
+      without an instant's demur or question, to march to the ends of the
+      earth, and fight anything that crossed his path. He was a type of the
+      honest, honorable, self respecting American boy, who, as a soldier, the
+      world has not equaled in the sixty centuries that war has been a
+      profession. I suggested to him that he was rather a youngster to be
+      wearing veteran chevrons. &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I am not so
+      old as some of the rest of the boys, but I have seen about as much service
+      and been in the business about as long as any of them. They call me
+      'Old Dad,' I suppose because I was the youngest boy in the
+      Regiment, when we first entered the service, though our whole Company,
+      officers and all, were only a lot of boys, and the Regiment to day, what's
+      left of 'em, are about as young a lot of officers and men as there
+      are in the service. Why, our old Colonel ain't only twenty-four
+      years old now, and he has been in command ever since we went into
+      Vicksburg. I have heard it said by our boys that since we veteranized the
+      whole Regiment, officers, and men, average less than twenty-four years
+      old. But they are gray-hounds to march and stayers in a fight, you bet.
+      Why, the rest of the troops over in West Tennessee used to call our
+      Brigade 'Leggett's Cavalry,' for they always had us
+      chasing Old Forrest, and we kept him skedaddling, too, pretty lively. But
+      I tell you we did get into a red hot scrimmage on the 22d. It just laid
+      over Champion Hills, or any of the big fights around Vicksburg, and they
+      were lively enough to amuse any one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you were in the affair on the 22d, were you! We are awful
+      anxious to hear all about it. Come over here to my quarters and tell us
+      all you know. All we know is that there has been a big fight, with
+      McPherson killed, and a heavy loss of life besides, and the Rebels claim a
+      great victory.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, they be &mdash;&mdash;-. It was the sickest victory they ever
+      got. About one more victory of that kind would make their infernal old
+      Confederacy ready for a coroner's inquest. Well, I can tell you
+      pretty much all about that fight, for I reckon if the truth was known, our
+      regiment fired about the first and last shot that opened and closed the
+      fighting on that day. Well, you see the whole Army got across the river,
+      and were closing in around the City of Atlanta. Our Corps, the
+      Seventeenth, was the extreme left of the army, and were moving up toward
+      the City from the East. The Fifteenth (Logan's) Corps joined us on
+      the right, then the Army of the Cumberland further to the right. We run
+      onto the Rebs about sundown the 21st. They had some breastworks on a ridge
+      in front of us, and we had a pretty sharp fight before we drove them off.
+      We went right to work, and kept at it all night in changing and
+      strengthening the old Rebel barricades, fronting them towards Atlanta, and
+      by morning had some good solid works along our whole line. During the
+      night we fancied we could hear wagons or artillery moving away in front of
+      us, apparently going South, or towards our left. About three or four o'clock
+      in the morning, while I was shoveling dirt like a beaver out on the works,
+      the Lieutenant came to me and said the Colonel wanted to see me, pointing
+      to a large tree in the rear, where I could find him. I reported and found
+      him with General Leggett, who commanded our Division, talking mighty
+      serious, and Bob Wheeler, of F Company, standing there with his
+      Springfield at a parade rest. As soon as I came up, the Colonel says:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boys, the General wants two level-headed chaps to go out beyond the
+      pickets to the front and toward the left. I have selected you for the
+      duty. Go as quietly as possible and as fast as you can; keep your eyes and
+      ears open; don't fire a shot if you can help it, and come back and
+      tell us exactly what you have seen and heard, and not what you imagine or
+      suspect. I have selected you for the duty.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He gave us the countersign, and off we started over the breastworks
+      and through the thick woods. We soon came to our skirmish or pickets, only
+      a few rods in front of our works, and cautioned them not to fire on us in
+      going or returning. We went out as much as half a mile or more, until we
+      could plainly hear the sound of wagons and artillery. We then cautiously
+      crept forward until we could see the main road leading south from the City
+      filled with marching men, artillery and teams. We could hear the commands
+      of the officers and see the flags and banners of regiment after regiment
+      as they passed us. We got back quietly and quickly, passed through our
+      picket line all right, and found the General and our Colonel sitting on a
+      log where we had left them, waiting for us. We reported what we had seen
+      and heard, and gave it as our opinion that the Johnnies were evacuating
+      Atlanta. The General shook his head, and the Colonel says: 'You may
+      return to your company.' Bob says to me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'The old General shakes his head as though he thought them d&mdash;-d
+      Rebs ain't evacuating Atlanta so mighty sudden, but are up to some
+      devilment again. I ain't sure but he's right. They ain't
+      going to keep falling back and falling back to all eternity, but are just
+      agoin' to give us a rip-roaring great big fight one o' these
+      days&mdash;when they get a good ready. You hear me!' <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p270" id="p270"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p270.jpg (19K)" src="images/p270.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saying which we both went to our companies, and laid down to get a
+      little sleep. It was about daylight then, and I must have snoozed away
+      until near noon, when I heard the order 'fall in!' and found
+      the regiment getting into line, and the boys all tallying about going
+      right into Atlanta; that the Rebels had evacuated the City during the
+      night, and that we were going to have a race with the Fifteenth Corps as
+      to which would get into the City first. We could look away out across a
+      large field in front of our works, and see the skirmish line advancing
+      steadily towards the main works around the City. Not a shot was being,
+      fired on either side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To our surprise, instead of marching to the front and toward the
+      City, we filed off into a small road cut through the woods and marched
+      rapidly to the rear. We could not understand what it meant. We marched at
+      quick time, feeling pretty mad that we had to go to the rear, when the
+      rest of our Division were going into Atlanta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We passed the Sixteenth Corps lying on their arms, back in some
+      open fields, and the wagon trains of our Corps all comfortably corralled,
+      and finally found ourselves out by the Seventeenth Corps headquarters. Two
+      or three companies were sent out to picket several roads that seemed to
+      cross at that point, as it was reported 'Rebel Cavalry' had
+      been seen on these roads but a short time before, and this accounted for
+      our being rushed out in such a great hurry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We had just stacked arms and were going to take a little rest after
+      our rapid march, when several Rebel prisoners were brought in by some of
+      the boys who had straggled a little. They found the Rebels on the road we
+      had just marched out on. Up to this time not a shot had been fired. All
+      was quiet back at the main works we had just left, when suddenly we saw
+      several staff officers come tearing up to the Colonel, who ordered us to
+      'fall in!' 'Take aims!' 'about, face!'
+      The Lieutenant Colonel dashed down one of the roads where one of the
+      companies had gone out on picket. The Major and Adjutant galloped down the
+      others. We did not wait for them to come back, though, but moved right
+      back on the road we had just come out, in line of battle, our colors in
+      the road, and our flanks in open timber. We soon reached a fence enclosing
+      a large field, and there could see a line of Rebels moving by the flank,
+      and forming, facing toward Atlanta, but to the left and in the rear of the
+      position occupied by our Corps. As soon as we reached the fence we fired a
+      round or two into the backs of these gray coats, who broke into confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just then the other companies joined us, and we moved off on
+      'double quick by the right flank,' for you see we were
+      completely cut off from the troops up at the front, and we had to get well
+      over to the right to get around the flank of the Rebels. Just about the
+      time we fired on the rebels the Sixteenth Corps opened up a hot fire of
+      musketry and artillery on them, some of their shot coming over mighty
+      close to where we were. We marched pretty fast, and finally turned in
+      through some open fields to the left, and came out just in the rear of the
+      Sixteenth Corps, who were fighting like devils along their whole line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as we came out into the open field we saw General R. K. Scott,
+      who used to be our Colonel, and who commanded our brigade, come tearing
+      toward us with one or two aids or orderlies. He was on his big clay-bank
+      horse, 'Old Hatchie,' as we called him, as we captured him on
+      the battlefield at the battle of 'Matamora,' or 'Hell on
+      the Hatchie,' as our boys always called it. He rode up to the
+      Colonel, said something hastily, when all at once we heard the
+      all-firedest crash of musketry and artillery way up at the front where we
+      had built the works the night before and left the rest of our brigade and
+      Division getting ready to prance into Atlanta when we were sent off to the
+      rear. Scott put spurs to his old horse, who was one of the fastest runners
+      in our Division, and away he went back towards the position where his
+      brigade and the troops immediately to their left were now hotly engaged.
+      He rode right along in rear of the Sixteenth Corps, paying no attention
+      apparently to the shot and shell and bullets that were tearing up the
+      earth and exploding and striking all around him. His aids and orderlies
+      vainly tried to keep up with him. We could plainly see the Rebel lines as
+      they came out of the woods into the open grounds to attack the Sixteenth
+      Corps, which had hastily formed in the open field, without any signs of
+      works, and were standing up like men, having a hand-to-hand fight. We were
+      just far enough in the rear so that every blasted shot or shell that was
+      fired too high to hit the ranks of the Sixteenth Corps came rattling over
+      amongst us. All this time we were marching fast, following in the
+      direction General Scott had taken, who evidently had ordered the Colonel
+      to join his brigade up at the front. We were down under the crest of a
+      little hill, following along the bank of a little creek, keeping under
+      cover of the bank as much as possible to protect us from the shots of the
+      enemy. We suddenly saw General Logan and one or two of his staff upon the
+      right bank of the ravine riding rapidly toward us. As he neared the head
+      of the regiment he shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Halt! What regiment is that, and where are you going?'&rdquo;
+      The Colonel, in a loud voice, that all could hear, told him: &ldquo;The
+      Sixty-Eighth Ohio; going to join our brigade of the Third Division&mdash;your
+      old Division, General, of the Seventeenth Corps.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Logan says, 'you had better go right in here on the left of
+      Dodge. The Third Division have hardly ground enough left now to bury their
+      dead. God knows they need you. But try it on, if you think you can get to
+      them.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just at this moment a staff officer came riding up on the opposite
+      side of the ravine from where Logan was and interrupted Logan, who was
+      about telling the Colonel not to try to go to the position held by the
+      Third Division by the road cut through the woods whence we had come out,
+      but to keep off to the right towards the Fifteenth Corps, as the woods
+      referred to were full of Rebels. The officer saluted Logan, and shouted
+      across:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;General Sherman directs me to inform you of the death of General
+      McPherson, and orders you to take command of the Army of the Tennessee;
+      have Dodge close well up to the Seventeenth Corps, and Sherman will
+      reinforce you to the extent of the whole army.' <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p273" id="p273"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p273.jpg (52K)" src="images/p273.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Logan, standing in his stirrups, on his beautiful black horse,
+      formed a picture against the blue sky as we looked up the ravine at him,
+      his black eyes fairly blazing and his long black hair waving in the wind.
+      He replied in a ringing, clear tone that we all could hear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say to General Sherman I have heard of McPherson's death, and
+      have assumed the command of the Army of the Tennessee, and have already
+      anticipated his orders in regard to closing the gap between Dodge and the
+      Seventeenth Corps.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, of course, all happened in one quarter of the time I have
+      been telling you. Logan put spurs to his horse and rode in one direction,
+      the staff officer of General Sherman in another, and we started on a rapid
+      step toward the front. This was the first we had heard of McPherson's
+      death, and it made us feel very bad. Some of the officers and men cried as
+      though they had lost a brother; others pressed their lips, gritted their
+      teeth, and swore to avenge his death. He was a great favorite with all his
+      Army, particularly of our Corps, which he commanded for a long while. Our
+      company, especially, knew him well, and loved him dearly, for we had been
+      his Headquarters Guard for over a year. As we marched along, toward the
+      front, we could see brigades, and regiments, and batteries of artillery;
+      coming over from the right of the Army, and taking position in new lines
+      in rear of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps. Major Generals and their
+      staffs, Brigadier Generals and their staffs, were mighty thick along the
+      banks of the little ravine we were following; stragglers and wounded men
+      by the hundred were pouring in to the safe shelter formed by the broken
+      ground along which we were rapidly marching; stories were heard of
+      divisions, brigades and regiments that these wounded or stragglers
+      belonged, having been all cut to pieces; officers all killed; and the
+      speaker, the only one of his command not killed, wounded or captured. But
+      you boys have heard and seen the same cowardly sneaks, probably, in fights
+      that you were in. The battle raged furiously all this time; part of the
+      time the Sixteenth Corps seemed to be in the worst; then it would let up
+      on them and the Seventeenth Corps would be hotly engaged along their whole
+      front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We had probably marched half an hour since leaving Logan, and were
+      getting pretty near back to our main line of works, when the Colonel
+      ordered a halt and knapsacks to be unslung and piled up. I tell you it was
+      a relief to get them off, for it was a fearful hot day, and we had been
+      marching almost double quick. We knew that this meant business though, and
+      that we were stripping for the fight, which we would soon be in. Just at
+      this moment we saw an ambulance, with the horses on a dead run, followed
+      by two or three mounted officers and men, coming right towards us out of
+      the very woods Logan had cautioned the Colonel to avoid. When the
+      ambulance got to where we were it halted. It was pretty well out of danger
+      from the bullets and shell of the enemy. They stopped, and we recognized
+      Major Strong, of McPherson's Staff, whom the all knew, as he was the
+      Chief Inspector of our Corps, and in the ambulance he had the body of
+      General McPherson. Major Strong, it appears, during a slight lull in the
+      fighting at that part of the line, having taken an ambulance and driven
+      into the very jaws of death to recover the remains of his loved commander.
+      It seems he found the body right by the side of the little road that we
+      had gone out on when we went to the rear. He was dead when he found him,
+      having been shot off his horse, the bullet striking him in the back, just
+      below his heart, probably killing him instantly. There was a young fellow
+      with him who was wounded also, when Strong found them. He belonged to our
+      First Division, and recognized General McPherson, and stood by him until
+      Major Strong came up. He was in the ambulance with the body of McPherson
+      when they stopped by us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems that when the fight opened away back in the rear where we
+      had been, and at the left of the Sixteenth Corps which was almost directly
+      in the rear of the Seventeenth Corps, McPherson sent his staff and
+      orderlies with various orders to different parts of the line, and started
+      himself to ride over from the Seventeenth Corps to the Sixteenth Corps,
+      taking exactly the same course our Regiment had, perhaps an hour before,
+      but the Rebels had discovered there was a gap between the Sixteenth and
+      Seventeenth Corps, and meeting no opposition to their advances in this
+      strip of woods, where they were hidden from view, they had marched right
+      along down in the rear, and with their line at right angles with the line
+      of works occupied by the left of the Seventeenth Corps; they were thus
+      parallel and close to the little road McPherson had taken, and probably he
+      rode right into them and was killed before he realized the true situation.
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p276" id="p276"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p276.jpg (61K)" src="images/p276.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Having piled our knapsacks, and left a couple of our older men, who
+      were played out with the heat and most ready to drop with sunstroke, to
+      guard them, we started on again. The ambulance with the corpse of Gen.
+      McPherson moved off towards the right of the Army, which was the last we
+      ever saw of that brave and handsome soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We bore off a little to the right of a large open field on top of a
+      high hill where one of our batteries was pounding away at a tremendous
+      rate. We came up to the main line of works just about at the left of the
+      Fifteenth Corps. They seemed to be having an easy time of it just then
+      &mdash;no fighting going on in their front, except occasional shots from
+      some heavy guns on the main line of Rebel works around the City. We
+      crossed right over the Fifteenth Corps' works and filed to the left,
+      keeping along on the outside of our works. We had not gone far before the
+      Rebel gunners in the main works around the City discovered us; and the way
+      they did tear loose at us was a caution. Their aim was rather bad,
+      however, and most of their shots went over us. We saw one of them&mdash;I
+      think it was a shell&mdash;strike an artillery caisson belonging to one of
+      our-batteries. It exploded as it struck, and then the caisson, which was
+      full of ammunition, exploded with an awful noise, throwing pieces of wood
+      and iron and its own load of shot and shell high into the air, scattering
+      death and destruction to the men and horses attached to it. We thought we
+      saw arms and legs and parts of bodies of men flying in every direction;
+      but we were glad to learn afterwards that it was the contents of the
+      knapsacks of the Battery boys, who had strapped them on the caissons for
+      transportation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just after passing the hill where our battery was making things so
+      lively, they stopped firing to let us pass. We saw General Leggett, our
+      Division Commander, come riding toward us. He was outside of our line of
+      works, too. You know how we build breastworks&mdash;sort of zigzag like,
+      you know, so they cannot be enfiladed. Well, that's just the way the
+      works were along there, and you never saw such a curious shape as we
+      formed our Division in. Why, part of them were on one side of the works,
+      and go along a little further and here was a regiment, or part of a
+      regiment on the other side, both sets firing in opposite directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No sir'ee, they were not demoralized or in confusion, they
+      were cool and as steady as on parade. But the old Division had, you know,
+      never been driven from any position they had once taken, in all their long
+      service, and they did not propose to leave that ridge until they got
+      orders from some one beside the Rebs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were times when a fellow did not know which side of the works
+      was the safest, for the Johnnies were in front of us and in rear of us.
+      You see, our Fourth Division, which had been to the left of us, had been
+      forced to quit their works, when the Rebs got into the works in their
+      rear, so that our Division was now at the point where our line turned
+      sharply to the left, and rear&mdash;in the direction of the Sixteenth
+      Corps. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p278" id="p278"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p278.jpg (34K)" src="images/p278.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We got into business before we had been there over three minutes. A
+      line of the Rebs tried to charge across the open fields in front of us,
+      but by the help of the old twenty-four pounders (which proved to be part
+      of Cooper's Illinois Battery, that we had been alongside of in many
+      a hard fight before), we drove them back a-flying, only to have to jump
+      over on the outside of our works the next minute to tackle a heavy force
+      that came for our rear through that blasted strip of woods. We soon drove
+      them off, and the firing on both sides seemed to have pretty much stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Our Brigade,' which we discovered, was now commanded
+      by 'Old Whiskers' (Colonel Piles, of the Seventy-Eighth Ohio.
+      I'll bet he's got the longest whiskers of any man in the
+      Army.) You see General Scott had not been seen or heard of since he had
+      started to the rear after our regiment when the fighting first commenced.
+      We all believed that he was either killed or captured, or he would have
+      been with his command. He was a splendid soldier, and a bull-dog of a
+      fighter. His absence was a great loss, but we had not much time to think
+      of such things, for our brigade was then ordered to leave the works and to
+      move to the right about twenty or thirty rods across a large ravine, where
+      we were placed in position in an open corn-field, forming a new line at
+      quite an angle from the line of works we had just left, extending to the
+      left, and getting us back nearer onto a line with the Sixteenth Corps. The
+      battery of howitzers, now reinforced by a part of the Third Ohio heavy
+      guns, still occupied the old works on the highest part of the hill, just
+      to the right of our new line. We took our position just on the brow of a
+      hill, and were ordered to lie down, and the rear rank to go for rails,
+      which we discovered a few rods behind us in the shape of a good ten-rail
+      fence. Every rear-rank chap came back with all the rails he could lug, and
+      we barely had time to lay them down in front of us, forming a little
+      barricade of six to eight or ten inches high, when we heard the most
+      unearthly Rebel yell directly in front of us. It grew louder and came
+      nearer and nearer, until we could see a solid line of the gray coats
+      coming out of the woods and down the opposite slope, their battle flags
+      flying, officers in front with drawn swords, arms at right shoulder, and
+      every one of them yelling like so many Sioux Indians. The line seemed to
+      be massed six or eight ranks deep, followed closely by the second line,
+      and that by the third, each, if possible, yelling louder and appearing
+      more desperately reckless than the one ahead. At their first appearance we
+      opened on them, and so did the bully old twenty-four-pounders, with
+      canister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On they came; the first line staggered and wavered back on to the
+      second, which was coming on the double quick. Such a raking as we did give
+      them. Oh, Lordy, how we did wish that we had the breech loading Spencers
+      or Winchesters. But we had the old reliable Springfields, and we poured it
+      in hot and heavy. By the time the charging column got down the opposite
+      slope, and were struggling through the thicket of undergrowth in the
+      ravine, they were one confused mass of officers and men, the three lines
+      now forming one solid column, which made several desperate efforts to rush
+      up to the top of the hill where we were punishing them so. One of their
+      first surges came mighty near going right over the left of our Regiment,
+      as they were lying down behind their little rail piles. But the boys
+      clubbed their guns and the officers used their revolvers and swords and
+      drove them back down the hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Seventy-Eighth and Twentieth Ohio, our right and left bowers,
+      who had been brigaded with us ever since 'Shiloh,' were into
+      it as hot and heavy as we had been, and had lost numbers of their officers
+      and men, but were hanging on to their little rail piles when the fight was
+      over. At one time the Rebs were right in on top of the Seventy-Eighth. One
+      big Reb grabbed their colors, and tried to pull them out of the hands of
+      the color-bearer. But old Captain Orr, a little, short, dried-up fellow,
+      about sixty years old, struck him with his sword across the back of the
+      neck, and killed him deader than a mackerel, right in his tracks. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p281" id="p281"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p281.jpg (42K)" src="images/p281.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was now getting dark, and the Johnnies concluded they had taken
+      a bigger contract in trying to drive us off that hill in one day than they
+      had counted on, so they quit charging on us, but drew back under cover of
+      the woods and along the old line of works that we had left, and kept up a
+      pecking away and sharp-shooting at us all night long. They opened fire on
+      us from a number of pieces of artillery from the front, from the left, and
+      from some heavy guns away over to the right of us, in the main works
+      around Atlanta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We did not fool away much time that night, either. We got our
+      shovels and picks, and while part of us were sharpshooting and trying to
+      keep the Rebels from working up too close to us, the rest of the boys were
+      putting up some good solid earthworks right where our rail piles had been,
+      and by morning we were in splendid shape to have received our friends, no
+      matter which way they had come at us, for they kept up such an all-fired
+      shelling of us from so many different directions; that the boys had built
+      traverses and bomb-proofs at all sorts of angles and in all directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was one point off to our right, a few rods up along our old
+      line of works where there was a crowd of Rebel sharpshooters that annoyed
+      us more than all the rest, by their constant firing at us through the
+      night. They killed one of Company H's boys, and wounded several
+      others. Finally Captain Williams, of D Company, came along and said he
+      wanted a couple of good shots out of our company to go with him, so I went
+      for one. He took about ten of us, and we crawled down into the ravine in
+      front of where we were building the works, and got behind a large fallen
+      tree, and we laid there and could just fire right up into the rear of
+      those fellows as they lay behind a traverse extending back from our old
+      line of works. It was so dark we could only see where to fire by the flash
+      of guns, but every time they would shoot, some of us would let them have
+      one. They staid there until almost daylight, when they, concluded as
+      things looked, since we were going to stay, they had better be going.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was an awful night. Down in the ravine below us lay hundreds of
+      killed and wounded Rebels, groaning and crying aloud for water and for
+      help. We did do what we could for those right around us&mdash;but it was
+      so dark, and so many shell bursting and bullets flying around that a
+      fellow could not get about much. I tell you it was pretty tough next
+      morning to go along to the different companies of our regiment and hear
+      who were among the killed and wounded, and to see the long row of graves
+      that were being dug to bury our comrades and our officers. There was the
+      Captain of Company E, Nelson Skeeles, of Fulton County, O., one of&mdash;the
+      bravest and best officers in the regiment. By his side lay First Sergeant
+      Lesnit, and next were the two great, powerful Shepherds&mdash;cousins but
+      more like brothers. One, it seems, was killed while supporting the head of
+      the other, who had just received a death wound, thus dying in each other's
+      arms. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p283" id="p283"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p283.jpg (39K)" src="images/p283.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I can't begin to think or tell you the names of all the
+      poor boys that we laid away to rest in their last, long sleep on that
+      gloomy day. Our Major was severely wounded, and several other officers had
+      been hit more or less badly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a frightful sight, though, to go over the field in front of
+      our works on that morning. The Rebel dead and badly wounded laid where
+      they had fallen. The bottom and opposite side of the ravine showed how
+      destructive our fire and that of the canister from the howitzers had been.
+      The underbrush was cut, slashed, and torn into shreds, and the larger
+      trees were scarred, bruised and broken by the thousands of bullets and
+      other missiles that had been poured into them from almost every
+      conceivable direction during the day before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A lot of us boys went way over to the left into Fuller's
+      Division of the Sixteenth Corps, to see how some of our boys over there
+      had got through the scrimmage, for they had about as nasty a fight as any
+      part of the Army, and if it had not been for their being just where they
+      were, I am not sure but what the old Seventeenth Corps would have had a
+      different story to tell now. We found our friends had been way out by
+      Decatur, where their brigade had got into a pretty lively fight on their
+      own hook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We got back to camp, and the first thing I knew I was detailed for
+      picket duty, and we were posted over a few rods across the ravine in our
+      front. We had not been out but a short time when we saw a flag of truce,
+      borne by an officer, coming towards us. We halted him, and made him wait
+      until a report was sent back to Corps headquarters. The Rebel officer was
+      quite chatty and talkative with our picket officer, while waiting. He said
+      he was on General Cleburne's staff, and that the troops that charged
+      us so fiercely the evening before was Cleburne's whole Division, and
+      that after their last repulse, knowing the hill where we were posted was
+      the most important position along our line, he felt that if they would
+      keep close to us during the night, and keep up a show of fight, that we
+      would pull out and abandon the hill before morning. He said that he, with
+      about fifty of their best men, had volunteered to keep up the
+      demonstration, and it was his party that had occupied the traverse in our
+      old works the night before and had annoyed us and the Battery men by their
+      constant sharpshooting, which we fellows behind the old tree had finally
+      tired out. He said they staid until almost daylight, and that he lost more
+      than half his men before he left. He also told us that General Scott was
+      captured by their Division, at about the time and almost the same spot as
+      where General McPherson was killed, and that he was not hurt or wounded,
+      and was now a prisoner in their hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite a lot of our staff officers soon came out, and as near as we
+      could learn the Rebels wanted a truce to bury their dead. Our folks tried
+      to get up an exchange of prisoners that had been taken by both sides the
+      day before, but for some reason they could not bring it about. But the
+      truce for burying the dead was agreed to. Along about dusk some of the
+      boys on my post got to telling about a lot of silver and brass instruments
+      that belonged to one of the bands of the Fourth Division, which had been
+      hung up in some small trees a little way over in front of where we were
+      when the fight was going on the day before, and that when, a bullet would
+      strike one of the horns they could hear it go 'pin-g' and in a
+      few minutes 'pan-g' would go another bullet through one of
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A new picket was just coming' on, and I had picked up my
+      blanket and haversack, and was about ready to start back to camp, when,
+      thinks I, 'I'll just go out there and see about them horns.'
+      I told the boys what I was going to do. They all seemed to think it was
+      safe enough, so out I started. I had not gone more than a hundred yards, I
+      should think, when here I found the horns all hanging around on the trees
+      just as the boys had described. Some of them had lots of bullet holes in
+      them. But I saw a beautiful, nice looking silver bugle hanging off to one
+      side a little. 'I Thinks,' says I, 'I'll just take
+      that little toot horn in out of the wet, and take it back to camp.'
+      I was just reaching up after it when I heard some one say,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Halt!' and I'll be dog-Boned if there wasn't
+      two of the meanest looking Rebels, standing not ten feet from me, with
+      their guns cocked and pointed at me, and, of course, I knew I was a goner;
+      they walked me back about one hundred and fifty yards, where their picket
+      line was. From there I was kept going for an hour or two until we got over
+      to a place on the railroad called East Point. There I got in with a big
+      crowd of our prisoners, who were taken the day before, and we have been
+      fooling along in a lot of old cattle cars getting down here ever since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So this is 'Andersonville,' is it! Well, by&mdash;!&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p285" id="p285"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p285.jpg (48K)" src="images/p285.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch41" id="ch41"></a>CHAPTER XLI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      CLOTHING: ITS RAPID DETERIORATION, AND DEVICES TO REPLENISH IT&mdash;DESPERATE
+      EFFORTS TO COVER NAKEDNESS&mdash;&ldquo;LITTLE RED CAP&rdquo; AND HIS
+      LETTER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clothing had now become an object of real solicitude to us older
+      prisoners. The veterans of our crowd&mdash;the surviving remnant of those
+      captured at Gettysburg&mdash;had been prisoners over a year. The next in
+      seniority&mdash;the Chickamauga boys&mdash;had been in ten months. The
+      Mine Run fellows were eight months old, and my battalion had had seven
+      months' incarceration. None of us were models of well-dressed
+      gentlemen when captured. Our garments told the whole story of the hard
+      campaigning we had undergone. Now, with months of the wear and tear of
+      prison life, sleeping on the sand, working in tunnels, digging wells,
+      etc., we were tattered and torn to an extent that a second-class tramp
+      would have considered disgraceful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is no reflection upon the quality of the clothes furnished by the
+      Government. We simply reached the limit of the wear of textile fabrics. I
+      am particular to say this, because I want to contribute my little mite
+      towards doing justice to a badly abused part of our Army organization
+      &mdash;the Quartermaster's Department. It is fashionable to speak of
+      &ldquo;shoddy,&rdquo; and utter some stereotyped sneers about &ldquo;brown
+      paper shoes,&rdquo; and &ldquo;musketo-netting overcoats,&rdquo; when any
+      discussion of the Quartermaster service is the subject of conversation,
+      but I have no hesitation in asking the indorsement of my comrades to the
+      statement that we have never found anywhere else as durable garments as
+      those furnished us by the Government during our service in the Army. The
+      clothes were not as fine in texture, nor so stylish in cut as those we
+      wore before or since, but when it came to wear they could be relied on to
+      the last thread. It was always marvelous to me that they lasted so well,
+      with the rough usage a soldier in the field must necessarily give them.
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p287" id="p287"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p287.jpg (14K)" src="images/p287.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to return to my subject. I can best illustrate the way our clothes
+      dropped off us, piece by piece, like the petals from the last rose of
+      Summer, by taking my own case as an example: When I entered prison I was
+      clad in the ordinary garb of an enlisted man of the cavalry&mdash;stout,
+      comfortable boots, woolen pocks, drawers, pantaloons, with a &ldquo;reenforcement,&rdquo;
+      or &ldquo;ready-made patches,&rdquo; as the infantry called them; vest,
+      warm, snug-fitting jacket, under and over shirts, heavy overcoat, and a
+      forage-cap. First my boots fell into cureless ruin, but this was no
+      special hardship, as the weather had become quite warm, and it was more
+      pleasant than otherwise to go barefooted. Then part of the underclothing
+      retired from service. The jacket and vest followed, their end being
+      hastened by having their best portions taken to patch up the pantaloons,
+      which kept giving out at the most embarrassing places. Then the cape of
+      the overcoat was called upon to assist in repairing these
+      continually-recurring breaches in the nether garments. The same insatiate
+      demand finally consumed the whole coat, in a vain attempt to prevent an
+      exposure of person greater than consistent with the usages of society. The
+      pantaloons&mdash;or what, by courtesy, I called such, were a monument of
+      careful and ingenious, but hopeless, patching, that should have called
+      forth the admiration of a Florentine artist in mosaic. I have been shown&mdash;in
+      later years&mdash;many table tops, ornamented in marquetry, inlaid with
+      thousands of little bits of wood, cunningly arranged, and patiently joined
+      together. I always look at them with interest, for I know the work spent
+      upon them: I remember my Andersonville pantaloons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The clothing upon the upper part of my body had been reduced to the
+      remains of a knit undershirt. It had fallen into so many holes that it
+      looked like the coarse &ldquo;riddles&rdquo; through which ashes and
+      gravel are sifted. Wherever these holes were the sun had burned my back,
+      breast and shoulders deeply black. The parts covered by the threads and
+      fragments forming the boundaries of the holes, were still white. When I
+      pulled my alleged shirt off, to wash or to free it from some of its
+      teeming population, my skin showed a fine lace pattern in black and white,
+      that was very interesting to my comrades, and the subject of countless
+      jokes by them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They used to descant loudly on the chaste elegance of the design, the
+      richness of the tracing, etc., and beg me to furnish them with a copy of
+      it when I got home, for their sisters to work window curtains or tidies
+      by. They were sure that so striking a novelty in patterns would be very
+      acceptable. I would reply to their witticisms in the language of Portia's
+      Prince of Morocco:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mislike me not for my complexion&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadowed livery of the burning sun. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p288" id="p288"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p288.jpg (11K)" src="images/p288.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the stories told me in my childhood by an old negro nurse, was of a
+      poverty stricken little girl &ldquo;who slept on the floor and was covered
+      with the door,&rdquo; and she once asked&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mamma how do poor folks get along who haven't any door?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the same spirit I used to wonder how poor fellows got along who hadn't
+      any shirt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One common way of keeping up one's clothing was by stealing
+      mealsacks. The meal furnished as rations was brought in in white cotton
+      sacks. Sergeants of detachments were required to return these when the
+      rations were issued the next day. I have before alluded to the general
+      incapacity of the Rebels to deal accurately with even simple numbers. It
+      was never very difficult for a shrewd Sergeant to make nine sacks count as
+      ten. After awhile the Rebels began to see through this sleight of hand
+      manipulation, and to check it. Then the Sergeants resorted to the device
+      of tearing the sacks in two, and turning each half in as a whole one. The
+      cotton cloth gained in this way was used for patching, or, if a boy could
+      succeed in beating the Rebels out of enough of it, he would fabricate
+      himself a shirt or a pair of pantaloons. We obtained all our thread in the
+      same way. A half of a sack, carefully raveled out, would furnish a couple
+      of handfuls of thread. Had it not been for this resource all our sewing
+      and mending would have come to a standstill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Most of our needles were manufactured by ourselves from bones. A piece of
+      bone, split as near as possible to the required size, was carefully rubbed
+      down upon a brick, and then had an eye laboriously worked through it with
+      a bit of wire or something else available for the purpose. The needles
+      were about the size of ordinary darning needles, and answered the purpose
+      very well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These devices gave one some conception of the way savages provide for the
+      wants of their lives. Time was with them, as with us, of little
+      importance. It was no loss of time to them, nor to us, to spend a large
+      portion of the waking hours of a week in fabricating a needle out of a
+      bone, where a civilized man could purchase a much better one with the
+      product of three minutes' labor. I do not think any red Indian of
+      the plains exceeded us in the patience with which we worked away at these
+      minutia of life's needs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course the most common source of clothing was the dead, and no body was
+      carried out with any clothing on it that could be of service to the
+      survivors. The Plymouth Pilgrims, who were so well clothed on coming in,
+      and were now dying off very rapidly, furnished many good suits to cover
+      the nakedness of older, prisoners. Most of the prisoners from the Army of
+      the Potomac were well dressed, and as very many died within a month or six
+      weeks after their entrance, they left their clothes in pretty good
+      condition for those who constituted themselves their heirs, administrators
+      and assigns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For my own part, I had the greatest aversion to wearing dead men's
+      clothes, and could only bring myself to it after I had been a year in
+      prison, and it became a question between doing that and freezing to death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every new batch of prisoners was besieged with anxious inquiries on the
+      subject which lay closest to all our hearts:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they doing about exchange!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing in human experience&mdash;save the anxious expectancy of a sail by
+      castaways on a desert island&mdash;could equal the intense eagerness with
+      which this question was asked, and the answer awaited. To thousands now
+      hanging on the verge of eternity it meant life or death. Between the first
+      day of July and the first of November over twelve thousand men died, who
+      would doubtless have lived had they been able to reach our lines&mdash;&ldquo;get
+      to God's country,&rdquo; as we expressed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new comers brought little reliable news of contemplated exchange.
+      There was none to bring in the first place, and in the next, soldiers in
+      active service in the field had other things to busy themselves with than
+      reading up the details of the negotiations between the Commissioners of
+      Exchange. They had all heard rumors, however, and by the time they reached
+      Andersonville, they had crystallized these into actual statements of fact.
+      A half hour after they entered the Stockade, a report like this would
+      spread like wildfire:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An Army of the Potomac man has just come in, who was captured in
+      front of Petersburg. He says that he read in the New York Herald, the day
+      before he was taken, that an exchange had been agreed upon, and that our
+      ships had already started for Savannah to take us home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then our hopes would soar up like balloons. We fed ourselves on such stuff
+      from day to day, and doubtless many lives were greatly prolonged by the
+      continual encouragement. There was hardly a day when I did not say to
+      myself that I would much rather die than endure imprisonment another
+      month, and had I believed that another month would see me still there, I
+      am pretty certain that I should have ended the matter by crossing the Dead
+      Line. I was firmly resolved not to die the disgusting, agonizing death
+      that so many around me were dying. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p291" id="p291"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p291.jpg (18K)" src="images/p291.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of our best purveyors of information was a bright, blue-eyed,
+      fair-haired little drummer boy, as handsome as a girl, well-bred as a
+      lady, and evidently the darling of some refined loving mother. He
+      belonged, I think, to some loyal Virginia regiment, was captured in one of
+      the actions in the Shenandoa Valley, and had been with us in Richmond. We
+      called him &ldquo;Red Cap,&rdquo; from his wearing a jaunty, gold-laced,
+      crimson cap. Ordinarily, the smaller a drummer boy is the harder he is,
+      but no amount of attrition with rough men could coarse the ingrained
+      refinement of Red Cap's manners. He was between thirteen and
+      fourteen, and it seemed utterly shameful that men, calling themselves
+      soldier should make war on such a tender boy and drag him off to prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But no six-footer had a more soldierly heart than little Red Cap, and none
+      were more loyal to the cause. It was a pleasure to hear him tell the story
+      of the fights and movements his regiment had been engaged in. He was a
+      good observer and told his tale with boyish fervor. Shortly after Wirz
+      assumed command he took Red Cap into his office as an Orderly. His bright
+      face and winning manner; fascinated the women visitors at headquarters,
+      and numbers of them tried to adopt him, but with poor success. Like the
+      rest of us, he could see few charms in an existence under the Rebel flag,
+      and turned a deaf ear to their blandishments. He kept his ears open to the
+      conversation of the Rebel officers around him, and frequently secured
+      permission to visit the interior of the Stockade, when he would
+      communicate to us all that he has heard. He received a flattering
+      reception every time he cams in, and no orator ever secured a more
+      attentive audience than would gather around him to listen to what he had
+      to say. He was, beyond a doubt, the best known and most popular person in
+      the prison, and I know all the survivors of his old admirer; share my
+      great interest in him, and my curiosity as to whether he yet lives, and
+      whether his subsequent career has justified the sanguine hopes we all had
+      as to his future. I hope that if he sees this, or any one who knows
+      anything about him, he will communicate with me. There are thousands who
+      will be glad to hear from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A most remarkable coincidence occurred in regard to this comrade. Several
+      days after the above had been written, and &ldquo;set up,&rdquo; but
+      before it had yet appeared in the paper, I received the following letter:
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        ECKHART MINES,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        Alleghany County, Md., March 24.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      To the Editor of the BLADE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Last evening I saw a copy of your paper, in which was a chapter or two of
+      a prison life of a soldier during the late war. I was forcibly struck with
+      the correctness of what he wrote, and the names of several of my old
+      comrades which he quoted: Hill, Limber Jim, etc., etc. I was a drummer boy
+      of Company I, Tenth West Virginia Infantry, and was fifteen years of age a
+      day or two after arriving in Andersonville, which was in the last of
+      February, 1884. Nineteen of my comrades were there with me, and, poor
+      fellows, they are there yet. I have no doubt that I would have remained
+      there, too, had I not been more fortunate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not know who your soldier correspondent is, but assume to say that
+      from the following description he will remember having seen me in
+      Andersonville: I was the little boy that for three or four months
+      officiated as orderly for Captain Wirz. I wore a red cap, and every day
+      could be seen riding Wirz's gray mare, either at headquarters, or
+      about the Stockade. I was acting in this capacity when the six raiders
+      &mdash;&ldquo;Mosby,&rdquo; (proper name Collins) Delaney, Curtis, and&mdash;I
+      forget the other names&mdash;were executed. I believe that I was the first
+      that conveyed the intelligence to them that Confederate General Winder had
+      approved their sentence. As soon as Wirz received the dispatch to that
+      effect, I ran down to the stocks and told them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I visited Hill, of Wauseon, Fulton County, O., since the war, and found
+      him hale and hearty. I have not heard from him for a number of years until
+      reading your correspondent's letter last evening. It is the only
+      letter of the series that I have seen, but after reading that one, I feel
+      called upon to certify that I have no doubts of the truthfulness of your
+      correspondent's story. The world will never know or believe the
+      horrors of Andersonville and other prisons in the South. No living, human
+      being, in my judgment, will ever be able to properly paint the horrors of
+      those infernal dens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I formed the acquaintance of several Ohio soldiers whilst in prison. Among
+      these were O. D. Streeter, of Cleveland, who went to Andersonville about
+      the same time that I did, and escaped, and was the only man that I ever
+      knew that escaped and reached our lines. After an absence of several
+      months he was retaken in one of Sherman's battles before Atlanta,
+      and brought back. I also knew John L. Richards, of Fostoria, Seneca
+      County, O. or Eaglesville, Wood County. Also, a man by the name of
+      Beverly, who was a partner of Charley Aucklebv, of Tennessee. I would like
+      to hear from all of these parties. They all know me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Editor, I will close by wishing all my comrades who shared in the
+      sufferings and dangers of Confederate prisons, a long and useful life.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          Yours truly,
+        </p>
+        <p>
+          RANSOM T. POWELL
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p293" id="p293"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p293.jpg (34K)" src="images/p293.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch42" id="ch42"></a>CHAPTER XLII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      SOME FEATURES OF THE MORTALITY&mdash;PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS TO THOSE LIVING
+      &mdash;AN AVERAGE MEAN ONLY STANDS THE MISERY THREE MONTHS&mdash;DESCRIPTION
+      OF THE PRISON AND THE CONDITION OF THE MEN THEREIN, BY A LEADING
+      SCIENTIFIC MAN OF THE SOUTH.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Speaking of the manner in which the Plymouth Pilgrims were now dying, I am
+      reminded of my theory that the ordinary man's endurance of this
+      prison life did not average over three months. The Plymouth boys arrived
+      in May; the bulk of those who died passed away in July and August. The
+      great increase of prisoners from all sources was in May, June and July.
+      The greatest mortality among these was in August, September and October.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many came in who had been in good health during their service in the
+      field, but who seemed utterly overwhelmed by the appalling misery they saw
+      on every hand, and giving way to despondency, died in a few days or weeks.
+      I do not mean to include them in the above class, as their sickness was
+      more mental than physical. My idea is that, taking one hundred ordinarily
+      healthful young soldiers from a regiment in active service, and putting
+      them into Andersonville, by the end of the third month at least
+      thirty-three of those weakest and most vulnerable to disease would have
+      succumbed to the exposure, the pollution of ground and air, and the
+      insufficiency of the ration of coarse corn meal. After this the mortality
+      would be somewhat less, say at the end of six months fifty of them would
+      be dead. The remainder would hang on still more tenaciously, and at the
+      end of a year there would be fifteen or twenty still alive. There were
+      sixty-three of my company taken; thirteen lived through. I believe this
+      was about the usual proportion for those who were in as long as we. In all
+      there were forty-five thousand six hundred and thirteen prisoners brought
+      into Andersonville. Of these twelve thousand nine hundred and twelve died
+      there, to say nothing of thousands that died in other prisons in Georgia
+      and the Carolinas, immediately after their removal from Andersonville. One
+      of every three and a-half men upon whom the gates of the Stockade closed
+      never repassed them alive. Twenty-nine per cent. of the boys who so much
+      as set foot in Andersonville died there. Let it be kept in mind all the
+      time, that the average stay of a prisoner there was not four months. The
+      great majority came in after the 1st of May, and left before the middle of
+      September. May 1, 1864, there were ten thousand four hundred and
+      twenty-seven in the Stockade. August 8 there were thirty-three thousand
+      one hundred and fourteen; September 30 all these were dead or gone, except
+      eight thousand two hundred and eighteen, of whom four thousand five
+      hundred and ninety died inside of the next thirty days. The records of the
+      world can shove no parallel to this astounding mortality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since the above matter was first published in the BLADE, a friend has sent
+      me a transcript of the evidence at the Wirz trial, of Professor Joseph
+      Jones, a Surgeon of high rank in the Rebel Army, and who stood at the head
+      of the medical profession in Georgia. He visited Andersonville at the
+      instance of the Surgeon-General of the Confederate States' Army, to
+      make a study, for the benefit of science, of the phenomena of disease
+      occurring there. His capacity and opportunities for observation, and for
+      clearly estimating the value of the facts coming under his notice were, of
+      course, vastly superior to mine, and as he states the case stronger than I
+      dare to, for fear of being accused of exaggeration and downright untruth,
+      I reproduce the major part of his testimony&mdash;embodying also his
+      official report to medical headquarters at Richmond&mdash;that my readers
+      may know how the prison appeared to the eyes of one who, though a bitter
+      Rebel, was still a humane man and a conscientious observer, striving to
+      learn the truth: <br><br><br><br> <a name="p295" id="p295"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p295.jpg (126K)" src="images/p295.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      MEDICAL TESTIMONY.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      [Transcript from the printed testimony at the Wirz Trial, pages 618 to
+      639, inclusive.]
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          OCTOBER 7, 1885.
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Joseph Jones, for the prosecution:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the Judge Advocate:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Question. Where do you reside
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Answer. In Augusta, Georgia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. Are you a graduate of any medical college?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Of the University of Pennsylvania.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. How long have you been engaged in the practice of medicine?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Eight years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. Has your experience been as a practitioner, or rather as an
+      investigator of medicine as a science?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. What position do you hold now?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. That of Medical Chemist in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. How long have you held your position in that college?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Since 1858.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. How were you employed during the Rebellion?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. I served six months in the early part of it as a private in the ranks,
+      and the rest of the time in the medical department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. Under the direction of whom?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Under the direction of Dr. Moore, Surgeon General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. Did you, while acting under his direction, visit Andersonville,
+      professionally?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Yes, Sir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. For the purpose of making investigations there?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. For the purpose of prosecuting investigations ordered by the Surgeon
+      General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. You went there in obedience to a letter of instructions?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. In obedience to orders which I received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. Did you reduce the results of your investigations to the shape of a
+      report?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. I was engaged at that work when General Johnston surrendered his army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (A document being handed to witness.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. Have you examined this extract from your report and compared it with
+      the original?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Yes, Sir; I have.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Q. Is it accurate?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. So far as my examination extended, it is accurate.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The document just examined by witness was offered in evidence, and is as
+      follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Observations upon the diseases of the Federal prisoners, confined to Camp
+      Sumter, Andersonville, in Sumter County, Georgia, instituted with a view
+      to illustrate chiefly the origin and causes of hospital gangrene, the
+      relations of continued and malarial fevers, and the pathology of camp
+      diarrhea and dysentery, by Joseph Jones; Surgeon P. A. C. S., Professor of
+      Medical Chemistry in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta, Georgia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hearing of the unusual mortality among the Federal prisoners confined at
+      Andersonville; Georgia, in the month of August, 1864, during a visit to
+      Richmond, Va., I expressed to the Surgeon General, S. P. Moore,
+      Confederate States of America, a desire to visit Camp Sumter, with the
+      design of instituting a series of inquiries upon the nature and causes of
+      the prevailing diseases. Smallpox had appeared among the prisoners, and I
+      believed that this would prove an admirable field for the establishment of
+      its characteristic lesions. The condition of Peyer's glands in this
+      disease was considered as worthy of minute investigation. It was believed
+      that a large body of men from the Northern portion of the United States,
+      suddenly transported to a warm Southern climate, and confined upon a small
+      portion of land, would furnish an excellent field for the investigation of
+      the relations of typhus, typhoid, and malarial fevers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Surgeon General of the Confederate States of America furnished me with
+      the following letter of introduction to the Surgeon in charge of the
+      Confederate States Military Prison at Andersonville, Ga.: <br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE, RICHMOND, VA.,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        August 6, 1864.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      SIR:&mdash;The field of pathological investigations afforded by the large
+      collection of Federal prisoners in Georgia, is of great extant and
+      importance, and it is believed that results of value to the profession may
+      be obtained by careful investigation of the effects of disease upon the
+      large body of men subjected to a decided change of climate and those
+      circumstances peculiar to prison life. The Surgeon in charge of the
+      hospital for Federal prisoners, together with his assistants, will afford
+      every facility to Surgeon Joseph Jones, in the prosecution of the labors
+      ordered by the Surgeon General. Efficient assistance must be rendered
+      Surgeon Jones by the medical officers, not only in his examinations into
+      the causes and symptoms of the various diseases, but especially in the
+      arduous labors of post mortem examinations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The medical officers will assist in the performance of such post-mortems
+      as Surgeon Jones may indicate, in order that this great field for
+      pathological investigation may be explored for the benefit of the Medical
+      Department of the Confederate Army.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        S. P. MOORE, Surgeon General.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      Surgeon ISAIAH H. WHITE,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In charge of Hospital for Federal prisoners, Andersonville, Ga. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with this letter of the Surgeon General, Isaiah H. White,
+      Chief Surgeon of the post, and R. R. Stevenson, Surgeon in charge of the
+      Prison Hospital, afforded the necessary facilities for the prosecution of
+      my investigations among the sick outside of the Stockade. After the
+      completion of my labors in the military prison hospital, the following
+      communication was addressed to Brigadier General John H. Winder, in
+      consequence of the refusal on the part of the commandant of the interior
+      of the Confederate States Military Prison to admit me within the Stockade
+      upon the order of the Surgeon General: <br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        CAMP SUMTER, ANDERSONVILLE GA.,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        September 16, 1864.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      GENERAL:&mdash;I respectfully request the commandant of the post of
+      Andersonville to grant me permission and to furnish the necessary pass to
+      visit the sick and medical officers within the Stockade of the Confederate
+      States Prison. I desire to institute certain inquiries ordered by the
+      Surgeon General. Surgeon Isaiah H. White, Chief Surgeon of the post, and
+      Surgeon R. R. Stevenson, in charge of the Prison Hospital, have afforded
+      me every facility for the prosecution of my labors among the sick outside
+      of the Stockade.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        JOSEPH JONES, Surgeon P. A. C. S.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      Brigadier General JOHN H. WINDER,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Commandant, Post Andersonville. <br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the absence of General Winder from the post, Captain Winder furnished
+      the following order: <br>
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        CAMP SUMTER, ANDERSONVILLE;
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        September 17, 1864.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      CAPTAIN:&mdash;You will permit Surgeon Joseph Jones, who has orders from
+      the Surgeon General, to visit the sick within the Stockade that are under
+      medical treatment. Surgeon Jones is ordered to make certain investigations
+      which may prove useful to his profession. By direction of General Winder.
+      Very respectfully, W. S. WINDER, A. A. G.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain H. WIRZ, Commanding Prison. <br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <h3>
+        Description of the Confederate States Military Prison Hospital at
+        Andersonville. Number of prisoners, physical condition, food, clothing,
+        habits, moral condition, diseases.
+      </h3>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      The Confederate Military Prison at Andersonville, Ga., consists of a
+      strong Stockade, twenty feet in height, enclosing twenty-seven acres. The
+      Stockade is formed of strong pine logs, firmly planted in the ground. The
+      main Stockade is surrounded by two other similar rows of pine logs, the
+      middle Stockade being sixteen feet high, and the outer twelve feet. These
+      are intended for offense and defense. If the inner Stockade should at any
+      time be forced by the prisoners, the second forms another line of defense;
+      while in case of an attempt to deliver the prisoners by a force operating
+      upon the exterior, the outer line forms an admirable protection to the
+      Confederate troops, and a most formidable obstacle to cavalry or infantry.
+      The four angles of the outer line are strengthened by earthworks upon
+      commanding eminences, from which the cannon, in case of an outbreak among
+      the prisoners, may sweep the entire enclosure; and it was designed to
+      connect these works by a line of rifle pits, running zig-zag, around the
+      outer Stockade; those rifle pits have never been completed. The ground
+      enclosed by the innermost Stockade lies in the form of a parallelogram,
+      the larger diameter running almost due north and south. This space
+      includes the northern and southern opposing sides of two hills, between
+      which a stream of water runs from west to east. The surface soil of these
+      hills is composed chiefly of sand with varying admixtures of clay and
+      oxide of iron. The clay is sufficiently tenacious to give a considerable
+      degree of consistency to the soil. The internal structure of the hills, as
+      revealed by the deep wells, is similar to that already described. The
+      alternate layers of clay and sand, as well as the oxide of iron, which
+      forms in its various combinations a cement to the sand, allow of extensive
+      tunneling. The prisoners not only constructed numerous dirt huts with
+      balls of clay and sand, taken from the wells which they have excavated all
+      over those hills, but they have also, in some cases, tunneled extensively
+      from these wells. The lower portions of these hills, bordering on the
+      stream, are wet and boggy from the constant oozing of water. The Stockade
+      was built originally to accommodate only ten thousand prisoners, and
+      included at first seventeen acres. Near the close of the month of June the
+      area was enlarged by the addition of ten acres. The ground added was
+      situated on the northern slope of the largest hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The average number of square feet of ground to each prisoner in August
+      1864: 35.7
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within the circumscribed area of the Stockade the Federal prisoners were
+      compelled to perform all the offices of life&mdash;cooking, washing, the
+      calls of nature, exercise, and sleeping. During the month of March the
+      prison was less crowded than at any subsequent time, and then the average
+      space of ground to each prisoner was only 98.7 feet, or less than seven
+      square yards. The Federal prisoners were gathered from all parts of the
+      Confederate States east of the Mississippi, and crowded into the confined
+      space, until in the month of June the average number of square feet of
+      ground to each prisoner was only 33.2 or less than four square yards.
+      These figures represent the condition of the Stockade in a better light
+      even than it really was; for a considerable breadth of land along the
+      stream, flowing from west to east between the hills, was low and boggy,
+      and was covered with the excrement of the men, and thus rendered wholly
+      uninhabitable, and in fact useless for every purpose except that of
+      defecation. The pines and other small trees and shrubs, which originally
+      were scattered sparsely over these hills, were in a short time cut down
+      and consumed by the prisoners for firewood, and no shade tree was left in
+      the entire enclosure of the stockade. With their characteristic industry
+      and ingenuity, the Federals constructed for themselves small huts and
+      caves, and attempted to shield themselves from the rain and sun and night
+      damps and dew. But few tents were distributed to the prisoners, and those
+      were in most cases torn and rotten. In the location and arrangement of
+      these tents and huts no order appears to have been followed; in fact,
+      regular streets appear to be out of the question in so crowded an area;
+      especially too, as large bodies of prisoners were from time to time added
+      suddenly without any previous preparations. The irregular arrangement of
+      the huts and imperfect shelters was very unfavorable for the maintenance
+      of a proper system of police.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The police and internal economy of the prison was left almost entirely in
+      the hands of the prisoners themselves; the duties of the Confederate
+      soldiers acting as guards being limited to the occupation of the boxes or
+      lookouts ranged around the stockade at regular intervals, and to the
+      manning of the batteries at the angles of the prison. Even judicial
+      matters pertaining to themselves, as the detection and punishment of such
+      crimes as theft and murder appear to have been in a great measure
+      abandoned to the prisoners. A striking instance of this occurred in the
+      month of July, when the Federal prisoners within the Stockade tried,
+      condemned, and hanged six (6) of their own number, who had been convicted
+      of stealing and of robbing and murdering their fellow-prisoners. They were
+      all hung upon the same day, and thousands of the prisoners gathered around
+      to witness the execution. The Confederate authorities are said not to have
+      interfered with these proceedings. In this collection of men from all
+      parts of the world, every phase of human character was represented; the
+      stronger preyed upon the weaker, and even the sick who were unable to
+      defend themselves were robbed of their scanty supplies of food and
+      clothing. Dark stories were afloat, of men, both sick and well, who were
+      murdered at night, strangled to death by their comrades for scant supplies
+      of clothing or money. I heard a sick and wounded Federal prisoner accuse
+      his nurse, a fellow-prisoner of the United States Army, of having
+      stealthily, during his sleep inoculated his wounded arm with gangrene,
+      that he might destroy his life and fall heir to his clothing. <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ....................................
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The large number of men confined within the Stockade soon, under a
+      defective system of police, and with imperfect arrangements, covered the
+      surface of the low grounds with excrements. The sinks over the lower
+      portions of the stream were imperfect in their plan and structure, and the
+      excrements were in large measure deposited so near the borders of the
+      stream as not to be washed away, or else accumulated upon the low boggy
+      ground. The volume of water was not sufficient to wash away the feces, and
+      they accumulated in such quantities in the lower portion of the stream as
+      to form a mass of liquid excrement heavy rains caused the water of the
+      stream to rise, and as the arrangements for the passage of the increased
+      amounts of water out of the Stockade were insufficient, the liquid feces
+      overflowed the low grounds and covered them several inches, after the
+      subsidence of the waters. The action of the sun upon this putrefying mass
+      of excrements and fragments of bread and meat and bones excited most rapid
+      fermentation and developed a horrible stench. Improvements were projected
+      for the removal of the filth and for the prevention of its accumulation,
+      but they were only partially and imperfectly carried out. As the forces of
+      the prisoners were reduced by confinement, want of exercise, improper
+      diet, and by scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery, they were unable to evacuate
+      their bowels within the stream or along its banks, and the excrements were
+      deposited at the very doors of their tents. The vast majority appeared to
+      lose all repulsion to filth, and both sick and well disregarded all the
+      laws of hygiene and personal cleanliness. The accommodations for the sick
+      were imperfect and insufficient. From the organization of the prison,
+      February 24, 1864, to May 22, the sick were treated within the Stockade.
+      In the crowded condition of the Stockade, and with the tents and huts
+      clustered thickly around the hospital, it was impossible to secure proper
+      ventilation or to maintain the necessary police. The Federal prisoners
+      also made frequent forays upon the hospital stores and carried off the
+      food and clothing of the sick. The hospital was, on the 22d of May,
+      removed to its present site without the Stockade, and five acres of ground
+      covered with oaks and pines appropriated to the use of the sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The supply of medical officers has been insufficient from the foundation
+      of the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurses and attendants upon the sick have been most generally Federal
+      prisoners, who in too many cases appear to have been devoid of moral
+      principle, and who not only neglected their duties, but were also engaged
+      in extensive robbing of the sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the want of proper police and hygienic regulations alone it is not
+      wonderful that from February 24 to September 21, 1864, nine thousand four
+      hundred and seventy-nine deaths, nearly one-third the entire number of
+      prisoners, should have been recorded. I found the Stockade and hospital in
+      the following condition during my pathological investigations, instituted
+      in the month of September, 1864: <br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      STOCKADE, CONFEDERATE STATES MILITARY PRISON.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      At the time of my visit to Andersonville a large number of Federal
+      prisoners had been removed to Millen, Savannah; Charleston, and other
+      parts of, the Confederacy, in anticipation of an advance of General
+      Sherman's forces from Atlanta, with the design of liberating their
+      captive brethren; however, about fifteen thousand prisoners remained
+      confined within the limits of the Stockade and Confederate States Military
+      Prison Hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the Stockade, with the exception of the damp lowlands bordering the
+      small stream, the surface was covered with huts, and small ragged tents
+      and parts of blankets and fragments of oil-cloth, coats, and blankets
+      stretched upon stacks. The tents and huts were not arranged according to
+      any order, and there was in most parts of the enclosure scarcely room for
+      two men to walk abreast between the tents and huts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If one might judge from the large pieces of corn-bread scattered about in
+      every direction on the ground the prisoners were either very lavishly
+      supplied with this article of diet, or else this kind of food was not
+      relished by them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each day the dead from the Stockade were carried out by their
+      fellow-prisoners and deposited upon the ground under a bush arbor, just
+      outside of the Southwestern Gate. From thence they were carried in carts
+      to the burying ground, one-quarter of a mile northwest, of the Prison. The
+      dead were buried without coffins, side by side, in trenches four feet
+      deep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The low grounds bordering the stream were covered with human excrements
+      and filth of all kinds, which in many places appeared to be alive with
+      working maggots. An indescribable sickening stench arose from these
+      fermenting masses of human filth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were near five thousand seriously ill Federals in the Stockade and
+      Confederate States Military Prison Hospital, and the deaths exceeded one
+      hundred per day, and large numbers of the prisoners who were walking
+      about, and who had not been entered upon the sick reports, were suffering
+      from severe and incurable diarrhea, dysentery, and scurvy. The sick were
+      attended almost entirely by their fellow-prisoners, appointed as nurses,
+      and as they received but little attention, they were compelled to exert
+      themselves at all times to attend to the calls of nature, and hence they
+      retained the power of moving about to within a comparatively short period
+      of the close of life. Owing to the slow progress of the diseases most
+      prevalent, diarrhea, and chronic dysentery, the corpses were as a general
+      rule emaciated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I visited two thousand sick within the Stockade, lying under some long
+      sheds which had been built at the northern portion for themselves. At this
+      time only one medical officer was in attendance, whereas at least twenty
+      medical officers should have been employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Died in the Stockade from its organization, February 24, 186l to
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      September 2l ....................................................3,254
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Died in Hospital during same time ...............................6,225
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Total deaths in Hospital and Stockade ...........................9,479
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p307" id="p307"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p307.jpg (40K)" src="images/p307.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scurvy, diarrhea, dysentery, and hospital gangrene were the prevailing
+      diseases. I was surprised to find but few cases of malarial fever, and no
+      well-marked cases either of typhus or typhoid fever. The absence of the
+      different forms of malarial fever may be accounted for in the supposition
+      that the artificial atmosphere of the Stockade, crowded densely with human
+      beings and loaded with animal exhalations, was unfavorable to the
+      existence and action of the malarial poison. The absence of typhoid and
+      typhus fevers amongst all the causes which are supposed to generate these
+      diseases, appeared to be due to the fact that the great majority of these
+      prisoners had been in captivity in Virginia, at Belle Island, and in other
+      parts of the Confederacy for months, and even as long as two years, and
+      during this time they had been subjected to the same bad influences, and
+      those who had not had these fevers before either had them during their
+      confinement in Confederate prisons or else their systems, from long
+      exposure, were proof against their action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effects of scurvy were manifested on every hand, and in all its
+      various stages, from the muddy, pale complexion, pale gums, feeble,
+      languid muscular motions, lowness of spirits, and fetid breath, to the
+      dusky, dirty, leaden complexion, swollen features, spongy, purple, livid,
+      fungoid, bleeding gums, loose teeth, oedematous limbs, covered with livid
+      vibices, and petechiae spasmodically flexed, painful and hardened
+      extremities, spontaneous hemorrhages from mucous canals, and large,
+      ill-conditioned, spreading ulcers covered with a dark purplish fungus
+      growth. I observed that in some of the cases of scurvy the parotid glands
+      were greatly swollen, and in some instances to such an extent as to
+      preclude entirely the power to articulate. In several cases of dropsy of
+      the abdomen and lower extremities supervening upon scurvy, the patients
+      affirmed that previously to the appearance of the dropsy they had suffered
+      with profuse and obstinate diarrhea, and that when this was checked by a
+      change of diet, from Indian corn-bread baked with the husk, to boiled
+      rice, the dropsy appeared. The severe pains and livid patches were
+      frequently associated with swellings in various parts, and especially in
+      the lower extremities, accompanied with stiffness and contractions of the
+      knee joints and ankles, and often with a brawny feel of the parts, as if
+      lymph had been effused between the integuments and apeneuroses, preventing
+      the motion of the skin over the swollen parts. Many of the prisoners
+      believed that the scurvy was contagious, and I saw men guarding their
+      wells and springs, fearing lest some man suffering with the scurvy might
+      use the water and thus poison them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I observed also numerous cases of hospital gangrene, and of spreading
+      scorbutic ulcers, which had supervened upon slight injuries. The scorbutic
+      ulcers presented a dark, purple fungoid, elevated surface, with livid
+      swollen edges, and exuded a thin; fetid, sanious fluid, instead of pus.
+      Many ulcers which originated from the scorbutic condition of the system
+      appeared to become truly gangrenous, assuming all the characteristics of
+      hospital gangrene. From the crowded condition, filthy habits, bad diet,
+      and dejected, depressed condition of the prisoners, their systems had
+      become so disordered that the smallest abrasion of the skin, from the
+      rubbing of a shoe, or from the effects of the sun, or from the prick of a
+      splinter, or from scratching, or a musketo bite, in some cases, took on
+      rapid and frightful ulceration and gangrene. The long use of salt meat,
+      ofttimes imperfectly cured, as well as the most total deprivation of
+      vegetables and fruit, appeared to be the chief causes of the scurvy. I
+      carefully examined the bakery and the bread furnished the prisoners, and
+      found that they were supplied almost entirely with corn-bread from which
+      the husk had not been separated. This husk acted as an irritant to the
+      alimentary canal, without adding any nutriment to the bread. As far as my
+      examination extended no fault could be found with the mode in which the
+      bread was baked; the difficulty lay in the failure to separate the husk
+      from the corn-meal. I strongly urged the preparation of large quantities
+      of soup made from the cow and calves' heads with the brains and
+      tongues, to which a liberal supply of sweet potatos and vegetables might
+      have been advantageously added. The material existed in abundance for the
+      preparation of such soup in large quantities with but little additional
+      expense. Such aliment would have been not only highly nutritious, but it
+      would also have acted as an efficient remedial agent for the removal of
+      the scorbutic condition. The sick within the Stockade lay under several
+      long sheds which were originally built for barracks. These sheds covered
+      two floors which were open on all sides. The sick lay upon the bare
+      boards, or upon such ragged blankets as they possessed, without, as far as
+      I observed, any bedding or even straw. <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ............................
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The haggard, distressed countenances of these miserable, complaining,
+      dejected, living skeletons, crying for medical aid and food, and cursing
+      their Government for its refusal to exchange prisoners, and the ghastly
+      corpses, with their glazed eye balls staring up into vacant space, with
+      the flies swarming down their open and grinning mouths, and over their
+      ragged clothes, infested with numerous lice, as they lay amongst the sick
+      and dying, formed a picture of helpless, hopeless misery which it would be
+      impossible to portray bywords or by the brush. A feeling of disappointment
+      and even resentment on account of the United States Government upon the
+      subject of the exchange of prisoners, appeared to be widespread, and the
+      apparent hopeless nature of the negotiations for some general exchange of
+      prisoners appeared to be a cause of universal regret and deep and
+      injurious despondency. I heard some of the prisoners go so far as to
+      exonerate the Confederate Government from any charge of intentionally
+      subjecting them to a protracted confinement, with its necessary and
+      unavoidable sufferings, in a country cut off from all intercourse with
+      foreign nations, and sorely pressed on all sides, whilst on the other hand
+      they charged their prolonged captivity upon their own Government, which
+      was attempting to make the negro equal to the white man. Some hundred or
+      more of the prisoners had been released from confinement in the Stockade
+      on parole, and filled various offices as clerks, druggists, and
+      carpenters, etc., in the various departments. These men were well clothed,
+      and presented a stout and healthy appearance, and as a general rule they
+      presented a much more robust and healthy appearance than the Confederate
+      troops guarding the prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entire grounds are surrounded by a frail board fence, and are strictly
+      guarded by Confederate soldiers, and no prisoner except the paroled
+      attendants is allowed to leave the grounds except by a special permit from
+      the Commandant of the Interior of the Prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The patients and attendants, near two thousand in number, are crowded into
+      this confined space and are but poorly supplied with old and ragged tents.
+      Large numbers of them were without any bunks in the tents, and lay upon
+      the ground, oft-times without even a blanket. No beds or straw appeared to
+      have been furnished. The tents extend to within a few yards of the small
+      stream, the eastern portion of which, as we have before said, is used as a
+      privy and is loaded with excrements; and I observed a large pile of
+      corn-bread, bones, and filth of all kinds, thirty feet in diameter and
+      several feet in hight, swarming with myriads of flies, in a vacant space
+      near the pots used for cooking. Millions of flies swarmed over everything,
+      and covered the faces of the sleeping patients, and crawled down their
+      open mouths, and deposited their maggots in the gangrenous wounds of the
+      living, and in the mouths of the dead. Musketos in great numbers also
+      infested the tents, and many of the patients were so stung by these
+      pestiferous insects, that they resembled those suffering from a slight
+      attack of the measles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The police and hygiene of the hospital were defective in the extreme; the
+      attendants, who appeared in almost every instance to have been selected
+      from the prisoners, seemed to have in many cases but little interest in
+      the welfare of their fellow-captives. The accusation was made that the
+      nurses in many cases robbed the sick of their clothing, money, and
+      rations, and carried on a clandestine trade with the paroled prisoners and
+      Confederate guards without the hospital enclosure, in the clothing,
+      effects of the sick, dying, and dead Federals. They certainly appeared to
+      neglect the comfort and cleanliness of the sick intrusted to their care in
+      a most shameful manner, even after making due allowances for the
+      difficulties of the situation. Many of the sick were literally encrusted
+      with dirt and filth and covered with vermin. When a gangrenous wound
+      needed washing, the limb was thrust out a little from the blanket, or
+      board, or rags upon which the patient was lying, and water poured over it,
+      and all the putrescent matter allowed to soak into the ground floor of the
+      tent. The supply of rags for dressing wounds was said to be very scant,
+      and I saw the most filthy rags which had been applied several times, and
+      imperfectly washed, used in dressing wounds. Where hospital gangrene was
+      prevailing, it was impossible for any wound to escape contagion under
+      these circumstances. The results of the treatment of wounds in the
+      hospital were of the most unsatisfactory character, from this neglect of
+      cleanliness, in the dressings and wounds themselves, as well as from
+      various other causes which will be more fully considered. I saw several
+      gangrenous wounds filled with maggots. I have frequently seen neglected
+      wounds amongst the Confederate soldiers similarly affected; and as far as
+      my experience extends, these worms destroy only the dead tissues and do
+      not injure specially the well parts. I have even heard surgeons affirm
+      that a gangrenous wound which had been thoroughly cleansed by maggots,
+      healed more rapidly than if it had been left to itself. This want of
+      cleanliness on the part of the nurses appeared to be the result of
+      carelessness and inattention, rather than of malignant design, and the
+      whole trouble can be traced to the want of the proper police and sanitary
+      regulations, and to the absence of intelligent organization and division
+      of labor. The abuses were in a large measure due to the almost total
+      absence of system, government, and rigid, but wholesome sanitary
+      regulations. In extenuation of these abuses it was alleged by the medical
+      officers that the Confederate troops were barely sufficient to guard the
+      prisoners, and that it was impossible to obtain any number of experienced
+      nurses from the Confederate forces. In fact the guard appeared to be too
+      small, even for the regulation of the internal hygiene and police of the
+      hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The manner of disposing of the dead was also calculated to depress the
+      already desponding spirits of these men, many of whom have been confined
+      for months, and even for nearly two years in Richmond and other places,
+      and whose strength had been wasted by bad air, bad food, and neglect of
+      personal cleanliness. The dead-house is merely a frame covered with old
+      tent cloth and a few bushes, situated in the southwestern corner of the
+      hospital grounds. When a patient dies, he is simply laid in the narrow
+      street in front of his tent, until he is removed by Federal negros
+      detailed to carry off the dead; if a patient dies during the night, he
+      lies there until the morning, and during the day even the dead were
+      frequently allowed to remain for hours in these walks. In the dead-house
+      the corpses lie upon the bare ground, and were in most cases covered with
+      filth and vermin. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p312" id="p312"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p312.jpg (58K)" src="images/p312.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ............................
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooking arrangements are of the most defective character. Five large
+      iron pots similar to those used for boiling sugar cane, appeared to be the
+      only cooking utensils furnished by the hospital for the cooking of nearly
+      two thousand men; and the patients were dependent in great measure upon
+      their own miserable utensils. They were allowed to cook in the tent doors
+      and in the lanes, and this was another source of filth, and another
+      favorable condition for the generation and multiplication of flies and
+      other vermin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air of the tents was foul and disagreeable in the extreme, and in fact
+      the entire grounds emitted a most nauseous and disgusting smell. I entered
+      nearly all the tents and carefully examined the cases of interest, and
+      especially the cases of gangrene, upon numerous occasions, during the
+      prosecution of my pathological inquiries at Andersonville, and therefore
+      enjoyed every opportunity to judge correctly of the hygiene and police of
+      the hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There appeared to be almost absolute indifference and neglect on the part
+      of the patients of personal cleanliness; their persons and clothing inmost
+      instances, and especially of those suffering with gangrene and scorbutic
+      ulcers, were filthy in the extreme and covered with vermin. It was too
+      often the case that patients were received from the Stockade in a most
+      deplorable condition. I have seen men brought in from the Stockade in a
+      dying condition, begrimed from head to foot with their own excrements, and
+      so black from smoke and filth that they, resembled negros rather than
+      white men. That this description of the Stockade and hospital has not been
+      overdrawn, will appear from the reports of the surgeons in charge,
+      appended to this report.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .........................
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We will examine first the consolidated report of the sick and wounded
+      Federal prisoners. During six months, from the 1st of March to the 31st of
+      August, forty-two thousand six hundred and eighty-six cases of diseases
+      and wounds were reported. No classified record of the sick in the Stockade
+      was kept after the establishment of the hospital without the Prison. This
+      fact, in conjunction with those already presented relating to the
+      insufficiency of medical officers and the extreme illness and even death
+      of many prisoners in the tents in the Stockade, without any medical
+      attention or record beyond the bare number of the dead, demonstrate that
+      these figures, large as they, appear to be, are far below the truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the number of prisoners varied greatly at different periods, the
+      relations between those reported sick and well, as far as those statistics
+      extend, can best be determined by a comparison of the statistics of each
+      month.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this period of six months no less than five hundred and sixty-five
+      deaths are recorded under the head of 'morbi vanie.' In other
+      words, those men died without having received sufficient medical attention
+      for the determination of even the name of the disease causing death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the month of August fifty-three cases and fifty-three deaths are
+      recorded as due to marasmus. Surely this large number of deaths must have
+      been due to some other morbid state than slow wasting. If they were due to
+      improper and insufficient food, they should have been classed accordingly,
+      and if to diarrhea or dysentery or scurvy, the classification should in
+      like manner have been explicit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We observe a progressive increase of the rate of mortality, from 3.11 per
+      cent. in March to 9.09 per cent. of mean strength, sick and well, in
+      August. The ratio of mortality continued to increase during September, for
+      notwithstanding the removal of one-half of the entire number of prisoners
+      during the early portion of the month, one thousand seven hundred and
+      sixty-seven (1,767) deaths are registered from September 1 to 21, and the
+      largest number of deaths upon any one day occurred during this month, on
+      the 16th, viz. one hundred and nineteen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entire number of Federal prisoners confined at Andersonville was about
+      forty thousand six hundred and eleven; and during the period of near seven
+      months, from February 24 to September 21, nine thousand four hundred and
+      seventy-nine (9,479) deaths were recorded; that is, during this period
+      near one-fourth, or more, exactly one in 4.2, or 13.3 per cent.,
+      terminated fatally. This increase of mortality was due in great measure to
+      the accumulation of the sources of disease, as the increase of excrements
+      and filth of all kinds, and the concentration of noxious effluvia, and
+      also to the progressive effects of salt diet, crowding, and the hot
+      climate. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CONCLUSIONS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      1st. The great mortality among the Federal prisoners confined in the
+      military prison at Andersonville was not referable to climatic causes, or
+      to the nature of the soil and waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2d. The chief causes of death were scurvy and its results and bowel
+      affections-chronic and acute diarrhea and dysentery. The bowel affections
+      appear to have been due to the diet, the habits of the patients, the
+      depressed, dejected state of the nervous system and moral and intellectual
+      powers, and to the effluvia arising from the decomposing animal and
+      vegetable filth. The effects of salt meat, and an unvarying diet of
+      cornmeal, with but few vegetables, and imperfect supplies of vinegar and
+      syrup, were manifested in the great prevalence of scurvy. This disease,
+      without doubt, was also influenced to an important extent in its origin
+      and course by the foul animal emanations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3d. From the sameness of the food and form, the action of the poisonous
+      gases in the densely crowded and filthy Stockade and hospital, the blood
+      was altered in its constitution, even before the manifestation of actual
+      disease. In both the well and the sick the red corpuscles were diminished;
+      and in all diseases uncomplicated with inflammation, the fibrous element
+      was deficient. In cases of ulceration of the mucous membrane of the
+      intestinal canal, the fibrous element of the blood was increased; while in
+      simple diarrhea, uncomplicated with ulceration, it was either diminished
+      or else remained stationary. Heart clots were very common, if not
+      universally present, in cases of ulceration of the intestinal mucous
+      membrane, while in the uncomplicated cases of diarrhea and scurvy, the
+      blood was fluid and did not coagulate readily, and the heart clots and
+      fibrous concretions were almost universally absent. From the watery
+      condition of the blood, there resulted various serous effusions into the
+      pericardium, ventricles of the brain, and into the abdomen. In almost all
+      the cases which I examined after death, even the most emaciated, there was
+      more or less serous effusion into the abdominal cavity. In cases of
+      hospital gangrene of the extremities, and in cases of gangrene of the
+      intestines, heart clots and fibrous coagula were universally present. The
+      presence of those clots in the cases of hospital gangrene, while they were
+      absent in the cases in which there was no inflammatory symptoms, sustains
+      the conclusion that hospital gangrene is a species of inflammation,
+      imperfect and irregular though it may be in its progress, in which the
+      fibrous element and coagulation of the blood are increased, even in those
+      who are suffering from such a condition of the blood, and from such
+      diseases as are naturally accompanied with a decrease in the fibrous
+      constituent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4th. The fact that hospital Gangrene appeared in the Stockade first, and
+      originated spontaneously without any previous contagion, and occurred
+      sporadically all over the Stockade and prison hospital, was proof positive
+      that this disease will arise whenever the conditions of crowding, filth,
+      foul air, and bad diet are present. The exhalations from the hospital and
+      Stockade appeared to exert their effects to a considerable distance
+      outside of these localities. The origin of hospital gangrene among these
+      prisoners appeared clearly to depend in great measure upon the state of
+      the general system induced by diet, and various external noxious
+      influences. The rapidity of the appearance and action of the gangrene
+      depended upon the powers and state of the constitution, as well as upon
+      the intensity of the poison in the atmosphere, or upon the direct
+      application of poisonous matter to the wounded surface. This was further
+      illustrated by the important fact that hospital gangrene, or a disease
+      resembling it in all essential respects, attacked the intestinal canal of
+      patients laboring under ulceration of the bowels, although there were no
+      local manifestations of gangrene upon the surface of the body. This mode
+      of termination in cases of dysentery was quite common in the foul
+      atmosphere of the Confederate States Military Hospital, in the depressed,
+      depraved condition of the system of these Federal prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5th. A scorbutic condition of the system appeared to favor the origin of
+      foul ulcers, which frequently took on true hospital gangrene. Scurvy and
+      hospital gangrene frequently existed in the same individual. In such
+      cases, vegetable diet, with vegetable acids, would remove the scorbutic
+      condition without curing the hospital gangrene. From the results of the
+      existing war for the establishment of the independence of the Confederate
+      States, as well as from the published observations of Dr. Trotter, Sir
+      Gilbert Blane, and others of the English navy and army, it is evident that
+      the scorbutic condition of the system, especially in crowded ships and
+      camps, is most favorable to the origin and spread of foul ulcers and
+      hospital gangrene. As in the present case of Andersonville, so also in
+      past times when medical hygiene was almost entirely neglected, those two
+      diseases were almost universally associated in crowded ships. In many
+      cases it was very difficult to decide at first whether the ulcer was a
+      simple result of scurvy or of the action of the prison or hospital
+      gangrene, for there was great similarity in the appearance of the ulcers
+      in the two diseases. So commonly have those two diseases been combined in
+      their origin and action, that the description of scorbutic ulcers, by many
+      authors, evidently includes also many of the prominent characteristics of
+      hospital gangrene. This will be rendered evident by an examination of the
+      observations of Dr. Lind and Sir Gilbert Blane upon scorbutic ulcers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6th. Gangrenous spots followed by rapid destruction of tissue appeared in
+      some cases where there had been no known wound. Without such
+      well-established facts, it might be assumed that the disease was
+      propagated from one patient to another. In such a filthy and crowded
+      hospital as that of the Confederate States Military Prison at
+      Andersonville, it was impossible to isolate the wounded from the sources
+      of actual contact of the gangrenous matter. The flies swarming over the
+      wounds and over filth of every kind, the filthy, imperfectly washed and
+      scanty supplies of rags, and the limited supply of washing utensils, the
+      same wash-bowl serving for scores of patients, were sources of such
+      constant circulation of the gangrenous matter that the disease might
+      rapidly spread from a single gangrenous wound. The fact already stated,
+      that a form of moist gangrene, resembling hospital gangrene, was quite
+      common in this foul atmosphere, in cases of dysentery, both with and
+      without the existence of the disease upon the entire surface, not only
+      demonstrates the dependence of the disease upon the state of the
+      constitution, but proves in the clearest manner that neither the contact
+      of the poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the direct action of the
+      poisonous atmosphere upon the ulcerated surfaces is necessary to the
+      development of the disease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7th. In this foul atmosphere amputation did not arrest hospital gangrene;
+      the disease almost invariably returned. Almost every amputation was
+      followed finally by death, either from the effects of gangrene or from the
+      prevailing diarrhea and dysentery. Nitric acid and escharotics generally
+      in this crowded atmosphere, loaded with noxious effluvia, exerted only
+      temporary effects; after their application to the diseased surfaces, the
+      gangrene would frequently return with redoubled energy; and even after the
+      gangrene had been completely removed by local and constitutional
+      treatment, it would frequently return and destroy the patient. As far as
+      my observation extended, very few of the cases of amputation for gangrene
+      recovered. The progress of these cases was frequently very deceptive. I
+      have observed after death the most extensive disorganization of the
+      structures of the stump, when during life there was but little swelling of
+      the part, and the patient was apparently doing well. I endeavored to
+      impress upon the medical officers the view that in this disease treatment
+      was almost useless, without an abundant supply of pure, fresh air,
+      nutritious food, and tonics and stimulants. Such changes, however, as
+      would allow of the isolation of the cases of hospital gangrene appeared to
+      be out of the power of the medical officers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8th. The gangrenous mass was without true pus, and consisted chiefly of
+      broken-down, disorganized structures. The reaction of the gangrenous
+      matter in certain stages was alkaline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9th. The best, and in truth the only means of protecting large armies and
+      navies, as well as prisoners, from the ravages of hospital gangrene, is to
+      furnish liberal supplies of well-cured meat, together with fresh beef and
+      vegetables, and to enforce a rigid system of hygiene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      10th. Finally, this gigantic mass of human misery calls loudly for relief,
+      not only for the sake of suffering humanity, but also on account of our
+      own brave soldiers now captives in the hands of the Federal Government.
+      Strict justice to the gallant men of the Confederate Armies, who have been
+      or who may be, so unfortunate as to be compelled to surrender in battle,
+      demands that the Confederate Government should adopt that course which
+      will best secure their health and comfort in captivity; or at least leave
+      their enemies without a shadow of an excuse for any violation of the rules
+      of civilized warfare in the treatment of prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [End of the Witness's Testimony.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The variation&mdash;from month to month&mdash;of the proportion of deaths
+      to the whole number living is singular and interesting. It supports the
+      theory I have advanced above, as the following facts, taken from the
+      official report, will show:
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          In April one in every sixteen died.<br> In May one in every
+          twenty-six died.<br> In June one in every twenty-two died.<br> In
+          July one in every eighteen died.<br> In August one in every eleven
+          died.<br> In September one in every three died.<br> In October one
+          in every two died.<br> In November one in every three died.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      Does the reader fully understand that in September one-third of those in
+      the pen died, that in October one-half of the remainder perished, and in
+      November one-third of those who still survived, died? Let him pause for a
+      moment and read this over carefully again; because its startling magnitude
+      will hardly dawn upon him at first reading. It is true that the fearfully
+      disproportionate mortality of those months was largely due to the fact
+      that it was mostly the sick that remained behind, but even this diminishes
+      but little the frightfulness of the showing. Did any one ever hear of an
+      epidemic so fatal that one-third of those attacked by it in one month
+      died; one-half of the remnant the next month, and one-third of the feeble
+      remainder the next month? If he did, his reading has been much more
+      extensive than mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest number of deaths in one day is reported to have occurred on
+      the 23d of August, when one hundred and twenty-seven died, or one man
+      every eleven minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest number of prisoners in the Stockade is stated to have been
+      August 8, when there were thirty-three thousand one hundred and fourteen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have always imagined both these statements to be short of the truth,
+      because my remembrance is that one day in August I counted over two
+      hundred dead lying in a row. As for the greatest number of prisoners, I
+      remember quite distinctly standing by the ration wagon during the whole
+      time of the delivery of rations, to see how many prisoners there really
+      were inside. That day the One Hundred and Thirty-Third Detachment was
+      called, and its Sergeant came up and drew rations for a full detachment.
+      All the other detachments were habitually kept full by replacing those who
+      died with new comers. As each detachment consisted of two hundred and
+      seventy men, one hundred and thirty-three detachments would make
+      thirty-five thousand nine hundred and ten, exclusive of those in the
+      hospital, and those detailed outside as cooks, clerks, hospital attendants
+      and various other employments&mdash;say from one to two thousand more.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch43" id="ch43"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DIFFICULTY OF EXERCISING&mdash;EMBARRASSMENTS OF A MORNING WALK&mdash;THE
+      RIALTO OF THE PRISON&mdash;CURSING THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY&mdash;THE
+      STORY OF THE BATTLE OF SPOTTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly, in no other great community, that ever existed upon the face of
+      the globe was there so little daily ebb and flow as in this. Dull as an
+      ordinary Town or City may be; however monotonous, eventless, even stupid
+      the lives of its citizens, there is yet, nevertheless, a flow every day of
+      its life-blood&mdash;its population towards its heart, and an ebb of the
+      same, every evening towards its extremities. These recurring tides mingle
+      all classes together and promote the general healthfulness, as the
+      constant motion hither and yon of the ocean's waters purify and
+      sweeten them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lack of these helped vastly to make the living mass inside the
+      Stockade a human Dead Sea&mdash;or rather a Dying Sea&mdash;a putrefying,
+      stinking lake, resolving itself into phosphorescent corruption, like those
+      rotting southern seas, whose seething filth burns in hideous reds, and
+      ghastly greens and yellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Being little call for motion of any kind, and no room to exercise whatever
+      wish there might be in that direction, very many succumbed unresistingly
+      to the apathy which was so strongly favored by despondency and the
+      weakness induced by continual hunger, and lying supinely on the hot sand,
+      day in and day out, speedily brought themselves into such a condition as
+      invited the attacks of disease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It required both determination and effort to take a little walking
+      exercise. The ground was so densely crowded with holes and other devices
+      for shelter that it took one at least ten minutes to pick his way through
+      the narrow and tortuous labyrinth which served as paths for communication
+      between different parts of the Camp. Still further, there was nothing to
+      see anywhere or to form sufficient inducement for any one to make so
+      laborious a journey. One simply encountered at every new step the same
+      unwelcome sights that he had just left; there was a monotony in the misery
+      as in everything else, and consequently the temptation to sit or lie still
+      in one's own quarters became very great.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I used to make it a point to go to some of the remoter parts of the
+      Stockade once every day, simply for exercise. One can gain some idea of
+      the crowd, and the difficulty of making one's way through it, when I
+      say that no point in the prison could be more than fifteen hundred feet
+      from where I staid, and, had the way been clear, I could have walked
+      thither and back in at most a half an hour, yet it usually took me from
+      two to three hours to make one of these journeys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This daily trip, a few visits to the Creek to wash all over, a few games
+      of chess, attendance upon roll call, drawing rations, cooking and eating
+      the same, &ldquo;lousing&rdquo; my fragments of clothes, and doing some
+      little duties for my sick and helpless comrades, constituted the daily
+      routine for myself, as for most of the active youths in the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Creek was the great meeting point for all inside the Stockade. All
+      able to walk were certain to be there at least once during the day, and we
+      made it a rendezvous, a place to exchange gossip, discuss the latest news,
+      canvass the prospects of exchange, and, most of all, to curse the Rebels.
+      Indeed no conversation ever progressed very far without both speaker and
+      listener taking frequent rests to say bitter things as to the Rebels
+      generally, and Wirz, Winder and Davis in particular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A conversation between two boys&mdash;strangers to each other who came to
+      the Creek to wash themselves or their clothes, or for some other purpose,
+      would progress thus: <br><br><br><br> <a name="p325" id="p325"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p325.jpg (29K)" src="images/p325.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First Boy&mdash;&ldquo;I belong to the Second Corps,&mdash;Hancock's,
+      [the Army of the Potomac boys always mentioned what Corps they belonged
+      to, where the Western boys stated their Regiment.] They got me at
+      Spottsylvania, when they were butting their heads against our
+      breast-works, trying to get even with us for gobbling up Johnson in the
+      morning,&rdquo;&mdash;He stops suddenly and changes tone to say: &ldquo;I
+      hope to God, that when our folks get Richmond, they will put old Ben
+      Butler in command of it, with orders to limb, skin and jayhawk it worse
+      than he did New Orleans.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second Boy, (fervently :) &ldquo;I wish to God he would, and that he'd
+      catch old Jeff., and that grayheaded devil, Winder, and the old Dutch
+      Captain, strip 'em just as we were, put 'em in this pen, with
+      just the rations they are givin' us, and set a guard of plantation
+      niggers over 'em, with orders to blow their whole infernal heads
+      off, if they dared so much as to look at the dead line.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First Boy&mdash;(returning to the story of his capture.) &ldquo;Old
+      Hancock caught the Johnnies that morning the neatest you ever saw anything
+      in your life. After the two armies had murdered each other for four or
+      five days in the Wilderness, by fighting so close together that much of
+      the time you could almost shake hands with the Graybacks, both hauled off
+      a little, and lay and glowered at each other. Each side had lost about
+      twenty thousand men in learning that if it attacked the other it would get
+      mashed fine. So each built a line of works and lay behind them, and tried
+      to nag the other into coming out and attacking. At Spottsylvania our lines
+      and those of the Johnnies weren't twelve hundred yards apart. The
+      ground was clear and clean between them, and any force that attempted to
+      cross it to attack would be cut to pieces, as sure as anything. We laid
+      there three or four days watching each other&mdash;just like boys at
+      school, who shake fists and dare each other. At one place the Rebel line
+      ran out towards us like the top of a great letter 'A.' The
+      night of the 11th of May it rained very hard, and then came a fog so thick
+      that you couldn't see the length of a company. Hancock thought he'd
+      take advantage of this. We were all turned out very quietly about four o'clock
+      in the morning. Not a bit of noise was allowed. We even had to take off
+      our canteens and tin cups, that they might not rattle against our
+      bayonets. The ground was so wet that our footsteps couldn't be
+      heard. It was one of those deathly, still movements, when you think your
+      heart is making as much noise as a bass drum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Johnnies didn't seem to have the faintest suspicion of
+      what was coming, though they ought, because we would have expected such an
+      attack from them if we hadn't made it ourselves. Their pickets were
+      out just a little ways from their works, and we were almost on to them
+      before they discovered us. They fired and ran back. At this we raised a
+      yell and dashed forward at a charge. As we poured over the works, the
+      Rebels came double-quicking up to defend them. We flanked Johnson's
+      Division quicker'n you could say 'Jack Robinson,' and
+      had four thousand of 'em in our grip just as nice as you please. We
+      sent them to the rear under guard, and started for the next line of Rebel
+      works about a half a mile away. But we had now waked up the whole of Lee's
+      army, and they all came straight for us, like packs of mad wolves. Ewell
+      struck us in the center; Longstreet let drive at our left flank, and Hill
+      tackled our right. We fell back to the works we had taken, Warren and
+      Wright came up to help us, and we had it hot and heavy for the rest of the
+      day and part of the night. The Johnnies seemed so mad over what we'd
+      done that they were half crazy. They charged us five times, coming up
+      every time just as if they were going to lift us right out of the works
+      with the bayonet. About midnight, after they'd lost over ten
+      thousand men, they seemed to understand that we had pre-empted that piece
+      of real estate, and didn't propose to allow anybody to jump our
+      claim, so they fell back sullen like to their main works. When they came
+      on the last charge, our Brigadier walked behind each of our regiments and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boys, we'll send 'em back this time for keeps. Give it
+      to 'em by the acre, and when they begin to waver, we'll all
+      jump over the works and go for them with the bayonet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We did it just that way. We poured such a fire on them that the
+      bullets knocked up the ground in front just like you have seen the deep
+      dust in a road in the middle of Summer fly up when the first great big
+      drops of a rain storm strike it. But they came on, yelling and swearing,
+      officers in front waving swords, and shouting&mdash;all that business, you
+      know. When they got to about one hundred yards from us, they did not seem
+      to be coming so fast, and there was a good deal of confusion among them.
+      The brigade bugle sounded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop firing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We all ceased instantly. The rebels looked up in astonishment. Our
+      General sang out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fix bayonets!' but we knew what was coming, and were already
+      executing the order. You can imagine the crash that ran down the line, as
+      every fellow snatched his bayonet out and slapped it on the muzzle of his
+      gun. Then the General's voice rang out like a bugle:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ready!&mdash;FORWARD! CHARGE!' <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p328" id="p328"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p328.jpg (48K)" src="images/p328.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We cheered till everything seemed to split, and jumped over the
+      works, almost every man at the same minute. The Johnnies seemed to have
+      been puzzled at the stoppage of our fire. When we all came sailing over
+      the works, with guns brought right, down where they meant business, they
+      were so astonished for a minute that they stood stock still, not knowing
+      whether to come for us, or run. We did not allow them long to debate, but
+      went right towards them on the double quick, with the bayonets looking
+      awful savage and hungry. It was too much for Mr. Johnny Reb's
+      nerves. They all seemed to about face' at once, and they lit out of
+      there as if they had been sent for in a hurry. We chased after 'em
+      as fast as we could, and picked up just lots of 'em. Finally it
+      began to be real funny. A Johnny's wind would begin to give out he'd
+      fall behind his comrades; he'd hear us yell and think that we were
+      right behind him, ready to sink a bayonet through him'; he'd
+      turn around, throw up his hands, and sing out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I surrender, mister! I surrender!' and find that we were a
+      hundred feet off, and would have to have a bayonet as long as one of
+      McClellan's general orders to touch him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my company was the left of our regiment, and our regiment was
+      the left of the brigade, and we swung out ahead of all the rest of the
+      boys. In our excitement of chasing the Johnnies, we didn't see that
+      we had passed an angle of their works. About thirty of us had become
+      separated from the company and were chasing a squad of about seventy-five
+      or one hundred. We had got up so close to them that we hollered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Halt there, now, or we'll blow your heads off.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They turned round with, 'halt yourselves; you &mdash;&mdash;
+      Yankee &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We looked around at this, and saw that we were not one hundred feet
+      away from the angle of the works, which were filled with Rebels waiting
+      for our fellows to get to where they could have a good flank fire upon
+      them. There was nothing to do but to throw down our guns and surrender,
+      and we had hardly gone inside of the works, until the Johnnies opened on
+      our brigade and drove it back. This ended the battle at Spottsylvania
+      Court House.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second Boy (irrelevantly.) &ldquo;Some day the underpinning will fly out
+      from under the South, and let it sink right into the middle kittle o'
+      hell.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First Boy (savagely.) &ldquo;I only wish the whole Southern Confederacy
+      was hanging over hell by a single string, and I had a knife.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch44" id="ch44"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      REBEL MUSIC&mdash;SINGULAR LACK OF THE CREATIVE POWER AMONG THE
+      SOUTHERNERS &mdash;CONTRAST WITH SIMILAR PEOPLE ELSEWHERE&mdash;THEIR
+      FAVORITE MUSIC, AND WHERE IT WAS BORROWED FROM&mdash;A FIFER WITH ONE
+      TUNE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have before mentioned as among the things that grew upon one with
+      increasing acquaintance with the Rebels on their native heath, was
+      astonishment at their lack of mechanical skill and at their inability to
+      grapple with numbers and the simpler processes of arithmetic. Another
+      characteristic of the same nature was their wonderful lack of musical
+      ability, or of any kind of tuneful creativeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsewhere, all over the world, people living under similar conditions to
+      the Southerners are exceedingly musical, and we owe the great majority of
+      the sweetest compositions which delight the ear and subdue the senses to
+      unlettered song-makers of the Swiss mountains, the Tyrolese valleys, the
+      Bavarian Highlands, and the minstrels of Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The music of English-speaking people is very largely made up of these
+      contributions from the folk-songs of dwellers in the wilder and more
+      mountainous parts of the British Isles. One rarely goes far out of the way
+      in attributing to this source any air that he may hear that captivates him
+      with its seductive opulence of harmony. Exquisite melodies, limpid and
+      unstrained as the carol of a bird in Spring-time, and as plaintive as the
+      cooing of a turtle-dove seems as natural products of the Scottish
+      Highlands as the gorse which blazons on their hillsides in August.
+      Debarred from expressing their aspirations as people of broader culture do&mdash;in
+      painting, in sculpture, in poetry and prose, these mountaineers make song
+      the flexible and ready instrument for the communication of every emotion
+      that sweeps across their souls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Love, hatred, grief, revenge, anger, and especially war seems to tune
+      their minds to harmony, and awake the voice of song in them hearts. The
+      battles which the Scotch and Irish fought to replace the luckless Stuarts
+      upon the British throne&mdash;the bloody rebellions of 1715 and 1745, left
+      a rich legacy of sweet song, the outpouring of loving, passionate loyalty
+      to a wretched cause; songs which are today esteemed and sung wherever the
+      English language is spoken, by people who have long since forgotten what
+      burning feelings gave birth to their favorite melodies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a century the bones of both the Pretenders have moldered in alien
+      soil; the names of James Edward, and Charles Edward, which were once
+      trumpet blasts to rouse armed men, mean as little to the multitude of
+      today as those of the Saxon Ethelbert, and Danish Hardicanute, yet the
+      world goes on singing&mdash;and will probably as long as the English
+      language is spoken&mdash;&ldquo;Wha'll be King but Charlie?&rdquo;
+      &ldquo;When Jamie Come Hame,&rdquo; &ldquo;Over the Water to Charlie,&rdquo;
+      &ldquo;Charlie is my Darling,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Bonny Blue Bonnets are
+      Over the Border,&rdquo; &ldquo;Saddle Your Steeds and Awa,&rdquo; and a
+      myriad others whose infinite tenderness and melody no modern composer can
+      equal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet these same Scotch and Irish, the same Jacobite English, transplanted
+      on account of their chronic rebelliousness to the mountains of Virginia,
+      the Carolinas, and Georgia, seem to have lost their tunefulness, as some
+      fine singing birds do when carried from their native shores.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The descendants of those who drew swords for James and Charles at Preston
+      Pans and Culloden dwell to-day in the dales and valleys of the Alleganies,
+      as their fathers did in the dales and valleys of the Grampians, but their
+      voices are mute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a rule the Southerners are fond of music. They are fond of singing and
+      listening to old-fashioned ballads, most of which have never been printed,
+      but handed down from one generation to the other, like the 'Volklieder'
+      of Germany. They sing these with the wild, fervid impressiveness
+      characteristic of the ballad singing of unlettered people. Very many play
+      tolerably on the violin and banjo, and occasionally one is found whose
+      instrumentation may be called good. But above this hight they never soar.
+      The only musician produced by the South of whom the rest of the country
+      has ever heard, is Blind Tom, the negro idiot. No composer, no song writer
+      of any kind has appeared within the borders of Dixie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a disappointment to me that even the stress of the war, the passion
+      and fierceness with which the Rebels felt and fought, could not stimulate
+      any adherent of the Stars and Bars into the production of a single lyric
+      worthy in the remotest degree of the magnitude of the struggle, and the
+      depth of the popular feeling. Where two million Scotch, fighting to
+      restore the fallen fortunes of the worse than worthless Stuarts, filled
+      the world with immortal music, eleven million of Southerners, fighting for
+      what they claimed to be individual freedom and national life, did not
+      produce any original verse, or a bar of music that the world could
+      recognize as such. This is the fact; and an undeniable one. Its
+      explanation I must leave to abler analysts than I am.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Searching for peculiar causes we find but two that make the South differ
+      from the ancestral home of these people. These two were Climate and
+      Slavery. Climatic effects will not account for the phenomenon, because we
+      see that the peasantry of the mountains of Spain and the South of France
+      as ignorant as these people, and dwellers in a still more enervating
+      atmosphere-are very fertile in musical composition, and their songs are to
+      the Romanic languages what the Scotch and Irish ballads are to the
+      English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then it must be ascribed to the incubus of Slavery upon the intellect,
+      which has repressed this as it has all other healthy growths in the South.
+      Slavery seems to benumb all the faculties except the passions. The fact
+      that the mountaineers had but few or no slaves, does not seem to be of
+      importance in the case. They lived under the deadly shadow of the upas
+      tree, and suffered the consequences of its stunting their development in
+      all directions, as the ague-smitten inhabitant of the Roman Campana finds
+      every sense and every muscle clogged by the filtering in of the insidious
+      miasma. They did not compose songs and music, because they did not have
+      the intellectual energy for that work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negros displayed all the musical creativeness of that section. Their
+      wonderful prolificness in wild, rude songs, with strangely melodious airs
+      that burned themselves into the memory, was one of the salient
+      characteristics of that down-trodden race. Like the Russian serfs, and the
+      bondmen of all ages and lands, the songs they made and sang all had an
+      undertone of touching plaintiveness, born of ages of dumb suffering. The
+      themes were exceedingly simple, and the range of subjects limited. The
+      joys, and sorrows, hopes and despairs of love's gratification or
+      disappointment, of struggles for freedom, contests with malign persons and
+      influences, of rage, hatred, jealousy, revenge, such as form the motifs
+      for the majority of the poetry of free and strong races, were wholly
+      absent from their lyrics. Religion, hunger and toil were their main
+      inspiration. They sang of the pleasures of idling in the genial sunshine;
+      the delights of abundance of food; the eternal happiness that awaited them
+      in the heavenly future, where the slave-driver ceased from troubling and
+      the weary were at rest; where Time rolled around in endless cycles of days
+      spent in basking, harp in hand, and silken clad, in golden streets, under
+      the soft effulgence of cloudless skies, glowing with warmth and kindness
+      emanating from the Creator himself. Had their masters condescended to
+      borrow the music of the slaves, they would have found none whose
+      sentiments were suitable for the ode of a people undergoing the pangs of
+      what was hoped to be the birth of a new nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three songs most popular at the South, and generally regarded as
+      distinctively Southern, were &ldquo;The Bonnie Blue Flag,&rdquo; &ldquo;Maryland,
+      My Maryland,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Stonewall Jackson Crossing into Maryland.&rdquo;
+      The first of these was the greatest favorite by long odds. Women sang, men
+      whistled, and the so-called musicians played it wherever we went. While in
+      the field before capture, it was the commonest of experiences to have
+      Rebel women sing it at us tauntingly from the house that we passed or near
+      which we stopped. If ever near enough a Rebel camp, we were sure to hear
+      its wailing crescendo rising upon the air from the lips or instruments of
+      some one more quartered there. At Richmond it rang upon us constantly from
+      some source or another, and the same was true wherever else we went in the
+      so-called Confederacy. I give the air and words below: <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p334" id="p334"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p334.jpg (38K)" src="images/p334.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All familiar with Scotch songs will readily recognize the name and air as
+      an old friend, and one of the fierce Jacobite melodies that for a long
+      time disturbed the tranquility of the Brunswick family on the English
+      throne. The new words supplied by the Rebels are the merest doggerel, and
+      fit the music as poorly as the unchanged name of the song fitted to its
+      new use. The flag of the Rebellion was not a bonnie blue one; but had
+      quite as much red and white as azure. It did not have a single star, but
+      thirteen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near in popularity was &ldquo;Maryland, My Maryland.&rdquo; The
+      versification of this was of a much higher Order, being fairly
+      respectable. The air is old, and a familiar one to all college students,
+      and belongs to one of the most common of German household songs:
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          O, Tannenbaum! O, Tannenbaum, wie tru sind deine Blatter!<br> Da
+          gruenst nicht nur zur Sommerseit,<br> Nein, auch in Winter, when es
+          Schneit, etc.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      which Longfellow has finely translated,
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          O, hemlock tree! O, hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches!<br>
+          Green not alone in Summer time,<br> But in the Winter's float
+          and rime.<br> O, hemlock tree O, hemlock tree! how faithful are thy
+          branches. Etc.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      The Rebel version ran:
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      MARYLAND.
+    </h3>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br>The despot's heel is on thy shore, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland!
+          <br>His touch is at thy temple door, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland!
+          <br>Avenge the patriotic gore <br>That flecked the streets of
+          Baltimore, <br>And be the battle queen of yore, <br>Maryland! My
+          Maryland! <br> <br>Hark to the wand'ring son's appeal,
+          <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland! <br>My mother State, to
+          thee I kneel, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland! <br>For
+          life and death, for woe and weal, <br>Thy peerless chivalry reveal,
+          <br>And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel, <br>Maryland! My
+          Maryland! <br> <br>Thou wilt not cower in the duet, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland!
+          <br>Thy beaming sword shall never rust <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland!
+          <br>Remember Carroll's sacred trust, <br>Remember Howard's
+          warlike thrust&mdash; <br>And all thy slumberers with the just, <br>Maryland!
+          My Maryland! <br> <br>Come! 'tis the red dawn of the day,
+          <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland! <br>Come! with thy
+          panoplied array, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryland! <br>With
+          Ringgold's spirit for the fray, <br>With Watson's blood
+          at Monterey, <br>With fearless Lowe and dashing May, <br>Maryland!
+          My Maryland! <br> <br>Comet for thy shield is bright and strong,
+          <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maryland! <br>Come! for thy
+          dalliance does thee wrong, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          Maryland! <br>Come! to thins own heroic throng, <br>That stalks with
+          Liberty along, <br>And give a new Key to thy song, <br>Maryland! My
+          Maryland! <br> <br>Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain,
+          <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maryland! <br>Virginia should not
+          call in vain, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maryland! <br>She
+          meets her sisters on the plain&mdash; <br>'Sic semper' 'tis
+          the proud refrain, <br>That baffles millions back amain, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          Maryland! <br>Arise, in majesty again, <br>Maryland! My Maryland!
+          <br> <br>I see the blush upon thy cheek, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          Maryland! <br>But thou wast ever bravely meek, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          Maryland! <br>But lo! there surges forth a shriek <br>From hill to
+          hill, from creek to creek&mdash; <br>Potomac calls to Chesapeake,
+          <br>Maryland! My Maryland! <br> <br>Thou wilt not yield the vandal
+          toll. <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maryland! <br>Thou wilt not
+          crook to his control, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maryland!
+          <br>Better the fire upon thee roll, <br>Better the blade, the shot,
+          the bowl, <br>Than crucifixion of the soul, <br>Maryland! My
+          Maryland! <br> <br>I hear the distant Thunder hem, <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          Maryland! <br>The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum. <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          Maryland! <br>She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb&mdash; <br>Hnzza!
+          she spurns the Northern scum! <br>She breathes&mdash;she burns! she'll
+          come! she'll come! <br>Maryland! My Maryland!
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stonewall Jackson Crossing into Maryland,&rdquo; was another
+      travesty, of about the same literary merit, or rather demerit, as &ldquo;The
+      Bonnie Blue Flag.&rdquo; Its air was that of the well-known and popular
+      negro minstrel song, &ldquo;Billy Patterson.&rdquo; For all that, it
+      sounded very martial and stirring when played by a brass band.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We heard these songs with tiresome iteration, daily and nightly, during
+      our stay in the Southern Confederacy. Some one of the guards seemed to be
+      perpetually beguiling the weariness of his watch by singing in all keys,
+      in every sort of a voice, and with the wildest latitude as to air and
+      time. They became so terribly irritating to us, that to this day the
+      remembrance of those soul-lacerating lyrics abides with me as one of the
+      chief of the minor torments of our situation. They were, in fact, nearly
+      as bad as the lice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We revenged ourselves as best we could by constructing fearfully wicked,
+      obscene and insulting parodies on these, and by singing them with
+      irritating effusiveness in the hearing of the guards who were inflicting
+      these nuisances upon us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the same nature was the garrison music. One fife, played by an
+      asthmatic old fellow whose breathings were nearly as audible as his notes,
+      and one rheumatic drummer, constituted the entire band for the post. The
+      fifer actually knew but one tune &ldquo;The Bonnie Blue Flag&rdquo;
+      &mdash;and did not know that well. But it was all that he had, and he
+      played it with wearisome monotony for every camp call&mdash;five or six
+      times a day, and seven days in the week. He called us up in the morning
+      with it for a reveille; he sounded the &ldquo;roll call&rdquo; and &ldquo;drill
+      call,&rdquo; breakfast, dinner and supper with it, and finally sent us to
+      bed, with the same dreary wail that had rung in our ears all day. I never
+      hated any piece of music as I came to hate that threnody of treason. It
+      would have been such a relief if the old asthmatic who played it could
+      have been induced to learn another tune to play on Sundays, and give us
+      one day of rest. He did not, but desecrated the Lord's Day by
+      playing as vilely as on the rest of the week. The Rebels were fully
+      conscious of their musical deficiencies, and made repeated but
+      unsuccessful attempts to induce the musicians among the prisoners to come
+      outside and form a band. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch45" id="ch45"></a>CHAPTER XLV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AUGUST&mdash;NEEDLES STUCK IN PUMPKIN SEEDS&mdash;SOME PHENOMENA OF
+      STARVATION &mdash;RIOTING IN REMEMBERED LUXURIES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Illinoy,&rdquo; said tall, gaunt Jack North, of the One Hundred and
+      Fourteenth Illinois, to me, one day, as we sat contemplating our naked,
+      and sadly attenuated underpinning; &ldquo;what do our legs and feet most
+      look most like?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give it up, Jack,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why&mdash;darning needles stuck in pumpkin seeds, of course.&rdquo;
+      I never heard a better comparison for our wasted limbs. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p338" id="p338"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p338.jpg (9K)" src="images/p338.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effects of the great bodily emaciation were sometimes very startling.
+      Boys of a fleshy habit would change so in a few weeks as to lose all
+      resemblance to their former selves, and comrades who came into prison
+      later would utterly fail to recognize them. Most fat men, as most large
+      men, died in a little while after entering, though there were exceptions.
+      One of these was a boy of my own company, named George Hillicks. George
+      had shot up within a few years to over six feet in hight, and then, as
+      such boys occasionally do, had, after enlisting with us, taken on such a
+      development of flesh that we nicknamed him the &ldquo;Giant,&rdquo; and he
+      became a pretty good load for even the strongest horse. George held his
+      flesh through Belle Isle, and the earlier weeks in Andersonville, but
+      June, July, and August &ldquo;fetched him,&rdquo; as the boys said. He
+      seemed to melt away like an icicle on a Spring day, and he grew so thin
+      that his hight seemed preternatural. We called him &ldquo;Flagstaff,&rdquo;
+      and cracked all sorts of jokes about putting an insulator on his head, and
+      setting him up for a telegraph pole, braiding his legs and using him for a
+      whip lash, letting his hair grow a little longer, and trading him off to
+      the Rebels for a sponge and staff for the artillery, etc. We all expected
+      him to die, and looked continually for the development of the fatal scurvy
+      symptoms, which were to seal his doom. But he worried through, and came
+      out at last in good shape, a happy result due as much as to anything else
+      to his having in Chester Hayward, of Prairie City, Ill.,&mdash;one of the
+      most devoted chums I ever knew. Chester nursed and looked out for George
+      with wife-like fidelity, and had his reward in bringing him safe through
+      our lines. There were thousands of instances of this generous devotion to
+      each other by chums in Andersonville, and I know of nothing that reflects
+      any more credit upon our boy soldiers. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p339" id="p339"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p339.jpg (28K)" src="images/p339.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was little chance for any one to accumulate flesh on the rations we
+      were receiving. I say it in all soberness that I do not believe that a
+      healthy hen could have grown fat upon them. I am sure that any good-sized
+      &ldquo;shanghai&rdquo; eats more every day than the meager half loaf that
+      we had to maintain life upon. Scanty as this was, and hungry as all were,
+      very many could not eat it. Their stomachs revolted against the trash; it
+      became so nauseous to them that they could not force it down, even when
+      famishing, and they died of starvation with the chunks of the so-called
+      bread under their head. I found myself rapidly approaching this condition.
+      I had been blessed with a good digestion and a talent for sleeping under
+      the most discouraging circumstances. These, I have no doubt, were of the
+      greatest assistance to me in my struggle for existence. But now the
+      rations became fearfully obnoxious to me, and it was only with the
+      greatest effort&mdash;pulling the bread into little pieces and swallowing
+      each, of these as one would a pill&mdash;that I succeeded in worrying the
+      stuff down. I had not as yet fallen away very much, but as I had never,
+      up, to that time, weighed so much as one hundred and twenty-five pounds,
+      there was no great amount of adipose to lose. It was evident that unless
+      some change occurred my time was near at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not only hunger for more food, but longing with an intensity
+      beyond expression for alteration of some kind in the rations. The
+      changeless monotony of the miserable saltless bread, or worse mush, for
+      days, weeks and months, became unbearable. If those wretched mule teams
+      had only once a month hauled in something different&mdash;if they had come
+      in loaded with sweet potatos, green corn or wheat flour, there would be
+      thousands of men still living who now slumber beneath those melancholy
+      pines. It would have given something to look forward to, and remember when
+      past. But to know each day that the gates would open to admit the same
+      distasteful apologies for food took away the appetite and raised one's
+      gorge, even while famishing for something to eat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We could for a while forget the stench, the lice, the heat, the maggots,
+      the dead and dying around us, the insulting malignance of our jailors; but
+      it was, very hard work to banish thoughts and longings for food from our
+      minds. Hundreds became actually insane from brooding over it. Crazy men
+      could be found in all parts of the camp. Numbers of them wandered around
+      entirely naked. Their babblings and maunderings about something to eat
+      were painful to hear. I have before mentioned the case of the Plymouth
+      Pilgrim near me, whose insanity took the form of imagining that he was
+      sitting at the table with his family, and who would go through the show of
+      helping them to imaginary viands and delicacies. The cravings for green
+      food of those afflicted with the scurvy were, agonizing. Large numbers of
+      watermelons were brought to the prison, and sold to those who had the
+      money to pay for them at from one to five dollars, greenbacks, apiece. A
+      boy who had means to buy a piece of these would be followed about while
+      eating it by a crowd of perhaps twenty-five or thirty livid-gummed
+      scorbutics, each imploring him for the rind when he was through with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We thought of food all day, and were visited with torturing dreams of it
+      at night. One of the pleasant recollections of my pre-military life was a
+      banquet at the &ldquo;Planter's House,&rdquo; St. Louis, at which I
+      was a boyish guest. It was, doubtless, an ordinary affair, as banquets go,
+      but to me then, with all the keen appreciation of youth and first
+      experience, it was a feast worthy of Lucullus. But now this delightful
+      reminiscence became a torment. Hundreds of times I dreamed I was again at
+      the &ldquo;Planter's.&rdquo; I saw the wide corridors, with their
+      mosaic pavement; I entered the grand dining-room, keeping timidly near the
+      friend to whose kindness I owed this wonderful favor; I saw again the
+      mirror-lined walls, the evergreen decked ceilings, the festoons and
+      mottos, the tables gleaming with cutglass and silver, the buffets with
+      wines and fruits, the brigade of sleek, black, white-aproned waiters,
+      headed by one who had presence enough for a major General. Again I reveled
+      in all the dainties and dishes on the bill-of-fare; calling for everything
+      that I dared to, just to see what each was like, and to be able to say
+      afterwards that I had partaken of it; all these bewildering delights of
+      the first realization of what a boy has read and wondered much over, and
+      longed for, would dance their rout and reel through my somnolent brain.
+      Then I would awake to find myself a half-naked, half-starved, vermin-eaten
+      wretch, crouching in a hole in the ground, waiting for my keepers to fling
+      me a chunk of corn bread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Naturally the boys&mdash;and especially the country boys and new prisoners
+      &mdash;talked much of victuals&mdash;what they had had, and what they
+      would have again, when they got out. Take this as a sample of the
+      conversation which might be heard in any group of boys, sitting together
+      on the sand, killin lice and talking of exchange:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tom&mdash;&ldquo;Well, Bill, when we get back to God's country, you
+      and Jim and John must all come to my house and take dinner with me. I want
+      to give you a square meal. I want to show you just what good livin'
+      is. You know my mother is just the best cook in all that section. When she
+      lays herself out to get up a meal all the other women in the neighborhood
+      just stand back and admire!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bill&mdash;&ldquo;O, that's all right; but I'll bet she can't
+      hold a candle to my mother, when it comes to good cooking.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jim&mdash;&ldquo;No, nor to mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John&mdash;(with patronizing contempt.) &ldquo;O, shucks! None of you
+      fellers were ever at our house, even when we had one of our common weekday
+      dinners.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tom&mdash;(unheedful of the counter claims.) I hev teen studyin' up
+      the dinner I'd like, and the bill-of-fare I'd set out for you
+      fellers when you come over to see me. First, of course, we'll lay
+      the foundation like with a nice, juicy loin roast, and some mashed
+      potatos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bill&mdash;(interrupting.) &ldquo;Now, do you like mashed potatos with
+      beef? The way may mother does is to pare the potatos, and lay them in the
+      pan along with the beef. Then, you know, they come out just as nice and
+      crisp, and brown; they have soaked up all the beef gravy, and they crinkle
+      between your teeth&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jim&mdash;&ldquo;Now, I tell you, mashed Neshannocks with butter on
+      'em is plenty good enough for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John&mdash;&ldquo;If you'd et some of the new kind of peachblows
+      that we raised in the old pasture lot the year before I enlisted, you'd
+      never say another word about your Neshannocks.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tom&mdash;(taking breath and starting in fresh.) &ldquo;Then we'll
+      hev some fried Spring chickens, of our dominick breed. Them dominicks of
+      ours have the nicest, tenderest meat, better'n quail, a darned
+      sight, and the way my mother can fry Spring chickens&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bill&mdash;(aside to Jim.) &ldquo;Every durned woman in the country thinks
+      she can 'spry ching frickens;' but my mother&mdash;-&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John&mdash;&ldquo;You fellers all know that there's nobody knows
+      half as much about chicken doin's as these 'tinerant Methodis'
+      preachers. They give 'em chicken wherever they go, and folks do say
+      that out in the new settlements they can't get no preachin',
+      no gospel, nor nothin', until the chickens become so plenty that a
+      preacher is reasonably sure of havin' one for his dinner wherever he
+      may go. Now, there's old Peter Cartwright, who has traveled over
+      Illinoy and Indianny since the Year One, and preached more good sermons
+      than any other man who ever set on saddle-bags, and has et more chickens
+      than there are birds in a big pigeon roost. Well, he took dinner at our
+      house when he came up to dedicate the big, white church at Simpkin's
+      Corners, and when he passed up his plate the third time for more chicken,
+      he sez, sez he:&mdash;I've et at a great many hundred tables in the
+      fifty years I have labored in the vineyard of the Redeemer, but I must
+      say, Mrs. Kiggins, that your way of frying chickens is a leetle the nicest
+      that I ever knew. I only wish that the sisters generally would get your
+      reseet.' Yes, that's what he said,&mdash;'a leetle the
+      nicest.'&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tom&mdash;&ldquo;An' then, we'll hev biscuits an'
+      butter. I'll just bet five hundred dollars to a cent, and give back
+      the cent if I win, that we have the best butter at our house that there is
+      in Central Illinoy. You can't never hev good butter onless you have
+      a spring house; there's no use of talkin'&mdash;all the patent
+      churns that lazy men ever invented&mdash;all the fancy milk pans an'
+      coolers, can't make up for a spring house. Locations for a spring
+      house are scarcer than hen's teeth in Illinoy, but we hev one, and
+      there ain't a better one in Orange County, New York. Then you'll
+      see dome of the biscuits my mother makes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bill&mdash;&ldquo;Well, now, my mother's a boss biscuit-maker, too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jim&mdash;&ldquo;You kin just gamble that mine is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John&mdash;&ldquo;O, that's the way you fellers ought to think an'
+      talk, but my mother&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tom&mdash;(coming in again with fresh vigor) &ldquo;They're jest as
+      light an' fluffy as a dandelion puff, and they melt in your month
+      like a ripe Bartlett pear. You just pull 'em open&mdash;Now you know
+      that I think there's nothin' that shows a person's
+      raisin' so well as to see him eat biscuits an' butter. If he's
+      been raised mostly on corn bread, an' common doins,' an'
+      don't know much about good things to eat, he'll most likely
+      cut his biscuit open with a case knife, an' make it fall as flat as
+      one o' yesterday's pancakes. But if he is used to biscuits,
+      has had 'em often at his house, he'll&mdash;just pull 'em
+      open, slow an' easy like, then he'll lay a little slice of
+      butter inside, and drop a few drops of clear honey on this, an'
+      stick the two halves back, together again, an&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, for God Almighty's sake, stop talking that infernal
+      nonsense,&rdquo; roar out a half dozen of the surrounding crowd, whose
+      mouths have been watering over this unctuous recital of the good things of
+      the table. &ldquo;You blamed fools, do you want to drive yourselves and
+      everybody else crazy with such stuff as that. Dry up and try to think of
+      something else.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> <a name="p344" id="p344"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p344.jpg (16K)" src="images/p344.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch46" id="ch46"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SURLY BRITON&mdash;THE STOLID COURAGE THAT MAKES THE ENGLISH FLAG A BANNER
+      OF TRIUMPH&mdash;OUR COMPANY BUGLER, HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND HIS DEATH&mdash;URGENT
+      DEMAND FOR MECHANICS&mdash;NONE WANT TO GO&mdash;TREATMENT OF A REBEL
+      SHOEMAKER &mdash;ENLARGEMENT OF THE STOCKADE&mdash;IT IS BROKEN BY A STORM&mdash;THE
+      WONDERFUL SPRING.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in August, F. Marriott, our Company Bugler, died. Previous to coming
+      to America he had been for many years an English soldier, and I accepted
+      him as a type of that stolid, doggedly brave class, which forms the bulk
+      of the English armies, and has for centuries carried the British flag with
+      dauntless courage into every land under the sun. Rough, surly and
+      unsocial, he did his duty with the unemotional steadiness of a machine. He
+      knew nothing but to obey orders, and obeyed them under all circumstances
+      promptly, but with stony impassiveness. With the command to move forward
+      into action, he moved forward without a word, and with face as blank as a
+      side of sole leather. He went as far as ordered, halted at the word, and
+      retired at command as phlegmatically as he advanced. If he cared a straw
+      whether he advanced or retreated, if it mattered to the extent of a pinch
+      of salt whether we whipped the Rebels or they defeated us, he kept that
+      feeling so deeply hidden in the recesses of his sturdy bosom that no one
+      ever suspected it. In the excitement of action the rest of the boys
+      shouted, and swore, and expressed their tense feelings in various ways,
+      but Marriott might as well have been a graven image, for all the
+      expression that he suffered to escape. Doubtless, if the Captain had
+      ordered him to shoot one of the company through the heart, he would have
+      executed the command according to the manual of arms, brought his carbine
+      to a &ldquo;recover,&rdquo; and at the word marched back to his quarters
+      without an inquiry as to the cause of the proceedings. He made no friends,
+      and though his surliness repelled us, he made few enemies. Indeed, he was
+      rather a favorite, since he was a genuine character; his gruffness had no
+      taint of selfish greed in it; he minded his own business strictly, and
+      wanted others to do the same. When he first came into the company, it is
+      true, he gained the enmity of nearly everybody in it, but an incident
+      occurred which turned the tide in his favor. Some annoying little
+      depredations had been practiced on the boys, and it needed but a word of
+      suspicion to inflame all their minds against the surly Englishman as the
+      unknown perpetrator. The feeling intensified, until about half of the
+      company were in a mood to kill the Bugler outright. As we were returning
+      from stable duty one evening, some little occurrence fanned the smoldering
+      anger into a fierce blaze; a couple of the smaller boys began an attack
+      upon him; others hastened to their assistance, and soon half the company
+      were engaged in the assault. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p346" id="p346"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p346.jpg (19K)" src="images/p346.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He succeeded in disengaging himself from his assailants, and, squaring
+      himself off, said, defiantly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dom yer cowardly heyes; jest come hat me one hat a time, hand hI'll
+      wollop the 'ole gang uv ye's.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of our Sergeants styled himself proudly &ldquo;a Chicago rough,&rdquo;
+      and was as vain of his pugilistic abilities as a small boy is of a father
+      who plays in the band. We all hated him cordially&mdash;even more than we
+      did Marriott.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought this was a good time to show off, and forcing his way through
+      the crowd, he said, vauntingly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just fall back and form a ring, boys, and see me polish off the&mdash;-fool.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ring was formed, with the Bugler and the Sergeant in the center.
+      Though the latter was the younger and stronger the first round showed him
+      that it would have profited him much more to have let Marriott's
+      challenge pass unheeded. As a rule, it is as well to ignore all
+      invitations of this kind from Englishmen, and especially from those who,
+      like Marriott, have served a term in the army, for they are likely to be
+      so handy with their fists as to make the consequences of an acceptance
+      more lively than desirable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Sergeant found. &ldquo;Marriott,&rdquo; as one of the spectators
+      expressed it, &ldquo;went around him like a cooper around a barrel.&rdquo;
+      He planted his blows just where he wished, to the intense delight of the
+      boys, who yelled enthusiastically whenever he got in &ldquo;a hot one,&rdquo;
+      and their delight at seeing the Sergeant drubbed so thoroughly and
+      artistically, worked an entire revolution in his favor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thenceforward we viewed his eccentricities with lenient eyes, and became
+      rather proud of his bull-dog stolidity and surliness. The whole battalion
+      soon came to share this feeling, and everybody enjoyed hearing his
+      deep-toned growl, which mischievous boys would incite by some petty
+      annoyances deliberately designed for that purpose. I will mention
+      incidentally, that after his encounter with the Sergeant no one ever again
+      volunteered to &ldquo;polish&rdquo; him off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andersonville did not improve either his temper or his communicativeness.
+      He seemed to want to get as far away from the rest of us as possible, and
+      took up his quarters in a remote corner of the Stockade, among utter
+      strangers. Those of us who wandered up in his neighborhood occasionally,
+      to see how he was getting along, were received with such scant courtesy,
+      that we did not hasten to repeat the visit. At length, after none of us
+      had seen him for weeks, we thought that comradeship demanded another
+      visit. We found him in the last stages of scurvy and diarrhea. Chunks of
+      uneaten corn bread lay by his head. They were at least a week old. The
+      rations since then had evidently been stolen from the helpless man by
+      those around him. The place where he lay was indescribably filthy, and his
+      body was swarming with vermin. Some good Samaritan had filled his little
+      black oyster can with water, and placed it within his reach. For a week,
+      at least, he had not been able to rise from the ground; he could barely
+      reach for the water near him. He gave us such a glare of recognition as I
+      remembered to have seen light up the fast-darkening eyes of a savage old
+      mastiff, that I and my boyish companions once found dying in the woods of
+      disease and hurts. Had he been able he would have driven us away, or at
+      least assailed us with biting English epithets. Thus he had doubtless
+      driven away all those who had attempted to help him. We did what little we
+      could, and staid with him until the next afternoon, when he died. We
+      prepared his body, in the customary way: folded the hands across his
+      breast, tied the toes together, and carried it outside, not forgetting
+      each of us, to bring back a load of wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scarcity of mechanics of all kinds in the Confederacy, and the urgent
+      needs of the people for many things which the war and the blockade
+      prevented their obtaining, led to continual inducements being offered to
+      the artizans among us to go outside and work at their trade. Shoemakers
+      seemed most in demand; next to these blacksmiths, machinists, molders and
+      metal workers generally. Not a week passed during my imprisonment that I
+      did not see a Rebel emissary of some kind about the prison seeking to
+      engage skilled workmen for some purpose or another. While in Richmond the
+      managers of the Tredegar Iron Works were brazen and persistent in their
+      efforts to seduce what are termed &ldquo;malleable iron workers,&rdquo; to
+      enter their employ. A boy who was master of any one of the commoner trades
+      had but to make his wishes known, and he would be allowed to go out on
+      parole to work. I was a printer, and I think that at least a dozen times I
+      was approached by Rebel publishers with offers of a parole, and work at
+      good prices. One from Columbia, S. C., offered me two dollars and a half a
+      &ldquo;thousand&rdquo; for composition. As the highest price for such work
+      that I had received before enlisting was thirty cents a thousand, this
+      seemed a chance to accumulate untold wealth. Since a man working in day
+      time can set from thirty-five to fifty &ldquo;thousand&rdquo; a week, this
+      would make weekly wages run from eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents to
+      one hundred and twenty-five dollars&mdash;but it was in Confederate money,
+      then worth from ten to twenty cents on the dollar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still better offers were made to iron workers of all kinds, to shoemakers,
+      tanners, weavers, tailors, hatters, engineers, machinists, millers,
+      railroad men, and similar tradesmen. Any of these could have made a
+      handsome thing by accepting the offers made them almost weekly. As nearly
+      all in the prison had useful trades, it would have been of immense benefit
+      to the Confederacy if they could have been induced to work at them. There
+      is no measuring the benefit it would have been to the Southern cause if
+      all the hundreds of tanners and shoemakers in the Stockade could have,
+      been persuaded to go outside and labor in providing leather and shoes for
+      the almost shoeless people and soldiery. The machinists alone could have
+      done more good to the Southern Confederacy than one of our brigades was
+      doing harm, by consenting to go to the railroad shops at Griswoldville and
+      ply their handicraft. The lack of material resources in the South was one
+      of the strongest allies our arms had. This lack of resources was primarily
+      caused by a lack of skilled labor to develop those resources, and nowhere
+      could there be found a finer collection of skilled laborers than in the
+      thirty-three thousand prisoners incarcerated in Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All solicitations to accept a parole and go outside to work at one's
+      trade were treated with the scorn they deserved. If any mechanic yielded
+      to them, the fact did not come under my notice. The usual reply to
+      invitations of this kind was:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Sir! By God, I'll stay in here till I rot, and the
+      maggots carry me out through the cracks in the Stockade, before I'll
+      so much as raise my little finger to help the infernal Confederacy, or
+      Rebels, in any shape or form.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In August a Macon shoemaker came in to get some of his trade to go back
+      with him to work in the Confederate shoe factory. He prosecuted his search
+      for these until he reached the center of the camp on the North Side, when
+      some of the shoemakers who had gathered around him, apparently considering
+      his propositions, seized him and threw him into a well. He was kept there
+      a whole day, and only released when Wirz cut off the rations of the prison
+      for that day, and announced that no more would be issued until the man was
+      returned safe and sound to the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrible crowding was somewhat ameliorated by the opening in July of
+      an addition&mdash;six hundred feet long&mdash;to the North Side of the
+      Stockade. This increased the room inside to twenty acres, giving about an
+      acre to every one thousand seven hundred men,&mdash;a preposterously
+      contracted area still. The new ground was not a hotbed of virulent poison
+      like the olds however, and those who moved on to it had that much in their
+      favor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The palisades between the new and the old portions of the pen were left
+      standing when the new portion was opened. We were still suffering a great
+      deal of inconvenience from lack of wood. That night the standing timbers
+      were attacked by thousands of prisoners armed with every species of a tool
+      to cut wood, from a case-knife to an ax. They worked the live-long night
+      with such energy that by morning not only every inch of the logs above
+      ground had disappeared, but that below had been dug up, and there was not
+      enough left of the eight hundred foot wall of twenty-five-foot logs to
+      make a box of matches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon&mdash;early in August&mdash;one of the violent rain storms
+      common to that section sprung up, and in a little while the water was
+      falling in torrents. The little creek running through the camp swelled up
+      immensely, and swept out large gaps in the Stockade, both in the west and
+      east sides. The Rebels noticed the breaches as soon as the prisoners. Two
+      guns were fired from the Star Tort, and all the guards rushed out, and
+      formed so as to prevent any egress, if one was attempted. Taken by
+      surprise, we were not in a condition to profit by the opportunity until it
+      was too late. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p351" id="p351"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p351.jpg (50K)" src="images/p351.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm did one good thing: it swept away a great deal of filth, and
+      left the camp much more wholesome. The foul stench rising from the camp
+      made an excellent electrical conductor, and the lightning struck several
+      times within one hundred feet of the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Toward the end of August there happened what the religously inclined
+      termed a Providential Dispensation. The water in the Creek was
+      indescribably bad. No amount of familiarity with it, no increase of
+      intimacy with our offensive surroundings, could lessen the disgust at the
+      polluted water. As I have said previously, before the stream entered the
+      Stockade, it was rendered too filthy for any use by the contaminations
+      from the camps of the guards, situated about a half-mile above.
+      Immediately on entering the Stockade the contamination became terrible.
+      The oozy seep at the bottom of the hillsides drained directly into it all
+      the mass of filth from a population of thirty-three thousand. Imagine the
+      condition of an open sewer, passing through the heart of a city of that
+      many people, and receiving all the offensive product of so dense a
+      gathering into a shallow, sluggish stream, a yard wide and five inches
+      deep, and heated by the burning rays of the sun in the thirty-second
+      degree of latitude. Imagine, if one can, without becoming sick at the
+      stomach, all of these people having to wash in and drink of this foul
+      flow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is not a scintilla of exaggeration in this statement. That it is
+      within the exact truth is demonstrable by the testimony of any man&mdash;Rebel
+      or Union&mdash;who ever saw the inside of the Stockade at Andersonville. I
+      am quite content to have its truth&mdash;as well as that of any other
+      statement made in this book&mdash;be determined by the evidence of any
+      one, no matter how bitter his hatred of the Union, who had any personal
+      knowledge of the condition of affairs at Andersonville. No one can
+      successfully deny that there were at least thirty-three thousand prisoners
+      in the Stockade, and that the one shallow, narrow creek, which passed
+      through the prison, was at once their main sewer and their source of
+      supply of water for bathing, drinking and washing. With these main facts
+      admitted, the reader's common sense of natural consequences will
+      furnish the rest of the details.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true that some of the more fortunate of us had wells; thanks to our
+      own energy in overcoming extraordinary obstacles; no thanks to our gaolers
+      for making the slightest effort to provide these necessities of life. We
+      dug the wells with case and pocket knives, and half canteens to a depth of
+      from twenty to thirty feet, pulling up the dirt in pantaloons legs, and
+      running continual risk of being smothered to death by the caving in of the
+      unwalled sides. Not only did the Rebels refuse to give us boards with
+      which to wall the wells, and buckets for drawing the water, but they did
+      all in their power to prevent us from digging the wells, and made
+      continual forays to capture the digging tools, because the wells were
+      frequently used as the starting places for tunnels. Professor Jones lays
+      special stress on this tunnel feature in his testimony, which I have
+      introduced in a previous chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great majority of the prisoners who went to the Creek for water, went
+      as near as possible to the Dead Line on the West Side, where the Creek
+      entered the Stockade, that they might get water with as little filth in it
+      as possible. In the crowds struggling there for their turn to take a dip,
+      some one nearly every day got so close to the Dead Line as to arouse a
+      suspicion in the guard's mind that he was touching it. The suspicion
+      was the unfortunate one's death warrant, and also its execution. As
+      the sluggish brain of the guard conceived it he leveled his gun; the
+      distance to his victim was not over one hundred feet; he never failed his
+      aim; the first warning the wretched prisoner got that he was suspected of
+      transgressing a prison-rule was the charge of &ldquo;ball-and-buck&rdquo;
+      that tore through his body. It was lucky if he was, the only one of the
+      group killed. More wicked and unjustifiable murders never were committed
+      than these almost daily assassinations at the Creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning the camp was astonished beyond measure to discover that during
+      the night a large, bold spring had burst out on the North Side, about
+      midway between the Swamp and the summit of the hill. It poured out its
+      grateful flood of pure, sweet water in an apparently exhaustless quantity.
+      To the many who looked in wonder upon it, it seemed as truly a
+      heaven-wrought miracle as when Moses's enchanted rod smote the
+      parched rock in Sinai's desert waste, and the living waters gushed
+      forth. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p353" id="p353"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p353.jpg (25K)" src="images/p353.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The police took charge of the spring, and every one was compelled to take
+      his regular turn in filling his vessel. This was kept up during our whole
+      stay in Andersonville, and every morning, shortly after daybreak, a
+      thousand men could be seen standing in line, waiting their turns to fill
+      their cans and cups with the precious liquid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am told by comrades who have revisited the Stockade of recent years,
+      that the spring is yet running as when we left, and is held in most pious
+      veneration by the negros of that vicinity, who still preserve the
+      tradition of its miraculous origin, and ascribe to its water wonderful
+      grace giving and healing properties, similar to those which pious
+      Catholics believe exist in the holy water of the fountain at Lourdes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must confess that I do not think they are so very far from right. If I
+      could believe that any water was sacred and thaumaturgic, it would be of
+      that fountain which appeared so opportunely for the benefit of the
+      perishing thousands of Andersonville. And when I hear of people bringing
+      water for baptismal purposes from the Jordan, I say in my heart, &ldquo;How
+      much more would I value for myself and friends the administration of the
+      chrismal sacrament with the diviner flow from that low sand-hill in
+      Western Georgia.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch47" id="ch47"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;SICK CALL,&rdquo; AND THE SCENES THAT ACCOMPANIED IT&mdash;MUSTERING
+      THE LAME, HALT AND DISEASED AT THE SOUTH GATE&mdash;AN UNUSUALLY BAD CASE&mdash;GOING
+      OUT TO THE HOSPITAL&mdash;ACCOMMODATION AND TREATMENT OF THE PATIENTS
+      THERE&mdash;THE HORRIBLE SUFFERING IN THE GANGRENE WARD&mdash;BUNGLING
+      AMPUTATIONS BY BLUNDERING PRACTITIONERS&mdash;AFFECTION BETWEEN A SAILOR
+      AND HIS WARD &mdash;DEATH OF MY COMRADE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every morning after roll-call, thousands of sick gathered at the South
+      Gate, where the doctors made some pretense of affording medical relief.
+      The scene there reminded me of the illustrations in my Sunday-School
+      lessons of that time when &ldquo;great multitudes came unto Him,&rdquo; by
+      the shores of the Sea of Galilee, &ldquo;having with them those that were
+      lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others.&rdquo; Had the crowds worn the
+      flouting robes of the East, the picture would have lacked nothing but the
+      presence of the Son of Man to make it complete. Here were the burning
+      sands and parching sun; hither came scores of groups of three or four
+      comrades, laboriously staggering under the weight of a blanket in which
+      they had carried a disabled and dying friend from some distant part of the
+      Stockade. Beside them hobbled the scorbutics with swollen and distorted
+      limbs, each more loathsome and nearer death than the lepers whom Christ's
+      divine touch made whole. Dozens, unable to walk, and having no comrades to
+      carry them, crawled painfully along, with frequent stops, on their hands
+      and knees. Every form of intense physical suffering that it is possible
+      for disease to induce in the human frame was visible at these daily
+      parades of the sick of the prison. As over three thousand (three thousand
+      and seventy-six) died in August, there were probably twelve thousand
+      dangerously sick at any given time daring the month; and a large part of
+      these collected at the South Gate every morning. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p356" id="p356"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p356.jpg (54K)" src="images/p356.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Measurably-calloused as we had become by the daily sights of horror around
+      us, we encountered spectacles in these gatherings which no amount of
+      visible misery could accustom us to. I remember one especially that burned
+      itself deeply into my memory. It was of a young man not over twenty-five,
+      who a few weeks ago&mdash;his clothes looked comparatively new &mdash;had
+      evidently been the picture of manly beauty and youthful vigor. He had had
+      a well-knit, lithe form; dark curling hair fell over a forehead which had
+      once been fair, and his eyes still showed that they had gleamed with a
+      bold, adventurous spirit. The red clover leaf on his cap showed that he
+      belonged to the First Division of the Second Corps, the three chevrons on
+      his arm that he was a Sergeant, and the stripe at his cuff that he was a
+      veteran. Some kind-hearted boys had found him in a miserable condition on
+      the North Side, and carried him over in a blanket to where the doctors
+      could see him. He had but little clothing on, save his blouse and cap.
+      Ulcers of some kind had formed in his abdomen, and these were now masses
+      of squirming worms. It was so much worse than the usual forms of
+      suffering, that quite a little crowd of compassionate spectators gathered
+      around and expressed their pity. The sufferer turned to one who lay beside
+      him with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Comrade: If we were only under the old Stars and Stripes, we wouldn't
+      care a G-d d&mdash;n for a few worms, would we?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was not profane. It was an utterance from the depths of a brave man's
+      heart, couched in the strongest language at his command. It seemed
+      terrible that so gallant a soul should depart from earth in this miserable
+      fashion. Some of us, much moved by the sight, went to the doctors and put
+      the case as strongly as possible, begging them to do something to
+      alleviate his suffering. They declined to see the case, but got rid of us
+      by giving us a bottle of turpentine, with directions to pour it upon the
+      ulcers to kill the maggots. We did so. It must have been cruel torture,
+      and as absurd remedially as cruel, but our hero set his teeth and endured,
+      without a groan. He was then carried out to the hospital to die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said the doctors made a pretense of affording medical relief. It was
+      hardly that, since about all the prescription for those inside the
+      Stockade consisted in giving a handful of sumach berries to each of those
+      complaining of scurvy. The berries might have done some good, had there
+      been enough of them, and had their action been assisted by proper food. As
+      it was, they were probably nearly, if not wholly, useless. Nothing was
+      given to arrest the ravages of dysentery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A limited number of the worst cases were admitted to the Hospital each
+      day. As this only had capacity for about one-quarter of the sick in the
+      Stockade, new patients could only be admitted as others died. It seemed,
+      anyway, like signing a man's death warrant to send him to the
+      Hospital, as three out of every four who went out there died. The
+      following from the official report of the Hospital shows this: <br><br>
+    </p>
+<table>
+<tr><td>Total number admitted .........................................</td><td class="tdr">12,900</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Died ................................................. </td><td class="tdr">8,663</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Exchanged ............................................   </td><td class="tdr">828</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Took the oath of allegiance ..........................    </td><td class="tdr">25</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Sent elsewhere ....................................... </td><td class="tdr">2,889</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Total .........................................................</td><td class="tdr">12,400</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2">Average deaths, 76 per cent.</td></tr>
+</table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in August I made a successful effort to get out to the Hospital. I
+      had several reasons for this: First, one of my chums, W. W. Watts, of my
+      own company, had been sent out a little whale before very sick with scurvy
+      and pneumonia, and I wanted to see if I could do anything for him, if he
+      still lived: I have mentioned before that for awhile after our entrance
+      into Andersonville five of us slept on one overcoat and covered ourselves
+      with one blanket. Two of these had already died, leaving as possessors
+      of-the blanket and overcoat, W. W. Watts, B. B. Andrews, and myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next, I wanted to go out to see if there was any prospect of escape. I had
+      long since given up hopes of escaping from the Stockade. All our attempts
+      at tunneling had resulted in dead failures, and now, to make us wholly
+      despair of success in that direction, another Stockade was built clear
+      around the prison, at a distance of one hundred and twenty feet from the
+      first palisades. It was manifest that though we might succeed in tunneling
+      past one Stockade, we could not go beyond the second one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had the scurvy rather badly, and being naturally slight in frame, I
+      presented a very sick appearance to the physicians, and was passed out to
+      the Hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this was a wretched affair, it was still a vast improvement on the
+      Stockade. About five acres of ground, a little southeast of the Stockade,
+      and bordering on a creek, were enclosed by a board fence, around which the
+      guard walked, trees shaded the ground tolerably well. There were tents and
+      flies to shelter part of the sick, and in these were beds made of pine
+      leaves. There were regular streets and alleys running through the grounds,
+      and as the management was in the hands of our own men, the place was kept
+      reasonably clean and orderly for Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was also some improvement in the food. Rice in some degree replaced
+      the nauseous and innutritious corn bread, and if served in sufficient
+      quantities, would doubtless have promoted the recovery of many men dying
+      from dysenteric diseases. We also received small quantities of &ldquo;okra,&rdquo;
+      a plant peculiar to the South, whose pods contained a mucilaginous matter
+      that made a soup very grateful to those suffering from scurvy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all these ameliorations of condition were too slight to even arrest
+      the progress of the disease of the thousands of dying men brought out from
+      the Stockade. These still wore the same lice-infested garments as in
+      prison; no baths or even ordinary applications of soap and water cleaned
+      their dirt-grimed skins, to give their pores an opportunity to assist in
+      restoring them to health; even their long, lank and matted hair, swarming
+      with vermin, was not trimmed. The most ordinary and obvious measures for
+      their comfort and care were neglected. If a man recovered he did it almost
+      in spite of fate. The medicines given were scanty and crude. The principal
+      remedial agent&mdash;as far as my observation extended&mdash;was a rank,
+      fetid species of unrectified spirits, which, I was told, was made from
+      sorgum seed. It had a light-green tinge, and was about as inviting to the
+      taste as spirits of turpentine. It was given to the sick in small
+      quantities mixed with water. I had had some experience with Kentucky
+      &ldquo;apple-jack,&rdquo; which, it was popularly believed among the boys,
+      would dissolve a piece of the fattest pork thrown into it, but that seemed
+      balmy and oily alongside of this. After tasting some, I ceased to wonder
+      at the atrocities of Wirz and his associates. Nothing would seem too bad
+      to a man who made that his habitual tipple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [For a more particular description of the Hospital I must refer my reader
+      to the testimony of Professor Jones, in a previous chapter.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly this continent has never seen&mdash;and I fervently trust it
+      will never again see&mdash;such a gigantic concentration of misery as that
+      Hospital displayed daily. The official statistics tell the story of this
+      with terrible brevity: There were three thousand seven hundred and nine in
+      the Hospital in August; one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine&mdash;nearly
+      every other man died. The rate afterwards became much higher than this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most conspicuous suffering was in the gangrene wards. Horrible sores
+      spreading almost visibly from hour to hour, devoured men's limbs and
+      bodies. I remember one ward in which the alterations appeared to be
+      altogether in the back, where they ate out the tissue between the skin and
+      the ribs. The attendants seemed trying to arrest the progress of the
+      sloughing by drenching the sores with a solution of blue vitriol. This was
+      exquisitely painful, and in the morning, when the drenching was going on,
+      the whole hospital rang with the most agonizing screams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the gangrene mostly attacked the legs and arms, and the led more than
+      the arms. Sometimes it killed men inside of a week; sometimes they
+      lingered on indefinitely. I remember one man in the Stockade who cut his
+      hand with the sharp corner of a card of corn bread he was lifting from the
+      ration wagon; gangrene set in immediately, and he died four days after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One form that was quit prevalent was a cancer of the lower one corner of
+      the mouth, and it finally ate the whole side of the face out. Of course
+      the sufferer had the greatest trouble in eating and drinking. For the
+      latter it was customary to whittle out a little wooden tube, and fasten it
+      in a tin cup, through which he could suck up the water. As this mouth
+      cancer seemed contagious, none of us would allow any one afflicted with it
+      to use any of our cooking utensils. The Rebel doctors at the hospital
+      resorted to wholesale amputations to check the progress of the gangrene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had a two hours session of limb-lopping every morning, each of which
+      resulted in quite a pile of severed members. I presume more bungling
+      operations are rarely seen outside of Russian or Turkish hospitals. Their
+      unskilfulness was apparent even to non-scientific observers like myself.
+      The standard of medical education in the South&mdash;as indeed of every
+      other form of education&mdash;was quite low. The Chief Surgeon of the
+      prison, Dr. Isaiah White, and perhaps two or three others, seemed to be
+      gentlemen of fair abilities and attainments. The remainder were of that
+      class of illiterate and unlearning quacks who physic and blister the poor
+      whites and negros in the country districts of the South; who believe they
+      can stop bleeding of the nose by repeating a verse from the Bible; who
+      think that if in gathering their favorite remedy of boneset they cut the
+      stem upwards it will purge their patients, and if downward it will vomit
+      them, and who hold that there is nothing so good for &ldquo;fits&rdquo; as
+      a black cat, killed in the dark of the moon, cut open, and bound while yet
+      warm, upon the naked chest of the victim of the convulsions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had a case of instruments captured from some of our field hospitals,
+      which were dull and fearfully out of order. With poor instruments and
+      unskilled hands the operations became mangling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the Hospital I saw an admirable illustration of the affection which a
+      sailor will lavish on a ship's boy, whom he takes a fancy to, and
+      makes his &ldquo;chicken,&rdquo; as the phrase is. The United States sloop
+      &ldquo;Water Witch&rdquo; had recently been captured in Ossabaw Sound, and
+      her crew brought into prison. One of her boys&mdash;a bright, handsome
+      little fellow of about fifteen&mdash;had lost one of his arms in the
+      fight. He was brought into the Hospital, and the old fellow whose &ldquo;chicken&rdquo;
+      he was, was allowed to accompany and nurse him. This &ldquo;old
+      barnacle-back&rdquo; was as surly a growler as ever went aloft, but to his
+      &ldquo;chicken&rdquo; he was as tender and thoughtful as a woman. They
+      found a shady nook in one corner, and any moment one looked in that
+      direction he could see the old tar hard at work at something for the
+      comfort and pleasure of his pet. Now he was dressing the wound as deftly
+      and gently as a mother caring for a new-born babe; now he was trying to
+      concoct some relish out of the slender materials he could beg or steal
+      from the Quartermaster; now trying to arrange the shade of the bed of pine
+      leaves in a more comfortable manner; now repairing or washing his clothes,
+      and so on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the sailors were particularly favored by being allowed to bring their
+      bags in untouched by the guards. This &ldquo;chicken&rdquo; had a
+      wonderful supply of clothes, the handiwork of his protector who, like most
+      good sailors, was very skillful with the needle. He had suits of fine
+      white duck, embroidered with blue in a way that would ravish the heart of
+      a fine lady, and blue suits similarly embroidered with white. No belle
+      ever kept her clothes in better order than these were. When the duck came
+      up from the old sailor's patient washing it was as spotless as
+      new-fallen snow. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p361" id="p361"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p361.jpg (24K)" src="images/p361.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I found my chum in a very bad condition. His appetite was entirely gone,
+      but he had an inordinate craving for tobacco&mdash;for strong, black plug
+      &mdash;which he smoked in a pipe. He had already traded off all his brass
+      buttons to the guards for this. I had accumulated a few buttons to bribe
+      the guard to take me out for wood, and I gave these also for tobacco for
+      him. When I awoke one morning the man who laid next to me on the right was
+      dead, having died sometime during the night. I searched his pockets and
+      took what was in them. These were a silk pocket handkerchief, a gutta
+      percha finger-ring, a comb, a pencil, and a leather pocket-book, making in
+      all quite a nice little &ldquo;find.&rdquo; I hied over to the guard, and
+      succeeded in trading the personal estate which I had inherited from the
+      intestate deceased, for a handful of peaches, a handful of hardly ripe
+      figs, and a long plug of tobacco. I hastened back to Watts, expecting that
+      the figs and peaches would do him a world of good. At first I did not show
+      him the tobacco, as I was strongly opposed to his using it, thinking that
+      it was making him much worse. But he looked at the tempting peaches and
+      figs with lack-luster eyes; he was too far gone to care for them. He
+      pushed them back to me, saying faintly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you take 'em, Mc; I don't want 'em; I can't
+      eat 'em!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I then produced the tobacco, and his face lighted up. Concluding that this
+      was all the comfort that he could have, and that I might as well gratify
+      him, I cut up some of the weed, filled his pipe and lighted it. He smoked
+      calmly and almost happily all the afternoon, hardly speaking a word to me.
+      As it grew dark he asked me to bring him a drink. I did so, and as I
+      raised him up he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mc, this thing's ended. Tell my father that I stood it as
+      long as I could, and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The death rattle sounded in his throat, and when I laid him back it was
+      all over. Straightening out his limbs, folding his hands across his
+      breast, and composing his features as best I could, I lay, down beside the
+      body and slept till morning, when I did what little else I could toward
+      preparing for the grave all that was left of my long-suffering little
+      friend. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p363" id="p363"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p363.jpg (28K)" src="images/p363.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch48" id="ch48"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DETERMINATION TO ESCAPE&mdash;DIFFERENT PLANS AND THEIR MERITS&mdash;I
+      PREFER THE APPALACHICOLA ROUTE&mdash;PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE&mdash;A
+      HOT DAY&mdash;THE FENCE PASSED SUCCESSFULLY PURSUED BY THE HOUNDS&mdash;CAUGHT
+      &mdash;RETURNED TO THE STOCKADE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Watt's death, I set earnestly about seeing what could be done
+      in the way of escape. Frank Harney, of the First West Virginia Cavalry, a
+      boy of about my own age and disposition, joined with me in the scheme. I
+      was still possessed with my original plan of making my way down the creeks
+      to the Flint River, down the Flint River to where it emptied into the
+      Appalachicola River, and down that stream to its debauchure into the bay
+      that connected with the Gulf of Mexico. I was sure of finding my way by
+      this route, because, if nothing else offered, I could get astride of a log
+      and float down the current. The way to Sherman, in the other direction,
+      was long, torturous and difficult, with a fearful gauntlet of
+      blood-hounds, patrols and the scouts of Hood's Army to be run. I had
+      but little difficulty in persuading Harney into an acceptance of my views,
+      and we began arranging for a solution of the first great problem&mdash;how
+      to get outside of the Hospital guards. As I have explained before, the
+      Hospital was surrounded by a board fence, with guards walking their beats
+      on the ground outside. A small creek flowed through the southern end of
+      the grounds, and at its lower end was used as a sink. The boards of the
+      fence came down to the surface of the water, where the Creek passed out,
+      but we found, by careful prodding with a stick, that the hole between the
+      boards and the bottom of the Creek was sufficiently large to allow the
+      passage of our bodies, and there had been no stakes driven or other
+      precautions used to prevent egress by this channel. A guard was posted
+      there, and probably ordered to stand at the edge of the stream, but it
+      smelled so vilely in those scorching days that he had consulted his
+      feelings and probably his health, by retiring to the top of the bank, a
+      rod or more distant. We watched night after night, and at last were
+      gratified to find that none went nearer the Creak than the top of this
+      bank. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p365" id="p365"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p365.jpg (40K)" src="images/p365.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then we waited for the moon to come right, so that the first part of the
+      night should be dark. This took several days, but at last we knew that the
+      next night she would not rise until between 9 and 10 o'clock, which
+      would give us nearly two hours of the dense darkness of a moonless Summer
+      night in the South. We had first thought of saving up some rations for the
+      trip, but then reflected that these would be ruined by the filthy water
+      into which we must sink to go under the fence. It was not difficult to
+      abandon the food idea, since it was very hard to force ourselves to lay by
+      even the smallest portion of our scanty rations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the next day wore on, our minds were wrought up into exalted tension by
+      the rapid approach of the supreme moment, with all its chances and
+      consequences. The experience of the past few months was not such as to
+      mentally fit us for such a hazard. It prepared us for sullen,
+      uncomplaining endurance, for calmly contemplating the worst that could
+      come; but it did not strengthen that fiber of mind that leads to
+      venturesome activity and daring exploits. Doubtless the weakness of our
+      bodies reacted upon our spirits. We contemplated all the perils that
+      confronted us; perils that, now looming up with impending nearness, took a
+      clearer and more threatening shape than they had ever done before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We considered the desperate chances of passing the guard unseen; or, if
+      noticed, of escaping his fire without death or severe wounds. But
+      supposing him fortunately evaded, then came the gauntlet of the hounds and
+      the patrols hunting deserters. After this, a long, weary journey, with
+      bare feet and almost naked bodies, through an unknown country abounding
+      with enemies; the dangers of assassination by the embittered populace; the
+      risks of dying with hunger and fatigue in the gloomy depths of a swamp;
+      the scanty hopes that, if we reached the seashore, we could get to our
+      vessels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not one of all these contingencies failed to expand itself to all its
+      alarming proportions, and unite with its fellows to form a dreadful vista,
+      like the valleys filled with demons and genii, dragons and malign
+      enchantments, which confront the heros of the &ldquo;Arabian Nights,&rdquo;
+      when they set out to perform their exploits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But behind us lay more miseries and horrors than a riotous imagination
+      could conceive; before us could certainly be nothing worse. We would put
+      life and freedom to the hazard of a touch, and win or lose it all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day had been intolerably hot. The sun's rays seemed to sear the
+      earth, like heated irons, and the air that lay on the burning sand was
+      broken by wavy lines, such as one sees indicate the radiation from a hot
+      stove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Except the wretched chain-gang plodding torturously back and forward on
+      the hillside, not a soul nor an animal could be seen in motion outside the
+      Stockade. The hounds were panting in their kennel; the Rebel officers,
+      half or wholly drunken with villainous sorgum whisky, were stretched at
+      full length in the shade at headquarters; the half-caked gunners crouched
+      under the shadow of the embankments of the forts, the guards hung limply
+      over the Stockade in front of their little perches; the thirty thousand
+      boys inside the Stockade, prone or supine upon the glowing sand, gasped
+      for breath&mdash;for one draft of sweet, cool, wholesome air that did not
+      bear on its wings the subtle seeds of rank corruption and death.
+      Everywhere was the prostration of discomfort&mdash;the inertia of
+      sluggishness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only the sick moved; only the pain-racked cried out; only the dying
+      struggled; only the agonies of dissolution could make life assert itself
+      against the exhaustion of the heat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harney and I, lying in the scanty shade of the trunk of a tall pine, and
+      with hearts filled with solicitude as to the outcome of what the evening
+      would bring us, looked out over the scene as we had done daily for long
+      months, and remained silent for hours, until the sun, as if weary with
+      torturing and slaying, began going down in the blazing West. The groans of
+      the thousands of sick around us, the shrieks of the rotting ones in the
+      gangrene wards rang incessantly in our ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the sun disappeared, and the heat abated, the suspended activity was
+      restored. The Master of the Hounds came out with his yelping pack, and
+      started on his rounds; the Rebel officers aroused themselves from their
+      siesta and went lazily about their duties; the fifer produced his cracked
+      fife and piped forth his unvarying &ldquo;Bonnie Blue Flag,&rdquo; as a
+      signal for dress parade, and drums beaten by unskilled hands in the camps
+      of the different regiments, repeated the signal. In time Stockade the mass
+      of humanity became full of motion as an ant hill, and resembled it very
+      much from our point of view, with the boys threading their way among the
+      burrows, tents and holes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was becoming dark quite rapidly. The moments seemed galloping onward
+      toward the time when we must make the decisive step. We drew from the
+      dirty rag in which it was wrapped the little piece of corn bread that we
+      had saved for our supper, carefully divided it into two equal parts, and
+      each took one and ate it in silence. This done, we held a final
+      consultation as to our plans, and went over each detail carefully, that we
+      might fully understand each other under all possible circumstances, and
+      act in concert. One point we laboriously impressed upon each other, and
+      that was; that under no circumstances were we to allow ourselves to be
+      tempted to leave the Creek until we reached its junction with the Flint
+      River. I then picked up two pine leaves, broke them off to unequal
+      lengths, rolled them in my hands behind my back for a second, and
+      presenting them to Harney with their ends sticking out of my closed hand,
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The one that gets the longest one goes first.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harney reached forth and drew the longer one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We made a tour of reconnaissance. Everything seemed as usual, and
+      wonderfully calm compared with the tumult in our minds. The Hospital
+      guards were pacing their beats lazily; those on the Stockade were drawling
+      listlessly the first &ldquo;call around&rdquo; of the evening:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Post numbah foah! Half-past seven o'clock! and a-l-l's
+      we-l-ll!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inside the Stockade was a Babel of sounds, above all of which rose the
+      melody of religious and patriotic songs, sung in various parts of the
+      camp. From the headquarters came the shouts and laughter of the Rebel
+      officers having a little &ldquo;frolic&rdquo; in the cool of the evening.
+      The groans of the sick around us were gradually hushing, as the abatement
+      of the terrible heat let all but the worst cases sink into a brief
+      slumber, from which they awoke before midnight to renew their outcries.
+      But those in the Gangrene wards seemed to be denied even this scanty
+      blessing. Apparently they never slept, for their shrieks never ceased. A
+      multitude of whip-poor-wills in the woods around us began their usual
+      dismal cry, which had never seemed so unearthly and full of dreadful
+      presages as now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, now quite dark, and we stole noiselessly down to the Creek and
+      reconnoitered. We listened. The guard was not pacing his beat, as we could
+      not hear his footsteps. A large, ill-shapen lump against the trunk of one
+      of the trees on the bank showed that he was leaning there resting himself.
+      We watched him for several minutes, but he did not move, and the thought
+      shot into our minds that he might be asleep; but it seemed impossible: it
+      was too early in the evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, if ever, was the opportunity. Harney squeezed my hand, stepped
+      noiselessly into the Creek, laid himself gently down into the filthy
+      water, and while my heart was beating so that I was certain it could be
+      heard some distance from me, began making toward the fence. He passed
+      under easily, and I raised my eyes toward the guard, while on my strained
+      ear fell the soft plashing made by Harney as he pulled himself cautiously
+      forward. It seemed as if the sentinel must hear this; he could not help
+      it, and every second I expected to see the black lump address itself to
+      motion, and the musket flash out fiendishly. But he did not; the lump
+      remained motionless; the musket silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I thought that Harney had gained a sufficient distance I followed. It
+      seemed as if the disgusting water would smother me as I laid myself down
+      into it, and such was my agitation that it appeared almost impossible that
+      I should escape making such a noise as would attract the guard's
+      notice. Catching hold of the roots and limbs at the side of the stream, I
+      pulled myself slowly along, and as noiselessly as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I passed under the fence without difficulty, and was outside, and within
+      fifteen feet of the guard. I had lain down into the creek upon my right
+      side, that my face might be toward the guard, and I could watch him
+      closely all the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I came under the fence he was still leaning motionless against the
+      tree, but to my heated imagination he appeared to have turned and be
+      watching me. I hardly breathed; the filthy water rippling past me seemed
+      to roar to attract the guard's attention; I reached my hand out
+      cautiously to grasp a root to pull myself along by, and caught instead a
+      dry branch, which broke with a loud crack. My heart absolutely stood
+      still. The guard evidently heard the noise. The black lump separated
+      itself from the tree, and a straight line which I knew to be his musket
+      separated itself from the lump. In a brief instant I lived a year of
+      mortal apprehension. So certain was I that he had discovered me, and was
+      leveling his piece to fire, that I could scarcely restrain myself from
+      springing up and dashing away to avoid the shot. Then I heard him take a
+      step, and to my unutterable surprise and relief, he walked off farther
+      from the Creek, evidently to speak to the man whose beat joined his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I pulled away more swiftly, but still with the greatest caution, until
+      after half-an-hour's painful effort I had gotten fully one hundred
+      and fifty yards away from the Hospital fence, and found Harney crouched on
+      a cypress knee, close to the water's edge, watching for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We waited there a few minutes, until I could rest, and calm my perturbed
+      nerves down to something nearer their normal equilibrium, and then started
+      on. We hoped that if we were as lucky in our next step as in the first one
+      we would reach the Flint River by daylight, and have a good long start
+      before the morning roll-call revealed our absence. We could hear the
+      hounds still baying in the distance, but this sound was too customary to
+      give us any uneasiness. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p370" id="p370"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p370.jpg (38K)" src="images/p370.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But our progress was terribly slow. Every step hurt fearfully. The Creek
+      bed was full of roots and snags, and briers, and vines trailed across it.
+      These caught and tore our bare feet and legs, rendered abnormally tender
+      by the scurvy. It seemed as if every step was marked with blood. The vines
+      tripped us, and we frequently fell headlong. We struggled on determinedly
+      for nearly an hour, and were perhaps a mile from the Hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon came up, and its light showed that the creek continued its course
+      through a dense jungle like that we had been traversing, while on the high
+      ground to our left were the open pine woods I have previously described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We stopped and debated for a few minutes. We recalled our promise to keep
+      in the Creek, the experience of other boys who had tried to escape and
+      been caught by the hounds. If we staid in the Creek we were sure the
+      hounds would not find our trail, but it was equally certain that at this
+      rate we would be exhausted and starved before we got out of sight of the
+      prison. It seemed that we had gone far enough to be out of reach of the
+      packs patrolling immediately around the Stockade, and there could be but
+      little risk in trying a short walk on the dry ground. We concluded to take
+      the chances, and, ascending the bank, we walked and ran as fast as we
+      could for about two miles further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All at once it struck me that with all our progress the hounds sounded as
+      near as when we started. I shivered at the thought, and though nearly
+      ready to drop with fatigue, urged myself and Harney on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An instant later their baying rang out on the still night air right behind
+      us, and with fearful distinctness. There was no mistake now; they had
+      found our trail, and were running us down. The change from fearful
+      apprehension to the crushing reality stopped us stock-still in our tracks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the next breath the hounds came bursting through the woods in plain
+      sight, and in full cry. We obeyed our first impulse; rushed back into the
+      swamp, forced our way for a few yards through the flesh-tearing
+      impediments, until we gained a large cypress, upon whose great knees we
+      climbed&mdash;thoroughly exhausted&mdash;just as the yelping pack reached
+      the edge of the water, and stopped there and bayed at us. It was a
+      physical impossibility for us to go another step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a moment the low-browed villain who had charge of the hounds came
+      galloping up on his mule, tooting signals to his dogs as he came, on the
+      cow-horn slung from his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He immediately discovered us, covered us with his revolver, and yelled
+      out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come ashore, there, quick: you&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;
+      &mdash;&mdash;s!&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> <a name="p372" id="p372"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p372.jpg (53K)" src="images/p372.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no help for it. We climbed down off the knees and started
+      towards the land. As we neared it, the hounds became almost frantic, and
+      it seemed as if we would be torn to pieces the moment they could reach us.
+      But the master dismounted and drove them back. He was surly &mdash;even
+      savage&mdash;to us, but seemed in too much hurry to get back to waste any
+      time annoying us with the dogs. He ordered us to get around in front of
+      the mule, and start back to camp. We moved as rapidly as our fatigue and
+      our lacerated feet would allow us, and before midnight were again in the
+      hospital, fatigued, filthy, torn, bruised and wretched beyond description
+      or conception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning we were turned back into the Stockade as punishment.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch49" id="ch49"></a>CHAPTER XLIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AUGUST&mdash;GOOD LUCK IN NOT MEETING CAPTAIN WIRZ&mdash;THAT WORTHY'S
+      TREATMENT OF RECAPTURED PRISONERS&mdash;SECRET SOCIETIES IN PRISON&mdash;SINGULAR
+      MEETING AND ITS RESULT&mdash;DISCOVERY AND REMOVAL OF THE OFFICERS AMONG
+      THE ENLISTED MEN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harney and I were specially fortunate in being turned back into the
+      Stockade without being brought before Captain Wirz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We subsequently learned that we owed this good luck to Wirz's
+      absence on sick leave&mdash;his place being supplied by Lieutenant Davis,
+      a moderate brained Baltimorean, and one of that horde of Marylanders in
+      the Rebel Army, whose principal service to the Confederacy consisted in
+      working themselves into &ldquo;bomb-proof&rdquo; places, and forcing those
+      whom they displaced into the field. Winder was the illustrious head of
+      this crowd of bomb-proof Rebels from &ldquo;Maryland, My Maryland!&rdquo;
+      whose enthusiasm for the Southern cause and consistency in serving it only
+      in such places as were out of range of the Yankee artillery, was the
+      subject of many bitter jibes by the Rebels&mdash;especially by those whose
+      secure berths they possessed themselves of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lieutenant Davis went into the war with great brashness. He was one of the
+      mob which attacked the Sixth Massachusetts in its passage through
+      Baltimore, but, like all of that class of roughs, he got his stomach full
+      of war as soon as the real business of fighting began, and he retired to
+      where the chances of attaining a ripe old age were better than in front of
+      the Army of the Potomac's muskets. We shall hear of Davis again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Encountering Captain Wirz was one of the terrors of an abortive attempt to
+      escape. When recaptured prisoners were brought before him he would
+      frequently give way to paroxysms of screaming rage, so violent as to
+      closely verge on insanity. Brandishing the fearful and wonderful revolver&mdash;of
+      which I have spoken in such a manner as to threaten the luckless captives
+      with instant death, he would shriek out imprecations, curses; and foul
+      epithets in French, German and English, until he fairly frothed at the
+      mouth. There were plenty of stories current in camp of his having several
+      times given away to his rage so far as to actually shoot men down in these
+      interviews, and still more of his knocking boys down and jumping upon
+      them, until he inflicted injuries that soon resulted in death. How true
+      these rumors were I am unable to say of my own personal knowledge, since I
+      never saw him kill any one, nor have I talked with any one who did. There
+      were a number of cases of this kind testified to upon his trial, but they
+      all happened among &ldquo;paroles&rdquo; outside the Stockade, or among
+      the prisoners inside after we left, so I knew nothing of them. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p375" id="p375"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p375.jpg (32K)" src="images/p375.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the Old Switzer's favorite ways of ending these seances was
+      to inform the boys that he would have them shot in an hour or so, and bid
+      them prepare for death. After keeping them in fearful suspense for hours
+      he would order them to be punished with the stocks, the ball-and-chain,
+      the chain-gang, or&mdash;if his fierce mood had burned itself entirely out
+      &mdash;as was quite likely with a man of his shallop' brain and
+      vacillating temper&mdash;to be simply returned to the stockade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing, I am sure, since the days of the Inquisition&mdash;or still
+      later, since the terrible punishments visited upon the insurgents of 1848
+      by the Austrian aristocrats&mdash;has been so diabolical as the stocks and
+      chain-gangs, as used by Wirz. At one time seven men, sitting in the stocks
+      near the Star Fort&mdash;in plain view of the camp&mdash;became objects of
+      interest to everybody inside. They were never relieved from their painful
+      position, but were kept there until all of them died. I think it was
+      nearly two weeks before the last one succumbed. What they endured in that
+      time even imagination cannot conceive&mdash;I do not think that an Indian
+      tribe ever devised keener torture for its captives. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p376" id="p376"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p376.jpg (41K)" src="images/p376.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chain-gang consisted of a number of men&mdash;varying from twelve to
+      twenty-five, all chained to one sixty-four pound ball. They were also
+      stationed near the Star Fort, standing out in the hot sun, without a
+      particle of shade over them. When one moved they all had to move. They
+      were scourged with the dysentery, and the necessities of some one of their
+      number kept them constantly in motion. I can see them distinctly yet,
+      tramping laboriously and painfully back and forward over that burning
+      hillside, every moment of the long, weary Summer days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A comrade writes to remind me of the beneficent work of the Masonic Order.
+      I mention it most gladly, as it was the sole recognition on the part of
+      any of our foes of our claims to human kinship. The churches of all
+      denominations&mdash;except the solitary Catholic priest, Father Hamilton,
+      &mdash;ignored us as wholly as if we were dumb beasts. Lay humanitarians
+      were equally indifferent, and the only interest manifested by any Rebel in
+      the welfare of any prisoner was by the Masonic brotherhood. The Rebel
+      Masons interested themselves in securing details outside the Stockade in
+      the cookhouse, the commissary, and elsewhere, for the brethren among the
+      prisoners who would accept such favors. Such as did not feel inclined to
+      go outside on parole received frequent presents in the way of food, and
+      especially of vegetables, which were literally beyond price. Materials
+      were sent inside to build tents for the Masons, and I think such as made
+      themselves known before death, received burial according to the rites of
+      the Order. Doctor White, and perhaps other Surgeons, belonged to the
+      fraternity, and the wearing of a Masonic emblem by a new prisoner was
+      pretty sure to catch their eyes, and be the means of securing for the
+      wearer the tender of their good offices, such as a detail into the
+      Hospital as nurse, ward-master, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was not fortunate enough to be one of the mystic brethren, and so missed
+      all share in any of these benefits, as well as in any others, and I take
+      special pride in one thing: that during my whole imprisonment I was not
+      beholden to a Rebel for a single favor of any kind. The Rebel does not
+      live who can say that he ever gave me so much as a handful of meal, a
+      spoonful of salt, an inch of thread, or a stick of wood. From first to
+      last I received nothing but my rations, except occasional trifles that I
+      succeeded in stealing from the stupid officers charged with issuing
+      rations. I owe no man in the Southern Confederacy gratitude for anything&mdash;not
+      even for a kind word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Speaking of secret society pins recalls a noteworthy story which has been
+      told me since the war, of boys whom I knew. At the breaking out of
+      hostilities there existed in Toledo a festive little secret society, such
+      as lurking boys frequently organize, with no other object than fun and the
+      usual adolescent love of mystery. There were a dozen or so members in it
+      who called themselves &ldquo;The Royal Reubens,&rdquo; and were headed by
+      a bookbinder named Ned Hopkins. Some one started a branch of the Order in
+      Napoleon, O., and among the members was Charles E. Reynolds, of that town.
+      The badge of the society was a peculiarly shaped gold pin. Reynolds and
+      Hopkins never met, and had no acquaintance with each other. When the war
+      broke out, Hopkins enlisted in Battery H, First Ohio Artillery, and was
+      sent to the Army of the Potomac, where he was captured, in the Fall of
+      1863, while scouting, in the neighborhood of Richmond. Reynolds entered
+      the Sixty-Eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was taken in the
+      neighborhood of Jackson, Miss.,&mdash;two thousand miles from the place of
+      Hopkins's capture. At Andersonville Hopkins became one of the
+      officers in charge of the Hospital. One day a Rebel Sergeant, who called
+      the roll in the Stockade, after studying Hopkins's pin a minute,
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seed a Yank in the Stockade to-day a-wearing a pin egzackly like
+      that ere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This aroused Hopkins's interest, and he went inside in search of the
+      other &ldquo;feller.&rdquo; Having his squad and detachment there was
+      little difficulty in finding him. He recognized the pin, spoke to its
+      wearer, gave him the &ldquo;grand hailing sign&rdquo; of the &ldquo;Royal
+      Reubens,&rdquo; and it was duly responded to. The upshot of the matter was
+      that he took Reynolds out with him as clerk, and saved his life, as the
+      latter was going down hill very rapidly. Reynolds, in turn, secured the
+      detail of a comrade of the Sixty-Eighth who was failing fast, and
+      succeeded in saving his life&mdash;all of which happy results were
+      directly attributable to that insignificant boyish society, and its
+      equally unimportant badge of membership.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Along in the last of August the Rebels learned that there were between two
+      and three hundred Captains and Lieutenants in the Stockade, passing
+      themselves off as enlisted men. The motive of these officers was two-fold:
+      first, a chivalrous wish to share the fortunes and fate of their boys, and
+      second, disinclination to gratify the Rebels by the knowledge of the rank
+      of their captives. The secret was so well kept that none of us suspected
+      it until the fact was announced by the Rebels themselves. They were taken
+      out immediately, and sent to Macon, where the commissioned officers'
+      prison was. It would not do to trust such possible leaders with us another
+      day. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch50" id="ch50"></a>CHAPTER L.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FOOD&mdash;THE MEAGERNESS, INFERIOR QUALITY, AND TERRIBLE SAMENESS &mdash;REBEL
+      TESTIMONY ON THE SUBJECT&mdash;FUTILITY OF SUCCESSFUL EXPLANATION.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have in other places dwelt upon the insufficiency and the nauseousness
+      of the food. No words that I can use, no insistence upon this theme, can
+      give the reader any idea of its mortal importance to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let the reader consider for a moment the quantity, quality, and variety of
+      food that he now holds to be necessary for the maintenance of life and
+      health. I trust that every one who peruses this book&mdash;that every one
+      in fact over whom the Stars and Stripes wave&mdash;has his cup of coffee,
+      his biscuits and his beefsteak for breakfast&mdash;a substantial dinner of
+      roast or boiled&mdash;and a lighter, but still sufficient meal in the
+      evening. In all, certainly not less than fifty different articles are set
+      before him during the day, for his choice as elements of nourishment. Let
+      him scan this extended bill-of-fare, which long custom has made so
+      common-place as to be uninteresting&mdash;perhaps even wearisome to think
+      about &mdash;and see what he could omit from it, if necessity compelled
+      him. After a reluctant farewell to fish, butter, eggs, milk, sugar, green
+      and preserved fruits, etc., he thinks that perhaps under extraordinary
+      circumstances he might be able to merely sustain life for a limited period
+      on a diet of bread and meat three times a day, washed down with creamless,
+      unsweetened coffee, and varied occasionally with additions of potatos,
+      onions, beans, etc. It would astonish the Innocent to have one of our
+      veterans inform him that this was not even the first stage of destitution;
+      that a soldier who had these was expected to be on the summit level of
+      contentment. Any of the boys who followed Grant to Appomattox Court House,
+      Sherman to the Sea, or &ldquo;Pap&rdquo; Thomas till his glorious career
+      culminated with the annihilation of Hood, will tell him of many weeks when
+      a slice of fat pork on a piece of &ldquo;hard tack&rdquo; had to do duty
+      for the breakfast of beefsteak and biscuits; when another slice of fat
+      pork and another cracker served for the dinner of roast beef and
+      vegetables, and a third cracker and slice of pork was a substitute for the
+      supper of toast and chops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I say to these veterans in turn that they did not arrive at the first
+      stages of destitution compared with the depths to which we were dragged.
+      The restriction for a few weeks to a diet of crackers and fat pork was
+      certainly a hardship, but the crackers alone, chemists tell us, contain
+      all the elements necessary to support life, and in our Army they were
+      always well made and very palatable. I believe I risk nothing in saying
+      that one of the ordinary square crackers of our Commissary Department
+      contained much more real nutriment than the whole of our average ration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have before compared the size, shape and appearance of the daily half
+      loaf of corn bread issued to us to a half-brick, and I do not yet know of
+      a more fitting comparison. At first we got a small piece of rusty bacon
+      along with this; but the size of this diminished steadily until at last it
+      faded away entirely, and during the last six months of our imprisonment I
+      do not believe that we received rations of meat above a half-dozen times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this smallness was added ineffable badness. The meal was ground very
+      coarsely, by dull, weakly propelled stones, that imperfectly crushed the
+      grains, and left the tough, hard coating of the kernels in large, sharp,
+      mica-like scales, which cut and inflamed the stomach and intestines, like
+      handfuls of pounded glass. The alimentary canals of all compelled to eat
+      it were kept in a continual state of irritation that usually terminated in
+      incurable dysentery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That I have not over-stated this evil can be seen by reference to the
+      testimony of so competent a scientific observer as Professor Jones, and I
+      add to that unimpeachable testimony the following extract from the
+      statement made in an attempted defense of Andersonville by Doctor R.
+      Randolph Stevenson, who styles himself, formerly Surgeon in the Army of
+      the Confederate States of America, Chief Surgeon of the Confederate States
+      Military Prison Hospitals, Andersonville, Ga.:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V. From the sameness of the food, and from the action of the poisonous
+      gases in the densely crowded and filthy Stockade and Hospital, the blood
+      was altered in its constitution, even, before the manifestation of actual
+      disease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In both the well and the sick, the red corpuscles were diminished; and in
+      all diseases uncomplicated with inflammation, the fibrinous element was
+      deficient. In cases of ulceration of the mucous membrane of the intestinal
+      canal, the fibrinous element of the blood appeared to be increased; while
+      in simple diarrhea, uncomplicated with ulceration, and dependent upon the
+      character of the food and the existence of scurvy, it was either
+      diminished or remained stationary. Heart-clots were very common, if not
+      universally present, in the cases of ulceration of the intestinal mucous
+      membrane; while in the uncomplicated cases of diarrhea and scurvy, the
+      blood was fluid and did not coagulate readily, and the heart-clots and
+      fibrinous concretions were almost universally absent. From the watery
+      condition of the blood there resulted various serous effusions into the
+      pericardium, into the ventricles of the brain, and into the abdominal
+      cavity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In almost all cases which I examined after death, even in the most
+      emaciated, there was more or less serous effusion into the abdominal
+      cavity. In cases of hospital gangrene of the extremities, and in cases of
+      gangrene of the intestines, heart-clots and firm coagula were universally
+      present. The presence of these clots in the cases of hospital gangrene,
+      whilst they were absent in the cases in which there were no inflammatory
+      symptoms, appears to sustain the conclusion that hospital gangrene is a
+      species of inflammation (imperfect and irregular though it may be in its
+      progress), in which the fibrinous element and coagulability of the blood
+      are increased, even in those who are suffering from such a condition of
+      the blood and from such diseases as are naturally accompanied with a
+      decrease in the fibrinous constituent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VI. The impoverished condition of the blood, which led to serous effusions
+      within the ventricles of the brain, and around the brain and spinal cord,
+      and into the pericardial and abdominal cavities, was gradually induced by
+      the action of several causes, but chiefly by the character of the food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Federal prisoners, as a general rule, had been reared upon wheat bread
+      and Irish potatos; and the Indian corn so extensively used at the South,
+      was almost unknown to them as an article of diet previous to their
+      capture. Owing to the impossibility of obtaining the necessary sieves in
+      the Confederacy for the separation of the husk from the corn-meal, the
+      rations of the Confederate soldiers, as well as of the Federal prisoners,
+      consisted of unbolted corn-flour, and meal and grist; this circumstance
+      rendered the corn-bread still more disagreeable and distasteful to the
+      Federal prisoners. While Indian meal, even when prepared with the husk, is
+      one of the most wholesome and nutritious forms of food, as has been
+      already shown by the health and rapid increase of the Southern population,
+      and especially of the negros, previous to the present war, and by the
+      strength, endurance and activity of the Confederate soldiers, who were
+      throughout the war confined to a great extent to unbolted corn-meal; it is
+      nevertheless true that those who have not been reared upon corn-meal, or
+      who have not accustomed themselves to its use gradually, become
+      excessively tired of this kind of diet when suddenly confined to it
+      without a due proportion of wheat bread. Large numbers of the Federal
+      prisoners appeared to be utterly disgusted with Indian corn, and immense
+      piles of corn-bread could be seen in the Stockade and Hospital inclosures.
+      Those who were so disgusted with this form of food that they had no
+      appetite to partake of it, except in quantities insufficient to supply the
+      waste of the tissues, were, of course, in the condition of men slowly
+      starving, notwithstanding that the only farinaceous form of food which the
+      Confederate States produced in sufficient abundance for the maintenance of
+      armies was not withheld from them. In such cases, an urgent feeling of
+      hunger was not a prominent symptom; and even when it existed at first, it
+      soon disappeared, and was succeeded by an actual loathing of food. In this
+      state the muscular strength was rapidly diminished, the tissues wasted,
+      and the thin, skeleton-like forms moved about with the appearance of utter
+      exhaustion and dejection. The mental condition connected with long
+      confinement, with the most miserable surroundings, and with no hope for
+      the future, also depressed all the nervous and vital actions, and was
+      especially active in destroying the appetite. The effects of mental
+      depression, and of defective nutrition, were manifested not only in the
+      slow, feeble motions of the wasted, skeleton-like forms, but also in such
+      lethargy, listlessness, and torpor of the mental faculties as rendered
+      these unfortunate men oblivious and indifferent to their afflicted
+      condition. In many cases, even of the greatest apparent suffering and
+      distress, instead of showing any anxiety to communicate the causes of
+      their distress, or to relate their privations, and their longings for
+      their homes and their friends and relatives, they lay in a listless,
+      lethargic, uncomplaining state, taking no notice either of their own
+      distressed condition, or of the gigantic mass of human misery by which
+      they were surrounded. Nothing appalled and depressed me so much as this
+      silent, uncomplaining misery. It is a fact of great interest, that
+      notwithstanding this defective nutrition in men subjected to crowding and
+      filth, contagious fevers were rare; and typhus fever, which is supposed to
+      be generated in just such a state of things as existed at Andersonville,
+      was unknown. These facts, established by my investigations, stand in
+      striking contrast with such a statement as the following by a recent
+      English writer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A deficiency of food, especially of the nitrogenous part, quickly
+      leads to the breaking up of the animal frame. Plague, pestilence and
+      famine are associated with each other in the public mind, and the records
+      of every country show how closely they are related. The medical history of
+      Ireland is remarkable for the illustrations of how much mischief may be
+      occasioned by a general deficiency of food. Always the habitat of fever,
+      it every now and then becomes the very hot-bed of its propagation and
+      development. Let there be but a small failure in the usual imperfect
+      supply of food, and the lurking seeds of pestilence are ready to burst
+      into frightful activity. The famine of the present century is but too
+      forcible and illustrative of this. It fostered epidemics which have not
+      been witnessed in this generation, and gave rise to scenes of devastation
+      and misery which are not surpassed by the most appalling epidemics of the
+      Middle Ages. The principal form of the scourge was known as the contagious
+      famine fever (typhus), and it spread, not merely from end to end of the
+      country in which it had originated, but, breaking through all boundaries,
+      it crossed the broad ocean, and made itself painfully manifest in
+      localities where it was previously unknown. Thousands fell under the
+      virulence of its action, for wherever it came it struck down a seventh of
+      the people, and of those whom it attacked, one out of nine perished. Even
+      those who escaped the fatal influence of it, were left the miserable
+      victims of scurvy and low fever.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While we readily admit that famine induces that state of the system which
+      is the most susceptible to the action of fever poisons, and thus induces
+      the state of the entire population which is most favorable for the rapid
+      and destructive spread of all contagious fevers, at the same time we are
+      forced by the facts established by the present war, as well as by a host
+      of others, both old and new, to admit that we are still ignorant of the
+      causes necessary for the origin of typhus fever. Added to the imperfect
+      nature of the rations issued to the Federal prisoners, the difficulties of
+      their situation were at times greatly increased by the sudden and
+      desolating Federal raids in Virginia, Georgia, and other States, which
+      necessitated the sudden transportation from Richmond and other points
+      threatened of large bodies of prisoners, without the possibility of much
+      previous preparation; and not only did these men suffer in transition upon
+      the dilapidated and overburdened line of railroad communication, but after
+      arriving at Andersonville, the rations were frequently insufficient to
+      supply the sudden addition of several thousand men. And as the Confederacy
+      became more and more pressed, and when powerful hostile armies were
+      plunging through her bosom, the Federal prisoners of Andersonville
+      suffered incredibly during the hasty removal to Millen, Savannah,
+      Charleston, and other points, supposed at the time to be secure from the
+      enemy. Each one of these causes must be weighed when an attempt is made to
+      estimate the unusual mortality among these prisoners of war. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p386" id="p386"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p386.jpg (40K)" src="images/p386.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VII. Scurvy, arising from sameness of food and imperfect nutrition,
+      caused, either directly or indirectly, nine-tenths of the deaths among the
+      Federal prisoners at Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not only were the deaths referred to unknown causes, to apoplexy, to
+      anasarca, and to debility, traceable to scurvy and its effects; and not
+      only was the mortality in small-pox, pneumonia, and typhoid fever, and in
+      all acute diseases, more than doubled by the scorbutic taint, but even
+      those all but universal and deadly bowel affections arose from the same
+      causes, and derived their fatal character from the same conditions which
+      produced the scurvy. In truth, these men at Andersonville were in the
+      condition of a crew at sea, confined in a foul ship upon salt meat and
+      unvarying food, and without fresh vegetables. Not only so, but these
+      unfortunate prisoners were men forcibly confined and crowded upon a ship
+      tossed about on a stormy ocean, without a rudder, without a compass,
+      without a guiding-star, and without any apparent boundary or to their
+      voyage; and they reflected in their steadily increasing miseries the
+      distressed condition and waning fortunes of devastated and bleeding
+      country, which was compelled, in justice to her own unfortunate sons, to
+      hold these men in the most distressing captivity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw nothing in the scurvy which prevailed so universally at
+      Andersonville, at all different from this disease as described by various
+      standard writers. The mortality was no greater than that which has
+      afflicted a hundred ships upon long voyages, and it did not exceed the
+      mortality which has, upon me than one occasion, and in a much shorter
+      period of time, annihilated large armies and desolated beleaguered cities.
+      The general results of my investigations upon the chronic diarrhea and
+      dysentery of the Federal prisoners of Andersonville were similar to those
+      of the English surgeons during the war against Russia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IX. Drugs exercised but little influence over the progress and fatal
+      termination of chronic diarrhea and dysentery in the Military Prison and
+      Hospital at Andersonville, chiefly because the proper form of nourishment
+      (milk, rice, vegetables, anti-scorbutics, and nourishing animal and
+      vegetable soups) was not issued, and could not be procured in sufficient
+      quantities for the sick prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opium allayed pain and checked the bowels temporarily, but the frail dam
+      was soon swept away, and the patient appears to be but little better, if
+      not the worse, for this merely palliative treatment. The root of the
+      difficulty could not be reached by drugs; nothing short of the wanting
+      elements of nutrition would have tended in any manner to restore the tone
+      of the digestive system, and of all the wasted and degenerated organs and
+      tissues. My opinion to this effect was expressed most decidedly to the
+      medical officers in charge of these unfortunate men. The correctness of
+      this view was sustained by the healthy and robust condition of the paroled
+      prisoners, who received an extra ration, and who were able to make
+      considerable sums by trading, and who supplied themselves with a liberal
+      and varied diet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      X. The fact that hospital gangrene appeared in the Stockade first, and
+      originated spontaneously, without any previous contagion, and occurred
+      sporadically all over the Stockade and Prison Hospital, was proof positive
+      that this disease will arise whenever the conditions of crowding, filth,
+      foul air, and bad diet are present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The exhalations from the Hospital and Stockade appeared to exert their
+      effects to a considerable distance outside of these localities. The origin
+      of gangrene among these prisoners appeared clearly to depend in great
+      measure upon the state of the general system, induced by diet, exposure,
+      neglect of personal cleanliness; and by various external noxious
+      influences. The rapidity of the appearance and action of the gangrene
+      depended upon the powers and state of the constitution, as well as upon
+      the intensity of the poison in the atmosphere, or upon the direct
+      application of poisonous matter to the wounded surface. This was further
+      illustrated by the important fact, that hospital gangrene, or a disease
+      resembling this form of gangrene, attacked the intestinal canal of
+      patients laboring under ulceration of the bowels, although there were no
+      local manifestations of gangrene upon the surface of the body. This mode
+      of termination in cases of dysentery was quite common in the foul
+      atmosphere of the Confederate States Military Prison Hospital; and in the
+      depressed, depraved condition of the system of these Federal prisoners,
+      death ensued very rapidly after the gangrenous state of the intestines was
+      established. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p389" id="p389"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p389.jpg (43K)" src="images/p389.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XI. A scorbutic condition of the system appeared to favor the origin of
+      foul ulcers, which frequently took on true hospital gangrene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scurvy and gangrene frequently existed in the same individual. In such
+      cases, vegetable diet with vegetable acids would remove the scorbutic
+      condition without curing the hospital gangrene. . . Scurvy consists not
+      only in an alteration in the constitution of the blood, which leads to
+      passive hemorrhages from the bowels, and the effusion into the various
+      tissues of a deeply-colored fibrinous exudation; but, as we have
+      conclusively shown by postmortem examination, this state is attended with
+      consistence of the muscles of the heart, and the mucous membrane of the
+      alimentary canal, and of solid parts generally. We have, according to the
+      extent of the deficiency of certain articles of food, every degree of
+      scorbutic derangement, from the most fearful depravation of the blood and
+      the perversion of every function subserved by the blood to those slight
+      derangements which are scarcely distinguishable from a state of health. We
+      are as yet ignorant of the true nature of the changes of the blood and
+      tissues in scurvy, and wide field for investigation is open for the
+      determination the characteristic changes&mdash;physical, chemical, and
+      physiological&mdash;of the blood and tissues, and of the secretions and
+      excretions of scurvy. Such inquiries would be of great value in their
+      bearing upon the origin of hospital gangrene. Up to the present war, the
+      results of chemical investigations upon the pathology of the blood in
+      scurvy were not only contradictory, but meager, and wanting in that
+      careful detail of the cases from which the blood was abstracted which
+      would enable us to explain the cause of the apparent discrepancies in
+      different analyses. Thus it is not yet settled whether the fibrin is
+      increased or diminished in this disease; and the differences which exist
+      in the statements of different writers appear to be referable to the
+      neglect of a critical examination and record of all the symptoms of the
+      cases from which the blood was abstracted. The true nature of the changes
+      of the blood in scurvy can be established only by numerous analyses during
+      different stages of the disease, and followed up by carefully performed
+      and recorded postmortem examinations. With such data we could settle such
+      important questions as whether the increase of fibrin in scurvy was
+      invariably dependent upon some local inflammation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XII. Gangrenous spots, followed by rapid destruction of tissue, appeared
+      in some cases in which there had been no previous or existing wound or
+      abrasion; and without such well established facts, it might be assumed
+      that the disease was propagated from one patient to another in every case,
+      either by exhalations from the gangrenous surface or by direct contact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In such a filthy and crowded hospital as that of the Confederate, States
+      Military Prison of Camp Sumter, Andersonville, it was impossible to
+      isolate the wounded from the sources of actual contact of the gangrenous
+      matter. The flies swarming over the wounds and over filth of every
+      description; the filthy, imperfectly washed, and scanty rags; the limited
+      number of sponges and wash-bowls (the same wash-bowl and sponge serving
+      for a score or more of patients), were one and all sources of such
+      constant circulation of the gangrenous matter, that the disease might
+      rapidly be propagated from a single gangrenous wound. While the fact
+      already considered, that a form of moist gangrene, resembling hospital
+      gangrene, was quite common in this foul atmosphere in cases of dysentery,
+      both with and without the existence of hospital gangrene upon the surface,
+      demonstrates the dependence of the disease upon the state of the
+      constitution, and proves in a clear manner that neither the contact of the
+      poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the direct action of the poisoned
+      atmosphere upon the ulcerated surface, is necessary to the development of
+      the disease; on the other hand, it is equally well-established that the
+      disease may be communicated by the various ways just mentioned. It is
+      impossible to determine the length of time which rags and clothing
+      saturated with gangrenous matter will retain the power of reproducing the
+      disease when applied to healthy wounds. Professor Brugmans, as quoted by
+      Guthrie in his commentaries on the surgery of the war in Portugal, Spain,
+      France, and the Netherlands, says that in 1797, in Holland, 'charpie,'
+      composed of linen threads cut of different lengths, which, on inquiry, it
+      was found had been already used in the great hospitals in France, and had
+      been subsequently washed and bleached, caused every ulcer to which it was
+      applied to be affected by hospital gangrene. Guthrie affirms in the same
+      work, that the fact that this disease was readily communicated by the
+      application of instruments, lint, or bandages which had been in contact
+      with infected parts, was too firmly established by the experience of every
+      one in Portugal and Spain to be a matter of doubt. There are facts to show
+      that flies may be the means of communicating malignant pustules. Dr.
+      Wagner, who has related several cases of malignant pustule produced in man
+      and beasts, both by contact and by eating the flesh of diseased animals,
+      which happened in the village of Striessa in Saxony, in 1834, gives two
+      very remarkable cases which occurred eight days after any beast had been
+      affected with the disease. Both were women, one of twenty-six and the
+      other of fifty years, and in them the pustules were well marked, and the
+      general symptoms similar to the other cases. The latter patient said she
+      had been bitten by a fly upon the back d the neck, at which part the
+      carbuncle appeared; and the former, that she had also been bitten upon the
+      right upper arm by a gnat. Upon inquiry, Wagner found that the skin of one
+      of the infected beasts had been hung on a neighboring wall, and thought it
+      very possible that the insects might have been attracted to them by the
+      smell, and had thence conveyed the poison. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [End of Dr. Stevenson's Statement] <br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .......................... <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old adage says that &ldquo;Hunger is the best sauce for poor food,&rdquo;
+      but hunger failed to render this detestable stuff palatable, and it became
+      so loathsome that very many actually starved to death because unable to
+      force their organs of deglutition to receive the nauseous dose and pass it
+      to the stomach. I was always much healthier than the average of the boys,
+      and my appetite consequently much better, yet for the last month that I
+      was in Andersonville, it required all my determination to crowd the bread
+      down my throat, and, as I have stated before, I could only do this by
+      breaking off small bits at a time, and forcing each down as I would a
+      pill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A large part of this repulsiveness was due to the coarseness and foulness
+      of the meal, the wretched cooking, and the lack of salt, but there was a
+      still more potent reason than all these. Nature does not intend that man
+      shall live by bread alone, nor by any one kind of food. She indicates this
+      by the varying tastes and longings that she gives him. If his body needs
+      one kind of constituents, his tastes lead him to desire the food that is
+      richest in those constituents. When he has taken as much as his system
+      requires, the sense of satiety supervenes, and he &ldquo;becomes tired&rdquo;
+      of that particular food. If tastes are not perverted, but allowed a free
+      but temperate exercise, they are the surest indicators of the way to
+      preserve health and strength by a judicious selection of alimentation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this case Nature was protesting by a rebellion of the tastes against
+      any further use of that species of food. She was saying, as plainly as she
+      ever spoke, that death could only be averted by a change of diet, which
+      would supply our bodies with the constituents they so sadly needed, and
+      which could not be supplied by corn meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How needless was this confinement of our rations to corn meal, and
+      especially to such wretchedly prepared meal, is conclusively shown by the
+      Rebel testimony heretofore given. It would have been very little extra
+      trouble to the Rebels to have had our meal sifted; we would gladly have
+      done it ourselves if allowed the utensils and opportunity. It would have
+      been as little trouble to have varied our rations with green corn and
+      sweet potatos, of which the country was then full.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few wagon loads of roasting ears and sweet potatos would have banished
+      every trace of scurvy from the camp, healed up the wasting dysentery, and
+      saved thousands of lives. Any day that the Rebels had chosen they could
+      have gotten a thousand volunteers who would have given their solemn parole
+      not to escape, and gone any distance into the country, to gather the
+      potatos and corn, and such other vegetables as were readily obtainable,
+      and bring, them into the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever else may be said in defense of the Southern management of
+      military prisons, the permitting seven thousand men to die of the scurvy
+      in the Summer time, in the midst of an agricultural region, filled with
+      all manner of green vegetation, must forever remain impossible of
+      explanation. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch51" id="ch51"></a>CHAPTER LI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SOLICITUDE AS TO THE FATE OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S ARMY&mdash;PAUCITY
+      OF NEWS &mdash;HOW WE HEARD THAT ATLANTA HAD FALLEN&mdash;ANNOUNCEMENT OF
+      A GENERAL EXCHANGE&mdash;WE LEAVE ANDERSONVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We again began to be exceedingly solicitous over the fate of Atlanta and
+      Sherman's Army: we had heard but little directly from that front for
+      several weeks. Few prisoners had come in since those captured in the
+      bloody engagements of the 20th, 22d, and 28th of July. In spite of their
+      confident tones, and our own sanguine hopes, the outlook admitted of very
+      grave doubts. The battles of the last week of July had been looked at it
+      in the best light possible&mdash;indecisive. Our men had held their own,
+      it is true, but an invading army can not afford to simply hold its own.
+      Anything short of an absolute success is to it disguised defeat. Then we
+      knew that the cavalry column sent out under Stoneman had been so badly
+      handled by that inefficient commander that it had failed ridiculously in
+      its object, being beaten in detail, and suffering the loss of its
+      commander and a considerable portion of its numbers. This had been
+      followed by a defeat of our infantry at Etowah Creek, and then came a long
+      interval in which we received no news save what the Rebel papers
+      contained, and they pretended no doubt that Sherman's failure was
+      already demonstrated. Next came well-authenticated news that Sherman had
+      raised the siege and fallen back to the Chattahoochee, and we felt
+      something of the bitterness of despair. For days thereafter we heard
+      nothing, though the hot, close Summer air seemed surcharged with the
+      premonitions of a war storm about to burst, even as nature heralds in the
+      same way a concentration of the mighty force of the elements for the grand
+      crash of the thunderstorm. We waited in tense expectancy for the decision
+      of the fates whether final victory or defeat should end the long and
+      arduous campaign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At night the guards in the perches around the Stockade called out every
+      half hour, so as to show the officers that they were awake and attending
+      to their duty. The formula for this ran thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Post numbah 1; half-past eight o'clock, and a-l-l 's
+      w-e-l-l!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Post No. 2 repeated this cry, and so it went around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening when our anxiety as to Atlanta was wrought to the highest
+      pitch, one of the guards sang out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Post numbah foah&mdash;half past eight o'clock&mdash;and
+      Atlanta's&mdash;gone&mdash;t-o &mdash;hell.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p395" id="p395"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p395.jpg (26K)" src="images/p395.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heart of every man within hearing leaped to his mouth. We looked
+      toward each other, almost speechless with glad surprise, and then gasped
+      out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hear THAT?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next instant such a ringing cheer burst out as wells spontaneously
+      from the throats and hearts of men, in the first ecstatic moments of
+      victory&mdash;a cheer to which our saddened hearts and enfeebled lungs had
+      long been strangers. It was the genuine, honest, manly Northern cheer, as
+      different from the shrill Rebel yell as the honest mastiff's
+      deep-voiced welcome is from the howl of the prowling wolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shout was taken up all over the prison. Even those who had not heard
+      the guard understood that it meant that &ldquo;Atlanta was ours and fairly
+      won,&rdquo; and they took up the acclamation with as much enthusiasm as we
+      had begun it. All thoughts of sleep were put to flight: we would have a
+      season of rejoicing. Little knots gathered together, debated the news, and
+      indulged in the most sanguine hopes as to the effect upon the Rebels. In
+      some parts of the Stockade stump speeches were made. I believe that Boston
+      Corbett and his party organized a prayer and praise meeting. In our corner
+      we stirred up our tuneful friend &ldquo;Nosey,&rdquo; who sang again the
+      grand old patriotic hymns that set our thin blood to bounding, and made us
+      remember that we were still Union soldiers, with higher hopes than that of
+      starving and dying in Andersonville. He sang the ever-glorious Star
+      Spangled Banner, as he used to sing it around the camp fire in happier
+      days, when we were in the field. He sang the rousing &ldquo;Rally Round
+      the Flag,&rdquo; with its wealth of patriotic fire and martial vigor, and
+      we, with throats hoarse from shouting; joined in the chorus until the
+      welkin rang again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels became excited, lest our exaltation of spirits would lead to an
+      assault upon the Stockade. They got under arms, and remained so until the
+      enthusiasm became less demonstrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days later&mdash;on the evening of the 6th of September&mdash;the
+      Rebel Sergeants who called the roll entered the Stockade, and each
+      assembling his squads, addressed them as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;PRISONERS: I am instructed by General Winder to inform you that a
+      general exchange has been agreed upon. Twenty thousand men will be
+      exchanged immediately at Savannah, where your vessels are now waiting for
+      you. Detachments from One to Ten will prepare to leave early to-morrow
+      morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excitement that this news produced was simply indescribable. I have
+      seen men in every possible exigency that can confront men, and a large
+      proportion viewed that which impended over them with at least outward
+      composure. The boys around me had endured all that we suffered with
+      stoical firmness. Groans from pain-racked bodies could not be repressed,
+      and bitter curses and maledictions against the Rebels leaped unbidden to
+      the lips at the slightest occasion, but there was no murmuring or whining.
+      There was not a day&mdash;hardly an hour&mdash;in which one did not see
+      such exhibitions of manly fortitude as made him proud of belonging to a
+      race of which every individual was a hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the emotion which pain and suffering and danger could not develop, joy
+      could, and boys sang, and shouted and cried, and danced as if in a
+      delirium. &ldquo;God's country,&rdquo; fairer than the sweet
+      promised land of Canaan appeared to the rapt vision of the Hebrew poet
+      prophet, spread out in glad vista before the mind's eye of every
+      one. It had come&mdash;at last it had come that which we had so longed
+      for, wished for, prayed for, dreamed of; schemed, planned, toiled for, and
+      for which went up the last earnest, dying wish of the thousands of our
+      comrades who would now know no exchange save into that eternal &ldquo;God's
+      country&rdquo; where
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Sickness and sorrow, pain and death<br> Are felt and feared no more.<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p397" id="p397"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p397.jpg (45K)" src="images/p397.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our &ldquo;preparations,&rdquo; for leaving were few and simple. When the
+      morning came, and shortly after the order to move, Andrews and I picked
+      our well-worn blanket, our tattered overcoat, our rude chessmen, and no
+      less rude board, our little black can, and the spoon made of hoop-iron,
+      and bade farewell to the hole-in-the-ground that had been our home for
+      nearly seven long months.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My feet were still in miserable condition from the lacerations received in
+      the attempt to escape, but I took one of our tent poles as a staff and
+      hobbled away. We re-passed the gates which we had entered on that February
+      night, ages since, it seemed, and crawled slowly over to the depot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had come to regard the Rebels around us as such measureless liars that
+      my first impulse was to believe the reverse of anything they said to us;
+      and even now, while I hoped for the best, my old habit of mind was so
+      strongly upon me that I had some doubts of our going to be exchanged,
+      simply because it was a Rebel who had said so. But in the crowd of Rebels
+      who stood close to the road upon which we were walking was a young Second
+      Lieutenant, who said to a Colonel as I passed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Weil, those fellows can sing 'Homeward Bound,' can't
+      they?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This set my last misgiving at rest. Now I was certain that we were going
+      to be exchanged, and my spirits soared to the skies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entering the cars we thumped and pounded toilsomely along, after the
+      manner of Southern railroads, at the rate of six or eight miles an hour.
+      Savannah was two hundred and forty miles away, and to our impatient minds
+      it seemed as if we would never get there. The route lay the whole distance
+      through the cheerless pine barrens which cover the greater part of
+      Georgia. The only considerable town on the way was Macon, which had then a
+      population of five thousand or thereabouts. For scores of miles there
+      would not be a sign of a human habitation, and in the one hundred and
+      eighty miles between Macon and Savannah there were only three
+      insignificant villages. There was a station every ten miles, at which the
+      only building was an open shed, to shelter from sun and rain a casual
+      passenger, or a bit of goods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The occasional specimens of the poor white &ldquo;cracker&rdquo;
+      population that we saw, seemed indigenous products of the starved soil.
+      They suited their poverty-stricken surroundings as well as the gnarled and
+      scrubby vegetation suited the sterile sand. Thin-chested,
+      round-shouldered, scraggy-bearded, dull-eyed and open-mouthed, they all
+      looked alike&mdash;all looked as ignorant, as stupid, and as lazy as they
+      were poor and weak. They were &ldquo;low-downers&rdquo; in every respect,
+      and made our rough and simple. minded East Tennesseans look like models of
+      elegant and cultured gentlemen in contrast. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p399" id="p399"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p399.jpg (58K)" src="images/p399.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We looked on the poverty-stricken land with good-natured contempt, for we
+      thought we were leaving it forever, and would soon be in one which,
+      compared to it, was as the fatness at Egypt to the leanness of the desert
+      of Sinai.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second day after leaving Andersonville our train struggled across the
+      swamps into Savannah, and rolled slowly down the live oak shaded streets
+      into the center of the City. It seemed like another Deserted Village, so
+      vacant and noiseless the streets, and the buildings everywhere so
+      overgrown with luxuriant vegetation: The limbs of the shade trees crashed
+      along and broke, upon the tops of our cars, as if no train had passed that
+      way for years. Through the interstices between the trees and clumps of
+      foliage could be seen the gleaming white marble of the monuments erected
+      to Greene and Pulaski, looking like giant tombstones in a City of the
+      Dead. The unbroken stillness&mdash;so different from what we expected on
+      entering the metropolis of Georgia, and a City that was an important port
+      in Revolutionary days&mdash;became absolutely oppressive. We could not
+      understand it, but our thoughts were more intent upon the coming transfer
+      to our flag than upon any speculation as to the cause of the remarkable
+      somnolence of Savannah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally some little boys straggled out to where our car was standing, and
+      we opened up a conversation with them:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, boys, are our vessels down in the harbor yet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reply came in that piercing treble shriek in which a boy of ten or
+      twelve makes even his most confidential communications:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; (with our confidence in exchange somewhat dashed,)
+      &ldquo;they intend to exchange us here, don't they?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another falsetto scream, &ldquo;I don't know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; (with something of a quaver in the questioner's
+      voice,) &ldquo;what are they going to do, with us, any way?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O,&rdquo; (the treble shriek became almost demoniac) &ldquo;they
+      are fixing up a place over by the old jail for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a sinking of hearts was there then! Andrews and I would not give up
+      hope so speedily as some others did, and resolved to believe, for awhile
+      at least, that we were going to be exchanged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ordered out of the cars, we were marched along the street. A crowd of
+      small boys, full of the curiosity of the animal, gathered around us as we
+      marched. Suddenly a door in a rather nice house opened; an angry-faced
+      woman appeared on the steps and shouted out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boys! BOYS! What are you doin' there! Come up on the steps
+      immejitely! Come away from them n-a-s-t-y things!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will admit that we were not prepossessing in appearance; nor were we as
+      cleanly as young gentlemen should habitually be; in fact, I may as well
+      confess that I would not now, if I could help it, allow a tramp, as
+      dilapidated in raiment, as unwashed, unshorn, uncombed, and populous with
+      insects as we were, to come within several rods of me. Nevertheless, it
+      was not pleasant to hear so accurate a description of our personal
+      appearance sent forth on the wings of the wind by a shrill-voiced Rebel
+      female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short march brought us to the place &ldquo;they were fixing for us by
+      the old jail.&rdquo; It was another pen, with high walls of thick pine
+      plank, which told us only too plainly how vain were our expectations of
+      exchange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we were turned inside, and I realized that the gates of another
+      prison had closed upon me, hope forsook me. I flung our odious little
+      possessions-our can, chess-board, overcoat, and blanket-upon the ground,
+      and, sitting down beside them, gave way to the bitterest despair. I wanted
+      to die, O, so badly. Never in all my life had I desired anything in the
+      world so much as I did now to get out of it. Had I had pistol, knife,
+      rope, or poison, I would have ended my prison life then and there, and
+      departed with the unceremoniousness of a French leave. I remembered that I
+      could get a quietus from a guard with very little trouble, but I would not
+      give one of the bitterly hated Rebels the triumph of shooting me. I longed
+      to be another Samson, with the whole Southern Confederacy gathered in
+      another Temple of Dagon, that I might pull down the supporting pillars,
+      and die happy in slaying thousands of my enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I was thus sinking deeper and deeper in the Slough of Despond, the
+      firing of a musket, and the shriek of the man who was struck, attracted my
+      attention. Looking towards the opposite end of the pen I saw a guard
+      bringing his still smoking musket to a &ldquo;recover arms,&rdquo; and,
+      not fifteen feet from him, a prisoner lying on the ground in the agonies
+      of death. The latter had a pipe in his mouth when he was shot, and his
+      teeth still clenched its stem. His legs and arms were drawn up
+      convulsively, and he was rocking backward and forward on his back. The
+      charge had struck him just above the hip-bone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebel officer in command of the guard was sitting on his horse inside
+      the pen at the time, and rode forward to see what the matter was.
+      Lieutenant Davis, who had come with us from Andersonville, was also
+      sitting on a horse inside the prison, and he called out in his usual
+      harsh, disagreeable voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's all right, Cunnel; the man's done just as I
+      awdahed him to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I found that lying around inside were a number of bits of plank&mdash;each
+      about five feet long, which had been sawed off by the carpenters engaged
+      in building the prison. The ground being a bare common, was destitute of
+      all shelter, and the pieces looked as if they would be quite useful in
+      building a tent. There may have been an order issued forbidding the
+      prisoners to touch them, but if so, I had not heard it, and I imagine the
+      first intimation to the prisoner just killed that the boards were not to
+      be taken was the bullet which penetrated his vitals. Twenty-five cents
+      would be a liberal appraisement of the value of the lumber for which the
+      boy lost his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour afterward we thought we saw all the guards march out of the
+      front gate. There was still another pile of these same kind of pieces of
+      board lying at the further side of the prison. The crowd around me noticed
+      it, and we all made a rush for it. In spite of my lame feet I outstripped
+      the rest, and was just in the act of stooping down to pick the boards up
+      when a loud yell from those behind startled me. Glancing to my left I saw
+      a guard cocking his gun and bringing it up to shoot me. With one
+      frightened spring, as quick as a flash, and before he could cover me, I
+      landed fully a rod back in the crowd, and mixed with it. The fellow tried
+      hard to draw a bead on me, but I was too quick for him, and he finally
+      lowered his gun with an oath expressive of disappointment in not being
+      able to kill a Yankee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walking back to my place the full ludicrousness of the thing dawned upon
+      me so forcibly that I forgot all about my excitement and scare, and
+      laughed aloud. Here, not an hour age I was murmuring because I could find
+      no way to die; I sighed for death as a bridegroom for the coming of his
+      bride, an yet, when a Rebel had pointed his gun at me, it had nearly
+      scared me out of a year's growth, and made me jump farther than I
+      could possibly do when my feet were well, and I was in good condition
+      otherwise. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch52" id="ch52"></a>CHAPTER LII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SAVANNAH&mdash;DEVICES TO OBTAIN MATERIALS FOR A TENT&mdash;THEIR ULTIMATE
+      SUCCESS &mdash;RESUMPTION OF TUNNELING&mdash;ESCAPING BY WHOLESALE AND
+      BEING RECAPTURED EN MASSE&mdash;THE OBSTACLES THAT LAY BETWEEN US AND OUR
+      LINES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews and I did not let the fate of the boy who was killed, nor my own
+      narrow escape from losing the top of my head, deter us from farther
+      efforts to secure possession of those coveted boards. My readers remember
+      the story of the boy who, digging vigorously at a hole, replied to the
+      remark of a passing traveler that there was probably no ground-hog there,
+      and, even if there was, &ldquo;ground-hog was mighty poor eatin',
+      any way,&rdquo; with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mister, there's got to be a ground-hog there; our family's
+      out o' meat!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was what actuated us: we were out of material for a tent. Our
+      solitary blanket had rotted and worn full of holes by its long double
+      duty, as bed-clothes and tent at Andersonville, and there was an
+      imperative call for a substitute. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p406" id="p406"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p406.jpg (27K)" src="images/p406.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews and I flattered ourselves that when we matched our collective or
+      individual wits against those of a Johnny his defeat was pretty certain,
+      and with this cheerful estimate of our own powers to animate us, we set to
+      work to steal the boards from under the guard's nose. The Johnny had
+      malice in his heart and buck-and-ball in his musket, but his eyes were not
+      sufficiently numerous to adequately discharge all the duties laid upon
+      him. He had too many different things to watch at the same time. I would
+      approach a gap in the fence not yet closed as if I intended making a dash
+      through it for liberty, and when the Johnny had concentrated all his
+      attention on letting me have the contents of his gun just as soon as he
+      could have a reasonable excuse for doing so, Andrews would pick u a couple
+      of boards and slip away with them. Then I would fall back in pretended
+      (and some real) alarm, and&mdash;Andrew would come up and draw his
+      attention by a similar feint, while I made off with a couple more pieces.
+      After a few hours c this strategy, we found ourselves the possessors of
+      some dozen planks, with which we made a lean-to, that formed a tolerable
+      shelter for our heads and the upper portion of our bodies. As the boards
+      were not over five feet long, and the slope reduce the sheltered space to
+      about four-and-one-half feet, it left the lower part of our naked feet and
+      legs to project out-of-doors. Andrews used to lament very touchingly the
+      sunburning his toe-nails were receiving. He knew that his complexion was
+      being ruined for life, and all the Balm of a Thousand Flowers in the world
+      would not restore his comely ankles to that condition of pristine
+      loveliness which would admit of their introduction into good society
+      again. Another defect was that, like the fun in a practical joke, it was
+      all on one side; there was not enough of it to go clear round. It was very
+      unpleasant, when a storm came up in a direction different from that we had
+      calculated upon, to be compelled to get out in the midst of it, and build
+      our house over to face the other way. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p405" id="p405"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p405.jpg (32K)" src="images/p405.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still we had a tent, and were that much better off than three-fourths of
+      our comrades who had no shelter at all. We were owners of a brown stone
+      front on Fifth Avenue compared to the other fellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our tent erected, we began a general survey of our new abiding place. The
+      ground was a sandy common in the outskirts of Savannah. The sand was
+      covered with a light sod. The Rebels, who knew nothing of our burrowing
+      propensities, had neglected to make the plank forming the walls of the
+      Prison project any distance below the surface of the ground, and had put
+      up no Dead Line around the inside; so that it looked as if everything was
+      arranged expressly to invite us to tunnel out. We were not the boys to
+      neglect such an invitation. By night about three thousand had been
+      received from Andersonville, and placed inside. When morning came it
+      looked as if a colony of gigantic rats had been at work. There was a
+      tunnel every ten or fifteen feet, and at least twelve hundred of us had
+      gone out through them during the night. I never understood why all in the
+      pen did not follow our example, and leave the guards watching a forsaken
+      Prison. There was nothing to prevent it. An hour's industrious work
+      with a half-canteen would take any one outside, or if a boy was too lazy
+      to dig his own tunnel, he could have the use of one of the hundred others
+      that had been dug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But escaping was only begun when the Stockade was passed. The site of
+      Savannah is virtually an island. On the north is the Savannah River; to
+      the east, southeast and south, are the two Ogeechee rivers, and a chain of
+      sounds and lagoons connecting with the Atlantic Ocean. To the west is a
+      canal connecting the Savannah and Big Ogeechee Rivers. We found ourselves
+      headed off by water whichever way we went. All the bridges were guarded,
+      and all the boats destroyed. Early in the morning the Rebels discovered
+      our absence, and the whole garrison of Savannah was sent out on patrol
+      after us. They picked up the boys in squads of from ten to thirty, lurking
+      around the shores of the streams waiting for night to come, to get across,
+      or engaged in building rafts for transportation. By evening the whole mob
+      of us were back in the pen again. As nobody was punished for running away,
+      we treated the whole affair as a lark, and those brought back first stood
+      around the gate and yelled derisively as the others came in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night big fires were built all around the Stockade, and a line of
+      guards placed on the ground inside of these. In spite of this precaution,
+      quite a number escaped. The next day a Dead Line was put up inside of the
+      Prison, twenty feet from the Stockade. This only increased the labor of
+      burrowing, by making us go farther. Instead of being able to tunnel out in
+      an hour, it now took three or four hours. That night several hundred of
+      us, rested from our previous performance, and hopeful of better luck,
+      brought our faithful half canteens&mdash;now scoured very bright by
+      constant use-into requisition again, and before the morning. dawned we had
+      gained the high reeds of the swamps, where we lay concealed until night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this way we managed to evade the recapture that came to most of those
+      who went out, but it was a fearful experience. Having been raised in a
+      country where venomous snakes abounded, I had that fear and horror of them
+      that inhabitants of those districts feel, and of which people living in
+      sections free from such a scourge know little. I fancied that the Southern
+      swamps were filled with all forms of loathsome and poisonous reptiles, and
+      it required all my courage to venture into them barefooted. Besides, the
+      snags and roots hurt our feet fearfully. Our hope was to find a boat
+      somewhere, in which we could float out to sea, and trust to being picked
+      up by some of the blockading fleet. But no boat could we find, with all
+      our painful and diligent search. We learned afterward that the Rebels made
+      a practice of breaking up all the boats along the shore to prevent negros
+      and their own deserters from escaping to the blockading fleet. We thought
+      of making a raft of logs, but had we had the strength to do this, we would
+      doubtless have thought it too risky, since we dreaded missing the vessels,
+      and being carried out to sea to perish of hunger. During the night we came
+      to the railroad bridge across the Ogeechee. We had some slender hope that,
+      if we could reach this we might perhaps get across the river, and find
+      better opportunities for escape. But these last expectations were blasted
+      by the discovery that it was guarded. There was a post and a fire on the
+      shore next us, and a single guard with a lantern was stationed on one of
+      the middle spans. Almost famished with hunger, and so weary and footsore
+      that we could scarcely move another step, we went back to a cleared place
+      on the high ground, and laid down to sleep, entirely reckless as to what
+      became of us. Late in the morning we were awakened by the Rebel patrol and
+      taken back to the prison. Lieutenant Davis, disgusted with the perpetual
+      attempts to escape, moved the Dead Line out forty feet from the Stockade;
+      but this restricted our room greatly, since the number of prisoners in the
+      pen had now risen to about six thousand, and, besides, it offered little
+      additional protection against tunneling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not much more difficult to dig fifty feet than it had been to dig
+      thirty feet. Davis soon realized this, and put the Dead Line back to
+      twenty feet. His next device was a much more sensible one. A crowd of one
+      hundred and fifty negros dug a trench twenty feet wide and five feet deep
+      around the whole prison on the outside, and this ditch was filled with
+      water from the City Water Works. No one could cross this without
+      attracting the attention of the guards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still we were not discouraged, and Andrews and I joined a crowd that was
+      constructing a large tunnel from near our quarters on the east side of the
+      pen. We finished the burrow to within a few inches of the edge of the
+      ditch, and then ceased operations, to await some stormy night, when we
+      could hope to get across the ditch unnoticed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Orders were issued to guards to fire without warning on men who were
+      observed to be digging or carrying out dirt after nightfall. They
+      occasionally did so, but the risk did not keep anyone from tunneling. Our
+      tunnel ran directly under a sentry box. When carrying dirt away the bearer
+      of the bucket had to turn his back on the guard and walk directly down the
+      street in front of him, two hundred or three hundred feet, to the center
+      of the camp, where he scattered the sand around&mdash;so as to give no
+      indication of where it came from. Though we always waited till the moon
+      went down, it seemed as if, unless the guard were a fool, both by nature
+      and training, he could not help taking notice of what was going on under
+      his eyes. I do not recall any more nervous promenades in my life, than
+      those when, taking my turn, I received my bucket of sand at the mouth of
+      the tunnel, and walked slowly away with it. The most disagreeable part was
+      in turning my back to the guard. Could I have faced him, I had sufficient
+      confidence in my quickness of perception, and talents as a dodger, to
+      imagine that I could make it difficult for him to hit me. But in walling
+      with my back to him I was wholly at his mercy. Fortune, however, favored
+      us, and we were allowed to go on with our work&mdash;night after night&mdash;without
+      a shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile another happy thought slowly gestated in Davis's
+      alleged intellect. How he came to give birth to two ideas with no more
+      than a week between them, puzzled all who knew him, and still more that he
+      survived this extraordinary strain upon the gray matter of the cerebrum.
+      His new idea was to have driven a heavily-laden mule cart around the
+      inside of the Dead Line at least once a day. The wheels or the mule's
+      feet broke through the thin sod covering the tunnels and exposed them. Our
+      tunnel went with the rest, and those of our crowd who wore shoes had
+      humiliation added to sorrow by being compelled to go in and spade the hole
+      full of dirt. This put an end to subterranean engineering. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p410" id="p410"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p410.jpg (41K)" src="images/p410.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day one of the boys watched his opportunity, got under the ration
+      wagon, and clinging close to the coupling pole with hands and feet, was
+      carried outside. He was detected, however, as he came from under the
+      wagon, and brought back. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p411" id="p411"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p411.jpg (49K)" src="images/p411.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch53" id="ch53"></a>CHAPTER LIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FRANK REVERSTOCK'S ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE&mdash;PASSING OFF AS REBEL BOY
+      HE REACHES GRISWOLDVILLE BY RAIL, AND THEN STRIKES ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR
+      SHERMAN, BUT IS CAUGHT WITHIN TWENTY MILES OF OUR LINES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the shrewdest and nearest successful attempts to escape that came
+      under my notice was that of my friend Sergeant Frank Reverstock, of the
+      Third West Virginia Cavalry, of whom I have before spoken. Frank, who was
+      quite small, with a smooth boyish face, had converted to his own use a
+      citizen's coat, belonging to a young boy, a Sutler's
+      assistant, who had died in Andersonville. He had made himself a pair of
+      bag pantaloons and a shirt from pieces of meal sacks which he had
+      appropriated from day to day. He had also the Sutler's assistant's
+      shoes, and, to crown all, he wore on his head one of those hideous looking
+      hats of quilted calico which the Rebels had taken to wearing in the lack
+      of felt hats, which they could neither make nor buy. Altogether Frank
+      looked enough like a Rebel to be dangerous to trust near a country store
+      or a stable full of horses. When we first arrived in the prison quite a
+      crowd of the Savannahians rushed in to inspect us. The guards had some
+      difficulty in keeping them and us separate. While perplexed with this
+      annoyance, one of them saw Frank standing in our crowd, and, touching him
+      with his bayonet, said, with some sharpness:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See heah; you must stand back; you musn't crowd on them
+      prisoners so.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> <a name="p413" id="p413"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p413.jpg (33K)" src="images/p413.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank stood back. He did it promptly but calmly, and then, as if his
+      curiosity as to Yankees was fully satisfied, he walked slowly away up the
+      street, deliberating as he went on a plan for getting out of the City. He
+      hit upon an excellent one. Going to the engineer of a freight train making
+      ready to start back to Macon, he told him that his father was working in
+      the Confederate machine shops at Griswoldville, near Macon; that he
+      himself was also one of the machinists employed there, and desired to go
+      thither but lacked the necessary means to pay his passage. If the engineer
+      would let him ride up on the engine he would do work enough to pay the
+      fare. Frank told the story ingeniously, the engineer and firemen were won
+      over, and gave their consent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No more zealous assistant ever climbed upon a tender than Frank proved to
+      be. He loaded wood with a nervous industry, that stood him in place of
+      great strength. He kept the tender in perfect order, and anticipated, as
+      far as possible, every want of the engineer and his assistant. They were
+      delighted with him, and treated him with the greatest kindness, dividing
+      their food with him, and insisting that he should share their bed when
+      they &ldquo;laid by&rdquo; for the night. Frank would have gladly declined
+      this latter kindness with thanks, as he was conscious that the quantity of
+      &ldquo;graybacks&rdquo; his clothing contained did not make him a very
+      desirable sleeping companion for any one, but his friends were so pressing
+      that he was compelled to accede.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His greatest trouble was a fear of recognition by some one of the
+      prisoners that were continually passing by the train load, on their way
+      from Andersonville to other prisons. He was one of the best known of the
+      prisoners in Andersonville; bright, active, always cheerful, and forever
+      in motion during waking hours,&mdash;every one in the Prison speedily
+      became familiar with him, and all addressed him as &ldquo;Sergeant
+      Frankie.&rdquo; If any one on the passing trains had caught a glimpse of
+      him, that glimpse would have been followed almost inevitably with a shout
+      of:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Sergeant Frankie! What are you doing there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the whole game would have been up. Frank escaped this by persistent
+      watchfulness, and by busying himself on the opposite side of the engine,
+      with his back turned to the other trains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last when nearing Griswoldville, Frank, pointing to a large white house
+      at some distance across the fields, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, right over there is where my uncle lives, and I believe I'll
+      just run over and see him, and then walk into Griswoldville.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thanked his friends fervently for their kindness, promised to call and
+      see them frequently, bade them good by, and jumped off the train. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p415" id="p415"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p415.jpg (22K)" src="images/p415.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked towards the white house as long as he thought he could be seen,
+      and then entered a large corn field and concealed himself in a thicket in
+      the center of it until dark, when he made his way to the neighboring
+      woods, and began journeying northward as fast as his legs could carry him.
+      When morning broke he had made good progress, but was terribly tired. It
+      was not prudent to travel by daylight, so he gathered himself some ears of
+      corn and some berries, of which he made his breakfast, and finding a
+      suitable thicket he crawled into it, fell asleep, and did not wake up
+      until late in the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After another meal of raw corn and berries he resumed his journey, and
+      that night made still better progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He repeated this for several days and nights&mdash;lying in the woods in
+      the day time, traveling by night through woods, fields, and by-paths
+      avoiding all the fords, bridges and main roads, and living on what he
+      could glean from the fields, that he might not take even so much risk as
+      was involved in going to the negro cabins for food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there are always flaws in every man's armor of caution&mdash;even
+      in so perfect a one as Frank's. His complete success so far had the
+      natural effect of inducing a growing carelessness, which wrought his ruin.
+      One evening he started off briskly, after a refreshing rest and sleep. He
+      knew that he must be very near Sherman's lines, and hope cheered him
+      up with the belief that his freedom would soon be won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Descending from the hill, in whose dense brushwood he had made his bed all
+      day, he entered a large field full of standing corn, and made his way
+      between the rows until he reached, on the other side, the fence that
+      separated it from the main road, across which was another corn-field, that
+      Frank intended entering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he neglected his usual precautions on approaching a road, and instead
+      of coming up cautiously and carefully reconnoitering in all directions
+      before he left cover, he sprang boldly over the fence and strode out for
+      the other side. As he reached the middle of the road, his ears were
+      assailed with the sharp click of a musket being cocked, and the harsh
+      command:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Halt! halt, dah, I say!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Turning with a start to his left he saw not ten feet from him, a mounted
+      patrol, the sound of whose approach had been masked by the deep dust of
+      the road, into which his horse's hoofs sank noiselessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank, of course, yielded without a word, and when sent to the officer in
+      command he told the old story about his being an employee of the
+      Griswoldville shops, off on a leave of absence to make a visit to sick
+      relatives. But, unfortunately, his captors belonged to that section
+      themselves, and speedily caught him in a maze of cross-questioning from
+      which he could not extricate himself. It also became apparent from his
+      language that he was a Yankee, and it was not far from this to the
+      conclusion that he was a spy&mdash;a conclusion to which the proximity of
+      Sherman's lines, then less than twenty miles distant-greatly
+      assisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the next morning this belief had become so firmly fixed in the minds of
+      the Rebels that Frank saw a halter dangling alarmingly near, and he
+      concluded the wisest plan was to confess who he really was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not the smallest of his griefs to realize by how slight a chance he
+      had failed. Had he looked down the road before he climbed the fence, or
+      had he been ten minutes earlier or later, the patrol would not have been
+      there, he could have gained the next field unperceived, and two more
+      nights of successful progress would have taken him into Sherman's
+      lines at Sand Mountain. The patrol which caught him was on the look-out
+      for deserters and shirking conscripts, who had become unusually numerous
+      since the fall of Atlanta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was sent back to us at Savannah. As he came into the prison gate
+      Lieutenant Davis was standing near. He looked sternly at Frank and his
+      Rebel garments, and muttering,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By God, I'll stop this!&rdquo; caught the coat by the tails,
+      tore it to the collar, and took it and his hat away from Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a strange sequel to this episode. A few weeks afterward a
+      special exchange for ten thousand was made, and Frank succeeded in being
+      included in this. He was given the usual furlough from the paroled camp at
+      Annapolis, and went to his home in a little town near Mansfield, O.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day while on the cars going&mdash;I think to Newark, O., he saw
+      Lieutenant Davis on the train, in citizens' clothes. He had been
+      sent by the Rebel Government to Canada with dispatches relating to some of
+      the raids then harassing our Northern borders. Davis was the last man in
+      the world to successfully disguise himself. He had a large, coarse mouth,
+      that made him remembered by all who had ever seen him. Frank recognized
+      him instantly and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are Lieutenant Davis?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Davis replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are totally mistaken, sah, I am &mdash;&mdash;.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank insisted that he was right. Davis fumed and blustered, but though
+      Frank was small, he was as game as a bantam rooster, and he gave Davis to
+      understand that there had been a vast change in their relative positions;
+      that the one, while still the same insolent swaggerer, had not regiments
+      of infantry or batteries of artillery to emphasize his insolence, and the
+      other was no longer embarrassed in the discussion by the immense odds in
+      favor of his jailor opponent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a stormy scene Frank called in the assistance of some other soldiers
+      in the car, arrested Davis, and took him to Camp Chase&mdash;near
+      Columbus, O.,&mdash;where he was fully identified by a number of paroled
+      prisoners. He was searched, and documents showing the nature of his
+      mission beyond a doubt, were found upon his person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A court martial was immediately convened for his trial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This found him guilty, and sentenced him to be hanged as a spy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the conclusion of the trial Frank stepped up to the prisoner and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Davis, I believe we're even on that coat, now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Davis was sent to Johnson's Island for execution, but influences
+      were immediately set at work to secure Executive clemency. What they were
+      I know not, but I am informed by the Rev. Robert McCune, who was then
+      Chaplain of the One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Ohio Infantry and the Post
+      of Johnson's Island and who was the spiritual adviser appointed to
+      prepare Davis for execution, that the sentence was hardly pronounced
+      before Davis was visited by an emissary, who told him to dismiss his
+      fears, that he should not suffer the punishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is likely that leading Baltimore Unionists were enlisted in his behalf
+      through family connections, and as the Border State Unionists were then
+      potent at Washington, they readily secured a commutation of his sentence
+      to imprisonment during the war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems that the justice of this world is very unevenly dispensed when so
+      much solicitude is shown for the life of such a man, and none at all for
+      the much better men whom he assisted to destroy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The official notice of the commutation of the sentence was not published
+      until the day set for the execution, but the certain knowledge that it
+      would be forthcoming enabled Davis to display a great deal of bravado on
+      approaching what was supposed to be his end. As the reader can readily
+      imagine, from what I have heretofore said of him, Davis was the man to
+      improve to the utmost every opportunity to strut his little hour, and he
+      did it in this instance. He posed, attitudinized and vapored, so that the
+      camp and the country were filled with stories of the wonderful coolness
+      with which he contemplated his approaching fate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among other things he said to his guard, as he washed himself elaborately
+      the night before the day announced for the execution:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you can be sure of one thing; to-morrow night there will
+      certainly be one clean corpse on this Island.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unfortunately for his braggadocio, he let it leak out in some way that he
+      had been well aware all the time that he would not be executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was taken to Fort Delaware for confinement, and died there some time
+      after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank Beverstock went back to his regiment, and served with it until the
+      close of the war. He then returned home, and, after awhile became a banker
+      at Bowling Green, O. He was a fine business man and became very
+      prosperous. But though naturally healthy and vigorous, his system carried
+      in it the seeds of death, sown there by the hardships of captivity. He had
+      been one of the victims of the Rebels' vaccination; the virus
+      injected into his blood had caused a large part of his right temple to
+      slough off, and when it healed it left a ghastly cicatrix.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two years ago he was taken suddenly ill, and died before his friends had
+      any idea that his condition was serious. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch54" id="ch54"></a>CHAPTER LIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SAVANNAH PROVES TO BE A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER&mdash;ESCAPE FROM THE BRATS
+      OF GUARDS&mdash;COMPARISON BETWEEN WIRZ AND DAVIS&mdash;A BRIEF INTERVAL
+      OF GOOD RATIONS&mdash;WINDER, THE MAN WITH THE EVIL EYE &mdash;THE
+      DISLOYAL WORK OF A SHYSTER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After all Savannah was a wonderful improvement on Andersonville. We got
+      away from the pestilential Swamp and that poisonous ground. Every mouthful
+      of air was not laden with disease germs, nor every cup of water polluted
+      with the seeds of death. The earth did not breed gangrene, nor the
+      atmosphere promote fever. As only the more vigorous had come away, we were
+      freed from the depressing spectacle of every third man dying. The keen
+      disappointment prostrated very many who had been of average health, and I
+      imagine, several hundred died, but there were hospital arrangements of
+      some kind, and the sick were taken away from among us. Those of us who
+      tunneled out had an opportunity of stretching our legs, which we had not
+      had for months in the overcrowded Stockade we had left. The attempts to
+      escape did all engaged in them good, even though they failed, since they
+      aroused new ideas and hopes, set the blood into more rapid circulation,
+      and toned up the mind and system both. I had come away from Andersonville
+      with considerable scurvy manifesting itself in my gums and feet. Soon
+      these signs almost wholly disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We also got away from those murderous little brats of Reserves, who
+      guarded us at Andersonville, and shot men down as they would stone apples
+      out of a tree. Our guards now were mostly, sailors, from the Rebel fleet
+      in the harbor&mdash;Irishmen, Englishmen and Scandinavians, as free
+      hearted and kindly as sailors always are. I do not think they ever fired a
+      shot at one of us. The only trouble we had was with that portion of the
+      guard drawn from the infantry of the garrison. They had the same
+      rattlesnake venom of the Home Guard crowd wherever we met it, and shot us
+      down at the least provocation. Fortunately they only formed a small part
+      of the sentinels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Best of all, we escaped for a while from the upas-like shadow of Winder
+      and Wirz, in whose presence strong men sickened and died, as when near
+      some malign genii of an Eastern story. The peasantry of Italy believed
+      firmly in the evil eye. Did they ever know any such men as Winder and his
+      satellite, I could comprehend how much foundation they could have for such
+      a belief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lieutenant Davis had many faults, but there was no comparison between him
+      and the Andersonville commandant. He was a typical young Southern man;
+      ignorant and bumptious as to the most common matters of school-boy
+      knowledge, inordinately vain of himself and his family, coarse in tastes
+      and thoughts, violent in his prejudices, but after all with some streaks
+      of honor and generosity that made the widest possible difference between
+      him and Wirz, who never had any. As one of my chums said to me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wirz is the most even-tempered man I ever knew; he's always
+      foaming mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was nearly the truth. I never saw Wirz when he was not angry; if not
+      violently abusive, he was cynical and sardonic. Never, in my little
+      experience with him did I detect a glint of kindly, generous humanity; if
+      he ever was moved by any sight of suffering its exhibition in his face
+      escaped my eye. If he ever had even a wish to mitigate the pain or
+      hardship of any man the expression of such wish never fell on my ear. How
+      a man could move daily through such misery as he encountered, and never be
+      moved by it except to scorn and mocking is beyond my limited
+      understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Davis vapored a great deal, swearing big round oaths in the broadest of
+      Southern patois; he was perpetually threatening to:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Open on ye wid de ahtillery,&rdquo; but the only death that I knew
+      him to directly cause or sanction was that I have described in the
+      previous chapter. He would not put himself out of the way to annoy and
+      oppress prisoners, as Wirz would, but frequently showed even a disposition
+      to humor them in some little thing, when it could be done without danger
+      or trouble to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By-and-by, however, he got an idea that there was some money to be made
+      out of the prisoners, and he set his wits to work in this direction. One
+      day, standing at the gate, he gave one of his peculiar yells that he used
+      to attract the attention of the camp with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wh-ah-ye!!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We all came to &ldquo;attention,&rdquo; and he announced:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday, while I wuz in the camps (a Rebel always says camps,)
+      some of you prisoners picked my pockets of seventy-five dollars in
+      greenbacks. Now, I give you notice that I'll not send in any moah
+      rations till the money's returned to me.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p422" id="p422"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p422.jpg (48K)" src="images/p422.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a very stupid method of extortion, since no one believed that he
+      had lost the money, and at all events he had no business to have the
+      greenbacks, as the Rebel laws imposed severe penalties upon any citizen,
+      and still more upon any soldier dealing with, or having in his possession
+      any of &ldquo;the money of the enemy.&rdquo; We did without rations until
+      night, when they were sent in. There was a story that some of the boys in
+      the prison had contributed to make up part of the sum, and Davis took it
+      and was satisfied. I do not know how true the story was. At another time
+      some of the boys stole the bridle and halter off an old horse that was
+      driven in with a cart. The things were worth, at a liberal estimate, one
+      dollar. Davis cut off the rations of the whole six thousand of us for one
+      day for this. We always imagined that the proceeds went into his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A special exchange was arranged between our Navy Department and that of
+      the Rebels, by which all seamen and marines among us were exchanged. Lists
+      of these were sent to the different prisons and the men called for. About
+      three-fourths of them were dead, but many soldiers divining, the situation
+      of affairs, answered to the dead men's names, went away with the
+      squad and were exchanged. Much of this was through the connivance of the
+      Rebel officers, who favored those who had ingratiated themselves with
+      them. In many instances money was paid to secure this privilege, and I
+      have been informed on good authority that Jack Huckleby, of the Eighth
+      Tennessee, and Ira Beverly, of the One Hundredth Ohio, who kept the big
+      sutler shop on the North Side at Andersonville, paid Davis five hundred
+      dollars each to be allowed to go with the sailors. As for Andrews and me,
+      we had no friends among the Rebels, nor money to bribe with, so we stood
+      no show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rations issued to us for some time after our arrival seemed riotous
+      luxury to what we had been getting at Andersonville. Each of us received
+      daily a half-dozen rude and coarse imitations of our fondly-remembered
+      hard tack, and with these a small piece of meat or a few spoonfuls of
+      molasses, and a quart or so of vinegar, and several plugs of tobacco for
+      each &ldquo;hundred.&rdquo; How exquisite was the taste of the crackers
+      and molasses! It was the first wheat bread I had eaten since my entry into
+      Richmond &mdash;nine months before&mdash;and molasses had been a stranger
+      to me for years. After the corn bread we had so long lived upon, this was
+      manna. It seems that the Commissary at Savannah labored under the delusion
+      that he must issue to us the same rations as were served out to the Rebel
+      soldiers and sailors. It was some little time before the fearful mistake
+      came to the knowledge of Winder. I fancy that the news almost threw him
+      into an apoplectic fit. Nothing, save his being ordered to the front,
+      could have caused him such poignant sorrow as the information that so much
+      good food had been worse than wasted in undoing his work by building up
+      the bodies of his hated enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without being told, we knew that he had been heard from when the tobacco,
+      vinegar and molasses failed to come in, and the crackers gave way to corn
+      meal. Still this was a vast improvement on Andersonville, as the meal was
+      fine and sweet, and we each had a spoonful of salt issued to us regularly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am quite sure that I cannot make the reader who has not had an
+      experience similar to ours comprehend the wonderful importance to us of
+      that spoonful of salt. Whether or not the appetite for salt be, as some
+      scientists claim, a purely artificial want, one thing is certain, and that
+      is, that either the habit of countless generations or some other cause,
+      has so deeply ingrained it into our common nature, that it has come to be
+      nearly as essential as food itself, and no amount of deprivation can
+      accustom us to its absence. Rather, it seemed that the longer we did
+      without it the more overpowering became our craving. I could get along
+      to-day and to-morrow, perhaps the whole week, without salt in my food,
+      since the lack would be supplied from the excess I had already swallowed,
+      but at the end of that time Nature would begin to demand that I renew the
+      supply of saline constituent of my tissues, and she would become more
+      clamorous with every day that I neglected her bidding, and finally summon
+      Nausea to aid Longing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light artillery of the garrison of Savannah&mdash;four batteries,
+      twenty-four pieces&mdash;was stationed around three sides of the prison,
+      the guns unlimbered, planted at convenient distance, and trained upon us,
+      ready for instant use. We could see all the grinning mouths through the
+      cracks in the fence. There were enough of them to send us as high as the
+      traditional kite flown by Gilderoy. The having at his beck this array of
+      frowning metal lent Lieutenant Davis such an importance in his own eyes
+      that his demeanor swelled to the grandiose. It became very amusing to see
+      him puff up and vaunt over it, as he did on every possible occasion. For
+      instance, finding a crowd of several hundred lounging around the gate, he
+      would throw open the wicket, stalk in with the air of a Jove threatening a
+      rebellious world with the dread thunders of heaven, and shout:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;W-h-a-a y-e-e! Prisoners, I give you jist two minutes to cleah away
+      from this gate, aw I'll open on ye wid de ahtillery!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the buglers of the artillery was a superb musician&mdash;evidently
+      some old &ldquo;regular&rdquo; whom the Confederacy had seduced into its
+      service, and his instrument was so sweet toned that we imagined that it
+      was made of silver. The calls he played were nearly the same as we used in
+      the cavalry, and for the first few days we became bitterly homesick every
+      time he sent ringing out the old familiar signals, that to us were so
+      closely associated with what now seemed the bright and happy days when we
+      were in the field with our battalion. If we were only back in the valleys
+      of Tennessee with what alacrity we would respond to that &ldquo;assembly;&rdquo;
+      no Orderly's patience would be worn out in getting laggards and lazy
+      ones to &ldquo;fall in for roll-call;&rdquo; how eagerly we would attend
+      to &ldquo;stable duty;&rdquo; how gladly mount our faithful horses and
+      ride away to &ldquo;water,&rdquo; and what bareback races ride, going and
+      coming. We would be even glad to hear &ldquo;guard&rdquo; and &ldquo;drill&rdquo;
+      sounded; and there would be music in the disconsolate &ldquo;surgeon's
+      call:&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        &ldquo;Come-get-your-q-n-i-n-i-n-e; come, get your quinine; It'll
+        make you sad: It'll make you sick. Come, come.&rdquo;
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      O, if we were only back, what admirable soldiers we would be! One morning,
+      about three or four o'clock, we were awakened by the ground shaking
+      and a series of heavy, dull thumps sounding oft seaward. Our silver-voiced
+      bugler seemed to be awakened, too. He set the echoes ringing with a
+      vigorously played &ldquo;reveille;&rdquo; a minute later came an equally
+      earnest &ldquo;assembly,&rdquo; and when &ldquo;boots and saddles&rdquo;
+      followed, we knew that all was not well in Denmark; the thumping and
+      shaking now had a significance. It meant heavy Yankee guns somewhere near.
+      We heard the gunners hitching up; the bugle signal &ldquo;forward,&rdquo;
+      the wheels roll off, and for a half hour afterwards we caught the receding
+      sound of the bugle commanding &ldquo;right turn,&rdquo; &ldquo;left turn,&rdquo;
+      etc., as the batteries marched away. Of course, we became considerably
+      wrought up over the matter, as we fancied that, knowing we were in
+      Savannah, our vessels were trying to pass up to the City and take it. The
+      thumping and shaking continued until late in the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We subsequently learned that some of our blockaders, finding time banging
+      heavy upon their hands, had essayed a little diversion by knocking Forts
+      Jackson and Bledsoe&mdash;two small forts defending the passage of the
+      Savannah&mdash;about their defenders' ears. After capturing the
+      forts our folks desisted and came no farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quite a number of the old Raider crowd had come with us from
+      Andersonville. Among these was the shyster, Peter Bradley. They kept up
+      their old tactics of hanging around the gates, and currying favor with the
+      Rebels in every possible way, in hopes to get paroles outside or other
+      favors. The great mass of the prisoners were so bitter against the Rebels
+      as to feel that they would rather die than ask or accept a favor from
+      their hands, and they had little else than contempt for these trucklers.
+      The raider crowd's favorite theme of conversation with the Rebels
+      was the strong discontent of the boys with the manner of their treatment
+      by our Government. The assertion that there was any such widespread
+      feeling was utterly false. We all had confidence&mdash;as we continue to
+      have to this day&mdash;that our Government would do everything for us
+      possible, consistent with its honor, and the success of military
+      operations, and outside of the little squad of which I speak, not an
+      admission could be extracted from anybody that blame could be attached to
+      any one, except the Rebels. It was regarded as unmanly and unsoldier-like
+      to the last degree, as well as senseless, to revile our Government for the
+      crimes committed by its foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Rebels were led to believe that we were ripe for revolt against
+      our flag, and to side with them. Imagine, if possible, the stupidity that
+      would mistake our bitter hatred of those who were our deadly enemies, for
+      any feeling that would lead us to join hands with those enemies. One day
+      we were surprised to see the carpenters erect a rude stand in the center
+      of the camp. When it was finished, Bradley appeared upon it, in company
+      with some Rebel officers and guards. We gathered around in curiosity, and
+      Bradley began making a speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said that it had now become apparent to all of us that our Government
+      had abandoned us; that it cared little or nothing for us, since it could
+      hire as many more quite readily, by offering a bounty equal to the pay
+      which would be due us now; that it cost only a few hundred dollars to
+      bring over a shipload of Irish, &ldquo;Dutch,&rdquo; and French, who were
+      only too glad to agree to fight or do anything else to get to this
+      country. [The peculiar impudence of this consisted in Bradley himself
+      being a foreigner, and one who had only come out under one of the later
+      calls, and the influence of a big bounty.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Continuing in this strain he repeated and dwelt upon the old lie, always
+      in the mouths of his crowd, that Secretary Stanton and General Halleck had
+      positively refused to enter upon negotiations for exchange, because those
+      in prison were &ldquo;only a miserable lot of 'coffee-boilers'
+      and 'blackberry pickers,' whom the Army was better off
+      without.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terms &ldquo;coffee-boiler,&rdquo; and &ldquo;blackberry-pickers&rdquo;
+      were considered the worst terms of opprobrium we had in prison. They were
+      applied to that class of stragglers and skulkers, who were only too ready
+      to give themselves up to the enemy, and who, on coming in, told some gauzy
+      story about &ldquo;just having stopped to boil a cup of coffee,&rdquo; or
+      to do something else which they should not have done, when they were
+      gobbled up. It is not risking much to affirm the probability of Bradley
+      and most of his crowd having belonged to this dishonorable class.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The assertion that either the great Chief-of-Staff or the still greater
+      War-Secretary were even capable of applying such epithets to the mass of
+      prisoners is too preposterous to need refutation, or even denial. No
+      person outside the raider crowd ever gave the silly lie a moment's
+      toleration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bradley concluded his speech in some such language as this:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, fellow prisoners, I propose to you this: that we unite in
+      informing our Government that unless we are exchanged in thirty days, we
+      will be forced by self-preservation to join the Confederate army.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For an instant his hearers seemed stunned at the fellow's audacity,
+      and then there went up such a roar of denunciation and execration that the
+      air trembled. The Rebels thought that the whole camp was going to rush on
+      Bradley and tear him to pieces, and they drew revolvers and leveled
+      muskets to defend him. The uproar only ceased when Bradley was hurried out
+      of the prisons but for hours everybody was savage and sullen, and full of
+      threatenings against him, when opportunity served. We never saw him
+      afterward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Angry as I was, I could not help being amused at the tempestuous rage of a
+      tall, fine-looking and well educated Irish Sergeant of an Illinois
+      regiment. He poured forth denunciations of the traitor and the Rebels,
+      with the vivid fluency of his Hibernian nature, vowed he'd &ldquo;give
+      a year of me life, be J&mdash;-s, to have the handling of the dirty
+      spalpeen for ten minutes; be G-d,&rdquo; and finally in his rage, tore off
+      his own shirt and threw it on the ground and trampled on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imagine my astonishment, some time after getting out of prison, to find
+      the Southern papers publishing as a defense against the charges in regard
+      to Andersonville, the following document, which they claimed to have been
+      adopted by &ldquo;a mass meeting of the prisoners:&rdquo; <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At a mass meeting held September 28th, 1864, by the Federal
+      prisoners confined at Savannah, Ga., it was unanimously agreed that the
+      following resolutions be sent to the President of the United States, in
+      the hope that he might thereby take such steps as in his wisdom he may
+      think necessary for our speedy exchange or parole:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Resolved, That while we would declare our unbounded love for the
+      Union, for the home of our fathers, and for the graves of those we
+      venerate, we would beg most respectfully that our situation as prisoners
+      be diligently inquired into, and every obstacle consistent with the honor
+      and dignity of the Government at once removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Resolved, That while allowing the Confederate authorities all due
+      praise for the attention paid to prisoners, numbers of our men are daily
+      consigned to early graves, in the prime of manhood, far from home and
+      kindred, and this is not caused intentionally by the Confederate
+      Government, but by force of circumstances; the prisoners are forced to go
+      without shelter, and, in a great portion of cases, without medicine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Resolved, That, whereas, ten thousand of our brave comrades have
+      descended into an untimely grave within the last six months, and as we
+      believe their death was caused by the difference of climate, the peculiar
+      kind and insufficiency of food, and lack of proper medical treatment; and,
+      whereas, those difficulties still remain, we would declare as our firm
+      belief, that unless we are speedily exchanged, we have no alternative but
+      to share the lamentable fate of our comrades. Must this thing still go on!
+      Is there no hope?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Resolved, That, whereas, the cold and inclement season of the year
+      is fast approaching, we hold it to be our duty as soldiers and citizens of
+      the United States, to inform our Government that the majority of our
+      prisoners ate without proper clothing, in some cases being almost naked,
+      and are without blankets to protect us from the scorching sun by day or
+      the heavy dews by night, and we would most respectfully request the
+      Government to make some arrangement whereby we can be supplied with these,
+      to us, necessary articles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Resolved, That, whereas, the term of service of many of our
+      comrades having expired, they, having served truly and faithfully for the
+      term of their several enlistments, would most respectfully ask their
+      Government, are they to be forgotten? Are past services to be ignored? Not
+      having seen their wives and little ones for over three years, they would
+      most respectfully, but firmly, request the Government to make some
+      arrangements whereby they can be exchanged or paroled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Resolved, That, whereas, in the fortune of war, it was our lot to
+      become prisoners, we have suffered patiently, and are still willing to
+      suffer, if by so doing we can benefit the country; but we must most
+      respectfully beg to say, that we are not willing to suffer to further the
+      ends of any party or clique to the detriment of our honor, our families,
+      and our country, and we beg that this affair be explained to us, that we
+      may continue to hold the Government in that respect which is necessary to
+      make a good citizen and soldier.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        &ldquo;P. BRADLEY,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        &ldquo;Chairman of Committee in behalf of Prisoners.&rdquo;
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In regard to the above I will simply say this, that while I cannot pretend
+      to know or even much that went on around me, I do not think it was
+      possible for a mass meeting of prisoners to have been held without my
+      knowing it, and its essential features. Still less was it possible for a
+      mass meeting to have been held which would have adopted any such a
+      document as the above, or anything else that a Rebel would have found the
+      least pleasure in republishing. The whole thing is a brazen falsehood.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch55" id="ch55"></a>CHAPTER LV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHY WE WERE HURRIED OUT OF ANDERSONVILLE&mdash;THE FALL OF ATLANTA &mdash;OUR
+      LONGING TO HEAR THE NEWS&mdash;ARRIVAL OF SOME FRESH FISH&mdash;HOW WE
+      KNEW THEY WERE WESTERN BOYS&mdash;DIFFERENCE IN THE APPEARANCE OF THE
+      SOLDIERS OF THE TWO ARMIES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reason of our being hurried out of Andersonville under the false
+      pretext of exchange dawned on us before we had been in Savannah long. If
+      the reader will consult the map of Georgia he will understand this, too.
+      Let him remember that several of the railroads which now appear were not
+      built then. The road upon which Andersonville is situated was about one
+      hundred and twenty miles long, reaching from Macon to Americus,
+      Andersonville being about midway between these two. It had no connections
+      anywhere except at Macon, and it was hundreds of miles across the country
+      from Andersonville to any other road. When Atlanta fell it brought our
+      folks to within sixty miles of Macon, and any day they were liable to make
+      a forward movement, which would capture that place, and have us where we
+      could be retaken with ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing left undone to rouse the apprehensions of the Rebels in
+      that direction. The humiliating surrender of General Stoneman at Macon in
+      July, showed them what our folks were thinking of, and awakened their
+      minds to the disastrous consequences of such a movement when executed by a
+      bolder and abler commander. Two days of one of Kilpatrick's swift,
+      silent marches would carry his hard-riding troopers around Hood's
+      right flank, and into the streets of Macon, where a half hour's work
+      with the torch on the bridges across the Ocmulgee and the creeks that
+      enter it at that point, would have cut all of the Confederate Army of the
+      Tennessee's communications. Another day and night of easy marching
+      would bring his guidons fluttering through the woods about the Stockade at
+      Andersonville, and give him a reinforcement of twelve or fifteen thousand
+      able-bodied soldiers, with whom he could have held the whole Valley of the
+      Chattahoochie, and become the nether millstone, against which Sherman
+      could have ground Hood's army to powder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a thing was not only possible, but very probable, and doubtless would
+      have occurred had we remained in Andersonville another week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hence the haste to get us away, and hence the lie about exchange, for, had
+      it not been for this, one-quarter at least of those taken on the cars
+      would have succeeded in getting off and attempted to have reached Sherman's
+      lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The removal went on with such rapidity that by the end of September only
+      eight thousand two hundred and eighteen remained at Andersonville, and
+      these were mostly too sick to be moved; two thousand seven hundred died in
+      September, fifteen hundred and sixty in October, and four hundred and
+      eighty-five in November, so that at the beginning of December there were
+      only thirteen hundred and fifty-nine remaining. The larger part of those
+      taken out were sent on to Charleston, and subsequently to Florence and
+      Salisbury. About six or seven thousand of us, as near as I remember, were
+      brought to Savannah. <br>
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were all exceedingly anxious to know how the Atlanta campaign had
+      ended. So far our information only comprised the facts that a sharp battle
+      had been fought, and the result was the complete possession of our great
+      objective point. The manner of accomplishing this glorious end, the
+      magnitude of the engagement, the regiments, brigades and corps
+      participating, the loss on both sides, the completeness of the victories,
+      etc., were all matters that we knew nothing of, and thirsted to learn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebel papers said as little as possible about the capture, and the
+      facts in that little were so largely diluted with fiction as to convey no
+      real information. But few new, prisoners were coming in, and none of these
+      were from Sherman. However, toward the last of September, a handful of
+      &ldquo;fresh fish&rdquo; were turned inside, whom our experienced eyes
+      instantly told us were Western boys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was never any difficulty in telling, as far as he could be seen,
+      whether a boy belonged to the East or the west. First, no one from the
+      Army of the Potomac was ever without his corps badge worn conspicuously;
+      it was rare to see such a thing on one of Sherman's men. Then there
+      was a dressy air about the Army of the Potomac that was wholly wanting in
+      the soldiers serving west of the Alleghanies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Army, of the Potomac was always near to its base of supplies, always
+      had its stores accessible, and the care of the clothing and equipments of
+      the men was an essential part of its discipline. A ragged or shabbily
+      dressed man was a rarity. Dress coats, paper collars, fresh woolen shirts,
+      neat-fitting pantaloons, good comfortable shoes, and trim caps or hats,
+      with all the blazing brass of company letters an inch long, regimental
+      number, bugle and eagle, according to the Regulations, were as common to
+      Eastern boys as they were rare among the Westerners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter usually wore blouses, instead of dress coats, and as a rule
+      their clothing had not been renewed since the opening, of the campaign
+      &mdash;and it showed this. Those who wore good boots or shoes generally
+      had to submit to forcible exchanges by their captors, and the same was
+      true of head gear. The Rebels were badly off in regard to hats. They did
+      not have skill and ingenuity enough to make these out of felt or straw,
+      and the make-shifts they contrived of quilted calico and long-leaved pine,
+      were ugly enough to frighten horned cattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never blamed them much for wanting to get rid of these, even if they did
+      have to commit a sort of highway robbery upon defenseless prisoners to do
+      so. To be a traitor in arms was bad certainly, but one never appreciated
+      the entire magnitude of the crime until he saw a Rebel wearing a calico or
+      a pine-leaf hat. Then one felt as if it would be a great mistake to ever
+      show such a man mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Army of Northern Virginia seemed to have supplied themselves with
+      head-gear of Yankee manufacture of previous years, and they then quit
+      taking the hats of their prisoners. Johnston's Army did not have
+      such good luck, and had to keep plundering to the end of the war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another thing about the Army of the Potomac was the variety of the
+      uniforms. There were members of Zouave regiments, wearing baggy breeches
+      of various hues, gaiters, crimson fezes, and profusely braided jackets. I
+      have before mentioned the queer garb of the &ldquo;Lost Ducks.&rdquo; (Les
+      Enfants Perdu, Forty-eighth New York.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the most striking uniforms was that of the &ldquo;Fourteenth
+      Brooklyn.&rdquo; They wore scarlet pantaloons, a blue jacket handsomely
+      braided, and a red fez, with a white cloth wrapped around the head,
+      turban-fashion. As a large number of them were captured, they formed quite
+      a picturesque feature of every crowd. They were generally good fellows and
+      gallant soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another uniform that attracted much, though not so favorable, attention
+      was that of the Third New Jersey Cavalry, or First New Jersey Hussars, as
+      they preferred to call themselves. The designer of the uniform must have
+      had an interest in a curcuma plantation, or else he was a fanatical
+      Orangeman. Each uniform would furnish occasion enough for a dozen New York
+      riots on the 12th of July. Never was such an eruption of the yellows seen
+      outside of the jaundiced livery of some Eastern potentate. Down each leg
+      of the pantaloons ran a stripe of yellow braid one and one-half inches
+      wide. The jacket had enormous gilt buttons, and was embellished with
+      yellow braid until it was difficult to tell whether it was blue cloth
+      trimmed with yellow, or yellow adorned with blue. From the shoulders swung
+      a little, false hussar jacket, lined with the same flaring yellow. The
+      vizor-less cap was similarly warmed up with the hue of the perfected
+      sunflower. Their saffron magnificence was like the gorgeous gold of the
+      lilies of the field, and Solomon in all his glory could not have beau
+      arrayed like one of them. I hope he was not. I want to retain my respect
+      for him. We dubbed these daffodil cavaliers &ldquo;Butterflies,&rdquo; and
+      the name stuck to them like a poor relation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still another distinction that was always noticeable between the two
+      armies was in the bodily bearing of the men. The Army of the Potomac was
+      drilled more rigidly than the Western men, and had comparatively few long
+      marches. Its members had something of the stiffness and precision of
+      English and German soldiery, while the Western boys had the long, &ldquo;reachy&rdquo;
+      stride, and easy swing that made forty miles a day a rather commonplace
+      march for an infantry regiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was why we knew the new prisoners to be Sherman's boys as soon
+      as they came inside, and we started for them to hear the news. Inviting
+      them over to our lean-to, we told them our anxiety for the story of the
+      decisive blow that gave us the Central Gate of the Confederacy, and asked
+      them to give it to us. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch56" id="ch56"></a>CHAPTER LVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHAT CAUSED THE FALL OF ATLANTA&mdash;A DISSERTATION UPON AN IMPORTANT
+      PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM&mdash;THE BATTLE OF JONESBORO&mdash;WHY IT WAS
+      FOUGHT &mdash;HOW SHERMAN DECEIVED HOOD&mdash;A DESPERATE BAYONET CHARGE,
+      AND THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL ONE IN THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN&mdash;A GALLANT
+      COLONEL AND HOW HE DIED&mdash;THE HEROISM OF SOME ENLISTED MEN&mdash;GOING
+      CALMLY INTO CERTAIN DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An intelligent, quick-eyed, sunburned boy, without an ounce of surplus
+      flesh on face or limbs, which had been reduced to gray-hound condition by
+      the labors and anxieties of the months of battling between Chattanooga and
+      Atlanta, seemed to be the accepted talker of the crowd, since all the rest
+      looked at him, as if expecting him to answer for them. He did so:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want to know about how we got Atlanta at last, do you? Well, if
+      you don't know, I should think you would want to. If I didn't,
+      I'd want somebody to tell me all about it just as soon as he could
+      get to me, for it was one of the neatest little bits of work that 'old
+      Billy' and his boys ever did, and it got away with Hood so bad that
+      he hardly knew what hurt him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, first, I'll tell you that we belong to the old
+      Fourteenth Ohio Volunteers, which, if you know anything about the Army of
+      the Cumberland, you'll remember has just about as good a record as
+      any that trains around old Pap Thomas&mdash;and he don't 'low
+      no slouches of any kind near him, either&mdash;you can bet $500 to a cent
+      on that, and offer to give back the cent if you win. Ours is Jim Steedman's
+      old regiment&mdash;you've all heard of old Chickamauga Jim, who
+      slashed his division of 7,000 fresh men into the Rebel flank on the second
+      day at Chickamauga, in a way that made Longstreet wish he'd staid on
+      the Rappahannock, and never tried to get up any little sociable with the
+      Westerners. If I do say it myself, I believe we've got as good a
+      crowd of square, stand-up, trust'em-every-minute-in-your-life boys,
+      as ever thawed hard-tack and sowbelly. We got all the grunters and weak
+      sisters fanned out the first year, and since then we've been on a
+      business basis, all the time. We're in a mighty good brigade, too.
+      Most of the regiments have been with us since we formed the first brigade
+      Pap Thomas ever commanded, and waded with him through the mud of Kentucky,
+      from Wild Cat to Mill Springs, where he gave Zollicoffer just a little the
+      awfulest thrashing that a Rebel General ever got. That, you know, was in
+      January, 1862, and was the first victory gained by the Western Army, and
+      our people felt so rejoiced over it that&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; we've read all about that,&rdquo; we broke in,
+      &ldquo;and we'd like to hear it again, some other time; but tell us
+      now about Atlanta.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. Let's see: where was I? O, yes, talking about our
+      brigade. It is the Third Brigade, of the Third Division, of the Fourteenth
+      Corps, and is made up of the Fourteenth Ohio, Thirty-eighth Ohio, Tenth
+      Kentucky, and Seventy-fourth Indiana. Our old Colonel&mdash;George P. Este
+      &mdash;commands it. We never liked him very well in camp, but I tell you
+      he's a whole team in a fight, and he'd do so well there that
+      all would take to him again, and he'd be real popular for a while.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, isn't that strange,&rdquo; broke in Andrews, who was
+      given to fits of speculation of psychological phenomena: &ldquo;None of us
+      yearn to die, but the surest way to gain the affection of the boys is to
+      show zeal in leading them into scrapes where the chances of getting shot
+      are the best. Courage in action, like charity, covers a multitude of sins.
+      I have known it to make the most unpopular man in the battalion, the most
+      popular inside of half an hour. Now, M.(addressing himself to me,) you
+      remember Lieutenant H., of our battalion. You know he was a very fancy
+      young fellow; wore as snipish' clothes as the tailor could make, had
+      gold lace on his jacket wherever the regulations would allow it, decorated
+      his shoulders with the stunningest pair of shoulder knots I ever saw, and
+      so on. Well, he did not stay with us long after we went to the front. He
+      went back on a detail for a court martial, and staid a good while. When he
+      rejoined us, he was not in good odor, at all, and the boys weren't
+      at all careful in saying unpleasant things when he could hear them, A
+      little while after he came back we made that reconnaissance up on the
+      Virginia Road. We stirred up the Johnnies with our skirmish line, and
+      while the firing was going on in front we sat on our horses in line,
+      waiting for the order to move forward and engage. You know how solemn such
+      moments are. I looked down the line and saw Lieutenant H. at the right of
+      Company&mdash;, in command of it. I had not seen him since he came back,
+      and I sung out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Hello, Lieutenant, how do you feel?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reply came back, promptly, and with boyish cheerfulness:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Bully, by &mdash;&mdash;; I'm going to lead seventy
+      men of Company into action today!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How his boys did cheer him. When the bugle sounded&mdash;'forward,
+      trot,' his company sailed in as if they meant it, and swept the
+      Johnnies off in short meter. You never heard anybody say anything against
+      Lieutenant after that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know how it was with Captain G., of our regiment,&rdquo; said
+      one of the Fourteenth to another. &ldquo;He was promoted from Orderly
+      Sergeant to a Second Lieutenant, and assigned to Company D. All the
+      members of Company D went to headquarters in a body, and protested against
+      his being put in their company, and he was not. Well, he behaved so well
+      at Chickamauga that the boys saw that they had done him a great injustice,
+      and all those that still lived went again to headquarters, and asked to
+      take all back that they had said, and to have him put into the company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that was doing the manly thing, sure; but go on about
+      Atlanta.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was telling about our brigade,&rdquo; resumed the narrator.
+      &ldquo;Of course, we think our regiment's the best by long odds in
+      the army&mdash;every fellow thinks that of his regiment&mdash;but next to
+      it come the other regiments of our brigade. There's not a cent of
+      discount on any of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sherman had stretched out his right away to the south and west of
+      Atlanta. About the middle of August our corps, commanded by Jefferson C.
+      Davis, was lying in works at Utoy Creek, a couple of miles from Atlanta.
+      We could see the tall steeples and the high buildings of the City quite
+      plainly. Things had gone on dull and quiet like for about ten days. This
+      was longer by a good deal than we had been at rest since we left Resaca in
+      the Spring. We knew that something was brewing, and that it must come to a
+      head soon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I belong to Company C. Our little mess&mdash;now reduced to three
+      by the loss of two of our best soldiers and cooks, Disbrow and Sulier,
+      killed behind head-logs in front of Atlanta, by sharpshooters&mdash;had
+      one fellow that we called 'Observer,' because he had such a
+      faculty of picking up news in his prowling around headquarters. He brought
+      us in so much of this, and it was generally so reliable that we frequently
+      made up his absence from duty by taking his place. He was never away from
+      a fight, though. On the night of the 25th of August, 'Observer'
+      came in with the news that something was in the wind. Sherman was getting
+      awful restless, and we had found out that this always meant lots of
+      trouble to our friends on the other side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure enough, orders came to get ready to move, and the next night
+      we all moved to the right and rear, out of sight of the Johnnies. Our well
+      built works were left in charge of Garrard's Cavalry, who concealed
+      their horses in the rear, and came up and took our places. The whole army
+      except the Twentieth Corps moved quietly off, and did it so nicely that we
+      were gone some time before the enemy suspected it. Then the Twentieth
+      Corps pulled out towards the North, and fell back to the Chattahoochie,
+      making quite a shove of retreat. The Rebels snapped up the bait greedily.
+      They thought the siege was being raised, and they poured over their works
+      to hurry the Twentieth boys off. The Twentieth fellows let them know that
+      there was lots of sting in them yet, and the Johnnies were not long in
+      discovering that it would have been money in their pockets if they had let
+      that 'moon-and-star' (that's the Twentieth's
+      badge, you know) crowd alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the Rebs thought the rest of us were gone for good and that
+      Atlanta was saved. Naturally they felt mighty happy over it; and resolved
+      to have a big celebration&mdash;a ball, a meeting of jubilee, etc. Extra
+      trains were run in, with girls and women from the surrounding country, and
+      they just had a high old time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the meantime we were going through so many different kinds of
+      tactics that it looked as if Sherman was really crazy this time, sure.
+      Finally we made a grand left wheel, and then went forward a long way in
+      line of battle. It puzzled us a good deal, but we knew that Sherman couldn't
+      get us into any scrape that Pap Thomas couldn't get us out of, and
+      so it was all right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Along on the evening of the 31st our right wing seemed to have run
+      against a hornet's nest, and we could hear the musketry and cannon
+      speak out real spiteful, but nothing came down our way. We had struck the
+      railroad leading south from Atlanta to Macon, and began tearing it up. The
+      jollity at Atlanta was stopped right in the middle by the appalling news
+      that the Yankees hadn't retreated worth a cent, but had broken out
+      in a new and much worse spot than ever. Then there was no end of trouble
+      all around, and Hood started part of his army back after us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Part of Hardee's and Pat Cleburne's command went into
+      position in front of us. We left them alone till Stanley could come up on
+      our left, and swing around, so as to cut off their retreat, when we would
+      bag every one of them. But Stanley was as slow as he always was, and did
+      not come up until it was too late, and the game was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sun was just going down on the evening of the 1st of September,
+      when we began to see we were in for it, sure. The Fourteenth Corps wheeled
+      into position near the railroad, and the sound of musketry and artillery
+      became very loud and clear on our front and left. We turned a little and
+      marched straight toward the racket, becoming more excited every minute. We
+      saw the Carlin's brigade of regulars, who were some distance ahead
+      of us, pile knapsacks, form in line, fix bayonets, and dash off with
+      arousing cheer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Rebel fire beat upon them like a Summer rain-storm, the ground
+      shook with the noise, and just as we reached the edge of the cotton field,
+      we saw the remnant of the brigade come flying back out of the awful,
+      blasting shower of bullets. The whole slope was covered with dead and
+      wounded.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; interrupts one of the Fourteenth; &ldquo;and they made
+      that charge right gamely, too, I can tell you. They were good soldiers,
+      and well led. When we went over the works, I remember seeing the body of a
+      little Major of one of the regiments lying right on the top. If he hadn't
+      been killed he'd been inside in a half-a-dozen steps more. There's
+      no mistake about it; those regulars will fight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we saw this,&rdquo; resumed the narrator, &ldquo;it set our
+      fellows fairly wild; they became just crying mad; I never saw them so
+      before. The order came to strip for the charge, and our knapsacks were
+      piled in half a minute. A Lieutenant of our company, who was then on the
+      staff of Gen. Baird, our division commander, rode slowly down the line and
+      gave us our instructions to load our guns, fix bayonets, and hold fire
+      until we were on top of the Rebel works. Then Colonel Este sang out clear
+      and steady as a bugle signal:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Brigade, forward! Guide center! MARCH!!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we started. Heavens, how they did let into us, as we came up
+      into range. They had ten pieces of artillery, and more men behind the
+      breastworks than we had in line, and the fire they poured on us was simply
+      withering. We walked across the hundreds of dead and dying of the regular
+      brigade, and at every step our own men fell down among them. General Baud's
+      horse was shot down, and the General thrown far over his head, but he
+      jumped up and ran alongside of us. Major Wilson, our regimental commander,
+      fell mortally wounded; Lieutenant Kirk was killed, and also Captain
+      Stopfard, Adjutant General of the brigade. Lieutenants Cobb and Mitchell
+      dropped with wounds that proved fatal in a few days. Captain Ugan lost an
+      arm, one-third of the enlisted men fell, but we went straight ahead, the
+      grape and the musketry becoming worse every step, until we gained the edge
+      of the hill, where we were checked a minute by the brush, which the Rebels
+      had fixed up in the shape of abattis. Just then a terrible fire from a new
+      direction, our left, swept down the whole length of our line. The Colonel
+      of the Seventeenth New York&mdash;as gallant a man as ever lived saw the
+      new trouble, took his regiment in on the run, and relieved us of this, but
+      he was himself mortally wounded. If our boys were half-crazy before, they
+      were frantic now, and as we got out of the entanglement of the brush, we
+      raised a fearful yell and ran at the works. We climbed the sides, fired
+      right down into the defenders, and then began with the bayonet and sword.
+      For a few minutes it was simply awful. On both sides men acted like
+      infuriated devils. They dashed each other's brains out with clubbed
+      muskets; bayonets were driven into men's bodies up to the muzzle of
+      the gun; officers ran their swords through their opponents, and revolvers,
+      after being emptied into the faces of the Rebels, were thrown with
+      desperate force into the ranks. In our regiment was a stout German butcher
+      named Frank Fleck. He became so excited that he threw down his sword, and
+      rushed among the Rebels with his bare fists, knocking down a swath of
+      them. He yelled to the first Rebel he met:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Py Gott, I've no patience mit you,' and knocked him
+      sprawling. He caught hold of the commander of the Rebel Brigade, and
+      snatched him back over the works by main strength. Wonderful to say, he
+      escaped unhurt, but the boys will probably not soon let him hear the last
+      of,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Py Gott, I've no patience mit you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Tenth Kentucky, by the queerest luck in the world, was matched
+      against the Rebel Ninth Kentucky. The commanders of the two regiments were
+      brothers-in-law, and the men relatives, friends, acquaintances and
+      schoolmates. They hated each other accordingly, and the fight between them
+      was more bitter, if possible, than anywhere else on the line. The
+      Thirty-Eighth Ohio and Seventy-fourth Indiana put in some work that was
+      just magnificent. We hadn't time to look at it then, but the dead
+      and wounded piled up after the fight told the story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We gradually forced our way over the works, but the Rebels were
+      game to the last, and we had to make them surrender almost one at a time.
+      The artillerymen tried to fire on us when we were so close we could lay
+      our hands on the guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Finally nearly all in the works surrendered, and were disarmed and
+      marched back. Just then an aid came dashing up with the information that
+      we must turn the works, and get ready to receive Hardee, who was advancing
+      to retake the position. We snatched up some shovels lying near, and began
+      work. We had no time to remove the dead and dying Rebels on the works, and
+      the dirt we threw covered them up. It proved a false alarm. Hardee had as
+      much as he could do to save his own hide, and the affair ended about dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we came to count up what we had gained, we found that we had
+      actually taken more prisoners from behind breastworks than there were in
+      our brigade when we started the charge. We had made the only really
+      successful bayonet charge of the campaign. Every other time since we left
+      Chattanooga the party standing on the defensive had been successful. Here
+      we had taken strong double lines, with ten guns, seven battle flags, and
+      over two thousand prisoners. We had lost terribly&mdash;not less than
+      one-third of the brigade, and many of our best men. Our regiment went into
+      the battle with fifteen officers; nine of these were killed or wounded,
+      and seven of the nine lost either their limbs or lives. The Thirty-Eighth
+      Ohio, and the other regiments of the brigade lost equally heavy. We
+      thought Chickamauga awful, but Jonesboro discounted it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know,&rdquo; said another of the Fourteenth, &ldquo;I heard
+      our Surgeon telling about how that Colonel Grower, of the Seventeenth New
+      York, who came in so splendidly on our left, died? They say he was a Wall
+      Street broker, before the war. He was hit shortly after he led his
+      regiment in, and after the fight, was carried back to the hospital. While
+      our Surgeon was going the rounds Colonel Grower called him, and said
+      quietly, 'When you get through with the men, come and see me,
+      please.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor would have attended to him then, but Grower wouldn't
+      let him. After he got through he went back to Grower, examined his wound,
+      and told him that he could only live a few hours. Grower received the news
+      tranquilly, had the Doctor write a letter to his wife, and gave him his
+      things to send her, and then grasping the Doctor's hand, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor, I've just one more favor to ask; will you grant it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor said, 'Certainly; what is it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say I can't live but a few hours?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; that is true.' &ldquo;And that I will likely be in great
+      pain!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry to say so.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, do give me morphia enough to put me to sleep, so that I
+      will wake up only in another world.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor did so; Colonel Grower thanked him; wrung his hand, bade
+      him good-by, and went to sleep to wake no more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you believe in presentiments and superstitions?&rdquo; said
+      another of the Fourteenth. There was Fisher Pray, Orderly Sergeant of
+      Company I. He came from Waterville, O., where his folks are now living.
+      The day before we started out he had a presentiment that we were going
+      into a fight, and that he would be killed. He couldn't shake it off.
+      He told the Lieutenant, and some of the boys about it, and they tried to
+      ridicule him out of it, but it was no good. When the sharp firing broke
+      out in front some of the boys said, 'Fisher, I do believe you are
+      right,' and he nodded his head mournfully. When we were piling
+      knapsacks for the charge, the Lieutenant, who was a great friend of Fisher's,
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fisher, you stay here and guard the knapsacks.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fisher's face blazed in an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,' said he; I never shirked a fight yet, and I won't
+      begin now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So he went into the fight, and was killed, as he knew he would be.
+      Now, that's what I call nerve.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The same thing was true of Sergeant Arthur Tarbox, of Company A,&rdquo;
+      said the narrator; &ldquo;he had a presentiment, too; he knew he was going
+      to be killed, if he went in, and he was offered an honorable chance to
+      stay out, but he would not take it, and went in and was killed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we staid there the next day, buried our dead, took care of
+      our wounded, and gathered up the plunder we had taken from the Johnnies.
+      The rest of the army went off, 'hot blocks,' after Hardee and
+      the rest of Hood's army, which it was hoped would be caught outside
+      of entrenchments. But Hood had too much the start, and got into the works
+      at Lovejoy, ahead of our fellows. The night before we heard several very
+      loud explosions up to the north. We guessed what that meant, and so did
+      the Twentieth Corps, who were lying back at the Chattahoochee, and the
+      next morning the General commanding&mdash;Slocum&mdash;sent out a
+      reconnaissance. It was met by the Mayor of Atlanta, who said that the
+      Rebels had blown up their stores and retreated. The Twentieth Corps then
+      came in and took possession of the City, and the next day&mdash;the
+      3d&mdash;Sherman came in, and issued an order declaring the campaign at an
+      end, and that we would rest awhile and refit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We laid around Atlanta a good while, and things quieted down so
+      that it seemed almost like peace, after the four months of continual
+      fighting we had gone through. We had been under a strain so long that now
+      we boys went in the other direction, and became too careless, and that's
+      how we got picked up. We went out about five miles one night after a lot
+      of nice smoked hams that a nigger told us were stored in an old cotton
+      press, and which we knew would be enough sight better eating for Company
+      C, than the commissary pork we had lived on so long. We found the cotton
+      press, and the hams, just as the nigger told us, and we hitched up a team
+      to take them into camp. As we hadn't seen any Johnny signs anywhere,
+      we set our guns down to help load the meat, and just as we all came
+      stringing out to the wagon with as much meat as we could carry, a company
+      of Ferguson's Cavalry popped out of the woods about one hundred
+      yards in front of us and were on top of us before we could say I scat. You
+      see they'd heard of the meat, too.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p445" id="p445"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p445.jpg (10K)" src="images/p445.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch57" id="ch57"></a>CHAPTER LVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A FAIR SACRIFICE&mdash;THE STORY OF ONE BOY WHO WILLINGLY GAVE HIS YOUNG
+      LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charley Barbour was one of the truest-hearted and best-liked of my
+      school-boy chums and friends. For several terms we sat together on the
+      same uncompromisingly uncomfortable bench, worried over the same
+      boy-maddening problems in &ldquo;Ray's Arithmetic-Part III.,&rdquo;
+      learned the same jargon of meaningless rules from &ldquo;Greene's
+      Grammar,&rdquo; pondered over &ldquo;Mitchell's Geography and Atlas,&rdquo;
+      and tried in vain to understand why Providence made the surface of one
+      State obtrusively pink and another ultramarine blue; trod slowly and
+      painfully over the rugged road &ldquo;Bullion&rdquo; points out for
+      beginners in Latin, and began to believe we should hate ourselves and
+      everybody else, if we were gotten up after the manner shown by &ldquo;Cutter's
+      Physiology.&rdquo; We were caught together in the same long series of
+      school-boy scrapes&mdash;and were usually ferruled together by the same
+      strong-armed teacher. We shared nearly everything &mdash;our fun and work;
+      enjoyment and annoyance&mdash;all were generally meted out to us together.
+      We read from the same books the story of the wonderful world we were going
+      to see in that bright future &ldquo;when we were men;&rdquo; we spent our
+      Saturdays and vacations in the miniature explorations of the rocky hills
+      and caves, and dark cedar woods around our homes, to gather ocular helps
+      to a better comprehension of that magical land which we were convinced
+      began just beyond our horizon, and had in it, visible to the eye of him
+      who traveled through its enchanted breadth, all that &ldquo;Gulliver's
+      Fables,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Arabian Nights,&rdquo; and a hundred books of
+      travel and adventure told of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We imagined that the only dull and commonplace spot on earth was that
+      where we lived. Everywhere else life was a grand spectacular drama, full
+      of thrilling effects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brave and handsome young men were rescuing distressed damsels, beautiful
+      as they were wealthy; bloody pirates and swarthy murderers were being
+      foiled by quaint spoken backwoodsmen, who carried unerring rifles; gallant
+      but blundering Irishmen, speaking the most delightful brogue, and making
+      the funniest mistakes, were daily thwarting cool and determined villains;
+      bold tars were encountering fearful sea perils; lionhearted adventurers
+      were cowing and quelling whole tribes of barbarians; magicians were
+      casting spells, misers hoarding gold, scientists making astonishing
+      discoveries, poor and unknown boys achieving wealth and fame at a single
+      bound, hidden mysteries coming to light, and so the world was going on,
+      making reams of history with each diurnal revolution, and furnishing
+      boundless material for the most delightful books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the age of thirteen a perusal of the lives of Benjamin Franklin and
+      Horace Greeley precipitated my determination to no longer hesitate in
+      launching my small bark upon the great ocean. I ran away from home in a
+      truly romantic way, and placed my foot on what I expected to be the first
+      round of the ladder of fame, by becoming &ldquo;devil boy&rdquo; in a
+      printing office in a distant large City. Charley's attachment to his
+      mother and his home was too strong to permit him to take this step, and we
+      parted in sorrow, mitigated on my side by roseate dreams of the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Six years passed. One hot August morning I met an old acquaintance at the
+      Creek, in Andersonville. He told me to come there the next morning, after
+      roll-call, and he would take me to see some person who was very anxious to
+      meet me. I was prompt at the rendezvous, and was soon joined by the other
+      party. He threaded his way slowly for over half an hour through the
+      closely-jumbled mass of tents and burrows, and at length stopped in front
+      of a blanket-tent in the northwestern corner. The occupant rose and took
+      my hand. For an instant I was puzzled; then the clear, blue eyes, and
+      well-remembered smile recalled to me my old-time comrade, Charley Barbour.
+      His story was soon told. He was a Sergeant in a Western Virginia cavalry
+      regiment&mdash;the Fourth, I think. At the time Hunter was making his
+      retreat from the Valley of Virginia, it was decided to mislead the enemy
+      by sending out a courier with false dispatches to be captured. There was a
+      call for a volunteer for this service. Charley was the first to offer,
+      with that spirit of generous self-sacrifice that was one of his
+      pleasantest traits when a boy. He knew what he had to expect. Capture
+      meant imprisonment at Andersonville; our men had now a pretty clear
+      understanding of what this was. Charley took the dispatches and rode into
+      the enemy's lines. He was taken, and the false information produced
+      the desired effect. On his way to Andersonville he was stripped of all his
+      clothing but his shirt and pantaloons, and turned into the Stockade in
+      this condition. When I saw him he had been in a week or more. He told his
+      story quietly&mdash;almost diffidently&mdash;not seeming aware that he had
+      done more than his simple duty. I left him with the promise and
+      expectation of returning the next day, but when I attempted to find him
+      again, I was lost in the maze of tents and burrows. I had forgotten to ask
+      the number of his detachment, and after spending several days in hunting
+      for him, I was forced to give the search up. He knew as little of my
+      whereabouts, and though we were all the time within seventeen hundred feet
+      of each other, neither we nor our common acquaintance could ever manage to
+      meet again. This will give the reader an idea of the throng compressed
+      within the narrow limits of the Stockade. After leaving Andersonville,
+      however, I met this man once more, and learned from him that Charley had
+      sickened and died within a month after his entrance to prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So ended his day-dream of a career in the busy world. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p448" id="p448"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p448.jpg (22K)" src="images/p448.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch58" id="ch58"></a>CHAPTER LVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WE LEAVE SAVANNAH&mdash;MORE HOPES OF EXCHANGE&mdash;SCENES AT DEPARTURE
+      &mdash;&ldquo;FLANKERS&rdquo;&mdash;ON THE BACK TRACK TOWARD ANDERSONVILLE&mdash;ALARM
+      THEREAT &mdash;AT THE PARTING OF TWO WAYS&mdash;WE FINALLY BRING UP AT
+      CAMP LAWTON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the evening of the 11th of October there came an order for one thousand
+      prisoners to fall in and march out, for transfer to some other point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, Andrews and I &ldquo;flanked&rdquo; into this crowd. That was
+      our usual way of doing. Holding that the chances were strongly in favor of
+      every movement of prisoners being to our lines, we never failed to be
+      numbered in the first squad of prisoners that were sent out. The seductive
+      mirage of &ldquo;exchange&rdquo; was always luring us on. It must come
+      some time, certainly, and it would be most likely to come to those who
+      were most earnestly searching for it. At all events, we should leave no
+      means untried to avail ourselves of whatever seeming chances there might
+      be. There could be no other motive for this move, we argued, than
+      exchange. The Confederacy was not likely to be at the trouble and expense
+      of hauling us about the country without some good reason&mdash;something
+      better than a wish to make us acquainted with Southern scenery and
+      topography. It would hardly take us away from Savannah so soon after
+      bringing us there for any other purpose than delivery to our people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels encouraged this belief with direct assertions of its truth.
+      They framed a plausible lie about there having arisen some difficulty
+      concerning the admission of our vessels past the harbor defenses of
+      Savannah, which made it necessary to take us elsewhere&mdash;probably to
+      Charleston&mdash;for delivery to our men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wishes are always the most powerful allies of belief. There is little
+      difficulty in convincing a man of that of which he wants to be convinced.
+      We forgot the lie told us when we were taken from Andersonville, and
+      believed the one which was told us now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews and I hastily snatched our worldly possessions&mdash;our overcoat,
+      blanket, can, spoon, chessboard and men, yelled to some of our neighbors
+      that they could have our hitherto much-treasured house, and running down
+      to the gate, forced ourselves well up to the front of the crowd that was
+      being assembled to go out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The usual scenes accompanying the departure of first squads were being
+      acted tumultuously. Every one in the camp wanted to be one of the
+      supposed-to-be-favored few, and if not selected at first, tried to &ldquo;flank
+      in&rdquo;&mdash;that is, slip into the place of some one else who had had
+      better luck. This one naturally resisted displacement, 'vi et armis,'
+      and the fights would become so general as to cause a resemblance to the
+      famed Fair of Donnybrook. The cry would go up:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out for flankers!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lines of the selected would dress up compactly, and outsiders trying
+      to force themselves in would get mercilessly pounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We finally got out of the pen, and into the cars, which soon rolled away
+      to the westward. We were packed in too densely to be able to lie down. We
+      could hardly sit down. Andrews and I took up our position in one corner,
+      piled our little treasures under us, and trying to lean against each other
+      in such a way as to afford mutual support and rest, dozed fitfully through
+      a long, weary night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When morning came we found ourselves running northwest through a poor,
+      pine-barren country that strongly resembled that we had traversed in
+      coming to Savannah. The more we looked at it the more familiar it became,
+      and soon there was no doubt we were going back to Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By noon we had reached Millen&mdash;eighty miles from Savannah, and
+      fifty-three from Augusta. It was the junction of the road leading to Macon
+      and that running to Augusta. We halted a little while at the &ldquo;Y,&rdquo;
+      and to us the minutes were full of anxiety. If we turned off to the left
+      we were going back to Andersonville. If we took the right hand road we
+      were on the way to Charleston or Richmond, with the chances in favor of
+      exchange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length we started, and, to our joy, our engine took the right hand
+      track. We stopped again, after a run of five miles, in the midst of one of
+      the open, scattering forests of long leaved pine that I have before
+      described. We were ordered out of the cars, and marching a few rods, came
+      in sight of another of those hateful Stockades, which seemed to be as
+      natural products of the Sterile sand of that dreary land as its desolate
+      woods and its breed of boy murderers and gray-headed assassins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again our hearts sank, and death seemed more welcome than incarceration in
+      those gloomy wooden walls. We marched despondently up to the gates of the
+      Prison, and halted while a party of Rebel clerks made a list of our names,
+      rank, companies, and regiments. As they were Rebels it was slow work.
+      Reading and writing never came by nature, as Dogberry would say, to any
+      man fighting for Secession. As a rule, he took to them as reluctantly as
+      if, he thought them cunning inventions of the Northern Abolitionist to
+      perplex and demoralize him. What a half-dozen boys taken out of our own
+      ranks would have done with ease in an hour or so, these Rebels worried
+      over all of the afternoon, and then their register of us was so imperfect,
+      badly written and misspelled, that the Yankee clerks afterwards detailed
+      for the purpose, never could succeed in reducing it to intelligibility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We learned that the place at which we had arrived was Camp Lawton, but we
+      almost always spoke of it as &ldquo;Millen,&rdquo; the same as Camp Sumter
+      is universally known as Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after dark we were turned inside the Stockade. Being the first
+      that had entered, there was quite a quantity of wood&mdash;the offal from
+      the timber used in constructing the Stockade&mdash;lying on the ground.
+      The night was chilly one we soon had a number of fires blazing. Green
+      pitch pine, when burned, gives off a peculiar, pungent odor, which is
+      never forgotten by one who has once smelled it. I first became acquainted
+      with it on entering Andersonville, and to this day it is the most powerful
+      remembrance I can have of the opening of that dreadful Iliad of woes. On
+      my journey to Washington of late years the locomotives are invariably fed
+      with pitch pine as we near the Capital, and as the well-remembered smell
+      reaches me, I grow sick at heart with the flood of saddening recollections
+      indissolubly associated with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As our fires blazed up the clinging, penetrating fumes diffused themselves
+      everywhere. The night was as cool as the one when we arrived at
+      Andersonville, the earth, meagerly sodded with sparse, hard, wiry grass,
+      was the same; the same piney breezes blew in from the surrounding trees,
+      the same dismal owls hooted at us; the same mournful whip-poor-will
+      lamented, God knows what, in the gathering twilight. What we both felt in
+      the gloomy recesses of downcast hearts Andrews expressed as he turned to
+      me with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God, Mc, this looks like Andersonville all over again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cupful of corn meal was issued to each of us. I hunted up some water.
+      Andrews made a stiff dough, and spread it about half an inch thick on the
+      back of our chessboard. He propped this up before the fire, and when the
+      surface was neatly browned over, slipped it off the board and turned it
+      over to brown the other side similarly. This done, we divided it carefully
+      between us, swallowed it in silence, spread our old overcoat on the
+      ground, tucked chess-board, can, and spoon under far enough to be out of
+      the reach of thieves, adjusted the thin blanket so as to get the most
+      possible warmth out of it, crawled in close together, and went to sleep.
+      This, thank Heaven, we could do; we could still sleep, and Nature had some
+      opportunity to repair the waste of the day. We slept, and forgot where we
+      were. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p454" id="p454"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p454.jpg (51K)" src="images/p454.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch59" id="ch59"></a>CHAPTER LIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      OUR NEW QUARTERS AT CAMP LAWTON&mdash;BUILDING A HUT&mdash;AN EXCEPTIONAL
+      COMMANDANT&mdash;HE IS a GOOD MAN, BUT WILL TAKE BRIBES&mdash;RATIONS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning we took a survey of our new quarters, and found that we
+      were in a Stockade resembling very much in construction and dimensions
+      that at Andersonville. The principal difference was that the upright logs
+      were in their rough state, whereas they were hewed at Andersonville, and
+      the brook running through the camp was not bordered by a swamp, but had
+      clean, firm banks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our next move was to make the best of the situation. We were divided into
+      hundreds, each commanded by a Sergeant. Ten hundreds constituted a
+      division, the head of which was also a Sergeant. I was elected by my
+      comrades to the Sergeantcy of the Second Hundred of the First Division. As
+      soon as we were assigned to our ground, we began constructing shelter. For
+      the first and only time in my prison experience, we found a full supply of
+      material for this purpose, and the use we made of it showed how infinitely
+      better we would have fared if in each prison the Rebels had done even so
+      slight a thing as to bring in a few logs from the surrounding woods and
+      distribute them to us. A hundred or so of these would probably have saved
+      thousands of lives at Andersonville and Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A large tree lay on the ground assigned to our hundred. Andrews and I took
+      possession of one side of the ten feet nearest the butt. Other boys
+      occupied the rest in a similar manner. One of our boys had succeeded in
+      smuggling an ax in with him, and we kept it in constant use day and night,
+      each group borrowing it for an hour or so at a time. It was as dull as a
+      hoe, and we were very weak, so that it was slow work &ldquo;niggering off&rdquo;&mdash;(as
+      the boys termed it) a cut of the log. It seemed as if beavers could have
+      gnawed it off easier and more quickly. We only cut an inch or so at a
+      time, and then passed the ax to the next users. Making little wedges with
+      a dull knife, we drove them into the log with clubs, and split off long,
+      thin strips, like the weatherboards of a house, and by the time we had
+      split off our share of the log in this slow and laborious way, we had a
+      fine lot of these strips. We were lucky enough to find four forked sticks,
+      of which we made the corners of our dwelling, and roofed it carefully with
+      our strips, held in place by sods torn up from the edge of the creek bank.
+      The sides and ends were enclosed; we gathered enough pine tops to cover
+      the ground to a depth of several inches; we banked up the outside, and
+      ditched around it, and then had the most comfortable abode we had during
+      our prison career. It was truly a house builded with our own hands, for we
+      had no tools whatever save the occasional use of the aforementioned dull
+      axe and equally dull knife. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p457" id="p457"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p457.jpg (60K)" src="images/p457.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rude little hut represented as much actual hard, manual labor as would
+      be required to build a comfortable little cottage in the North, but we
+      gladly performed it, as we would have done any other work to better our
+      condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a while wood was quite plentiful, and we had the luxury daily of warm
+      fires, which the increasing coolness of the weather made important
+      accessories to our comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other prisoners kept coming in. Those we left behind at Savannah followed
+      us, and the prison there was broken up. Quite a number also came in from&mdash;Andersonville,
+      so that in a little while we had between six and seven thousand in the
+      Stockade. The last comers found all the material for tents and all the
+      fuel used up, and consequently did not fare so well as the earlier
+      arrivals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant of the prison&mdash;one Captain Bowes&mdash;was the best of
+      his class it was my fortune to meet. Compared with the senseless brutality
+      of Wirz, the reckless deviltry of Davis, or the stupid malignance of
+      Barrett, at Florence, his administration was mildness and wisdom itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He enforced discipline better than any of those named, but has what they
+      all lacked&mdash;executive ability&mdash;and he secured results that they
+      could not possibly attain, and without anything, like the friction that
+      attended their efforts. I do not remember that any one was shot during our
+      six weeks' stay at Millen&mdash;a circumstance simply remarkable,
+      since I do not recall a single week passed anywhere else without at least
+      one murder by the guards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One instance will illustrate the difference of his administration from
+      that of other prison commandants. He came upon the grounds of our division
+      one morning, accompanied by a pleasant-faced, intelligent-appearing lad of
+      about fifteen or sixteen. He said to us:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen: (The only instance during our imprisonment when we
+      received so polite a designation.) This is my son, who will hereafter call
+      your roll. He will treat you as gentlemen, and I know you will do the same
+      to him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This understanding was observed to the letter on both sides. Young Bowes
+      invariably spoke civilly to us, and we obeyed his orders with a prompt
+      cheerfulness that left him nothing to complain of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only charge I have to make against Bowes is made more in detail in
+      another chapter, and that is, that he took money from well prisoners for
+      giving them the first chance to go through on the Sick Exchange. How
+      culpable this was I must leave each reader to decide for himself. I
+      thought it very wrong at the time, but possibly my views might have been
+      colored highly by my not having any money wherewith to procure my own
+      inclusion in the happy lot of the exchanged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of one thing I am certain: that his acceptance of money to bias his
+      official action was not singular on his part. I am convinced that every
+      commandant we had over us&mdash;except Wirz&mdash;was habitually in the
+      receipt of bribes from prisoners. I never heard that any one succeeded in
+      bribing Wirz, and this is the sole good thing I can say of that fellow.
+      Against this it may be said, however, that he plundered the boys so
+      effectually on entering the prison as to leave them little of the
+      wherewithal to bribe anybody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Davis was probably the most unscrupulous bribe-taker of the lot. He
+      actually received money for permitting prisoners to escape to our lines,
+      and got down to as low a figure as one hundred dollars for this sort of
+      service. I never heard that any of the other commandants went this far.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rations issued to us were somewhat better than those of Andersonville,
+      as the meal was finer and better, though it was absurdedly insufficient in
+      quantity, and we received no salt. On several occasions fresh beef was
+      dealt out to us, and each time the excitement created among those who had
+      not tasted fresh meat for weeks and months was wonderful. On the first
+      occasion the meat was simply the heads of the cattle killed for the use of
+      the guards. Several wagon loads of these were brought in and distributed.
+      We broke them up so that every man got a piece of the bone, which was
+      boiled and reboiled, as long as a single bubble of grease would rise to
+      the surface of the water; every vestige of meat was gnawed and scraped
+      from the surface and then the bone was charred until it crumbled, when it
+      was eaten. No one who has not experienced it can imagine the inordinate
+      hunger for animal food of those who had eaten little else than corn bread
+      for so long. Our exhausted bodies were perishing for lack of proper
+      sustenance. Nature indicated fresh beef as the best medium to repair the
+      great damage already done, and our longing for it became beyond
+      description. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p459" id="p459"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p459.jpg (20K)" src="images/p459.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch60" id="ch60"></a>CHAPTER LX
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE RAIDERS REAPPEAR ON THE SCENE&mdash;THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THOSE
+      WHO WERE CONCERNED IN THE EXECUTION&mdash;A COUPLE OF LIVELY FIGHTS, IN
+      WHICH THE RAIDERS ARE DEFEATED&mdash;HOLDING AN ELECTION.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our old antagonists&mdash;the Raiders&mdash;were present in strong force
+      in Millen. Like ourselves, they had imagined the departure from
+      Andersonville was for exchange, and their relations to the Rebels were
+      such that they were all given a chance to go with the first squads. A
+      number had been allowed to go with the sailors on the Special Naval
+      Exchange from Savannah, in the place of sailors and marines who had died.
+      On the way to Charleston a fight had taken place between them and the real
+      sailors, during which one of their number&mdash;a curly-headed Irishman
+      named Dailey, who was in such high favor with the Rebels that he was given
+      the place of driving the ration wagon that came in the North Side at
+      Andersonville &mdash;was killed, and thrown under the wheels of the moving
+      train, which passed over him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After things began to settle into shape at Millen, they seemed to believe
+      that they were in such ascendancy as to numbers and organization that they
+      could put into execution their schemes of vengeance against those of us
+      who had been active participants in the execution of their confederates at
+      Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some little preliminaries they settled upon Corporal &ldquo;Wat&rdquo;
+      Payne, of my company, as their first victim. The reader will remember
+      Payne as one of the two Corporals who pulled the trigger to the scaffold
+      at the time of the execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Payne was a very good man physically, and was yet in fair condition. The
+      Raiders came up one day with their best man&mdash;Pete Donnelly&mdash;and
+      provoked a fight, intending, in the course of it, to kill Payne. We, who
+      knew Payee, felt reasonably confident of his ability to handle even so
+      redoubtable a pugilist as Donnelly, and we gathered together a little
+      squad of our friends to see fair play.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fight began after the usual amount of bad talk on both sides, and we
+      were pleased to see our man slowly get the better of the New York
+      plug-ugly. After several sharp rounds they closed, and still Payne was
+      ahead, but in an evil moment he spied a pine knot at his feet, which he
+      thought he could reach, and end the fight by cracking Donnelly's
+      head with it. Donnelly took instant advantage of the movement to get it,
+      threw Payne heavily, and fell upon him. His crowd rushed in to finish our
+      man by clubbing him over the head. We sailed in to prevent this, and after
+      a rattling exchange of blows all around, succeeded in getting Payne away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The issue of the fight seemed rather against us, however, and the Raiders
+      were much emboldened. Payne kept close to his crowd after that, and as we
+      had shown such an entire willingness to stand by him, the Raiders &mdash;with
+      their accustomed prudence when real fighting was involved&mdash;did not
+      attempt to molest him farther, though they talked very savagely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after this Sergeant Goody and Corporal Ned Carrigan, both of
+      our battalion, came in. I must ask the reader to again recall the fact
+      that Sergeant Goody was one of the six hangmen who put the meal-sacks over
+      the heads, and the ropes around the necks of the condemned. Corporal
+      Carrigan was the gigantic prize fighter, who was universally acknowledged
+      to be the best man physically among the whole thirty-four thousand in
+      Andersonville. The Raiders knew that Goody had come in before we of his
+      own battalion did. They resolved to kill him then and there, and in broad
+      daylight. He had secured in some way a shelter tent, and was inside of it
+      fixing it up. The Raider crowd, headed by Pete Donnelly, and Dick Allen,
+      went up to his tent and one of them called to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sergeant, come out; I want to see you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Goody, supposing it was one of us, came crawling out on his hands and
+      knees. As he did so their heavy clubs crashed down upon his head. He was
+      neither killed nor stunned, as they had reason to expect. He succeeded in
+      rising to his feet, and breaking through the crowd of assassins. He dashed
+      down the side of the hill, hotly pursued by them. Coming to the Creek, he
+      leaped it in his excitement, but his pursuers could not, and were checked.
+      One of our battalion boys, who saw and comprehended the whole affair, ran
+      over to us, shouting:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn out! turn out, for God's sake! the Raiders are killing
+      Goody!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We snatched up our clubs and started after the Raiders, but before we
+      could reach them, Ned Carrigan, who also comprehended what the trouble
+      was, had run to the side of Goody, armed with a terrible looking club. The
+      sight of Ned, and the demonstration that he was thoroughly aroused, was
+      enough for the Raider crew, and they abandoned the field hastily. We did
+      not feel ourselves strong enough to follow them on to their own dung hill,
+      and try conclusions with them, but we determined to report the matter to
+      the Rebel Commandant, from whom we had reason to believe we could expect
+      assistance. We were right. He sent in a squad of guards, arrested Dick
+      Allen, Pete Donnelly, and several other ringleaders, took them out and put
+      them in the stocks in such a manner that they were compelled to lie upon
+      their stomachs. A shallow tin vessel containing water was placed under
+      their faces to furnish them drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They staid there a day and night, and when released, joined the Rebel
+      Army, entering the artillery company that manned the guns in the fort
+      covering the prison. I used to imagine with what zeal they would send us
+      over; a round of shell or grape if they could get anything like an excuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This gave us good riddance&mdash;of our dangerous enemies, and we had
+      little further trouble with any of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The depression in the temperature made me very sensible of the
+      deficiencies in my wardrobe. Unshod feet, a shirt like a fishing net, and
+      pantaloons as well ventilated as a paling fence might do very well for the
+      broiling sun at Andersonville and Savannah, but now, with the thermometer
+      nightly dipping a little nearer the frost line, it became unpleasantly
+      evident that as garments their office was purely perfunctory; one might
+      say ornamental simply, if he wanted to be very sarcastic. They were worn
+      solely to afford convenient quarters for multitudes of lice, and in
+      deference to the prejudice which has existed since the Fall of Man against
+      our mingling with our fellow creatures in the attire provided us by
+      Nature. Had I read Darwin then I should have expected that my long
+      exposure to the weather would start a fine suit of fur, in the effort of
+      Nature to adapt, me to my environment. But no more indications of this
+      appeared than if I had been a hairless dog of Mexico, suddenly
+      transplanted to more northern latitudes. Providence did not seem to be in
+      the tempering-the-wind-to-the-shorn-lamb business, as far as I was
+      concerned. I still retained an almost unconquerable prejudice against
+      stripping the dead to secure clothes, and so unless exchange or death came
+      speedily, I was in a bad fix. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p463" id="p463"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p463.jpg (26K)" src="images/p463.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning about day break, Andrews, who had started to go to another
+      part of the camp, came slipping back in a state of gleeful excitement. At
+      first I thought he either had found a tunnel or had heard some good news
+      about exchange. It was neither. He opened his jacket and handed me an
+      infantry man's blouse, which he had found in the main street, where
+      it had dropped out of some fellow's bundle. We did not make any
+      extra exertion to find the owner. Andrews was in sore need of clothes
+      himself, but my necessities were so much greater that the generous fellow
+      thought of my wants first. We examined the garment with as much interest
+      as ever a belle bestowed on a new dress from Worth's. It was in fair
+      preservation, but the owner had cut the buttons off to trade to the guard,
+      doubtless for a few sticks of wood, or a spoonful of salt. We supplied the
+      place of these with little wooden pins, and I donned the garment as a
+      shirt and coat and vest, too, for that matter. The best suit I ever put on
+      never gave me a hundredth part the satisfaction that this did. Shortly
+      after, I managed to subdue my aversion so far as to take a good shoe which
+      a one-legged dead man had no farther use for, and a little later a comrade
+      gave me for the other foot a boot bottom from which he had cut the top to
+      make a bucket. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ........................... <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day of the Presidential election of 1864 approached. The Rebels were
+      naturally very much interested in the result, as they believed that the
+      election of McClellan meant compromise and cessation of hostilities, while
+      the re-election of Lincoln meant prosecution of the War to the bitter end.
+      The toadying Raiders, who were perpetually hanging around the gate to get
+      a chance to insinuate themselves into the favor of the Rebel officers,
+      persuaded them that we were all so bitterly hostile to our Government for
+      not exchanging us that if we were allowed to vote we would cast an
+      overwhelming majority in favor of McClellan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels thought that this might perhaps be used to advantage as
+      political capital for their friends in the North. They gave orders that we
+      might, if we chose, hold an election on the same day of the Presidential
+      election. They sent in some ballot boxes, and we elected Judges of the
+      Election.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About noon of that day Captain Bowes, and a crowd of tightbooted,
+      broad-hatted Rebel officers, strutted in with the peculiar &ldquo;Ef-yer-don't-b'lieve&mdash;I'm-a-butcher-jest-smell-o'-mebutes&rdquo;
+      swagger characteristic of the class. They had come in to see us all voting
+      for McClellan. Instead, they found the polls surrounded with ticket
+      pedlers shouting:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Walk right up here now, and get your
+      Unconditional-Union-Abraham-Lincoln -tickets!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's your straight-haired prosecution-of-the-war ticket.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vote the Lincoln ticket; vote to whip the Rebels, and make peace
+      with them when they've laid down their arms.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't vote a McClellan ticket and gratify Rebels, everywhere,&rdquo;
+      etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebel officers did not find the scene what their fancy painted it, and
+      turning around they strutted out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the votes came to be counted out there were over seven thousand for
+      Lincoln, and not half that many hundred for McClellan. The latter got very
+      few votes outside the Raider crowd. The same day a similar election was
+      held in Florence, with like result. Of course this did not indicate that
+      there was any such a preponderance of Republicans among us. It meant
+      simply that the Democratic boys, little as they might have liked Lincoln,
+      would have voted for him a hundred times rather than do anything to please
+      the Rebels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never heard that the Rebels sent the result North. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch61" id="ch61"></a>CHAPTER LXI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE REBELS FORMALLY PROPOSE TO US TO DESERT TO THEM&mdash;CONTUMELIOUS
+      TREATMENT OF THE PROPOSITION&mdash;THEIR RAGE&mdash;AN EXCITING TIME&mdash;AN
+      OUTBREAK THREATENED&mdash;DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING DESERTION TO THE REBELS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day in November, some little time after the occurrences narrated in
+      the last chapter, orders came in to make out rolls of all those who were
+      born outside of the United States, and whose terms of service had expired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We held a little council among ourselves as to the meaning of this, and
+      concluded that some partial exchange had been agreed on, and the Rebels
+      were going to send back the class of boys whom they thought would be of
+      least value to the Government. Acting on this conclusion the great
+      majority of us enrolled ourselves as foreigners, and as having served out
+      our terms. I made out the roll of my hundred, and managed to give every
+      man a foreign nativity. Those whose names would bear it were assigned to
+      England, Ireland, Scotland France and Germany, and the balance were
+      distributed through Canada and the West Indies. After finishing the roll
+      and sending it out, I did not wonder that the Rebels believed the battles
+      for the Union were fought by foreign mercenaries. The other rolls were
+      made out in the same way, and I do not suppose that they showed five
+      hundred native Americans in the Stockade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day after sending out the rolls, there came an order that all
+      those whose names appeared thereon should fall in. We did so, promptly,
+      and as nearly every man in camp was included, we fell in as for other
+      purposes, by hundreds and thousands. We were then marched outside, and
+      massed around a stump on which stood a Rebel officer, evidently waiting to
+      make us a speech. We awaited his remarks with the greatest impatience, but
+      He did not begin until the last division had marched out and came to a
+      parade rest close to the stump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the same old story:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prisoners, you can no longer have any doubt that your Government
+      has cruelly abandoned you; it makes no efforts to release you, and refuses
+      all our offers of exchange. We are anxious to get our men back, and have
+      made every effort to do so, but it refuses to meet us on any reasonable
+      grounds. Your Secretary of War has said that the Government can get along
+      very well without you, and General Halleck has said that you were nothing
+      but a set of blackberry pickers and coffee boilers anyhow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've already endured much more than it could expect of you;
+      you served it faithfully during the term you enlisted for, and now, when
+      it is through with you, it throws you aside to starve and die. You also
+      can have no doubt that the Southern Confederacy is certain to succeed in
+      securing its independence. It will do this in a few months. It now offers
+      you an opportunity to join its service, and if you serve it faithfully to
+      the end, you will receive the same rewards as the rest of its soldiers.
+      You will be taken out of here, be well clothed and fed, given a good
+      bounty, and, at the conclusion of the War receive a land warrant for a
+      nice farm. If you&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we had heard enough. The Sergeant of our division&mdash;a man with a
+      stentorian voice sprang out and shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attention, first Division!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We Sergeants of hundreds repeated the command down the line. Shouted he:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First Division, about&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Said we:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First Hundred, about&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Second Hundred, about&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Third Hundred, about&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fourth Hundred, about&mdash;&rdquo; etc., etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Said he:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;FACE!!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten Sergeants repeated &ldquo;Face!&rdquo; one after the other, and each
+      man in the hundreds turned on his heel. Then our leader commanded&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First Division, forward! MARCH!&rdquo; and we strode back into the
+      Stockade, followed immediately by all the other divisions, leaving the
+      orator still standing on the stump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels were furious at this curt way of replying. We had scarcely
+      reached our quarters when they came in with several companies, with loaded
+      guns and fixed bayonets. They drove us out of our tents and huts, into one
+      corner, under the pretense of hunting axes and spades, but in reality to
+      steal our blankets, and whatever else they could find that they wanted,
+      and to break down and injure our huts, many of which, costing us days of
+      patient labor, they destroyed in pure wantonness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were burning with the bitterest indignation. A tall, slender man named
+      Lloyd, a member of the Sixty-First Ohio&mdash;a rough, uneducated fellow,
+      but brim full of patriotism and manly common sense, jumped up on a stump
+      and poured out his soul in rude but fiery eloquence: &ldquo;Comrades,&rdquo;
+      he said, &ldquo;do not let the blowing of these Rebel whelps discourage
+      you; pay no attention to the lies they have told you to-day; you know well
+      that our Government is too honorable and just to desert any one who serves
+      it; it has not deserted us; their hell-born Confederacy is not going to
+      succeed. I tell you that as sure as there is a God who reigns and judges
+      in Israel, before the Spring breezes stir the tops of these blasted old
+      pines their Confederacy and all the lousy graybacks who support it will be
+      so deep in hell that nothing but a search warrant from the throne of God
+      Almighty can ever find it again. And the glorious old Stars and Stripes&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here we began cheering tremendously. A Rebel Captain came running up, said
+      to the guard, who was leaning on his gun, gazing curiously at Lloyd:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What in &mdash;&mdash; are you standing gaping there for? Why don't
+      you shoot the &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Yankee son&mdash;&mdash;
+      &mdash; - &mdash;&mdash;-?&rdquo; and snatching the gun away from him,
+      cocked and leveled it at Lloyd, but the boys near jerked the speaker down
+      from the stump and saved his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We became fearfully, wrought up. Some of the more excitable shouted out to
+      charge on the line of guards, snatch they guns away from them, and force
+      our way through the gate The shouts were taken up by others, and, as if in
+      obedience to the suggestion, we instinctively formed in line-of-battle
+      facing the guards. A glance down the line showed me an array of desperate,
+      tensely drawn faces, such as one sees who looks a men when they are
+      summoning up all their resolution for some deed of great peril. The Rebel
+      officers hastily retreated behind the line of guards, whose faces
+      blanched, but they leveled the muskets and prepared to receive us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Bowes, who was overlooking the prison from an elevation outside,
+      had, however, divined the trouble at the outset, an was preparing to meet
+      it. The gunners, who had shotted the pieces and trained them upon us when
+      we came out to listen t the speech, had again covered us with them, and
+      were ready to sweep the prison with grape and canister at the instant of
+      command. The long roll was summoning the infantry regiments back into
+      line, and some of the cooler-headed among us pointed these facts out and
+      succeeded in getting the line to dissolve again into groups of muttering,
+      sullen-faced men. When this was done, the guards marched out, by a
+      cautious indirect maneuver, so as not to turn their backs to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was believed that we had some among us who would like to avail
+      themselves of the offer of the Rebels, and that they would try to inform
+      the Rebels of their desires by going to the gate during the night and
+      speaking to the Officer-of-the-Guard. A squad armed themselves with clubs
+      and laid in wait for these. They succeeded in catching several &mdash;snatching
+      some of then back even after they had told the guard their wishes in a
+      tone so loud that all near could hear distinctly. The Officer-of-the-Guard
+      rushed in two or three times in a vain attempt to save the would be
+      deserter from the cruel hands that clutched him and bore him away to where
+      he had a lesson in loyalty impressed upon the fleshiest part of his person
+      by a long, flexible strip of pine wielded by very willing hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this was kept up for several nights different ideas began I to
+      prevail. It was felt that if a man wanted to join the Rebels, the best way
+      was to let him go and get rid of him. He was of no benefit to the
+      Government, and would be of none to the Rebels. After this no restriction
+      was put upon any one who desired to go outside and take the oath. But very
+      few did so, however, and these were wholly confined to the Raider crowd.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch62" id="ch62"></a>CHAPTER LXII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SERGEANT LEROY L. KEY&mdash;HIS ADVENTURES SUBSEQUENT TO THE EXECUTIONS
+      &mdash;HE GOES OUTSIDE AT ANDERSONVILLE ON PAROLE&mdash;LABORS IN THE
+      COOK-HOUSE &mdash;ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE&mdash;IS RECAPTURED AND TAKEN TO
+      MACON&mdash;ESCAPES FROM THERE, BUT IS COMPELLED TO RETURN&mdash;IS
+      FINALLY EXCHANGED AT SAVANNAH. <br><br><br> <a name="p472" id="p472"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p472.jpg (29K)" src="images/p472.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leroy L. Key, the heroic Sergeant of Company M, Sixteenth Illinois
+      Cavalry, who organized and led the Regulators at Andersonville in their
+      successful conflict with and defeat of the Raiders, and who presided at
+      the execution of the six condemned men on the 11th of July, furnishes, at
+      the request of the author, the following story of his prison career
+      subsequent to that event:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 12th day of July, 1864, the day after the hanging of the six
+      Raiders, by the urgent request of my many friends (of whom you were one),
+      I sought and obtained from Wirz a parole for myself and the six brave men
+      who assisted as executioners of those desperados. It seemed that you were
+      all fearful that we might, after what had been done, be assassinated if we
+      remained in the Stockade; and that we might be overpowered, perhaps, by
+      the friends of the Raiders we had hanged, at a time possibly, when you
+      would not be on hand to give us assistance, and thus lose our lives for
+      rendering the help we did in getting rid of the worst pestilence we had to
+      contend with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On obtaining my parole I was very careful to have it so arranged and
+      mutually understood, between Wirz and myself, that at any time that my
+      squad (meaning the survivors of my comrades, with whom I was originally
+      captured) was sent away from Andersonville, either to be exchanged or to
+      go to another prison, that I should be allowed to go with them. This was
+      agreed to, and so written in my parole which I carried until it absolutely
+      wore out. I took a position in the cook-house, and the other boys either
+      went to work there, or at the hospital or grave-yard as occasion required.
+      I worked here, and did the best I could for the many starving wretches
+      inside, in the way of preparing their food, until the eighth day of
+      September, at which time, if you remember, quite a train load of men were
+      removed, as many of us thought, for the purpose of exchange; but, as we
+      afterwards discovered, to be taken to another prison. Among the crowd so
+      removed was my squad, or, at least, a portion of them, being my intimate
+      mess-mates while in the Stockade. As soon as I found this to be the case I
+      waited on Wirz at his office, and asked permission to go with them, which
+      he refused, stating that he was compelled to have men at the cookhouse to
+      cook for those in the Stockade until they were all gone or exchanged. I
+      reminded him of the condition in my parole, but this only had the effect
+      of making him mad, and he threatened me with the stocks if I did not go
+      back and resume work. I then and there made up my mind to attempt my
+      escape, considering that the parole had first been broken by the man that
+      granted it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On inquiry after my return to the cook-house, I found four other boys who
+      were also planning an escape, and who were only too glad to get me to join
+      them and take charge of the affair. Our plans were well laid and well
+      executed, as the sequel will prove, and in this particular my own
+      experience in the endeavor to escape from Andersonville is not entirely
+      dissimilar from yours, though it had different results. I very much regret
+      that in the attempt I lost my penciled memorandum, in which it was my
+      habit to chronicle what went on around me daily, and where I had the names
+      of my brave comrades who made the effort to escape with me. Unfortunately,
+      I cannot now recall to memory the name of one of them or remember to what
+      commands they belonged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knew that our greatest risk was run in eluding the guards, and that in
+      the morning we should be compelled to cheat the blood-hounds. The first we
+      managed to do very well, not without many hairbreadth escapes, however;
+      but we did succeed in getting through both lines of guards, and found
+      ourselves in the densest pine forest I ever saw. We traveled, as nearly as
+      we could judge, due north all night until daylight. From our fatigue and
+      bruises, and the long hours that had elapsed since 8 o'clock, the
+      time of our starting, we thought we had come not less than twelve or
+      fifteen miles. Imagine our surprise and mortification, then, when we could
+      plainly hear the reveille, and almost the Sergeant's voice calling
+      the roll, while the answers of &ldquo;Here!&rdquo; were perfectly
+      distinct. We could not possibly have been more than a mile, or a
+      mile-and-a-half at the farthest, from the Stockade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our anxiety and mortification were doubled when at the usual hour&mdash;as
+      we supposed&mdash;we heard the well-known and long-familiar sound of the
+      hunter's horn, calling his hounds to their accustomed task of making
+      the circuit of the Stockade, for the purpose of ascertaining whether or
+      not any &ldquo;Yankee&rdquo; had had the audacity to attempt an escape.
+      The hounds, anticipating, no doubt, this usual daily work, gave forth glad
+      barks of joy at being thus called forth to duty. We heard them start, as
+      was usual, from about the railroad depot (as we imagined), but the sounds
+      growing fainter and fainter gave us a little hope that our trail had been
+      missed. Only a short time, however, were we allowed this pleasant
+      reflection, for ere long&mdash;it could not have been more than an hour&mdash;we
+      could plainly see that they were drawing nearer and nearer. They finally
+      appeared so close that I advised the boys to climb a tree or sapling in
+      order to keep the dogs from biting them, and to be ready to surrender when
+      the hunters came up, hoping thus to experience as little misery as
+      possible, and not dreaming but that we were caught. On, on came the
+      hounds, nearer and nearer still, till we imagined that we could see the
+      undergrowth in the forest shaking by coming in contact with their bodies.
+      Plainer and plainer came the sound of the hunter's voice urging them
+      forward. Our hearts were in our throats, and in the terrible excitement we
+      wondered if it could be possible for Providence to so arrange it that the
+      dogs would pass us. This last thought, by some strange fancy, had taken
+      possession of me, and I here frankly acknowledge that I believed it would
+      happen. Why I believed it, God only knows. My excitement was so great,
+      indeed, that I almost lost sight of our danger, and felt like shouting to
+      the dogs myself, while I came near losing my hold on the tree in which I
+      was hidden. By chance I happened to look around at my nearest neighbor in
+      distress. His expression was sufficient to quell any enthusiasm I might
+      have had, and I, too, became despondent. In a very few minutes our
+      suspense was over. The dogs came within not less than three hundred yards
+      of us, and we could even see one of them, God in Heaven can only imagine
+      what great joy was then, brought to our aching hearts, for almost
+      instantly upon coming into sight, the hounds struck off on a different
+      trail, and passed us. Their voices became fainter and fainter, until
+      finally we could hear them no longer. About noon, however, they were
+      called back and taken to camp, but until that time not one of us left our
+      position in the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we were satisfied that we were safe for the present, we descended to
+      the ground to get what rest we could, in order to be prepared for the
+      night's march, having previously agreed to travel at night and sleep
+      in the day time. &ldquo;Our Father, who art in Heaven,&rdquo; etc., were
+      the first words that escaped my lips, and the first thoughts that came to
+      my mind as I landed on terra firma. Never before, or since, had I
+      experienced such a profound reverence for Almighty God, for I firmly
+      believe that only through some mighty invisible power were we at that time
+      delivered from untold tortures. Had we been found, we might have been torn
+      and mutilated by the dogs, or, taken back to Andersonville, have suffered
+      for days or perhaps weeks in the stocks or chain gang, as the humor of
+      Wirz might have dictated at the time&mdash;either of which would have been
+      almost certain death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was very fortunate for us that before our escape from Andersonville we
+      were detailed at the cook-house, for by this means we were enabled to
+      bring away enough food to live for several days without the necessity of
+      theft. Each one of us had our haversacks full of such small delicacies as
+      it was possible for us to get when we started, these consisting of corn
+      bread and fat bacon&mdash;nothing less, nothing more. Yet we managed to
+      subsist comfortably until our fourth day out, when we happened to come
+      upon a sweet potato patch, the potatos in which had not been dug. In a
+      very short space of time we were all well supplied with this article, and
+      lived on them raw during that day and the next night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at evening, in going through a field, we suddenly came across three
+      negro men, who at first sight of us showed signs of running, thinking, as
+      they told us afterward, that we were the &ldquo;patrols.&rdquo; After
+      explaining to them who we were and our condition, they took us to a very
+      quiet retreat in the woods, and two of them went off, stating that they
+      would soon be back. In a very short time they returned laden with well
+      cooked provisions, which not only gave us a good supper, but supplied us
+      for the next day with all that we wanted. They then guided us on our way
+      for several miles, and left us, after having refused compensation for what
+      they had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We continued to travel in this way for nine long weary nights, and on the
+      morning of the tenth day, as we were going into the woods to hide as
+      usual, a little before daylight, we came to a small pond at which there
+      was a negro boy watering two mules before hitching them to a cane mill, it
+      then being cane grinding time in Georgia. He saw us at the same time we
+      did him, and being frightened put whip to the animals and ran off. We
+      tried every way to stop him, but it was no use. He had the start of us. We
+      were very fearful of the consequences of this mishap, but had no remedy,
+      and being very tired, could do nothing else but go into the woods, go to
+      sleep and trust to luck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next thing I remembered was being punched in the ribs by my comrade
+      nearest to me, and aroused with the remark, &ldquo;We are gone up.&rdquo;
+      On opening my eyes, I saw four men, in citizens' dress, each of whom
+      had a shot gun ready for use. We were ordered to get up. The first
+      question asked us was:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was spoken in so mild a tone as to lead me to believe that we might
+      possibly be in the hands of gentlemen, if not indeed in those of friends.
+      It was some time before any one answered. The boys, by their looks and the
+      expression of their countenances, seemed to appeal to me for a reply to
+      get them out of their present dilemma, if possible. Before I had time to
+      collect my thoughts, we were startled by these words, coming from the same
+      man that had asked the original question:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better not hesitate, for we have an idea who you are, and
+      should it prove that we are correct, it will be the worse for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Who do you think we are?' I inquired.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Horse thieves and moss-backs,' was the reply.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I jumped at the conclusion instantly that in order to save our lives, we
+      had better at once own the truth. In a very few words I told them who we
+      were, where we were from, how long we had been on the road, etc. At this
+      they withdrew a short distance from us for consultation, leaving us for
+      the time in terrible suspense as to what our fate might be. Soon, how
+      ever, they returned and informed us that they would be compelled to take
+      us to the County Jail, to await further orders from the Military Commander
+      of the District. While they were talking together, I took a hasty
+      inventory of what valuables we had on hand. I found in the crowd four
+      silver watches, about three hundred dollars in Confederate money, and
+      possibly, about one hundred dollars in greenbacks. Before their return, I
+      told the boys to be sure not to refuse any request I should make. Said I:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Gentlemen, we have here four silver watches and several
+      hundred dollars in Confederate money and greenbacks, all of which we now
+      offer you, if you will but allow us to proceed on our journey, we taking
+      our own chances in the future.'&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This proposition, to my great surprise, was refused. I thought then that
+      possibly I had been a little indiscreet in exposing our valuables, but in
+      this I was mistaken, for we had, indeed, fallen into the hands of
+      gentlemen, whose zeal for the Lost Cause was greater than that for
+      obtaining worldly wealth, and who not only refused the bribe, but took us
+      to a well-furnished and well-supplied farm house close by, gave us an
+      excellent breakfast, allowing us to sit at the table in a beautiful
+      dining-room, with a lady at the head, filled our haversacks with good,
+      wholesome food, and allowed us to keep our property, with an admonition to
+      be careful how we showed it again. We were then put into a wagon and taken
+      to Hamilton, a small town, the county seat of Hamilton County, Georgia,
+      and placed in jail, where we remained for two days and nights &mdash;fearing,
+      always, that the jail would be burned over our heads, as we heard frequent
+      threats of that nature, by the mob on the streets. But the same kind
+      Providence that had heretofore watched over us, seemed not to have
+      deserted us in this trouble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the days we were confined at this place was Sunday, and some
+      kind-hearted lady or ladies (I only wish I knew their names, as well as
+      those of the gentlemen who had us first in charge, so that I could
+      chronicle them with honor here) taking compassion upon our forlorn
+      condition, sent us a splendid dinner on a very large china platter.
+      Whether it was done intentionally or not, we never learned, but it was a
+      fact, however, that there was not a knife, fork or spoon upon the dish,
+      and no table to set it upon. It was placed on the floor, around which we
+      soon gathered, and, with grateful hearts, we &ldquo;got away&rdquo; with
+      it all, in an incredibly short space of time, while many men and boys
+      looked on, enjoying our ludicrous attitudes and manners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From here we were taken to Columbus, Ga., and again placed in jail, and in
+      the charge of Confederate soldiers. We could easily see that we were
+      gradually getting into hot water again, and that, ere many days, we would
+      have to resume our old habits in prison. Our only hope now was that we
+      would not be returned to Andersonville, knowing well that if we got back
+      into the clutches of Wirz our chances for life would be slim indeed. From
+      Columbus we were sent by rail to Macon, where we were placed in a prison
+      somewhat similar to Andersonville, but of nothing like its pretensions to
+      security. I soon learned that it was only used as a kind of reception
+      place for the prisoners who were captured in small squads, and when they
+      numbered two or three hundred, they would be shipped to Andersonville, or
+      some other place of greater dimensions and strength. What became of the
+      other boys who were with me, after we got to Macon, I do not know, for I
+      lost sight of them there. The very next day after our arrival, there were
+      shipped to Andersonville from this prison between two and three hundred
+      men. I was called on to go with the crowd, but having had a sufficient
+      experience of the hospitality of that hotel, I concluded to play &ldquo;old
+      soldier,&rdquo; so I became too sick to travel. In this way I escaped
+      being sent off four different times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, quite a large number of commissioned officers had been sent up
+      from Charleston to be exchanged at Rough and Ready. With them were about
+      forty more than the cartel called for, and they were left at Macon for ten
+      days or two weeks. Among these officers were several of my acquaintance,
+      one being Lieut. Huntly of our regiment (I am not quite sure that I am
+      right in the name of this officer, but I think I am), through whose
+      influence I was allowed to go outside with them on parole. It was while
+      enjoying this parole that I got more familiarly acquainted with Captain
+      Hurtell, or Hurtrell, who was in command of the prison at Macon, and to
+      his honor, I here assert, that he was the only gentleman and the only
+      officer that had the least humane feeling in his breast, who ever had
+      charge of me while a prisoner of war after we were taken out of the hands
+      of our original captors at Jonesville, Va.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It now became very evident that the Rebels were moving the prisoners from
+      Andersonville and elsewhere, so as to place them beyond the reach of
+      Sherman and Stoneman. At my present place of confinement the fear of our
+      recapture had also taken possession of the Rebel authorities, so the
+      prisoners were sent off in much smaller squads than formerly, frequently
+      not more than ten or fifteen in a gang, whereas, before, they never
+      thought of dispatching less than two or three hundred together. I
+      acknowledge that I began to get very uneasy, fearful that the &ldquo;old
+      soldier&rdquo; dodge would not be much longer successful, and I would be
+      forced back to my old haunts. It so happened, however, that I managed to
+      make it serve me, by getting detailed in the prison hospital as nurse, so
+      that I was enabled to play another &ldquo;dodge&rdquo; upon the Rebel
+      officers. At first, when the Sergeant would come around to find out who
+      were able to walk, with assistance, to the depot, I was shaking with a
+      chill, which, according to my representation, had not abated in the least
+      for several hours. My teeth were actually chattering at the time, for I
+      had learned how to make them do so. I was passed. The next day the orders
+      for removal were more stringent than had yet been issued, stating that all
+      who could stand it to be removed on stretchers must go. I concluded at
+      once that I was gone, so as soon as I learned how matters were, I got out
+      from under my dirty blanket, stood up and found I was able to walk, to my
+      great astonishment, of course. An officer came early in the morning to
+      muster us into ranks preparatory for removal. I fell in with the rest. We
+      were marched out and around to the gate of the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, it so happened that just as we neared the gate of the prison, the
+      prisoners were being marched from the Stockade. The officer in charge of
+      us&mdash;we numbering possibly about ten&mdash;undertook to place us at
+      the head of the column coming out, but the guard in charge of that squad
+      refused to let him do so. We were then ordered to stand at one side with
+      no guard over us but the officer who had brought us from the Hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking this in at a glance, I concluded that now was my chance to make my
+      second attempt to escape. I stepped behind the gate office (a small frame
+      building with only one room), which was not more than six feet from me,
+      and as luck (or Providence) would have it, the negro man whose duty it
+      was, as I knew, to wait on and take care of this office, and who had taken
+      quite a liking for me, was standing at the back door. I winked at him and
+      threw him my blanket and the cup, at the same time telling him in a
+      whisper to hide them away for me until he heard from me again. With a grin
+      and a nod, he accepted the trust, and I started down along the walls of
+      the Stockade alone. In order to make this more plain, and to show what a
+      risk I was running at the time, I will state that between the Stockade and
+      a brick wall, fully as high as the Stockade fence that was parallel with
+      it, throughout its entire length on that side, there was a space of not
+      more than thirty feet. On the outside of this Stockade was a platform,
+      built for the guards to walk on, sufficiently clear the top to allow them
+      to look inside with ease, and on this side, on the platform, were three
+      guards. I had traveled about fifty feet only, from the gate office, when I
+      heard the command to &ldquo;Halt!&rdquo; I did so, of course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you going, you d&mdash;-d Yank?&rdquo; said the guard.
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p482" id="p482"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p482.jpg (43K)" src="images/p482.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Going after my clothes, that are over there in the wash,&rdquo;
+      pointing to a small cabin just beyond the Stockade, where I happened to
+      know that the officers had their washing done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;you are one of the Yank's
+      that's been on, parole, are you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, hurry up, or you will get left.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other guards heard this conversation and thinking it all right I was
+      allowed to pass without further trouble. I went to the cabin in question&mdash;for
+      I saw the last guard on the line watching me, and boldly entered. I made a
+      clear statement to the woman in charge of it about how I had made my
+      escape, and asked her to secrete me in the house until night. I was soon
+      convinced, however, from what she told me, as well as from my own
+      knowledge of how things were managed in the Confederacy, that it would not
+      be right for me to stay there, for if the house was searched and I found
+      in it, it would be the worse for her. Therefore, not wishing to entail
+      misery upon another, I begged her to give me something to eat, and going
+      to the swamp near by, succeeded in getting well without detection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay there all day, and during the time had a very severe chill and
+      afterwards a burning fever, so that when night came, knowing I could not
+      travel, I resolved to return to the cabin and spend the night, and give
+      myself up the next morning. There was no trouble in returning. I learned
+      that my fears of the morning had not been groundless, for the guards had
+      actually searched the house for me. The woman told them that I had got my
+      clothes and left the house shortly after my entrance (which was the truth
+      except the part about the clothes), I thanked her very kindly and begged
+      to be allowed to stay in the cabin till morning, when I would present
+      myself at Captain H.'s office and suffer the consequences. This she
+      allowed me to do. I shall ever feel grateful to this woman for her
+      protection. She was white and her given name was &ldquo;Sallie,&rdquo; but
+      the other I have forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About daylight I strolled over near the office and looked around there
+      until I saw the Captain take his seat at his desk. I stepped into the door
+      as soon as I saw that he was not occupied and saluted him &ldquo;a la
+      militaire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo; he asked; &ldquo;you look like a Yank.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;I am called by that name since I
+      was captured in the Federal Army.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what are you doing here, and what is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn't you answer to your name when it was called at the
+      gate yesterday, sir?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never heard anyone call my name. Where were you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ran away down into the swamp.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were you re-captured and brought back?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, I came back of my own accord.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by this evasion?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not trying to evade, sir, or I might not have been here now.
+      The truth is, Captain, I have been in many prisons since my capture, and
+      have been treated very badly in all of them, until I came here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I then explained to him freely my escape from Andersonville, and my
+      subsequent re-capture, how it was that I had played 'old soldier'
+      etc.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;Captain, as long as I am a prisoner of
+      war, I wish to stay with you, or under your command. This is my reason for
+      running away yesterday, when I felt confident that if I did not do so I
+      would be returned under Wirz's command, and, if I had been so
+      returned, I would have killed myself rather than submit to the untold
+      tortures which he would have put me to, for having the audacity to attempt
+      an escape from him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Captain's attention was here called to some other matters in
+      hand, and I was sent back into the Stockade with a command very pleasantly
+      given, that I should stay there until ordered out, which I very gratefully
+      promised to do, and did. This was the last chance I ever had to talk to
+      Captain Hurtrell, to my great sorrow, for I had really formed a liking for
+      the man, notwithstanding the fact that he was a Rebel, and a commander of
+      prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day we all had to leave Macon. Whether we were able or not, the
+      order was imperative. Great was my joy when I learned that we were on the
+      way to Savannah and not to Andersonville. We traveled over the same road,
+      so well described in one of your articles on Andersonville, and arrived in
+      Savannah sometime in the afternoon of the 21st day of November, 1864. Our
+      squad was placed in some barracks and confined there until the next day. I
+      was sick at the time, so sick in fact, that I could hardly hold my head
+      up. Soon after, we were taken to the Florida depot, as they told us, to be
+      shipped to some prison in those dismal swamps. I came near fainting when
+      this was told to us, for I was confident that I could not survive another
+      siege of prison life, if it was anything to compare to-what I had already
+      suffered. When we arrived at the depot, it was raining. The officer in
+      charge of us wanted to know what train to put us on, for there were two,
+      if not three, trains waiting orders to start. He was told to march us on
+      to a certain flat car, near by, but before giving the order he demanded a
+      receipt for us, which the train officer refused. We were accordingly taken
+      back to our quarters, which proved to be a most fortunate circumstance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 23d day of November, to our great relief, we were called upon to
+      sign a parole preparatory to being sent down the river on the flat-boat to
+      our exchange ships, then lying in the harbor. When I say we, I mean those
+      of us that had recently come from Macon, and a few others, who had also
+      been fortunate in reaching Savannah in small squads. The other poor
+      fellows, who had already been loaded on the trains, were taken away to
+      Florida, and many of them never lived to return. On the 24th those of us
+      who had been paroled were taken on board our ships, and were once more
+      safely housed under that great, glorious and beautiful Star Spangled
+      Banner. Long may she wave. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch63" id="ch63"></a>CHAPTER LXIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DREARY WEATHER&mdash;THE COLD RAINS DISTRESS ALL AND KILL HUNDREDS&mdash;EXCHANGE
+      OF TEN THOUSAND SICK&mdash;CAPTAIN BOWES TURNS A PRETTY, BUT NOT VERY
+      HONEST, PENNY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As November wore away long-continued, chill, searching rains desolated our
+      days and nights. The great, cold drops pelted down slowly, dismally, and
+      incessantly. Each seemed to beat through our emaciated frames against the
+      very marrow of our bones, and to be battering its way remorselessly into
+      the citadel of life, like the cruel drops that fell from the basin of the
+      inquisitors upon the firmly-fastened head of their victim, until his
+      reason fled, and the death-agony cramped his heart to stillness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lagging, leaden hours were inexpressibly dreary. Compared with many
+      others, we were quite comfortable, as our hut protected us from the actual
+      beating of the rain upon our bodies; but we were much more miserable than
+      under the sweltering heat of Andersonville, as we lay almost naked upon
+      our bed of pine leaves, shivering in the raw, rasping air, and looked out
+      over acres of wretches lying dumbly on the sodden sand, receiving the
+      benumbing drench of the sullen skies without a groan or a motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was enough to kill healthy, vigorous men, active and resolute, with
+      bodies well-nourished and well clothed, and with minds vivacious and
+      hopeful, to stand these day-and-night-long solid drenchings. No one can
+      imagine how fatal it was to boys whose vitality was sapped by long months
+      in Andersonville, by coarse, meager, changeless food, by groveling on the
+      bare earth, and by hopelessness as to any improvement of condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fever, rheumatism, throat and lung diseases and despair now came to
+      complete the work begun by scurvy, dysentery and gangrene, in
+      Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hundreds, weary of the long struggle, and of hoping against hope, laid
+      themselves down and yielded to their fate. In the six weeks that we were
+      at Millen, one man in every ten died. The ghostly pines there sigh over
+      the unnoted graves of seven hundred boys, for whom life's morning
+      closed in the gloomiest shadows. As many as would form a splendid regiment&mdash;as
+      many as constitute the first born of a populous City&mdash;more than three
+      times as many as were slain outright on our side in the bloody battle of
+      Franklin, succumbed to this new hardship. The country for which they died
+      does not even have a record of their names. They were simply blotted out
+      of existence; they became as though they had never been.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About the middle of the month the Rebels yielded to the importunities of
+      our Government so far as to agree to exchange ten thousand sick. The Rebel
+      Surgeons took praiseworthy care that our Government should profit as
+      little as possible by this, by sending every hopeless case, every man
+      whose lease of life was not likely to extend much beyond his reaching the
+      parole boat. If he once reached our receiving officers it was all that was
+      necessary; he counted to them as much as if he had been a Goliath. A very
+      large portion of those sent through died on the way to our lines, or
+      within a few hours after their transports at being once more under the old
+      Stars and Stripes had moderated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sending of the sick through gave our commandant&mdash;Captain Bowes&mdash;a
+      fine opportunity to fill his pockets, by conniving at the passage of well
+      men. There was still considerable money in the hands of a few prisoners.
+      All this, and more, too, were they willing to give for their lives. In the
+      first batch that went away were two of the leading sutlers at
+      Andersonville, who had accumulated perhaps one thousand dollars each by
+      their shrewd and successful bartering. It was generally believed that they
+      gave every cent to Bowes for the privilege of leaving. I know nothing of
+      the truth of this, but I am reasonably certain that they paid him very
+      handsomely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon we heard that one hundred and fifty dollars each had been sufficient
+      to buy some men out; then one hundred, seventy-five, fifty, thirty,
+      twenty, ten, and at last five dollars. Whether the upright Bowes drew the
+      line at the latter figure, and refused to sell his honor for less than the
+      ruling rates of a street-walker's virtue, I know not. It was the
+      lowest quotation that came to my knowledge, but he may have gone cheaper.
+      I have always observed that when men or women begin to traffic in
+      themselves, their price falls as rapidly as that of a piece of tainted
+      meat in hot weather. If one could buy them at the rate they wind up with,
+      and sell them at their first price, there would be room for an enormous
+      profit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cheapest I ever knew a Rebel officer to be bought was some weeks after
+      this at Florence. The sick exchange was still going on. I have before
+      spoken of the Rebel passion for bright gilt buttons. It used to be a
+      proverbial comment upon the small treasons that were of daily occurrence
+      on both sides, that you could buy the soul of a mean man in our crowd for
+      a pint of corn meal, and the soul of a Rebel guard for a half dozen brass
+      buttons. A boy of the Fifth-fourth Ohio, whose home was at or near Lima,
+      O., wore a blue vest, with the gilt, bright-trimmed buttons of a staff
+      officer. The Rebel Surgeon who was examining the sick for exchange saw the
+      buttons and admired them very much. The boy stepped back, borrowed a knife
+      from a comrade, cut the buttons off, and handed them to the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, sir,&rdquo; said he as his itching palm closed over the
+      coveted ornaments; &ldquo;you can pass,&rdquo; and pass he did to home and
+      friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Bowes's merchandizing in the matter of exchange was as open
+      as the issuing of rations. His agent in conducting the bargaining was a
+      Raider&mdash;a New York gambler and stool-pigeon&mdash;whom we called
+      &ldquo;Mattie.&rdquo; He dealt quite fairly, for several times when the
+      exchange was interrupted, Bowes sent the money back to those who had paid
+      him, and received it again when the exchange was renewed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had it been possible to buy our way out for five cents each Andrews and I
+      would have had to stay back, since we had not had that much money for
+      months, and all our friends were in an equally bad plight. Like almost
+      everybody else we had spent the few dollars we happened to have on
+      entering prison, in a week or so, and since then we had been entirely
+      penniless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no hope left for us but to try to pass the Surgeons as
+      desperately sick, and we expended our energies in simulating this
+      condition. Rheumatism was our forte, and I flatter myself we got up two
+      cases that were apparently bad enough to serve as illustrations for a
+      patent medicine advertisement. But it would not do. Bad as we made our
+      condition appear, there were so many more who were infinitely worse, that
+      we stood no show in the competitive examination. I doubt if we would have
+      been given an average of &ldquo;50&rdquo; in a report. We had to stand
+      back, and see about one quarter of our number march out and away home. We
+      could not complain at this&mdash;much as we wanted to go ourselves, since
+      there could be no question that these poor fellows deserved the
+      precedence. We did grumble savagely, however, at Captain Bowes's
+      venality, in selling out chances to moneyed men, since these were
+      invariably those who were best prepared to withstand the hardships of
+      imprisonment, as they were mostly new men, and all had good clothes and
+      blankets. We did not blame the men, however, since it was not in human
+      nature to resist an opportunity to get away&mdash;at any cost-from that
+      accursed place. &ldquo;All that a man hath he will give for his life,&rdquo;
+      and I think that if I had owned the City of New York in fee simple, I
+      would have given it away willingly, rather than stand in prison another
+      month.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sutlers, to whom I have alluded above, had accumulated sufficient to
+      supply themselves with all the necessaries and some of the comforts of
+      life, during any probable term of imprisonment, and still have a snug
+      amount left, but they, would rather give it all up and return to service
+      with their regiments in the field, than take the chances of any longer
+      continuance in prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I can only surmise how much Bowes realized out of the prisoners by his
+      venality, but I feel sure that it could not have been less than three
+      thousand dollars, and I would not be astonished to learn that it was ten
+      thousand dollars in green. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch64" id="ch64"></a>CHAPTER LXIV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ANOTHER REMOVAL&mdash;SHERMAN'S ADVANCE SCARES THE REBELS INTO
+      RUNNING US AWAY FROM MILLEN&mdash;WE ARE TAKEN TO SAVANNAH, AND THENCE
+      DOWN THE ATLANTIC &amp; GULF ROAD TO BLACKSHEAR
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night, toward the last of November, there was a general alarm around
+      the prison. A gun was fired from the Fort, the long-roll was beaten in the
+      various camps of the guards, and the regiments answered by getting under
+      arms in haste, and forming near the prison gates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reason for this, which we did not learn until weeks later, was that
+      Sherman, who had cut loose from Atlanta and started on his famous March to
+      the Sea, had taken such a course as rendered it probable that Millen was
+      one of his objective points. It was, therefore, necessary that we should
+      be hurried away with all possible speed. As we had had no news from
+      Sherman since the end of the Atlanta campaign, and were ignorant of his
+      having begun his great raid, we were at an utter loss to account for the
+      commotion among our keepers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About 3 o'clock in the morning the Rebel Sergeants, who called the
+      roll, came in and ordered us to turn out immediately and get ready to
+      move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morning was one of the most cheerless I ever knew. A cold rain poured
+      relentlessly down upon us half-naked, shivering wretches, as we groped
+      around in the darkness for our pitiful little belongings of rags and
+      cooking utensils, and huddled together in groups, urged on continually by
+      the curses and abuse of the Rebel officers sent in to get us ready to
+      move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though roused at 3 o'clock, the cars were not ready to receive us
+      till nearly noon. In the meantime we stood in ranks&mdash;numb, trembling,
+      and heart-sick. The guards around us crouched over fires, and shielded
+      themselves as best they could with blankets and bits of tent cloth. We had
+      nothing to build fires with, and were not allowed to approach those of the
+      guards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Around us everywhere was the dull, cold, gray, hopeless desolation of the
+      approach of minter. The hard, wiry grass that thinly covered the once and
+      sand, the occasional stunted weeds, and the sparse foliage of the gnarled
+      and dwarfish undergrowth, all were parched brown and sere by the fiery
+      heat of the long Summer, and now rattled drearily under the pitiless, cold
+      rain, streaming from lowering clouds that seemed to have floated down to
+      us from the cheerless summit of some great iceberg; the tall, naked pines
+      moaned and shivered; dead, sapless leaves fell wearily to the sodden
+      earth, like withered hopes drifting down to deepen some Slough of Despond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scores of our crowd found this the culmination of their misery. They laid
+      down upon the ground and yielded to death as s welcome relief, and we left
+      them lying there unburied when we moved to the cars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we passed through the Rebel camp at dawn, on our way to the cars,
+      Andrews and I noticed a nest of four large, bright, new tin pans&mdash;a
+      rare thing in the Confederacy at that time. We managed to snatch them
+      without the guard's attention being attracted, and in an instant had
+      them wrapped up in our blanket. But the blanket was full of holes, and in
+      spite of all our efforts, it would slip at the most inconvenient times, so
+      as to show a broad glare of the bright metal, just when it seemed it could
+      not help attracting the attention of the guards or their officers. A dozen
+      times at least we were on the imminent brink of detection, but we finally
+      got our treasures safely to the cars, and sat down upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cars were open flats. The rain still beat down unrelentingly. Andrews
+      and I huddled ourselves together so as to make our bodies afford as much
+      heat as possible, pulled our faithful old overcoat around us as far as it
+      would go, and endured the inclemency as best we could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our train headed back to Savannah, and again our hearts warmed up with
+      hopes of exchange. It seemed as if there could be no other purpose of
+      taking us out of a prison so recently established and at such cost as
+      Millen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we approached the coast the rain ceased, but a piercing cold wind set
+      in, that threatened to convert our soaked rags into icicles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very many died on the way. When we arrived at Savannah almost, if not
+      quite, every car had upon it one whom hunger no longer gnawed or disease
+      wasted; whom cold had pinched for the last time, and for whom the golden
+      portals of the Beyond had opened for an exchange that neither Davis nor
+      his despicable tool, Winder, could control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We did not sentimentalize over these. We could not mourn; the thousands
+      that we had seen pass away made that emotion hackneyed and wearisome; with
+      the death of some friend and comrade as regularly an event of each day as
+      roll call and drawing rations, the sentiment of grief had become nearly
+      obsolete. We were not hardened; we had simply come to look upon death as
+      commonplace and ordinary. To have had no one dead or dying around us would
+      have been regarded as singular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides, why should we feel any regret at the passing away of those whose
+      condition would probably be bettered thereby! It was difficult to see
+      where we who still lived were any better off than they who were gone
+      before and now &ldquo;forever at peace, each in his windowless palace of
+      rest.&rdquo; If imprisonment was to continue only another month, we would
+      rather be with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arriving at Savannah, we were ordered off the cars. A squad from each car
+      carried the dead to a designated spot, and land them in a row, composing
+      their limbs as well as possible, but giving no other funeral rites, not
+      even making a record of their names and regiments. Negro laborers came
+      along afterwards, with carts, took the bodies to some vacant ground, and
+      sunk them out of sight in the sand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were given a few crackers each&mdash;the same rude imitation of &ldquo;hard
+      tack&rdquo; that had been served out to us when we arrived at Savannah the
+      first time, and then were marched over and put upon a train on the
+      Atlantic &amp; Gulf Railroad, running from Savannah along the sea coast
+      towards Florida. What this meant we had little conception, but hope, which
+      sprang eternal in the prisoner's breast, whispered that perhaps it
+      was exchange; that there was some difficulty about our vessels coming to
+      Savannah, and we were being taken to some other more convenient sea port;
+      probably to Florida, to deliver us to our folks there. We satisfied
+      ourselves that we were running along the sea coast by tasting the water in
+      the streams we crossed, whenever we could get an opportunity to dip up
+      some. As long as the water tasted salty we knew we were near the sea, and
+      hope burned brightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth was&mdash;as we afterwards learned&mdash;the Rebels were
+      terribly puzzled what to do with us. We were brought to Savannah, but that
+      did not solve the problem; and we were sent down the Atlantic &amp; Gulf
+      road as a temporary expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The railroad was the worst of the many bad ones which it was my fortune to
+      ride upon in my excursions while a guest of the Southern Confederacy. It
+      had run down until it had nearly reached the worn-out condition of that
+      Western road, of which an employee of a rival route once said, &ldquo;that
+      all there was left of it now was two streaks of rust and the right of way.&rdquo;
+      As it was one of the non-essential roads to the Southern Confederacy, it
+      was stripped of the best of its rolling-stock and machinery to supply the
+      other more important lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have before mentioned the scarcity of grease in the South, and the
+      difficulty of supplying the railroads with lubricants. Apparently there
+      had been no oil on the Atlantic &amp; Gulf since the beginning of the war,
+      and the screeches of the dry axles revolving in the worn-out boxes were
+      agonizing. Some thing would break on the cars or blow out on the engine
+      every few miles, necessitating a long stop for repairs. Then there was no
+      supply of fuel along the line. When the engine ran out of wood it would
+      halt, and a couple of negros riding on the tender would assail a panel of
+      fence or a fallen tree with their axes, and after an hour or such matter
+      of hard chopping, would pile sufficient wood upon the tender to enable us
+      to renew our journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frequently the engine stopped as if from sheer fatigue or inanition. The
+      Rebel officers tried to get us to assist it up the grade by dismounting
+      and pushing behind. We respectfully, but firmly, declined. We were
+      gentlemen of leisure, we said, and decidedly averse to manual labor; we
+      had been invited on this excursion by Mr. Jeff. Davis and his friends, who
+      set themselves up as our entertainers, and it would be a gross breach of
+      hospitality to reflect upon our hosts by working our passage. If this was
+      insisted upon, we should certainly not visit them again. Besides, it made
+      no difference to us whether the train got along or not. We were not losing
+      anything by the delay; we were not anxious to go anywhere. One part of the
+      Southern Confederacy was just as good as another to us. So not a finger
+      could they persuade any of us to raise to help along the journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The country we were traversing was sterile and poor&mdash;worse even than
+      that in the neighborhood of Andersonville. Farms and farmhouses were
+      scarce, and of towns there were none. Not even a collection of houses big
+      enough to justify a blacksmith shop or a store appeared along the whole
+      route. But few fields of any kind were seen, and nowhere was there a farm
+      which gave evidence of a determined effort on the part of its occupants to
+      till the soil and to improve their condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the train stopped for wood, or for repairs, or from exhaustion, we
+      were allowed to descend from the cars and stretch our numbed limbs. It did
+      us good in other ways, too. It seemed almost happiness to be outside of
+      those cursed Stockades, to rest our eyes by looking away through the
+      woods, and seeing birds and animals that were free. They must be happy,
+      because to us to be free once more was the summit of earthly happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a chance, too, to pick up something green to eat, and we were
+      famishing for this. The scurvy still lingered in our systems, and we were
+      hungry for an antidote. A plant grew rather plentifully along the track
+      that looked very much as I imagine a palm leaf fan does in its green
+      state. The leaf was not so large as an ordinary palm leaf fan, and came
+      directly out of the ground. The natives called it &ldquo;bull-grass,&rdquo;
+      but anything more unlike grass I never saw, so we rejected that
+      nomenclature, and dubbed them &ldquo;green fans.&rdquo; They were very
+      hard to pull up, it being usually as much as the strongest of us could do
+      to draw them out of the ground. When pulled up there was found the
+      smallest bit of a stock&mdash;not as much as a joint of one's little
+      finger&mdash;that was eatable. It had no particular taste, and probably
+      little nutriment, still it was fresh and green, and we strained our weak
+      muscles and enfeebled sinews at every opportunity, endeavoring to pull up
+      a &ldquo;green fan.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At one place where we stopped there was a makeshift of a garden, one of
+      those sorry &ldquo;truck patches,&rdquo; which do poor duty about Southern
+      cabins for the kitchen gardens of the Northern, farmers, and produce a few
+      coarse cow peas, a scanty lot of collards (a coarse kind of cabbage, with
+      a stalk about a yard long) and some onions to vary the usual side-meat and
+      corn pone, diet of the Georgia &ldquo;cracker.&rdquo; Scanning the patch's
+      ruins of vine and stalk, Andrews espied a handful of onions, which had;
+      remained ungathered. They tempted him as the apple did Eve. Without
+      stopping to communicate his intention to me, he sprang from the car,
+      snatched the onions from their bed, pulled up, half a dozen collard stalks
+      and was on his way back before the guard could make up his mind to fire
+      upon him. The swiftness of his motions saved his life, for had he been
+      more deliberate the guard would have concluded he was trying to, escape,
+      and shot him down. As it was he was returning back before the guard could
+      get his gun up. The onions he had, secured were to us more delicious than
+      wine upon the lees. They seemed to find their way into every fiber of our
+      bodies, and invigorate every organ. The collard stalks he had snatched up,
+      in the expectation of finding in them something resembling the nutritious
+      &ldquo;heart&rdquo; that we remembered as children, seeking and, finding
+      in the stalks of cabbage. But we were disappointed. The stalks were as dry
+      and rotten as the bones of Southern, society. Even hunger could find no
+      meat in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some days of this leisurely journeying toward the South, we halted
+      permanently about eighty-six miles from Savannah. There was no reason why
+      we should stop there more than any place else where we had been or were
+      likely to go. It seemed as if the Rebels had simply tired of hauling us,
+      and dumped us, off. We had another lot of dead, accumulated since we left
+      Savannah, and the scenes at that place were repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The train returned for another load of prisoners. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch65" id="ch65"></a>CHAPTER LXV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      BLACKSHEAR AND PIERCE COUNTRY&mdash;WE TAKE UP NEW QUARTERS, BUT ARE
+      CALLED OUT FOR EXCHANGE&mdash;EXCITEMENT OVER SIGNING THE PAROLE&mdash;A
+      HAPPY JOURNEY TO SAVANNAH&mdash;GRIEVOUS DISAPPOINTMENT
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were informed that the place we were at was Blackshear, and that it was
+      the Court House, i. e., the County seat of Pierce County. Where they kept
+      the Court House, or County seat, is beyond conjecture to me, since I could
+      not see a half dozen houses in the whole clearing, and not one of them was
+      a respectable dwelling, taking even so low a standard for respectable
+      dwellings as that afforded by the majority of Georgia houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pierce County, as I have since learned by the census report, is one of the
+      poorest Counties of a poor section of a very poor State. A population of
+      less than two thousand is thinly scattered over its five hundred square
+      miles of territory, and gain a meager subsistence by a weak simulation of
+      cultivating patches of its sandy dunes and plains in &ldquo;nubbin&rdquo;
+      corn and dropsical sweet potatos. A few &ldquo;razor-back&rdquo; hogs
+      &mdash;a species so gaunt and thin that I heard a man once declare that he
+      had stopped a lot belonging to a neighbor from crawling through the cracks
+      of a tight board fence by simply tying a knot in their tails&mdash;roam
+      the woods, and supply all the meat used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews used to insist that some of the hogs which we saw were so thin
+      that the connection between their fore and hindquarters was only a single
+      thickness of skin, with hair on both sides&mdash;but then Andrews
+      sometimes seemed to me to have a tendency to exaggerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The swine certainly did have proportions that strongly resembled those of
+      the animals which children cut out of cardboard. They were like the
+      geometrical definition of a superfice&mdash;all length and breadth, and no
+      thickness. A ham from them would look like a palm-leaf fan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never ceased to marvel at the delicate adjustment of the development of
+      animal life to the soil in these lean sections of Georgia. The poor land
+      would not maintain anything but lank, lazy men, with few wants, and none
+      but lank, lazy men, with few wants, sought a maintenance from it. I may
+      have tangled up cause and effect, in this proposition, but if so, the
+      reader can disentangle them at his leisure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was not astonished to learn that it took five hundred square miles of
+      Pierce County land to maintain two thousand &ldquo;crackers,&rdquo; even
+      as poorly as they lived. I should want fully that much of it to support
+      one fair-sized Northern family as it should be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After leaving the cars we were marched off into the pine woods, by the
+      side of a considerable stream, and told that this was to be our camp. A
+      heavy guard was placed around us, and a number of pieces of artillery
+      mounted where they would command the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We started in to make ourselves comfortable, as at Millen, by building
+      shanties. The prisoners we left behind followed us, and we soon had our
+      old crowd of five or six thousand, who had been our companions at Savannah
+      and Millers, again with us. The place looked very favorable for escape. We
+      knew we were still near the sea coast&mdash;really not more than forty
+      miles away&mdash;and we felt that if we could once get there we should be
+      safe. Andrews and I meditated plans of escape, and toiled away at our
+      cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About a week after our arrival we were startled by an order for the one
+      thousand of us who had first arrived to get ready to move out. In a few
+      minutes we were taken outside the guard line, massed close together, and
+      informed in a few words by a Rebel officer that we were about to be taken
+      back to Savannah for exchange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The announcement took away our breath. For an instant the rush of emotion
+      made us speechless, and when utterance returned, the first use we made of
+      it was to join in one simultaneous outburst of acclamation. Those inside
+      the guard line, understanding what our cheer meant, answered us with a
+      loud shout of congratulation&mdash;the first real, genuine, hearty
+      cheering that had been done since receiving the announcement of the
+      exchange at Andersonville, three months before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the excitement had subsided somewhat, the Rebel proceeded to
+      explain that we would all be required to sign a parole. This set us to
+      thinking. After our scornful rejection of the proposition to enlist in the
+      Rebel army, the Rebels had felt around among us considerably as to how we
+      were disposed toward taking what was called the &ldquo;Non-Combatant's
+      Oath;&rdquo; that is, the swearing not to take up arms against the
+      Southern Confederacy again during the war. To the most of us this seemed
+      only a little less dishonorable than joining the Rebel army. We held that
+      our oaths to our own Government placed us at its disposal until it chose
+      to discharge us, and we could not make any engagements with its enemies
+      that might come in contravention of that duty. In short, it looked very
+      much like desertion, and this we did not feel at liberty to consider.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were still many among us, who, feeling certain that they could not
+      survive imprisonment much longer, were disposed to look favorably upon the
+      Non-Combatant's Oath, thinking that the circumstances of the case
+      would justify their apparent dereliction from duty. Whether it would or
+      not I must leave to more skilled casuists than myself to decide. It was a
+      matter I believed every man must settle with his own conscience. The
+      opinion that I then held and expressed was, that if a boy, felt that he
+      was hopelessly sick, and that he could not live if he remained in prison,
+      he was justified in taking the Oath. In the absence of our own Surgeons he
+      would have to decide for himself whether he was sick enough to be
+      warranted in resorting to this means of saving his life. If he was in as
+      good health as the majority of us were, with a reasonable prospect of
+      surviving some weeks longer, there was no excuse for taking the Oath, for
+      in that few weeks we might be exchanged, be recaptured, or make our
+      escape. I think this was the general opinion of the prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Rebel was talking about our signing the parole, there flashed
+      upon all of us at the same moment, a suspicion that this was a trap to
+      delude us into signing the Non-Combatant's Oath. Instantly there
+      went up a general shout:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read the parole to us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebel was handed a blank parole by a companion, and he read over the
+      printed condition at the top, which was that those signing agreed not to
+      bear arms against the Confederates in the field, or in garrison, not to
+      man any works, assist in any expedition, do any sort of guard duty, serve
+      in any military constabulary, or perform any kind of military service
+      until properly exchanged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a minute this was satisfactory; then their ingrained distrust of any
+      thing a Rebel said or did returned, and they shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; let some of us read it; let Ilinoy' read it&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebel looked around in a puzzled manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who the h&mdash;l is 'Illinoy!' Where is he?&rdquo;
+      said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saluted and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a nickname they give me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;get up on this stump and read
+      this parole to these d&mdash;-d fools that won't believe me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I mounted the stump, took the blank from his hand and read it over slowly,
+      giving as much emphasis as possible to the all-important clause at the end&mdash;&ldquo;until
+      properly exchanged.&rdquo; I then said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boys, this seems all right to me,&rdquo; and they answered, with
+      almost one voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that's all right. We'll sign that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was never so proud of the American soldier-boy as at that moment. They
+      all felt that signing that paper was to give them freedom and life. They
+      knew too well from sad experience what the alternative was. Many felt that
+      unless released another week would see them in their graves. All knew that
+      every day's stay in Rebel hands greatly lessened their chances of
+      life. Yet in all that thousand there was not one voice in favor of
+      yielding a tittle of honor to save life. They would secure their freedom
+      honorably, or die faithfully. Remember that this was a miscellaneous crowd
+      of boys, gathered from all sections of the country, and from many of whom
+      no exalted conceptions of duty and honor were expected. I wish some one
+      would point out to me, on the brightest pages of knightly record, some
+      deed of fealty and truth that equals the simple fidelity of these unknown
+      heros. I do not think that one of them felt that he was doing anything
+      especially meritorious. He only obeyed the natural promptings of his loyal
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The business of signing the paroles was then begun in earnest. We were
+      separated into squads according to the first letters of our names, all
+      those whose name began with A being placed in one squad, those beginning
+      with B, in another, and so on. Blank paroles for each letter were spread
+      out on boxes and planks at different places, and the signing went on under
+      the superintendence of a Rebel Sergeant and one of the prisoners. The
+      squad of M's selected me to superintend the signing for us, and I
+      stood by to direct the boys, and sign for the very few who could not
+      write. After this was done we fell into ranks again, called the roll of
+      the signers, and carefully compared the number of men with the number of
+      signatures so that nobody should pass unparoled. The oath was then
+      administered to us, and two day's rations of corn meal and fresh
+      beef were issued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This formality removed the last lingering doubt that we had of the
+      exchange being a reality, and we gave way to the happiest emotions. We
+      cheered ourselves hoarse, and the fellows still inside followed our
+      example, as they expected that they would share our good fortune in a day
+      or two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our next performance was to set to work, cook our two days' rations
+      at once and eat them. This was not very difficult, as the whole supply for
+      two days would hardly make one square meal. That done, many of the boys
+      went to the guard line and threw their blankets, clothing, cooking
+      utensils, etc., to their comrades who were still inside. No one thought
+      they would have any further use for such things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow, at this time, thank Heaven,&rdquo; said a boy near me,
+      as he tossed his blanket and overcoat back to some one inside, &ldquo;we'll
+      be in God's country, and then I wouldn't touch them d&mdash;-d
+      lousy old rags with a ten-foot pole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the boys in the M squad was a Maine infantryman, who had been with
+      me in the Pemberton building, in Richmond, and had fashioned himself a
+      little square pan out of a tin plate of a tobacco press, such as I have
+      described in an earlier chapter. He had carried it with him ever since,
+      and it was his sole vessel for all purposes&mdash;for cooking, carrying
+      water, drawing rations, etc. He had cherished it as if it were a farm or a
+      good situation. But now, as he turned away from signing his name to the
+      parole, he looked at his faithful servant for a minute in undisguised
+      contempt; on the eve of restoration to happier, better things, it was a
+      reminder of all the petty, inglorious contemptible trials and sorrows he
+      had endured; he actually loathed it for its remembrances, and flinging it
+      upon the ground he crushed it out of all shape and usefulness with his
+      feet, trampling upon it as he would everything connected with his prison
+      life. Months afterward I had to lend this man my little can to cook his
+      rations in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews and I flung the bright new tin pans we had stolen at Millen inside
+      the line, to be scrambled for. It was hard to tell who were the most
+      surprised at their appearance&mdash;the Rebels or our own boys&mdash;for
+      few had any idea that there were such things in the whole Confederacy, and
+      certainly none looked for them in the possession of two such
+      poverty-stricken specimens as we were. We thought it best to retain
+      possession of our little can, spoon, chess-board, blanket, and overcoat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we marched down and boarded the train, the Rebels confirmed their
+      previous action by taking all the guards from around us. Only some eight
+      or ten were sent to the train, and these quartered themselves in the
+      caboose, and paid us no further attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The train rolled away amid cheering by ourselves and those we left behind.
+      One thousand happier boys than we never started on a journey. We were
+      going home. That was enough to wreathe the skies with glory, and fill the
+      world with sweetness and light. The wintry sun had something of geniality
+      and warmth, the landscape lost some of its repulsiveness, the dreary
+      palmettos had less of that hideousness which made us regard them as very
+      fitting emblems of treason. We even began to feel a little good-humored
+      contempt for our hateful little Brats of guards, and to reflect how much
+      vicious education and surroundings were to be held responsible for their
+      misdeeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We laughed and sang as we rolled along toward Savannah&mdash;going back
+      much faster than the came. We re-told old stories, and repeated old jokes,
+      that had become wearisome months and months ago, but were now freshened up
+      and given their olden pith by the joyousness of the occasion. We revived
+      and talked over old schemes gotten up in the earlier days of prison life,
+      of what &ldquo;we would do when we got out,&rdquo; but almost forgotten
+      since, in the general uncertainty of ever getting out. We exchanged
+      addresses, and promised faithfully to write to each other and tell how we
+      found everything at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the afternoon and night passed. We were too excited to sleep, and
+      passed the hours watching the scenery, recalling the objects we had passed
+      on the way to Blackshear, and guessing how near we were to Savannah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though we were running along within fifteen or twenty miles of the coast,
+      with all our guards asleep in the caboose, no one thought of escape. We
+      could step off the cars and walk over to the seashore as easily as a man
+      steps out of his door and walks to a neighboring town, but why should we?
+      Were we not going directly to our vessels in the harbor of Savannah, and
+      was it not better to do this, than to take the chances of escaping, and
+      encounter the difficulties of reaching our blockaders! We thought so, and
+      we staid on the cars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cold, gray Winter morning was just breaking as we reached Savannah. Our
+      train ran down in the City, and then whistled sharply and ran back a mile
+      or so; it repeated this maneuver two or three times, the evident design
+      being to keep us on the cars until the people were ready to receive us.
+      Finally our engine ran with all the speed she was capable of, and as the
+      train dashed into the street we found ourselves between two heavy lines of
+      guards with bayonets fixed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole sickening reality was made apparent by one glance at the guard
+      line. Our parole was a mockery, its only object being to get us to
+      Savannah as easily as possible, and to prevent benefit from our recapture
+      to any of Sherman's Raiders, who might make a dash for the railroad
+      while we were in transit. There had been no intention of exchanging us.
+      There was no exchange going on at Savannah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After all, I do not think we felt the disappointment as keenly as the
+      first time we were brought to Savannah. Imprisonment had stupefied us; we
+      were duller and more hopeless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ordered down out of the cars, we were formed in line in the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Said a Rebel officer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, any of you fellahs that ah too sick to go to Chahlston, step
+      fohwahd one pace.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We looked at each other an instant, and then the whole line stepped
+      forward. We all felt too sick to go to Charleston, or to do anything else
+      in the world. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch66" id="ch66"></a>CHAPTER LXVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SPECIMEN CONVERSATION WITH AN AVERAGE NATIVE GEORGIAN&mdash;WE LEARN THAT
+      SHERMAN IS HEADING FOR SAVANNAH&mdash;THE RESERVES GET A LITTLE SETTLING
+      DOWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the train left the northern suburbs of Savannah we came upon a scene of
+      busy activity, strongly contrasting with the somnolent lethargy that
+      seemed to be the normal condition of the City and its inhabitants. Long
+      lines of earthworks were being constructed, gangs of negros were felling
+      trees, building forts and batteries, making abatis, and toiling with
+      numbers of huge guns which were being moved out and placed in position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we had had no new prisoners nor any papers for some weeks&mdash;the
+      papers being doubtless designedly kept away from us&mdash;we were at a
+      loss to know what this meant. We could not understand this erection of
+      fortifications on that side, because, knowing as we did how well the
+      flanks of the City were protected by the Savannah and Ogeeche Rivers, we
+      could not see how a force from the coast&mdash;whence we supposed an
+      attack must come, could hope to reach the City's rear, especially as
+      we had just come up on the right flank of the City, and saw no sign of our
+      folks in that direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our train stopped for a few minutes at the edge of this line of works, and
+      an old citizen who had been surveying the scene with senile interest,
+      tottered over to our car to take a look at us. He was a type of the old
+      man of the South of the scanty middle class, the small farmer. Long white
+      hair and beard, spectacles with great round, staring glasses, a
+      broad-brimmed hat of ante-Revolutionary pattern, clothes that had
+      apparently descended to him from some ancestor who had come over with
+      Oglethorpe, and a two-handed staff with a head of buckhorn, upon which he
+      leaned as old peasants do in plays, formed such an image as recalled to me
+      the picture of the old man in the illustrations in &ldquo;The Dairyman's
+      Daughter.&rdquo; He was as garrulous as a magpie, and as opinionated as a
+      Southern white always is. Halting in front of our car, he steadied himself
+      by planting his staff, clasping it with both lean and skinny hands, and
+      leaning forward upon it, his jaws then addressed themselves to motion
+      thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boys, who mout these be that ye got?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the Guards:&mdash;&ldquo;O, these is some Yanks that we've
+      bin hivin' down at Camp Sumter.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p506" id="p506"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p506.jpg (14K)" src="images/p506.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes?&rdquo; (with an upward inflection of the voice, followed by a
+      close scrutiny of us through the goggle-eyed glasses,) &ldquo;Wall, they're
+      a powerful ornary lookin' lot, I'll declah.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p509" id="p509"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p509.jpg (49K)" src="images/p509.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be seen that the old, gentleman's perceptive powers were
+      much more highly developed than his politeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, they ain't what ye mout call purty, that's a
+      fack,&rdquo; said the guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So yer Yanks, air ye?&rdquo; said the venerable Goober-Grabber,
+      (the nick-name in the South for Georgians), directing his conversation to
+      me. &ldquo;Wall, I'm powerful glad to see ye, an' 'specially
+      whar ye can't do no harm; I've wanted to see some Yankees ever
+      sence the beginnin' of the wah, but hev never had no chance. Whah
+      did ye cum from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I seemed called upon to answer, and said: &ldquo;I came from Illinois;
+      most of the boys in this car are from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan
+      and Iowa.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Deed! All Westerners, air ye? Wall, do ye know I alluz liked
+      the Westerners a heap sight better than them blue-bellied New England
+      Yankees.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No discussion with a Rebel ever proceeded very far without his making an
+      assertion like this. It was a favorite declaration of theirs, but its
+      absurdity was comical, when one remembered that the majority of them could
+      not for their lives tell the names of the New England States, and could no
+      more distinguish a Downeaster from an Illinoisan than they could tell a
+      Saxon from a Bavarian. One day, while I was holding a conversation similar
+      to the above with an old man on guard, another guard, who had been
+      stationed near a squad made up of Germans, that talked altogether in the
+      language of the Fatherland, broke in with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out there by post numbah foahteen, where I wuz yesterday, there's
+      a lot of Yanks who jest jabbered away all the hull time, and I hope I may
+      never see the back of my neck ef I could understand ary word they said,
+      Are them the regular blue-belly kind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old gentleman entered upon the next stage of the invariable routine of
+      discussion with a Rebel:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, what air you'uns down heah, a-fightin' we'uns
+      foh?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I had answered this question several hundred times, I had found the
+      most extinguishing reply to be to ask in return:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you'uns coming up into our country to fight we'uns
+      for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disdaining to notice this return in kind, the old man passed on to the
+      next stage:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you'uns takin' ouah niggahs away from us foh?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, if negros had been as cheap as oreoide watches, it is doubtful
+      whether the speaker had ever had money enough in his possession at one
+      time to buy one, and yet he talked of taking away &ldquo;ouah niggahs,&rdquo;
+      as if they were as plenty about his place as hills of corn. As a rule, the
+      more abjectly poor a Southerner was, the more readily he worked himself
+      into a rage over the idea of &ldquo;takin' away ouah niggahs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I replied in burlesque of his assumption of ownership:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you coming up North to burn my rolling mills and rob my
+      comrade here's bank, and plunder my brother's store, and burn
+      down my uncle's factories?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No reply, to this counter thrust. The old man passed to the third
+      inevitable proposition:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What air you'uns puttin' ouah niggahs in the field to
+      fight we'uns foh?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the whole car-load shouted back at him at once:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you'uns putting blood-hounds on our trails to hunt
+      us down, for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Man&mdash;(savagely), &ldquo;Waal, ye don't think ye kin ever
+      lick us; leastways sich fellers as ye air?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Myself&mdash;&ldquo;Well, we warmed it to you pretty lively until you
+      caught us. There were none of us but what were doing about as good work as
+      any stock you fellows could turn out. No Rebels in our neighborhood had
+      much to brag on. We are not a drop in the bucket, either. There's
+      millions more better men than we are where we came from, and they are all
+      determined to stamp out your miserable Confederacy. You've got to
+      come to it, sooner or later; you must knock under, sure as white blossoms
+      make little apples. You'd better make up your mind to it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Man&mdash;&ldquo;No, sah, nevah. Ye nevah kin conquer us! We're
+      the bravest people and the best fighters on airth. Ye nevah kin whip any
+      people that's a fightin' fur their liberty an' their
+      right; an' ye nevah can whip the South, sah, any way. We'll
+      fight ye until all the men air killed, and then the wimmen'll fight
+      ye, sah.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Myself&mdash;&ldquo;Well, you may think so, or you may not. From the way
+      our boys are snatching the Confederacy's real estate away, it begins
+      to look as if you'd not have enough to fight anybody on pretty soon.
+      What's the meaning of all this fortifying?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Man&mdash;&ldquo;Why, don't you know? Our folks are fixin'
+      up a place foh Bill Sherman to butt his brains out gain'.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bill Sherman!&rdquo; we all shouted in surprise: &ldquo;Why he ain't
+      within two hundred miles of this place, is he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Man&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, but he is, tho'. He thinks he's
+      played a sharp Yankee trick on Hood. He found out he couldn't lick
+      him in a squar' fight, nohow; he'd tried that on too often; so
+      he just sneaked 'round behind him, and made a break for the center
+      of the State, where he thought there was lots of good stealin' to be
+      done. But we'll show him. We'll soon hev him just whar we want
+      him, an' we'll learn him how to go traipesin' 'round
+      the country, stealin' nigahs, burnin' cotton, an' runnin'
+      off folkses' beef critters. He sees now the scrape he's got
+      into, an' he's tryin' to get to the coast, whar the
+      gun-boats'll help 'im out. But he'll nevah git thar,
+      sah; no sah, nevah. He's mouty nigh the end of his rope, sah, and we'll
+      purty' soon hev him jist whar you fellows air, sah.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Myself&mdash;&ldquo;Well, if you fellows intended stopping him, why didn't
+      you do it up about Atlanta? What did you let him come clear through the
+      State, burning and stealing, as you say? It was money in your pockets to
+      head him off as soon as possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Man&mdash;&ldquo;Oh, we didn't set nothing afore him up thar
+      except Joe Brown's Pets, these sorry little Reserves; they're
+      powerful little account; no stand-up to'em at all; they'd
+      break their necks runnin' away ef ye so much as bust a cap near to
+      'em.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our guards, who belonged to these Reserves, instantly felt that the
+      conversation had progressed farther than was profitable and one of them
+      spoke up roughly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See heah, old man, you must go off; I can't hev ye talkin'
+      to these prisoners; hits agin my awdahs. Go 'way now!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old fellow moved off, but as he did he flung this Parthian arrow:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When Sherman gits down deep, he'll find somethin'
+      different from the little snots of Reserves he ran over up about
+      Milledgeville; he'll find he's got to fight real soldiers.&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br> <a id="p510"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p510.jpg (50K)" src="images/p510.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We could not help enjoying the rage of the guards, over the low estimate
+      placed upon the fighting ability of themselves and comrades, and as they
+      raved, around about what they would do if they were only given an
+      opportunity to go into a line of battle against Sherman, we added fuel to
+      the flames of their anger by confiding to each other that we always
+      &ldquo;knew that little Brats whose highest ambition was to murder a
+      defenseless prisoner, could be nothing else than cowards end skulkers in
+      the field.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yaas &mdash; sonnies,&rdquo; said Charlie Burroughs, of the Third
+      Michigan, in that nasal Yankee drawl, that he always assumed, when he
+      wanted to say anything very cutting; &ldquo;you &mdash; trundle &mdash;
+      bed &mdash; soldiers &mdash; who've never &mdash; seen &mdash; a
+      &mdash; real &mdash; wild &mdash; Yankee &mdash; don't &mdash; know
+      &mdash; how &mdash; different &mdash; they &mdash; are &mdash; from
+      &mdash; the kind &mdash; that &mdash; are &mdash; starved &mdash; down
+      &mdash; to tameness. They're &mdash; jest &mdash; as &mdash;
+      different &mdash; as &mdash; a &mdash; lion in &mdash; a &mdash; menagerie
+      &mdash; is &mdash; from &mdash; his &mdash; brother &mdash; in &mdash; the
+      woods &mdash; who &mdash; has &mdash; a &mdash; nigger &mdash; every day
+      &mdash; for-dinner. You &mdash; fellows &mdash; will &mdash; go &mdash;
+      into &mdash; a &mdash; circus &mdash; tent &mdash; and &mdash; throw
+      &mdash; tobacco &mdash; quids in &mdash; the &mdash; face &mdash; of
+      &mdash; the &mdash; lion &mdash; in &mdash; the &mdash; cage &mdash; when
+      &mdash; you &mdash; haven't &mdash; spunk enough &mdash; to &mdash;
+      look &mdash; a woodchuck &mdash; in &mdash; the &mdash; eye &mdash; if
+      &mdash; you &mdash; met &mdash; him &mdash; alone. It's &mdash; lots
+      &mdash; o' &mdash; fun &mdash; to you &mdash; to &mdash; shoot
+      &mdash; down &mdash; a &mdash; sick &mdash; and &mdash; starving-man
+      &mdash; in &mdash; the &mdash; Stockade, but &mdash; when &mdash; you
+      &mdash; see &mdash; a &mdash; Yank with &mdash; a &mdash; gun &mdash; in
+      &mdash; his &mdash; hand &mdash; your &mdash; livers get &mdash; so
+      &mdash; white &mdash; that &mdash; chalk &mdash; would &mdash; make
+      &mdash; a &mdash; black &mdash; mark &mdash; on &mdash; 'em.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little later, a paper, which some one had gotten hold of, in some
+      mysterious manner, was secretly passed to me. I read it as I could find
+      opportunity, and communicated its contents to the rest of the boys. The
+      most important of these was a flaming proclamation by Governor Joe Brown,
+      setting forth that General Sherman was now traversing the State,
+      committing all sorts of depredations; that he had prepared the way for his
+      own destruction, and the Governor called upon all good citizens to rise en
+      masse, and assist in crushing the audacious invader. Bridges must be
+      burned before and behind him, roads obstructed, and every inch of soil
+      resolutely disputed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We enjoyed this. It showed that the Rebels were terribly alarmed, and we
+      began to feel some of that confidence that &ldquo;Sherman will come out
+      all right,&rdquo; which so marvelously animated all under his command.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch67" id="ch67"></a>CHAPTER LXVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      OFF TO CHARLESTON&mdash;PASSING THROUGH THE RICE SWAMPS&mdash;TWO EXTREMES
+      OF SOCIETY&mdash;ENTRY INTO CHARLESTON&mdash;LEISURELY WARFARE&mdash;SHELLING
+      THE CITY AT REGULAR INTERVALS&mdash;WE CAMP IN A MASS OF RUINS&mdash;DEPARTURE
+      FOR FLORENCE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The train started in a few minutes after the close of the conversation
+      with the old Georgian, and we soon came to and crossed the Savannah River
+      into South Carolina. The river was wide and apparently deep; the tide was
+      setting back in a swift, muddy current; the crazy old bridge creaked and
+      shook, and the grinding axles shrieked in the dry journals, as we pulled
+      across. It looked very much at times as if we were to all crash down into
+      the turbid flood&mdash;and we did not care very much if we did, if we were
+      not going to be exchanged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The road lay through the tide swamp region of South Carolina, a peculiar
+      and interesting country. Though swamps and fens stretched in all
+      directions as far as the eye could reach, the landscape was more grateful
+      to the eye than the famine-stricken, pine-barrens of Georgia, which had
+      become wearisome to the sight. The soil where it appeared, was rich,
+      vegetation was luxuriant; great clumps of laurel showed glossy richness in
+      the greenness of its verdure, that reminded us of the fresh color of the
+      vegetation of our Northern homes, so different from the parched and
+      impoverished look of Georgian foliage. Immense flocks of wild fowl
+      fluttered around us; the Georgian woods were almost destitute of living
+      creatures; the evergreen live-oak, with its queer festoons of Spanish
+      moss, and the ugly and useless palmettos gave novelty and interest to the
+      view. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p514" id="p514"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p514.jpg (16K)" src="images/p514.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rice swamps through which we were passing were the princely
+      possessions of the few nabobs who before the war stood at the head of
+      South Carolina aristocracy&mdash;they were South Carolina, in fact, as
+      absolutely as Louis XIV. was France. In their hands&mdash;but a few score
+      in number&mdash;was concentrated about all there was of South Carolina
+      education, wealth, culture, and breeding. They represented a pinchbeck
+      imitation of that regime in France which was happily swept out of
+      existence by the Revolution, and the destruction of which more than
+      compensated for every drop of blood shed in those terrible days. Like the
+      provincial 'grandes seigneurs' of Louis XVI's reign,
+      they were gay, dissipated and turbulent; &ldquo;accomplished&rdquo; in the
+      superficial acquirements that made the &ldquo;gentleman&rdquo; one hundred
+      years ago, but are grotesquely out of place in this sensible, solid age,
+      which demands that a man shall be of use, and not merely for show. They
+      ran horses and fought cocks, dawdled through society when young, and
+      intrigued in politics the rest of their lives, with frequent spice-work of
+      duels. Esteeming personal courage as a supreme human virtue, and never
+      wearying of prating their devotion to the highest standard of intrepidity,
+      they never produced a General who was even mediocre; nor did any one ever
+      hear of a South Carolina regiment gaining distinction. Regarding politics
+      and the art of government as, equally with arms, their natural vocations,
+      they have never given the Nation a statesman, and their greatest
+      politicians achieved eminence by advocating ideas which only attracted
+      attention by their balefulness. <br><br><br><br> <a id="p515"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p515.jpg (29K)" src="images/p515.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still further resembling the French 'grandes seigneurs' of the
+      eighteenth century, they rolled in wealth wrung from the laborer by
+      reducing the rewards of his toil to the last fraction that would support
+      his life and strength. The rice culture was immensely profitable, because
+      they had found the secret for raising it more cheaply than even the pauper
+      laborer of the of world could. Their lands had cost them nothing
+      originally, the improvements of dikes and ditches were comparatively,
+      inexpensive, the taxes were nominal, and their slaves were not so
+      expensive to keep as good horses in the North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thousands of the acres along the road belonged to the Rhetts, thousands to
+      the Heywards, thousands to the Manigault the Lowndes, the Middletons, the
+      Hugers, the Barnwells, and the Elliots&mdash;all names too well known in
+      the history of our country's sorrows. Occasionally one of their
+      stately mansions could be seen on some distant elevation, surrounded by
+      noble old trees, and superb grounds. Here they lived during the healthy
+      part of the year, but fled thence to summer resort in the highlands as the
+      miasmatic season approached.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people we saw at the stations along our route were melancholy
+      illustrations of the evils of the rule of such an oligarchy. There was no
+      middle class visible anywhere&mdash;nothing but the two extremes. A man
+      was either a &ldquo;gentleman,&rdquo; and wore white shirt and city-made
+      clothes, or he was a loutish hind, clad in mere apologies for garments. We
+      thought we had found in the Georgia &ldquo;cracker&rdquo; the lowest
+      substratum of human society, but he was bright intelligence compared to
+      the South Carolina &ldquo;clay-eater&rdquo; and &ldquo;sand-hiller.&rdquo;
+      The &ldquo;cracker&rdquo; always gave hopes to one that if he had the
+      advantage of common schools, and could be made to understand that laziness
+      was dishonorable, he might develop into something. There was little
+      foundation for such hope in the average low South Carolinian. His mind was
+      a shaking quagmire, which did not admit of the erection of any
+      superstructure of education upon it. The South Carolina guards about us
+      did not know the name of the next town, though they had been raised in
+      that section. They did not know how far it was there, or to any place
+      else, and they did not care to learn. They had no conception of what the
+      war was being waged for, and did not want to find out; they did not know
+      where their regiment was going, and did not remember where it had been;
+      they could not tell how long they had been in service, nor the time they
+      had enlisted for. They only remembered that sometimes they had had &ldquo;sorter
+      good times,&rdquo; and sometimes &ldquo;they had been powerful bad,&rdquo;
+      and they hoped there would be plenty to eat wherever they went, and not
+      too much hard marching. Then they wondered &ldquo;whar a feller'd be
+      likely to make a raise of a canteen of good whisky?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bad as the whites were, the rice plantation negros were even worse, if
+      that were possible. Brought to the country centuries ago, as brutal
+      savages from Africa, they had learned nothing of Christian civilization,
+      except that it meant endless toil, in malarious swamps, under the lash of
+      the taskmaster. They wore, possibly, a little more clothing than their
+      Senegambian ancestors did; they ate corn meal, yams and rice, instead of
+      bananas, yams and rice, as their forefathers did, and they had learned a
+      bastard, almost unintelligible, English. These were the sole blessings
+      acquired by a transfer from a life of freedom in the jungles of the Gold
+      Coast, to one of slavery in the swamps of the Combahee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not then, nor can I now, regret the downfall of a system of
+      society which bore such fruits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards night a distressingly cold breeze, laden with a penetrating mist,
+      set in from the sea, and put an end to future observations by making us
+      too uncomfortable to care for scenery or social conditions. We wanted most
+      to devise a way to keep warm. Andrews and I pulled our overcoat and
+      blanket closely about us, snuggled together so as to make each one's
+      meager body afford the other as much heat as possible&mdash;and endured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We became fearfully hungry. It will be recollected that we ate the whole
+      of the two days' rations issued to us at Blackshear at once, and we
+      had received nothing since. We reached the sullen, fainting stage of great
+      hunger, and for hours nothing was said by any one, except an occasional
+      bitter execration on Rebels and Rebel practices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was late at night when we reached Charleston. The lights of the City,
+      and the apparent warmth and comfort there cheered us up somewhat with the
+      hopes that we might have some share in them. Leaving the train, we were
+      marched some distance through well-lighted streets, in which were plenty
+      of people walking to and fro. There were many stores, apparently stocked
+      with goods, and the citizens seemed to be going about their business very
+      much as was the custom up North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length our head of column made a &ldquo;right turn,&rdquo; and we
+      marched away from the lighted portion of the City, to a part which I could
+      see through the shadows was filled with ruins. An almost insupportable
+      odor of gas, escaping I suppose from the ruptured pipes, mingled with the
+      cold, rasping air from the sea, to make every breath intensely
+      disagreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I saw the ruins, it flashed upon me that this was the burnt district of
+      the city, and they were putting us under the fire of our own guns. At
+      first I felt much alarmed. Little relish as I had on general principles,
+      for being shot I had much less for being killed by our own men. Then I
+      reflected that if they put me there&mdash;and kept me&mdash;a guard would
+      have to be placed around us, who would necessarily be in as much clanger
+      as we were, and I knew I could stand any fire that a Rebel could. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p518" id="p518"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p518.jpg (33K)" src="images/p518.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were halted in a vacant lot, and sat down, only to jump up the next
+      instant, as some one shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There comes one of 'em!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a great shell from the Swamp Angel Battery. Starting from a point
+      miles away, where, seemingly, the sky came down to the sea, was a narrow
+      ribbon of fire, which slowly unrolled itself against the star-lit vault
+      over our heads. On, on it came, and was apparently following the sky down
+      to the horizon behind us. As it reached the zenith, there came to our ears
+      a prolonged, but not sharp,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whish&mdash;ish-ish-ish-ish!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We watched it breathlessly, and it seemed to be long minutes in running
+      its course; then a thump upon the ground, and a vibration, told that it
+      had struck. For a moment there was a dead silence. Then came a loud roar,
+      and the crash of breaking timber and crushing walls. The shell had
+      bursted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later another shell followed, with like results. For awhile we
+      forgot all about hunger in the excitement of watching the messengers from
+      &ldquo;God's country.&rdquo; What happiness to be where those shells
+      came from. Soon a Rebel battery of heavy guns somewhere near and in front
+      of us, waked up, and began answering with dull, slow thumps that made the
+      ground shudder. This continued about an hour, when it quieted down again,
+      but our shells kept coming over at regular intervals with the same slow
+      deliberation, the same prolonged warning, and the same dreadful crash when
+      they struck. They had already gone on this way for over a year, and were
+      to keep it up months longer until the City was captured. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p519" id="p519"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p519.jpg (28K)" src="images/p519.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The routine was the same from day to day, month in, and month out, from
+      early in August, 1863, to the middle of April, 1865. Every few minutes
+      during the day our folks would hurl a great shell into the beleaguered
+      City, and twice a day, for perhaps an hour each time, the Rebel batteries
+      would talk back. It must have been a lesson to the Charlestonians of the
+      persistent, methodical spirit of the North. They prided themselves on the
+      length of the time they were holding out against the enemy, and the papers
+      each day had a column headed:
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      &ldquo;390th DAY OF THE SIEGE,&rdquo;
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      or 391st, 393d, etc., as the number might be since our people opened fire
+      upon the City. The part where we lay was a mass of ruins. Many large
+      buildings had been knocked down; very many more were riddled with shot
+      holes and tottering to their fall. One night a shell passed through a
+      large building about a quarter of a mile from us. It had already been
+      struck several times, and was shaky. The shell went through with a
+      deafening crash. All was still for an instant; then it exploded with a
+      dull roar, followed by more crashing of timber and walls. The sound died
+      away and was succeeded by a moment of silence. Finally the great building
+      fell, a shapeless heap of ruins, with a noise like that of a dozen field
+      pieces. We wanted to cheer but restrained ourselves. This was the nearest
+      to us that any shell came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was only one section of the City in reach of our guns and this was
+      nearly destroyed. Fires had come to complete the work begun by the shells.
+      Outside of the boundaries of this region, the people felt themselves as
+      safe as in one of our northern Cities to-day. They had an abiding faith
+      that they were clear out of reach of any artillery that we could mount. I
+      learned afterwards from some of the prisoners, who went into Charleston
+      ahead of us, and were camped on the race course outside of the City, that
+      one day our fellows threw a shell clear over the City to this race course.
+      There was an immediate and terrible panic among the citizens. They thought
+      we had mounted some new guns of increased range, and now the whole city
+      must go. But the next shell fell inside the established limits, and those
+      following were equally well behaved, so that the panic abated. I have
+      never heard any explanation of the matter. It may have been some freak of
+      the gun-squad, trying the effect of an extra charge of powder. Had our
+      people known of its signal effect, they could have depopulated the place
+      in a few hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole matter impressed me queerly. The only artillery I had ever seen
+      in action were field pieces. They made an earsplitting crash when they
+      were discharged, and there was likely to be oceans of trouble for
+      everybody in that neighborhood about that time. I reasoned from this that
+      bigger guns made a proportionally greater amount of noise, and bred an
+      infinitely larger quantity of trouble. Now I was hearing the giants of the
+      world's ordnance, and they were not so impressive as a lively
+      battery of three-inch rifles. Their reports did not threaten to shatter
+      everything, but had a dull resonance, something like that produced by
+      striking an empty barrel with a wooden maul. Their shells did not come at
+      one in that wildly, ferocious way, with which a missile from a six-pounder
+      convinces every fellow in a long line of battle that he is the identical
+      one it is meant for, but they meandered over in a lazy, leisurely manner,
+      as if time was no object and no person would feel put out at having to
+      wait for them. Then, the idea of firing every quarter of an hour for a
+      year&mdash;fixing up a job for a lifetime, as Andrews expressed it,&mdash;and
+      of being fired back at for an hour at 9 o'clock every morning and
+      evening; of fifty thousand people going on buying and selling, eating,
+      drinking and sleeping, having dances, drives and balls, marrying and
+      giving in marriage, all within a few hundred yards of where the shells
+      were falling-struck me as a most singular method of conducting warfare.
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p521" id="p521"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p521.jpg (33K)" src="images/p521.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We received no rations until the day after our arrival, and then they were
+      scanty, though fair in quality. We were by this time so hungry and faint
+      that we could hardly move. We did nothing for hours but lie around on the
+      ground and try to forget how famished we were. At the announcement of
+      rations, many acted as if crazy, and it was all that the Sergeants could
+      do to restrain the impatient mob from tearing the food away and devouring
+      it, when they were trying to divide it out. Very many&mdash;perhaps thirty&mdash;died
+      during the night and morning. No blame for this is attached to the
+      Charlestonians. They distinguished themselves from the citizens of every
+      other place in the Southern Confederacy where we had been, by making
+      efforts to relieve our condition. They sent quite a quantity of food to
+      us, and the Sisters of Charity came among us, seeking and ministering to
+      the sick. I believe our experience was the usual one. The prisoners who
+      passed through Charleston before us all spoke very highly of the kindness
+      shown them by the citizens there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We remained in Charleston but a few days. One night we were marched down
+      to a rickety depot, and put aboard a still more rickety train. When
+      morning came we found ourselves running northward through a pine barren
+      country that resembled somewhat that in Georgia, except that the pine was
+      short-leaved, there was more oak and other hard woods, and the vegetation
+      generally assumed a more Northern look. We had been put into close box
+      cars, with guards at the doors and on top. During the night quite a number
+      of the boys, who had fabricated little saws out of case knives and
+      fragments of hoop iron, cut holes through the bottoms of the cars, through
+      which they dropped to the ground and escaped, but were mostly recaptured
+      after several days. There was no hole cut in our car, and so Andrews and I
+      staid in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at dusk we came to the insignificant village of Florence, the
+      junction of the road leading from Charleston to Cheraw with that running
+      from Wilmington to Kingsville. It was about one hundred and twenty miles
+      from Charleston, and the same distance from Wilmington. As our train ran
+      through a cut near the junction a darky stood by the track gazing at us
+      curiously. When the train had nearly passed him he started to run up the
+      bank. In the imperfect light the guards mistook him for one of us who had
+      jumped from the train. They all fired, and the unlucky negro fell, pierced
+      by a score of bullets. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p523" id="p523"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p523.jpg (31K)" src="images/p523.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night we camped in the open field. When morning came we saw, a few
+      hundred yards from us, a Stockade of rough logs, with guards stationed
+      around it. It was another prison pen. They were just bringing the dead
+      out, and two men were tossing the bodies up into the four-horse wagon
+      which hauled them away for burial. The men were going about their business
+      as coolly as if loading slaughtered hogs. One of them would catch
+      the body by the feet, and the other by the arms. They would give it a
+      swing&mdash;&ldquo;One, two, three,&rdquo; and up it would go into the
+      wagon. This filled heaping full with corpses, a negro mounted the wheel
+      horse, grasped the lines, and shouted to his animals:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, walk off on your tails, boys.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horses strained, the wagon moved, and its load of what were once
+      gallant, devoted soldiers, was carted off to nameless graves. This was a
+      part of the daily morning routine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we stood looking at the sickeningly familiar architecture of the prison
+      pen, a Seventh Indianian near me said, in tones of wearisome disgust:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, this Southern Confederacy is the d&mdash;-dest country to
+      stand logs on end on God Almighty's footstool.&rdquo; <a name="p530" id="p530"></a> <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p530 (47K)" src="images/p530.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br> <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch68" id="ch68"></a>CHAPTER LXVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FIRST DAYS AT FLORENCE&mdash;INTRODUCTION TO LIEUTENANT BARRETT, THE
+      RED-HEADED KEEPER&mdash;A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF OUR NEW QUARTERS&mdash;WINDERS
+      MALIGN INFLUENCE MANIFEST.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It did not require a very acute comprehension to understand that the
+      Stockade at which we were gazing was likely to be our abiding place for
+      some indefinite period in the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As usual, this discovery was the death-warrant of many whose lives had
+      only been prolonged by the hoping against hope that the movement would
+      terminate inside our lines. When the portentous palisades showed to a
+      fatal certainty that the word of promise had been broken to their hearts,
+      they gave up the struggle wearily, lay back on the frozen ground, and
+      died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews and I were not in the humor for dying just then. The long
+      imprisonment, the privations of hunger, the scourging by the elements, the
+      death of four out of every five of our number had indeed dulled and
+      stupefied us&mdash;bred an indifference to our own suffering and a seeming
+      callosity to that of others, but there still burned in our hearts, and in
+      the hearts of every one about us, a dull, sullen, smoldering fire of hate
+      and defiance toward everything Rebel, and a lust for revenge upon those
+      who had showered woes upon our heads. There was little fear of death; even
+      the King of Terrors loses most of his awful character upon tolerably close
+      acquaintance, and we had been on very intimate terms with him for a year
+      now. He was a constant visitor, who dropped in upon us at all hours of the
+      day and night, and would not be denied to any one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since my entry into prison fully fifteen thousand boys had died around me,
+      and in no one of them had I seen the least, dread or reluctance to go. I
+      believe this is generally true of death by disease, everywhere. Our ever
+      kindly mother, Nature, only makes us dread death when she desires us to
+      preserve life. When she summons us hence she tenderly provides that we
+      shall willingly obey the call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More than for anything else, we wanted to live now to triumph over the
+      Rebels. To simply die would be of little importance, but to die unrevenged
+      would be fearful. If we, the despised, the contemned, the insulted, the
+      starved and maltreated; could live to come back to our oppressors as the
+      armed ministers of retribution, terrible in the remembrance of the wrongs
+      of ourselves and comrade's, irresistible as the agents of heavenly
+      justice, and mete out to them that Biblical return of seven-fold of what
+      they had measured out to us, then we would be content to go to death
+      afterwards. Had the thrice-accursed Confederacy and our malignant gaolers
+      millions of lives, our great revenge would have stomach for them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The December morning was gray and leaden; dull, somber, snow-laden clouds
+      swept across the sky before the soughing wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ground, frozen hard and stiff, cut and hurt our bare feet at every
+      step; an icy breeze drove in through the holes in our rags, and smote our
+      bodies like blows from sticks. The trees and shrubbery around were as
+      naked and forlorn as in the North in the days of early Winter before the
+      snow comes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Over and around us hung like a cold miasma the sickening odor peculiar to
+      Southern forests in Winter time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out of the naked, repelling, unlovely earth rose the Stockade, in hideous
+      ugliness. At the gate the two men continued at their monotonous labor of
+      tossing the dead of the previous day into the wagon-heaving into that rude
+      hearse the inanimate remains that had once tempted gallant, manly hearts,
+      glowing with patriotism and devotion to country&mdash;piling up listlessly
+      and wearily, in a mass of nameless, emaciated corpses, fluttering with
+      rags, and swarming with vermin, the pride, the joy of a hundred fair
+      Northern homes, whose light had now gone out forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Around the prison walls shambled the guards, blanketed like Indians, and
+      with faces and hearts of wolves. Other Rebels&mdash;also clad in dingy
+      butternut&mdash;slouched around lazily, crouched over diminutive fires,
+      and talked idle gossip in the broadest of &ldquo;nigger&rdquo; dialect.
+      Officers swelled and strutted hither and thither, and negro servants
+      loitered around, striving to spread the least amount of work over the
+      greatest amount of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I stood gazing in gloomy silence at the depressing surroundings
+      Andrews, less speculative and more practical, saw a good-sized pine stump
+      near by, which had so much of the earth washed away from it that it looked
+      as if it could be readily pulled up. We had had bitter experience in other
+      prisons as to the value of wood, and Andrews reasoned that as we would be
+      likely to have a repetition of this in the Stockade we were about to
+      enter, we should make an effort to secure the stump. We both attacked it,
+      and after a great deal of hard work, succeeded in uprooting it. It was
+      very lucky that we did, since it was the greatest help in preserving our
+      lives through the three long months that we remained at Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While we were arranging our stump so as to carry it to the best advantage,
+      a vulgar-faced man, with fiery red hair, and wearing on his collar the
+      yellow bars of a Lieutenant, approached. This was Lieutenant Barrett,
+      commandant of the interior of the prison, and a more inhuman wretch even
+      than Captain Wirz, because he had a little more brains than the commandant
+      at Andersonville, and this extra intellect was wholly devoted to cruelty.
+      As he came near he commanded, in loud, brutal tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attention, Prisoners!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We all stood up and fell in in two ranks. Said he:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By companies, right wheel, march!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was simply preposterous. As every soldier knows, wheeling by
+      companies is one of the most difficult of manuvers, and requires some
+      preparation of a battalion before attempting to execute it. Our thousand
+      was made up of infantry, cavalry and artillery, representing, perhaps, one
+      hundred different regiments. We had not been divided off into companies,
+      and were encumbered with blankets, tents, cooking utensils, wood, etc.,
+      which prevented our moving with such freedom as to make a company wheel,
+      even had we been divided up into companies and drilled for the maneuver.
+      The attempt to obey the command was, of course, a ludicrous failure. The
+      Rebel officers standing near Barrett laughed openly at his stupidity in
+      giving such an order, but he was furious. He hurled at us a torrent of the
+      vilest abuse the corrupt imagination of man can conceive, and swore until
+      he was fairly black in the face. He fired his revolver off over our heads,
+      and shrieked and shouted until he had to stop from sheer exhaustion.
+      Another officer took command then, and marched us into prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We found this a small copy of Andersonville. There was a stream running
+      north and south, on either side of which was a swamp. A Stockade of rough
+      logs, with the bark still on, inclosed several acres. The front of the
+      prison was toward the West. A piece of artillery stood before the gate,
+      and a platform at each corner bore a gun, elevated high enough to rake the
+      whole inside of the prison. A man stood behind each of these guns
+      continually, so as to open with them at any moment. The earth was thrown
+      up against the outside of the palisades in a high embankment, along the
+      top of which the guards on duty walked, it being high enough to elevate
+      their head, shoulders and breasts above the tops of the logs. Inside the
+      inevitable dead-line was traced by running a furrow around the
+      prison-twenty feet from the Stockade&mdash;with a plow. In one respect it
+      was an improvement on Andersonville: regular streets were laid off, so
+      that motion about the camp was possible, and cleanliness was promoted.
+      Also, the crowd inside was not so dense as at Camp Sumter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoners were divided into hundreds and thousands, with Sergeants at
+      the heads of the divisions. A very good police force-organized and
+      officered by the prisoners&mdash;maintained order and prevented crime.
+      Thefts and other offenses were punished, as at Andersonville, by the Chief
+      of Police sentencing the offenders to be spanked or tied up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We found very many of our Andersonville acquaintances inside, and for
+      several days comparisons of experience were in order. They had left
+      Andersonville a few days after us, but were taken to Charleston instead of
+      Savannah. The same story of exchange was dinned into their ears until they
+      arrived at Charleston, when the truth was told them, that no exchange was
+      contemplated, and that they had been deceived for the purpose of getting
+      them safely out of reach of Sherman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still they were treated well in Charleston&mdash;better than they had been
+      anywhere else. Intelligent physicians had visited the sick, prescribed for
+      them, furnished them with proper medicines, and admitted the worst cases
+      to the hospital, where they were given something of the care that one
+      would expect in such an institution. Wheat bread, molasses and rice were
+      issued to them, and also a few spoonfuls of vinegar, daily, which were
+      very grateful to them in their scorbutic condition. The citizens sent in
+      clothing, food and vegetables. The Sisters of Charity were indefatigable
+      in ministering to the sick and dying. Altogether, their recollections of
+      the place were quite pleasant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Despite the disagreeable prominence which the City had in the Secession
+      movement, there was a very strong Union element there, and many men found
+      opportunity to do favors to the prisoners and reveal to them how much they
+      abhorred Secession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had been in Charleston a fortnight or more, the yellow fever
+      broke out in the City, and soon extended its ravages to the prisoners,
+      quite a number dying from it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in October they had been sent away from the City to their present
+      location, which was then a piece of forest land. There was no stockade or
+      other enclosure about them, and one night they forced the guard-line,
+      about fifteen hundred escaping, under a pretty sharp fire from the guards.
+      After getting out they scattered, each group taking a different route,
+      some seeking Beaufort, and other places along the seaboard, and the rest
+      trying to gain the mountains. The whole State was thrown into the greatest
+      perturbation by the occurrence. The papers magnified the proportion of the
+      outbreak, and lauded fulsomely the gallantry of the guards in endeavoring
+      to withstand the desperate assaults of the frenzied Yankees. The people
+      were wrought up into the highest alarm as to outrages and excesses that
+      these flying desperados might be expected to commit. One would think that
+      another Grecian horse, introduced into the heart of the Confederate Troy,
+      had let out its fatal band of armed men. All good citizens were enjoined
+      to turn out and assist in arresting the runaways. The vigilance of all
+      patrolling was redoubled, and such was the effectiveness of the measures
+      taken that before a month nearly every one of the fugitives had been
+      retaken and sent back to Florence. Few of these complained of any special
+      ill-treatment by their captors, while many reported frequent acts of
+      kindness, especially when their captors belonged to the middle and upper
+      classes. The low-down class&mdash;the clay-eaters&mdash;on the other hand,
+      almost always abused their prisoners, and sometimes, it is pretty certain,
+      murdered them in cold blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time Winder came on from Andersonville, and then everything
+      changed immediately to the complexion of that place. He began the erection
+      of the Stockade, and made it very strong. The Dead Line was established,
+      but instead of being a strip of plank upon the top of low posts, as at
+      Andersonville, it was simply a shallow trench, which was sometimes plainly
+      visible, and sometimes not. The guards always resolved matters of doubt
+      against the prisoners, and fired on them when they supposed them too near
+      where the Dead Line ought to be. Fifteen acres of ground were enclosed by
+      the palisades, of which five were taken up by the creek and swamp, and
+      three or four more by the Dead Line; main streets, etc., leaving about
+      seven or eight for the actual use of the prisoners, whose number swelled
+      to fifteen thousand by the arrivals from Andersonville. This made the
+      crowding together nearly as bad as at the latter place, and for awhile the
+      same fatal results followed. The mortality, and the sending away of
+      several thousand on the sick exchange, reduced the aggregate number at the
+      time of our arrival to about eleven thousand, which gave more room to all,
+      but was still not one-twentieth of the space which that number of men
+      should have had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No shelter, nor material for constructing any, was furnished. The ground
+      was rather thickly wooded, and covered with undergrowth, when the Stockade
+      was built, and certainly no bit of soil was ever so thoroughly cleared as
+      this was. The trees and brush were cut down and worked up into hut
+      building materials by the same slow and laborious process that I have
+      described as employed in building our huts at Millen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the stumps were attacked for fuel, and with such persistent
+      thoroughness that after some weeks there was certainly not enough woody
+      material left in that whole fifteen acres of ground to kindle a small
+      kitchen fire. The men would begin work on the stump of a good sized tree,
+      and chip and split it off painfully and slowly until they had followed it
+      to the extremity of the tap root ten or fifteen feet below the surface.
+      The lateral roots would be followed with equal determination, and trenches
+      thirty feet long, and two or three feet deep were dug with case-knives and
+      half-canteens, to get a root as thick as one's wrist. The roots of
+      shrubs and vines were followed up and gathered with similar industry. The
+      cold weather and the scanty issues of wood forced men to do this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The huts constructed were as various as the materials and the tastes of
+      the builders. Those who were fortunate enough to get plenty of timber
+      built such cabins as I have described at Millen. Those who had less eked
+      out their materials in various ways. Most frequently all that a squad of
+      three or four could get would be a few slender poles and some brush. They
+      would dig a hole in the ground two feet deep and large enough for them all
+      to lie in. Then putting up a stick at each end and laying a ridge pole
+      across, they, would adjust the rest of their material so as to form
+      sloping sides capable of supporting earth enough to make a water-tight
+      roof. The great majority were not so well off as these, and had
+      absolutely, nothing of which to build. They had recourse to the clay of
+      the swamp, from which they fashioned rude sun-dried bricks, and made adobe
+      houses, shaped like a bee hive, which lasted very well until a hard rain
+      came, when they dissolved into red mire about the bodies of their
+      miserable inmates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Remember that all these makeshifts were practiced within a half-a-mile of
+      an almost boundless forest, from which in a day's time the camp
+      could have been supplied with material enough to give every man a
+      comfortable hut. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch69" id="ch69"></a>CHAPTER LXIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      BARRETT'S INSANE CRUELTY&mdash;HOW HE PUNISHED THOSE ALLEGED TO BE
+      ENGAGED IN TUNNELING&mdash;THE MISERY IN THE STOCKADE&mdash;MEN'S
+      LIMBS ROTTING OFF WITH DRY GANGRENE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Winder had found in Barrett even a better tool for his cruel purposes than
+      Wirz. The two resembled each other in many respects. Both were absolutely
+      destitute of any talent for commanding men, and could no more handle even
+      one thousand men properly than a cabin boy could navigate a great ocean
+      steamer. Both were given to the same senseless fits of insane rage, coming
+      and going without apparent cause, during which they fired revolvers and
+      guns or threw clubs into crowds of prisoners, or knocked down such as were
+      within reach of their fists. These exhibitions were such as an overgrown
+      child might be expected to make. They did not secure any result except to
+      increase the prisoners' wonder that such ill-tempered fools could be
+      given any position of responsibility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short time previous to our entry Barrett thought he had reason to
+      suspect a tunnel. He immediately announced that no more rations should be
+      issued until its whereabouts was revealed and the ringleaders in the
+      attempt to escape delivered up to him. The rations at that time were very
+      scanty, so that the first day they were cut off the sufferings were
+      fearful. The boys thought he would surely relent the next day, but they
+      did not know their man. He was not suffering any, why should he relax his
+      severity? He strolled leisurely out from his dinner table, picking his
+      teeth with his penknife in the comfortable, self-satisfied way of a coarse
+      man who has just filled his stomach to his entire content&mdash;an
+      attitude and an air that was simply maddening to the famishing wretches,
+      of whom he inquired tantalizingly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Air ye're hungry enough to give up them G-d d d s&mdash;s of
+      b&mdash;&mdash;s yet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night thirteen thousand men, crazy, fainting with hunger, walked
+      hither and thither, until exhaustion forced them to become quiet, sat on
+      the ground and pressed their bowels in by leaning against sticks of wood
+      laid across their thighs; trooped to the Creek and drank water until their
+      gorges rose and they could swallow no more&mdash;did everything in fact
+      that imagination could suggest&mdash;to assuage the pangs of the deadly
+      gnawing that was consuming their vitals. All the cruelties of the terrible
+      Spanish Inquisition, if heaped together, would not sum up a greater
+      aggregate of anguish than was endured by them. The third day came, and
+      still no signs of yielding by Barrett. The Sergeants counseled together.
+      Something must be done. The fellow would starve the whole camp to death
+      with as little compunction as one drowns blind puppies. It was necessary
+      to get up a tunnel to show Barrett, and to get boys who would confess to
+      being leaders in the work. A number of gallant fellows volunteered to
+      brave his wrath, and save the rest of their comrades. It required high
+      courage to do this, as there was no question but that the punishment meted
+      out would be as fearful as the cruel mind of the fellow could conceive.
+      The Sergeants decided that four would be sufficient to answer the purpose;
+      they selected these by lot, marched them to the gate and delivered them
+      over to Barrett, who thereupon ordered the rations to be sent in. He was
+      considerate enough, too, to feed the men he was going to torture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The starving men in the Stockade could not wait after the rations were
+      issued to cook them, but in many instances mixed the meal up with water,
+      and swallowed it raw. Frequently their stomachs, irritated by the long
+      fast, rejected the mess; any very many had reached the stage where they
+      loathed food; a burning fever was consuming them, and seething their
+      brains with delirium. Hundreds died within a few days, and hundreds more
+      were so debilitated by the terrible strain that they did not linger long
+      afterward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys who had offered themselves as a sacrifice for the rest were put
+      into a guard house, and kept over night that Barrett might make a day of
+      the amusement of torturing them. After he had laid in a hearty breakfast,
+      and doubtless fortified himself with some of the villainous sorgum whisky,
+      which the Rebels were now reduced to drinking, he set about his
+      entertainment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The devoted four were brought out&mdash;one by one&mdash;and their hands
+      tied together behind their backs. Then a noose of a slender, strong hemp
+      rope was slipped over the first one's thumbs and drawn tight, after
+      which the rope was thrown over a log projecting from the roof of the guard
+      house, and two or three Rebels hauled upon it until the miserable Yankee
+      was lifted from the ground, and hung suspended by the thumbs, while his
+      weight seemed tearing his limbs from his shoulder blades. The other three
+      were treated in the same manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The agony was simply excruciating. The boys were brave, and had resolved
+      to stand their punishment without a groan, but this was too much for human
+      endurance. Their will was strong, but Nature could not be denied, and they
+      shrieked aloud so pitifully that a young Reserve standing near fainted.
+      Each one screamed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For God's sake, kill me! kill me! Shoot me if&mdash;you want
+      to, but let me down from here!&rdquo; The only effect of this upon Barrett
+      was to light up his brutal face with a leer of fiendish satisfaction. He
+      said to the guards with a gleeful wink:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By God, I'll learn these Yanks to be more afeard of me than
+      of the old devil himself. They'll soon understand that I'm not
+      the man to fool with. I'm old pizen, I am, when I git started. Jest
+      hear 'em squeal, won't yer?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then walking from one prisoner to another, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D&mdash;-n yer skins, ye'll dig tunnels, will ye? Ye'll
+      try to git out, and run through the country stealin' and carryin'
+      off niggers, and makin' more trouble than yer d&mdash;&mdash;d necks
+      are worth. I'll learn ye all about that. If I ketch ye at this sort
+      of work again, d&mdash;&mdash;d ef I don't kill ye ez soon ez I
+      ketch ye.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on, ad infinitum. How long the boys were kept up there undergoing
+      this torture can not be said. Perhaps it was an hour or more. To the
+      locker-on it seemed long hours, to the poor fellows themselves it was
+      ages. When they were let down at last, all fainted, and were carried away
+      to the hospital, where they were weeks in recovering from the effects.
+      Some of them were crippled for life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we came into the prison there were about eleven thousand there. More
+      uniformly wretched creatures I had never before seen. Up to the time of
+      our departure from Andersonville the constant influx of new prisoners had
+      prevented the misery and wasting away of life from becoming fully
+      realized. Though thousands were continually dying, thousands more of
+      healthy, clean, well-clothed men were as continually coming in from the
+      front, so that a large portion of those inside looked in fairly good
+      condition. Put now no new prisoners had come in for months; the money
+      which made such a show about the sutler shops of Andersonville had been
+      spent; and there was in every face the same look of ghastly emaciation,
+      the same shrunken muscles and feeble limbs, the same lack-luster eyes and
+      hopeless countenances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the commonest of sights was to see men whose hands and feet were
+      simply rotting off. The nights were frequently so cold that ice a quarter
+      of an inch thick formed on the water. The naked frames of starving men
+      were poorly calculated to withstand this frosty rigor, and thousands had
+      their extremities so badly frozen as to destroy the life in those parts,
+      and induce a rotting of the tissues by a dry gangrene. The rotted flesh
+      frequently remained in its place for a long time &mdash;a loathsome but
+      painless mass, that gradually sloughed off, leaving the sinews that passed
+      through it to stand out like shining, white cords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this was in some respects less terrible than the hospital gangrene
+      at Andersonville, it was more generally diffused, and dreadful to the last
+      degree. The Rebel Surgeons at Florence did not follow the habit of those
+      at Andersonville, and try to check the disease by wholesale amputation,
+      but simply let it run its course, and thousands finally carried their
+      putrefied limbs through our lines, when the Confederacy broke up in the
+      Spring, to be treated by our Surgeons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had been in prison but a little while when a voice called out from a
+      hole in the ground, as I was passing:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;S-a-y, Sergeant! Won't you please take these shears and cut
+      my toes off?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo; said I, in amazement, stopping in front of the dugout.
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p536" id="p536"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p536.jpg (23K)" src="images/p536.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just take these shears, won't you, and cut my toes off?&rdquo;
+      answered the inmate, an Indiana infantryman&mdash;holding up a pair of
+      dull shears in his hand, and elevating a foot for me to look at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I examined the latter carefully. All the flesh of the toes, except little
+      pads at the ends, had rotted off, leaving the bones as clean as if
+      scraped. The little tendons still remained, and held the bones to their
+      places, but this seemed to hurt the rest of the feet and annoy the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'd better let one of the Rebel doctors see this,&rdquo; I
+      said, after finishing my survey, &ldquo;before you conclude to have them
+      off. May be they can be saved.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; d&mdash;&mdash;d if I'm going to have any of them Rebel
+      butchers fooling around me. I'd die first, and then I wouldn't,&rdquo;
+      was the reply. &ldquo;You can do it better than they can. It's just
+      a little snip. Just try it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't like to,&rdquo; I replied. &ldquo;I might lame you
+      for life, and make you lots of trouble.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, bother! what business is that of yours? They're my toes,
+      and I want 'em off. They hurt me so I can't sleep. Come, now,
+      take the shears and cut 'em off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I yielded, and taking the shears, snipped one tendon after another, close
+      to the feet, and in a few seconds had the whole ten toes lying in a heap
+      at the bottom of the dug-out. I picked them up and handed them to their
+      owner, who gazed at them, complacently, and remarked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm darned glad they're off. I won't be
+      bothered with corns any more, I flatter myself.&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch70" id="ch70"></a>CHAPTER LXX
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HOUSE AND CLOTHES&mdash;EFFORTS TO ERECT A SUITABLE RESIDENCE&mdash;DIFFICULTIES
+      ATTENDING THIS&mdash;VARIETIES OF FLORENTINE ARCHITECTURE&mdash;WAITING
+      FOR DEAD MEN'S CLOTHES&mdash;CRAVING FOR TOBACCO.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were put into the old squads to fill the places of those who had
+      recently died, being assigned to these vacancies according to the initials
+      of our surnames, the same rolls being used that we had signed as paroles.
+      This separated Andrews and me, for the &ldquo;A's&rdquo; were taken
+      to fill up the first hundreds of the First Thousand, while the &ldquo;M's,&rdquo;
+      to which I belonged, went into the next Thousand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was put into the Second Hundred of the Second Thousand, and its Sergeant
+      dying shortly after, I was given his place, and commanded the hundred,
+      drew its rations, made out its rolls, and looked out for its sick during
+      the rest of our stay there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews and I got together again, and began fixing up what little we could
+      to protect ourselves against the weather. Cold as this was we decided that
+      it was safer to endure it and risk frost-biting every night than to build
+      one of the mud-walled and mud-covered holes that so many, lived in. These
+      were much warmer than lying out on the frozen ground, but we believed that
+      they were very unhealthy, and that no one lived long who inhabited them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So we set about repairing our faithful old blanket&mdash;now full of great
+      holes. We watched the dead men to get pieces of cloth from their garments
+      to make patches, which we sewed on with yarn raveled from other fragments
+      of woolen cloth. Some of our company, whom we found in the prison, donated
+      us the three sticks necessary to make tent-poles &mdash;wonderful
+      generosity when the preciousness of firewood is remembered. We hoisted our
+      blanket upon these; built a wall of mud bricks at one end, and in it a
+      little fireplace to economize our scanty fuel to the last degree, and were
+      once more at home, and much better off than most of our neighbors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of these, the proprietor of a hole in the ground covered with an arch
+      of adobe bricks, had absolutely no bed-clothes except a couple of short
+      pieces of board&mdash;and very little other clothing. He dug a trench in
+      the bottom of what was by courtesy called his tent, sufficiently large to
+      contain his body below his neck. At nightfall he would crawl into this,
+      put his two bits of board so that they joined over his breast, and then
+      say: &ldquo;Now, boys, cover me over;&rdquo; whereupon his friends would
+      cover him up with dry sand from the sides of his domicile, in which he
+      would slumber quietly till morning, when he would rise, shake the sand
+      from his garments, and declare that he felt as well refreshed as if he had
+      slept on a spring mattress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There has been much talk of earth baths of late years in scientific and
+      medical circles. I have been sorry that our Florence comrade if he still
+      lives&mdash;did not contribute the results of his experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pinching cold cured me of my repugnance to wearing dead men's
+      clothes, or rather it made my nakedness so painful that I was glad to
+      cover it as best I could, and I began foraging among the corpses for
+      garments. For awhile my efforts to set myself up in the mortuary
+      second-hand clothing business were not all successful. I found that dying
+      men with good clothes were as carefully watched over by sets of fellows
+      who constituted themselves their residuary legatees as if they were men of
+      fortune dying in the midst of a circle of expectant nephews and nieces.
+      Before one was fairly cold his clothes would be appropriated and divided,
+      and I have seen many sharp fights between contesting claimants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I soon perceived that my best chance was to get up very early in the
+      morning, and do my hunting. The nights were so cold that many could not
+      sleep, and they would walk up and down the streets, trying to keep warm by
+      exercise. Towards morning, becoming exhausted, they would lie down on the
+      ground almost anywhere, and die. I have frequently seen so many as fifty
+      of these. My first &ldquo;find&rdquo; of any importance was a young
+      Pennsylvania Zouave, who was lying dead near the bridge that crossed the
+      Creek. His clothes were all badly worn, except his baggy, dark trousers,
+      which were nearly new. I removed these, scraped out from each of the
+      dozens of great folds in the legs about a half pint of lice, and drew the
+      garments over my own half-frozen limbs, the first real covering those
+      members had had for four or five months. The pantaloons only came down
+      about half-way between my knees and feet, but still they were wonderfully
+      comfortable to what I had been&mdash;or rather not been&mdash;wearing. I
+      had picked up a pair of boot bottoms, which answered me for shoes, and now
+      I began a hunt for socks. This took several morning expeditions, but on
+      one of them I was rewarded with finding a corpse with a good brown one
+      &mdash;army make&mdash;and a few days later I got another, a good, thick
+      genuine one, knit at home, of blue yarn, by some patient, careful
+      housewife. Almost the next morning I had the good fortune to find a dead
+      man with a warm, whole, infantry dress-coat, a most serviceable garment.
+      As I still had for a shirt the blouse Andrews had given me at Millen, I
+      now considered my wardrobe complete, and left the rest of the clothes to
+      those who were more needy than I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those who used tobacco seemed to suffer more from a deprivation of the
+      weed than from lack of food. There were no sacrifices they would not make
+      to obtain it, and it was no uncommon thing for boys to trade off half
+      their rations for a chew of &ldquo;navy plug.&rdquo; As long as one had
+      anything&mdash;especially buttons&mdash;to trade, tobacco could be
+      procured from the guards, who were plentifully supplied with it. When
+      means of barter were gone, chewers frequently became so desperate as to
+      beg the guards to throw them a bit of the precious nicotine. Shortly after
+      our arrival at Florence, a prisoner on the East Side approached one of the
+      Reserves with the request:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Guard, can't you give a fellow a chew of tobacco?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which the guard replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; come right across the line there and I'll drop you down
+      a bit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unsuspecting prisoner stepped across the Dead Line, and the guard&mdash;a
+      boy of sixteen&mdash;raised his gun and killed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the North Side of the prison, the path down to the Creek lay right
+      along side of the Dead Line, which was a mere furrow in the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At night the guards, in their zeal to kill somebody, were very likely to
+      imagine that any one going along the path for water was across the Dead
+      Line, and fire upon him. It was as bad as going upon the skirmish line to
+      go for water after nightfall. Yet every night a group of boys would be
+      found standing at the head of the path crying out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fill your buckets for a chew of tobacco.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is, they were willing to take all the risk of running that gauntlet
+      for this moderate compensation. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch71" id="ch71"></a>CHAPTER LXXI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DECEMBER&mdash;RATIONS OF WOOD AND FOOD GROW LESS DAILY&mdash;UNCERTAINTY
+      AS TO THE MORTALITY AT FLORENCE&mdash;EVEN THE GOVERNMENT'S
+      STATISTICS ARE VERY DEFICIENT&mdash;CARE FOB THE SICK.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rations of wood grew smaller as the weather grew colder, until at last
+      they settled down to a piece about the size of a kitchen rolling-pin per
+      day for each man. This had to serve for all purposes&mdash;cooking, as
+      well as warming. We split the rations up into slips about the size of a
+      carpenter's lead pencil, and used them parsimoniously, never
+      building a fire so big that it could not be covered with a half-peck
+      measure. We hovered closely over this&mdash;covering it, in fact, with our
+      hands and bodies, so that not a particle of heat was lost. Remembering the
+      Indian's sage remark, &ldquo;That the white man built a big fire and
+      sat away off from it; the Indian made a little fire and got up close to
+      it,&rdquo; we let nothing in the way of caloric be wasted by distance. The
+      pitch-pine produced great quantities of soot, which, in cold and rainy
+      days, when we hung over the fires all the time, blackened our faces until
+      we were beyond the recognition of intimate friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was the same economy of fuel in cooking. Less than half as much as
+      is contained in a penny bunch of kindling was made to suffice in preparing
+      our daily meal. If we cooked mush we elevated our little can an inch from
+      the ground upon a chunk of clay, and piled the little sticks around it so
+      carefully that none should burn without yielding all its heat to the
+      vessel, and not one more was burned than absolutely necessary. If we baked
+      bread we spread the dough upon our chessboard, and propped it up before
+      the little fire-place, and used every particle of heat evolved. We had to
+      pinch and starve ourselves thus, while within five minutes' walk
+      from the prison-gate stood enough timber to build a great city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stump Andrews and I had the foresight to save now did us excellent
+      service. It was pitch pine, very fat with resin, and a little piece split
+      off each day added much to our fires and our comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning, upon examining the pockets of an infantryman of my hundred
+      who had just died, I had the wonderful luck to find a silver quarter. I
+      hurried off to tell Andrews of our unexpected good fortune. By an effort
+      he succeeded in calming himself to the point of receiving the news with
+      philosophic coolness, and we went into Committee of the Whole Upon the
+      State of Our Stomachs, to consider how the money could be spent to the
+      best advantage. At the south side of the Stockade on the outside of the
+      timbers, was a sutler shop, kept by a Rebel, and communicating with the
+      prison by a hole two or three feet square, cut through the logs. The Dead
+      Line was broken at this point, so as to permit prisoners to come up to the
+      hole to trade. The articles for sale were corn meal and bread, flour and
+      wheat bread, meat, beaus, molasses, honey, sweet potatos, etc. I went down
+      to the place, carefully inspected the stock, priced everything there, and
+      studied the relative food value of each. I came back, reported my
+      observations and conclusions to Andrews, and then staid at the tent while
+      he went on a similar errand. The consideration of the matter was continued
+      during the day and night, and the next morning we determined upon
+      investing our twenty-five cents in sweet potatos, as we could get nearly a
+      half-bushel of them, which was &ldquo;more fillin' at the price,&rdquo;
+      to use the words of Dickens's Fat Boy, than anything else offered
+      us. We bought the potatos, carried them home in our blanket, buried them
+      in the bottom of our tent, to keep them from being stolen, and restricted
+      ourselves to two per day until we had eaten them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels did something more towards properly caring for the sick than at
+      Andersonville. A hospital was established in the northwestern corner of
+      the Stockade, and separated from the rest of the camp by a line of police,
+      composed of our own men. In this space several large sheds were erected,
+      of that rude architecture common to the coarser sort of buildings in the
+      South. There was not a nail or a bolt used in their entire construction.
+      Forked posts at the ends and sides supported poles upon which were laid
+      the long &ldquo;shakes,&rdquo; or split shingles, forming the roofs, and
+      which were held in place by other poles laid upon them. The sides and ends
+      were enclosed by similar &ldquo;shakes,&rdquo; and altogether they formed
+      quite a fair protection against the weather. Beds of pine leaves were
+      provided for the sick, and some coverlets, which our Sanitary Commission
+      had been allowed to send through. But nothing was done to bathe or cleanse
+      them, or to exchange their lice-infested garments for others less full of
+      torture. The long tangled hair and whiskers were not cut, nor indeed were
+      any of the commonest suggestions for the improvement of the condition of
+      the sick put into execution. Men who had laid in their mud hovels until
+      they had become helpless and hopeless, were admitted to the hospital,
+      usually only to die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The diseases were different in character from those which swept off the
+      prisoners at Andersonville. There they were mostly of the digestive
+      organs; here of the respiratory. The filthy, putrid, speedily fatal
+      gangrene of Andersonville became here a dry, slow wasting away of the
+      parts, which continued for weeks, even months, without being necessarily
+      fatal. Men's feet and legs, and less frequently their hands and
+      arms, decayed and sloughed off. The parts became so dead that a knife
+      could be run through them without causing a particle of pain. The dead
+      flesh hung on to the bones and tendons long after the nerves and veins had
+      ceased to perform their functions, and sometimes startled one by dropping
+      off in a lump, without causing pain or hemorrhage. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p545" id="p545"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p545.jpg (24K)" src="images/p545.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of these was, of course, frightful, or would have been, had
+      we not become accustomed to them. The spectacle of men with their feet and
+      legs a mass of dry ulceration, which had reduced the flesh to putrescent
+      deadness, and left the tendons standing out like cords, was too common to
+      excite remark or even attention. Unless the victim was a comrade, no one
+      specially heeded his condition. Lung diseases and low fevers ravaged the
+      camp, existing all the time in a more or less virulent condition,
+      according to the changes of the weather, and occasionally ragging in
+      destructive epidemics. I am unable to speak with any degree of
+      definiteness as to the death rate, since I had ceased to interest myself
+      about the number dying each day. I had now been a prisoner a year, and had
+      become so torpid and stupefied, mentally and physically, that I cared
+      comparatively little for anything save the rations of food and of fuel.
+      The difference of a few spoonfuls of meal, or a large splinter of wood in
+      the daily issues to me, were of more actual importance than the increase
+      or decrease of the death rate by a half a score or more. At Andersonville
+      I frequently took the trouble to count the number of dead and living, but
+      all curiosity of this kind had now died out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor can I find that anybody else is in possession of much more than my own
+      information on the subject. Inquiry at the War Department has elicited the
+      following letters:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prison records of Florence, S. C., have never come to light, and
+      therefore the number of prisoners confined there could not be ascertained
+      from the records on file in this office; nor do I think that any statement
+      purporting to show that number has ever been made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the report to Congress of March 1, 1869, it was shown from records as
+      follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Escaped, fifty-eight; paroled, one; died, two thousand seven hundred and
+      ninety-three. Total, two thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since date of said report there have been added to the records as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Died, two hundred and twelve; enlisted in Rebel army, three hundred and
+      twenty-six. Total, five hundred and thirty-eight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Making a total disposed of from there, as shown by records on file, of
+      three thousand three hundred and ninety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This, no doubt, is a small proportion of the number actually confined
+      there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hospital register on file contains that part only of the alphabet
+      subsequent to, and including part of the letter S, but from this register,
+      it is shown that the prisoners were arranged in hundreds and thousands,
+      and the hundred and thousand to which he belonged is recorded opposite
+      each man's name on said register. Thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John Jones, 11th thousand, 10th hundred.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eleven thousand being the highest number thus recorded, it is fair to
+      presume that not less than that number were confined there on a certain
+      date, and that more than that number were confined there during the time
+      it was continued as a prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Statement showing the whole number of Federals and Confederates captured,
+      (less the number paroled on the field), the number who died while
+      prisoners, and the percentage of deaths, 1861-1865
+    </p>
+<table>
+<tr><th colspan="2">                                   FEDERALS</th></tr>
+<tr><td>Captured .................................................. </td><td class="tdr">187,818</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Died, (as shown by prison and hospital records on file)....  </td><td class="tdr">30,674</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Percentage of deaths ......................................  </td><td class="tdr">16.375</td></tr>
+</table>
+<table>
+<tr><th colspan="2">                               CONFEDERATES</th></tr>
+<tr><td>Captured .................................................. </td><td class="tdr">227,570</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Died ......................................................  </td><td class="tdr">26,774</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Percentage of deaths ......................................  </td><td class="tdr">11.768</td></tr>
+</table>
+    <p>
+      In the detailed statement prepared for Congress dated March 1, 1869, the
+      whole number of deaths given as shown by Prisoner of War records was
+      twenty-six thousand three hundred and twenty-eight, but since that date
+      evidence of three thousand six hundred and twenty-eight additional deaths
+      has been obtained from the captured Confederate records, making a total of
+      twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-six as above shown. This is
+      believed to be many thousands less than the actual number of Federal
+      prisoners who died in Confederate prisons, as we have no records from
+      those at Montgomery Ala., Mobile, Ala., Millen, Ga., Marietta, Ga.,
+      Atlanta, Ga., Charleston, S. C., and others. The records of Florence, S.
+      C., and Salisbury, N. C., are very incomplete. It also appears from
+      Confederate inspection reports of Confederate prisons, that large
+      percentage of the deaths occurred in prison quarter without the care or
+      knowledge of the Surgeon. For the month of December, 1864 alone, the
+      Confederate &ldquo;burial report&rdquo;; Salisbury, N. C., show that out,
+      of eleven hundred and fifty deaths, two hundred and twenty-three, or
+      twenty per cent., died in prison quarters and are not accounted for in the
+      report of the Surgeon, and therefore not taken into consideration in the
+      above report, as the only records of said prisons on file (with one
+      exception) are the Hospital records. Calculating the percentage of deaths
+      on this basis would give the number of deaths at thirty-seven thousand
+      four hundred and forty-five and percentage of deaths at 20.023. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [End of the Letters from the War Department.] <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we assume that the Government's records of Florence as correct,
+      it will be apparent that one man in every three die there, since, while
+      there might have been as high as fifty thousand at one time in the prison,
+      during the last three months of its existence I am quite sure that the
+      number did not exceed seven thousand. This would make the mortality much
+      greater than at Andersonville, which it undoubtedly was, since the
+      physical condition of the prisoners confined there had been greatly
+      depressed by their long confinement, while the bulk c the prisoners at
+      Andersonville were those who had been brought thither directly from the
+      field. I think also that all who experienced confinement in the two places
+      are united in pronouncing Florence to be, on the whole, much the worse
+      place and more fatal to life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The medicines furnished the sick were quite simple in nature and mainly
+      composed of indigenous substances. For diarrhea red pepper and decoctions
+      of blackberry root and of pine leave were given. For coughs and lung
+      diseases, a decoction of wild cherry bark was administered. Chills and
+      fever were treated with decoctions of dogwood bark, and fever patients who
+      craved something sour, were given a weak acid drink, made by fermenting a
+      small quantity of meal in a barrel of water. All these remedies were quite
+      good in their way, and would have benefitted the patients had they been
+      accompanied by proper shelter, food and clothing. But it was idle to
+      attempt to arrest with blackberry root the diarrhea, or with wild cherry
+      bark the consumption of a man lying in a cold, damp, mud hovel, devoured
+      by vermin, and struggling to maintain life upon less than a pint of
+      unsalted corn meal per diem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding that the doctors issued red pepper for diarrhea, and an imitation
+      of sweet oil made from peanuts, for the gangrenous sores above described,
+      I reported to them an imaginary comrade in my tent, whose symptoms
+      indicated those remedies, and succeeded in drawing a small quantity of
+      each, two or three times a week. The red pepper I used to warm up our
+      bread and mush, and give some different taste to the corn meal, which had
+      now become so loathsome to us. The peanut oil served to give a hint of the
+      animal food we hungered for. It was greasy, and as we did not have any
+      meat for three months, even this flimsy substitute was inexpressibly
+      grateful to palate and stomach. But one morning the Hospital Steward made
+      a mistake, and gave me castor oil instead, and the consequences were
+      unpleasant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A more agreeable remembrance is that of two small apples, about the size
+      of walnuts, given me by a boy named Henry Clay Montague Porter, of the
+      Sixteenth Connecticut. He had relatives living in North Carolina, who sent
+      him a small packs of eatables, out of which, in the fulness of his
+      generous heart he gave me this share&mdash;enough to make me always
+      remember him with kindness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Speaking of eatables reminds me of an incident. Joe Darling, of the First
+      Maine, our Chief of Police, had a sister living at Augusta, Ga., who
+      occasionally came to Florence with basket of food and other necessaries
+      for her brother. On one of these journeys, while sitting in Colonel
+      Iverson's tent, waiting for her brother to be brought out of prison,
+      she picked out of her basket a nicely browned doughnut and handed it to
+      the guard pacing in front of the tent, with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, guard, wouldn't you like a genuine Yankee doughnut?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guard-a lank, loose-jointed Georgia cracker&mdash;who in all his life
+      seen very little more inviting food than the his hominy and molasses, upon
+      which he had been raised, took the cake, turned it over and inspected it
+      curiously for some time without apparently getting the least idea of what
+      it was for, and then handed it back to the donor, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, mum, I don't believe I've got any use for it&rdquo;
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch72" id="ch72"></a>CHAPTER LXXII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DULL WINTER DAYS&mdash;TOO WEAK AND TOO STUPID To AMUSE OURSELVES&mdash;ATTEMPTS
+      OF THE REBELS TO RECRUIT US INTO THEIR ARMY&mdash;THE CLASS OF MEN THEY
+      OBTAINED &mdash;VENGEANCE ON &ldquo;THE GALVANIZED&rdquo;&mdash;A SINGULAR
+      EXPERIENCE&mdash;RARE GLIMPSES OF FUN&mdash;INABILITY OF THE REBELS TO
+      COUNT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels continued their efforts to induce prisoners to enlist in their
+      army, and with much better success than at any previous time. Many men had
+      become so desperate that they were reckless as to what they did. Home,
+      relatives, friends, happiness&mdash;all they had remembered or looked
+      forward to, all that had nerved them up to endure the present and brave
+      the future&mdash;now seemed separated from them forever by a yawning and
+      impassable chasm. For many weeks no new prisoners had come in to rouse
+      their drooping courage with news of the progress of our arms towards final
+      victory, or refresh their remembrances of home, and the gladsomeness of
+      &ldquo;God's Country.&rdquo; Before them they saw nothing but weeks
+      of slow and painful progress towards bitter death. The other alternative
+      was enlistment in the Rebel army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another class went out and joined, with no other intention than to escape
+      at the first opportunity. They justified their bad faith to the Rebels by
+      recalling the numberless instances of the Rebels' bad faith to us,
+      and usually closed their arguments in defense of their course with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No oath administered by a Rebel can have any binding obligation.
+      These men are outlaws who have not only broken their oaths to the
+      Government, but who have deserted from its service, and turned its arms
+      against it. They are perjurers and traitors, and in addition, the oath
+      they administer to us is under compulsion and for that reason is of no
+      account.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still another class, mostly made up from the old Raider crowd, enlisted
+      from natural depravity. They went out more than for anything else because
+      their hearts were prone to evil and they did that which was wrong in
+      preference to what was right. By far the largest portion of those the
+      Rebels obtained were of this class, and a more worthless crowd of soldiers
+      has not been seen since Falstaff mustered his famous recruits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After all, however, the number who deserted their flag was astonishingly
+      small, considering all the circumstances. The official report says three
+      hundred and twenty-six, but I imaging this is under the truth, since quite
+      a number were turned back in after their utter uselessness had been
+      demonstrated. I suppose that five hundred &ldquo;galvanized,&rdquo; as we
+      termed it, but this was very few when the hopelessness of exchange, the
+      despair of life, and the wretchedness of the condition of the eleven or
+      twelve thousand inside the Stockade is remembered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The motives actuating men to desert were not closely analyzed by us, but
+      we held all who did so as despicable scoundrels, too vile to be adequately
+      described in words. It was not safe for a man to announce his intention of
+      &ldquo;galvanizing,&rdquo; for he incurred much danger of being beaten
+      until he was physically unable to reach the gate. Those who went over to
+      the enemy had to use great discretion in letting the Rebel officer, know
+      so much of their wishes as would secure their being taker outside. Men
+      were frequently knocked down and dragged away while telling the officers
+      they wanted to go out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On one occasion one hundred or more of the raider crowd who had
+      galvanized, were stopped for a few hours in some little Town, on their way
+      to the front. They lost no time in stealing everything they could lay
+      their hands upon, and the disgusted Rebel commander ordered them to be
+      returned to the Stockade. They came in in the evening, all well rigged out
+      in Rebel uniforms, and carrying blankets. We chose to consider their good
+      clothes and equipments an aggravation of their offense and an insult to
+      ourselves. We had at that time quite a squad of negro soldiers inside with
+      us. Among them was a gigantic fellow with a fist like a wooden beetle.
+      Some of the white boys resolved to use these to wreak the camp's
+      displeasure on the Galvanized. The plan was carried out capitally. The big
+      darky, followed by a crowd of smaller and nimbler &ldquo;shades,&rdquo;
+      would approach one of the leaders among them with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is you a Galvanized?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The surly reply would be,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you &mdash;&mdash; black &mdash;&mdash;. What the business is
+      that of yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that instant the bony fist of the darky, descending like a pile-driver,
+      would catch the recreant under the ear, and lift him about a rod. As he
+      fell, the smaller darkies would pounce upon him, and in an instant despoil
+      him of his blanket and perhaps the larger portion of his warm clothing.
+      The operation was repeated with a dozen or more. The whole camp enjoyed it
+      as rare fun, and it was the only time that I saw nearly every body at
+      Florence laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few prisoners were brought in in December, who had been taken in Foster's
+      attempt to cut the Charleston &amp; Savannah Railroad at Pocataligo. Among
+      them we were astonished to find Charley Hirsch, a member of Company I's
+      of our battalion. He had had a strange experience. He was originally a
+      member of a Texas regiment and was captured at Arkansas Post. He then took
+      the oath of allegiance and enlisted with us. While we were at Savannah he
+      approached a guard one day to trade for tobacco. The moment he spoke to
+      the man he recognized him as a former comrade in the Texas regiment. The
+      latter knew him also, and sang out,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you; you're Charley Hirsch, that used to be in my
+      company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charley backed into the crowd as quickly as possible; to elude the fellow's
+      eyes, but the latter called for the Corporal of the Guard, had himself
+      relieved, and in a few minutes came in with an officer in search of the
+      deserter. He found him with little difficulty, and took him out. The
+      luckless Charley was tried by court martial, found, guilty, sentenced to
+      be shot, and while waiting execution was confined in the jail. Before the
+      sentence could be carried into effect Sherman came so close to the City
+      that it was thought best to remove the prisoners. In the confusion Charley
+      managed to make his escape, and at the moment the battle of Pocataligo
+      opened, was lying concealed between the two lines of battle, without
+      knowing, of course, that he was in such a dangerous locality. After the
+      firing opened, he thought it better to lie still than run the risk from
+      the fire of both sides, especially as he momentarily expected our folks to
+      advance and drive the Rebels away. But the reverse happened; the Johnnies
+      drove our fellows, and, finding Charley in his place of concealment, took
+      him for one of Foster's men, and sent him to Florence, where he
+      staid until we went through to our lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our days went by as stupidly and eventless as can be conceived. We had
+      grown too spiritless and lethargic to dig tunnels or plan escapes. We had
+      nothing to read, nothing to make or destroy, nothing to work with, nothing
+      to play with, and even no desire to contrive anything for amusement. All
+      the cards in the prison were worn out long ago. Some of the boys had made
+      dominos from bones, and Andrews and I still had our chessmen, but we were
+      too listless to play. The mind, enfeebled by the long disuse of it except
+      in a few limited channels, was unfitted for even so much effort as was
+      involved in a game for pastime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor were there any physical exercises, such as that crowd of young men
+      would have delighted in under other circumstances. There was no running,
+      boxing, jumping, wrestling, leaping, etc. All were too weak and hungry to
+      make any exertion beyond that absolutely necessary. On cold days everybody
+      seemed totally benumbed. The camp would be silent and still. Little groups
+      everywhere hovered for hours, moody and sullen, over diminutive,
+      flickering fires, made with one poor handful of splinters. When the sun
+      shone, more activity was visible. Boys wandered around, hunted up their
+      friends, and saw what gaps death&mdash;always busiest during the cold
+      spells&mdash;had made in the ranks of their acquaintances. During the
+      warmest part of the day everybody disrobed, and spent an hour or more
+      killing the lice that had waxed and multiplied to grievous proportions
+      during the few days of comparative immunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides the whipping of the Galvanized by the darkies, I remember but two
+      other bits of amusement we had while at Florence. One of these was in
+      hearing the colored soldiers sing patriotic songs, which they did with
+      great gusto when the weather became mild. The other was the antics of a
+      circus clown&mdash;a member, I believe, of a Connecticut or a New York
+      regiment, who, on the rare occasions when we were feeling not exactly well
+      so much as simply better than we had been, would give us an hour or two of
+      recitations of the drolleries with which he was wont to set the crowded
+      canvas in a roar. One of his happiest efforts, I remember, was a stilted
+      paraphrase of &ldquo;Old Uncle Ned&rdquo; a song very popular a quarter of
+      a century ago, and which ran something like this: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br>There was an old darky, an' his name was Uncle Ned, <br>But
+          he died long ago, long ago <br>He had no wool on de top of his head,
+          <br>De place whar de wool ought to grouw.
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHORUS
+    </h3>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br> Den lay down de shubel an' de hoe, <br> Den hang up de
+          fiddle an' de bow; <br> For dere's no more hard work for
+          poor Uncle Ned <br> He's gone whar de good niggahs go. <br>
+          <br>His fingers war long, like de cane in de brake, <br>And his eyes
+          war too dim for to see; <br>He had no teeth to eat de corn cake,
+          <br>So he had to let de corn cake be.
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHORUS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br>His legs were so bowed dat he couldn't lie still. <br>An'
+          he had no nails on his toes; <br> <br>His neck was so crooked dot he
+          couldn't take a pill, <br>So he had to take a pill through his
+          nose.
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHORUS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br>One cold frosty morning old Uncle Ned died, <br>An' de
+          tears ran down massa's cheek like rain, <br>For he knew when
+          Uncle Ned was laid in de groun', <br>He would never see poor
+          Uncle Ned again,
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br> <br> <br>In the hands of this artist the song became&mdash; <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHORUS.
+    </h3>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br>There was an aged and indigent African whose cognomen was Uncle
+          Edward, <br>But he is deceased since a remote period, a very remote
+          period; <br>He possessed no capillary substance on the summit of his
+          cranium, <br>The place designated by kind Nature for the capillary
+          substance to vegetate.
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHORUS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br>Then let the agricultural implements rest recumbent upon the
+          ground; <br>And suspend the musical instruments in peace neon the
+          wall, <br>For there's no more physical energy to be displayed
+          by our Indigent Uncle Edward <br>He has departed to that place set
+          apart by a beneficent Providence for the <br>reception of the better
+          class of Africans.
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on. These rare flashes of fun only served to throw the underlying
+      misery out in greater relief. It was like lightning playing across the
+      surface of a dreary morass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have before alluded several times to the general inability of Rebels to
+      count accurately, even in low numbers. One continually met phases of this
+      that seemed simply incomprehensible to us, who had taken in the
+      multiplication table almost with our mother's milk, and knew the
+      Rule of Three as well as a Presbyterian boy does the Shorter Catechism. A
+      cadet&mdash;an undergraduate of the South Carolina Military Institute
+      &mdash;called our roll at Florence, and though an inborn young aristocrat,
+      who believed himself made of finer clay than most mortals, he was not a
+      bad fellow at all. He thought South Carolina aristocracy the finest
+      gentry, and the South Carolina Military Institute the greatest institution
+      of learning in the world; but that is common with all South Carolinians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day he came in so full of some matter of rare importance that we
+      became somewhat excited as to its nature. Dismissing our hundred after
+      roll-call, he unburdened his mind:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you fellers are all so d&mdash;-d peart on mathematics, and
+      such things, that you want to snap me up on every opportunity, but I guess
+      I've got something this time that'll settle you. Its something
+      that a fellow gave out yesterday, and Colonel Iverson, and all the
+      officers out there have been figuring on it ever since, and none have got
+      the right answer, and I'm powerful sure that none of you, smart as
+      you think you are, can do it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heavens, and earth, let's hear this wonderful problem,&rdquo;
+      said we all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;what is the length of a pole standing
+      in a river, one-fifth of which is in the mud, two-thirds in the water, and
+      one-eighth above the water, while one foot and three inches of the top is
+      broken off?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a minute a dozen answered, &ldquo;One hundred and fifty feet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cadet could only look his amazement at the possession of such an
+      amount of learning by a crowd of mudsills, and one of our fellows said
+      contemptuously:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, if you South Carolina Institute fellows couldn't answer
+      such questions as that they wouldn't allow you in the infant class
+      up North.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lieutenant Barrett, our red-headed tormentor, could not, for the life of
+      him, count those inside in hundreds and thousands in such a manner as to
+      be reasonably certain of correctness. As it would have cankered his soul
+      to feel that he was being beaten out of a half-dozen rations by the
+      superior cunning of the Yankees, he adopted a plan which he must have
+      learned at some period of his life when he was a hog or sheep drover.
+      Every Sunday morning all in the camp were driven across the Creek to the
+      East Side, and then made to file slowly back&mdash;one at a time&mdash;between
+      two guards stationed on the little bridge that spanned the Creek. By this
+      means, if he was able to count up to one hundred, he could get our number
+      correctly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first time this was done after our arrival he gave us a display of his
+      wanton malevolence. We were nearly all assembled on the East Side, and
+      were standing in ranks, at the edge of the swamp, facing the west. Barrett
+      was walking along the opposite edge of the swamp, and, coming to a little
+      gully jumped, it. He was very awkward, and came near falling into the mud.
+      We all yelled derisively. He turned toward us in a fury, shook his fist,
+      and shouted curses and imprecations. We yelled still louder. He snatched
+      out his revolver, and began firing at our line. The distance was
+      considerable&mdash;say four or five hundred feet&mdash;and the bullets
+      struck in the mud in advance of the line. We still yelled. Then he jerked
+      a gun from a guard and fired, but his aim was still bad, and the bullet
+      sang over our heads, striking in the bank above us. He posted of to get
+      another gun, but his fit subsided before he obtained it. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch73" id="ch73"></a>CHAPTER LXXIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      CHRISTMAS&mdash;AND THE WAY THE WAS PASSED&mdash;THE DAILY ROUTINE OF
+      RATION DRAWING&mdash;SOME PECULIARITIES OF LIVING AND DYING.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Christmas, with its swelling flood of happy memories,&mdash;memories now
+      bitter because they marked the high tide whence our fortunes had receded
+      to this despicable state&mdash;came, but brought no change to mark its
+      coming. It is true that we had expected no change; we had not looked
+      forward to the day, and hardly knew when it arrived, so indifferent were
+      we to the lapse of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When reminded that the day was one that in all Christendom was sacred to
+      good cheer and joyful meetings; that wherever the upraised cross
+      proclaimed followers of Him who preached &ldquo;Peace on Earth and good
+      will to men,&rdquo; parents and children, brothers and sisters, long-time
+      friends, and all congenial spirits were gathering around hospitable boards
+      to delight in each other's society, and strengthen the bonds of
+      unity between them, we listened as to a tale told of some foreign land
+      from which we had parted forever more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed years since we had known anything of the kind. The experience we
+      had had of it belonged to the dim and irrevocable past. It could not come
+      to us again, nor we go to it. Squalor, hunger, cold and wasting disease
+      had become the ordinary conditions of existence, from which there was
+      little hope that we would ever be exempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps it was well, to a certain degree, that we felt so. It softened the
+      poignancy of our reflections over the difference in the condition of
+      ourselves and our happier comrades who were elsewhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weather was in harmony with our feelings. The dull, gray, leaden sky
+      was as sharp a contrast with the crisp, bracing sharpness of a Northern
+      Christmas morning, as our beggarly little ration of saltless corn meal was
+      to the sumptuous cheer that loaded the dinner-tables of our Northern
+      homes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We turned out languidly in the morning to roll-call, endured silently the
+      raving abuse of the cowardly brute Barrett, hung stupidly over the
+      flickering little fires, until the gates opened to admit the rations. For
+      an hour there was bustle and animation. All stood around and counted each
+      sack of meal, to get an idea of the rations we were likely to receive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a daily custom. The number intended for the day's issue
+      were all brought in and piled up in the street. Then there was a division
+      of the sacks to the thousands, the Sergeant of each being called up in
+      turn, and allowed to pick out and carry away one, until all were taken.
+      When we entered the prison each thousand received, on an average, ten or
+      eleven sacks a day. Every week saw a reduction in the number, until by
+      midwinter the daily issue to a thousand averaged four sacks. Let us say
+      that one of these sacks held two bushels, or the four, eight bushels. As
+      there are thirty-two quarts in a bushel, one thousand men received two
+      hundred and fifty-six quarts, or less than a half pint each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We thought we had sounded the depths of misery at Andersonville, but
+      Florence showed us a much lower depth. Bad as was parching under the
+      burning sun whose fiery rays bred miasma and putrefaction, it was still
+      not so bad as having one's life chilled out by exposure in nakedness
+      upon the frozen ground to biting winds and freezing sleet. Wretched as the
+      rusty bacon and coarse, maggot-filled bread of Andersonville was, it would
+      still go much farther towards supporting life than the handful of saltless
+      meal at Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I believe it possible for any young man, with the forces of life
+      strong within him, and healthy in every way, to survive, by taking due
+      precautions, such treatment as we received in Andersonville, I cannot
+      understand how anybody could live through a month of Florence. That many
+      did live is only an astonishing illustration of the tenacity of life in
+      some individuals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let the reader imagine&mdash;anywhere he likes&mdash;a fifteen-acre field,
+      with a stream running through the center. Let him imagine this inclosed by
+      a Stockade eighteen feet high, made by standing logs on end. Let him
+      conceive of ten thousand feeble men, debilitated by months of
+      imprisonment, turned inside this inclosure, without a yard of covering
+      given them, and told to make their homes there. One quarter of them&mdash;two
+      thousand five hundred&mdash;pick up brush, pieces of rail, splits from
+      logs, etc., sufficient to make huts that will turn the rain tolerably. The
+      huts are in no case as good shelter as an ordinarily careful farmer
+      provides for his swine. Half of the prisoners&mdash;five thousand&mdash;who
+      cannot do so well, work the mud up into rude bricks, with which they build
+      shelters that wash down at every hard rain. The remaining two thousand
+      five hundred do not do even this, but lie around on the ground, on old
+      blankets and overcoats, and in day-time prop these up on sticks, as
+      shelter from the rain and wind. Let them be given not to exceed a pint of
+      corn meal a day, and a piece of wood about the size of an ordinary stick
+      for a cooking stove to cook it with. Then let such weather prevail as we
+      ordinarily have in the North in November&mdash;freezing cold rains, with
+      frequent days and nights when the ice forms as thick as a pane of glass.
+      How long does he think men could live through that? He will probably say
+      that a week, or at most a fortnight, would see the last and strongest of
+      these ten thousand lying dead in the frozen mire where he wallowed. He
+      will be astonished to learn that probably not more than four or five
+      thousand of those who underwent this in Florence died there. How many died
+      after release&mdash;in Washington, on the vessels coming to Annapolis, in
+      hospital and camp at Annapolis, or after they reached home, none but the
+      Recording Angel can tell. All that I know is we left a trail of dead
+      behind us, wherever we moved, so long as I was with the doleful caravan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking back, after these lapse of years, the most salient characteristic
+      seems to be the ease with which men died. There, was little of the
+      violence of dissolution so common at Andersonville. The machinery of life
+      in all of us, was running slowly and feebly; it would simply grow still
+      slower and feebler in some, and then stop without a jar, without a
+      sensation to manifest it. Nightly one of two or three comrades sleeping
+      together would die. The survivors would not know it until they tried to
+      get him to &ldquo;spoon&rdquo; over, when they would find him rigid and
+      motionless. As they could not spare even so little heat as was still
+      contained in his body, they would not remove this, but lie up the closer
+      to it until morning. Such a thing as a boy making an outcry when he
+      discovered his comrade dead, or manifesting any, desire to get away from
+      the corpse, was unknown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remember one who, as Charles II. said of himself, was &mdash;&ldquo;an
+      unconscionable long time in dying.&rdquo; His name was Bickford; he
+      belonged to the Twenty-First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, lived, I think, near
+      Findlay, O., and was in my hundred. His partner and he were both in a very
+      bad condition, and I was not surprised, on making my rounds, one morning,
+      to find them apparently quite dead. I called help, and took his partner
+      away to the gate. When we picked up Bickford we found he still lived, and
+      had strength enough to gasp out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You fellers had better let me alone.&rdquo; We laid him back to
+      die, as we supposed, in an hour or so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Rebel Surgeon came in on his rounds, I showed him Bickford, lying
+      there with his eyes closed, and limbs motionless. The Surgeon said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, that man's dead; why don't you have him taken out?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I replied: &ldquo;No, he isn't. Just see.&rdquo; Stooping, I shook
+      the boy sharply, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bickford! Bickford!! How do you feel?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes did not unclose, but the lips opened slowly, and said with a
+      painful effort:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;F-i-r-s-t R-a-t-e!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This scene was repeated every morning for over a week. Every day the Rebel
+      Surgeon would insist that the man should betaken out, and every morning
+      Bickford would gasp out with troublesome exertion that he felt:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;F-i-r-s-t R-a-t-e!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It ended one morning by his inability, to make his usual answer, and then
+      he was carried out to join the two score others being loaded into the
+      wagon. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch74" id="ch74"></a>CHAPTER LXXIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      NEW YEAR'S DAY&mdash;DEATH OF JOHN H. WINDER&mdash;HE DIES ON HIS
+      WAY TO A DINNER &mdash;SOMETHING AS TO CHARACTER AND CAREER&mdash;ONE OF
+      THE WORST MEN THAT EVER LIVED.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On New Year's Day we were startled by the information that our
+      old-time enemy&mdash;General John H. Winder&mdash;was dead. It seemed that
+      the Rebel Sutler of the Post had prepared in his tent a grand New Year's
+      dinner to which all the officers were invited. Just as Winder bent his
+      head to enter the tent he fell, and expired shortly after. The boys said
+      it was a clear case of Death by Visitation of the Devil, and it was always
+      insisted that his last words were:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My faith is in Christ; I expect to be saved. Be sure and cut down
+      the prisoners' rations.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus passed away the chief evil genius of the Prisoners-of-War. American
+      history has no other character approaching his in vileness. I doubt if the
+      history of the world can show another man, so insignificant in abilities
+      and position, at whose door can be laid such a terrible load of human
+      misery. There have been many great conquerors and warriors who have <br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Waded through slaughter to a throne,<br> And shut the gates of mercy
+          on mankind,<br>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      but they were great men, with great objects, with grand plans to carry
+      out, whose benefits they thought would be more than an equivalent for the
+      suffering they caused. The misery they inflicted was not the motive of
+      their schemes, but an unpleasant incident, and usually the sufferers were
+      men of other races and religions, for whom sympathy had been dulled by
+      long antagonism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Winder was an obscure, dull old man&mdash;the commonplace descendant
+      of a pseudo-aristocrat whose cowardly incompetence had once cost us the
+      loss of our National Capital. More prudent than his runaway father, he
+      held himself aloof from the field; his father had lost reputation and
+      almost his commission, by coming into contact with the enemy; he would
+      take no such foolish risks, and he did not. When false expectations of the
+      ultimate triumph of Secession led him to cast his lot with the Southern
+      Confederacy, he did not solicit a command in the field, but took up his
+      quarters in Richmond, to become a sort of Informer-General,
+      High-Inquisitor and Chief Eavesdropper for his intimate friend, Jefferson
+      Davis. He pried and spied around into every man's bedroom and family
+      circle, to discover traces of Union sentiment. The wildest tales malice
+      and vindictiveness could concoct found welcome reception in his ears. He
+      was only too willing to believe, that he might find excuse for harrying
+      and persecuting. He arrested, insulted, imprisoned, banished, and shot
+      people, until the patience even of the citizens of Richmond gave way, and
+      pressure was brought upon Jefferson Davis to secure the suppression of his
+      satellite. For a long while Davis resisted, but at last yielded, and
+      transferred Winder to the office of Commissary General of Prisoners. The
+      delight of the Richmond people was great. One of the papers expressed it
+      in an article, the key note of which was:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God that Richmond is at last rid of old Winder. God have
+      mercy upon those to whom he has been sent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Remorseless and cruel as his conduct of the office of Provost Marshal
+      General was, it gave little hint of the extent to which he would go in
+      that of Commissary General of Prisoners. Before, he was restrained
+      somewhat by public opinion and the laws of the land. These no longer
+      deterred him. From the time he assumed command of all the Prisons east of
+      the Mississippi&mdash;some time in the Fall of 1863&mdash;until death
+      removed him, January 1, 1865&mdash;certainly not less than twenty-five
+      thousand incarcerated men died in the most horrible manner that the mind
+      can conceive. He cannot be accused of exaggeration, when, surveying the
+      thousands of new graves at Andersonville, he could say with a quiet
+      chuckle that he was &ldquo;doing more to kill off the Yankees than twenty
+      regiments at the front.&rdquo; No twenty regiments in the Rebel Army ever
+      succeeded in slaying anything like thirteen thousand Yankees in six
+      months, or any other time. His cold blooded cruelty was such as to disgust
+      even the Rebel officers. Colonel D. T. Chandler, of the Rebel War
+      Department, sent on a tour of inspection to Andersonville, reported back,
+      under date of August 5, 1864:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My duty requires me respectfully to recommend a change in the
+      officer in command of the post, Brigadier General John H. Winder, and the
+      substitution in his place of some one who unites both energy and good
+      judgment with some feelings of humanity and consideration for the welfare
+      and comfort, as far as is consistent with their safe keeping, of the vast
+      number of unfortunates placed under his control; some one who, at least,
+      will not advocate deliberately, and in cold blood, the propriety of
+      leaving them in their present condition until their number is sufficiently
+      reduced by death to make the present arrangements suffice for their
+      accommodation, and who will not consider it a matter of self-laudation and
+      boasting that he has never been inside of the Stockade &mdash;a place the
+      horrors of which it is difficult to describe, and which is a disgrace to
+      civilization&mdash;the condition of which he might, by the exercise of a
+      little energy and judgment, even with the limited means at his command,
+      have considerably improved.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his examination touching this report, Colonel Chandler says:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I noticed that General Winder seemed very indifferent to the
+      welfare of the prisoners, indisposed to do anything, or to do as much as I
+      thought he ought to do, to alleviate their sufferings. I remonstrated with
+      him as well as I could, and he used that language which I reported to the
+      Department with reference to it&mdash;the language stated in the report.
+      When I spoke of the great mortality existing among the prisoners, and
+      pointed out to him that the sickly season was coming on, and that it must
+      necessarily increase unless something was done for their relief&mdash;the
+      swamp, for instance, drained, proper food furnished, and in better
+      quantity, and other sanitary suggestions which I made to him&mdash;he
+      replied to me that he thought it was better to see half of them die than
+      to take care of the men.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was he who could issue such an order as this, when it was supposed that
+      General Stoneman was approaching Andersonville: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        HEADQUARTERS MILITARY PRISON,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        ANDERSONVILLE, Ga., July 27, 1864.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      The officers on duty and in charge of the Battery of Florida Artillery at
+      the time will, upon receiving notice that the enemy has approached within
+      seven miles of this post, open upon the Stockade with grapeshot, without
+      reference to the situation beyond these lines of defense.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        JOHN H. WINDER,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        Brigadier General Commanding.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This man was not only unpunished, but the Government is to-day supporting
+      his children in luxury by the rent it pays for the use of his property
+      &mdash;the well-known Winder building, which is occupied by one of the
+      Departments at Washington.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I confess that all my attempts to satisfactorily analyze Winder's
+      character and discover a sufficient motive for his monstrous conduct have
+      been futile. Even if we imagine him inspired by a hatred of the people of
+      the North that rose to fiendishness, we can not understand him. It seems
+      impossible for the mind of any man to cherish so deep and insatiable an
+      enmity against his fellow-creatures that it could not be quenched and
+      turned to pity by the sight of even one day's misery at
+      Andersonville or Florence. No one man could possess such a grievous sense
+      of private or national wrongs as to be proof against the daily spectacle
+      of thousands of his own fellow citizens, inhabitants of the same country,
+      associates in the same institutions, educated in the same principles,
+      speaking the same language&mdash;thousands of his brethren in race, creed,
+      and all that unite men into great communities, starving, rotting and
+      freezing to death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is many a man who has a hatred so intense that nothing but the death
+      of the detested one will satisfy it. A still fewer number thirst for a
+      more comprehensive retribution; they would slay perhaps a half-dozen
+      persons; and there may be such gluttons of revenge as would not be
+      satisfied with the sacrifice of less than a score or two, but such would
+      be monsters of whom there have been very few, even in fiction. How must
+      they all bow their diminished heads before a man who fed his animosity fat
+      with tens of thousands of lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, what also militates greatly against the presumption that either
+      revenge or an abnormal predisposition to cruelty could have animated
+      Winder, is that the possession of any two such mental traits so strongly
+      marked would presuppose a corresponding activity of other intellectual
+      faculties, which was not true of him, as from all I can learn of him his
+      mind was in no respect extraordinary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It does not seem possible that he had either the brain to conceive, or the
+      firmness of purpose to carry out so gigantic and long-enduring a career of
+      cruelty, because that would imply superhuman qualities in a man who had
+      previously held his own very poorly in the competition with other men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The probability is that neither Winder nor his direct superiors&mdash;Howell
+      Cobb and Jefferson Davis&mdash;conceived in all its proportions the
+      gigantic engine of torture and death they were organizing; nor did they
+      comprehend the enormity of the crime they were committing. But they were
+      willing to do much wrong to gain their end; and the smaller crimes of
+      to-day prepared them for greater ones to-morrow, and still greater ones
+      the day following. Killing ten men a day on Belle Isle in January, by
+      starvation and hardship, led very easily to killing one hundred men a day
+      in Andersonville, in July, August and September. Probably at the beginning
+      of the war they would have felt uneasy at slaying one man per day by such
+      means, but as retribution came not, and as their appetite for slaughter
+      grew with feeding, and as their sympathy with human misery atrophied from
+      long suppression, they ventured upon ever widening ranges of
+      destructiveness. Had the war lasted another year, and they lived, five
+      hundred deaths a day would doubtless have been insufficient to disturb
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Winder doubtless went about his part of the task of slaughter coolly,
+      leisurely, almost perfunctorily. His training in the Regular Army was
+      against the likelihood of his displaying zeal in anything. He instituted
+      certain measures, and let things take their course. That course was a
+      rapid transition from bad to worse, but it was still in the direction of
+      his wishes, and, what little of his own energy was infused into it was in
+      the direction of impetus,-not of controlling or improving the course. To
+      have done things better would have involved soma personal discomfort. He
+      was not likely to incur personal discomfort to mitigate evils that were
+      only afflicting someone else. By an effort of one hour a day for two weeks
+      he could have had every man in Andersonville and Florence given good
+      shelter through his own exertions. He was not only too indifferent and too
+      lazy to do this, but he was too malignant; and this neglect to allow&mdash;simply
+      allow, remember&mdash;the prisoners to protect their lives by providing
+      their own shelter, gives the key to his whole disposition, and would stamp
+      his memory with infamy, even if there were no other charges against him.
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch75" id="ch75"></a>CHAPTER LXXV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ONE INSTANCE OF A SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE&mdash;THE ADVENTURES OF SERGEANT
+      WALTER HARTSOUGH, OF COMPANY K, SIXTEENTH ILLINOIS CAVALRY&mdash;HE GETS
+      AWAY FROM THE REBELS AT THOMASVILLE, AND AFTER A TOILSOME AND DANGEROUS
+      JOURNEY OF SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES, REACHES OUR LINES IN FLORIDA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I was at Savannah I got hold of a primary geography in possession of
+      one of the prisoners, and securing a fragment of a lead pencil from one
+      comrade, and a sheet of note paper from another, I made a copy of the
+      South Carolina and Georgia sea coast, for the use of Andrews and myself in
+      attempting to escape. The reader remembers the ill success of all our
+      efforts in that direction. When we were at Blackshear we still had the
+      map, and intended to make another effort, &ldquo;as soon as the sign got
+      right.&rdquo; One day while we were waiting for this, Walter Hartsough, a
+      Sergeant of Company g, of our battalion, came to me and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mc., I wish you'd lend me your map a little while. I want to
+      make a copy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I handed it over to him, and never saw him more, as almost immediately
+      after we were taken out &ldquo;on parole&rdquo; and sent to Florence. I
+      heard from other comrades of the battalion that he had succeeded in
+      getting past the guard line and into the Woods, which was the last they
+      ever heard of him. Whether starved to death in some swamp, whether torn to
+      pieces by dogs, or killed by the rifles of his pursuers, they knew not.
+      The reader can judge of my astonishment as well as pleasure, at receiving
+      among the dozens of letters which came to me every day while this account
+      was appearing in the BLADE, one signed &ldquo;Walter Hartsough, late of
+      Co. K, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry.&rdquo; It was like one returned from
+      the grave, and the next mail took a letter to him, inquiring eagerly of
+      his adventures after we separated. I take pleasure in presenting the
+      reader with his reply, which was only intended as a private communication
+      to myself. The first part of the letter I omit, as it contains only gossip
+      about our old comrades, which, however interesting to myself, would hardly
+      be so to the general reader. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        GENOA, WAYNE COUNTY, IA.,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        May 27, 1879.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      Dear Comrade Mc.:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .....................
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been living in this town for ten years, running a general store,
+      under the firm name of Hartsough &amp; Martin, and have been more
+      successful than I anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I made my escape from Thomasville, Ga., Dec. 7, 1864, by running the
+      guards, in company with Frank Hommat, of Company M, and a man by the name
+      of Clipson, of the Twenty-First Illinois Infantry. I had heard the
+      officers in charge of us say that they intended to march us across to the
+      other road, and take us back to Andersonville. We concluded we would take
+      a heavy risk on our lives rather than return there. By stinting ourselves
+      we had got a little meal ahead, which we thought we would bake up for the
+      journey, but our appetites got the better of us, and we ate it all up
+      before starting. We were camped in the woods then, with no Stockade&mdash;only
+      a line of guards around us. We thought that by a little strategy and
+      boldness we could pass these. We determined to try. Clipson was to go to
+      the right, Hommat in the center, and myself to the left. We all slipped
+      through, without a shot. Our rendezvous was to be the center of a small
+      swamp, through which flowed a small stream that supplied the prisoners
+      with water. Hommat and I got together soon after passing the guard lines,
+      and we began signaling for Clipson. We laid down by a large log that lay
+      across the stream, and submerged our limbs and part of our bodies in the
+      water, the better to screen ourselves from observation. Pretty soon a
+      Johnny came along with a bunch of turnip tops, that he was taking up to
+      the camp to trade to the prisoners. As he passed over the log I could have
+      caught him by the leg, which I intended to do if he saw us, but he passed
+      along, heedless of those concealed under his very feet, which saved him a
+      ducking at least, for we were resolved to drown him if he discovered us.
+      Waiting here a little longer we left our lurking place and made a circuit
+      of the edge of the swamp, still signaling for Clipson. But we could find
+      nothing of him, and at last had to give him up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were now between Thomasville and the camp, and as Thomasville was the
+      end of the railroad, the woods were full of Rebels waiting transportation,
+      and we approached the road carefully, supposing that it was guarded to
+      keep their own men from going to town. We crawled up to the road, but
+      seeing no one, started across it. At that moment a guard about thirty
+      yards to our left, who evidently supposed that we were Rebels, sang out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whar ye gwine to thar boys?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jest a-gwine out here a little ways.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank whispered me to run, but I said, &ldquo;No; wait till he halts us,
+      and then run.&rdquo; He walked up to where we had crossed his beat&mdash;looked
+      after us a few minutes, and then, to our great relief, walked back to his
+      post. After much trouble we succeeded in getting through all the troops,
+      and started fairly on our way. We tried to shape our course toward
+      Florida. The country was very swampy, the night rainy and dark, no stars
+      were out to guide us, and we made such poor progress that when daylight
+      came we were only eight miles from our starting place, and close to a road
+      leading from Thomasville to Monticello. Finding a large turnip patch, we
+      filled our pockets, and then hunted a place to lie concealed in during the
+      day. We selected a thicket in the center of a large pasture. We crawled
+      into this and laid down. Some negros passed close to us, going to their
+      work in an adjoining field. They had a bucket of victuals with them for
+      dinner, which they hung on the fence in such a way that we could have
+      easily stolen it without detection. The temptation to hungry men was very
+      great, but we concluded that it was best and safest to let it alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the negros returned from work in the evening they separated, one old
+      man passing on the opposite side of the thicket from the rest. We halted
+      him and told him that we were Rebs, who had taken a French leave of
+      Thomasville; that we were tired of guarding Yanks, and were going home;
+      and further, that we were hungry, and wanted something to eat. He told us
+      that he was the boss on the plantation. His master lived in Thomasville.
+      He, himself, did not have much to eat, but he would show us where to stay,
+      and when the folks went to bed he would bring us some food. Passing up
+      close to the negro quarters we got over the fence and lay down behind it,
+      to wait for our supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had been there but a short time when a young negro came out, and
+      passing close by us, went into a fence corner a few panels distant and,
+      kneeling down, began praying aloud, and very, earnestly, and stranger
+      still, the burden of his supplication was for the success of our armies. I
+      thought it the best prayer I ever listened to. Finishing his devotions he
+      returned to the house, and shortly after the old man came with a good
+      supper of corn bread, molasses and milk. He said that he had no meat, and
+      that he had done the best he could for us. After we had eaten, he said
+      that as the young people had gone to bed, we had better come into his
+      cabin and rest awhile, which we did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hommat had a full suit of Rebel clothes, and I had stolen sacks enough at
+      Andersonville, when they were issuing rations, to make me a shirt and
+      pantaloons, which a sailor fabricated for me. I wore these over what was
+      left of my blue clothes. The old negro lady treated us very coolly. In a
+      few minutes a young negro came in, whom the old gentleman introduced as
+      his son, and whom I immediately recognized as our friend of the prayerful
+      proclivities. He said that he had been a body servant to his young master,
+      who was an officer in the Rebel army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Golly!&rdquo; says he, &ldquo;if you 'uns had stood a little
+      longer at Stone River, our men would have run.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned to him sharply with the question of what he meant by calling us
+      &ldquo;You 'uns,&rdquo; and asked him if he believed we were
+      Yankees. He surveyed us carefully for a few seconds, and then said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I bleav you is Yankees.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a second, and added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know you is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked him how he knew it, and he said that we neither looked nor talked
+      like their men. I then acknowledged that we were Yankee prisoners, trying
+      to make our escape to our lines. This announcement put new life into the
+      old lady, and, after satisfying herself that we were really Yankees, she
+      got up from her seat, shook hands with us, and declared we must have a
+      better supper than we had had. She set immediately about preparing it for
+      us. Taking up a plank in the floor, she pulled out a nice flitch of bacon,
+      from which she cut as much as we could eat, and gave us some to carry with
+      us. She got up a real substantial supper, to which we did full justice, in
+      spite of the meal we had already eaten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gave us a quantity of victuals to take with us, and instructed us as
+      well as possible as to our road. They warned us to keep away from the
+      young negros, but trust the old ones implicitly. Thanking them over and
+      over for their exceeding kindness, we bade them good-by, and started again
+      on our journey. Our supplies lasted two days, during which time we made
+      good progress, keeping away from the roads, and flanking the towns, which
+      were few and insignificant. We occasionally came across negros, of whom we
+      cautiously inquired as to the route and towns, and by the assistance of
+      our map and the stars, got along very well indeed, until we came to the
+      Suwanee River. We had intended to cross this at Columbus or Alligator.
+      When within six miles of the river we stopped at some negro huts to get
+      some food. The lady who owned the negros was a widow, who was born and
+      raised in Massachusetts. Her husband had died before the war began. An old
+      negro woman told her mistress that we were at the quarters, and she sent
+      for us to come to the house. She was a very nice-looking lady, about
+      thirty-five years of age, and treated us with great kindness. Hommat being
+      barefooted, she pulled off her own shoes and stockings and gave them to
+      him, saying that she would go to Town the next day and get herself another
+      pair. She told us not to try to cross the river near Columbus, as their
+      troops had been deserting in great numbers, and the river was closely
+      picketed to catch the runaways. She gave us directions how to go so as to
+      cross the river about fifty miles below Columbus. We struck the river
+      again the next night, and I wanted to swim it, but Hommat was afraid of
+      alligators, and I could not induce him to venture into the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We traveled down the river until we came to Moseley's Ferry, where
+      we stole an old boat about a third full of water, and paddled across.
+      There was quite a little town at that place, but we walked right down the
+      main street without meeting any one. Six miles from the river we saw an
+      old negro woman roasting sweet potatos in the back yard of a house. We
+      were very hungry, and thought we would risk something to get food. Hommat
+      went around near her, and asked her for something to eat. She told him to
+      go and ask the white folks. This was the answer she made to every
+      question. He wound up by asking her how far it was to Mossley's
+      Ferry, saying that he wanted to go there, and get something to eat. She at
+      last ran into the house, and we ran away as fast as we could. We had gone
+      but a short distance when we heard a horn, and soon-the-cursed hounds
+      began bellowing. We did our best running, but the hounds circled around
+      the house a few times and then took our trail. For a little while it
+      seemed all up with us, as the sound of the baying came closer and closer.
+      But our inquiry about the distance to Moseley's Ferry seems to have
+      saved us. They soon called the hounds in, and started them on the track we
+      had come, instead of that upon which we were going. The baying shortly
+      died away in the distance. We did not waste any time congratulating
+      ourselves over our marvelous escape, but paced on as fast as we could for
+      about eight miles farther. On the way we passed over the battle ground of
+      Oolustee, or Ocean Pond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coming near to Lake City we fell in with some negros who had been brought
+      from Maryland. We stopped over one day with them, to rest, and two of them
+      concluded to go with us. We were furnished with a lot of cooked
+      provisions, and starting one night made forty-two miles before morning. We
+      kept the negros in advance. I told Hommat that it was a poor command that
+      could not afford an advance guard. After traveling two nights with the
+      negros, we came near Baldwin. Here I was very much afraid of recapture,
+      and I did not want the negros with us, if we were, lest we should be shot
+      for slave-stealing. About daylight of the second morning we gave them the
+      slip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had to skirt Baldwin closely, to head the St. Mary's River, or
+      cross it where that was easiest. After crossing the river we came to a
+      very large swamp, in the edge of which we lay all day. Before nightfall we
+      started to go through it, as there was no fear of detection in these
+      swamps. We got through before it was very dark, and as we emerged from it
+      we discovered a dense cloud of smoke to our right and quite close. We
+      decided this was a camp, and while we were talking the band began to play.
+      This made us think that probably our forces had come out from Fernandina,
+      and taken the place. I proposed to Hommat that we go forward and
+      reconnoiter. He refused, and leaving him alone, I started forward. I had
+      gone but a short distance when a soldier came out from the camp with a
+      bucket. He began singing, and the song he sang convinced me that he was a
+      Rebel. Rejoining Hommat, we held a consultation and decided to stay where
+      we were until it became darker, before trying to get out. It was the night
+      of the 22d of December, and very cold for that country. The camp guard had
+      small fires built, which we could see quite plainly. After starting we saw
+      that the pickets also had fires, and that we were between the two lines.
+      This discovery saved us from capture, and keeping about an equal distance
+      between the two, we undertook to work our way out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We first crossed a line of breastworks, then in succession the Fernandina
+      Railroad, the Jacksonville Railroad, and pike, moving all the time nearly
+      parallel with the picket line. Here we had to halt. Hommat was suffering
+      greatly with his feet. The shoes that had been given him by the widow lady
+      were worn out, and his feet were much torn and cut by the terribly rough
+      road we had traveled through swamps, etc. We sat down on a log, and I,
+      pulling off the remains of my army shirt, tore it into pieces, and Hommat
+      wrapped his feet up in them. A part I reserved and tore into strips, to
+      tie up the rents in our pantaloons. Going through the swamps and briers
+      had torn them into tatters, from waistband to hem, leaving our skins bare
+      to be served in the same way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We started again, moving slowly and bearing towards the picket fires,
+      which we could see for a distance on our left. After traveling some little
+      time the lights on our left ended, which puzzled us for a while, until we
+      came to a fearful big swamp, that explained it all, as this, considered
+      impassable, protected the right of the camp. We had an awful time in
+      getting through. In many places we had to lie down and crawl long
+      distances through the paths made in the brakes by hogs and other animals.
+      As we at length came out, Hommat turned to me and whispered that in the
+      morning we would have some Lincoln coffee. He seemed to think this must
+      certainly end our troubles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were now between the Jacksonville Railroad and the St. John's
+      River. We kept about four miles from the railroad, for fear of running
+      into the Rebel outposts. We had traveled but a few miles when Hommat said
+      he could go no farther, as his feet and legs were so swelled and numb that
+      he could not tell when he set them upon the ground. I had some matches
+      that a negro had given me, and gathering together a few pine knots we made
+      a fire&mdash;the first that we had lighted on the trip&mdash;and laid down
+      with it between us. We had slept but a few minutes when I awoke and found
+      Hommat's clothes on fire. Rousing him we put out the flames before
+      he was badly burned, but the thing had excited him so as to give him new
+      life, and be proposed to start on again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By sunrise we were within eight miles of our lines, and concluding that it
+      would be safe to travel in the daytime, we went ahead, walking along the
+      railroad. The excitement being over, Hommat began to move very slowly
+      again. His feet and legs were so swollen that he could scarcely walk, and
+      it took us a long while to pass over those eight miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last we came in sight of our pickets. They were negros. They halted us,
+      and Hommat went forward to speak to them. They called for the Officer of
+      the Guard, who came, passed us inside, and shook hands cordially with us.
+      His first inquiry was if we knew Charley Marseilles, whom you remember ran
+      that little bakery at Andersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were treated very kindly at Jacksonville. General Scammon was in
+      command of the post, and had only been released but a short time from
+      prison, so he knew how it was himself. I never expect to enjoy as happy a
+      moment on earth as I did when I again got under the protection of the old
+      flag. Hommat went to the hospital a few days, and was then sent around to
+      New York by sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, it was a fearful trip through those Florida swamps. We would very
+      often have to try a swamp in three or four different places before we
+      could get through. Some nights we could not travel on account of its being
+      cloudy and raining. There is not money enough in the United States to
+      induce me to undertake the trip again under the same circumstances. Our
+      friend Clipson, that made his escape when we did, got very nearly through
+      to our lines, but was taken sick, and had to give himself up. He was taken
+      back to Andersonville and kept until the next Spring, when he came through
+      all right. There were sixty-one of Company K captured at Jonesville, and I
+      think there was only seventeen lived through those horrible prisons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have given the best description of prison life that I have ever seen
+      written. The only trouble is that it cannot be portrayed so that persons
+      can realize the suffering and abuse that our soldiers endured in those
+      prison hells. Your statements are all correct in regard to the treatment
+      that we received, and all those scenes you have depicted are as vivid in
+      my mind today as if they had only occurred yesterday. Please let me hear
+      from you again. Wishing you success in all your undertakings, I remain
+      your friend,
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        WALTER, HARTSOUGH,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        Late of K Company, Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer of Infantry.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch76" id="ch76"></a>CHAPTER LXXVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE PECULIAR TYPE OF INSANITY PREVALENT AT FLORENCE&mdash;BARRETT'S
+      WANTONNESS OF CRUELTY&mdash;WE LEARN OF SHERMAN'S ADVANCE INTO SOUTH
+      CAROLINA&mdash;THE REBELS BEGIN MOVING THE PRISONERS AWAY&mdash;ANDREWS
+      AND I CHANGE OUR TACTICS, AND STAY BEHIND&mdash;ARRIVAL OF FIVE PRISONERS
+      FROM SHERMAN'S COMMAND&mdash;THEIR UNBOUNDED CONFIDENCE IN SHERMAN'S
+      SUCCESS, AND ITS BENEFICIAL EFFECT UPON US.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One terrible phase of existence at Florence was the vast increase of
+      insanity. We had many insane men at Andersonville, but the type of the
+      derangement was different, partaking more of what the doctors term
+      melancholia. Prisoners coming in from the front were struck aghast by the
+      horrors they saw everywhere. Men dying of painful and repulsive diseases
+      lined every step of whatever path they trod; the rations given them were
+      repugnant to taste and stomach; shelter from the fiery sun there was none,
+      and scarcely room enough for them to lie down upon. Under these
+      discouraging circumstances, home-loving, kindly-hearted men, especially
+      those who had passed out of the first flush of youth, and had left wife
+      and children behind when they entered the service, were speedily overcome
+      with despair of surviving until released; their hopelessness fed on the
+      same germs which gave it birth, until it became senseless, vacant-eyed,
+      unreasoning, incurable melancholy, when the victim would lie for hours,
+      without speaking a word, except to babble of home, or would wander
+      aimlessly about the camp&mdash;frequently stark naked&mdash;until he died
+      or was shot for coming too near the Dead Line. Soldiers must not suppose
+      that this was the same class of weaklings who usually pine themselves into
+      the Hospital within three months after their regiment enters the field.
+      They were as a rule, made up of seasoned soldiery, who had become inured
+      to the dangers and hardships of active service, and were not likely to
+      sink down under any ordinary trials.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The insane of Florence were of a different class; they were the boys who
+      had laughed at such a yielding to adversity in Andersonville, and felt a
+      lofty pity for the misfortunes of those who succumbed so. But now the long
+      strain of hardship, privation and exposure had done for them what
+      discouragement had done for those of less fortitude in Andersonville. The
+      faculties shrank under disuse and misfortune, until they forgot their
+      regiments, companies, places and date of capture, and finally, even their
+      names. I should think that by the middle of January, at least one in every
+      ten had sunk to this imbecile condition. It was not insanity so much as
+      mental atrophy&mdash;not so much aberration of the mind, as a paralysis of
+      mental action. The sufferers became apathetic idiots, with no desire or
+      wish to do or be anything. If they walked around at all they had to be
+      watched closely, to prevent their straying over the Dead Line, and giving
+      the young brats of guards the coveted opportunity of killing them. Very
+      many of such were killed, and one of my Midwinter memories of Florence was
+      that of seeing one of these unfortunate imbeciles wandering witlessly up
+      to the Dead Line from the Swamp, while the guard&mdash;a boy of seventeen&mdash;stood
+      with gun in hand, in the attitude of a man expecting a covey to be
+      flushed, waiting for the poor devil to come so near the Dead Line as to
+      afford an excuse for killing him. Two sane prisoners, comprehending the
+      situation, rushed up to the lunatic, at the risk of their own lives,
+      caught him by the arms, and drew him back to safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brutal Barrett seemed to delight in maltreating these demented
+      unfortunates. He either could not be made to understand their condition,
+      or willfully disregarded it, for it was one of the commonest sights to see
+      him knock down, beat, kick or otherwise abuse them for not instantly
+      obeying orders which their dazed senses could not comprehend, or their
+      feeble limbs execute, even if comprehended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In my life I have seen many wantonly cruel men. I have known numbers of
+      mates of Mississippi river steamers&mdash;a class which seems carefully
+      selected from ruffians most proficient in profanity, obscenity and
+      swift-handed violence; I have seen negro-drivers in the slave marts of St.
+      Louis, Memphis and New Orleans, and overseers on the plantations of
+      Mississippi and Louisiana; as a police reporter in one of the largest
+      cities in America, I have come in contact with thousands of the brutalized
+      scoundrels&mdash;the thugs of the brothel, bar-room and alley&mdash;who
+      form the dangerous classes of a metropolis. I knew Captain Wirz. But in
+      all this exceptionally extensive and varied experience, I never met a man
+      who seemed to love cruelty for its own sake as well as Lieutenant Barrett.
+      He took such pleasure in inflicting pain as those Indians who slice off
+      their prisoners' eyelids, ears, noses and hands, before burning them
+      at the stake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That a thing hurt some one else was always ample reason for his doing it.
+      The starving, freezing prisoners used to collect in considerable numbers
+      before the gate, and stand there for hours gazing vacantly at it. There
+      was no special object in doing this, only that it was a central point, the
+      rations came in there, and occasionally an officer would enter, and it was
+      the only place where anything was likely to occur to vary the dreary
+      monotony of the day, and the boys went there because there was nothing
+      else to offer any occupation to their minds. It became a favorite
+      practical joke of Barrett's to slip up to the gate with an armful of
+      clubs, and suddenly opening the wicket, fling them one after another, into
+      the crowd, with all the force he possessed. Many were knocked down, and
+      many received hurts which resulted in fatal gangrene. If he had left the
+      clubs lying where thrown, there would have been some compensation for his
+      meanness, but he always came in and carefully gathered up such as he could
+      get, as ammunition for another time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have heard men speak of receiving justice&mdash;even favors from Wirz. I
+      never heard any one saying that much of Barrett. Like Winder, if he had a
+      redeeming quality it was carefully obscured from the view of all that I
+      ever met who knew him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where the fellow came from, what State was entitled to the discredit of
+      producing and raising him, what he was before the War, what became of him
+      after he left us, are matters of which I never heard even a rumor, except
+      a very vague one that he had been killed by our cavalry, some returned
+      prisoner having recognized and shot him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Iverson, of the Fifth Georgia, was the Post Commander. He was a
+      man of some education, but had a violent, ungovernable temper, during fits
+      of which he did very brutal things. At other times he would show a
+      disposition towards fairness and justice. The worst point in my indictment
+      against him is that he suffered Barrett to do as he did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let the reader understand that I have no personal reasons for my opinion
+      of these men. They never did anything to me, save what they did to all of
+      my companions. I held myself aloof from them, and shunned intercourse so
+      effectually that during my whole imprisonment I did not speak as many
+      words to Rebel officers as are in this and the above paragraphs, and most
+      of those were spoken to the Surgeon who visited my hundred. I do not
+      usually seek conversation with people I do not like, and certainly did not
+      with persons for whom I had so little love as I had for Turner, Ross,
+      Winder, Wirz, Davis, Iverson, Barrett, et al. Possibly they felt badly
+      over my distance and reserve, but I must confess that they never showed it
+      very palpably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As January dragged slowly away into February, rumors of the astonishing
+      success of Sherman began to be so definite and well authenticated as to
+      induce belief. We knew that the Western Chieftain had marched almost
+      unresisted through Georgia, and captured Savannah with comparatively
+      little difficulty. We did not understand it, nor did the Rebels around us,
+      for neither of us comprehended the Confederacy's near approach to
+      dissolution, and we could not explain why a desperate attempt was not made
+      somewhere to arrest the onward sweep of the conquering armies of the West.
+      It seemed that if there was any vitality left in Rebeldom it would deal a
+      blow that would at least cause the presumptuous invader to pause. As we
+      knew nothing of the battles of Franklin and Nashville, we were ignorant of
+      the destruction of Hood's army, and were at a loss to account for
+      its failure to contest Sherman's progress. The last we had heard of
+      Hood, he had been flanked out of Atlanta, but we did not understand that
+      the strength or morale of his force had been seriously reduced in
+      consequence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon it drifted in to us that Sherman had cut loose from Savannah, as from
+      Atlanta, and entered South Carolina, to repeat there the march through her
+      sister State. Our sources of information now were confined to the gossip
+      which our men&mdash;working outside on parole,&mdash;could overhear from
+      the Rebels, and communicate to us as occasion served. These occasions were
+      not frequent, as the men outside were not allowed to come in except
+      rarely, or stay long then. Still we managed to know reasonably, soon that
+      Sherman was sweeping resistlessly across the State, with Hardee, Dick
+      Taylor, Beauregard, and others, vainly trying to make head against him. It
+      seemed impossible to us that they should not stop him soon, for if each of
+      all these leaders had any command worthy the name the aggregate must make
+      an army that, standing on the defensive, would give Sherman a great deal
+      of trouble. That he would be able to penetrate into the State as far as we
+      were never entered into our minds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by we were astonished at the number of the trains that we could
+      hear passing north on the Charleston &amp; Cheraw Railroad. Day and night
+      for two weeks there did not seem to be more than half an hour's
+      interval at any time between the rumble and whistles of the trains as they
+      passed Florence Junction, and sped away towards Cheraw, thirty-five miles
+      north of us. We at length discovered that Sherman had reached Branchville,
+      and was singing around toward Columbia, and other important points to the
+      north; that Charleston was being evacuated, and its garrison, munitions
+      and stores were being removed to Cheraw, which the Rebel Generals intended
+      to make their new base. As this news was so well confirmed as to leave no
+      doubt of it, it began to wake up and encourage all the more hopeful of us.
+      We thought we could see some premonitions of the glorious end, and that we
+      were getting vicarious satisfaction at the hands of our friends under the
+      command of Uncle Billy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning orders came for one thousand men to get ready to move. Andrews
+      and I held a council of war on the situation, the question before the
+      house being whether we would go with that crowd, or stay behind. The
+      conclusion we came to was thus stated by Andrews:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mc., we've flanked ahead every time, and see how we've
+      come out. We flanked into the first squad that left Richmond, and we were
+      consequently in the first that got into Andersonville. May be if we'd
+      staid back we'd got into that squad that was exchanged. We were in
+      the first squad that left Andersonville. We were the first to leave
+      Savannah and enter Millen. May be if we'd staid back, we'd got
+      exchanged with the ten thousand sick. We were the first to leave Millen
+      and the first to reach Blackshear. We were again the first to leave
+      Blackshear. Perhaps those fellows we left behind then are exchanged. Now,
+      as we've played ahead every time, with such infernal luck, let's
+      play backward this time, and try what that brings us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Lale,&rdquo; (Andrews's nickname&mdash;his proper name
+      being Bezaleel), said I, &ldquo;we made something by going ahead every
+      time&mdash;that is, if we were not going to be exchanged. By getting into
+      those places first we picked out the best spots to stay, and got
+      tent-building stuff that those who came after us could not. And certainly
+      we can never again get into as bad a place as this is. The chances are
+      that if this does not mean exchange, it means transfer to a better prison.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we concluded, as I said above, to reverse our usual order of procedure
+      and flank back, in hopes that something would favor our escape to Sherman.
+      Accordingly, we let the first squad go off without us, and the next, and
+      the next, and so on, till there were only eleven hundred &mdash;mostly
+      those sick in the Hospital&mdash;remaining behind. Those who went away&mdash;we
+      afterwards learned, were run down on the cars to Wilmington, and
+      afterwards up to Goldsboro, N. C.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a week or more we eleven hundred tenanted the Stockade, and by burning
+      up the tents of those who had gone had the only decent, comfortable fires
+      we had while in Florence. In hunting around through the tents for fuel we
+      found many bodies of those who had died as their comrades were leaving. As
+      the larger portion of us could barely walk, the Rebels paroled us to
+      remain inside of the Stockade or within a few hundred yards of the front
+      of it, and took the guards off. While these were marching down, a dozen or
+      more of us, exulting in even so much freedom as we had obtained, climbed
+      on the Hospital shed to see what the outlook was, and perched ourselves on
+      the ridgepole. Lieutenant Barrett came along, at a distance of two hundred
+      yards, with a squad of guards. Observing us, he halted his men, faced them
+      toward us, and they leveled their guns as if to fire. He expected to see
+      us tumble down in ludicrous alarm, to avoid the bullets. But we hated him
+      and them so bad, that we could not give them the poor satisfaction of
+      scaring us. Only one of our party attempted to slide down, but the moment
+      we swore at him he came back and took his seat with folded arms alongside
+      of us. Barrett gave the order to fire, and the bullets shrieked aver our
+      heads, fortunately not hitting anybody. We responded with yells of
+      derision, and the worst abuse we could think of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coming down after awhile, I walked to the now open gate, and looped
+      through it over the barren fields to the dense woods a mile away, and a
+      wild desire to run off took possession of me. It seemed as if I could not
+      resist it. The woods appeared full of enticing shapes, beckoning me to
+      come to them, and the winds whispered in my ears:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Run! Run! Run!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the words of my parole were still fresh in my mind, and I stilled my
+      frenzy to escape by turning back into the Stockade and looking away from
+      the tempting view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once five new prisoners, the first we had seen in a long time, were
+      brought in from Sherman's army. They were plump, well-conditioned,
+      well-dressed, healthy, devil-may-care young fellows, whose confidence in
+      themselves and in Sherman was simply limitless, and their contempt for all
+      Rebels and especially those who terrorized over us, enormous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come up here to headquarters,&rdquo; said one of the Rebel officers
+      to them as they stood talking to us; &ldquo;and we'll parole you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O go to h&mdash;- with your parole,&rdquo; said the spokesman of
+      the crowd, with nonchalant contempt; &ldquo;we don't want none of
+      your paroles. Old Billy'll parole us before Saturday.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To us they said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, you boys want to cheer right up; keep a stiff upper lip. This
+      thing's workin' all right. Their old Confederacy's goin'
+      to pieces like a house afire. Sherman's promenadin' through it
+      just as it suits him, and he's liable to pay a visit at any hour. We're
+      expectin' him all the time, because it was generally understood all
+      through the Army that we were to take the prison pen here in on our way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I mentioned my distrust of the concentration of Rebels at Cheraw, and
+      their faces took on a look of supreme disdain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, don't let that worry you a minute,&rdquo; said the
+      confident spokesman. &ldquo;All the Rebels between here and Lee's
+      Army can't prevent Sherman from going just where he pleases. Why, we've
+      quit fightin' 'em except with the Bummers advance. We haven't
+      had to go into regular line of battle against them for I don't know
+      how long. Sherman would like anything better than to have 'em make a
+      stand somewhere so that he could get a good fair whack at 'em.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one can imagine the effect of all this upon us. It was better than a
+      carload of medicines and a train load of provisions would have been. From
+      the depths of despondency we sprang at once to tip-toe on the
+      mountain-tops of expectation. We did little day and night but listen for
+      the sound of Sherman's guns and discuss what we would do when he
+      came. We planned schemes of terrible vengeance on Barrett and Iverson, but
+      these worthies had mysteriously disappeared&mdash;whither no one knew.
+      There was hardly an hour of any night passed without some one of us
+      fancying that he heard the welcome sound of distant firing. As everybody
+      knows, by listening intently at night, one can hear just exactly what he
+      is intent upon hearing, and so was with us. In the middle of the night
+      boys listening awake with strained ears, would say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, if ever I heard musketry firing in my life, that's a
+      heavy skirmish line at work, and sharply too, and not more than three
+      miles away, neither.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then another would say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to ever get out of here if that don't
+      sound just as the skirmishing at Chancellorsville did the first day to us.
+      We were lying down about four miles off, when it began pattering just as
+      that is doing now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night about nine or ten, there came two short, sharp peals of thunder,
+      that sounded precisely like the reports of rifled field pieces. We sprang
+      up in a frenzy of excitement, and shouted as if our throats would split.
+      But the next peal went off in the usual rumble, and our excitement had to
+      subside. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch77" id="ch77"></a>CHAPTER LXXVII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FRUITLESS WAITING FOR SHERMAN&mdash;WE LEAVE FLORENCE&mdash;INTELLIGENCE
+      OF THE FALL OF WILMINGTON COMMUNICATED TO US BY A SLAVE&mdash;THE
+      TURPENTINE REGION OF NORTH CAROLINA&mdash;WE COME UPON A REBEL LINE OF
+      BATTLE&mdash;YANKEES AT BOTH ENDS OF THE ROAD.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Things had gone on in the way described in the previous chapter until past
+      the middle of February. For more than a week every waking hour was spent
+      in anxious expectancy of Sherman&mdash;listening for the far-off rattle of
+      his guns&mdash;straining our ears to catch the sullen boom of his
+      artillery&mdash;scanning the distant woods to see the Rebels falling back
+      in hopeless confusion before the pursuit of his dashing advance. Though we
+      became as impatient as those ancient sentinels who for ten long years
+      stood upon the Grecian hills to catch the first glimpse of the flames of
+      burning Troy, Sherman came not. We afterwards learned that two expeditions
+      were sent down towards us from Cheraw, but they met with unexpected
+      resistance, and were turned back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now plain to us that the Confederacy was tottering to its fall, and
+      we were only troubled by occasional misgivings that we might in some way
+      be caught and crushed under the toppling ruins. It did not seem possible
+      that with the cruel tenacity with which the Rebels had clung to us they
+      would be willing to let us go free at last, but would be tempted in the
+      rage of their final defeat to commit some unparalleled atrocity upon us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day all of us who were able to walk were made to fall in and march
+      over to the railroad, where we were loaded into boxcars. The sick &mdash;except
+      those who were manifestly dying&mdash;were loaded into wagons and hauled
+      over. The dying were left to their fate, without any companions or nurses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The train started off in a northeasterly direction, and as we went through
+      Florence the skies were crimson with great fires, burning in all
+      directions. We were told these were cotton and military stores being
+      destroyed in anticipation of a visit from, a part of Sherman's
+      forces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When morning came we were still running in the same direction that we
+      started. In the confusion of loading us upon the cars the previous
+      evening, I had been allowed to approach too near a Rebel officer's
+      stock of rations, and the result was his being the loser and myself the
+      gainer of a canteen filled with fairly good molasses. Andrews and I had
+      some corn bread, and we, breakfasted sumptuously upon it and the molasses,
+      which was certainly none-the-less sweet from having been stolen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our meal over, we began reconnoitering, as much for employment as anything
+      else. We were in the front end of a box car. With a saw made on the back
+      of a case-knife we cut a hole through the boards big enough to permit us
+      to pass out, and perhaps escape. We found that we were on the foremost box
+      car of the train&mdash;the next vehicle to us being a passenger coach, in
+      which were the Rebel officers. On the rear platform of this car was seated
+      one of their servants&mdash;a trusty old slave, well dressed, for a negro,
+      and as respectful as his class usually was. Said I to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, uncle, where are they taking us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sah, I couldn't rightly say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you could guess, if you tried, couldn't you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes sah.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave a quick look around to see if the door behind him was so securely
+      shut that he could not be overheard by the Rebels inside the car, his
+      dull, stolid face lighted up as a negro's always does in the
+      excitement of doing something cunning, and he said in a loud whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dey's a-gwine to take you to Wilmington&mdash;ef dey kin get
+      you dar!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can get us there!&rdquo; said I in astonishment. &ldquo;Is there
+      anything to prevent them taking us there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dark face filled with inexpressible meaning. I asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't possible that there are any Yankees down there to
+      interfere, is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great eyes flamed up with intelligence to tell me that I guessed
+      aright; again he glanced nervously around to assure himself that no one
+      was eavesdropping, and then he said in a whisper, just loud enough to be
+      heard above the noise of the moving train:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;De Yankees took Wilmington yesterday mawning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The news startled me, but it was true, our troops having driven out the
+      Rebel troops, and entered Wilmington, on the preceding day&mdash;the 22d
+      of February, 1865, as I learned afterwards. How this negro came to know
+      more of what was going on than his masters puzzled me much. That he did
+      know more was beyond question, since if the Rebels in whose charge we were
+      had known of Wilmington's fall, they would not have gone to the
+      trouble of loading us upon the cars and hauling us one, hundred miles in
+      the direction of a City which had come into the hands of our men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been asserted by many writers that the negros had some occult means
+      of diffusing important news among the mass of their people, probably by
+      relays of swift runners who traveled at night, going twenty-five or thirty
+      miles and back before morning. Very astonishing stories are told of things
+      communicated in this way across the length or breadth of the Confederacy.
+      It is said that our officers in the blockading fleet in the Gulf heard
+      from the negros in advance of the publication in the Rebel papers of the
+      issuance of the Proclamation of Emancipation, and of several of our most
+      important Victories. The incident given above prepares me to believe all
+      that has been told of the perfection to which the negros had brought their
+      &ldquo;grapevine telegraph,&rdquo; as it was jocularly termed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels believed something of it, too. In spite of their rigorous
+      patrol, an institution dating long before the war, and the severe
+      punishments visited upon negros found off their master's premises
+      without a pass, none of them entertained a doubt that the young negro men
+      were in the habit of making long, mysterious journeys at night, which had
+      other motives than love-making or chicken-stealing. Occasionally a young
+      man would get caught fifty or seventy-five miles from his &ldquo;quarters,&rdquo;
+      while on some errand of his own, the nature of which no punishment could
+      make him divulge. His master would be satisfied that he did not intend
+      running away, because he was likely going in the wrong direction, but
+      beyond this nothing could be ascertained. It was a common belief among
+      overseers, when they saw an active, healthy young &ldquo;buck&rdquo;
+      sleepy and languid about his work, that he had spent the night on one of
+      these excursions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The country we were running through&mdash;if such straining, toilsome
+      progress as our engine was making could be called running&mdash;was a rich
+      turpentine district. We passed by forests where all the trees were marked
+      with long scores through the bark, and extended up to a hight of twenty
+      feet or more. Into these, the turpentine and rosin, running down, were
+      caught, and conveyed by negros to stills near by, where it was prepared
+      for market. The stills were as rude as the mills we had seen in Eastern
+      Tennessee and Kentucky, and were as liable to fiery destruction as a
+      powder-house. Every few miles a wide space of ground, burned clean of
+      trees and underbrush, and yet marked by a portion of the stones which had
+      formed the furnace, showed where a turpentine still, managed by careless
+      and ignorant blacks, had been licked up by the breath of flame. They never
+      seemed to re-build on these spots&mdash;whether from superstition or other
+      reasons, I know not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Occasionally we came to great piles of barrels of turpentine, rosin and
+      tar, some of which had laid there since the blockade had cut off
+      communication with the outer world. Many of the barrels of rosin had
+      burst, and their contents melted in the heat of the sun, had run over the
+      ground like streams of lava, covering it to a depth of many inches. At the
+      enormous price rosin, tar and turpentine were commanding in the markets of
+      the world, each of these piles represented a superb fortune. Any one of
+      them, if lying upon the docks of New York, would have yielded enough to
+      make every one of us upon the train comfortable for life. But a few months
+      after the blockade was raised, and they sank to one-thirtieth of their
+      present value.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These terebinthine stores were the property of the plantation lords of the
+      lowlands of North Carolina, who correspond to the pinchbeck barons of the
+      rice districts of South Carolina. As there, the whites and negros we saw
+      were of the lowest, most squalid type of humanity. The people of the
+      middle and upland districts of North Carolina are a much superior race to
+      the same class in South Carolina. They are mostly of Scotch-Irish descent,
+      with a strong infusion of English-Quaker blood, and resemble much the best
+      of the Virginians. They make an effort to diffuse education, and have many
+      of the virtues of a simple, non-progressive, tolerably industrious middle
+      class. It was here that the strong Union sentiment of North Carolina
+      numbered most of its adherents. The people of the lowlands were as
+      different as if belonging to another race. The enormous mass of ignorance&mdash;the
+      three hundred and fifty thousand men and women who could not read or write&mdash;were
+      mostly black and white serfs of the great landholders, whose plantations
+      lie within one hundred miles of the Atlantic coast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we approached the coast the country became swampier, and our old
+      acquaintances, the cypress, with their malformed &ldquo;knees,&rdquo;
+      became more and more numerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About the middle of the afternoon our train suddenly stopped. Looking out
+      to ascertain the cause, we were electrified to see a Rebel line of battle
+      stretched across the track, about a half mile ahead of the engine, and
+      with its rear toward us. It was as real a line as was ever seen on any
+      field. The double ranks of &ldquo;Butternuts,&rdquo; with arms gleaming in
+      the afternoon sun, stretched away out through the open pine woods, farther
+      than we could see. Close behind the motionless line stood the company
+      officers, leaning on their drawn swords. Behind these still, were the
+      regimental officers on their horses. On a slight rise of the ground, a
+      group of horsemen, to whom other horsemen momentarily dashed up to or sped
+      away from, showed the station of the General in command. On another knoll,
+      at a little distance, were several-field pieces, standing &ldquo;in
+      battery,&rdquo; the cannoneers at the guns, the postillions dismounted and
+      holding their horses by the bits, the caisson men standing in readiness to
+      serve out ammunition. Our men were evidently close at hand in strong
+      force, and the engagement was likely to open at any instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a minute we were speechless with astonishment. Then came a surge of
+      excitement. What should we do? What could we do? Obviously nothing. Eleven
+      hundred, sick, enfeebled prisoners could not even overpower their guards,
+      let alone make such a diversion in the rear of a line-of-battle as would
+      assist our folks to gain a victory. But while we debated the engine
+      whistled sharply&mdash;a frightened shriek it sounded to us&mdash;and
+      began pushing our train rapidly backward over the rough and wretched
+      track. Back, back we went, as fast as rosin and pine knots could force the
+      engine to move us. The cars swayed continually back and forth, momentarily
+      threatening to fly the crazy roadway, and roll over the embankment or into
+      one of the adjacent swamps. We would have hailed such a catastrophe, as it
+      would have probably killed more of the guards than of us, and the
+      confusion would have given many of the survivors opportunity to escape.
+      But no such accident happened, and towards midnight we reached the bridge
+      across the Great Pedee River, where our train was stopped by a squad of
+      Rebel cavalrymen, who brought the intelligence that as Kilpatrick was
+      expected into Florence every hour, it would not do to take us there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were ordered off the cars, and laid down on the banks of the Great
+      Pedee, our guards and the cavalry forming a line around us, and taking
+      precautions to defend the bridge against Kilpatrick, should he find out
+      our whereabouts and come after us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mc,&rdquo; said Andrews, as we adjusted our old overcoat and
+      blanket on the ground for a bed; &ldquo;I guess we needn't care
+      whether school keeps or not. Our fellows have evidently got both ends of
+      the road, and are coming towards us from each way. There's no road&mdash;not
+      even a wagon road &mdash;for the Johnnies to run us off on, and I guess
+      all we've got to do is to stand still and see the salvation of the
+      Lord. Bad as these hounds are, I don't believe they will shoot us
+      down rather than let our folks retake us. At least they won't since
+      old Winder's dead. If he was alive, he'd order our throats cut&mdash;one
+      by one&mdash;with the guards' pocket knives, rather than give us up.
+      I'm only afraid we'll be allowed to starve before our folks
+      reach us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I concurred in this view. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch78" id="ch78"></a>CHAPTER LXXVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      RETURN TO FLORENCE AND A SHORT SOJOURN THERE&mdash;OFF TOWARDS WILMINGTON
+      AGAIN&mdash;CRUISING A REBEL OFFICER'S LUNCH&mdash;SIGNS OF
+      APPROACHING OUR LINES &mdash;TERROR OF OUR RASCALLY GUARDS&mdash;ENTRANCE
+      INTO GOD'S COUNTRY AT LAST.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Kilpatrick, like Sherman, came not. Perhaps he knew that all the
+      prisoners had been removed from the Stockade; perhaps he had other
+      business of more importance on hand; probably his movement was only a
+      feint. At all events it was definitely known the next day that he had
+      withdrawn so far as to render it wholly unlikely that he intended
+      attacking Florence, so we were brought back and returned to our old
+      quarters. For a week or more we loitered about the now nearly-abandoned
+      prison; skulked and crawled around the dismal mud-tents like the ghostly
+      denizens of some Potter's Field, who, for some reason had been
+      allowed to return to earth, and for awhile creep painfully around the
+      little hillocks beneath which they had been entombed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few score, whose vital powers were strained to the last degree of
+      tension, gave up the ghost, and sank to dreamless rest. It mattered now
+      little to these when Sherman came, or when Kilpatrick's guidons
+      should flutter through the forest of sighing pines, heralds of life,
+      happiness, and home&mdash; <br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br> <br> After life's fitful fever they slept well <br>
+          Treason had done its worst. Nor steel nor poison: <br> Malice
+          domestic, foreign levy, nothing <br> Could touch them farther.
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day another order came for us to be loaded on the cars, and over to
+      the railroad we went again in the same fashion as before. The
+      comparatively few of us who were still able to walk at all well, loaded
+      ourselves down with the bundles and blankets of our less fortunate
+      companions, who hobbled and limped&mdash;many even crawling on their hands
+      and knees&mdash;over the hard, frozen ground, by our sides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those not able to crawl even, were taken in wagons, for the orders were
+      imperative not to leave a living prisoner behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the railroad we found two trains awaiting us. On the front of each
+      engine were two rude white flags, made by fastening the halves of meal
+      sacks to short sticks. The sight of these gave us some hope, but our
+      belief that Rebels were constitutional liars and deceivers was so firm and
+      fixed, that we persuaded ourselves that the flags meant nothing more than
+      some wilful delusion for us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again we started off in the direction of Wilmington, and traversed the
+      same country described in the previous chapter. Again Andrews and I found
+      ourselves in the next box car to the passenger coach containing the Rebel
+      officers. Again we cut a hole through the end, with our saw, and again
+      found a darky servant sitting on the rear platform. Andrews went out and
+      sat down alongside of him, and found that he was seated upon a large
+      gunny-bag sack containing the cooked rations of the Rebel officers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intelligence that there was something there worth taking Andrews
+      communicated to me by an expressive signal, of which soldiers campaigning
+      together as long as he and I had, always have an extensive and well
+      understood code.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took a seat in the hole we had made in the end of the car, in reach of
+      Andrews. Andrews called the attention of the negro to some feature of the
+      country near by, and asked him a question in regard to it. As he looked in
+      the direction indicated, Andrews slipped his hand into the mouth of the
+      bag, and pulled out a small sack of wheat biscuits, which he passed to me
+      and I concealed. The darky turned and told Andrews all about the matter in
+      regard to which the interrogation had been made. Andrews became so much
+      interested in what was being told him, that he sat up closer and closer to
+      the darky, who in turn moved farther away from the sack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next we ran through a turpentine plantation, and as the darky was pointing
+      out where the still, the master's place, the &ldquo;quarters,&rdquo;
+      etc., were, Andrews managed to fish out of that bag and pass to me three
+      roasted chickens. Then a great swamp called for description, and before we
+      were through with it, I had about a peck of boiled sweet potatos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews emptied the bag as the darky was showing him a great peanut
+      plantation, taking from it a small frying-pan, a canteen of molasses, and
+      a half-gallon tin bucket, which had been used to make coffee in. We
+      divided up our wealth of eatables with the rest of the boys in the car,
+      not forgetting to keep enough to give ourselves a magnificent meal. <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p594" id="p594"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p594.jpg (44K)" src="images/p594.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we ran along we searched carefully for the place where we had seen the
+      line-of-battle, expecting that it would now be marked with signs of a
+      terrible conflict, but we could see nothing. We could not even fix the
+      locality where the line stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it became apparent that we were going directly toward Wilmington, as
+      fast as our engines could pull us, the excitement rose. We had many
+      misgivings as to whether our folks still retained possession of
+      Wilmington, and whether, if they did, the Rebels could not stop at a point
+      outside of our lines, and transfer us to some other road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For hours we had seen nobody in the country through which we were passing.
+      What few houses were visible were apparently deserted, and there were no
+      Towns or stations anywhere. We were very anxious to see some one, in hopes
+      of getting a hint of what the state of affairs was in the direction we
+      were going. At length we saw a young man&mdash;apparently a scout&mdash;on
+      horseback, but his clothes were equally divided between the blue and the
+      butternut, as to give no clue to which side he belonged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later we saw two infantrymen, who were evidently out foraging.
+      They had sacks of something on their backs, and wore blue clothes. This
+      was a very hopeful sign of a near approach to our lines, but bitter
+      experience in the past warned us against being too sanguine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About 4 o'clock P. M., the trains stopped and whistled long and
+      loud. Looking out I could see&mdash;perhaps half-a-mile away&mdash;a line
+      of rifle pits running at right angles with the track. Guards, whose guns
+      flashed as they turned, were pacing up and down, but they were too far
+      away for me to distinguish their uniforms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The suspense became fearful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I received much encouragement from the singular conduct of our guards.
+      First I noticed a Captain, who had been especially mean to us while at
+      Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was walking on the ground by the train. His face was pale, his teeth
+      set, and his eyes shone with excitement. He called out in a strange,
+      forced voice to his men and boys on the roof of the cars:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, you fellers git down off'en thar and form a line.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fellows did so, in a slow, constrained, frightened ways and huddled
+      together, in the most unsoldierly manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole thing reminded me of a scene I once saw in our line, where a
+      weak-kneed Captain was ordered to take a party of rather chicken-hearted
+      recruits out on the skirmish-line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We immediately divined what was the matter. The lines in front of us were
+      really those of our people, and the idiots of guards, not knowing of their
+      entire safety when protected by a flag of truce, were scared half out of
+      their small wits at approaching so near to armed Yankees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We showered taunts and jeers upon them. An Irishman in my car yelled out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Och, ye dirty spalpeens; it's not shootin' prisoners ye
+      are now; it's cumin' where the Yankee b'ys hev the gun;
+      and the minnit ye say thim yer white livers show themselves in yer pale
+      faces. Bad luck to the blatherin' bastards that yez are, and to the
+      mothers that bore ye.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length our train moved up so near to the line that I could see it was
+      the grand, old loyal blue that clothed the forms of the men who were
+      pacing up and down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And certainly the world does not hold as superb looking men as these
+      appeared to me. Finely formed, stalwart, full-fed and well clothed, they
+      formed the most delightful contrast with the scrawny, shambling,
+      villain-visaged little clay-eaters and white trash who had looked down
+      upon us from the sentry boxes for many long months.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sprang out of the cars and began washing my face and hands in the ditch
+      at the side of the road. The Rebel Captain, noticing me, said, in the old,
+      hateful, brutal, imperious tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Git back in dat cah, dah.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour before I would have scrambled back as quickly as possible, knowing
+      that an instant's hesitation would be followed by a bullet. Now, I
+      looked him in the face, and said as irritatingly as possible:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, you go to &mdash;&mdash;, you Rebel. I'm going into Uncle
+      Sam's lines with as little Rebel filth on me as possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He passed me without replying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His day of shooting was past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Descending from the cars, we passed through the guards into our lines, a
+      Rebel and a Union clerk checking us off as we passed. By the time it was
+      dark we were all under our flag again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place where we came through was several miles west of Wilmington,
+      where the railroad crossed a branch of the Cape Fear River. The point was
+      held by a brigade of Schofield's army&mdash;the Twenty-Third Army
+      Corps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys lavished unstinted kindness upon us. All of the brigade off duty
+      crowded around, offering us blankets, shirts shoes, pantaloons and other
+      articles of clothing and similar things that we were obviously in the
+      greatest need of. The sick were carried, by hundreds of willing hands, to
+      a sheltered spot, and laid upon good, comfortable beds improvised with
+      leaves and blankets. A great line of huge, generous fires was built, that
+      every one of us could have plenty of place around them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by a line of wagons came over from Wilmington laden with rations,
+      and they were dispensed to us with what seemed reckless prodigality. The
+      lid of a box of hard tack would be knocked off, and the contents handed to
+      us as we filed past, with absolute disregard as to quantity. If a prisoner
+      looked wistful after receiving one handful of crackers, another was handed
+      to him; if his long-famished eyes still lingered as if enchained by the
+      rare display of food, the men who were issuing said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, old fellow, there's plenty of it: take just as much as
+      you can carry in your arms.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was also with the pickled pork, the coffee, the sugar, etc. We had
+      been stinted and starved so long that we could not comprehend that there
+      was anywhere actually enough of anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kind-hearted boys who were acting as our hosts began preparing food
+      for the sick, but the Surgeons, who had arrived in the meanwhile, were
+      compelled to repress them, as it was plain that while it was a dangerous
+      experiment to give any of us all we could or would eat, it would never do
+      to give the sick such a temptation to kill themselves, and only a limited
+      amount of food was allowed to be given those who were unable to walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews and I hungered for coffee, the delightful fumes of which filled
+      the air and intoxicated our senses. We procured enough to make our
+      half-gallon bucket full and very strong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We drank so much of this that Andrews became positively drunk, and fell
+      helplessly into some brush. I pulled him out and dragged him away to a
+      place where we had made our rude bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was dazed. I could not comprehend that the long-looked for,
+      often-despaired-of event had actually happened. I feared that it was one
+      of those tantalizing dreams that had so often haunted my sleep, only to be
+      followed by a wretched awakening. Then I became seized with a sudden fear
+      lest the Rebel attempt to retake me. The line of guards around us seemed
+      very slight. It might be forced in the night, and all of us recaptured.
+      Shivering at this thought, absurd though it was, I arose from our bed, and
+      taking Andrews with me, crawled two or three hundred yards into a dense
+      undergrowth, where in the event of our lines being forced, we would be
+      overlooked. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch79" id="ch79"></a>CHAPTER LXXIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      GETTING USED TO FREEDOM&mdash;DELIGHTS OF A LAND WHERE THERE IS ENOUGH OF
+      EVERYTHING&mdash;FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE OLD FLAG&mdash;WILMINGTON AND ITS
+      HISTORY &mdash;LIEUTENANT CUSHING&mdash;FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE
+      COLORED TROOPS&mdash;LEAVING FOR HOME&mdash;DESTRUCTION OF THE &ldquo;THORN&rdquo;
+      BY A TORPEDO&mdash;THE MOCK MONITOR'S ACHIEVEMENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a sound sleep, Andrews and I awoke to the enjoyment of our first day
+      of freedom and existence in God's country. The sun had already
+      risen, bright and warm, consonant with the happiness of the new life now
+      opening up for us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to nearly a score of our party his beams brought no awakening
+      gladness. They fell upon stony, staring eyes, from out of which the light
+      of life had now faded, as the light of hope had done long ago. The dead
+      lay there upon the rude beds of fallen leaves, scraped together by
+      thoughtful comrades the night before, their clenched teeth showing through
+      parted lips, faces fleshless and pinched, long, unkempt and ragged hair
+      and whiskers just stirred by the lazy breeze, the rotting feet and limbs
+      drawn up, and skinny hands clenched in the last agonies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their fate seemed harder than that of any who had died before them. It was
+      doubtful if many of them knew that they were at last inside of our own
+      lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the kind-hearted boys of the brigade crowded around us with proffers
+      of service. Of an Ohio boy who directed his kind tenders to Andrews and
+      me, we procured a chunk of coarse rosin soap about as big as a pack of
+      cards, and a towel. Never was there as great a quantity of solid comfort
+      got out of that much soap as we obtained. It was the first that we had
+      since that which I stole in Wirz's headquarters, in June &mdash;nine
+      months before. We felt that the dirt which had accumulated upon us since
+      then would subject us to assessment as real estate if we were in the
+      North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hurrying off to a little creek we began our ablutions, and it was not long
+      until Andrews declared that there was a perceptible sand-bar forming in
+      the stream, from what we washed off. Dirt deposits of the Pliocene era
+      rolled off feet and legs. Eocene incrustations let loose reluctantly from
+      neck and ears; the hair was a mass of tangled locks matted with nine
+      months' accumulation of pitch pine tar, rosin soot, and South
+      Carolina sand, that we did not think we had better start in upon it until
+      we either had the shock cut off, or had a whole ocean and a vat of soap to
+      wash it out with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After scrubbing until we were exhausted we got off the first few outer
+      layers&mdash;the post tertiary formation, a geologist would term it&mdash;and
+      the smell of many breakfasts cooking, coming down over the hill, set our
+      stomachs in a mutiny against any longer fasting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We went back, rosy, panting, glowing, but happy, to get our selves some
+      breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should Providence, for some inscrutable reason, vouchsafe me the years of
+      Methuselah, one of the pleasantest recollections that will abide with me
+      to the close of the nine hundredth and sixty-ninth year, will be of that
+      delightful odor of cooking food which regaled our senses as we came back.
+      From the boiling coffee and the meat frying in the pan rose an incense
+      sweeter to the senses a thousand times than all the perfumes of far
+      Arabia. It differed from the loathsome odor of cooking corn meal as much
+      as it did from the effluvia of a sewer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our noses were the first of our senses to bear testimony that we had
+      passed from the land of starvation to that of plenty. Andrews and I
+      hastened off to get our own breakfast, and soon had a half-gallon of
+      strong coffee, and a frying-pan full, of meat cooking over the fire&mdash;not
+      one of the beggarly skimped little fires we had crouched over during our
+      months of imprisonment, but a royal, generous fire, fed with logs instead
+      of shavings and splinters, and giving out heat enough to warm a regiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having eaten positively all that we could swallow, those of us who could
+      walk were ordered to fall in and march over to Wilmington. We crossed the
+      branch of the river on a pontoon bridge, and took the road that led across
+      the narrow sandy island between the two branches, Wilmington being
+      situated on the opposite bank of the farther one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When about half way a shout from some one in advance caused us to look up,
+      and then we saw, flying from a tall steeple in Wilmington, the glorious
+      old Stars and Stripes, resplendent in the morning sun, and more beautiful
+      than the most gorgeous web from Tyrian looms. We stopped with one accord,
+      and shouted and cheered and cried until every throat was sore and every
+      eye red and blood-shot. It seemed as if our cup of happiness would
+      certainly run over if any more additions were made to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we arrived at the bank of the river opposite Wilmington, a whole
+      world of new and interesting sights opened up before us. Wilmington,
+      during the last year-and-a-half of the war, was, next to Richmond, the
+      most important place in the Southern Confederacy. It was the only port to
+      which blockade running was at all safe enough to be lucrative. The Rebels
+      held the strong forts of Caswell and Fisher, at the mouth of Cape Fear
+      River, and outside, the Frying Pan Shoals, which extended along the coast
+      forty or fifty miles, kept our blockading fleet so far off, and made the
+      line so weak and scattered, that there was comparatively little risk to
+      the small, swift-sailing vessels employed by the blockade runners in
+      running through it. The only way that blockade running could be stopped
+      was by the reduction of Forts Caswell and Fisher, and it was not stopped
+      until this was done. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p603" id="p603"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p603.jpg (69K)" src="images/p603.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the war Wilmington was a dull, sleepy North Carolina Town, with as
+      little animation of any kind as a Breton Pillage. The only business was
+      the handling of the tar, turpentine, rosin, and peanuts produced in the
+      surrounding country, a business never lively enough to excite more than a
+      lazy ripple in the sluggish lagoons of trade. But very new wine was put
+      into this old bottle when blockade running began to develop in importance.
+      Then this Sleepy hollow of a place took on the appearance of San Francisco
+      in the hight of the gold fever. The English houses engaged in blockade
+      running established branches there conducted by young men who lived like
+      princes. All the best houses in the City were leased by them and fitted up
+      in the most gorgeous style. They literally clothed themselves in purple
+      and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, with their fine wines and
+      imported delicacies and retinue of servants to wait upon them. Fast young
+      Rebel officers, eager for a season of dissipation, could imagine nothing
+      better than a leave of absence to go to Wilmington. Money flowed like
+      water. The common sailors&mdash;the scum of all foreign ports&mdash;who
+      manned the blockade runners, received as high as one hundred dollars in
+      gold per month, and a bounty of fifty dollars for every successful trip,
+      which from Nassau could be easily made in seven days. Other people were
+      paid in proportion, and as the old proverb says, &ldquo;What comes over
+      the Devil's back is spent under his breast,&rdquo; the money so
+      obtained was squandered recklessly, and all sorts of debauchery ran riot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the ground where we were standing had been erected several large steam
+      cotton presses, built to compress cotton for the blockade runners. Around
+      them were stored immense quantities of cotton, and near by were nearly as
+      great stores of turpentine, rosin and tar. A little farther down the river
+      was navy yard with docks, etc., for the accommodation, building and repair
+      of blockade runners. At the time our folks took Fort Fisher and advanced
+      on Wilmington the docks were filled with vessels. The retreating Rebels
+      set fire to everything&mdash;cotton, cotton presses, turpentine, rosin,
+      tar, navy yard, naval stores, timber, docks, and vessels, and the fire
+      made clean work. Our people arrived too late to save anything, and when we
+      came in the smoke from the burned cotton, turpentine, etc., still filled
+      the woods. It was a signal illustration of the ravages of war. Here had
+      been destroyed, in a few hours, more property than a half-million
+      industrious men would accumulate in their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost as gratifying as the sight of the old flag flying in triumph, was
+      the exhibition of our naval power in the river before us. The larger part
+      of the great North Atlantic squadron, which had done such excellent
+      service in the reduction of the defenses of Wilmington, was lying at
+      anchor, with their hundreds of huge guns yawning as if ardent for more
+      great forts to beat down, more vessels to sink, more heavy artillery to
+      crush, more Rebels to conquer. It seemed as if there were cannon enough
+      there to blow the whole Confederacy into kingdom-come. All was life and
+      animation around the fleet. On the decks the officers were pacing up and
+      down. One on each vessel carried a long telescope, with which he almost
+      constantly swept the horizon. Numberless small boats, each rowed by
+      neatly-uniformed men, and carrying a flag in the stern, darted hither and
+      thither, carrying officers on errands of duty or pleasure. It was such a
+      scene as enabled me to realize in a measure, the descriptions I had read
+      of the pomp and circumstance of naval warfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While we were standing, contemplating all the interesting sights within
+      view, a small steamer, about the size of a canal-boat, and carrying
+      several bright brass guns, ran swiftly and noiselessly up to the dock near
+      by, and a young, pale-faced officer, slender in build and nervous in
+      manner, stepped ashore. Some of the blue jackets who were talking to us
+      looked at him and the vessel with the greatest expression of interest, and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello! there's the 'Monticello' and Lieutenant
+      Cushing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This, then, was the naval boy hero, with whose exploits the whole country
+      was ringing. Our sailor friends proceeded to tell us of his achievements,
+      of which they were justly proud. They told us of his perilous scouts and
+      his hairbreadth escapes, of his wonderful audacity and still more
+      wonderful success&mdash;of his capture of Towns with a handful of sailors,
+      and the destruction of valuable stores, etc. I felt very sorry that the
+      man was not a cavalry commander. There he would have had full scope for
+      his peculiar genius. He had come prominently into notice in the preceding
+      Autumn, when he had, by one of the most daring performances narrated in
+      naval history, destroyed the formidable ram &ldquo;Albermarle.&rdquo; This
+      vessel had been constructed by the Rebels on the Roanoke River, and had
+      done them very good service, first by assisting to reduce the forts and
+      capture the garrison at Plymouth, N. C., and afterward in some minor
+      engagements. In October, 1864, she was lying at Plymouth. Around her was a
+      boom of logs to prevent sudden approaches of boats or vessels from our
+      fleet. Cushing, who was then barely twenty-one, resolved to attempt her
+      destruction. He fitted up a steam launch with a long spar to which he
+      attached a torpedo. On the night of October 27th, with thirteen
+      companions, he ran quietly up the Sound and was not discovered until his
+      boat struck the boom, when a terrific fire was opened upon him. Backing a
+      short distance, he ran at the boom with such velocity that his boat leaped
+      across it into the water beyond. In an instant more his torpedo struck the
+      side of the &ldquo;Albemarle&rdquo; and exploded, tearing a great hole in
+      her hull, which sank her in a few minutes. At the moment the torpedo went
+      off the &ldquo;Albermarle&rdquo; fired one of her great guns directly into
+      the launch, tearing it completely to pieces. Lieutenant Cushing and one
+      comrade rose to the surface of the seething water and, swimming ashore,
+      escaped. What became of the rest is not known, but their fate can hardly
+      be a matter of doubt. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p600" id="p600"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p600.jpg (58K)" src="images/p600.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were ferried across the river into Wilmington, and marched up the
+      streets to some vacant ground near the railroad depot, where we found most
+      of our old Florence comrades already assembled. When they left us in the
+      middle of February they were taken to Wilmington, and thence to Goldsboro,
+      N. C., where they were kept until the rapid closing in of our Armies made
+      it impracticable to hold them any longer, when they were sent back to
+      Wilmington and given up to our forces as we had been.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now nearly noon, and we were ordered to fall in and draw rations, a
+      bewildering order to us, who had been so long in the habit of drawing food
+      but once a day. We fell in in single rank, and marched up, one at a time,
+      past where a group of employees of the Commissary Department dealt out the
+      food. One handed each prisoner as he passed a large slice of meat; another
+      gave him a handful of ground coffee; a third a handful of sugar; a fourth
+      gave him a pickle, while a fifth and sixth handed him an onion and a loaf
+      of fresh bread. This filled the horn of our plenty full. To have all these
+      in one day&mdash;meat, coffee, sugar, onions and soft bread&mdash;was
+      simply to riot in undreamed-of luxury. Many of the boys&mdash;poor fellows&mdash;could
+      not yet realize that there was enough for all, or they could not give up
+      their old &ldquo;flanking&rdquo; tricks, and they stole around, and
+      falling into the rear, came up again for' another share. We laughed
+      at them, as did the Commissary men, who, nevertheless, duplicated the
+      rations already received, and sent them away happy and content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a glorious dinner Andrews and I had, with our half gallon of strong
+      coffee, our soft bread, and a pan full of fried pork and onions! Such an
+      enjoyable feast will never be, eaten again by us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here we saw negro troops under arms for the first time&mdash;the most of
+      the organization of colored soldiers having been, done since our capture.
+      It was startling at first to see a stalwart, coal-black negro stalking
+      along with a Sergeant's chevrons on his arm, or to gaze on a
+      regimental line of dusky faces on dress parade, but we soon got used to
+      it. The first strong peculiarity of the negro soldier that impressed
+      itself, upon us was his literal obedience of orders. A white soldier
+      usually allows himself considerable discretion in obeying orders&mdash;he
+      aims more at the spirit, while the negro adheres to the strict letter of
+      the command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For instance, the second day after our arrival a line of guards were
+      placed around us, with orders not to allow any of us to go up town without
+      a pass. The reason of this was that many weak&mdash;even dying-men would
+      persist in wandering about, and would be found exhausted, frequently dead,
+      in various parts of the City. Andrews and I concluded to go up town.
+      Approaching a negro sentinel he warned us back with,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand back, dah; don't come any furder; it's agin de
+      awdahs; you can't pass.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He would not allow us to argue the case, but brought his gun to such a
+      threatening position that we fell back. Going down the line a little
+      farther, we came to a white sentinel, to whom I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Comrade, what are your orders:&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My orders are not to let any of you fellows pass, but my beat only
+      extends to that out-house there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Acting on this plain hint, we walked around the house and went up-town.
+      The guard simply construed his orders in a liberal spirit. He reasoned
+      that they hardly applied to us, since we were evidently able to take care
+      of ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later we had another illustration of this dog like fidelity of the colored
+      sentinel. A number of us were quartered in a large and empty warehouse. On
+      the same floor, and close to us, were a couple of very fine horses
+      belonging to some officer. We had not been in the warehouse very long
+      until we concluded that the straw with which the horses were bedded would
+      be better used in making couches for ourselves, and this suggestion was
+      instantly acted upon, and so thoroughly that there was not a straw left
+      between the animals and the bare boards. Presently the owner of the horses
+      came in, and he was greatly incensed at what had been done. He relieved
+      his mind of a few sulphurous oaths, and going out, came back soon with a
+      man with more straw, and a colored soldier whom he stationed by the
+      horses, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, look here. You musn't let anybody take anything sway
+      from these stalls; d'you understand me?&mdash;not a thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then went out. Andrews and I had just finished cooking dinner, and were
+      sitting down to eat it. Wishing to lend our frying-pan to another mess, I
+      looked around for something to lay our meat upon. Near the horses I saw a
+      book cover, which would answer the purpose admirably. Springing up, I
+      skipped across to where it was, snatched it up, and ran back to my place.
+      As I reached it a yell from the boys made me look around. The darky was
+      coming at me &ldquo;full tilt,&rdquo; with his gun at a &ldquo;charge
+      bayonets.&rdquo; As I turned he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put dat right back dah!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, this don't amount to anything, this is only an old book
+      cover. It hasn't anything in the world to do with the horses.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He only replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put dat right back dah!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tried another appeal:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, you woolly-headed son of thunder, haven't you got sense
+      enough to know that the officer who posted you didn't mean such a
+      thing as this! He only meant that we should not be allowed to take any of
+      the horses' bedding or equipments; don't you see?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I might as well have reasoned with a cigar store Indian. He set his teeth,
+      his eyes showed a dangerous amount of white, and foreshortening his musket
+      for a lunge, he hissed out again &ldquo;Put dat right back dah, I tell
+      you!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked at the bayonet; it was very long, very bright, and very sharp. It
+      gleamed cold and chilly like, as if it had not run through a man for a
+      long time, and yearned for another opportunity. Nothing but the whites of
+      the darky's eyes could now be seen. I did not want to perish there
+      in the fresh bloom of my youth and loveliness; it seemed to me as if it
+      was my duty to reserve myself for fields of future usefulness, so I walked
+      back and laid the book cover precisely on the spot whence I had obtained
+      it, while the thousand boys in the house set up a yell of sarcastic
+      laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We staid in Wilmington a few days, days of almost purely animal enjoyment&mdash;the
+      joy of having just as much to eat as we could possibly swallow, and no one
+      to molest or make us afraid in any way. How we did eat and fill up. The
+      wrinkles in our skin smoothed out under the stretching, and we began to
+      feel as if we were returning to our old plumpness, though so far the
+      plumpness was wholly abdominal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning we were told that the transports would begin going back with
+      us that afternoon, the first that left taking the sick. Andrews and I,
+      true to our old prison practices, resolved to be among those on the first
+      boat. We slipped through the guards and going up town, went straight to
+      Major General Schofield's headquarters and solicited a pass to go on
+      the first boat&mdash;the steamer &ldquo;Thorn.&rdquo; General Schofield
+      treated us very kindly; but declined to let anybody but the helplessly
+      sick go on the &ldquo;Thorn.&rdquo; Defeated here we went down to where
+      the vessel was lying at the dock, and tried to smuggle ourselves aboard,
+      but the guard was too strong and too vigilant, and we were driven away.
+      Going along the dock, angry and discouraged by our failure, we saw a
+      Surgeon, at a little distance, who was examining and sending the sick who
+      could walk aboard another vessel&mdash;the &ldquo;General Lyon.&rdquo; We
+      took our cue, and a little shamming secured from him tickets which
+      permitted us to take our passage in her. The larger portion of those on
+      board were in the hold, and a few were on deck. Andrews and I found a snug
+      place under the forecastle, by the anchor chains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both vessels speedily received their complement, and leaving their docks,
+      started down the river. The &ldquo;Thorn&rdquo; steamed ahead of us, and
+      disappeared. Shortly after we got under way, the Colonel who was put in
+      command of the boat&mdash;himself a released prisoner&mdash;came around on
+      a tour of inspection. He found about one thousand of us aboard, and
+      singling me out made me the non-commissioned officer in command. I was put
+      in charge, of issuing the rations and of a barrel of milk punch which the
+      Sanitary Commission had sent down to be dealt out on the voyage to such as
+      needed it. I went to work and arranged the boys in the best way I could,
+      and returned to the deck to view the scenery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilmington is thirty-four miles from the sea, and the river for that
+      distance is a calm, broad estuary. At this time the resources of Rebel
+      engineering were exhausted in defense against its passage by a hostile
+      fleet, and undoubtedly the best work of the kind in the Southern
+      Confederacy was done upon it. At its mouth were Forts Fisher and Caswell,
+      the strongest sea coast forts in the Confederacy. Fort Caswell was an old
+      United States fort, much enlarged and strengthened. Fort Fisher was a new
+      work, begun immediately after the beginning of the war, and labored at
+      incessantly until captured. Behind these every one of the thirty-four
+      miles to Wilmington was covered with the fire of the best guns the English
+      arsenals could produce, mounted on forts built at every advantageous spot.
+      Lines of piles running out into the water, forced incoming vessels to wind
+      back and forth across the stream under the point-blank range of massive
+      Armstrong rifles. As if this were not sufficient, the channel was thickly
+      studded with torpedoes that would explode at the touch of the keel of a
+      passing vessel. These abundant precautions, and the telegram from General
+      Lee, found in Fort Fisher, stating that unless that stronghold and Fort
+      Caswell were held he could not hold Richmond, give some idea of the
+      importance of the place to the Rebels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We passed groups of hundreds of sailors fishing for torpedos, and saw many
+      of these dangerous monsters, which they had hauled up out of the water. We
+      caught up with the &ldquo;Thorn,&rdquo; when about half way to the sea,
+      passed her, to our great delight, and soon left a gap between us of nearly
+      half-a-mile. We ran through an opening in the piling, holding up close to
+      the left side, and she apparently followed our course exactly. Suddenly
+      there was a dull roar; a column of water, bearing with it fragments of
+      timbers, planking and human bodies, rose up through one side of the
+      vessel, and, as it fell, she lurched forward and sank. She had struck a
+      torpedo. I never learned the number lost, but it must have been very
+      great.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some little time after this happened we approached Fort Anderson, the most
+      powerful of the works between Wilmington and the forts at the mouth of the
+      sea. It was built on the ruins of the little Town of Brunswick, destroyed
+      by Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War. We saw a monitor lying near
+      it, and sought good positions to view this specimen of the redoubtable
+      ironclads of which we had heard and read so much. It looked precisely as
+      it did in pictures, as black, as grim, and as uncompromising as the
+      impregnable floating fortress which had brought the &ldquo;Merrimac&rdquo;
+      to terms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as we approached closely we noticed a limpness about the smoke stack
+      that seemed very inconsistent with the customary rigidity of cylindrical
+      iron. Then the escape pipe seemed scarcely able to maintain itself
+      upright. A few minutes later we discovered that our terrible Cyclops of
+      the sea was a flimsy humbug, a theatrical imitation, made by stretching
+      blackened canvas over a wooden frame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the officers on board told us its story. After the fall of Fort
+      Fisher the Rebels retired to Fort Anderson, and offered a desperate
+      resistance to our army and fleet. Owing to the shallowness of the water
+      the latter could not come into close enough range to do effective work.
+      Then the happy idea of this sham monitor suggested itself to some one. It
+      was prepared, and one morning before daybreak it was sent floating in on
+      the tide. The other monitors opened up a heavy fire from their position.
+      The Rebels manned their guns and replied vigorously, by concentrating a
+      terrible cannonade on the sham monitor, which sailed grandly on,
+      undisturbed by the heavy rifled bolts tearing through her canvas turret.
+      Almost frantic with apprehension of the result if she could not be
+      checked, every gun that would bear was turned upon her, and torpedos were
+      exploded in her pathway by electricity. All these she treated with the
+      silent contempt they merited from so invulnerable a monster. At length, as
+      she reached a good easy range of the fort, her bow struck something, and
+      she swung around as if to open fire. That was enough for the Rebels. With
+      Schofield's army reaching out to cut off their retreat, and this
+      dreadful thing about to tear the insides out of their fort with
+      four-hundred-pound shot at quarter-mile range, there was nothing for them
+      to do but consult their own safety, which they did with such haste that
+      they did not spike a gun, or destroy a pound of stores. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch80" id="ch80"></a>CHAPTER LXXX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      VISIT TO FORT FISHER, AND INSPECTION OF THAT STRONGHOLD&mdash;THE WAY IT
+      WAS CAPTURED&mdash;OUT ON THE OCEAN SAILING&mdash;TERRIBLY SEASICK&mdash;RAPID
+      RECOVERY &mdash;ARRIVAL AT ANNAPOLIS&mdash;WASHED, CLOTHED AND FED&mdash;UNBOUNDED
+      LUXURY, AND DAYS OF UNADULTERATED HAPPINESS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we reached the mouth of Cape Fear River the wind was blowing so hard
+      that our Captain did not think it best to venture out, so he cast anchor.
+      The cabin of the vessel was filled with officers who had been released
+      from prison about the same time we were. I was also given a berth in the
+      cabin, in consideration of my being the non-commissioned officer in charge
+      of the men, and I found the associations quite pleasant. A party was made
+      up, which included me, to visit Fort Fisher, and we spent the larger part
+      of a day very agreeably in wandering over that great stronghold. We found
+      it wonderful in its strength, and were prepared to accept the statement of
+      those who had seen foreign defensive works, that it was much more powerful
+      than the famous Malakoff, which so long defied the besiegers of
+      Sebastopol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation of the fort was on a narrow and low spit of ground between
+      Cape Fear River and the ocean. On this the Rebels had erected, with
+      prodigious labor, an embankment over a mile in length, twenty-five feet
+      thick and twenty feet high. About two-thirds of this bank faced the sea;
+      the other third ran across the spit of land to protect the fort against an
+      attack from the land side. Still stronger than the bank forming the front
+      of the fort were the traverses, which prevented an enfilading fire These
+      were regular hills, twenty-five to forty feet high, and broad and long in
+      proportion. There were fifteen or twenty of them along the face of the
+      fort. Inside of them were capacious bomb proofs, sufficiently large to
+      shelter the whole garrison. It seemed as if a whole Township had been dug
+      up, carted down there and set on edge. In front of the works was a strong
+      palisade. Between each pair of traverses were one or two enormous guns,
+      none less than one-hundred-and-fifty pounders. Among these we saw a great
+      Armstrong gun, which had been presented to the Southern Confederacy by its
+      manufacturer, Sir William Armstrong, who, like the majority of the English
+      nobility, was a warm admirer of the Jeff. Davis crowd. It was the finest
+      piece of ordnance ever seen in this country. The carriage was rosewood,
+      and the mountings gilt brass. The breech of the gun had five
+      reinforcements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To attack this place our Government assembled the most powerful fleet ever
+      sent on such an expedition. Over seventy-five men-of-war, including six
+      monitors, and carrying six hundred guns, assailed it with a storm of shot
+      and shell that averaged four projectiles per second for several hours; the
+      parapet was battered, and the large guns crushed as one smashes a bottle
+      with a stone. The garrison fled into the bomb-proofs for protection. The
+      troops, who had landed above the fort, moved up to assail the land face,
+      while a brigade of sailors and marines attacked the sea face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the fleet had to cease firing to allow the charge, the Rebels ran out
+      of their casemates and, manning the parapet, opened such a fire of
+      musketry that the brigade from the fleet was driven back, but the soldiers
+      made a lodgment on the land face. Then began some beautiful cooperative
+      tactics between the Army and Navy, communication being kept up with signal
+      flags. Our men were on one side of the parapets and the Rebels on the
+      other, with the fighting almost hand-to-hand. The vessels ranged out to
+      where their guns would rake the Rebel line, and as their shot tore down
+      its length, the Rebels gave way, and falling back to the next traverse,
+      renewed the conflict there. Guided by the signals our vessels changed
+      their positions, so as to rake this line also, and so the fight went on
+      until twelve traverses had been carried, one after the other, when the
+      rebels surrendered. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p617" id="p617"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p617.jpg (39K)" src="images/p617.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day the Rebels abandoned Fort Caswell and other fortifications in
+      the immediate neighborhood, surrendered two gunboats, and fell back to the
+      lines at Fort Anderson. After Fort Fisher fell, several blockade-runners
+      were lured inside and captured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never before had there been such a demonstration of the power of heavy
+      artillery. Huge cannon were pounded into fragments, hills of sand ripped
+      open, deep crevasses blown in the ground by exploding shells, wooden
+      buildings reduced to kindling-wood, etc. The ground was literally paved
+      with fragments of shot and shell, which, now red with rust from the
+      corroding salt air, made the interior of the fort resemble what one of our
+      party likened it to &ldquo;an old brickyard.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whichever way we looked along the shores we saw abundant evidence of the
+      greatness of the business which gave the place its importance. In all
+      directions, as far as the eye could reach, the beach was dotted with the
+      bleaching skeletons of blockade-runners&mdash;some run ashore by their
+      mistaking the channel, more beached to escape the hot pursuit of our
+      blockaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Directly in front of the sea face of the fort, and not four hundred yards
+      from the savage mouths of the huge guns, the blackened timbers of a burned
+      blockade-runner showed above the water at low tide. Coming in from Nassau
+      with a cargo of priceless value to the gasping Confederacy, she was
+      observed and chased by one of our vessels, a swifter sailer, even, than
+      herself. The war ship closed rapidly upon her. She sought the protection
+      of the guns of Fort Fisher, which opened venomously on the chaser. They
+      did not stop her, though they were less than half a mile away. In another
+      minute she would have sent the Rebel vessel to the bottom of the sea, by a
+      broadside from her heavy guns, but the Captain of the latter turned her
+      suddenly, and ran her high up on the beach, wrecking his vessel, but
+      saving the much more valuable cargo. Our vessel then hauled off, and as
+      night fell, quiet was restored. At midnight two boat-loads of determined
+      men, rowing with muffled oars moved silently out from the blockader
+      towards the beached vessel. In their boats they had some cans of
+      turpentine, and several large shells. When they reached the
+      blockade-runner they found all her crew gone ashore, save one watchman,
+      whom they overpowered before he could give the alarm. They cautiously felt
+      their way around, with the aid of a dark lantern, secured the ship's
+      chronometer, her papers and some other desired objects. They then
+      saturated with the turpentine piles of combustible material, placed about
+      the vessel to the best advantage, and finished by depositing the shells
+      where their explosion would ruin the machinery. All this was done so near
+      to the fort that the sentinels on the parapets could be heard with the
+      greatest distinctness as they repeated their half-hourly cry of &ldquo;All's
+      well.&rdquo; Their preparations completed, the daring fellows touched
+      matches to the doomed vessel in a dozen places at once, and sprang into
+      their boats. The flames instantly enveloped the ship, and showed the
+      gunners the incendiaries rowing rapidly away. A hail of shot beat the
+      water into a foam around the boats, but their good fortune still attended
+      them, and they got back without losing a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wind at length calmed sufficiently to encourage our Captain to venture
+      out, and we were soon battling with the rolling waves, far out of sight of
+      land. For awhile the novelty of the scene fascinated me. I was at last on
+      the ocean, of which I had heard, read and imagined so much. The creaking
+      cordage, the straining engine, the plunging ship, the wild waste of
+      tumbling billows, everyone apparently racing to where our tossing bark was
+      struggling to maintain herself, all had an entrancing interest for me, and
+      I tried to recall Byron's sublime apostrophe to the ocean: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br> Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form <br>
+          Classes itself in tempest: in all time, <br> Calm or convulsed-in
+          breeze, or gale, or storm, <br> Icing the pole, or in the torrid
+          clime <br> Dark-heaving&mdash;boundless, endless, and sublime&mdash;
+          <br> The image of eternity&mdash;the throne <br> Of the invisible;
+          even from out thy slime <br> The monsters of the deep are made; each
+          zone <br> Obey thee: thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone,
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then, my reverie was broken by the strong hand of the gruff Captain
+      of, the vessel descending upon my shoulder, and he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See, here, youngster! Ain't you the fellow that was put in
+      command of these men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I acknowledged such to be the case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Captain; &ldquo;I want you to 'tend to
+      your business and straighten them around, so that we can clean off the
+      decks.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned from the bulwark over which I had been contemplating the vasty
+      deep, and saw the sorriest, most woe-begone lot that the imagination can
+      conceive. Every mother's son was wretchedly sea-sick. They were
+      paying the penalty of their overfeeding in Wilmington; and every face
+      looked as if its owner was discovering for the first time what the real
+      lower depths of human misery was. They all seemed afraid they would not
+      die; as if they were praying for death, but feeling certain that he was
+      going back on them in a most shameful way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We straightened them around a little, washed them and the decks off with a
+      hose, and then I started down in the hold to see how matters were with the
+      six hundred down there. The boys there were much sicker than those on
+      deck. As I lifted the hatch there rose an odor which appeared strong
+      enough to raise the plank itself. Every onion that had been issued to us
+      in Wilmington seemed to lie down there in the last stages of
+      decomposition. All of the seventy distinct smells which Coleridge counted
+      at Cologne might have been counted in any given cubic foot of atmosphere,
+      while the next foot would have an entirely different and equally
+      demonstrative &ldquo;bouquet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I recoiled, and leaned against the bulwark, but soon summoned up courage
+      enough to go half-way down the ladder, and shout out in as stern a tone as
+      I could command:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, now! I want you fellows to straighten around there, right
+      off, and help clean up!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were as angry and cross as they were sick. They wanted nothing in the
+      world so much as the opportunity I had given them to swear at and abuse
+      somebody. Every one of them raised on his elbow, and shaking his fist at
+      me yelled out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, you go to &mdash;&mdash;, you &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;
+      &mdash;&mdash;. Just come down another step, and I'll knock the
+      whole head off 'en you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not go down any farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coming back on the deck my stomach began to feel qualmish. Some wretched
+      idiot, whose grandfather's grave I hope the jackasses have defiled,
+      as the Turks would say, told me that the best preventive of sea-sickness
+      was to drink as much of the milk punch as I could swallow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like another idiot, I did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went again to the side of the vessel, but now the fascination of the
+      scene had all faded out. The restless billows were dreary, savage, hungry
+      and dizzying; they seemed to claw at, and tear, and wrench the struggling
+      ship as a group of huge lions would tease and worry a captive dog. They
+      distressed her and all on board by dealing a blow which would send her
+      reeling in one direction, but before she had swung the full length that
+      impulse would have sent her, catching her on the opposite side with a
+      stunning shock that sent her another way, only to meet another rude buffet
+      from still another side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought we could all have stood it if the motion had been like that of a
+      swing-backward and forward&mdash;or even if the to and fro motion had been
+      complicated with a side-wise swing, but to be put through every possible
+      bewildering motion in the briefest space of time was more than heads of
+      iron and stomachs of brass could stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mine were not made of such perdurable stuff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They commenced mutinous demonstrations in regard to the milk punch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I began wondering whether the milk was not the horrible beer swill,
+      stump-tail kind of which I had heard so much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the whisky in it; to use a vigorous Westernism, descriptive of mean
+      whisky, it seemed to me that I could smell the boy's feet who plowed
+      the corn from which it was distilled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the onions I had eaten in Wilmington began to rebel, and incite the
+      bread, meat and coffee to gastric insurrection, and I became so utterly
+      wretched that life had no farther attractions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I was leaning over the bulwark, musing on the complete hollowness of
+      all earthly things, the Captain of the vessel caught hold of me roughly,
+      and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, you're just playin' the very devil
+      a-commandin' these here men. Why in &mdash;&mdash; don't you
+      stiffen up, and hump yourself around, and make these men mind, or else
+      belt them over the head with a capstan bar! Now I want you to 'tend
+      to your business. D'you understand me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned a pair of weary and hopeless eyes upon him, and started to say
+      that a man who would talk to one in my forlorn condition of &ldquo;stiffening
+      up,&rdquo; and &ldquo;belting other fellows over the head with a capstan
+      bar,&rdquo; would insult a woman dying with consumption, but I suddenly
+      became too full for utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The milk punch, the onions, the bread, and meat and coffee tired of
+      fighting it out in the narrow quarters where I had stowed them, had
+      started upwards tumultuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned my head again to the sea, and looking down into its smaragdine
+      depths, let go of the victualistic store which I had been industriously
+      accumulating ever since I had come through the lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I vomited until I felt as empty and hollow as a stove pipe. There was a
+      vacuum that extended clear to my toe-nails. I feared that every retching
+      struggle would dent me in, all over, as one sees tin preserving cans
+      crushed in by outside pressure, and I apprehended that if I kept on much
+      longer my shoe-soles would come up after the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will mention, parenthetically, that, to this day I abhor milk punch, and
+      also onions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unutterably miserable as I was I could not refrain from a ghost of a
+      smile, when a poor country boy near me sang out in an interval between
+      vomiting spells:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, Captain, for God's sake, stop the boat and lem'me go
+      ashore, and I swear I'll walk every step of the way home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was like old Gonzalo in the 'Tempest:' <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <br> Now world I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of
+          barren <br> ground; long heath; brown furze; anything. The wills
+          above be done! <br> but I would fain die a dry death.
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this misery had lasted about two days we got past Cape Hatteras, and
+      out of reach of its malign influence, and recovered as rapidly as we had
+      been prostrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We regained spirits and appetites with amazing swiftness; the sun came out
+      warm and cheerful, we cleaned up our quarters and ourselves as best we
+      could, and during the remainder of the voyage were as blithe and cheerful
+      as so many crickets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fun in the cabin was rollicking. The officers had been as sick as the
+      men, but were wonderfully vivacious when the 'mal du mer'
+      passed off. In the party was a fine glee club, which had been organized at
+      &ldquo;Camp Sorgum,&rdquo; the officers' prison at Columbia. Its
+      leader was a Major of the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, who possessed a marvelously
+      sweet tenor voice, and well developed musical powers. While we were at
+      Wilmington he sang &ldquo;When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea,&rdquo; to
+      an audience of soldiers that packed the Opera House densely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The enthusiasm he aroused was simply indescribable; men shouted, and the
+      tears ran down their faces. He was recalled time and again, each time with
+      an increase in the furore. The audience would have staid there all night
+      to listen to him sing that one song. Poor fellow, he only went home to
+      die. An attack of pneumonia carried him off within a fortnight after we
+      separated at Annapolis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Glee Club had several songs which they rendered in regular negro
+      minstrel style, and in a way that was irresistibly ludicrous. One of their
+      favorites was &ldquo;Billy Patterson.&rdquo; All standing up in a ring,
+      the tenors would lead off:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;I saw
+      an old man go riding by,&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      and the baritones, flinging themselves around with the looseness of
+      Christy's Minstrels, in a &ldquo;break down,&rdquo; would reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;Don't
+      tell me! Don't tell me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the tenors would resume:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;Says
+      I, Ole man, your horse'll die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the baritones, with an air of exaggerated interest;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;A-ha-a-a,
+      Billy Patterson!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tenors:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;For.
+      It he dies, I'll tan his skin;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; An' if
+      he lives I'll ride him agin,&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All-together, with a furious &ldquo;break down&rdquo; at the close:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;Then I'll
+      lay five dollars down,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And count
+      them one by one;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Then I'll
+      lay five dollars down,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If anybody
+      will show me the man
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; That struck
+      Billy Patterson.&rdquo; <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on. It used to upset my gravity entirely to see a crowd of grave
+      and dignified Captains, Majors and Colonels going through this nonsensical
+      drollery with all the abandon of professional burnt-cork artists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we were nearing the entrance to Chesapeake Bay we passed a great
+      monitor, who was exercising her crew at the guns. She fired directly
+      across our course, the huge four hundred pound balls shipping along the
+      water, about a mile ahead of us, as we boys used to make the flat stones
+      skip in the play of &ldquo;Ducks and Drakes.&rdquo; One or two of the
+      shots came so. close that I feared she might be mistaking us for a Rebel
+      ship intent on some raid up the Bay, and I looked up anxiously to see that
+      the flag should float out so conspicuously that she could not help seeing
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day our vessel ran alongside of the dock at the Naval Academy at
+      Annapolis, that institution now being used as a hospital for paroled
+      prisoners. The musicians of the Post band came down with stretchers to
+      carry the sick to the Hospital, while those of us who were able to walk
+      were ordered to fall in and march up. The distance was but a few hundred
+      yards. On reaching the building we marched up on a little balcony, and as
+      we did so each one of us was seized by a hospital attendant, who, with the
+      quick dexterity attained by long practice, snatched every one of our
+      filthy, lousy rags off in the twinkling of an eye, and flung them over the
+      railing to the ground, where a man loaded them into a wagon with a
+      pitchfork.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With them went our faithful little black can, our hoop-iron spoon, and our
+      chessboard and men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus entirely denuded, each boy was given a shove which sent him into a
+      little room, where a barber pressed him down upon a stool, and almost
+      before he understood what was being done, had his hair and beard cut off
+      as close as shears would do it. Another tap on the back sent the shorn
+      lamb into a room furnished with great tubs of water and with about six
+      inches of soap suds on the zinc-covered floor. <br><br><br><br> <a
+      name="p624" id="p624"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p624.jpg (21K)" src="images/p624.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another minute two men with sponges had removed every trace of prison
+      grime from his body, and passed him on to two more men, who wiped him dry,
+      and moved him on to where a man handed him a new shirt, a pair of drawers,
+      pair of socks, pair of pantaloons, pair of slippers, and a hospital gown,
+      and motioned him to go on into the large room, and array himself in his
+      new garments. Like everything else about the Hospital this performance was
+      reduced to a perfect system. Not a word was spoken by anybody, not a
+      moment's time lost, and it seemed to me that it was not ten minutes
+      after I marched up on the balcony, covered with dirt, rags, vermin, and a
+      matted shock of hair, until I marched out of the room, clean and well
+      clothed. Now I began to feel as if I was really a man again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next thing done was to register our names, rank, regiment, when and
+      where captured, when and where released. After this we were shown to our
+      rooms. And such rooms as they were. All the old maids in the country could
+      not have improved their spick-span neatness. The floors were as white as
+      pine plank could be scoured; the sheets and bedding as clean as cotton and
+      linen and woolen could be washed. Nothing in any home in the land was any
+      more daintily, wholesomely, unqualifiedly clean than were these little
+      chambers, each containing two beds, one for each man assigned to their
+      occupancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrews doubted if we could stand all this radical change in our habits.
+      He feared that it was rushing things too fast. We might have had our hair
+      cut one week, and taken a bath all over a week later, and so progress down
+      to sleeping between white sheets in the course of six months, but to do it
+      all in one day seemed like tempting fate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every turn showed us some new feature of the marvelous order of this
+      wonderful institution. Shortly after we were sent to our rooms, a Surgeon
+      entered with a Clerk. After answering the usual questions as to name,
+      rank, company and regiment, the Surgeon examined our tongues, eyes, limbs
+      and general appearance, and communicated his conclusions to the Clerk, who
+      filled out a blank card. This card was stuck into a little tin holder at
+      the head of my bed. Andrews's card was the same, except the name.
+      The Surgeon was followed by a Sergeant, who was Chief of the Dining-Room,
+      and the Clerk, who made a minute of the diet ordered for us, and moved
+      off. Andrews and I immediately became very solicitous to know what species
+      of diet No. 1 was. After the seasickness left us our appetites became as
+      ravenous as a buzz-saw, and unless Diet No. 1 was more than No. 1 in name,
+      it would not fill the bill. We had not long to remain in suspense, for
+      soon another non-commissioned officer passed through at the head of a
+      train of attendants, bearing trays. Consulting the list in his hand, he
+      said to one of his followers, &ldquo;Two No. 1's,&rdquo; and that
+      satellite set down two large plates, upon each of which were a cup of
+      coffee, a shred of meat, two boiled eggs and a couple of rolls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Andrews, as the procession moved away, &ldquo;I
+      want to know where this thing's going to stop. I am trying hard to
+      get used to wearing a shirt without any lice in it, and to sitting down on
+      a chair, and to sleeping in a clean bed, but when it comes to having my
+      meals sent to my room, I'm afraid I'll degenerate into a
+      pampered child of luxury. They are really piling it on too strong. Let us
+      see, Mc.; how long's it been since we were sitting on the sand there
+      in Florence, boiling our pint of meal in that old can?&rdquo; <br><br><br><br>
+      <a name="p626" id="p626"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p626.jpg (52K)" src="images/p626.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems many years, Lale,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;but for heaven's
+      sake let us try to forget it as soon as possible. We will always remember
+      too much of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And we did try hard to make the miserable recollections fade out of our
+      minds. When we were stripped on the balcony we threw away every visible
+      token that could remind us of the hateful experience we had passed
+      through. We did not retain a scrap of paper or a relic to recall the
+      unhappy past. We loathed everything connected with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The days that followed were very happy ones. The Paymaster came around and
+      paid us each two months' pay and twenty-five cents a day &ldquo;ration
+      money&rdquo; for every day we had been in prison. This gave Andrews and I
+      about one hundred and sixty-five dollars apiece&mdash;an abundance of
+      spending money. Uncle Sam was very kind and considerate to his soldier
+      nephews, and the Hospital authorities neglected nothing that would add to
+      our comfort. The superbly-kept grounds of the Naval Academy were renewing
+      the freshness of their loveliness under the tender wooing of the advancing
+      Spring, and every step one sauntered through them was a new delight. A
+      magnificent band gave us sweet music morning and evening. Every dispatch
+      from the South told of the victorious progress of our arms, and the rapid
+      approach of the close of the struggle. All we had to do was to enjoy the
+      goods the gods were showering upon us, and we did so with appreciative,
+      thankful hearts. After awhile all able to travel were given furloughs of
+      thirty days to visit their homes, with instructions to report at the
+      expiration of their leaves of absence to the camps of rendezvous nearest
+      their homes, and we separated, nearly every man going in a different
+      direction. <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [CHAPTER LXXXI. Written by a Rev. Sheppard and omitted in this edition.]
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch82" id="ch82"></a>CHAPTER LXXXII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      CAPTAIN WIRZ THE ONLY ONE OF THE PRISON-KEEPERS PUNISHED&mdash;HIS ARREST,
+      TRIAL AND EXECUTION.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all those more or less concerned in the barbarities practiced upon our
+      prisoners, but one&mdash;Captain Henry Wirz&mdash;was punished. The
+      Turners, at Richmond; Lieutenant Boisseux, of Belle Isle; Major Gee, of
+      Salisbury; Colonel Iverson and Lieutenant Barrett, of Florence; and the
+      many brutal miscreants about Andersonville, escaped scot free. What became
+      of them no one knows; they were never heard of after the close of the war.
+      They had sense enough to retire into obscurity, and stay there, and this
+      saved their lives, for each one of them had made deadly enemies among
+      those whom they had maltreated, who, had they known where they were, would
+      have walked every step of the way thither to kill them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Confederacy went to pieces in April, 1865, Wirz was still at
+      Andersonville. General Wilson, commanding our cavalry forces, and who had
+      established his headquarters at Macon, Ga., learned of this, and sent one
+      of his staff&mdash;Captain H. E. Noyes, of the Fourth Regular Cavalry
+      &mdash;with a squad. of men, to arrest him. This was done on the 7th of
+      May. Wirz protested against his arrest, claiming that he was protected by
+      the terms of Johnson's surrender, and, addressed the following
+      letter to General Wilson: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ANDERSONVILLE,
+      GA., May 7, 1865.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      GENERAL:&mdash;It is with great reluctance that I address you these lines,
+      being fully aware how little time is left you to attend to such matters as
+      I now have the honor to lay before you, and if I could see any other way
+      to accomplish my object I would not intrude upon you. I am a native of
+      Switzerland, and was before the war a citizen of Louisiana, and by
+      profession a physician. Like hundreds and thousands of others, I was
+      carried away by the maelstrom of excitement and joined the Southern army.
+      I was very severely wounded at the battle of &ldquo;Seven Pines,&rdquo;
+      near Richmond, Va., and have nearly lost the use of my right arm. Unfit
+      for field duty, I was ordered to report to Brevet Major General John H.
+      Winder, in charge of the Federal prisoners of war, who ordered me to take
+      charge of a prison in Tuscaloosa, Ala. My health failing me, I applied for
+      a furlough and went to Europe, from whence I returned in February, 1864. I
+      was then ordered to report to the commandant of the military prison at
+      Andersonville, Ga., who assigned me to the command of the interior of the
+      prison. The duties I had to perform were arduous and unpleasant, and I am
+      satisfied that no man can or will justly blame me for things that happened
+      here, and which were beyond my power to control. I do not think that I
+      ought to be held responsible for the shortness of rations, for the
+      overcrowded state of the prison, (which was of itself a prolific source of
+      fearful mortality), for the inadequate supply of clothing, want of
+      shelter, etc., etc. Still I now bear the odium, and men who were prisoners
+      have seemed disposed to wreak their vengeance upon me for what they have
+      suffered&mdash;I, who was only the medium, or, I may better say, the tool
+      in the hands of my superiors. This is my condition. I am a man with a
+      family. I lost all my property when the Federal army besieged Vicksburg. I
+      have no money at present to go to any place, and, even if I had, I know of
+      no place where I can go. My life is in danger, and I most respectfully ask
+      of you help and relief. If you will be so generous as to give me some sort
+      of a safe conduct, or, what I should greatly prefer, a guard to protect
+      myself and family against violence, I should be thankful to you, and you
+      may rest assured that your protection will not be given to one who is
+      unworthy of it. My intention is to return with my family to Europe, as
+      soon as I can make the arrangements. In the meantime I have the honor
+      General, to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hy. WIRZ,
+      Captain C. S. A.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major General T. H. WILSON,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Commanding, Macon. Ga.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was kept at Macon, under guard, until May 20, when Captain Noyes was
+      ordered to take him, and the hospital records of Andersonville, to
+      Washington. Between Macon and Cincinnati the journey was a perfect
+      gauntlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our men were stationed all along the road, and among them everywhere were
+      ex-prisoners, who recognized Wirz, and made such determined efforts to
+      kill him that it was all that Captain Noyes, backed by a strong guard,
+      could do to frustrate them. At Chattanooga and Nashville the struggle
+      between his guards and his would-be slayers, was quite sharp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Louisville, Noyes had Wirz clean-shaved, and dressed in a complete suit
+      of black, with a beaver hat, which so altered his appearance that no one
+      recognized him after that, and the rest of the journey was made
+      unmolested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The authorities at Washington ordered that he be tried immediately, by a
+      court martial composed of Generals Lewis Wallace, Mott, Geary, L. Thomas,
+      Fessenden, Bragg and Baller, Colonel Allcock, and Lieutenant-Colonel
+      Stibbs. Colonel Chipman was Judge Advocate, and the trial began August 23.
+      <br><br><br><br> <a name="p642" id="p642"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p642.jpg (53K)" src="images/p642.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoner was arraigned on a formidable list of charges and
+      specifications, which accused him of &ldquo;combining, confederating, and
+      conspiring together with John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Isaiah II.
+      White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Stevenson and others unknown, to injure the
+      health and destroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the
+      United States, there held, and being prisoners of war within the lines of
+      the so-called Confederate States, and in the military prisons thereof, to
+      the end that the armies of the United States might be weakened and
+      impaired, in violation of the laws and customs of war.&rdquo; The main
+      facts of the dense over-crowding, the lack of sufficient shelter, the
+      hideous mortality were cited, and to these added a long list of specific
+      acts of brutality, such as hunting men down with hounds, tearing them with
+      dogs, robbing them, confining them in the stocks, cruelly beating and
+      murdering them, of which Wirz was personally guilty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the defendant was called upon to plead he claimed that his case was
+      covered by the terms of Johnston's surrender, and furthermore, that
+      the country now being at peace, he could not be lawfully tried by a
+      court-martial. These objections being overruled, he entered a plea of not
+      guilty to all the charges and specifications. He had two lawyers for
+      counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prosecution called Captain Noyes first, who detailed the circumstances
+      of Wirz's arrest, and denied that he had given any promises of
+      protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next witness was Colonel George C. Gibbs, who commanded the troops of
+      the post at Andersonville. He testified that Wirz was the commandant of
+      the prison, and had sole authority under Winder over all the prisoners;
+      that there was a Dead Line there, and orders to shoot any one who crossed
+      it; that dogs were kept to hunt down escaping prisoners; the dogs were the
+      ordinary plantation dogs, mixture of hound and cur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. J. C. Bates, who was a Surgeon of the Prison Hospital, (a Rebel),
+      testified that the condition of things in his division was horrible.
+      Nearly naked men, covered with lice, were dying on all sides. Many were
+      lying in the filthy sand and mud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on and described the terrible condition of men&mdash;dying from
+      scurvy, diarrhea, gangrenous sores, and lice. He wanted to carry in fresh
+      vegetables for the sick, but did not dare, the orders being very strict
+      against such thing. He thought the prison authorities might easily have
+      sent in enough green corn to have stopped the scurvy; the miasmatic
+      effluvia from the prison was exceedingly offensive and poisonous, so much
+      so that when the surgeons received a slight scratch on their persons, they
+      carefully covered it up with court plaster, before venturing near the
+      prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A number of other Rebel Surgeons testified to substantially the same
+      facts. Several residents of that section of the State testified to the
+      plentifulness of the crops there in 1864.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In addition to these, about one hundred and fifty Union prisoners were
+      examined, who testified to all manner of barbarities which had come under
+      their personal observation. They had all seen Wirz shoot men, had seen him
+      knock sick and crippled men down and stamp upon them, had been run down by
+      him with hounds, etc. Their testimony occupies about two thousand pages of
+      manuscript, and is, without doubt, the most, terrible record of crime ever
+      laid to the account of any man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The taking of this testimony occupied until October 18, when the
+      Government decided to close the case, as any further evidence would be
+      simply cumulative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoner presented a statement in which he denied that there had been
+      an accomplice in a conspiracy of John H. Winder and others, to destroy the
+      lives of United States soldiers; he also denied that there had been such a
+      conspiracy, but made the pertinent inquiry why he alone, of all those who
+      were charged with the conspiracy, was brought to trial. He said that
+      Winder has gone to the great judgment seat, to answer for all his
+      thoughts, words and deeds, &ldquo;and surely I am not to be held culpable
+      for them. General Howell Cobb has received the pardon of the President of
+      the United States.&rdquo; He further claimed that there was no principle
+      of law which would sanction the holding of him&mdash;a mere subordinate
+      &mdash;guilty, for simply obeying, as literally as possible, the orders of
+      his superiors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He denied all the specific acts of cruelty alleged against him, such as
+      maltreating and killing prisoners with his own hands. The prisoners killed
+      for crossing the Dead Line, he claimed, should not be charged against him,
+      since they were simply punished for the violation of a known order which
+      formed part of the discipline, he believed, of all military prisons. The
+      statement that soldiers were given a furlough for killing a Yankee
+      prisoner, was declared to be &ldquo;a mere idle, absurd camp rumor.&rdquo;
+      As to the lack of shelter, room and rations for so many prisoners, he
+      claimed that the sole responsibility rested upon the Confederate
+      Government. There never were but two prisoners whipped by his order, and
+      these were for sufficient cause. He asked the Court to consider favorably
+      two important items in his defense: first, that he had of his own accord
+      taken the drummer boys from the Stockade, and placed them where they could
+      get purer air and better food. Second, that no property taken from
+      prisoners was retained by him, but was turned over to the Prison
+      Quartermaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Court, after due deliberation, declared the prisoner guilty on all the
+      charges and specifications save two unimportant ones, and sentenced him to
+      be hanged by the neck until dead, at such time and place as the President
+      of the United States should direct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November 3 President Johnson approved of the sentence, and ordered Major
+      General C. C. Augur to carry the same into effect on Friday, November 10,
+      which was done. The prisoner made frantic appeals against the sentence; he
+      wrote imploring letters to President Johnson, and lying ones to the New
+      York News, a Rebel paper. It is said that his wife attempted to convey
+      poison to him, that he might commit suicide and avoid the ignomy of being
+      hanged. When all hope was gone he nerved himself up to meet his fate, and
+      died, as thousands of other scoundrels have, with calmness. His body was
+      buried in the grounds of the Old Capitol Prison, alongside of that of
+      Azterodt, one of the accomplices in the assassination of President
+      Lincoln. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p643" id="p643"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p643.jpg (45K)" src="images/p643.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br><br><br><br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      <a name="ch83" id="ch83"></a>CHAPTER LXXXIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE RESPONSIBILITY&mdash;WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR ALL THE MISERY&mdash;AN
+      EXAMINATION OF THE FLIMSY EXCUSES MADE FOR THE REBELS&mdash;ONE DOCUMENT
+      THAT CONVICTS THEM&mdash;WHAT IS DESIRED.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have endeavored to tell the foregoing story as calmly, as
+      dispassionately, as free from vituperation and prejudice as possible. How
+      well I have succeeded the reader must judge. How difficult this moderation
+      has been at times only those know who, like myself, have seen, from day to
+      day, the treason-sharpened fangs of Starvation and Disease gnaw nearer and
+      nearer to the hearts of well-beloved friends and comrades. Of the
+      sixty-three of my company comrades who entered prison with me, but eleven,
+      or at most thirteen, emerged alive, and several of these have since died
+      from the effects of what they suffered. The mortality in the other
+      companies of our battalion was equally great, as it was also with the
+      prisoners generally. Not less than twenty-five thousand gallant,
+      noble-hearted boys died around me between the dates of my capture and
+      release. Nobler men than they never died for any cause. For the most part
+      they were simple-minded, honest-hearted boys; the sterling products of our
+      Northern home-life, and Northern Common Schools, and that grand stalwart
+      Northern blood, the yeoman blood of sturdy middle class freemen&mdash;the
+      blood of the race which has conquered on every field since the Roman
+      Empire went down under its sinewy blows. They prated little of honor, and
+      knew nothing of &ldquo;chivalry&rdquo; except in its repulsive travesty in
+      the South. As citizens at home, no honest labor had been regarded by them
+      as too humble to be followed with manly pride in its success; as soldiers
+      in the field, they did their duty with a calm defiance of danger and
+      death, that the world has not seen equaled in the six thousand years that
+      men have followed the trade of war. In the prison their conduct was marked
+      by the same unostentatious but unflinching heroism. Death stared them in
+      the face constantly. They could read their own fate in that of the
+      loathsome, unburied dead all around them. Insolent enemies mocked their
+      sufferings, and sneered at their devotion to a Government which they
+      asserted had abandoned them, but the simple faith, the ingrained honesty
+      of these plain-mannered, plain-spoken boys rose superior to every trial.
+      Brutus, the noblest Roman of them all, says in his grandest flight: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Set honor in
+      one eye and death in the other,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And I will
+      look on both indifferently. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They did not say this: they did it. They never questioned their duty; no
+      repinings, no murmurings against their Government escaped their lips, they
+      took the dread fortunes brought to them as calmly, as unshrinkingly as
+      they had those in the field; they quailed not, nor wavered in their faith
+      before the worst the Rebels could do. The finest epitaph ever inscribed
+      above a soldier's grave was that graven on the stone which marked
+      the resting-place of the deathless three hundred who fell at Thermopylae:
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Go, stranger,
+      to Lacedaemon,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And tell
+      Sparta that we lie here in obedience to her laws. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They who lie in the shallow graves of Andersonville, Belle Isle, Florence
+      and Salisbury, lie there in obedience to the precepts and maxims
+      inculcated into their minds in the churches and Common Schools of the
+      North; precepts which impressed upon them the duty of manliness and honor
+      in all the relations and exigencies of life; not the &ldquo;chivalric&rdquo;
+      prate of their enemies, but the calm steadfastness which endureth to the
+      end. The highest tribute that can be paid them is to say they did full
+      credit to their teachings, and they died as every American should when
+      duty bids him. No richer heritage was ever bequeathed to posterity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the year 1864, and the first three months of 1865 that these
+      twenty-five thousand youths mere cruelly and needlessly done to death. In
+      these fatal fifteen months more young men than to-day form the pride, the
+      hope, and the vigor of any one of our leading Cities, more than at the
+      beginning of the war were found in either of several States in the Nation,
+      were sent to their graves, &ldquo;unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown,&rdquo;
+      victims of the most barbarous and unnecessary cruelty recorded since the
+      Dark Ages. Barbarous, because the wit of man has not yet devised a more
+      savage method of destroying fellow-beings than by exposure and starvation;
+      unnecessary, because the destruction of these had not, and could not have
+      the slightest effect upon the result of the struggle. The Rebel leaders
+      have acknowledged that they knew the fate of the Confederacy was sealed
+      when the campaign of 1864 opened with the North displaying an unflinching
+      determination to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion. All that
+      they could hope for after that was some fortuitous accident, or unexpected
+      foreign recognition that would give them peace with victory. The prisoners
+      were non-important factors in the military problem. Had they all been
+      turned loose as soon as captured, their efforts would not have hastened
+      the Confederacy's fate a single day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the responsibility for this monstrous cataclysm of human misery and
+      death: That the great mass of the Southern people approved of these
+      outrages, or even knew of them, I do not, for an instant, believe. They
+      are as little capable of countenancing such a thing as any people in the
+      world. But the crowning blemish of Southern society has ever been the dumb
+      acquiescence of the many respectable, well-disposed, right-thinking people
+      in the acts of the turbulent and unscrupulous few. From this direful
+      spring has flowed an Iliad of unnumbered woes, not only to that section
+      but to our common country. It was this that kept the South vibrating
+      between patriotism and treason during the revolution, so that it cost more
+      lives and treasure to maintain the struggle there than in all the rest of
+      the country. It was this that threatened the dismemberment of the Union in
+      1832. It was this that aggravated and envenomed every wrong growing out of
+      Slavery; that outraged liberty, debauched citizenship, plundered the
+      mails, gagged the press, stiffled speech, made opinion a crime, polluted
+      the free soil of God with the unwilling step of the bondman, and at last
+      crowned three-quarters of a century of this unparalleled iniquity by
+      dragging eleven millions of people into a war from which their souls
+      revolted, and against which they had declared by overwhelming majorities
+      in every State except South Carolina, where the people had no voice. It
+      may puzzle some to understand how a relatively small band of political
+      desperados in each State could accomplish such a momentous wrong; that
+      they did do it, no one conversant with our history will deny, and that
+      they&mdash;insignificant as they were in numbers, in abilities, in
+      character, in everything save capacity and indomitable energy in mischief&mdash;could
+      achieve such gigantic wrongs in direct opposition to the better sense of
+      their communities is a fearful demonstration of the defects of the
+      constitution of Southern society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men capable of doing all that the Secession leaders were guilty of&mdash;both
+      before and during the war&mdash;were quite capable of revengefully
+      destroying twenty-five thousand of their enemies by the most hideous means
+      at their command. That they did so set about destroying their enemies,
+      wilfully, maliciously, and with malice prepense and aforethought, is
+      susceptible of proof as conclusive as that which in a criminal court sends
+      murderers to the gallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us examine some of these proofs:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The terrible mortality at Andersonville and elsewhere was a matter of
+      as much notoriety throughout the Southern Confederacy as the military
+      operations of Lee and Johnson. No intelligent man&mdash;much less the
+      Rebel leaders&mdash;was ignorant of it nor of its calamitous proportions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Had the Rebel leaders within a reasonable time after this matter became
+      notorious made some show of inquiring into and alleviating the deadly
+      misery, there might be some excuse for them on the ground of lack of
+      information, and the plea that they did as well as they could would have
+      some validity. But this state of affairs was allowed to continue over a
+      year&mdash;in fact until the downfall of the Confederacy&mdash;without a
+      hand being raised to mitigate the horrors of those places&mdash;without
+      even an inquiry being made as to whether they were mitigable or not. Still
+      worse: every month saw the horrors thicken, and the condition of the
+      prisoners become more wretched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The suffering in May, 1864, was more terrible than in April; June showed a
+      frightful increase over May, while words fail to paint the horrors of July
+      and August, and so the wretchedness waxed until the end, in April, 1865.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. The main causes of suffering and death were so obviously preventible
+      that the Rebel leaders could not have been ignorant of the ease with which
+      a remedy could be applied. These main causes were three in number:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a. Improper
+      and insufficient food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b. Unheard-of
+      crowding together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;c. Utter lack
+      of shelter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is difficult to say which of these three was the most deadly. Let us
+      admit, for the sake of argument, that it was impossible for the Rebels to
+      supply sufficient and proper food. This admission, I know, will not stand
+      for an instant in the face of the revelations made by Sherman's
+      March to the Sea; and through the Carolinas, but let that pass, that we
+      may consider more easily demonstrable facts connected with the next two
+      propositions, the first of which is as to the crowding together. Was land
+      so scarce in the Southern Confederacy that no more than sixteen acres
+      could be spared for the use of thirty-five thousand prisoners? The State
+      of Georgia has a population of less than one-sixth that of New York,
+      scattered over a territory one-quarter greater than that State's,
+      and yet a pitiful little tract&mdash;less than the corn-patch &ldquo;clearing&rdquo;
+      of the laziest &ldquo;cracker&rdquo; in the State&mdash;was all that could
+      be allotted to the use of three-and-a-half times ten thousand young men!
+      The average population of the State does not exceed sixteen to the square
+      mile, yet Andersonville was peopled at the rate of one million four
+      hundred thousand to the square mile. With millions of acres of unsettled,
+      useless, worthless pine barrens all around them, the prisoners were wedged
+      together so closely that there was scarcely room to lie down at night, and
+      a few had space enough to have served as a grave. This, too, in a country
+      where the land was of so little worth that much of it had never been
+      entered from the Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as to shelter and fire: Each of the prisons was situated in the
+      heart of a primeval forest, from which the first trees that had ever been
+      cut were those used in building the pens. Within a gun-shot of the
+      perishing men was an abundance of lumber and wood to have built every man
+      in prison a warm, comfortable hut, and enough fuel to supply all his
+      wants. Supposing even, that the Rebels did not have the labor at hand to
+      convert these forests into building material and fuel, the prisoners
+      themselves would have gladly undertaken the work, as a means of promoting
+      their own comfort, and for occupation and exercise. No tools would have
+      been too poor and clumsy for them to work with. When logs were
+      occasionally found or brought into prison, men tore them to pieces almost
+      with their naked fingers. Every prisoner will bear me out in the assertion
+      that there was probably not a root as large as a bit of clothes-line in
+      all the ground covered by the prisons, that eluded the faithfully eager
+      search of freezing men for fuel. What else than deliberate design can
+      account for this systematic withholding from the prisoners of that which
+      was so essential to their existence, and which it was so easy to give
+      them?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This much for the circumstantial evidence connecting the Rebel authorities
+      with the premeditated plan for destroying the prisoners. Let us examine
+      the direct evidence:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first feature is the assignment to the command of the prisons of
+      &ldquo;General&rdquo; John H. Winder, the confidential friend of Mr.
+      Jefferson Davis, and a man so unscrupulous, cruel and bloody-thirsty that
+      at the time of his appointment he was the most hated and feared man in the
+      Southern Confederacy. His odious administration of the odious office of
+      Provost Marshal General showed him to be fittest of tools for their
+      purpose. Their selection&mdash;considering the end in view, was eminently
+      wise. Baron Haynau was made eternally infamous by a fraction of the wanton
+      cruelties which load the memory of Winder. But it can be said in
+      extenuation of Haynau's offenses that he was a brave, skilful and
+      energetic soldier, who overthrew on the field the enemies he maltreated.
+      If Winder, at any time during the war, was nearer the front than Richmond,
+      history does not mention it. Haynau was the bastard son of a German
+      Elector and of the daughter of a village, druggist. Winder was the son of
+      a sham aristocrat, whose cowardice and incompetence in the war of 1812
+      gave Washington into the hands of the British ravagers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is sufficient indication of this man's character that he could
+      look unmoved upon the terrible suffering that prevailed in Andersonville
+      in June, July, and August; that he could see three thousand men die each
+      month in the most horrible manner, without lifting a finger in any way to
+      assist them; that he could call attention in a self-boastful way to the
+      fact that &ldquo;I am killing off more Yankees than twenty regiments in
+      Lee's Army,&rdquo; and that he could respond to the suggestions of
+      the horror-struck visiting Inspector that the prisoners be given at least
+      more room, with the assertion that he intended to leave matters just as
+      they were&mdash;the operations of death would soon thin out the crowd so
+      that the survivors would have sufficient room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Winder who issued this order to the Commander of the Artillery:
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ORDER No. 13.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; HEADQUARTERS
+      MILITARY PRISON,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+      ANDERSONVILLE, Ga., July 27, 1864. <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officers on duty and in charge of the Battery of Florida Artillery at
+      the time will, upon receiving notice that the enemy has approached within
+      seven miles of this post, open upon the Stockade with grapeshot, without
+      reference to the situation beyond these lines of defense. <br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; JOHN H.
+      WINDER,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Brigadier
+      General Commanding. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Diabolical is the only word that will come at all near fitly
+      characterizing such an infamous order. What must have been the nature of a
+      man who would calmly order twenty-five guns to be opened with grape and
+      canister at two hundred yards range, upon a mass of thirty thousand
+      prisoners, mostly sick and dying! All this, rather than suffer them to be
+      rescued by their friends. Can there be any terms of reprobation
+      sufficiently strong to properly denounce so malignant a monster? History
+      has no parallel to him, save among the blood-reveling kings of Dahomey, or
+      those sanguinary Asiatic chieftains who built pyramids of human skulls,
+      and paved roads with men's bones. How a man bred an American came to
+      display such a Timour-like thirst for human life, such an Oriental
+      contempt for the sufferings of others, is one of the mysteries that
+      perplexes me the more I study it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the Rebel leaders who appointed this man, to whom he reported direct,
+      without intervention of superior officers, and who were fully informed of
+      all his acts through other sources than himself, were not responsible for
+      him, who in Heaven's name was? How can there be a possibility that
+      they were not cognizant and approving of his acts?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rebels have attempted but one defense to the terrible charges against
+      them, and that is, that our Government persistently refused to exchange,
+      preferring to let its men rot in prison, to yielding up the Rebels it
+      held. This is so utterly false as to be absurd. Our Government made
+      overture after overture for exchange to the Rebels, and offered to yield
+      many of the points of difference. But it could not, with the least
+      consideration for its own honor, yield up the negro soldiers and their
+      officers to the unrestrained brutality of the Rebel authorities, nor could
+      it, consistent with military prudence, parole the one hundred thousand
+      well-fed, well-clothed, able-bodied Rebels held by it as prisoners, and
+      let them appear inside of a week in front of Grant or Sherman. Until it
+      would agree to do this the Rebels would not agree to exchange, and the
+      only motive&mdash;save revenge&mdash;which could have inspired the Rebel
+      maltreatment of the prisoners, was the expectation of raising such a
+      clamor in the North as would force the Government to consent to a
+      disadvantageous exchange, and to give back to the Confederacy, at its most
+      critical period one hundred thousand fresh, able-bodied soldiers. It was
+      for this purpose, probably, that our Government and the Sanitary
+      Commission were refused all permission to send us food and clothing. For
+      my part, and I know I echo the feelings of ninety-nine out of every
+      hundred of my comrades, I would rather have staid in prison till I rotted,
+      than that our Government should have yielded to the degrading demands of
+      insolent Rebels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is one document in the possession of the Government which seems to
+      me to be unanswerable proof, both of the settled policy of the Richmond
+      Government towards the Union prisoners, and of the relative merits of
+      Northern and Southern treatment of captives. The document is a letter
+      reading as follows: <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; CITY POINT,
+      Va., March 17, 1863.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR:&mdash;A flag-of-truce boat has arrived with three hundred and fifty
+      political prisoners, General Barrow and several other prominent men among
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish you to send me on four o'clock Wednesday morning, all the
+      military prisoners (except officers), and all the political prisoners you
+      have. If any of the political prisoners have on hand proof enough to
+      convict them of being spies, or of having committed other offenses which
+      should subject them to punishment, so state opposite their names. Also,
+      state whether you think, under all the circumstances, they should be
+      released. The arrangement I have made works largely in our favor. WE GET
+      RID OF A SET OF MISERABLE WRETCHES, AND RECEIVE SOME OF THE BEST MATERIAL
+      I EVER SAW.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tell Captain Turner to put down on the list of political prisoners the
+      names of Edward P. Eggling, and Eugenia Hammermister. The President is
+      anxious that they should get off. They are here now. This, of course, is
+      between ourselves. If you have any political prisoners whom you can send
+      off safely to keep her company, I would like you to send her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hundred and odd more political prisoners are on their way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I would be more full in my communication if I had time. Yours truly,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ROBERT OULD,
+      Commissioner of Exchange. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Brigadier general John H. Winder. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, supposing that our Government, for good military reasons, or for no
+      reason at all, declined to exchange prisoners, what possible excuse is
+      that for slaughtering them by exquisite tortures? Every Government has ap
+      unquestioned right to decline exchanging when its military policy suggests
+      such a course; and such declination conveys no right whatever to the enemy
+      to slay those prisoners, either outright with the edge of the sword, or
+      more slowly by inhuman treatment. The Rebels' attempts to justify
+      their conduct, by the claim that our Government refused to accede to their
+      wishes in a certain respect, is too preposterous to be made or listened to
+      by intelligent men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole affair is simply inexcusable, and stands out a foul blot on the
+      memory of every Rebel in high place in the Confederate Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vengeance is mine,&rdquo; saith the Lord, and by Him must this
+      great crime be avenged, if it ever is avenged. It certainly transcends all
+      human power. I have seen little indication of any Divine interposition to
+      mete out, at least on this earth, adequate punishment to those who were
+      the principal agents in that iniquity. Howell Cobb died as peacefully in
+      his bed as any Christian in the land, and with as few apparent twinges of
+      remorse as if he had spent his life in good deeds and prayer. The
+      arch-fiend Winder died in equal tranquility, murmuring some cheerful hope
+      as to his soul's future. Not one of the ghosts of his hunger-slain
+      hovered around to embitter his dying moments, as he had theirs. Jefferson
+      Davis &ldquo;still lives, a prosperous gentleman,&rdquo; the idol of a
+      large circle of adherents, the recipient of real estate favors from
+      elderly females of morbid sympathies, and a man whose mouth is full of
+      plaints of his wrongs, and misappreciation. The rest of the leading
+      conspirators have either departed this life in the odor of sanctity,
+      surrounded by sorrowing friends, or are gliding serenely down the mellow
+      autumnal vale of a benign old age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only Wirz&mdash;small, insignificant, miserable Wirz, the underling, the
+      tool, the servile, brainless, little fetcher-and-carrier of these men, was
+      punished&mdash;was hanged, and upon the narrow shoulders of this pitiful
+      scapegoat was packed the entire sin of Jefferson Davis and his crew. What
+      a farce!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A petty little Captain made to expiate the crimes of Generals, Cabinet
+      Officers, and a President. How absurd!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I do not ask for vengeance. I do not ask for retribution for one of
+      those thousands of dead comrades, the glitter of whose sightless eyes will
+      follow me through life. I do not desire even justice on the still living
+      authors and accomplices in the deep damnation of their taking off. I
+      simply ask that the great sacrifices of my dead comrades shall not be
+      suffered to pass unregarded to irrevocable oblivion; that the example of
+      their heroic self-abnegation shall not be lost, but the lesson it teaches
+      be preserved and inculcated into the minds of their fellow-countrymen,
+      that future generations may profit by it, and others be as ready to die
+      for right and honor and good government as they were. And it seems to me
+      that if we are to appreciate their virtues, we must loathe and hold up to
+      opprobrium those evil men whose malignity made all their sacrifices
+      necessary. I cannot understand what good self-sacrifice and heroic example
+      are to serve in this world, if they are to be followed by such a maudlin
+      confusion of ideas as now threatens to obliterate all distinction between
+      the men who fought and died for the Right and those who resisted them for
+      the Wrong. <br><br><br><br> <a name="p655" id="p655"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="p655.jpg (69K)" src="images/p655.jpg"><br>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END. <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDERSONVILLE, COMPLETE ***</div>
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 05:20:26 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 05:20:26 -0700
commit	aa2281370d18061d04a8156602e46cc09b98aa9f (patch)
tree	b576a5c9fbbd32f5db2407bd11cce4a92cfcc312 /3072-h