Chapter I: Preface

This narrative of prison life differs from all others that I have seen, in that it is careful to put the best possible construction upon the treatment of Union prisoners by the Confederates, and to state and emphasize kindnesses and courtesies received by us from them.

For the accuracy of the facts stated I am indebted to a diary kept from day to day during the whole of my imprisonment, and to the best obtainable records. The exact language of conversations cannot of course always be remembered, but I aim always to give correctly the substance.

I am aware that the opinions I express in regard to Sheridan's strategy at the Battle of Winchester are not those generally entertained. But I give reasons. His own account of the battle is sadly imperfect. To capture but five guns and nine battle flags at a cost of four thousand six hundred and eighty killed and wounded, and leave almost the entire rebel army in shape to fight two great battles within a month, was not the programme he had planned. Early said "Sheridan should have been cashiered."

I shall be blamed more for venturing to question Lincoln's policy of subjugation. He had proclaimed with great power and in the most unmistakable language in Congress that "any portion of any people had a perfect right to throw off their old government and establish a new one." But now, instead of standing strictly on the defensive, or attempting by diplomacy to settle the conflict which had become virtually international, he entered upon a war of conquest.

I do not blame him for refusing to exchange prisoners, nor President Davis for allowing them to starve and freeze. Both were right, _if war is right_. It was expedient that thirty, fifty, or a hundred thousand of us should perish, or be rendered physically incapable of bearing arms again. The "deep damnation of the taking off" was due not to individual depravity but to military necessity.

H. B. S.
BRIGHTON, MASS., U. S. A.,
_1915_.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE v

CHAPTER I

The First, or Forenoon, Battle of Winchester, Indecisive--Sheridan's
and Early's Mistakes--The Capture 1

CHAPTER II

At Winchester--On the Road thence to Tom's Brook, New Market, and
Staunton 17

CHAPTER III

At Staunton--Thence to Waynesboro, Meacham's, and Richmond 32

CHAPTER IV

At Libby--Thence to Clover, Danville, Greensboro, and
Salisbury--Effort to Pledge us not to Attempt Escape 43

CHAPTER V

At Salisbury--Great Plot to Escape--How Frustrated 60

CHAPTER VI

From Salisbury to Danville--The Forlorn Situation--Effort to
"Extract Sunshine from Cucumbers"--The Vermin--The Prison
Commandant a Yale Man--Proposed Theatricals--Rules
Adopted--Studies--Vote in Prison for Lincoln and
McClellan--Killing Time 77

CHAPTER VII

Exact Record of Rations in Danville--Opportunity to Cook--Daily
Routine of Proceedings from Early Dawn till Late at Night 93

CHAPTER VIII

Continual Hope of Exchange of Prisoners--"Flag-of-Truce
Fever!"--Attempted Escape by Tunneling--Repeated Escapes by
Members of Water Parties, and how we Made the Roll-Call
Sergeant's Count Come Out all Right every Time--Plot to Break
Out by Violence, and its Tragic End 106

CHAPTER IX

Kind Clergymen Visit us and Preach Excellent Discourses--Colonel
Smith's Personal Good Will to me--His Offer--John F. Ficklin's
Charity--My Good Fortune--Supplies of Clothing
Distributed--Deaths in Prison 120

CHAPTER X

Results and Reflections--The Right and the Wrong of it All 138

APPENDIX 153

INDEX 157

Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons

Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons