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attention. I only remained here
a week, when my chills being checked, I was conveyed to a convalescent
hospital three miles from the city, where my medical attention
was also good. This hospital was in charge of G. R. C. Todd,
a brother-in-law of President Lincoln. The doctor was an ardent
rebel, and one incident occurred there which I shall not soon
forget. A colored prisoner, belonging to a Massachusetts regiment,
who had been taken at Fort Wagner, was accused by the guard of
spitting from the portico of the building down into the yard,
and without any investigation whatever, the doctor caused him
to be stripped and tied, and receive thirty lashes on his naked
back. The indignation of our sick prisoners was intense at this
brutal treatment inflicted by the hand of a man far inferior to
the negro, for the latter could read and write, while the other
could do neither, and could scarcely tell his name. The negro
was a prisoner of war, born and educated in a free State, and
he was entitled to the same protection and treatment that we were,
and the doctor could assign no other reason for his violation
of the rules of warfare, than that the boy was a "d—d nigger."
But perhaps the doctor will apply for pardon now.
I only remained at this convalescent hospital about
ten days when I was sent back to the prison. In the early part
of October the yellow fever began to spread extensively through
the city, and they decided to send us to Columbia; not so much
for our safety as for their own, for Sherman was facing toward
the coast, and beside
our removal was regarded as a sanitary measure for the city.
As several exchanges had taken place during our stay at Charleston,
our number was now reduced to about twelve hundred, and the most
of us regretted to leave, as our quarters here were more comfortable
than we expected to get by going to Columbia. But soon the order
come, and
we were packed into cattle cars and off for Columbia, a distance
of 134 miles north of Charleston. We arrived at Columbia on the
5th of October, and from thence conveyed three miles west of the
city, where we were placed in an open piece of ground without
any inclosure,
and simply a camp guard thrown around us. All rations of meat
were ordered to be cut off from us and sorghum molasses given
in lieu thereof. Hence we called this "Camp Sorghum."
At this camp we annoyed the rebel officers very much by frequent
escapes and demoralizing the guard. Two more of our number were
shot here without any provocation, while inside the dead-line,
and the guards who committed these outrages, we were informed
by some of the other guards, received promotions for their villainy.
A large majority of the guards were Georgians, and well disposed
toward us. The rebel officers could not always watch them, and
hence escapes were frequent. At this camp many an amusing incident
occured,
one or two of which I propose to introduce in this epistle.
On one occasion, while so many were escaping, the
rebel authorities procured the services of a celebrated negro
hunter, who kept a pair of blood-hounds that he had trained for
hunting down runaway negroes, for the purpose of trailing our
escaped prisoners. As the "dorgs" were trotting around
the guard lines one morning, some of the prisoners called them
into their quarters and cut their throats, and then buried them
in an old well which was was
caved in. About 10 o'clock the dogs were missing, and a
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