TO THE OFFICERS OF THE FEDERAL ARMY WHO HAVE BEEN CAPTURED ON THE BATTLE-FIELD, AND WHO HAVE SUFFERED, WITH HIMSELF, THE PRIVATIONS OF A LINGERING CAPTIVITY IN SOUTHERN PRISONS, These Sketches are Respectfully Dedicated by THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THE following pages are offered to the reading public, with the hope that they will throw some light upon the barbarous treatment we received at the hands of the Rebels. They do not claim to tell all the story of Prison Life, only a part. Others are filling it up, dark and gloomy as is the picture; yet pen and tongue both fail to tell it all. I had no intention of writing a book till we had been several weeks at Columbia, S. C. Having kept both a diary and journal since my capture, upon reading portions of it to some of my fellow-prisoners, they persuaded me to write it out in full. The rough manuscript was mostly written in a brush shanty, sitting flat on the ground, writing on my knee. A portion of that manuscript was brought through the lines by Lieutenant Krohn, 5th New York Cavalry, in December, 1864, by secreting it in the back of his coat. The rest came through in a cotton pillow, in possession of Colonel Warren Shedd, 30th Illinois. The Appendix is principally the work of J. O. Goodrich, Adjutant 85th New York Veteran Volunteers, a Plymouth capture. To these, as well as those officers who have so kindly furnished me with their experience, I return my sincere thanks. Should these pages serve to throw any light upon the question "What shall we do with the Negro ?" I shall feel that my labor has not been in vain. Portageville, N. Y., August, 1865. A. O. A. |