CONTENTS
PAGE
Introductory[ 11]
Maryland My Native State—Baltimore My Home—Outbreak of Civil War—Leave Sick-bed and Start for Seat of War—Wrecked on Railroad—Gala Days in Richmond—Running the Blockade.
Prison Life in the Old Capitol[ 19]
My Arrest and Imprisonment—Description and History of the Old Capitol—Iron-clad Oath.
Diary Kept During My Imprisonment: Daily Routine—Men I Met There—Stories I Heard There and General Features of Prison Life—Rations, Recreations and Rules—How We Passed Our Time—Fresh Fish—Paroles—Superintendent Wood—Sundays in Prison—Belle Boyd—Gus Williams—Shooting of Prisoners—An Old Schoolmate—Blockade Runners—Outrages on Citizens—Spies and Detectives—Old Men, Women and Children Imprisoned—Western Prisoners—Escape of Prisoners—Overcrowded, Vermin and Smallpox.
Off for Dixie[89]
From Old Capitol to Parole Camp to Await Exchange—Down the Potomac on Flag-of-Truce Boat to Fortress Monroe—Wrecks of United States Warships Sunk in Fight With Confederate Iron-clad Virginia (Merrimac)—Steaming Up James River—Jamestown—Westover, Residence of Colonel William Byrd—City Point as it then Looked—From City Point to Petersburg and Model Farm Barracks, Parole Camp.
Life at Parole Camp[ 98]
Short Rations and Little Comfort—Petersburg in Spring of 1863—Change of Diet; Beans and Brandy—Western Prisoners at Parole Camp Complain of Hardships at Camp Chase, Camp Douglas and Johnson’s Island; Cruelty of Guards and Great Mortality Among Confederate Prisoners—Exchanged and Mustered Into Confederate Service—Bathe in Elk Licking Creek, Where We Left Off Our Bad Habits and With Them a Host of Little Attachments We Could Not Shake Off in Prison—Leave Parole Camp.
Itinerary of Journey from Parole Camp to Upperville[ 108]
Richmond in the Spring of 1863—Gordonsville—Madison Court House—Along Robertson River—Crossing the Blue Ridge at Milani’s Gap—Wild Road Over the Mountains—Tramping Down the Valley—Along the Shenandoah—Luray and Front Royal—On Old Manassas Gap Railroad—Halt by the Wayside—Crossing Goose Creek Under Difficulties—Reached Upperville, Where I First Saw Mosby and Joined His Command—Meet Old Friends and Fellow Prisoners.
List of Prisoners in Room 16, Old Capitol Prison, During My Term of Imprisonment.
Treatment of Prisoners of War[ 122]
At Camp Chase, Camp Douglas and Johnson’s Island—Efforts of Confederate Authorities to Bring About Exchange—False Impression at the North—United States Authorities Did Not Want Exchange—Letter of Robert Ould to Major-General Hitchcock—Letter of Ould to National Intelligencer—Report of General Seymour to Colonel Hoffman, Commissary-General of Prisoners—General Ben Butler Tells How His Efforts Were Frustrated—General Jubal A. Early Comments on General Order No. 209, Issued by War Department, Washington—Extracts from Report of Committee of Confederate Congress on Treatment of Prisoners of War—Publications Issued by United States Authorities and Others to Stir Up and Keep Alive War Spirit Among Northern People—A Vindication of the South—About Dead-lines.
Major Henry Wirz, C. S. A.[131]
True History of the Wirz Case: Sacrificed to Gratify Malignity of Men in Authority and Pander to the Passion of the Mob—Wirz Not Responsible for Sufferings at Andersonville—Brief Sketch of the Man—His Efforts to Better Condition of Federal Prisoners—His Trial—Witnesses Not Allowed to Testify in His Behalf—Letter of General John D. Imboden—Letter of Robert Ould—Rev. Father Whelan—Hired Witnesses Swear Away the Life of Wirz—Condemned on False Charges—Thirteen Specifications of Men Said to Have Been Murdered by Wirz, But Not One Named—Charged with Conspiracy and Hanged, But no Other Conspirator Punished—Offered His Freedom if He Would Incriminate Hon. Jefferson Davis—Testimony of Major Winder—Letter of Rev. Father Boyle—Wirz’s Bearing at the Trial and on the Scaffold—His Execution—Scenes at the Hanging—Rev. Father Boyle and Father Wiget—Letter from Wirz’s Wife Received After Termination of His So-Called Trial—His Last Letter to His Wife and Children.
Diary Kept by Wirz During His Imprisonment and Trial[147]
Monument to Wirz at Andersonville[ 152]
Fairfax Court House Raid and Capture of General Stoughton [ 154]
Interesting Incident Related by General Stoughton’s Telegraph Operator—What the Chaplain of Fifth New York Cavalry Said of this Raid—Sergeant James F. Ames (Big Yankee).