Just then the relief-guard came, and the conversation ceased. I noted down at the time the dialogue as it occurred, gave the manuscript subsequently to my friend Captain Steadman, who, in connection with other papers, as the reader will presently learn, carried it to Washington city, where I received it from him.
From all this, which was spoken in a most angry and boisterous manner, and while I held my ear to the key-hole of the prison-door, I learned what excessive antipathy the Southern people, as a mass, entertain towards persons of Northern birth. As the reader follows me through this book, other evidences of Southern ignorance, malice, and inhumanity will arise, all of which I witnessed or experienced, and all of which are related with no spirit of hatred, but as an “ower true tale.” I do not relate these facts in the spirit of a politician, nor for political purposes; for the nativity, education, and political antecedents of myself and of the entire family from which I sprung, have developed a warm support of Democratic principles. To these I yet ardently adhere, though positively and absolutely repudiating that form thereof which in the slightest degree affiliates with treason or oppression.
[CHAPTER V.]
Southern Inhumanity—A Prison Telegraph—Mobile—Conversation with a Fire-Eater—Negro Sale Stables—A Bad Sign—Mule-Beef—Montgomery—In the Penitentiary—Felon Soldiers—Hanging for Theft—Visit to a Condemned Prisoner—Who Shall Answer?
Our condition now became so painful and distressing, that, as a last resort, we determined to petition the authorities for a redress of our grievances. We had neither beds nor blankets, and the allowance of rations doled out to us was insufficient to sustain life. A lieutenant in the Confederate service, a poor, illiterate fellow, not possessed of education sufficient to call the muster-roll correctly, entered the prison and threatened to place Major Crockett—of whom we have spoken before—in irons, simply because he had referred, in the Lieutenant’s presence, in no very favorable terms, to the character of our treatment. We had made application personally to Colonel McClain, then commandant of the post, and who, we learned, was a professed Christian. We were careful to appeal to his Christianity as a means of awakening an interest in our behalf. His reply was as follows:
“You invaders! you abolitionists! you that are stealing our property! you talk about Christianity! You should be the last men to utter a word on that subject.”
A lieutenant in our ranks, named Herbert, answered him by saying:
“If your so-called Southern Confederacy cannot furnish us with enough to eat, just inform us and we will acquaint our government of the fact.”