One day all the prisoners were taken out of the stockade, marched down to the wharf and put aboard two old hulks or lighters and towed out in the bay, where the hulks remained all night. The next morning we were again landed and marched back to the stockade. I never knew why this was done, unless it was to search the tents for contraband articles, or to see if there was any tunneling going on from the tents, in order to effect escapes. I think some efforts were made at tunneling out, but without success.
While here we were not allowed to purchase anything to eat from the sutler unless directed by the surgeon when sick, consequently, every man was hungry all the while, as a whole day's rations were not sufficient for one meal. During the time a flag-of-truce boat passed between the island and Charleston, by which the good women of Charleston sent the prisoners a good supply of pipes and tobacco, and something good to eat, which was highly appreciated.
UNDER FIRE
After the prisoners were placed here near the Yankee batteries, so as to be exposed to the fire of the Confederate guns, the Confederate batteries did not fire a great deal. What shelling was done was mostly at night. Some of the shells burst over the stockade and the pieces would fall around, but I don't remember that any of the prisoners were hit. It was rather uncomfortable, though, to lie there and watch the big shells sailing through the air, which we could see at night by the fuse burning, and sometimes burst above us, instead of bursting in or above the Yankee forts 100 yards further on, and then listen at the fragments humming through the air and hear them strike the ground with a dull thud among the tents. We would first hear a distant boom, two miles away towards Charleston, and then begin to look and listen for the shell which was sure to follow that boom. Peter Akers used to say, "That is trusting too much to the fuse to shoot two miles and expect the shell to burst 100 hundred yards beyond the stockade."
The prisoners were located about midway between two Yankee forts, Gregg and Wagner. Through the interstices between the pine logs forming the stockade, we could see indistinctly Fort Sumter, which looked like a pile of ruins. The outer walls of brick had been battered to pieces by the Yankee batteries on Morris Island and the breaks filled up with sand bags. The city of Charleston was also visible, though indistinctly. We were not permitted to go near the stockade.
One day a Yankee monitor, which, with other blockading ships, lay near the entrance of the harbor or bay, moved up about opposite the stockade, and engaged in a fight with the Confederate batteries. We could see the Confederate shots strike the water and skip along towards the Monitor, which pretty soon got enough of it, and moved out of range.
PRISON RULES
I also preserved a copy of the Prison Rules here, which is as follows:
"Headquarters, U. S. Forces,