The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

LIFE JN LIBBV. 235
the rest of us) until we had been in Libby twelve days, and then
Ur. Stewart of the Second Minnesota got permission to come
in and see us, he being a Vxcc Mason. He spent the da}' with
us and amputated my arm again, which had become maggoty
on the field and had sloughed open. I had got the maggots
about all out with a bottle of hartshorn which I picked up on
the field. After that everything went on as usual in the build-
ing, our rations in the meantime consisting of one cake of hanibread
and one pint of James river water per day to a man—
unless we could buy some or steal some from the guards, which
we frequently did.
On the fifteenth of August three rebel surgeons entered the
room I was in and came to a man whose name and regiment I
do not know. lie had a flesh wound in the calf of the leg and
the gangrene had got into it. The leg could have been saved
with proper care, but they cut it off square without any fiap
just " for an experiment." The man lingered and tlied in about
fifteen days.
We found out about the first of August that the basement or
cellar of Libby was filled with tobacco, so we contrived to get
into it, and then we began to live a little better, for we could
trade tobacco with the guards and darkeys for something to eat.
The Johnnies did not find out our reserve store until about the
middle of September, and then finding that they could not keep
us out of it they hauled the tobacco away.
In the meantime our death rate had been from six to ten per
day in our room, from wounds and lack of food. At times
some poor fellow would get homesick and then his days were
numbered. I never knew a man in Libby to live more than
fifteen days after he became homesick. After this our death
rate increased, often towards the last numbering as many as
twenty per day.
I had got so that I could walk around the building. One day
while down stairs watching the guard and trying to get a breath
of fresh air, I discovered that he had a loaf of corn bread and
a big piece of liver which he was eating. He had not eaten