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

PRISON LIFE AND ESCAPE. 321
warm until tired out, then I lay down beside some men more
fortunate than myself and one of them said to me, " Lay up
close to me ;
God
knows you won't be any too warm then." I
did so and he put his blanket over me and I slept and rested
some that night, thanks to the kindness of a stranger. I shall
never forget him though I never knew his name or face. Some
of our prisoners had blankets but the most of us were entirely
destitute. That was one night of suffering out of very many
we experienced while in captivity.
I will mention one more incident of our march. Heretofore
our guards had been Georgia Militia. For some unknown
reason there were some old rebel soldiers who had been to the
front, guarded us at least part of the way on this march and
their treatment of us was kind and manly. One day we passed
a house in front of which was a field of peanuts not all har-
vested and I with several others was allowed to go in and dig
ome, and we pawed the sand lively. The planter came out
and ordered the guards to take us out of his garden or he
would shoot some of us. The guard told him to " go back
into his house." " I might fall into you 'uns hands some time
and I don't believe you would refuse me a few ground peas."
I always noticed that those who were brave enough to fight
were generally manly in their treatment of prisoners. Well,
we arrived at Blue Springs, though I did not see them, and
bivouacked beside the Flint River. There we were organized
into twenty-fives, fifties, hundreds and thousands. I do not
know how many thousands there were of us. Commissary Ser-
geant Whittlesy of one of our Western regiments was in command
of the hundred and thousand to which I belonged, a
bright manly young man he was. I think we staid there sev-
eral days. We had little fires of pitch pine wood to cook our
scanty rations and also to warm us and the smoke soon begrimmed
our faces so we looked as black as any of the negroes. We
had no soap so it was impossible to wash the soot off. One
morning a rebel officer came and called all the sergeants of
thousands to him and said he wanted one thousand to go aboard