Within the walls there were eleven large wooden buildings of uniform
size, two stories high. The first four were partitioned into small
rooms, and were sheathed; the remaining seven had two rooms on each
floor, and they afforded no protection against the weather except the
undressed clapboards that covered them. In each house the upper story
was reached by an outside flight of steps. In the larger rooms some
sixty or seventy men were huddled together. Around the sides bunks were
framed on pieces of scantling that extended from floor to ceiling,
arranged in three tiers, so that a floor space of six feet by four
sufficed for six men. My cotton tick was never refilled, and after doing
service for many months it became flat and hard. Our quarters and
accommodations were such as the Yankees thought good enough for rebels
and traitors, but in summer we were uncomfortably and unhealthily
crowded, and in winter we suffered from the cold, because one stove
could not warm so large and windy an apartment. Many a winter night,
instead of undressing, I put an old worn overcoat over the clothes I had
worn during the day.

At first I "put up" in block No. 9, afterward in No. 8, and toward the
end of my imprisonment in No. 3, which was much more comfortable.

In summer, water was obtained from a shallow well, but in winter, when
the bay was frozen, a few men from each mess were permitted to go out of
the gate in the afternoon and dip up better water from holes cut through
the ice. On these occasions a strong guard extended around the prisoners
from one side of the gate to the other.

From the time of my capture until the fall of the year the rations were
fairly good and sufficient, but then they were mercilessly reduced, upon
the pretext of retaliation for the improper treatment of Union prisoners
in the South. The bread and meat rations were diminished by a half,
while coffee, sugar, candles, and other things were no longer supplied.
We did our own cooking, the men of each mess taking it by turns, but the
bread was baked in ovens outside and was brought in a wagon every
morning. A pan of four loaves was the daily allowance for sixteen men.
When I got my fourth of a loaf in the morning I usually divided it into
three slices, of which one was immediately eaten and the others reserved
for dinner and supper; but when the time came for the closing meal I had
no bread, for hunger had previously claimed it all. But for some
clothes, provis