scrubbed, barbered, decently clothed, "the
deformed transformed" were once more presentable in civilized society.
Then followed a brief leave of absence if desired, to visit relatives.
To them it seemed a veritable resurrection after our months of living
burial; yet the joy of reunion was sometimes tinged with sorrow. I
learned that in the very week in which the tidings of my capture came
our home circle had been sadly broken by the death of a beloved sister,
and just then the telegraph told of the loss by fever in the army at
Newbern of our household darling,

Younger by fifteen years than myself,
Brother at once and son.

As previously stated we who held commissions fared better on the whole
than the non-commissioned officers and privates, though receiving from
the commissary rations exactly equal to theirs. Commonly older and
therefore of larger experience and superior intelligence, a good officer
is as a father looking out for the physical welfare of his men as well
as himself. Then there were some who, like Gardner, had been fortunate
in keeping clothing, money, or other valuable at the instant of capture
or in hiding it when searched by Dick Turpin at Libby. Several like
Captain Cook had obtained pecuniary assistance from influential friends
across the lines, or in a few instances had been favored by brother
freemasons or by charitably disposed visitors who gave us a little food,
a few old books, or even Confederate currency. Several sold to the
sentinels watches, rings, chains, breast-pins, society badges, silver
spurs, military boots, or curiously wrought specimens of Yankee
ingenuity carved with infinite pains. The "Johnnies" appeared to hanker
for any article not produced in the Confederacy. An officer of the guard
offered Putnam three hundred dollars for a nearly worn-out tooth-brush!

The educational standard among our officers was quite respectable. I
think that West Point had a representative among us, as well as Bowdoin
and several other colleges. Certainly we had ex-students from at least
five universities, Brown, Yale, Harvard, the Sorbonne, and Goettingen.

To afford diversion and as an antidote to depression, as well as for
intellectual improvement, some of us studied mathematics[11] or
_Shakespeare_. Three or four classes were formed in modern languages.
We had card-playing with packs soiled and worn; checkers and chess on
extemporized boards with rudely whittled "pieces"; occasional
dis