ps of physicians came to
the hospital tents examining the different patients that lay in the
cots, taking the name of one and leaving another. I happened to be among
those who were selected for exchange. The object seemed to be to take
only those who were not liable to be fit for service soon.

We were not at this time exchanged, but each side had agreed to parole
the sick from the hospitals, that is, those who were not too ill to be
moved. At one time the two Governments freely exchanged prisoners, but
this worked so much to the advantage of the South that the North refused
to continue the agreement. All Southern soldiers were enlisted for the
war, and when the prisoners came back from the North they went at once
into the armies of the Confederacy, while Northern prisoners, returning
from the South, mostly went to their homes, as they enlisted for one
year, and their terms of service in most cases had about expired. Then
again, the South was taxed severely to feed its own soldiers and
citizens, and were only too glad to get rid of the burden of caring for
Northern prisoners, and hence the North did all they could to restrict
the exchange of prisoners, but there was such a pressure brought to bear
upon the U.S. Government by those who had sick and wounded friends
confined in Southern prisons, that now and then each side would parole a
number of prisoners from the hospitals who might later be exchanged. My
recollection is that about 1500 Confederate prisoners in the hospital at
Point Lookout were paroled at this time, and I among them.

We were put on a steamer and carried to a point below Richmond, on the
James river, where we met a like number of Federal prisoners that came
down from Richmond, and there the exchange was made. The vessel that
carried us up the river was a small one, and the sick were packed on the
deck and in the hold of the vessel as thick as they could lay. They were
all sick, but had to lie on the hard decks with no attention, except
that a doctor now and then went through the vessel handing out pills to
any who wanted them. He carried them loose in his pocket, and as he
stepped between and over the men as they lay on the hard beds, he would
say, "Who wants a pill?" And all around him the bony, emaciated arms
would be stretched up to receive the medicine. What the pills contained
no one knew, but the suffering men swallowed them and asked no
questions. They were sick, and needed medicine, and this wa