the 17th of May, 900 officers from Libby arrived and were placed in
a pen which had been built a short distance from our camp, and in the
evening we were also placed there. Here we found Lieutenant-Colonel
Burnham, Major Pasco, Quartermaster Robins, and Captain Burke, who
were separated from us at Plymouth. Colonel Beach and Surgeon Mayer
had been exchanged. Prison life had now commenced in earnest with us
and we felt it deeply. We had heretofore been where we could see what
was going on around us, and had the liberty of trading with hucksters
and others. We were now cut off from the world, _in a pen_, with
little or no shelter, and under the command of the most brutal, cruel,
heartless, and inhuman men that this world produces. They were General
Winder, Major Dick Turner, and Captain Tabb. As it is not the purpose
of this history to record all the brutal acts of these men I give two
or three to illustrate what fiends we were under. When General
Stoneman made his attempt to rescue the prisoners, Winder issued an
order called No. 13, which stamps the brute with infamy beyond
redemption. In this order, which has been preserved, Winder commanded
"the officers in charge of the artillery to open their batteries,
loaded with grape-shot, as soon as the Federals approached within
seven miles, and to continue the slaughter until every prisoner was
exterminated." We had at this time six cannon bearing on us. "Was the
prison mined," said Colonel Farnsworth to Turner, the jailor of Libby
Prison, "when General Kilpatrick approached Richmond to attempt the
rescue of the prisoners?" "Yes, and I would have blown you all to
Hades before I would have suffered you to be rescued." Major Turner
himself gave the prisoners to understand that if any more attempts
were made for their rescue, the prison would be blown to atoms. The
following atrocious order from rebel headquarters was afterwards
issued. "Any soldier killing a Federal soldier, approaching the dead
line, shall receive a furlough of sixty days; while for wounding one,
he shall receive a furlough for thirty days." Under this order many
were shot, who had no intentions of escaping. On May 29th,
Assistant-Surgeon Nickerson was brought into prison. On June 10th,
fifty of the officers, (Lieutenant-Colonel Burnham being one of the
number,) were taken to Charleston and placed under the fire of the
Union batteries on Morris Island.

We had religious services very regularly and they were w