think of it as a necessary distinguishing mark
among nations! And the many who never think of it as anything except a
piece of bunting! Be ye once in a position where inability to possess
that strip of colored fabric means privation, loss of liberty,
separation from home and friends, possibly death, and you will then
realize what it means to you as no language can depict!

CHAPTER III.

ON THE MARCH.

After the rebels had paraded and counted us to their entire
satisfaction, the prisoners were started on a march to the Washita
river. The start was made late in the day, and we were marched fifty-two
miles before a halt was ordered on the bank of the river, at a one-wagon
ferry, about 4 o'clock the next afternoon. The commander of the forces
in charge of the prisoners was a genial, plausible colonel named Hill,
who was possessed of a red head and the ability to hold us together by
assuring us of our parole when we arrived at our destination. He and his
men were very friendly and treated us well; so we marched along, in high
hopes of a parole and with excuses for the lack of food during our
journey. The prisoners were ferried across the river that night, and we
burrowed in the sand on the river bank for sleeping accommodations until
morning, but were awakened about 11 o'clock by a call for dinner. We had
received nothing to eat up to this time, and had no objections to the
hour selected, but we were regaled with cornmeal mush, the quantity
apparently being determined upon with a due regard for the supposed
ill-effect of too much food in the case of men who were extremely
hungry. The negroes who accompanied us were more hungry than we, and the
rebels were so careful of them as to give them nothing to eat at this
halt.

I found out afterwards that their apparent fear of overloading hungry
stomachs developed in an exact proportion to the scarcity of food among
the rebels, and it is but justice to say that they exhibited the same
regard for their own health that they did for ours.

The next morning we breakfasted upon the memories of our meal of the
previous night, and at this time I noticed a pitiful scene. Several
negro children, scarcely old enough to talk, were going from fire to
fire and poking among the ashes with sticks, their great eyes rolling
around at us as if they were committing some depredation. On closer
observation, it was found that ears of corn had in some way gotten into
the possession of some