st word, I raised up before he
discovered me, and sung out:

"Hello!"

"Good evening," said he, very civilly.

"Where are you going?" I asked somewhat sternly.

He hesitated and stammered out, "to Greenville, sir."

"Do you live in Greenville?" I asked.

"No, sir," said he, "I live in--in Columbia," hesitatingly.

"You are a Yankee officer, I believe!" said I.

"Well, sir," said he, "there is no use in denying it, I am."

"So am I, old boy," exclaimed I, grasping his hand, "put it there."

If ever two fellows were pleased to find a friend when they had both
expected to find an enemy, we two were, just then. The hearty hand
shaking that followed showed that we were mutually pleased to find, that,
instead of running onto an armed reb, we had run across an old comrade. We
had been in prison together in Macon, Savannah, Charleston and Columbia,
and still were strangers to each other. This officer proved to be Captain
H. H. Alban, 21st Ohio Vols., who was taken prisoner at Chicamauga. He had
two dressed chickens, and a quantity of corn bread, that he had just
bought in Greenwood of a negro.

He gave me a good sized piece of corn bread, which I thought the sweetest
morsel I had ever tasted, for I had not eaten anything all day, and was
half starved.

I bought one of the chickens for ten dollars, Captain Alban excusing
himself for taking the money, by saying that he had just paid the last
dollar he possessed for those two chickens and corn bread, and when they
were gone he would be obliged to forage or starve.

He urged me to go on with him, promising to carry my haversack and do all
the buying, taking the risk of recapture, if I would furnish the money. I
showed him my legs, and told him that I would only be a hindrance to him,
and would wait there until my companions came up.

Finally, after talking the matter over, I agreed that if my comrades did
not come within an hour, I should think they had got ahead of me, and
would go on with him, for this night at least. We sat there and waited
until about one o'clock, and, as they did not come, I started on with him,
feeling like a new man after the good lunch and the rest. Captain Alban,
who was a large, strong man, six feet high and in robust health, took my
haversack. This lightened me up a good deal, and I was too plucky to let
him think I could not keep up, and so I stubbed along, notwithstanding my
swollen legs and feet, and that night we put in seventeen mile