h office (operators having been detailed
who were experts in telegraphing), impress into the service all the horses
we could find for the Artillery and Cavalry; supply ourselves with arms as
far as possible, supply ourselves with rations and forage from the
Confederate storehouses, form the enlisted men into companies, and march
through as an army and join Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley.

Danville was at this time, the depot of supplies for Lee's army at
Richmond, and contained a large amount of Artillery and ammunition;
besides having storehouses, well stocked with captured hard tack, so that
there would be no lack of supplies for our army. We were therefore,
actually dying of starvation in the midst of plenty. In going daily from
the prison to the river for water, we passed a building 20x40 feet, two
stories high, that was packed from bottom to top with captured U. S. hard
tack, and others filled with bacon, and other provisions; and tried to get
Colonel Smith, commanding the prisons, to give us rations of hard tack
once or twice a week, but were told that this was held for the use of
their troops in the field.

For fresh meat, we were supplied with the heads and lights of beeves, and
for twenty-six days we did not even receive that; our only rations during
this time, being a piece of corn bread, or johnny-cake, made from unbolted
corn meal, four inches long, three wide, and two inches thick, for
twenty-four hours.

This would not more than half satisfy an ordinary man for his breakfast,
and a good feeder would then want a couple of eggs, a good sized potato
and one or two cups of coffee for a full meal, and even a half-pound of
beef steak would not be left to be thrown into the slops. While the
rations we received would have been considered princely fare by our
famished comrades at Andersonville and Salisbury, still it was just enough
to keep us constantly hungry, and make us think what we would eat if we
should ever get the chance to again sit down to a GOOD SQUARE MEAL. Like
the castaway upon the great ocean, with "Water, water, everywhere, and not
a drop to drink," so we were dying of starvation in the midst of plenty. I
say we, by that I mean the great majority of prisoners. As for myself,
while in Danville, I only lived exclusively on the prison rations drawn
for five days, and I thought I should die of starvation in that short
time.

Then, as I have heretofore stated, I went _into business_, buying and
s