g a benediction, so
impressively solemn sounded that sweet, familiar tune just then.

Arriving at parole camp, the first person I met whom I knew, was Captain
Eastmond, who escaped with me at Columbia, and who was recaptured the next
night.

He told me that a few days after my escape, my name was called for special
exchange, and he answered to my name, signed my name to the parole, and
had been out nearly three months.

As soon as he reached General Mulford's headquarters he told him of the
deception he had practiced, and the General told him it was all right and
as soon as he could find out where I was he would send another special for
me. But I, in blissful ignorance of what my friends were trying to
accomplish in my behalf, was being shifted from one place to another, so
that he did not get track of me again. The first thing I did upon my
arrival at Annapolis, was to hunt up the store of the Ladies' Sanitary
Commission, and get a complete outfit from head to foot, for which they
would take no pay, and then getting a room in a hotel, I stripped off my
lousy rags, and after taking a good bath, dressed myself in my new suit,
throwing my old prison garments out of a window into an alley, thus
effectually ridding myself from the annoying companions that had so
persistently stuck by me during my imprisonment. I parted with them
without a sigh, and have never to this day had a desire to renew their
acquaintance.

I then applied for a twenty day's leave and wrote a long letter home,
giving a brief synopsis of my experience in the prisons of rebeldom for
the last ten months. This letter I directed to my wife, though I did not
know whether she was dead or living, not having heard a word from her
since parting with her at Plymouth, on the night of the first day's fight.
After waiting a week I received my leave of absence, and at once started
for home. I found that my letters had nearly all been received and
promptly answered, but they were never delivered to me. I can never be
made to believe but that our letters were purposely destroyed by order of
General Winder, as a part of his plan to discourage and dishearten us,
well knowing how much this would do towards undermining our health and
destroying our lives.

I was home for days before I could feel fully assured that I was really
out of prison; fearing all the time that it was only one of those vivid
dreams that had so often come to me while there, and fearing lest I sho