to enjoy his dinner alone.

He would eat his pome with all the apparent relish, with which he would
have partaken of a dinner such as he seemed to imagine he was indulging
in.

Of course, in its half-cooked condition, it would be not only perfectly
unpalatable, but injurious to the health as well. When it is remembered
that rumors of exchange were being almost weekly circulated through our
camp, sometimes by the reb authorities in order to keep us from trying to
escape, and sometimes I believe for very cussedness, the only wonder is
that the majority of the prisoners were not driven to insanity. I have
seen men sit moping for hours with a look of utter dejection, their elbow
upon their knee, and their chin resting upon their hand, their eyes having
a vacant far-away look, brooding over the cruel fate that placed them in
the prison pen, and wondering why an exchange of prisoners was not made,
and whether they would ever be released.

On the 21st of June, 1864, a Catholic priest came into the prison at
Macon, and gave us such a harrowing picture of Andersonville, which place
he had visited the day before, that it made our own sufferings seem
insignificant.

He said that he passed up between two lines of Union dead, who had been
laid there that morning by their comrades to be carted off to the burying
ground, that must have numbered at least a hundred, and that he saw
thousands there that were scarcely able to walk, or in many cases even to
sit up.

Some to whom he administered the last rites of the Catholic church, showed
by the glassy expression of their lusterless eyes, that the grim visitor
already held them within his grasp.

The picture he drew of the sufferings, starvation and death he had
witnessed there, sent a chill of horror to the heart of his listeners, and
created a feeling of indignation that could scarcely find expression in
words.

The next day, upon the advice and recommendation of the Confederate
authorities, two from each squad met in the large hall that was used for
the field officers, and also as a sort of hospital, and drew up a petition
to the Rebel Secretary of War, for permission for Majors Marshal, Beatie
and Owen of the army, and Lieutenant Alexander, of the navy, to go to
Andersonville and examine into the condition of the enlisted men and then
proceed to Washington and urge upon the United States government a speedy
exchange of prisoners.

When it became known throughout the camp tha