t such a scheme was on foot
and that the petition had been signed by this self-constituted delegation
and was about to be forwarded to Richmond, an indignation meeting was held
from the steps of this building, and was addressed by Captain Ives and
others, and the action of the Committee was denounced, as not being in
accordance with the sentiment of the prison camp.

The almost unanimous sense of the meeting was, that we had faith in our
government and believed it was doing all it could do, consistent with its
dignity to relieve and release us, and that we would rather suffer the
tortures of prison life, than to harass our government and thereby give
aid and comfort to their enemy. The meeting closed by our asserting our
confidence in the wisdom and ability of our friends at the North, to do
what was for the best interests of the country, and that if we could do
more or better service for the country in prison than in the field, as
good soldiers and true patriots it was our duty to submit to all the
indignities that were being heaped upon us, rather than even impliedly
stigmatize the U. S. government as being unmindful of our sufferings, and
screen the fiendish brutes who were heaping all of this suffering upon us.

While the meeting was in progress the petition was secretly taken out of
camp by a rebel officer, who had instigated their preparation, and as we
supposed, forwarded through to rebel Capt. Gibbs to Richmond. We never
heard anything from the petition, and the belief was that the rebel
authorities, seeing the indignation they had caused, concluded their
interests would not be advanced by complying with its provisions.

To show how the large majority of officers confined in Macon felt about
how the affairs of the government had been conducted under the
administration of President Lincoln, I quote from my diary of June 7th,
1864:

"This being the day upon which the Convention is to meet at Baltimore to
nominate a candidate for President, our camp went into convention and
nominated Abraham Lincoln by a vote of 533 out of a total vote cast of
625."

This was considered not only an endorsement of the policy pursued by the
President in the prosecution of the war, but also our approval of his
exchange policy.

We well understood that the cartel was suspended, because the South
refused to exchange the negroes taken in arms, but proposed to return such
soldiers to servitude, and we believed that as they were take