come to their
house and they would conceal me until I could get away. Lieut. Fish, of
the 2d Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, received a book from a couple of
ladies named Richardson bearing a similar note on one of the fly leaves.
Thus early we found that although we were held as prisoners by a hostile
enemy, we were still in the midst of sympathizing friends.

Having so recently come from Plymouth, where we had been in garrison, we
were dressed in our best uniforms, and being all officers, we, of course,
presented a very creditable appearance. The Misses Richardson spoken of,
said they were natives of New York State, and were heartily in sympathy
with the North.

There was a stream that ran through the camp grounds, in which it was my
daily habit to bathe. In fact, during all my prison life, I never
neglected an opportunity to take a bath whenever I could get a chance to
do so. To this I attribute, more than anything else, the good health I
enjoyed during nearly all the time spent in Southern prisons.

I do not mean to say by this, that bathing would have saved the lives of
all, or any great proportion of those who died in prison, but I do say
that when the facilities of cleanliness were afforded us, there was a
notable decrease in the mortality.

Hence the difference in the mortality of the officers' prisons and those
of the enlisted men, where bathing was impossible. Had our men in
Andersonville been placed in good, roomy, clean quarters, through which
flowed a good stream of pure running water, thousands who now sleep in
that densely populated city of the Union dead, would now be here to relate
the sufferings and privations they endured. It was not altogether the
insufficiency of food that killed off those true-hearted patriots, but the
need of wholesome quarters, and the facilities for cleanliness as well.
There is nothing so invigorating to the system as a daily bath in pure,
cold water, and on the other hand there is nothing more debilitating, or
conducive to disease and death, than crowded and filthy quarters, without
the necessary sanitary conveniences to permit the enjoyment of this
invigorating luxury.

On the 7th a fire broke out, and nearly all of the guards who were on duty
at the time, went to town; when they returned they were drunk, and for a
time it looked as though we would have to turn out and assist in their
arrest. Guns and pistols were used, and the bullets came whizzing over our
heads in the