. A prisoner of war in Virginia 1864-5 . es doubtless were tired on their part. It is my memory that the tramp to Statmtohtook the better part of three days. I recall ourarrival in early morning in the main street of thelittle town, at breakfast time or at what seemed tous ought to be breakfast time. The prisonerswere huddled into a little square in front of the innand we were near enough to hear the sound of therebel officers at breakfast. I think we could takein the pleasant smell of the ham and eggs. Afterwhat seemed to us a very long wait, the commis-sary came out on the little balcony of
. A prisoner of war in Virginia 1864-5 . es doubtless were tired on their part. It is my memory that the tramp to Statmtohtook the better part of three days. I recall ourarrival in early morning in the main street of thelittle town, at breakfast time or at what seemed tous ought to be breakfast time. The prisonerswere huddled into a little square in front of the innand we were near enough to hear the sound of therebel officers at breakfast. I think we could takein the pleasant smell of the ham and eggs. Afterwhat seemed to us a very long wait, the commis-sary came out on the little balcony of the hotelwith some assistants bearing a few boxes of hard-tack. These boxes were thrown over from thebalcony into the square in such fashion that theybroke as they fell and the officers on the balconyenjoyed the spectacle of the prisoners scramblingfor their breakfast. Later in the day, wc wereput into box cars and started on the journey forRichmond. There was but a single track and ourtrain was switched frequently to allow of the pass-. Tlf. NFW YORK PUBLIC LIBRAHY ■KLltfH rOUNDATfONSt Hotel dc Libby 19 ing of passenger trains and supply trains, so thatour progress to Richmond was slow. The officerswere marched across the town to Libby Prisonwhere the captain of our guard secured a receiptfor us from Sergeant Turner, while the men weretaken over to Belle Isle. The first of the prison functions was the strip-ping of every man to the skin for the purpose of afurther appropriation of any valuables that hemight have succeeded in concealing. In this frtshsearch, I lost $150, that I had sewn into the insideof my shirt. The moneys that had been saved bya few of the officers after the first search werCiwith hardly an exception, taken possession of atthe second examination. We were interested to see the adjutant of theprison noting down in a little memorandum bookthe sums taken from each man. It will be allright, gentlemen, he said reassuringly, thesemoneys will of course be returned
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