" They little imagined then how soon they would have
their own freedom. It was not long afterward until Sherman's "bummers"
captured the city. The prisoners escaped from the jail before the rebs
could remove them. As our troops entered the city the ex-prisoners found
plenty of willing hands to help them set fire to the jail, city hall,
and treasury buildings.

The first part of our journey was made in passenger coaches. In North
Carolina we were changed to box-cars. When we got to Virginia travelling
became worse; the train had to move very slowly. The Yankee cavalry had
destroyed all the roads as much as possible. At one place, for a
distance of thirty miles, not a house or a fence-rail could be seen.
Twisted railroad iron was quite abundant. The only wood visible was the
stumps of telegraph-poles in the ground. We were eight days in getting
to Richmond, and well tired out with the trip. We were taken to the
provost-marshal's office and thence to Libby Prison. Our squad was the
last to arrive. About seventy-five officers and five hundred sailors and
marines comprised all the Yankee naval prisoners. The sailors were
confined at the extreme end of the building, a brick wall separating us.
We had plenty of room for exercise in that big warehouse. The army
officers had not taken all their companions with them when they went to
Charleston, as we soon found out to our dismay. Every crack in the
floor of that prison was filled with vermin, and the largest and finest
specimens of the pest that could be found in the whole United States. In
Columbia we had not been troubled with vermin, but in Libby it was
impossible to get rid of them. The most of our spare time was devoted to
hunting for game in our clothing, and no one ever complained about
having bad luck. We were expecting almost hourly to be put on a
flag-of-truce boat. Day after day passed, with no signs of our leaving.
An old negro who brought in our rations of corn-bread informed us that
the exchange might not take place, as Ben Butler was doing all he could
to prevent it. General Ben Butler, or "Beast Butler," as he was called
by the rebs, had command of the troops at City Point. Through neglect on
his part to carry out the plan of the campaign he got "bottled up" by
the rebels and probably prolonged the war. We had positive information
that the naval rebel prisoners were on the boat at City Point, but why
Butler should interfere was an enigma to us. It was a peculiarit