"'We were now in a large room, perhaps forty by ninety feet,
with large windows, entirely destitute of glass. No blankets
nor anything to sit or lie upon except the floor, and at
night when we lay down the floor was literally covered.

"'About the middle of the second night we were all hurriedly
marched out and packed in filthy box-cars--like sardines,
for there was not room for all to sit down--for an unknown
destination. After a slow and tedious ride we arrived at
Salisbury, N. C. When we arrived there were but few
prisoners, and for two or three days we received fair
rations of bread, bean soup and a little meat. This did not
last long, for as the number of prisoners increased our
rations were diminished. There were four old log houses
within the stockade and into these the officers were moved
the next day, while a thousand or more prisoners, brought on
from Petersburg, were turned into the pen without shelter of
any kind. From these we were separated by a line of
sentinels, who had orders to shoot any who approached within
six paces of their beat on either side. This was called the
'dead-line,' which also extended around the enclosure about
six paces from the stockade.

"'The second Sunday after our arrival, just as we were
assembling to hear preaching, an officer who had
thoughtlessly stepped to a tree on the dead-line was shot
and killed by the sentry, who was on an elevated platform
outside the fence, and only about two rods distant. For this
fiendish act the murderer was granted a sixty days furlough.

"'Prisoners were being brought in almost daily, and at this
time there were probably six thousand within the enclosure.
A pretence of shelter was furnished by the issue of a few
Sibley tents, but not more than a third of the prisoners
were sheltered. Many of them built mud hovels or burrowed in
the ground; some crawled under the hospital building. Very
few had blankets and all were thinly clad, and the rations
were barely sufficient to sustain life. What wonder that men
lost their strength, spirits, and sometimes reason. The
story of exposure, sickness and death is the same and rivals
that of Andersonville.

"'The guard was strengthened, a portion of the fence taken
down and a piece of artillery stationed at the