r observing them, as the room next to us was
appropriated to the safe-keeping of negroes, and I never yet saw one
who did not cherish an ardent desire for freedom, and wish and long
for the time when the triumph of the national forces would place the
coveted boon within his grasp.

One morning our jailor came to our room, and asked us if we knew John
Wollam. We hesitated to answer, as we could not fathom the motives of
the inquiry. But even while we deliberated among ourselves, John came
up, and ended our doubts by greeting us heartily. He had been parted
from us some three weeks, and in that time had suffered most
incredible hardships in the manner I have narrated before. He joined
us in our prayer-meeting with much good will. Now all the survivors of
our party were together again.

There is one Georgia minister I will always remember with gratitude,
not that he was a Union man, for I have no evidence that he was, but
because of his generosity to us. He was a Methodist clergyman in
Atlanta, by the name of McDonnell. He came to visit us at the
suggestion of our old jailor, who, seeing us engaged in religious
exercises, naturally supposed we would like to talk with a preacher.
We received him kindly, and an interesting conversation took place.
Some of the boys were slightly offended by his first prayer, in which
he petitioned that our lives might be spared, if consistent with the
_interests of the Confederacy_. We did not very well like the
condition, but said nothing, and were afterward rewarded for our
complacency. At my request, he loaned us a few books, and when these
were read through, gave us still others, until we had read nearly his
entire library. Those only who know what a terrible weariness it is to
pass time without any definite employment, and with no means of
relieving the hours that hang so heavily on their hands, or of
diverting their thoughts from the one never-ending round, can form any
idea of the great boon that a few good books bestowed on us.

Our provision here became worse and less, until it very nearly reached
the starvation point. For some months, the only food we received was a
very short allowance of corn-bread, baked with all the bran in it, and
without salt, with a little pork, mostly spoiled! Frequently the pork
would be completely covered with maggots, and disgusting as it was,
hunger compelled us to eat it! Even then, there was not enough of this
miserable fare to satisfy our appetites