marched through several of the principal streets, which, but for
the moonlight, would have been entirely dark. At last we arrived at
the office, which, to add to our discomfort, was destitute of fire. We
stood in the empty room looking at the grim portraits of the rebel
generals that stared at us from the walls, until the Marshal himself
entered. He did not deign to speak to us, but opened a sealed letter
which the sergeant handed him, and read that ten disloyal
Tennesseeans, four prisoners of war, and _six engine-thieves_, were
hereby forwarded to Richmond, by order of General Beauregard. We had
hoped that the title of thieves, of which we had become heartily
tired, would now be left behind; but it seemed still to cling to us,
and afforded an unpleasant premonition of the Confederacy's not yet
being done with us. The Marshal then gave his orders, and we were
again marched off.

By this time it was daylight, December 7th, 1862. Richmond looked
still more cheerless by the cold beams of morning than it did before.

We now threaded several tedious streets, and at last came to the James
river, where we halted in front of a most desolate-looking, but very
large brick building, situated on the bank, and surrounded by a
formidable circle of guards. This building we very naturally took to
be a prison, and soon learned that we were right. It was the famous
LIBBY. We entered its precincts, and were conducted up a flight of
stairs, and then, on reaching the upper room, which was a vast, open
one, we saw, almost for the first time since our capture, the old
familiar United States uniform. We were soon in the midst of over a
hundred Union soldiers.

At first our greeting was not very warm, as we still wore the rebel
rags that had served us all summer; but as soon as our true character
and history were made known, we were most cordially welcomed. There
was a small stove--only one--in the cold, empty room, and part of the
inmates were huddled around it. But with the characteristic courtesy
and charity of the American soldier, they soon cleared a place beside
it for us. Then I had leisure to look around.

The room was very large and bare; the floor above was taken out,
leaving it open to the roof. Beside this, the window sashes were all
removed, and the cold wind whistled in from the river far more sharply
than was consistent with comfort. The inmates informed me that they
had only a limited amount of fuel allowed them per day, an