l should be shot," which was not calculated to make them think
more kindly of their jailers. The fact is, that the prisoners, in
pursuance of a settled determination to lose no opportunity of escape
that seemed at all feasible, had been again making experiments in
_tunneling_, and this atrocious order was intended as a measure of
precaution against similar schemes in future.

Thus excluded from the relief afforded by such hopeful occupation, their
poor captives had to find other employment for their leisure hours, and
at this time a kind of religious revival took place among them, and if
human prayer could have effected the destruction of the Confederacy,
that organization would certainly have crumbled into dust forthwith. The
enthusiasm was so great that at times the exercises bordered upon
tumult, and greatly incensed their less fervent guards. At one time a
huge Western man poured forth such a rhapsody in favor of Grant and
Sherman, and garnished it with such pungent denunciations of Jefferson
Davis, and other Confederate magnates, that one of the jailers commented
thus: "D----d smart praying, but it won't do! It won't do!"

On the morning of the tenth of August, an order from the Confederate War
Department was read before the entire garrison of Camp Oglethorpe, and
caused much excitement. This order directed that a detachment of fifty
prisoners, selected from officers of the highest rank, should be
forwarded to Charleston, in order that they might be placed under the
fire of the siege guns with which the beleaguering Union forces were
attempting the reduction of that city. The order further directed that
Generals Scammon, Wessels, Seymour, Schuyler and Heckman should be
included in the number. The mandate was of course at once executed, and
the departure of the devoted band was the signal for a wild burst of
indignant reprobation of the Confederate authorities. It happened also,
at this time, that one of the sentinels shot and mortally wounded a
prisoner. The victim's name was Otto Grierson, and he had been a general
favorite. The excuse assigned for the murder was that he was
endeavoring to escape, but his comrades declared that at the time the
shot was fired, he was fully sixteen feet from the dead-line, and had
made no attempt to escape. Young Glazier and others joined in a formal
report of the facts to the officer in command, but the only result was
that the murderer received promotion, and was granted a furloug