ankee" was a Confederate prisoner who had "swallowed
the yellow pup," i.e., had taken the oath of allegiance to the United
States Government. These men were looked upon even by the Federal
officers as a contemptible set, and were required to do all kinds of
menial service.

The water was good and plentiful. There could be no just criticism
along this line. I am constrained to believe that it was owing to
these stringent health laws that the percentage of sickness was
so very small. Of course, I can only speak of the officers in Fort
Delaware.

The prison fare is the most difficult, as well as unpleasant, part of
prison life of which to treat. However, I will give the simple facts,
and allow the reader to draw his own conclusions as to the justice
and necessity for such treatment. To say that the fare was entirely
insufficient, is putting it mildly, and would not be more than might
be expected under similar circumstances and conditions; but the reader
will more fully understand the situation when this insufficiency is
exemplified by the facts which follow. Think of being compelled to
live on two ounces of meat and six ounces of bread per day. Yet this
was a prison ration for us towards the close of the war. This was
totally inadequate to appease hunger. Men who had no other means of
procuring something to eat were nearly starved to death. They stalked
about listlessly, gaunt looking, with sunken cheeks and glaring eyes,
which reminded one of a hungry ravenous beast. Hungry, hungry all the
time. On lying down at night, many, instead of breathing prayers of
thankfulness for bountiful supplies, would lie down invoking the most
severe curses of God upon the heads of the whole Federal contingent,
from President Lincoln down to the lowest private. Hunger makes men
desperate and reckless. The last six or eight months of the war the
fare was much worse than at any time previous. It was at this period
that the Federal administration was retaliating, as they claimed, for
the treatment their prisoners were receiving at Andersonville, Ga.

This inhuman condition of affairs was absolutely brought about by the
United States Government itself by positively refusing time and again
an exchange of prisoners, and it can not escape the just odium and
stigma of the inhuman treatment, the untold suffering, and agonies of
both the Confederate and Union prisoners of war.

As already observed, there were not a great number of officers who
s