one half of the time we were too sick to eat any
thing, and for the other half we were rolling and tumbling about in such
a manner that we could think of nothing but keeping off of the cabin's
roof. The others were stowed away "amidships," or in some other place,
down stairs, and as all the ports and air-holes were shut up, when the
steamer began to wallow about, they were nearly smothered, and their
nausea was greatly increased. They were compelled to bear it, for they
could not force their way on deck and they had nothing with which to
scuttle the ship. One western officer declared to me afterward, that he
seriously thought, at one time, that he had thrown up his boot heels.

When we reached Hilton Head, we were transferred to the brig "Dragoon"
(a small vessel lying in the harbor), and she was then anchored under
the guns of the frigate Wabash. Here we remained five weeks. The weather
was intensely hot. During the day we were allowed to go on deck, in
reliefs of twenty-five each, and stay alternate hours, but at night we
were forced to remain below decks. A large stove (in full blast until
after nightfall), at one end of the hold in which we were confined, did
not make the temperature any more agreeable. The ports were kept shut
up, for fear that some of the party would jump out and swim eight miles
to the South Carolina shore. As there were fifty soldiers guarding us
and three ship's boats (full of men), moored to the vessel, there was
little reason to apprehend any thing of the kind.

The sharks would have been sufficient to have deterred any of us from
attempting to escape in that way. There was a difference of opinion
regarding their appetite for human flesh, but no man was willing to
personally experiment in the matter. A constant negotiation was going on
during these five weeks, between the authorities at Hilton Head and
Charleston, which seemed once or twice on the point of being broken off,
but fortunately managed each time to survive.

We were never taken to Morris' Island, although our chances for that
situation, seemed more than once, extremely good. Subsequently a party
of six hundred Confederate officers were taken there, and quartered
where they would have the full benefit of the batteries. None, however,
were injured by the shells, but three fourths of them were reduced to a
condition (almost as bad as death), by scurvy and other diseases,
brought about by exposure and bad food. At last, on the 1st of