not
been exchanged with my regiment. I claimed to him that I had been of
more service to the Union as a prisoner than I could have been if I had
remained in the service, as I had kept, on an average, two men busy
watching me ever since I had been captured. I showed him some samples of
my work as exchange commissioner, and purposely magnified the matter. He
only laughed and complimented me upon my enterprise, he being the rebel
exchange commissioner.

At the mouth of the Red River we met some Federal boats coming up with
prisoners. While exchanging boats, all who desired it had a chance to
take a swim, and a number of us enjoyed the luxury. Possibly 500 men
were in the water at one time.

One notable feature of this occasion was the fact remarked by everyone
that you could tell a Yankee from a rebel as far as you could see him,
even without his clothes. The reason for this was that our confinement
in the open air had caused us to be burned brown by the sun, even
through our clothing, while the rebels were white from confinement
within walls.

We were taken down to New Orleans and housed there ten days in a cotton
press, arriving on Sunday afternoon in our prison garb. We were a rather
hard-looking crowd, but never was there a happier one.

The boys in New Orleans knew that we were coming, and Capt. S. H.
Harper, formerly a sergeant in my company, hunted me up and took me home
with him. He was there on a detail, and was delighted to see me. I was
fed on the best he had, and arrayed in a spare uniform of his. When I
went back to the cotton press the boys did not know me.

From the time of my capture to that of my arrival in New Orleans I had
only once been able to get word through to my wife, and I wrote to her
as soon as I had a chance to do so after reaching that place. My first
knowledge of her, after my capture, was acquired through Captain Harper,
who told me that she was well when he had heard from home the last time,
and also told me that she had heard of me through an escaped prisoner.

All the officers crowded about the paymaster's office in New Orleans,
trying to get some money, and he had quite a time with them, as, while
he believed what they told him of themselves, he could pay out no money
until some person known to him would vouch for the recipient.

Captain Harper satisfactorily identified me to the paymaster, and I drew
two months' pay. A proper voucher was now easily secured by as many of
the offi