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These rules were, with a single exception, strictly enforced. Those of us whose quarters were contiguous, were suffered to pass backwards and forwards, at will, provided we did not step off the pavement, which ran around the enclosure. But we could not visit the quarters of those who were on the opposite side of the Fort, without permission of the Sergeant of the Guard. We were only allowed to walk for one hour in the morning, and one hour in the afternoon, upon the little patch of ground within the Fort. Why the privilege of walking there, at all times, was denied us, it is hard to conjecture. The space inside was so small, that, when we took our afternoon's exercise, it was literally crowded. The walls surrounding it were three stories high, and there was but one point at which egress was possible, and that was just at the guard-house, where the guard was always on duty. It was but a wanton and senseless restriction to confine us to the pavement in front of our quarters. At first, the prisoners had to clean their own rooms, and to perform all other similar menial offices. Afterwards, they were allowed, for an hour or two in the morning, to employ one of the soldiers, who, being unable to speak or understand the English language, may be presumed to have been unfit for military duty, as he certainly was for any other.
The most private communications regarding domestic affairs or business having to be subjected to the criticism of Lieutenant Wood, we preferred to be silent concerning such matters, be the consequences what they might. Such were the regulations to which the Government, or its agents, thought proper to subject its victims.
Our complaints of the manner in which we were treated, had been persistent and decided; and from time to time, released prisoners made them known to the public through the columns of various newspapers. One of these statements appeared in the New York Herald, of October 24th. It did not contain a line that was not strictly true. On the 26th, the following letters were published in the same journal, I presume, by Colonel Burke's directions.
