from which all the odor arose in the room. When this failed a sixty-four pound ball and chain was placed upon their leg, with chain so short as to compel its wearer to carry the ball in their hand, or get some one to pull it in a little wagon while they walked at the side, the chain about twenty-eight inches in length. Some of the balls were worn more than six months. A great many escaped by tunneling. On one occasion a tunnel was discovered under the barrack occupied by (Cluke's regiment) the eighth Kentucky cavalry. Without trying to find out who dug the tunnel, the whole regiment was formed in column of eight deep, and a guard placed around them with instructions to shoot the first man who sat down; this was just after sun up; at two o'clock a man who had just returned the day before from the small-pox hospital, unable to stand longer fell; a guard saw him and fired; one man was killed dead, two others were wounded, one of them losing an arm, as it was afterwards cut off. This same fellow, who did the shooting, was promoted to a corporal's position, whether for this act or not, it is impossible to say, for he affimed that he would not take $100 for his gun, as that was the eleventh prisoner he had shot with it. This shooting was carried to such an extent that if a man in going from his barrack to the privy should stop at night he was shot at. If more than five were seen together in the day, or if two at night, the same thing occurred. If any one was heard to whisper at night, or the least ray of light was seen, the guard would fire into the barracks at once. In each barrack there was only two stoves to two hundred men, and for a stove to warm one hundred men, it was frequently red hot. When taps were sounded (i. e. "lights out") the fire in the stoves could not be put out immediately. The boys were afraid to go to the stove, for some one was nightly killed in the attempt to extinguish the light. A ball fired from a gun which would ordinarily shoot a thousand yards, would, when fired at a close object, go through three or four barracks, sometimes flattening itself against the barrack, more often burying itself in the vitals of some sleeper, who little thought that that was to be his last sleep on this earth. On one occasion as the flag which floated in front of the commandant's quarters was being hoisted the rope broke, letting the flag fall, which being seen by the regiment to which I belonged (second Kentucky cavalry), a terrific yell was given. This so incensed the Yankees that a certain valiant Captain, Gaffeny by name, marched his company, some eighty strong, up to our barracks; had the regiment formed and went up and down the line kicking the men, and swearing that his company, about eighty strong, could whip the whole camp of about five thousand.
About this time Colonel Deland was ordered to the front. He was succeeded by Colonel B. J. Sweet as commandant of camp, Colonel Skinner as commissary of prisoners, and a fiend named Captain Webb Sponable as inspector of prisoners.
From this time forward the darkest leaf in the legends of all tyranny could not possibly contain a greater number of punishments.
