cerning her relatives in Georgia, the Lumpkins, Cobbs and Nisbets." As Captain R.'s wounded arm prevented his writing, I replied for him, giving such information as we had. William P. Wood and Mr. —— Clark are the prison superintendents. The latter seems to have special charge of us: he is a rough, but not a cruel man. On the same floor, near our room, the eccentric Miss Belle Boyd was recently imprisoned, and a few ladies are reported to be still here. Miss O'Bannon, of Shepherdstown, Virginia, was lately brought here for giving information to Mosby's men, which caused a paymaster's train to be detained and rifled of its contents. Twenty or thirty young men and boys belonging to Colonel Mosby's partisan rangers or "guerrillas," are also in rooms near us. They are generally very young, well dressed and handsome. Their spirits are fine—nothing seems to dampen their ardor.
January 6th, 7th and 8th—Sunday has come and gone; and I, in common with most of my fellow prisoners, accepted an invitation given to hear Rev. Dr. —— preach in the mess-room. Curiosity and a desire for change influenced most of us, for very few had any confidence in his piety. We knew he had been president of —— college; that he had enjoyed southern hospitality, friendship and confidence; that he had accepted high positions of honor and trust, and a liberal support at the hands of generous Southerners; and we knew, too, that in the hour of her greatest peril and deepest distress, when her brave sons, many of whom had listened to words of instruction from his lips, were called to defend the honor of the South, and her soil from desecration at the hands of a cruel and remorseless invading army, he meanly abandoned her and them, and hastened to incite and encourage their foes. Dr. —— deserted the South as General Sherman did his adopted State, Louisiana. Sherman, at a parting banquet, given in his honor, on resigning charge of the Louisiana Military Institute, by good citizens who had done him many favors and conferred upon him a lucrative and honorable position, voluntarily pledged his word of honor never to draw his sword against a people who had ever treated him with such marked, whole-souled kindness and hospitality. But Sherman and Dr. —— were guilty of the base sin of ingratitude. They speedily forgot every unselfish kindness, every friendly attention that they had gladly received, and, like the poisonous adder, turned upon and struck their venomous fangs into the hearts of their patrons, their generous supporters and oft-tried, old time friends. Dr. —— preached an ordinary sermon,
