A few of us, who were more fortunate, had no chains around our necks, but only wore handcuffs. I was _strongly attached_ to William Reddick, one of a pair of handcuffs being placed on my left hand and the other on his right. In two instances three persons were fastened by one chain, which passed around the necks of each. William Campbell, a man of immense strength, was a member of one trio. I have seen him several times take hold of the chain near his own neck, and saying, "Come here, you Yanks," parade his two chain-comrades, in spite of all their resistance, back and forth over the room. In this wretched situation we slept much. The great quantity of carbonic acid our breathing produced acted as an opiate, and served in some measure to stupefy us and deaden the sense of pain. In the morning we slept or dozed, for we had no motive to rouse up until about nine o'clock. The next morning after my arrival I was awakened--early, as I supposed--by the opening of the trap-door and the delicious shower of cool air that fell upon us. As I looked up, there was the white head of our old jailer bending over and saying, in drawling tones, "Boys, here's your breakfast," and he lowered a bucket by a rope, with a very small piece of corn bread and a tiny morsel of meat for each of us. It was seized and devoured almost instantly. I had eaten nothing since the day before, and this pitiful supply only served to whet my appetite. But there was no more. I learned that we were to get our meals only twice a day, and then only a starvation allowance. The quality was that which "----captives' tears Have moisten'd many a thousand years, Since man first pent his fellow-men Like brutes within an iron den." I suppose our food in all our imprisonment was about equal as to quantity and quality with that supplied at Andersonville and other Southern prisons. But in the chaining, and the close packing in dungeons, probably no prisoners during the whole war fared so badly as we did.