Produced by Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: Portraits of Fellow Officers in Prison Left to right--Top line: Capt. Cook, Capt. Burrage Middle line: Adj't. Gardner, Col. Sprague, Capt. Howe Lower line: Lieut. Estabrooks, Adj't. Putnam] _"Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit"_ Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons A Personal Experience 1864-5 By Homer B. Sprague, Ph.D. Bvt.-Colonel 13th Conn. Vols. Sometime Professor in Cornell and President of the University of North Dakota Author of "History of the 13th Conn. Inf. Vols.," "Right and Wrong in our War between the States," and "The European War, Its Cause and Cure" _With Portraits_ G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1915 BY HOMER B. SPRAGUE The Knickerbocker Press, New York Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note, whilst more significant amendments have been listed at the end of the text. Dialect and archaic spellings have been retained. The letter 'e' with a macron has been transcribed as [=e]. TO THE ALUMNI OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF YALE, CORNELL, AND NORTH DAKOTA IN WHICH RESPECTIVELY THE AUTHOR WAS STUDENT, PROFESSOR, PRESIDENT; TO THOUSANDS OF HIS PUPILS YET LIVING; TO HIS COMPANIONS OF THE LOYAL LEGION, COMRADES OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, ALL SURVIVING OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS UNION OR CONFEDERATE; ALL WHO CHERISH THE MEMORY OF THE PATRIOT DEAD AND ALL WHO HATE WAR, THIS RECORD IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED PREFACE This narrative of prison life differs from all others that I have seen, in that it is careful to put the best possible construction upon the treatment of Union prisoners by the Confederates, and to state and emphasize kindnesses and courtesies received by us from them. For the accuracy of the facts stated I am indebted to a diary kept from day to day during the whole of my imprisonment, and to the best obtainable records. The exact language of conversations cannot of course always be remembered, but I aim always to give correctly the substance.