CHAPTER VIII Continual Hope of Exchange of Prisoners--"Flag-of-Truce Fever!"--Attempted Escape by Tunneling--Repeated Escapes by Members of Water Parties, and how we Made the Roll-Call Sergeant's Count Come Out all Right every Time--Plot to Break Out by Violence, and its Tragic End 106 CHAPTER IX Kind Clergymen Visit us and Preach Excellent Discourses--Colonel Smith's Personal Good Will to me--His Offer--John F. Ficklin's Charity--My Good Fortune--Supplies of Clothing Distributed--Deaths in Prison 120 CHAPTER X Results and Reflections--The Right and the Wrong of it All 138 APPENDIX 153 INDEX 157 Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons CHAPTER I The First, or Forenoon, Battle of Winchester, Indecisive--Sheridan's and Early's Mistakes--The Capture. "War is Hell," said our great strategist, General W. T. Sherman. According to its latest code, with few or no exceptions, the end justifies the means, and, if necessary to success, it is right to do wrong. Fifty years ago one of the fairest regions on earth was that portion of Virginia extending southwesterly about a hundred and twenty miles from Harper's Ferry to the divide beyond Staunton, where rise the headwaters of the James. Walled in by the Blue Ridge on the southeast and parallel ranges of the Alleghanies on the northwest, it takes its name from the beautiful river which winds along its length, and which the Indians poetically christened Shenandoah (Daughter of the Stars!). When some three hundred of us prisoners of war walked wearily a hundred miles from Winchester to Staunton in September, 1864, it was still rich and lovely. A few weeks later, the necessities of war made it a scene of utter desolation. Grant had rightly concluded [says Sheridan[1]], that it was time to bring the war home to a people engaged in raising crops from a prolific soil to feed the country's enemies, and devoting to the Confederacy its best youth. I endorsed the program in all its parts; for the stores of meat and grain that the valley provided, and the men it furnished for Lee's depleted regiments, were the strongest auxiliaries he possessed. Accordingly Grant issued orders with increasing emphasis, particularly in August and September, to make the whole region "a barren waste," to