were not so hungry on the third day as on the first. Poor fellows, the reason was plain,--their stomachs on the third day had become too weak to manifest the ordinary symptoms of hunger. Hence my effort to live was not out of place; on the contrary, if I had still a lingering hope of surviving, the greatest efforts I could put forth seemed there almost mockery, and sadly inadequate to the end. In fact, though I could not bring myself to the thought of yielding and dying, I nevertheless felt that my ever getting North again alive was most "too good a thing to happen." As far as possible, I kept the subject from my mind. Winter came on at last. The weather was cold, and, after a particularly cold night, one could go into the "poor-houses" of every "thousand," and there find men stark dead in the attitude in which they had fallen backward from their scanty fires. Each "thousand" afforded a "poor-house." These were occupied by poor wretches who, in the vain hope of saving their lives by obtaining more food or making their escape, or both, had taken the oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, and joined the rebel army. The Confederates found this expedient and experiment in recruiting their depleted army a failure, and turned the "galvanized Yankees" (as they were called) back into the stockade again. Having lost their local habitation, and become isolated and alienated from their former friends, who condemned their action and remained behind, being cast off and forsaken of everybody, they congregated together in these "poor-houses," which were erected for the benefit of such as they. At Charleston and at Florence we were divided, for convenience, into sections of one thousand men each. Although located in the midst of a forest, we did not draw enough wood to cook our rations, let alone to keep us warm. A day's ration of wood was about the size of an ordinary stick of oven-wood. We were also situated in a very unhealthy place, being surrounded by an immense swamp. The swamp furnished the water we drank and consumed otherwise. A disease, commonly designated the "swamp fever," broke out, seizing a majority of us, and proving fatal in many cases. The per cent. of mortality here was far higher than at Andersonville. We were under worse conditions, and suffered and died proportionately. Though in respect to shelter our condition seemed improved, this consideration was enormously outweighed and overbalanced by our much worse condition in many other regards. The longer a man was detained in rebel prisons, the weaker he became, and we seemed to have reached the culminating point and extreme end of human endurance at this time at Florence, viz., the winter of 1864 and '65.