During the night we were awakened by a loud noise and hubbub, arising from the announcement that an exchange of prisoners had been effected, and that we were going straight back to Wilmington to be turned over to our men. This we hardly dared believe. We had been deceived so often, that we could scarcely credit the report. But trains being got ready, we were put aboard and started for Wilmington, sure enough. Arrived at the city of happy deliverance, and debarked from the cars, we lay in the wind and sun all day upon the sand. Toward evening we observed a great flurry among the Confederates, and we were suddenly got together, put upon the cars, and started for Goldsboro' again; and thus ended this exchange _fiasco_. CHAPTER V. RETURN TO GOLDSBORO'.--DRUNK WITH FEVER.--TOO SICK TO WALK.--LEFT BEHIND.--GOD BLESS THE LADIES OF GOLDSBORO'.--PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.--NEGOTIATIONS FOR A FRIEND.--AN IMPROVISED HOSPITAL.--SICK UNTO DEATH.--SEMI-CONSCIOUSNESS.--MORE KINDNESS FROM THE LADIES OF GOLDSBORO'.--PAROLED.--PASSED INTO OUR LINES NEAR WILMINGTON.--AT WILMINGTON IN THE HANDS OF THE BLUE COATS.--FRIEND LOST.--STILL VERY SICK WITH FEVER.--DETERMINED TO GO NORTH.--EFFORTS TO GET NORTH.--ON BOARD SHIP.--HO FOR ANNAPOLIS!--INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE.--ANNAPOLIS.-GETTING BETTER.--STOMACH TROUBLE.--SENT TO BALTIMORE.--FURLOUGHED HOME. On reaching Goldsboro', after alighting from the cars, we marched out to camp again. This last time it was all I could do to walk to the camp. I was fairly blind with fever, and staggered from side to side, almost dumb and insensible from prolonged suffering and exertion in sickness. While at Wilmington the last time, and from that time on, I was far too sick to look after myself much. I reached the camp, however, and there remained until removed by other force than my own. The next morning, after coming to this camp, the lot of prisoners to which I belonged was removed to another camping-ground, some distance away. I essayed to go along, but accomplished nothing but wild staggering to and fro, and the little distance I gained I had to be carried back over. Excepting some care received by our sick from the Sisters of Charity while we were at Charleston, Goldsboro' was the first place in the South where Southern women manifested any sympathy for our deplorable condition. Here, the last time we came, the ladies of Goldsboro', though the guards strove to keep them back, burst through the lines, and came into our camp loaded with baskets of provisions, which they distributed among the sick and most needy.