We remained at Mrs. Rochester’s nearly four months, and almost despaired of getting Captain Pilcher to Louisville. In addition to his great suffering from the wound, a spell of pneumonia gave him a setback. Soon after convalescing he came near bleeding to death, and I mounted a horse and went rapidly to Harrodsburg for Dr. Buist. Finally he recovered so far as to allow us to proceed, and he desired to go via Lexington to visit for a few days his relatives, Mr. Hiram Shaw and family; so we proceeded to Nicholasville by stage, and thence to Lexington by rail. Mr. Shaw was a stanch Union man, and was a dealer in gents’ furnishing goods. A few weeks before we reached there, General Morgan’s men raided his store, exchanging their old headgear for his fine hats, and some of the boys wore off his best tiles; therefore I felt a hesitancy in going to the Shaw domicile. But we were treated in a most generous manner. A few nights after reaching there, we paid a visit to another family of the Shaws, where there were three young ladies. General J. Q. A. Gilmore was a visitor, and he asked one of the ladies who we were. She informed him, and the next day we received orders to report to General Gilmore’s headquarters. Accordingly we did so, and he said in a very brusque manner: “I wish to know by whose authority you Rebels are free.” I replied, “By authority of General Jere Boyle, of Louisville”; and I placed our parole in his hands. He glanced over it, and said: “This is not General Boyle’s district; I am commanding here, and my name is General J. Q. A. Gilmore. You will get ready to go to Louisville with a guard this evening. Report here at three o’clock.” I said: “All right, General Gilmore. Your order will be obeyed, but we were ignorant of the infringement on your territory.” At 3 P.M. we were there, and so was the guard with his gun. We wired Captain Pilcher that we would be in about 8 P.M., under guard. When we reached Frankfort, we found that the railroad bridge had been burned, and we had to cross on the ferry. In going through the city many ladies turned out and escorted us to the ferry. When we reached Louisville, Captain Meritt S. Pilcher was pacing up and down the platform, and appeared more disturbed than we were. After greeting us, he said: “Boys, I have been trying all day to see General Boyle; but one of his children has smallpox, and he is at home. The officer of the day says he cannot release you, and you will have to go to prison at Tenth and Broadway.” We could do nothing but obey. When we reached the pen we found there four hundred prisoners who had been captured at Fort Donelson. It was quite a filthy place, without sleeping accommodations. We had some salt pork, stale bread, and coffee without sugar. As we had been living for four months on the fat of the blue grass region, we could not eat the prison diet, and were glad to hear our names called at the wicket about nine o’clock next morning, where we signed