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LETTERS & DIARIES

Soon we were to have the awful experiences of the worst of the prisons. We were ordered to get ready to go to Andersonville. At this time Andersonville wasn't the awful place it was after a few months later. We considered it good news, having heard of it being a large roomy lot, midst the pine forest, where frost and snow were almost unknown. There were about fifteen hundred of us in the Danville prison. At Danville we were joined by three carloads, and at Bell Island, one carload. After we had passed Charlottesville the weather became uncomfortably warm, and we were eight days on the journey. When we had gone about a half the distance the filth that accumulated made it almost unbearable for us, so I succeeded in getting permission from the officer in charge to allow us to clean the car out.

We were all happy over the change to the sunny climate of the south; the cold weather and confinement at Danville had become very distressing to us, though we were under some anxiety as to whether we were to have as good treatment as we had in Danville. Our next stop was at Macon, where we were stopped overnight and waited further orders, and also to avoid getting to Andersonville in the nighttime. Andersonville was about one hundred miles further on.

Arriving at Andersonville, we found to our surprise, that it was a very small place - two log buildings, the railway station and a log cabin, the dimensions of which were probably about sixteen by twenty feet. The 5th Georgia was the regiment to take care of us until we were safely within the stockade. The headquarters of Captain Wirz were beside the gate. Here we were all lined up and counted and compared with the descriptive list which had been sent to him in advance of us. Captain Wirz's house was a very humble log structure. He was the most conspicuous man in the crowd. A tall, thin, homely, and ornery looking man - the homeliest man since God made little green apples. We were marched in two's from the car to the prison gate. Here we were counted off into divisions of ninety, under the charge of a Sergeant.

LETTERS & DIARIES

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