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LETTERS & DIARIES

We stayed on the racing grounds for about a week and then we were taken to Florence; a railway station situated in the woods near the big swamp. Here was a fine well dug by General Marion, familiarly known as the "Swamp Fox", who greatly harassed the British during the Revolutionary War. We could still plainly see the ruins of the Fort. There was a large hollow sycamore tree which was named Marions's Magazine because of his storing great quantities of ammunition in it. It was always a great surprise to the British to see his ammunition replenished without an expedition for it. The well was walled by the stones from the walls of Marion's house, it was said.

It was while here that arrangements were hurriedly made to take five hundred of the sickest and decrepit back to Charleston for exchange, and by the good grace of Lieutenant Reese, I was one of the number being booked as a nurse - and the boys who I had tried to help in there troubles were eager to have me as a nurse. We dug wells in the sand for our water supply, and it was fairly good though being on the borders of the great swamp. The old inhabitants there said that when the wind blew from the Southeast, or seaward, the water rose higher in the wells.

A few days later we were in Charleston again. By this time Sherman was is Savannah. The Confederate transport was ready to take us out to Foster's boats. The worst crippled were the Siamese twins and John W. January. The former were able to move about only on their hands and hips, there limbs having been rendered useless by scurvy. January's feet had been eaten away to the ankles by the same disease, and later gangrene had added it's work. He had kept the bones of his feet as he separated them from the remainder of his feet with a pair of little scissors, which a fellow prisoner, who had been a dry goods clerk, gave to him. He carried the bones in a sack with him.

While the Siamese twins were boarding the boat, sliding along on their hands and butts, a Rebel officer offered his assistance - "Get

LETTERS & DIARIES

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