12 - CHARLESTON
When the time arrived for us to go, we were loaded into a trainload of box cars. Beautiful fall weather was now making the country lovely. How sad it was to behold the awful pain and misery caused by man in the midst of the beauty and the peace of the rest of nature. When we were leaving Captain Wirz, he shouted, "now you boys can ride peacefully, or you can walk and be picked up, and taken somewhere else, if you do".
But we welcomed the shelter of a boxcar, there was only one guard to each car, and they were poor looking specimens of men for such responsibility. The engines all burned wood so we had the relief of a stop while the crews replenished the fuel supply. Our journey consumed twice the time necessary. When we passed through Charlotte, Sherman's army was within twenty miles of the city, and had we, who were able bodied enough to travel afoot, escaped from the train, we could have saved ourselves another trying experience. But we had all been harassed enough to discourage us in the possibility of bringing further trouble upon ourselves.
The weather was glorious all the while we were on this journey, which was a real blessing to us. The trip occupied two days and nights. Upon arriving at Charleston we were all carefully counted, and without breaking ranks, marched three or four blocks to our new prison. After arriving at Charleston the weather became very hot, and as we marched on the street, many of the sick an feeble fell in the way. It was here that the Sisters did acts of charity that we could never forget; they took our half-dead men and administered to them, so I do believe, several lives were saved right there.
Our prison here was no more, or no less, than three old tobacco warehouses; and five hundred of us were put into each warehouse. General Foster with his army of about ten thousand men were on Morris Island, about three miles from the city. He had done havoc to the city along the coast. The Arch buildings were thoroughly shattered by his cannonading. His force were increased by several gunboats to
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LETTERS & DIARIES
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