622 Norru Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

meal in bulk which on the journey become utterly unfit for
food. Notwithstanding this fact, they fed it to us in the
form of mush as they were not able to make cornbread. And
to this day no good cornbread is ever seen north of Mason
and Dixon’s line. They fed it to us without sifting, so that
when it was served it contained all the impurities and animal
life, which it had acquired on its sea voyage from the North.
When complaint was made to Colonel Hallowell he was re-
ported to have cynically said that we ought not to complain
because we were getting our fresh meat and bread both to-
gether.

Smoking tobacco was not obtainable at all and the only
chewing tobacco we could get was what was then known as
navy plug, a vile compound of the meanest tobacco and licor-
ice. However; those who chewed managed to get along with
it and also to macuti factor a smoke out of it. It was not an
uncommon sight to see on a little piece of board outside of a
tent, well chewed pieces of tobacco drying out in the sun for
smoking purposes.

I remember one Sergeant who was in charge of the street
upon which the tent I occupied was located. He was for-
merly a slave of General Wm. A. Blount, and hearing my
name, he made inquiries of me and ascertained who I was.
Ever afterwards he would do me any act of kindness in his
power. In the distribution of the daily rations, the meat
being carried around in an empty cracker box and the
mush in a large vessel, he would frequently, whenever he
could do so without being seen, give me a double portion. I
wish I could remember his first name, but he had Blount as
his family name.

As I have said, the stockade was placed in the line of fire
of the Confederate batteries on Sullivan’s Island, which were
shelling Battery Wagner. The Confederate gunners would
cut their fuses so as to endeavor to prevent any shell from
exploding in our neighborhood, but on more than one occa-
sion a shell exploded prematurely and on one occasion that I
well remember, a shell burst directly over the stockade and
threw several.of its fragments among us, but fortunately,
striking no one. In the latter part of October we were

: Prisoners Unprer Fire ar Morris Isuanp. 623

moved from Morris Island to Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of
the Savannah River.

An incident that happened on the day we left Morris
Island will show the character of Colonel Hallowell. It was
against orders for any prisoner to leave his tent in the morn-
ing before reveille for any purpose. The evening before the
day of our departure, notice was given to the prisoners that
this rule would not be enforced the next morning. However,
no notice was given to the guards surrounding the stockade of
any relaxation of the regular rule. The consequence was
that when the first man relying upon the notice went out of
his tent the next morning to get some water from one of the
springs, he was fired upon by one of the negro guard. The
ball went through his knee and on into the shoulder of an-
other prisoner lying asleep in a tent on the opposite side of
the street.

We were taken from Morris Island to Fort Pulaski in the
hold of a schooner towed, as I remember, by a gun-boat or
steamer. While on the way a plan was perfected to cut a
hole through the side of the schooner and take the chance of
escaping to shore. Upon the night of our arrival in the
stream off Fort Pulaski the scheme was carried into effect,
but the first man out into the water (whose name I forget),
was seized with cramp while swimming to shore and made
such a noise in the water as to attract the attention of the
watch on one of the war vessels who turned a searchlight and
discovered him. The scheme for escape was thereby frus-
trated. I think the plan of escape was under the direction
of Major Goldsborough, of Baltimore.

Our quarters at Fort Pulaski were in the casemates of the
fort. We slept in double wooden bunks of two stories, three
men in the upper bunk and three in the lower. Our rations
were very meagre, but we got four crackers per day instead
of mush. After I left Fort Pulaski I understood that the
prisoners who remained eat all the cats in the fort, of which
there was quite a number, stewing them on the stove in
tin cans. Fort Pulaski is not a pleasant habitation at any
time and my recollections of it are not of the rosiest hue.
It was particularly exasperating to be encased within a dun-