It was the custom of the Rebels to send a pack of hounds around the prison every morning, to examine if any Yankees had escaped during the night.

It was believed that they rarely failed to find a prisoner's tracks, and still more rarely ran off upon a Rebel's.

If those outside the Stockade had been confined to certain path and roads we could have understood this, but, as I understand, they were not.

It was part of the interest of the day, for us, to watch the packs go yelping around the pen searching for tracks.

We got information in this way whether any tunnel had been successfully opened during the night.
The use of hounds furnished us a crushing reply to the ever recurring Rebel question: "Why are you-uns puttin' niggers in the field to fight we-uns for ?" The questioner was always silenced by the return interrogatory: "Is that as bad as running white men down with blood hounds ?".