In the same way, I recognized the right of our captors or guards to take proper precautions to prevent our escape.

I never questioned for an instant the right of a guard to fire upon those attempting to escape, and to kill them.

Had I been posted over prisoners I should have had no compunction about shooting at those trying to get away, and consequently I could not blame the Rebels for doing the same thing.

It was a matter of soldierly duty.
But not one of the men assassinated by the guards at Andersonville were trying to escape, nor could they have got away if not arrested by a bullet.

In a majority of instances there was not even a transgression of a prison rule, and when there was such a transgression it was a mere harmless inadvertence.