The attempts to escape did all engaged in them good, even though they failed, since they aroused new ideas and hopes, set the blood into more rapid circulation, and toned up the mind and system both.
I had come away from Andersonville with considerable scurvy manifesting itself in my gums and feet.

Soon these signs almost wholly disappeared.
We also got away from those murderous little brats of Reserves, who guarded us at Andersonville, and shot men down as they would stone apples out of a tree.

Our guards now were mostly, sailors, from the Rebel fleet in the harbor--Irishmen, Englishmen and Scandinavians, as free hearted and kindly as sailors always are.

I do not think they ever fired a shot at one of us.

The only trouble we had was with that portion of the guard drawn from the infantry of the garrison.