[Andersonville Volume 3 by John McElroy]@TWC D-Link bookAndersonville Volume 3 CHAPTER LIX 5/8
I do not remember that any one was shot during our six weeks' stay at Millen--a circumstance simply remarkable, since I do not recall a single week passed anywhere else without at least one murder by the guards. One instance will illustrate the difference of his administration from that of other prison commandants.
He came upon the grounds of our division one morning, accompanied by a pleasant-faced, intelligent-appearing lad of about fifteen or sixteen.
He said to us: "Gentlemen: (The only instance during our imprisonment when we received so polite a designation.) This is my son, who will hereafter call your roll.
He will treat you as gentlemen, and I know you will do the same to him." This understanding was observed to the letter on both sides.
Young Bowes invariably spoke civilly to us, and we obeyed his orders with a prompt cheerfulness that left him nothing to complain of. The only charge I have to make against Bowes is made more in detail in another chapter, and that is, that he took money from well prisoners for giving them the first chance to go through on the Sick Exchange. How culpable this was I must leave each reader to decide for himself. I thought it very wrong at the time, but possibly my views might have been colored highly by my not having any money wherewith to procure my own inclusion in the happy lot of the exchanged. Of one thing I am certain: that his acceptance of money to bias his official action was not singular on his part.
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