The machinists alone could have done more good to the Southern Confederacy than one of our brigades was doing harm, by consenting to go to the railroad shops at Griswoldville and ply their handicraft.

The lack of material resources in the South was one of the strongest allies our arms had.

This lack of resources was primarily caused by a lack of skilled labor to develop those resources, and nowhere could there be found a finer collection of skilled laborers than in the thirty-three thousand prisoners incarcerated in Andersonville.
All solicitations to accept a parole and go outside to work at one's trade were treated with the scorn they deserved.

If any mechanic yielded to them, the fact did not come under my notice.

The usual reply to invitations of this kind was: "No, Sir! By God, I'll stay in here till I rot, and the maggots carry me out through the cracks in the Stockade, before I'll so much as raise my little finger to help the infernal Confederacy, or Rebels, in any shape or form." In August a Macon shoemaker came in to get some of his trade to go back with him to work in the Confederate shoe factory.