I had several reasons for this: First, one of my chums, W.W.Watts, of my own company, had been sent out a little whale before very sick with scurvy and pneumonia, and I wanted to see if I could do anything for him, if he still lived: I have mentioned before that for awhile after our entrance into Andersonville five of us slept on one overcoat and covered ourselves with one blanket.

Two of these had already died, leaving as possessors of-the blanket and overcoat, W.W.Watts, B.B.Andrews, and myself.
Next, I wanted to go out to see if there was any prospect of escape.
I had long since given up hopes of escaping from the Stockade.

All our attempts at tunneling had resulted in dead failures, and now, to make us wholly despair of success in that direction, another Stockade was built clear around the prison, at a distance of one hundred and twenty feet from the first palisades.

It was manifest that though we might succeed in tunneling past one Stockade, we could not go beyond the second one.
I had the scurvy rather badly, and being naturally slight in frame, I presented a very sick appearance to the physicians, and was passed out to the Hospital.
While this was a wretched affair, it was still a vast improvement on the Stockade.

About five acres of ground, a little southeast of the Stockade, and bordering on a creek, were enclosed by a board fence, around which the guard walked, trees shaded the ground tolerably well.
There were tents and flies to shelter part of the sick, and in these were beds made of pine leaves.