Our only hope now was that we would not be returned to Andersonville, knowing well that if we got back into the clutches of Wirz our chances for life would be slim indeed.
From Columbus we were sent by rail to Macon, where we were placed in a prison somewhat similar to Andersonville, but of nothing like its pretensions to security.

I soon learned that it was only used as a kind of reception place for the prisoners who were captured in small squads, and when they numbered two or three hundred, they would be shipped to Andersonville, or some other place of greater dimensions and strength.
What became of the other boys who were with me, after we got to Macon, I do not know, for I lost sight of them there.

The very next day after our arrival, there were shipped to Andersonville from this prison between two and three hundred men.

I was called on to go with the crowd, but having had a sufficient experience of the hospitality of that hotel, I concluded to play "old soldier," so I became too sick to travel.
In this way I escaped being sent off four different times.
Meanwhile, quite a large number of commissioned officers had been sent up from Charleston to be exchanged at Rough and Ready.

With them were about forty more than the cartel called for, and they were left at Macon for ten days or two weeks.