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while our committee could not obtain information enough to try him, all believed that he was the man, and we did not see him after we left Columbia.
February 8 was a day of thanksgiving.
News was received that General Winder was dead.
He was commander of all the prisoners and largely responsible for our treatment.
Before the war he was a citizen of Baltimore, and was selected for the position he held by Jeff. Davis because no suffering could touch his heart.
The information was given us in this way. The prison was calm and still, when the voice of Lieut. David Garbett was heard: “Hell has received reinforcements; Winder is dead.”
A cheer went up from every man in the prison.
If the guards knew the cause of our joy they made no effort to stop it.
February 13 a meeting was held to organize the National Legion.
It was proposed to have it take the form that was afterward adopted by the Grand Army of the Republic, and I have always believed that the men who organized the Grand Army were some of them members of our prison association, for when I joined the order in 1867 the grip was the same as our old Council of Ten.
Tunnelling began in earnest, and several tunnels were well under way. The plan of operation was to sink a shaft from four to five feet deep, then dig from that.
The digging was done with a knife, spoon or half of a canteen.
Our squad began one from house No. 1.
We were more fortunate than some, for we had secured a shovel, cut it down with a railroad spike and sawed off the handle.
With this we could lie on our bellies and work with both hands.
The digger had a bag,--usually made out of an old coat sleeve-and
Boston: Wright and Potter, 1899.
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