Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 1.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[248] Yankees sent from Butler's line. This necessitated our removal. Accordingly we were sent out to the regular prison. There we lived in tents. We still had one luxury — sea bathing. The drinking water here was very injurious — caused diarrhoea. About this time rations were reduced. We were cut down to two meals a day. Coffee and sugar were stopped. The ration was a small loaf of bread per day, a small piece of meat for breakfast, and a piece of meat, and what was called soup, for dinner. About the 20th of June I was removed to Fort Delaware. We were crowded in the hold and between decks of a steamer for three days, the time occupied in the trip. I thought at the time this was terrible, but subsequent experience taught me it was only a small matter. On reaching Fort Delaware we underwent the “search” usual at most of the prisons. What money I had I put in brown paper, which I placed in my mouth in a chew of tobacco. I thus managed to secure it. An insufficiency of food was the chief complaint at Fort Delaware. I did not suffer. My friends supplied me with money, and I was allowed to purchase from the sutler what I needed. While at Fort Delaware, one of our number, Colonel Jones, of Virginia, was murdered by one of the guard. Colonel Jones had been sick for sometime. One foot was so swollen he could not bear a shoe upon it, and it was with difficulty he walked at all. One evening he hobbled to the sinks. As he was about to return a considerable crowd of prisoners had collected there. The sentinel ordered them to move off, which they did. Colonel Jones could not move fast. The sentinel ordered him to move faster. He replied that he was doing the best he could, he could not walk any faster, whereupon the sentinel shot him, the ball passing through the arm and lungs. He lived about twenty-four hours. He remarked to the commandant of the post: “Sir, I am a murdered man — murdered for nothing — I was breaking no rule.” The prisoners at Fort Delaware were great beer drinkers. The beer was made of molasses and water — was sold by prisoners to each other for five cents per glass. Every few yards there was a “beer stand.” Beer was drank in the place of water — the latter article being very warm, and at times very brackish. While at Fort Delaware we were kept on the rack by alternate hope and disappointment. Rumors, that never came to anything, of an immediate general exchange, were every day occurrences. On the 20th of August, 1864, six hundred of us were selected and sent to Morris' Island, in Charleston harbor, to be placed under the fire of our own batteries. We were in high spirits at starting, for we firmly believed .we were soon to be exchanged for a like number of the enemy in Charleston, In some instances men gave their gold watches to some of the “lucky ones,” as they were termed, to be allowed to go in their places. On the evening of the 20th we were all (600) stowed away between decks of the steamer “Crescent.” Bunks had been fixed up for us. They were arranged in three tiers along the whole length of the ship, two rows of three tiers