Publisher's Synopsis
In writing this little book, I have endeavored to keep it clear of all fiction and romance, and to place only facts before the reader. I have not drawn upon my imagination for any incident contained n the following pages. Perhaps some of the incidents may appear unreasonable to those who have grown up within the last decade, and know but little, practically, of the War Between the States, and nothing whatever of the life of a prisoner of war; nevertheless, they are all stubborn facts. I have not been solicited by any one to write these reminiscences, but do so through a desire to give my boys, some idea of a few of the painful scenes and terrible consequences of that fearful war of 1861-1865. I shall in this brief little history of prison-life passed in the military prison at Camp Douglas, Illinois, give the unwritten incidents which occurred within the inclosure of the prison walls, at least, the part in which myself, with a few others participated, and to describe minutely, as near as possible, all the inanimate objects and some of the animate, together with full particulars of all the occurrences which happened within my observation. I desire, as it were, to have the reader accompany me within the inclosure of the prison walls and paint the whole as nearly as possible as it transpired-let him view it with the mind's eye in its reality, without exaggeration or coloring. It is my intention to give the reader a faithful and true account of all that passed before me while I was a prisoner of war, with which I was personally connected; also those of which I was an eye-witness, at the time and place of which I am writing. Not our meals only shall be fully and particularly described, but our table-ware, from the oyster-can to the tin plate.
