Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/51

 Prison Reminiscenses. 43

and kindly. The trouble never returned. These officers were very polite and hospitable to me. In return for their hospitality I had one or more of them to dine with me at the hotel. Don't raise your hands in horror ! Why should I have been less a gentleman than they? Once a gentleman, always a gentleman under all circumstances a gentleman. No true Southern sol- dier ever lost in war his good manners or his humanity.

I again had the freedom of a Northern city. And although I walked the streets in Confederate gray, no one showed the slightest exception to it or showed me the least affront. But on the contrary, there was one citizen of the place, to the manor born, who visited me almost daily and a very clever and strong- man, too, he was. According to his account, he had been ostra- cized ; his home had been surrounded and threatened by mobs ; he had been hooted and maltreated on the streets. Why? He said because he was a Democrat and opposed to the war. He was a genuine ''Copperhead," and either from intolerance or other cause, he was a warm sympathizer with the South. The opportunity to express his sympathy was a great relief and grati- fication to him. He never tired of talking about Lee and his battles and his successes. He had reached a state of mind when he was even glad to hear of the defeat of his country's armies and

the success of ours. At the end of four weeks, I returned to

the Island.

Wlien I first reached Johnson's Island I found that the ra- tions given to the prisoners, while plain, were good and abundant. Within the prison was a sutler's store from which the prisoners were allowed to buy without restraint. Boxes of provisions and clothing from friends were permitted. To show the liberality with which these were allowed, I received from my dear brother, Julius O. Thomas, of Four Square, Isle of Wight county, Vir- ginia, a box of tobacco which he had kindly sent as a gift to me, through the lines under the flag of true. It was as good to me as a bill of exchange, and I disposed of it for its money value. This condition continued until the issuing of orders, said to be in retaliation of treatment of Federal prisoners at Anderson- ville. These orders put the prisoners on half rations, excluded the sutler's store from the prison, and prohibited the receipt of all boxes of provisions with a discretion to the surgeon in charge