Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/34

 20 been allowed, but, as a measure of retaliation, was not forbidden them. I remember M. James Kerr coming one day to me in his usual earnest way with the remark, "John, I found just one bean at the bottom of my tin cup to-day."

The wounded in our party had been assigned to hospital quarters where, for the time being, we had much better fare. Scurvy, dysentery and fever were rife in the camp, many dying from those diseases, the number increasing as the summer wore on. Frequently it happened that those who had friends at the North would have money and clothes sent them. The money was always taken from them and entered in a book, which they were allowed to trade out at the sutler's.

However greenbacks would occasionally get in in various ways. With the money in hand they could drive a better trade. The man who could shake a dollar bill in a sutler's face received distinguished consideration, and he was certain not to blab. It was surmised that there were others, probably high in authority, who were interested in the business, and the money was pure profit to the sutler.

Among the prisoners who had been a good while in the place was an old colored man, who had been captured and held as a prisoner. I understood he had been cook at one time at the Bollingbrook Hotel and noted as a good caterer. I forgot his name. Being thoroughly attached to the people among whom Bollingbrook Hotel and noted as a good caterer. His name was Dick Poplar. Being thoroughly attached to the people among whom he was raised, and being a hardened dyed-in-the-wool rebel, he obstinately refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government. It was a curious sight to see this old man preferring to suffer the pain of imprisonment rather than to accept his freedom at the hands of those who were fighting for his deliverance.

He was a good hand at making corn bread, and being furnished by the sutlers with some fine white Southern corn meal, he used to make some, which he sold at five cents a pone, and in that way he added much to his material comforts.