were under the command of Captain Andrews, who was then under sentence of death by a court-martial held at Chattanooga. They were waiting for the Secretary of War at Richmond to ratify the proceedings of the court-martial previous to executing the captains, and they said they were satisfied the rest would certainly be hung. I was afterwards informed by the rebels that Andrews and six of the men were hung at Atlanta, Ga. Another time I was told by the rebel citizens that they hung Andrews and seventeen men. I went down into the dungeon to where these men were and found them hand cuffed with close irons chained in pairs by the neck, with a heavy chain locked around each man's neck with a padlock that would weighing two pounds. These padlocks were larger than a man's hands.

We were fed twice a day on tolerably good bread and spoiled beef, with coffee made of cane seed. There was no sink in the jail, so that our offal stood in a bucket in the room where we were confined day and night. This bucket was only emptied twice a day and of course the stench was intolerable. We were denied the privilege of washington our clothes or having it done. The jail was literally swarming with vermin, nor was it ever cleaned out.

From Chattanooga I was taken to Knoxville to another jail and confined in an iron cage. Here I was told a man named Fox, the jailer, that I was brought to Knoxville to be tried by a court-martial as a spy and if I was tried I would not doubt be hung. This court-martial as did the one at Chattanooga adjourned without he bringing me to trial. From there I was sent to Mobile, where another court-martial was in session; but after keeping me there about eight days I was sent to Tuscaloosa, Ala. From this place I was taken in company with all the prisoners at that post to Montgomery, Ala. The first day out I was taken sick with pneumonia and typhoid fever. The rebel surgeons refused me any medicines and even a bed and I was left for twelve days lying on the deck of the boat with nothing to eat but corn bread and beef which the rebels said had been packed five years. At Tuscaloosa they shot a man for looking out of a window and wounded another in the face for the same offense. At Montgomery they refused to let me go to a hospital although in a helpless condition. Here they shot a lieutenant* for us under the following circumstances: He had been allowed to go out for milk accompanied by a guard. They were waiting for a woman to hand the milk out through a window when the guard gave the order to "come on. " "Wait a moment till I get my milk," said the lieutenant. The guard made no reply but shot him in the breast with a shot-gun, killing him instantly. From Montgomery I was taken to Macon, Ga., in company with 1,200 others. Here we were allowed seven pounds of corn meal and two and a half pounds of bacon of bad quality for seven days. We were allowed two surgeons and but very little medicine. Our men fared badly, being punished severely for the most trifling offenses. One man named Cory was kept tied up three days by days by the wraiths to a tree just so that his toes touched the ground. This was because he helped kill a yearling calf that got into the camp. A Floridan and two Kentuckians, political prisoners, were confined in the jail at Macon on quarter rations for twenty-two days. The only offense they had committed was to escape from the prison lot. Our men were pegged down on the ground for any misdemeanor. This was done by stretching out the limbs and driving a forked stick down over them. The operation was complete by driving one down over the neck. It wold be impossible to tell all of the hardship to which we were subject. I have endeavored to portray a few on them. They may be summed up thus: We were confined in bad quarters; our dead were left unburied for days together; some were left unburied entirely, at least to our knowledge; we were denied medical attendance; our chaplains were forbidden preaching to us or praying for us (by order of Major Rylander); our and officers were shot without cause; an insane man was shot at Macon, Ga., for no offense; we were compelled to bury men in river where their bodies we liable to be washed out; we were beaten with clubs (this was done on board of the steamer en route for Montgomery, Ala.); we were fed on found and unwholesome diet, frequently left without any rations two or three days at time, and our exchange was delayed as long as possible; we were kept confined in camp by swamps, as the rebels said, that we all might die. I find it impossible to enumerate all the hardships put upon us, have enumerated such as were the most intolerable.

JAMES PIKE,

Company A, Fourth Ohio Volunteers Cavalry.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE, Numbers 90.
Young's Point, La., March 31, 1863.

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VIII. The commanding officer of the Sixteenth Army Corps will cause to be built on one of the islands of the Mississippi somewhere between

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* See Vol. IV, this Series, p. 230, for report of the killing of Lieutenant W. S. Bliss.

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