remarked that this was a "most horrible was." I asked the reason of his remark, and he told me he had just ordered four of those prisoners in the wagons to be shot at th eline of the two counties as an example to all malefactors. My blood ran cod in my veins, and I begged him to spare the men; told him that such acts were evidently inconsistent with his character; that there could b eno difficulty if he used the necessary precautions about carrying these men to Lexington, and if this deed of blood had to be committed, were I in his place I would leave it to General Burbridge to carry it through. He concluded to spare the men, sent back an officer to stop the execution, and we moved on.

I wish I could tell you of several scenes which transpired along the road, going to show the complete subjugation of the population and their abject submission, but this narrative is already too long and I must bring it to an end. We reached Frankfort and I was turned loose on parole with instructions to report next morning at the railroad depot. I saw during the night many of my relatives and friends and succeeded in enlisting them in my favor. They were all Union peoplel - at least professed to be so. On the following morning I was placed under a new guard and carried on the train to Lexington, taking leave of Major Mahoney, who had been very kind after he determined not to shoot me. At Lexington we were carried to the office of the provost-marshal, who, after insulting and using the most abusive language to us all, had us committed to the prison. This prison was an old warehouse, in a long room of which were about 120 men of all descriptions - Yankee deserters, men belonging to General Grant's army who had been sent through the lines by the Confederate Government and captured in Kentucky, men who belonged to the guerrilla bands who infest the State, bounty jumpers, disaffected citizens, and Confederate soldiers. There were occasionally during my stay a few negroes introduced in this room, but they never remained long, were threated with greater consideration than the whites, and the same charges which would keep a white man for months would not detain a negro as many days. A more filthy, loathsome, and uncomfortable place could not be well conceived, full of filth and swarming with vermin. The four large windows fronting north and south had scarcely a pane of glass in them. The floor was uneven and full of cracks. There were two large stoves, which were [sic.] fully supplied with fuel served very poorly to keep up anything like a comfortable temperature, and which for many days and nights of the severest weather the past winter were not in blast for the want of fuel. Many of the prisoners were wretchedly clothed, some of them almost naked; a large number of them had no blankets, and how they survived some of those bitter cold nights was a matter of astonishment to me. they were required to lie down at 8 o'clock, where they were compelled to remain all night, and I frequently expected when day dawned upon us to see the men frozen to death.

The execution under the bloody order of General Burbridge commenced about this time. One day immediately after may arrival the provost-marshal, Lieutenant Vance, came into the room, and looking over the men picked out fifteen. They were carried downstairs. In a short time five of them returned. They had drawn lots for their lives and escapted; the order ten were taken out and shot. The day after six others were carried out and executed. Three men who were brought in and belonged to Jessee's command, within four hours after their arrival were carried from the prison and hung, and this thing went on until twenty-eight of our number, almost invariably Confederate soldiers,