70

But little wood has been issued; and our hitherto scanty rations have been reduced as a punishment for the escape of Anderson and Skelton.

to be an established custom with Maj. Turner to punish all the prisoners for the escape of a single man from his number; and we now expect the most cruel exposure to cold and hunger for several days

to come.

CHAPTER V.

RETURN FROM THE HOSPITAL.

THE exit of Anderson and Skelton has exasperated the prison authorities terribly, and most of all because their success was due to the treachery of their own guards. Thus our prospect of an escape has vanished, and we must take our chances with the others in the upper rooms. It has had a decided effect on Tresouthick's "health," however. He is much better to-day, and will probably recover much faster than he got sick.

December 26. — There has been much excitement to-day concerning an exchange of prisoners. Capt. Sawyer of the First New Jersey Cavalry has received a letter from Maj. Mulford, our Commissioner of Exchange, in which prospects of an exchange of all the prisoners confined are mentioned. There are inany conflicting opinions and warm discussions. It is rumored that thirty officers and five hundred men are already declared exchanged. There seems to be much hilarity among the prisoners; yet I fear, as has been too often the case, we shall be disappointed. True, we cannot but feel great anxiety for our release; yet such reports have been so often afloat,

that I can place but little confidence in anything that, may be said in relation to this subject.

Sawyer has come to be our best authority on exchange, and expresses his opinions with all the bombast and assurance of a Wall-street broker. This is the Capt. Sawyer, who, with Capt. Flynn of the Fifty-first Indiana Infantry, was sentenced to be shot in retaliation for two Rebel officers tried and shot by Burnside, in Kentucky, for recruiting within the Federal lines.

Flynn was a modest man, and bore his notoriety commendably. Sawyer did a great deal of talking, and made himself a mark for many rich jokes. The prisoners often remarked that they would give a thousand dollars to be shot as Sawyer was.

HOSTAGES DESTINED FOR SALISBURY.

A short time since twenty-four captains were ordered down to Maj. Turner's office to draw for the chances of going to Salisbury, N. C. Three were to be chosen as hostages for some Rebel officers confined in the penitentiary at Alton, Ill. The lots fell on Capts. Julius L. Litchfield of the Fourth Maine Infantry, Edward E. Chase, First Rhode Island Cavalry, and Charles Kendall of the Signal Corps. Last night they were ordered out and sent to their destination, where they are sentenced to hard labor.*

*We afterwards learned that they refused to work, and were never compelled to.