anguish.

In every way possible, without directly opposing his commanding general, the
bighearted President at Washington managed to smuggle Southern prisoners back into the
South unknown to Grant and take an equal number of Union soldiers home. A crowd of
Southern boys from the prison at Elmira, New York, were announced to arrive in Richmond
on the morning train from Fredericksburg. Among them Jennie expected her brother Jimmie
who had been captured in battle six months ago. She hurried to the station to meet them.
A great crowd had gathered. A row of coffins was placed on the ground at the end of the long
platform awaiting the train going south. A dozen men were sitting on those rude caskets
smoking, talking, laughing, their feet drawn up tailorfashiion to keep them out of the mud.
With a shiver the girl hurried to the other gate. He eager eyes searched in vain among the
ragged wretches who shambled from the cars. A man from Baton Rouge, whom she failed to
recognize, lifted his faded hat and handed her a letter.
She read it through her tears and hurried to the Confederate White House to show it to the
President. Davis scanned the scrawl with indignant sympathy Dear Little Sis This is the last
message I shall ever send. Before it can reach you I shall be dead for which Ill thank God. Im
sorry now I didnt take my chances with the other fellows, bribe the guard and escape from
Camp Douglas in Chicago. A lot of the boys did it. Somehow I couldnt stoop. Maybe the fear
of the degrading punishment they gave McGoffin, the son of the Governor of Kentucky,
when he failed, influenced me, weak and despondent as I was. They hung him by the thumbs
to make him confess the name of his accomplices. He refused to speak and they left him
hanging until the balls of his thumbs both burst open and he fainted.
The last month at Camp Douglas was noted for scant rations. Hunger was the prevailing
epidemic. At one end of our barracks was the kitchen, and by the door stood a barrel into
which was thrown beef bones and slops. I saw a starving boy fish out one of these bones and
begin to gnaw it. A guard discovered him. He snatched the bones from the prisoners hand,
cocked his pistol, pressed it to his head and ordered him to his allfours and made him bark for
the bone he held above him We
expected better treatment when transferred to Elmira. But Ive lost hope. Im too weak to ever
pull up again. Ive made friends with a guard who has given me the list of the men who have
died here in the five months since we came. In the first four months out of five thousand and
twentyseven men held here, one thousand three
hundred and eleven died six and onhalf per cent a month Davis paused and shook his head
The highest rate we have ever known at Salishbury or Andersonvilleduring those spring
months was three per cent He finished the last line in quivering tones. Theres not a chance on
earth that Ill live to see you again. See the President and beg him for Gods sake to save as
many of the boys as he can. With a heart full of love. Jimmie. The President took both of
Jennies hands in his. I need not tell you, my dear, that I have done and am doing my level
best. The policy of the new Federal commander is to refuse all offers of exchange. You
understand my position
Perfectly, was the sorrowful answer. I only came as a duty to bear his dying message Express
to you father and mother my deepest sympathy. With a gentle pressure of the