Oxford Times, December 9, 1863
Libby Prison, Richmond, Va, Wednesday, Nov. 12th, 1863
As there is now an opportunity to send you a line by a friend I gladly embrace the chance, and in the 1st place I will say that the box sent me on the 15th of last month was received.
We are truly on short rations, not more than 1/2 lb bread, 1/2 lb meat, 1 oz rice, a little salt and a little vinegar, constitute all that is furnished us by the rebels. All we get besides we have to buy, and at such prices as you never heard of. I have paid when it was to be had, $1 per quart for flour; $1 for 1-1/3 quarts meal, when they were to be had in the market. At this time they are not to be had at any price. Loaves of wheat bread about the usual size sell here 2 for $1; for three days we have had about 1/2 lb of coarse bread made of unbolted meal, but I learn today we are not to have either wheat, corn or sawdust bread. All that they can furnish us is a few sweet potatoes and a little rice and salt. We have learned to take such as we get and ask no questions. yesterday I sent out $3 for sweet potatoes and I got 5 small ones. I am quite well supplied with clothing so I can sleep comfortably nights, while many of my fellow officers are suffering from the cold, and what the poor men endure is past the power of my pen to describe; they lay outdoor without blankets and in many instances without sufficient clothing to cover them on the cold damp ground, and if they were well fed it would not be so bad. There is frequently a whole day passed without their receiving one morsel of any kind of food. Talk of what our forefathers endured, these poor men are dying at the rate of from 15 to 30 per day from actual exposure and hunger, it is a thought that really makes one's blood run cold, and yet there are to be found men mean enough to be willing to compromise with such rebels. I have thought of a great many mean things that a man might do. But to be a rebel, a man that is a while man, must be deeper dyed in iniquity and sin than any subject I could bring to my mind, and hereafter the worst appellation that can be applied to any human being is to call him a rebel. This thieving confederacy is on its last legs and with good Generalship it must soon fail in its vain and wicked intent to sever this our great and glorious country. The people here are loosing all confidence in their rulers and in their currency. Only imagine flour at at $130 and $140, and not be be had at that; butter $7 per lb; sugar $4 to $5 per lb; molasses $18 per gallon. It is not that these articles are scarce, but that the people have lost all confidence in the rebel Government, and will not offer their produce in the market. Why, only think a man came into town with a small load of produce and sold it for $1700. Yet they are satisfied that the great bubble of the rebellion is about to burst, and then they all in review, and the more of the confederacy script a man has the more he will have to loose; a shirt would cost a man here more than a suit of clothes at the north. I am sometimes of opinion and in fact I know, for I see daily that the Guard here have no better rations than we have. The rebels are utterly unable to furnish us with any better fare. They are on their last legs and now is the time to give them the last blow, and not prop them up by our sympathy. I will give you a conundrum that was given here at our Libby show, last evening. "Why are the elections in the north like a prairie on fire?" Because it is "death to snakes/" What kind, answer, "Copperhead." The fall elections are more than the rebels looked for, they had hoped for more sympathy, but thank God the Republic yet lives in the heart of the American people.
There are now here about 14,000 officers and men, 900 officers, and there is not one, whose patriotism has cooled by the treatment we have received. L.
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