Cords contracting in my legs and very difficult for me to
walk — after going a little ways have to stop and rest and am faint, Am urged
by some to go to the hospital but don't like to do it; mess say had better stay
where I am, and Battese says shall not go and that settles it. Jimmy Devers
anxious to be taken to the hospital but is pursuaded to give it up. Tom McGill,
another Irish friend, is past all recovery; is in another part of the prison.
Many old prisoners are dropping off now this fearful hot weather; knew that
July and August would thin us out; cannot keep track of them in my disabled condition.
A fellow named Hubbard with whom I have conversed a good deal, is dead; a few
days ago was in very good health, and its only a question of a few days now with
any of us. Succeeded in getting four small onions about as large as hickory
nuts, tops and all for two dollars Confederate money. Battese furnished the
money but won't eat an onion; ask him if he is afraid it will make his breath
smell? It is said that two or three onions or a sweet potato eaten raw daily
will cure the scurvy. What a shame that such things are denied us, being so
plenty the world over. Never appreciated such things before but shall
hereafter. Am talking as if I expected to get home again. I do.
SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p.
87-8
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