Thereupon Wirz announced that no rations would be issued to the camp that day.

The orders to stand in ranks were repeated the next morning, with a warning that a failure to obey would be punished as that of the previous day had been.

Though we were so hungry, that, to use the words of a Thirty-Fifth Pennsylvanian standing next to me--his "big intestines were eating his little ones up," it was impossible to keep the rank formation during the long hours.

One man after another straggled away, and again we lost our rations.

That afternoon we became desperate.