CHAPTER LXXXII.
THE RESPONSIBILITY--WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR ALL THE MISERY--AN EXAMINATION OF THE FLIMSY EXCUSES MADE FOR THE REBELS--ONE DOCUMENT THAT CONVICTS THEM--WHAT IS DESIRED.
I have endeavored to tell the foregoing story as calmly, as dispassionately, as free from vituperation and prejudice as possible.
How well I have succeeded the reader must judge.

How difficult this moderation has been at times only those know who, like myself, have seen, from day to day, the treason-sharpened fangs of Starvation and Disease gnaw nearer and nearer to the hearts of well-beloved friends and comrades.

Of the sixty-three of my company comrades who entered prison with me, but eleven, or at most thirteen, emerged alive, and several of these have since died from the effects of what they suffered.

The mortality in the other companies of our battalion was equally great, as it was also with the prisoners generally.

Not less than twenty-five thousand gallant, noble-hearted boys died around me between the dates of my capture and release.