Synopsis A Union soldier talks about life in the Confederate prison camp, Libby Prison. Confederate guerrillas capture Union soldiers from a hospital and take them to Libby Prison. At the prison, conditions are crowded, food is scant and the water brackish.
Many men die from the poor conditions at the camp.
The narrator looks for his brother, and one day, when a group of soldiers are brought to the camp from Belle Isle, the man's brother is among them. Conditions at Belle Isle are worse, as there is little food and many there are starving. The brother is in the last stages of starvation. He dies, unaware that his brother is near him. The narrator and a friend decide to escape.