Year: 1863

After the degrading operation had been
performed, and before conducting me from
the commandant's room to my dungeon,
all the other prisoners about the fort were
locked into their rooms, that I might not
be seen and recognised, lest peradventure
information might be given to the world
} and my friends of my whereabouts, and
the cruelties about to be practised upon
me. One of the prisoners having learned,
few days afterwards, through the medi-
um of the newspapers, who the mysterious
stranger was, wrote to friend of his,
"that Dr. Olds, of Ohio, had been brought
to Fort Lafayette and placed in solitary
confinement" His letter was returned to
him by the commandant, requiring him to
strike out so much of it as referred to the
case of Dr. Olds.


My dungeon was on the ground, with a
brick pavement or floor over about the
one half Of it; and so great was the damp
ness, that in very short time a mold
would gather upon any article left upon
the floor. My bed was an iron stretcher,
with very thin husk mattress upon it
so thin, indeed, that you could feel every


iron slat in it The brick floor, with all
its dampucss, would have been far more
comfortable than this husk bed, had it not
been for the rats and yermin that infested
the room. [ had also in my room a bro
ken table and chair. A chunk of Gov
ernment broad, with an old stinking, rus
ty tin of Lincoln coffee, with slice of
boiled salted pork, was my fare. My
only drink other than this nasty coffee,
was rain water. [ was furnished with no
towel, neither could [ induce my jailors to
let me have candle during my long, tedi-
Gus sick nights. No entreaty could pro-
cure for me the return of the medicines
which had been taken from me when [
was searched. Again aud again begged
for the little bit Of opium to relieve my
suffering, which had been taken from my
pocket with my other medidine, but all
in vain.


After ten days of such treatment and
such suffering, late one night the sergeant
If the guard brought me some medicine,
which, he informed me, the surg on at
Fort Hamilton had sent me. This sur
gcon knew nothing about my case, having
never seen me, or been informed by me
of my condition. With no light in my
cell, with no one to give me even drink
of my raln-water, you can we'll imagine
that would not take the medicine.
did not know but what my jailors desired
to poison me- Their previous treatment
justified such an opinion. made up my
mind that, if [ died in Fort Lafayette ]
would die natural death, unless, indeed,
Lincoln ordered me to be tried by drum
head court-martial and shot, which [ felt
he had just as much right to do as he had
to arrest and imprison me in the manner
he had done. Under such treatment, and
by this time, you may we'll imagine that
| had got "big mad on me; and this,
| think, helped to save my life; for che
truth is, [ had got to be too mad to die,
and no thanks to Lincoln but under
kind Providence, [ began to get better
from that time on.


You can we'll imagine that after such
treatment, when my son was permitted to
visit ME, he found me ''emaciated and
careworn." The only wonder is that he
found me alive.


If anything could add to the cruelty
inflicted upon me during these long days
and nights OF my sickness and suferings,
it was the refusal of the commandant to
allow me the use of Bible. Day after
day [ begged the sergeant to procure one
for me. His constant answer was:-
'"The commanding officer says you shan't
have one." begged him to remind the
commanding officer that we lived in
Christian, and not heather land that
[ was an American citizen, and not con-
demned felon. Still the answer was =
"The commanding officer says you shan't
have one, and you need not ask any
more )" and it was not until after sixteen
days of such more than heathenish treat
ment that Colonel Burke of Fort Hamil-
ton, upon the importantly of my son, sent
an order to the commandant of Fort La
| fayettc to let me have Bible.
1t was upon the sixteenth day of my
lonely imprisonment that my son, upon
an order of the Secretary OF War, was
permitted to see me, not in my lonely cell,
but in the commandments room and pres
ence. Itwas with much difficulty that even
at that time, was able to walk from my
cell to the conmandant's room. This was
the first time during my imprisonment
that had been able to obtain an inter
view with the commandant. In his
weekly inspection of the prisoners he had
| n. 70 f,lly, ,vn;dad N, n,raon% "a NJ hind