Happily in about
half an hour, the noisy voice of the keeper
of the prison was heard, calling on the occupants of no.
3 to exacuate the cell, and in a moment, his short thickset
form appeared, and with a perfect volley of oaths and obscenity,
he good humoredly informed us that he had turned out the
occupants of room nos 9 and 13 upstairs and adjoining that
occupied by Messrs Broaddus and others
of the Fred'bg prisoners who had preceeded us, in order
that we, who he humorously styled the "elite of Fred'bg"
might all be together. Blankets and baggage were quickly
removed upstairs and the remainder of the day was devoted
to the arrangement of our apartment, bedding &c. The
room is the counterpart of that occupied by Messrs Broaddus,
Bradley with the exception that it
is three feet smaller each way. Mr Scott,
Mr Slaughter, Mr
Norton and Abraham Cox were roommates
with me. This left one empty berth which was filled by Mr
Richard Washington formerly of Westmoreland, late of Minnesota,
where his family now are. He was arrested for assisting
in the capture of a party of Confederate deserters on the
Potomac and the scuttling of two vessels they had stolen
for the purpose of plunder and illicit traffic. This, of
course, was a crime of high degree in the estimation of
the Federal authorities, and hence Mr Washington's incarceration.
