THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
views of humanity. This menu of starvation, issued by the United States Government, was good enough for helpless prisoners of war. Just think of this bill of fare:
Breakfast, four rotten hardtack crackers.
Dinner, one-half pint sandy soup.
Supper, all the wind one could inhale.
Our medical treatment was the acme of cruelty, rendered by a red-headed cow doctor, whose only remedy, no matter what your complaint, was an opium pill or dose of jamaica ginger. This redheaded doctor always reminded me of a country cross-road cow doctor whose knowledge of medicine was culled from a patent medicine almanac, and his practice justified the conclusion. The colonel of the 54th Massachusetts (negro) Regiment, his officers and niggers, were regular daisies. I recall one little sawed-off lieutenant who often called the prison roll; or rather took the
107
