Heart and Soul; A Novel (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1901 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV PERHAPS I should include among my services to my country the sufferings of twenty-two months of slow torture in the prisons of my captors. I have no complaint to make against the Confederates, for God knows they suffered themselves. They had no agriculture, no commerce to provide them with food, no factories to supply them with blankets and clothing, no salt-works to preserve their meats. Their own soldiers, during those latter years of the war, were sleeping without shelter or covering, were eating rotten, wormy food, were dying of exposure and disease. What, then, had they to offer their prisoners? Freedom of movement and the frequent change of camping-ground gave them, of course, an immense sanitary advantage over prisoners herded together like cattle in pens, but I attribute nothing in the misery of our condition to any inhumanity on the part of our captors. My later experiences of war and warfare have taught me that the horrors of our situation were practically unavoidable under such conditions, and I have no feelings but those of liking and respect for the gallant supporters of a lost cause. The uselessness of my sacrifice sometimes weighed upon my spirits. It seemed as if I should have served my country better by staying with my dear grandfather and laboring for the extension of its commerce and the beautifying of its waterways, rather than by shovelling dirt for five weeks and languishing in prison for nearly two years. Perhaps, if I had gone through the excitement of a battle the sacrifice would have seemed more worth while; but as it was, I could only strive to console myself by calling to mind the words of Pere Lacordaire, "Prepare yourself assiduously to be worthy of the highest citizenship, and if no beautiful day is to dawn on your ...