y were fighting against "their country." Iverson, however, was considered by northern prisoners to be one of the kindest of the prison commanders. Though it was unknown to the prisoners who were not involved, paroles and prisoners exchanges had commenced again about two months after the removal of the majority of the men from Andersonville to the smaller prisons. The first group exchanged left by steamer from Savannah, Georgia in mid-November, 1864. Another group left from Charleston, South Carolina about the middle of December, another from Wilmington, North Carolina at the beginning of March. One group went west to Vicksburg, Mississippi during late March and April. The last group was released to Jacksonville, Florida on April 28, 1865, nineteen days after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. The sharp decline in the number of deaths during this period reflects not only that fewer men were being held but also that complete records do not exist for the smaller prisons. Since the men had been told that they were being exchanged each time they were moved to another prison, most were skeptical when their paroles were announced. Almost all the prison memoirs says that the men cried when they finally saw "Old Glory" and knew that the exchange was real. The first thing the former prisoners asked for was food. They had had so little to eat in the last year, however, that eating was dangerous. Elias Goff of Co.K, a citizen of Scotts Hill in Henderson County, died suddenly after his release from Millen Prison when sympathetic citizens gave him a big meal. The U.S. military authorities tried to prevent overeating by issuing small amounts of food to the men several times a day. A bath and an issue of clean clothes was their next request. The condition of the men's clothes, as well as the presence of vermin, necessitated that the clothes be burned or thrown out to sea. The assertion of Lieutenant Asa B. Isham of the 7th Michigan Cavalry that the ocean t...
