ps of the fellow-prisoners was in impossibility, for no one could be expected to lend what, if it were not returned, would insure his own destruction, particularly when the borrower was an utter stranger; there was nothing left for them but to bake their raw meal and bacon upon stones and chips, eat it without moisture, and afterward to go to the brook like beasts to quench their thirst." The men also lived with little protection from the elements since no tents were issued. Sergeant Davidson said that the 7th Tennessee "scooped out shallow places in the earth with their hands, and lying down side by side in these, with their bare heads and naked feet resting upon the surface of the ground, and their unprotected bodies wet with dews and storms, the wretched men trembled and shivered till morning. Members of the regiment later confirmed this in their answers to a Civil War questionnaire. Private William Douglas wrote that they "slept on the ground, nothing under us or over...we didn't have any cloth." Private William T. Woods said "we suffered greatly from exposure." Private Isaac Davenport said in his memoir that their "beds was only the sandy hills...we slept exposed" Even allowing for a certain amount of exaggeration, the men of the 7th Tennessee arrived at a distinct disadvantage since they had no money to bargain with their fellow prisoners or with the Confederate guards or to buy from the prison sutler. Also, as noted above, their blankets, cooking utensils, and clothing either had been taken from them by their captors or had been thrown away because of the burden of the long forced marches. They did not even have enough cloth to make crude tents to protect themselves from the elements. However, some Confederate soldiers respected the private property of their captives. For example, the Union regiments captured at Plymouth, North Carolina retained their money and their private property. Robert Kellogg, a member of the Plymo...
