uth captives, said that they were allowed to retain their blankets, overcoats, and all they had with them except their arms and equipment. He reported only one robbery, and that by an intoxicated officer. He praised the 35th North Carolina as a gentlemanly set of guards. When these captives reached Andersonville, about twelve days after the 7th Tennessee had arrived, Sergeant Davidson could not help noticing the contrast between the appearances of the two sets of prisoners. Nearly every one of the Plymouth captives had an overcoat, extra pants, shirts, drawers, blankets, and money with which to negotiate. Money to buy food from the sutler would have been expecially helpful since the food supplied in the prison camp was never adequate. James Taylor of Buena Vista in Carroll County said that the food supply for twenty-four hours was about half what a man ordinarily had for one meal. William Douglas, son of a Henderson County planter, must have referred only to the vegetable ration when he said he ate "1 spoonful Bow peas a day." William Wood from Darden in Henderson County said he suffered "starvation." Joseph McCracken, son of the major of Huntingdon, weighed 150 pounds when he arrived at Andersonville and only 75 pounds at his release. Isaac Davenport wrote "our flesh bein reducd we were nothin but skelingtons." Southern apologists have made much of the fact that the rations were the same as were being supplied to the Confederate army and to the guards at the prison. They overlook, however, the opportunities that free men have to supplement their rations. The prisoners themselves found one opportunity to supplement their diet. They reportedly ate a dog that had wandered into the stockade. Several versions of the story exist and continue to be told by West Tennessee descendants at present. It is even said that a bone of that dog was brought back to Carroll County by Daniel J. Meals of Co.A. The bone is thought to still be retained by...
