Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery — George Michael Neese.

March 27 — Another boatload — five hundred and fifty-five prisoners — was called out to-day for exchange. This time my name was called, and when I popped out through the prison gate my buoyant spirits boiled over and it was the happiest moment of my life; but alas! it was too bright to last. The clerk on the outside who made up the boat list had five hundred and sixty names enrolled, just five too many for the boatload, and I proved to be one of the unlucky overplus that had to be returned to the inside again. When I learned my fate despondency immediately chased my spirits down to the deepest place in the gulf of despair, where they are apt to remain until the next exchange day.