Among the prisoners confined at Charleston during the latter months of the war was Major Orlando J. Smith, of the Sixth Indiana Cavalry, who bore testimony all his life to the fair treatment of young officers like himself. "We were treated," he said, "exactly as well as the Confederates. We were hungry sometimes and so were they." The prisoners were kept, among other places, in the Roper Hospital shown on this page, and the O'Connor House shown on the page following. Major Smith was confined in the latter place. The battle of Nashville had been fought, and Sherman was on his way from the sea. The investment of Petersburg was drawing closer every day, and the Confederacy was slowly crumbling. Victory and release were at hand, and in the meantime the shady porches of the Roper Hospital shown below were not an unpleasant place to lounge. Undoubtedly many of the prisoners yearned with fierce eagerness to be free again, but their incarceration here was not to be for long.

Roper Hospital, Charleston, South Carolina