THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
the sentinel was to order them to disperse, and if the order was not instantly obeyed by the prisoners the sentinel was instructed to fire into the crowd. This order kept us in constant fear of the ignorant nigger guard shooting us. Owing to the crowded state of our prison boundary it was an utter impossibility for us to keep from forming crowds, and the negro guards had little consideration for the "Rebs," as they termed us. One day Colonels Van Manning, Fulkerson, and myself were standing at the end of the centre street of the stockade, talking; two other prisoners joined us, making the crowd just five. The negro sentinel on the parapet, in the most insolent manner, ordered us to "'sperse dat crowd." Conscious we were not violating any rule of the prison, we paid no heed to the nigger. The second time he gave the order he bellowed out at the top of his voice; '"Sperse dat crowd, you damned Rebs; dar's ball in dis here gun, just melting to get into your body. Hear me, don't
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