THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
marshal, to come and see him, which he did. Our men protested against such insults as the convicts perpetrated upon them, but Thompson simply ordered the cell door closed, and paid no further attention to the protest, and this devilish torture went on. Finally the provost-marshal-general made a general inspection of the convict prison, with his assistant, Thompson. When the door of the cell in which our men were confined was opened Colonel Gurney asked Thompson why those Confederate prisoners of war were confined in convict cells. Thompson hesitated for a moment before he replied, and then lied by saying the men had formed a conspiracy to escape and murder the guard. Colonel Manning at once denounced Lieutenant Thompson as a liar, and his story as a mean, cowardly lie. When Colonel Gurney heard Colonel Manning's story, he ordered Thompson to instantly remove the prisoners from the filthy cells to a room on the floor above, where they were confined seventeen days, surrounded by the galvanized scoundrels—deserters who had taken the oath of allegiance. This fellow, Thompson, inflicted upon Colonel Manning all the little mean indignities he dared without Colonel Gurney finding him out; and all this for the sole reason that Manning had proved and denounced Thompson a liar and coward.
These brave men never allowed this fellow
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