During the day the platform around the pen is constantly paced by sentinels chiefly of the Invalid Corps, whose duty it is to see that the prisoners are orderly, and particularly, that no one crosses “the dead line.” This is a shallow ditch traced around within the enclosure, about fifteen feet from the fence. The penalty for stepping over this is death and although the sentinels are probably instructed to warn any one who may be violating the rule, the order does not seem to be imperative, and the negroes, when on duty, rarely troubled themselves with this superfluous formality.

Last night the negro regiment which constitutes part of our guard and which had been raiding over in Westmoreland and the adjacent counties returned. Their captives consisted of a hundred head of cattle-principally poor women’s cows-several ploughs, buggies, primeval sulkies, harrows, beds, chairs, and who knows what else they may do and all from twenty to thirty decrepit CITIZENS. Every month and sometimes more frequently, they are sent across the river by their officers on a plundering tour. These raids, usually made in a country entirely devoid of Confederates soldiers, are not reported by the yankees but are used to keep alive the martial ardor and fidelity of the black troops.
...Sgt. Anthony M. Keiley,CSA POW, Pt. Lookout