The Most Chaste and Entertaining Story before the American People. Endorsed by Universities, Colleges, Schools, the Press, Pulpit and the People Everywhere. "Billy" Bates could laugh later. But his true story of the harrowing journey as prisoners of war from the hell of Andersonville Confederate prison camp to the tender mercies of Abraham Lincoln himself was one he barely survived. After befriending "Dick" in prison camp, the two managed to escape. Repeatedly helped by African Americans (at risk of their own lives) Billy and Dick eventually found themselves back in the embrace of their Union comrades and brought before General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman was horrified and enraged by the starved and diseased condition of the two men and what they described of Andersonville. When he asked what he could do for the boys, Billy said, "I should like to live long enough to see President Lincoln and then go home and die."