camp to the other. All this was too much for Father Henry Clavreul, who had joined Whelan in August. He became sick with continual vomiting and later wrote: "Whelan decided that I should leave, so I took the trains back to Savannah whilst the…old priest retraced his steps to the stockade." As the number of prisoners grew steadily to about 33,000, Whelan requested more help. He was joined first by the Reverend John Kirby of Augusta, and then, by the multilingual Jesuit, the Reverend Anselm Usannez, from Spring Hill College near Mobile. Each worked for two weeks before leaving the camp. Trial of the Raiders The lack of streets and the hodgepodge of dwellings in the stockade made it impossible to police the area properly. Stealing, brutality, and even murder by well-organized armed "raiders" became common. After many protests the prisoners were allowed to organize for defense, to have the suspects arrested, and to give them a fair trial. Twenty-four were caught, tried and convicted, and six were sentenced to death. Whelan visited the men in the stocks on July 10, the night before their execution. The next morning, as the scaffold was being constructed, the priest tried in vain to obtain a stay of execution. "Whelan's Bread" In late August, as Sherman was about to enter Atlanta, Union prisoners were being transferred to Savannah and Charleston. By late September, Whelan decided that he could leave. Before he left, the priest contacted Henry Horne, a devout Catholic and successful restaurant owner in Macon. From him Whelan borrowed $16,000 in Confederate money, the equivalent of $400 in gold. With this, he went to the town of Americus, purchased ten thousand pounds of wheat flour, had it baked into bread and distributed at the prison hospital at Andersonville. The prisoners referred to it as "Whelan's bread." This much-needed gift was enough to provide the men with rations for several months. "The Angel of Andersonville" The prisoners never forgot the priest. When they returned home and wrote their memoirs, Father Whelan and his work were often recalled. Some mentioned that he had brought clothing, food, and money from Savannah. One added, "without a doubt he was the means of saving hundred of lives." Another described Whelan's ministering to the sick: "All creeds, color and nationalities were alike to him…He was indeed the Good Samaritan." A sergeant, John Vaughter, in his memoirs remarked that,