CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 491 Prison Exchange Influenced by this view of war General Grant sent a dispatch to General Butler August 18, 1864, in the midst of the Andersonville horrors, containing these words : "It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man released on parole or otherwise becomes an active soldier against us at once, either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those caught, they amount to no more than dead men. At this particular time to release all rebel prisoners north would insure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here." This remarkable confession was made with thorough knowledge of the vast resources of the United States. But General Grant did not assume this responsibility without the previous sanction of the civil government. The policy had been fixed at Washington, and the cabinet secret was divulged in a speech by General Butler at Lowell, Massachusetts, August, 1865, in which he informed the public that this continued imprisonment of Union as well as Confederate soldiers was the policy of Mr. Stanton, the secretary of war. In the speech he "stated positively that he had been ordered by Mr. Stanton to put forward the negro question to complicate and prevent exchanges," and he boastfully declared at another time that he had discharged this task so offensively as to produce the required result, thus justifying the charge made by other Northern men that the miseries and deaths of these Union soldiers were "due alone to Edwin M. Stanton's peculiar policy and dogged obstinacy." In addition also to Grant's military reasons for desiring that no prisoners of war should be exchanged, there is given by General Butler in his official report to the committee on the conduct of the war a very remarkable personal objection to exchange, as follows : "In case the Confederate authorities should yield to the argument,and formally notify me that their former slaves captured in our uniform would be exchanged as other soldiers were, and that they were ready to return us all our prisoners at Andersonville and elsewhere in exchange for theirs, then I had determined with the consent of the Lieutenant General (Grant), as a last resort to prevent exchange, to demand that the outlawry against me should be formally reversed and apologized for before I would further negotiate the exchange of prisoners." General Butler coolly excuses himself in the same reports for complicity in the schemes of cruelty, by the statement "that those lives were spent as a part of the attack upon the rebellion devised by the wisdom of the general-in-chief of the armies to destroy it by depletion, depending on our superior numbers to win the victory at last." The battle for the Union was accordingly transferred in 1864. from the soldiers in the field to the sufferers in the prisons. Victory was to be won over the South by the confinement of fighting men in prisons, although they should die there like sheep in the shambles. A statement of Colonel Ould, agent of exchange, was made and published in 1868, verifying the facts concerning the questions relating to prisoners between the two governments and his testimony remains unimpeached. He says that the first cartel of exchange, which bears date July 22, 1862, was designed to secure the delivery of all prisoners of war, the fourth article providing that all prisoners of war should be discharged on parole in ten days after their capture. >From this date until the summer of 1863 the Confederacy held the excess of prisoners, and during that interval of about a year the Confederate authorities made prompt deliveries of all prisoners except the few held under charges. On the other hand, during the same time the cartel was notoriously violated by the Federal authorities on various pretexts. In the summer of 1863, the Federal authorities insisted on limiting exchanges to such prisoners as had been placed in confinement, which was in violation of the cartel, and was proposed after the excess of prisoners had changed to the Federal side. The new proposition nullified that part of the cartel which required the discharge on parole or delivery of prisoners within ten days after capture. The cartel was thus for a time interrupted, but in August, 1864, the Confederate government, moved by the sufferings of prisoners, abated their demand for the delivery of the excess on parole according to the cartel, and formally consented to exchange officer for officer and man for man. The official note to General Mulford, then assistant agent of exchange, containing this consent to the exchange, was unanswered, and after two weeks, the same proposal was forwarded to General Hitchcock, the Federal commissioner of exchange. No answer to either letter was received. General Mulford, on August 31, 1864, informed Ould that he had no communication from his government on the subject. An offer which would have released within ten days every Northern soldier in the Confederate prisons, but at the same time have left a large number of Southern soldiers in Northern prisons because the excess was then on the Federal side, was not even noticed. CONT'D Part III

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 491 Prison Exchange Senator Hill, of Georgia, in his crushing, unanswered reply to Senator Blaine in the House of Representatives January 11, 1876, collates the efforts to facilitate exchanges, and coming to this period of horrors, says: "Then again in August, 1864, the Confederates made two more propositions. I will state that the cartel of exchange was broken by the Federal authorities for certain alleged reasons. Well, in August, 1864, prisoners accumulating on both sides to such an extent, and the Federal government having refused to provide for the comfort and treatment of these prisoners, the Confederates next proposed, in a letter from Colonel Ould dated the 10th of August, 1864, waiving every objection the Federal government had made, to agree to any and all terms to renew the exchange of prisoners, man for man and officer for officer, as the Federal government should prescribe. Yet, sir, the latter rejected that proposition. It took a second letter to bring an answer to that proposition. Then again in that same month of August, 1864, the Confederate authorities did this: Finding that the Federal government would not exchange prisoners at all, that it would not let surgeons go into the Confederacy, finding that it would not let mediciras be sent into the Confederacy, meanwhile the ravages of war continuing and depleting the scant supplies of the South, which was already unable to feed adequately its own defenders, and much less able to properly feed and clothe the thousands of prisoners in Confederate prisons-what did the Confederates propose? They proposed to send home the Federal sick and wounded prisoners without equivalent. Now, sir, I want the house and the country to understand this : That in August, 1864, the Confederate government officially proposed to Federal authorities that if they would send steamships or transportation in any form to Savannah, they should have their sick and wounded prisoners without equivalent. That proposition communicated to the Federal authorities in August, 1864, was not answered until December, 1864. In December, 1864, the Federal government sent ships to Savannah. Now the record will show that the chief suffering at Andersonville was between August and December. The Confederate government sought to avert it by asking the Federal government to come and take its prisoners without equivalent-without return, and it refused to do that until four or five months had elapsed." The efforts of the Confederate government to have the imprisoned soldiers of both armies released were strenuously supported by their friends at home and by the appeals of the prisoners themselves. The Richmond government was beset with communications from citizens inclosing distressing accounts of the treatment to which Confederate prisoners were subjected in Northern prisons, and violent censures of Mr. Davis became common because he did not enforce better treatment on Confederate soldiers in these Northern prisons by retaliation, since he was unable to effect the customary exchanges. In the same way the administration at Washington was besieged by the friends of Federal prisoners, and by appeals from prisoners themselves, urging that no party or military considerations should doom the Union troops to the continued horrors of prison life. The pressure grew as the summer came on and the numbers of these unfortunate heroes of both armies had increased until it became necessary for the Washington administration to give a reason for the refusal of these powerful appeals. The reason was given by the military chieftain, but a better should have been discovered and announced by the civil authority at Washington. General Grant was compelled to assume the responsibility and having no other ground to stand upon he placed the denial of all these appeals upon "military necessity." The same plea of military necessity having been used to excuse all the early measures which the conservative statesman at Washington had opposed, was now employed to defend a policy which according to Junius Henri Browne, a Northern gentleman, cost the Republic at least twelve or fifteen thousand heroic lives. He might have added the same number of equally heroic Confederates, and given 30,000 as the total life-loss by the cruelties of "military necessity." The reason given by General Grant was sound enough from the ferocious military idea that "war must be made terrible," and his justification rests upon his obligations as the lieutenant-general commanding all the armies of the Union to destroy the Con federate forces as quickly as possible. CON'TD Part II

David Dodd - this is the rather sad story of a yound man who was convicted of being a confederate spy in the later days of the Civil War in AR. http://www.civilwarbuff.org/dodd.html Sue morgana@ghg.net

This site is mostly about James Ashcroft of Arkansas, who died during the war, but it mentions one of his cousins who was taken prisoner and sent to Rock Island. http://www.civilwarbuff.org/ashcraft.html Sue morgana@ghg.net

Dear Sue, I just wanted to thank you for posting the tidbits and especially the Sherrill one. My gg-grandfather, Harrison M. Harbin of Oconee Co., SC was a Pvt in the 1st SC Rifles (Orr's). He was wounded (shot through both shoulders by a mini-ball) at the battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse on 12 May 1864. This was the day of the heavy fighting at the "Bloody Angle". He must have known Sherril because they followed a similar path at about the same time. From Belle Plain VA to Lincoln Hospital then to Elmira Prison then to James River for exchange in Feb 1865. He was exchanged 20 Feb 1865 when near death with pneumonia. I have read that the death toll at Elmira was so high that they started exchanging those prisoners who were expected to die soon anyway. That way the death didn't go against the Elmira record. He went to Jackson Hospital, Richmond Va. where he was treated for pneumonia and issued clothing. On 17 Mar 1865 he was given a 30 day furlough. I suppose he walked or crawled from Richmond Va. to SC. Needless to say he didn't return from the furlough. Sherrill's account gives me a better idea of what my ancestor endured. Sincerely, Dennis Smith > -----Original Message----- > From: Sue [mailto:morgana@ghg.net] > Sent: Sunday, December 13, 1998 2:24 PM > To: CW-POW-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [CW-POW-L] Research Tidbit > > > This is an etext I found on the net...it's called > "A Soldier's > Story: Prison Life and Other Incidents in the War > of 1861-65", > written by Miles O. Sherril, a soldier from NC > http://metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/sherrill/sherrill.html Sue morgana@ghg.net

Hunting any information on Reuben MUNDAY residence not listed; Enlisted on 9-10-62 at Richmond, Ky as a Corporal. Mustered into "H" Co. KY 11th Cavalry. Listed as POW 12-30-1862 Springfield, KY. Does anyone have any information on Reuben or what happened on Dec. 30 th and where they might have been taken after capture. Sources-Confederate Kentucky Volunteers War 1861-65. Thanks for any help anyone can provide on any information on the above. vickye@basinlink.com

This is another webpage of a soldier who was killed on the Sultana...it includes a number of his letters and other documents related to his service. The James and Elizabeth Carlin Homepage http://www.klahanie.com/carlin.htm Sue morgana@ghg.net

Lt. Thomas B. Reeves - this page is a tribute to Lt. Reeves, a soldier from Indiana, who spent time in Andersonville, and then died on the Sultana...interesting page with multiple links to related pages http://www.rapidnet.com/~greg/Tom/ Sue morgana@ghg.net

Now I haven't done tons of research about this, but it seems to me that when you are trying to discover where your family member might have been kept if he were a POW, I would think the following would help: When and where do you think he was captured? This has some determination about where he would be sent. A lot of times after a major battle, previously used facilities may have been overloaded with the influx, and the prisoners would be funnelled into new camps or facilities. A lot of camps only were used in certain years. And during 1862, there were a lot of troop exchanges, and some previously used facilities were closed until the paroling of soldiers was stopped and they were re-openned later. One camp in SC, I think, was used for 18 months over a three year period... And remember, not everyone knows where the various units fought, and usually, not everyone in an entire unit was captured at the same time..so people might be scattered based on when and where they were captured. So, if we can remember to mention when and where along with units, we might make connections a little better. Just some ideas from the Listowner...anything that can help with what we know will get more responses...if not now, maybe later when someone is checking the archives. Sue morgana@ghg.net

Looking for any information on Edwin W. Jarrell during the Civil War. He was from NC and supposedly joined the Union Army and spent the war in a Confederate POW Camp and supposedly drew a pension from the Union Army after the war. He was born Aug. 1844 somewhere near New Bern or Moorehead City, NC and was living in Columbus County, NC when the war began. I would appreciate any lookups or information as to how I can trace his CW experience. Thanks. Marion Banks McGee

Cahaba Federal Prison, located near Selma, AL...a brief history and description of the POW camp, with a reading list. http://www.ionet.net/~cousin/dale5.html Sue morgana@ghg.net

FROM ASHBY TO ANDERSONVILLE: THE CIVIL WAR DIARY AND REMINISCENCES OF PRIVATE GEORGE A. HITCHCOCK, 21st MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY This is a selection in his journal about the time he spent around the Florence, SC stockade, a depot camp for those being tranferred from Charleston to Andersonville. http://members.aol.com/edboots/21ma.html Sue morgana@ghg.net

These are some statistics on some of the most notorious prison camps that I had records at hand for. Not all camps were this bad, by the way, but these were among the worst. Camp Douglas, IL (USA) - used as a POW camp from 62-65. Was designed with a max capacity for 6000 men, but during its most crowded they managed to cram in over 12,000. Almost 4500 people died here. Salisbury, NC (CSA) Designed for 2,000. At one point, over 10,000 people were jammed into it. It was used from 61-65. Elmira, NY (USA) Its capacity was designed for 5000, but at one point they managed to get over 9400 people into it. Although they only used it for two years, just under 3,000 people died here. Andersonville, GA (CSA), the most notorious of all of the prison camps. Although set up to contain 10,000 men, at its worst it held over 32000. During its use during '64 and'65, 12,919 people died. Point Lookout, MD (USA) During the three years it was used, 3,500 men died here. At its most crowded, it held about twice its design capability, topping off at 22,000 at its most dense. Danville, VA (CSA) Designed for 3700, at its most croweded, they put 4000 men in here. Used from '63-'65, just under 1300 men died here. Camp Morton, IN (USA) Set up for 2000, it reached a maximum of 5000 POWs. Used from '62 - '65, around 1700 deaths were recorded. Sue morgana@ghg.net

Hello Group If there is anyone on the list that maybe descended from anyone in Law's Alabama especially the 15th Alabama I have Governor Oates Memoirs will see if the person maybe in there. It lists all members of 15th a brief sketch of the rest of the Brigade only Officers are listed in the rest. Thumbnail sketch of command structure. Jacob L. Bateman III

Hello All I have just joined this group and I am seeking information on Lt. John A. Oates Company G 15th Alabama Infantry. He was mortally wounded at Little Round Top and taken to II Division V Corps hospital, how could I obtain these records. I have written Carlayle Barracks and they suggest I write the Museum of the Confederacy. According to Wartime accounts he was buried in an field adjacent to the hospital. Also Col. William M. Hardwick was a POW at Johnson Island, Point Lookout, and Horseshoe Bend Alabama. Where can I find records on him. He enlisted first in Co. H 7th Alabama and when it disbanded in 1862 he enlisted in Co. H 48th Ala. He was a member of the 48th Alabama when he was captured and sent to Johnson Island, and Point Lookout. He escaped from Johnson Island and was exchanged at Point Look out. He held the rank of Lt. Colonel in the 48th Ala when on furlough he was captured and sent to Horseshoe bend Ala. How could I find these records. Thank you Jacob L. Bateman III

Hi, Does anyone know where these prisoners were kept? I have a J. C. Yarbrough and I had always thought that he died in the Civil War, but his name is listed in the surrender of J. E. Sparks, commander of the unit. So he must have died in the prisoner of war camp. I know he did not return from the war. His wife, my gggrandmother, remarried and had my ggrandmother. Any help appreciated. Becky Holman

Henry Stanley, the famous journalist who travelled across Africa to find Dr. Livington, served in Company E, 6th Arkansas, (what type of service is not in my note) and was a POW who was incarcerated in Camp Douglas, IL. Of conditions in the camp, he said, "We were soon in a fair state of rotting while yet alive." Sue morgana@ghg.net

Some statistics you may find interesting: Approximately 16 per cent of all enlisted soldiers during the war became POWs. About 30,000 soldiers died in Confederate camps, and about 26,000 died in Union camps. The death rate was approximately 13 per cent. The number of men held in camps and not paroled on the field numbered nearly 410,000 - information extracted from "Portals to Hell", by Lonnie Speer Sue morgana@ghg.net

my great-great Uncle Isaiah DuBOSE was held in Rock Island, IL.. this is a story told by one of his descendents.... ( from an unpublished book by my fourth cousin) 'Food was kind of scarce. This jailer had a big fine dog that came in with him every morning. One day when he went out, the dog didn't go with him. And, finally, on a placard was "For lack of bread, your dog is dead. For lack of meat, your dog is eat." He didn't say he ate any of the dog, but that's what happened to him.' Just thought I would share.

Greetings, Looking for additional information on Marseen DAVIS. Marseen enlisted in the 17th VA Cavalry on 1 Oct 1862 at Gross Lick, Jackson Co., WV. He was captured in Roane Co., WV on 15 Nov 1863. Sent to Camp Chase, OH on 1 Dec 1863. Sent to Fort Delaware on 14 Mar 1864. I would like to know what led up to Marseen's capture. Anyone who may have information on the 17th Va Cavalry and what may have happened on 15 Nov 1863, I would apprecaite a response. Thank you for your attention to my request. Very kind regards, Tod Davis