Cahaba Prison | |
---|---|
Cahaba, Alabama, U.S.A. | |
Type | Confederate Prison Camp |
Site history | |
Built | 1863 |
In use | 1863–1865 |
Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Cahaba Prison, also known as Castle Morgan, held prisoners of war in Dallas County, Alabama where the Confederacy held captive Union soldiers during the American Civil War. The prison was located in the small Alabama town of Cahaba, at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, not far from Selma. [1] It suffered a serious flood in 1865. At the time, Cahaba was still the county seat, but that was moved to Selma in 1866. Cahaba Prison was known for having one of the lowest death rates of any Civil War prison camp mainly because of the humane treatment from the Confederate commandant.
The Confederate Army built a stockade around a large cotton warehouse near the Alabama River to prepare the site. Cahaba Prison was opened as such in June 1863. [2] The commanding officer was Captain H. A. M. Henderson, a Methodist minister. [3] The prison made use of a brick cotton warehouse built in 1860 on Arch Street, above the banks of the Alabama River. [1] This structure covered approximately 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) and was surrounded by a larger wooden stockade. [1] It was intended for approximately 500 prisoners, but its population had grown to 660 by August 1864. When Union General Ulysses S. Grant suspended the practice of prisoner exchange with the Confederacy, the numbers began to soar. By October 1864 the number of prisoners held here was 2,151; they had increased to more than 3,000 by March 1865. [1]
Former prisoner Jesse Hawes describe the two men in charge by the following: Captain Howard A. M. Henderson was "remembered with kindly wishes…It was often in the power of Henderson to extend kindnesses and courtesies to prisoners, and we are glad to note that the opportunity was not infrequently embraced." But he wrote of Lieutenant-Col. Samuel Jones, "we find one whose record was a sickening blotch upon humanity...The relations between Jones and Henderson were never cordial, and at times were quite unfriendly. It was urged by one or two of the guards that Jones, when not drunk, was less brutal then he would ordinarily seem; but unfortunately for the poor wretches whose very lives depended on his moods, he was never seen by us except when intoxicated." [4]
Jacob Rush of the 3rd Ohio Cavalry enlisted at age 15, having lied about his age. He was captured as a spy, met with General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and was sent to Cahaba Prison, arriving on October 13, 1864. While there he met Union Captain Hanchette and helped organize an escape attempt. They were successful in capturing the guards, but the demoralized condition of the prisoners resulted in a failed attempt. Confederate reinforcements came from the town and the prisoners were charged with conspiracy. Captain Hanchette refused to give up the names of the men involved, and none of the other prisoners admitted to them, either. The suspected conspirators were kept four days without rations. Jacob Rush and Jesse Hawes, M. D. later wrote first-hand accounts of the prison, the conditions, and the escape attempt.
They learned that Captain Hanchette was to be exchanged for a Confederate general confined at Vicksburg. Rush reported that Colonel Jones, who both hated and feared his victim, selected two villainous men to act as his guard, and gave them instructions to find some excuse for shooting him while taking him from Cahaba to Selma, where the exchange was to be conducted.
Captain Hanchette was taken forth from the dark dungeon, his strong frame so reduced that he was scarcely able, even under the stimulus of hope, to stand, placed in the custody of the assassins, and started toward Selma. He was shot down in cold blood before he was a mile from town, a fate perfectly in accord with a confinement rarely paralleled in the bounds of any civilized country in the nineteenth century. [5]
The regional district commander, Lt. Col. Samuel Jones, negotiated an exchange of Union prisoners from Cahaba for captured Confederates, with the prison being evacuated in March 1865. The exchange took place at Vicksburg, Mississippi in April 9th 1865, after a long and arduous journey by the prisoners.
R. H. Whitfield, the prison surgeon, reported unhygienic conditions at the camp, citing the lack of a sanitary water supply. [2] The warehouse building had one fireplace and 432 bunk spaces. Despite this, the death rate was about 2%, the lowest rate of any Civil War prison camp. Most Confederate camps averaged 15.5% and Union camps had mortality rates of more than 12%; most deaths were due to disease. [2] Federal and Confederate records indicate that between 142 and 147 men died at Cahaba Prison. [2]
The most outstanding health problem were constant outbreaks of flea infestations. Park historians believe the low death rate was mainly due to the humane treatment of the prisoners based on Capt. Henderson's Methodist beliefs. [6] Tragically and sadly ironic, after having survived in the prisoner of war camp, once freed, many of these prisoners later died in the subsequent Sultana disaster; it sank while transporting them to the North. [1]
Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,167 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history.
William Nelson Rector Beall was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is most noted for his supply efforts on behalf of Confederate prisoners of war.
The postage stamps and postal system of the Confederate States of America carried the mail of the Confederacy for a brief period in U.S. history. Early in 1861 when South Carolina no longer considered itself part of the Union and demanded that the U.S. Army abandon Fort Sumter, plans for a Confederate postal system were already underway. Indeed, the Confederate Post Office was established on February 21, 1861; and it was not until April 12 that the American Civil War officially began, when the Confederate Army fired upon U.S. soldiers who had refused to abandon the fort. However, the United States Post Office Department continued to handle the mail of the seceded states as usual during the first weeks of the war. It was not until June 1 that the Confederate Post Office took over collection and delivery, now faced with the task of providing postage stamps and mail services for its citizens.
Henry Wirz was a Swiss-born American military officer and convicted war criminal who served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
The Andersonville National Historic Site, located near Andersonville, Georgia, preserves the former Andersonville Prison, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final fourteen months of the American Civil War. Most of the site lies in southwestern Macon County, adjacent to the east side of the town of Andersonville. The site also contains the Andersonville National Cemetery and the National Prisoner of War Museum. The prison was created in February 1864 and served until April 1865.
The Battle of Selma was fought on April 2, 1865 in Dallas County, Alabama during the American Civil War. It was part of the Union campaign through Alabama and Georgia, known as Wilson's Raid, in the final full month of the Civil War.
Point Lookout State Park is a public recreation area and historic preserve occupying Point Lookout, the southernmost tip of a peninsula formed by the confluence of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River in St. Mary's County, Maryland. The state park preserves the site of an American Civil War prisoner of war camp and the Point Lookout Light, which was built in 1830. It is the southernmost spot on Maryland's western shore, the coastal region on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay.
Cahaba, also spelled Cahawba, was the first permanent state capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1825. It was the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama until 1866. Located at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, the town endured regular seasonal flooding.
Johnson's Island is a 300-acre (120 ha) island in Sandusky Bay, located on the coast of Lake Erie, 3 miles (4.8 km) from the city of Sandusky, Ohio. It was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate officers captured during the American Civil War. Initially, Johnson's Island was the only Union prison camp exclusively for Confederate officers but eventually it held privates, political prisoners, persons sentenced to court martial and spies. Civilians who were arrested as guerrillas, or bushwhackers, were also imprisoned on the island. During its three years of operation, more than 15,000 men were incarcerated there.
The Florence Stockade, also known as The Stockade or the Confederate States Military Prison at Florence, was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp located on the outskirts of Florence, South Carolina, during the American Civil War. It operated from September 1864 through February 1865; during this time, as many as 18,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned there, about 2,800 of whom died.
Wilson's Raid was a cavalry operation through Alabama and Georgia in March–April 1865, late in the American Civil War. U.S. Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson led his U.S. Cavalry Corps to destroy Confederate manufacturing facilities and was opposed unsuccessfully by a much smaller force under Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Camp Chase was a military staging and training camp established in Columbus, Ohio in May 1861 after the start of the American Civil War. It also included a large Union-operated prison camp for Confederate prisoners during the American Civil War.
Camp Ford was a POW camp near Tyler, Texas, during the American Civil War. It was the largest Confederate-run prison west of the Mississippi.
The 12th Iowa Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Camp Morton was a military training ground and a Union prisoner-of-war camp in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the American Civil War. It was named for Indiana governor Oliver Morton. Prior to the war, the site served as the fairgrounds for the Indiana State Fair. During the war, Camp Morton was initially used as a military training ground. The first Union troops arrived at the camp in April 1861. After the fall of Fort Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh, the site was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp. The first Confederate prisoners arrived at Camp Morton on February 22, 1862; its last prisoners were paroled on June 12, 1865. At the conclusion of the war, the property resumed its role as the fairgrounds for the Indiana State Fair. In 1891 the property was sold and developed into a residential neighborhood known as Morton Place, a part of the Herron-Morton Place Historic District.
The Immortal Six Hundred were 600 Confederate officers who were held prisoner by the Union Army in 1864–65. In the summer of 1863, the Confederacy passed a resolution stating all captured African-American soldiers and the officers of colored troops would not be returned. The resolution also allowed for any captured officer of colored troops to be executed and any captured African-American soldier be sold into slavery. The resolution caused a breakdown in the exchange of captured soldiers as the Union demanded all soldiers be treated equally. The Immortal Six Hundred were one group of officers who could not be exchanged.
John Henry Winder was a career United States Army officer who served with distinction during the Mexican–American War. He later served as a Confederate general officer during the American Civil War.
The Pointe Coupee Artillery was a Confederate Louisiana artillery unit in the American Civil War made up primarily of men from the parishes of Pointe Coupee, East Baton Rouge, Livingston and other surrounding parishes as well as a large number of men from New Orleans.
The Battle of Columbus, Georgia, was the last conflict in the Union campaign through Alabama and Georgia, known as Wilson's Raid, in the final full month of the American Civil War.
Between 1861 and 1865, American Civil War prison camps were operated by the Union and the Confederacy to detain over 400,000 captured soldiers. From the start of the Civil War through to 1863 a parole exchange system saw most prisoners of war swapped relatively quickly. However, from 1863 this broke down following the Confederacy's refusal to treat black and white Union prisoners equally, leading to soaring numbers held on both sides.