United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and Prisons

Abstract

Contains an unbound manuscript of Robert Duncan Chapman's published Civil War memoir.

Abstract

This collection consists principally of correspondence among members of the Adams Family, the majority of which concerns the Confederate service of a son, who wrote many letters detailing army life and conditions. It also contains papers related to Homer and John Adams, prisoners of war who died before returning home, and an Adams Family history by Irving Adams, dated December 18, 1948.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a single postal cover (envelope only, no enclosed letter) mailed by U.S. Congressman Alfred Ely of New York while imprisoned at Liggon’s Prison (a converted tobacco warehouse) in Richmond, Virginia, following his capture during the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). The envelope is free-franked by Ely and postmarked Washington, D.C., November 17, 1861, addressed to Brigadier General William E. Lathrop of the New York National Guard. The verso bears docketing,...

Scope and Contents This collection contains a typed manuscript by a Civil War veteran, J.E. Pettit, and a leaflet announcing the eleventh reunion of the Society of United States Military Corp and Old Time Telegraphers' Association, where he is believed to have spoken about his experiences in 1891. An Incident in My Life, the primary document, is eighteen typed pages. It describes Fort Henderson in Athens, Alabama, noting its capture, the number of Black Union soldiers stationed...

Abstract

Letters from seven former students while prisoners of war in northern prison camps, requesting food, clothing, books, tobacco, and money.

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Typescript of Curtis R. Burke's Civil War journal which includes daily entries from October 1862 to June 1865. Notable journal entries include descriptions of John Hunt Morgan's raid into Ohio in July 1863, and accounts of conditions in prison camps in Indiana and Illinois.

Scope and Contents This collection includes twelve original letters from E.T. Harrison to his wife, Hannah. They are formatted like a manuscript or diary and may have been bound before Harrison sent them or after the Civil War. The letters document his experiences in the Confederate cavalry from May to September 1863. They note his travels through Tennessee and Alabama, perceptions of Union activity, and participation in various skirmishes and combat. Other notable topics include payroll, his fellow soldiers'...

Scope and Contents

This collection of papers and photographs deals primarily with Fort Warren, Massachusetts and Francis Bartow Bevill's time there as a prisoner of war.

Scope and Contents This collection contains four Civil War broadsides from the field press of Dr. G. H. Sutherland. The first is entitled "A Prison Song," which Sutherland claimed to have written while he was a prisoner of war. On the left and right of the title, two U.S. flags appear. An introduction states the lyrics recount a "correct history" of Union soldiers' "confinement, treatment and suffering" as well as Southerners' "habits and customs." A second broadside is entitled the "Negro...

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a letter written by Confederate General Jeff Thompson on March 9, 1864, while imprisoned at Fort Delaware. Addressed to Captain Joab Patterson, the Provost Marshal of Point Lookout, Maryland, the letter provides insight into Thompson’s experiences as a prisoner during the Civil War. This document offers valuable historical context on Confederate leadership, Civil War prison conditions, and the communications between Confederate prisoners and Union authorities.

Abstract

This is a collection of mostly personal correspondence of Jefferson Davis and his family members, in both the United States and Europe. This collection also includes three folders of photographs and other visual materials.

Abstract Collection contains letters written by John Horry Dent, Jr. (signed J. Horry Dent) of Barbour County, Alabama, from 1861 March 15 to 1864 July 1 to his father, John Horry Dent of Eufaula, Alabama. There are also two letters written by Dent Jr.’s fellow officers to Dent's father detailing information of Dent Jr.’s part aboard the C.S.S. McRae during the battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip and his subsequent capture and internment at Fort Warren in May...

Scope and Contents

This document is a letter written by G. Veltfort, a Union officer, from Libby Prison on December 12, 1863. The letter provides firsthand insight into the conditions within the Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia, known for overcrowding, inadequate provisions, and harsh treatment of prisoners.

Scope and Contents This collection contains a letter from Albert T. Goodwyn to his sister Elizabeth Goodwyn Oliver, written while he was imprisoned at Johnson's Island in 1864. The letter offers insight into the life and morale of a Confederate officer in captivity and is fairly positive, discussing Goodwyn's relief to hear that Elizabeth's husband, Sam, was not wounded as he had been informed. Goodwyn expresses resignation about the duration of his imprisonment, noting his only hope for early release would be...

Scope and Contents

One broadside of a poem written by a Union soldier held at the Confederate Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, on 8 November 1861. The poem describes the food provided and the ways it was prepared at the prison in satirical verse.

Abstract

Original and typed copy from Radford to Lieutenant Commander T. C. Harris, discussing a possible attempt to rescue Jefferson Davis, a prisoner at Fortress Monroe.

Scope and Contents The diary of Corporal Rudolph H.F. Roessel documents his service in the Union Army as a member of Company B, 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. Spanning from 1862 to 1863, the diary provides a firsthand account of his enlistment, military movements, battles, and personal experiences as a soldier.Roessel details the regiment’s formation in Easton, Pennsylvania, in September 1862, its deployment to Washington, D.C., and subsequent participation in...

Scope and Contents

This broadside describes the conditions under which many Southern prisoners of war were suffering and solicits financial support from Southerners living in Europe during the Civil War. The Fund was intended to "mitigate some of these sufferings" although it acknowledged that some of the suffering could not be relieved.

Scope and Contents This collection contains a lithograph printed by Edward Sachse that features the views and conditions of several Confederate prison camps, which were used to hold Union officers during the U.S. Civil War. It consists of twelve hand-drawn illustrations of camps located in the South, including Andersonville and several lesser known camps, which were not as heavily documented. One of the lithograph's two central images is Camp Asylum in Columbia, South Carolina, which is depicted as...

Scope and Contents This collection contains two memoirs written by former Union soldiers who were captured during the U.S. Civil War and held at Andersonville Prison. The first contains three pages and was written by a Brevet Brigadier General in the 8th Maine Regiment. The unnamed man states that he spent time in six different Confederate prisons, including Libby and Andersonville, where he was held in 1865. His recollections include raiders who stole from fellow prisoners, the thieves' punishment, and the...

Abstract

Typed transcripts and one handwritten letter from a Union soldier to his parents while he was a prisoner of war at Cahaba Prison in Dallas County, Alabama, and at a parole camp near Vicksburg, Mississippi. There are also typed transcriptions of manuscripts describing prison life and the explosion of the Steamer Sultana.