Samuel Johnson and the Plymouth Massacre

    Major General Benjamin F. Butler was in a tizzy. He had received a deposition from the provost marshal bearing incredible news, a note he had forwarded to General Grant. The deposition was from the orderly sergeant of Company D, 2^nd United States Colored Cavalry (USCC), Samuel Johnson. Johnson claimed that he was in Plymouth, North Carolina, with a “Sergeant French.” French was a recruiting officer and was in Plymouth “to take charge of some recruits.” Johnson claimed to have witnessed the April 1864 battle of Plymouth, the most successful combined Confederate army-navy venture of the war. On learning that the Federal garrison was going to be surrendered to the Confederate command under Brig. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, Johnson

Pulled off my uniform and found a suit of citizen’s clothes, which I put on, and when captured I was supposed and believed by the rebels to be a citizen. After being captured I was kept at Plymouth for some two weeks and was employed in endeavoring to raise the sunken vessels of the Union fleet.

   From Plymouth I was taken to Weldon and from thence to Raleigh, N.C., where I was detained for about a month, and was forwarded to Richmond, where I remained until about the time of the battles near Richmond, when I went with Lieutenant Johnson, of the Sixth North Carolina, as his servant, to Hanover Junction. I did not remain there over four or five days before I made my escape into the lines of the Union army and was sent to Washington, D.C., and then duly forwarded to my regiment in front of Petersburg.

   Upon the capture of Plymouth by the rebel forces all the negroes found in blue unforms, or with any outward marks of a Union soldier upon him, was killed. I saw some taken to the woods and hung. Others I saw stripped of all their clothing and then stood upon the banks of the river with their faces riverward and there they were shot. Still others were killed by having their brains beaten out by the butt end of muskets in the hands of the rebels. All were not killed the day of the capture. Those that were not were placed in a room with their officers, they (the officers) having previously been dragged through town with ropes around their necks, where they were kept confined until the following morning, when the remainder of the black soldiers were killed.

   The regiments most conspicuous in these murderous transactions were the Eighth North Carolina and, I think, the Sixth North Carolina.[1]

   Johnson’s account is often used as an example of the brutality of Confederate soldiers toward Black Federal soldiers captured during the war. Yet, Johnson’s account has numerous problems. First and foremost, there is no Orderly (or First) Sergeant Samuel Johnson in the 2^nd USCC.[2] Maybe the regiment was wrong. There was a Samuel Johnson in the 3^rd USCC. He did not enlist until July 11, 1864, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Another Samuel Johnson enlisted in the 4^th USCC in New Orleans on March 1, 1864. Yet another Samuel E. Johnson enlisted in Columbus, Ohio, on December 20, 1864, in the 5^th USCC. This soldier was appointed sergeant on February 1, 1865.[3] Maybe the provost marshal in his deposition got the first name wrong. There was a corporal Berry Johnson, but he was in Company G; Corp. Henry Johnson served in Company B; Sgt. Joseph Johnson served in Company L, but did not actually enlist until March 9, 1865; Pvt. Kuggs Johnson is the only Johnson in Company D, but he did not enlist until March 14, 1865; Richard Johnson enlisted on December 24, 1864 in Prince Anne County, Virginia. He was also a private, and his compiled service record states he was in various engagements like Petersburg, Virginia, on May 9, 1864; Richard R. Johnson was a sergeant in Company C but is reported present from March to June 1864. Maybe his service record was lost. But why not a pension record?[4]

   If Johnson’s service cannot be substantiated in the Company D, 2^nd United States Colored Cavalry, then that should end the conversation right there. Digging a little further, there is a record for a George N. French somehow connected to the 2^nd USCC. He does not seem to have been officially mustered into the regiment until March 18, 1866, at the rank of second lieutenant. In July (25^th or July 2, ‘65?) a B.H. French writes to the government asking about a son who was a lieutenant in the 2^nd USCC, stating he had been captured at Plymouth. B.H. French was living in Chicago at the time she wrote. There appears to be no prison record, no parole record, and no pension. What became of French?

   Johnson stated that after two weeks in Plymouth and a month in Raleigh, he was sent to Richmond, remaining an undisclosed time, when he was sent to be the servant of a “Lieutenant Johnson, of the Sixth North Carolina.” There is no Lieutenant Johnson/Johnston in the 6^th North Carolina. By the time that Samuel Johnson arrived with the 6^th North Carolina, that regiment had been ordered to the Shenandoah Valley.  From the vicinity of Hanover Junction, Johnson stated he escaped into Federal lines.

   What of the murder of Black Union soldiers so graphically described in Johnson’s affidavit?  One challenge is this: there were no Black regiments stationed in Plymouth during the battle. There were some recruiters and Black recruits for Black regiments. And it is possible that some were killed. However, one Richmond newspaper reported on April 27, 1864, that “two negroes in Yankee uniforms,” arrived with General Wessells (the Federal commander) and the other federal officers in Richmond.[5] Obviously, not all Black men found in uniform were executed in Plymouth.

   Black men, women, and children were held for some time in Plymouth. One newspaper reported that citizens from the surrounding area were “hastening” to Plymouth to “to reclaim the property stolen from them by the Yankees. Besides a large number of negroes, horses and other articles identified by their owners.”[6] On April 23, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard telegraphed Gov. Zebulon B. Vance, instructing him to send “the slaves captured” at Plymouth “to Wilmington,” to work on the fortifications.[7]

   It is interesting that Samuel Johnson never mentions James Dearing. Dearing’s ad hoc cavalry command plays a role in hunting down both Blacks and local unionists in many other accounts (many post-war, or contemporary to our time) of the battle. Many had escaped to the swamps where Dearing was sent to hunt them down. One report stated that 300 to 400 actually gave themselves up, and Lt. Charles French, with the U.S.S. Miami, picked up “many escaped soldiers . . . who had taken to the swamps.”[8] Yet Johnson never brings those in the swamps up in his affidavit.

   After the war was over, the members of the 101^st and 103^rd Pennsylvania Infantry, who fought at Plymouth and were captured, considered the matter at one of their reunions. They came to the conclusion that men like Samuel Johnson, and the veterans who wrote about the “massacre” after the war, were “mistaken.” They believed that “many negroes and native North Carolina Union soldiers were killed, and perhaps an occasional one brutally murdered, by individual soldiers, but the victims, apprehending cruel treatment, were attempting to make their escape, when by the laws of war, the victors are justified in shooting even an unarmed man.” They believed that Union soldiers, placed in the same situation, might enjoy the “same kind of sport.” They believed that Wessells, who was still in Plymouth when this supposedly took place, “would have instantly taken issue with the Confederates, had he any suspicion of such atrocities.” Considering that the 101^st and 103^rd finished the war in Andersonville Prison and had every right to be embittered against their foe, they declined to endorse the idea of a large-scale massacre of Black soldiers following the battle.[9]

   It is interesting to note that Samuel Johnson claimed to belong to the 2^nd USCC. Just a few weeks prior, the 2^nd USCC ambushed portions of Ransom’s brigade near Suffolk, Virginia, killing and wounding several. When Confederates discovered the house the sharpshooters were using, they set fire to it, with the Black soldiers inside, later declaring that “Ransom’s brigade never takes any negro prisoners…”[10] On passing along Johnson’s affidavit, Butler told Grant that “something should be done in retaliation for this outrage.” He had several prisoners from the 8^th North Carolina and, if in independent command, “I should take this matter into my own hands.” Grant ignored him and the testimony of Samuel Johnson.[11]

   It is entirely possible that Confederate soldiers, in the heat of the moment, killed fellow combatants after they had surrendered. It happens in all wars and not just with Confederate soldiers. Federal officers lost control of their soldiers at the battle of Fort Gregg in April 1865 (read more here). But the idea that Wayne Durrill advanced that “roughly six hundred U.S. soldiers, most of them black, whom the Confederates failed to take prisoner,” were killed, along with the testimony of Samuel Johnson, should be seen as unsubstantiated myth.[12]  

 

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[1] OR, Ser. 2, 7:459-460.

[2] Both compiled service records on Fold3 and Ancestry were checked, along with pension records. I also had someone else double check this.

[3] Various compiled service records.

[4] CMSR, Roll 0024, M1817, RG94.

[5] Richmond Whig, April 27, 1864.

[6] Richmond Examiner, quoted in the Memphis Daily Appeal, May 9, 1864.

[7] Papers of Vance, 3:185.

[8] The Daily Confederate, Apr. 30, 1864; ORN 8, 641.

[9] Dickey, History of the 103d Pennsylvania, 269-70.

[10] Charlotte Daily Bulletin, March 18, 1864.

[11] OR, Ser. 2, 7:459-460.

[12] Durrill, War of Another Kind, 206-8.

Was Robert E. Lee a Whig?

    For some Confederate military commanders, their pre-war political lives are easy to follow. Kentuckian John C. Breckinridge served in the United States House, United State Senate, and as Vice President of the United States, all while a member of the Democratic Party. He was a Confederate major general. North Carolinian Zebulon Baird Vance was a member of the Whig Party, and following that party’s demise in 1854, a member of the American Party or Know-Nothings, while serving in the U.S. House starting in 1858. He was colonel of the 26^th North Carolina. Richard L. T. Beale was a pre-war Democrat in the US House prior to the becoming a Confederate brigadier general; Georgian Howell Cobb was the U.S. Treasury Secretary under James Buchanan, and later a Confederate major general; another Georgian, Lucius J. Gartrell, served in the US House before becoming a Confederate brigadier general.

   Back to the question: how would Robert E. Lee have voted in an election? There is a good chance that Lee never voted in a national election. His father, Light Horse Harry Lee, lost all his property.  His mother’s will stipulated that the property she owned be sold, with the proceeds divided up between Robert and his two brothers.[1] It seems that Robert E. Lee never owned any physical piece of land.[2] After his graduation from West Point and the death of his mother, Lee moved from assignment to assignment. He was stationed at Cockspur Island, South Carolina; Fort Monroe, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; St. Louis, Missouri; Brooklyn, New York; Baltimore, Maryland; West Point, New York; and Texas. Lee married Mary Ann Custis in 1831. While the family traveled with Lee at times, living at various posts, Mary Ann spent the majority of her time at Arlington, the home of her father. After her father, George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington, died in 1857, Lee became executor of his will, but not the owner of Arlington. Instead, it remained in the hands of Mary Ann for her lifetime, and was then transferred to her oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee.

 Virginia’s 1850 Constitution stated that every white male, at least twenty-one years old, and who had been a resident of the state for two years, and had lived in a Virginia county, town, or city for the preceding twelve months, could vote. However, “no person in the military, naval or marine service of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this State by reason of being stationed therein.” If other state Constitutions held the same requirements for residency, and disqualified military personnel from obtaining residency, then Lee would have been ineligible to vote in local, national, or state elections. Since Arlington House, where Lee resided when not stationed elsewhere, was in the District of Columbia, he might have voted for the mayor, councilmen, or aldermen.[3]

   If Lee had voted, which way, politically, would he have leaned? That is great question. As already mentioned, Lee was the son of famed Revolutionary War commander Light Horse Harry Lee. It was Lee who eulogized George Washington (to a crowd of 4,000 at Washington’s funeral) “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Lee was friends with Alexander Hamilton. It was Hamilton who asked Lee to serve on Washington’s staff as an aide de camp. Of course, Lee said no, wanting to serve with the dragoons. Lee was critical of Hamilton’s funding of the National debt. He saw potential devastation with Jefferson’s rise to power. Lee went on to serve in the U.S. House, the Virginia House of Delegates, and as the governor of Virginia as a Federalist. When Washington tapped Lee to command the troops to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, Jefferson’s friends in Virginia used it as an excuse to root him out of the governor’s chair.[4]

   The Federalist party was defeated by the Democratic-Republican Party in the 1800 election, becoming a minority party centered in the New England area. The party favored national banks, a strong army and navy, and a national government over a state government (centralization). They were typically anti-war and opposed to slavery. They gradually faded from the scene after running their last presidential candidate during the 1816 election. The Whig Party, founded in 1833, featured some of the same goals: a strong national bank, protective tariffs, federal subsidies for infrastructure construction, and a weak executive and powerful Congress. Some stalwarts of the party included Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor. The Whig Party dissolved in 1856. The membership scattered, joining the Republican Party, American Party, Opposition Party, and Constitutional Party, with some former Whigs embracing the Democratic Party.

   Lee gives a few glimpses of his politics in his surviving letters. We know that Lee idolized Washington. He spent much time at Arlington, surrounded by Washington relics, and even married someone with the strongest ties to Washington.[5] While a cadet at West Point, Lee borrowed books on the works Alexander Hamilton. The second volume contained The Federalist, a volume he checked out several times.[6] Writing from St. Louis in August 1838, he told a cousin in Alexandria that “The elections are all over, the ‘Van-ites’ have carried the day in the State, although the Whigs in this district carried their entire ticket, and you will have the pleasure of hearing the great expunger again thunder from his place in the Seante against banks, bribery, and corruption.”[7] Lee, although earning high praise for his service in the Mexican-American War, wrote that “It is true that we have bullied [Mexico]. For that I am ashamed.”[8] The latter views were synonymous with the Whig Party, which was opposed to the war with Mexico.

   It was not that Lee was opposed to voting and participating in the election process. Writing to James Longstreet in October 1867, Lee told his old war horse that “I am of the opinion that all who can should vote for the most intelligent, honest, and conscientious men eligible for office, irrespective of former party opinions, who will endeavor to make the new constitutions and the laws passed under them as beneficial as possible to the true interests, prosperity, and liberty of all classes and conditions of the people.”[9]

   Unlike many of the other Confederate generals and politicians, Lee did not regain his voting rights in his lifetime. It was not until August 5, 1976, that Lee was restored to the “Full rights of citizenship” by President Gerald R. Ford. So the question remains: what would have been Lee’s party affiliation had he been casting votes?                                                                                                                                          

 

[1] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 92.

[2] Connelly, The Marble Man, 7.

[3] http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/voteproperty.html

[4] Royster, Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution, 25, 107, 112, 134.

[5] see McCaslin, Lee in the Shadow of Washington.

[6] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 1:72.

[7] Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, 29-30.

[8] Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, 43.

[9] Lee, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, 269.

The fighting Averys

   “Major, tell my father I died with my face to the enemy,” is a well-known last request made during the war. It was uttered by Col. Isaac Avery after he was mortally wounded at the battle of Gettysburg. Isaac Avery was just one of five Avery brothers who rose to prominence in the 19^th century. They were all the sons of Isaac and Harriet Erwin Avery. The Avery family were large landowners in western North Carolina.

William W. Avery

   The oldest brother was William Waightstill Avery. Born in Burke County in May 1816, W.W. Avery graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1837. He later studied law under Judge William Gaston and was admitted to the bar. Avery became a trustee of the University in 1850, and in 1857, became a director of the Western North Carolina Railroad. Avery served several terms in the General Assembly, and in the 1856-1857 term, was speaker of the North Carolina Senate. He, along with Thomas L. Clingman, was a strong advocate for secession. In 1858, he ran for a seat in the US House, but lost to Zebulon Baird Vance. In 1860, Avery was chairman of the state’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention, meeting in Charleston. Appointed Chairman of the resolution committee, Avery “favored the majority report denying the right of congress or territorial legislation to prohibit slavery in the territories, demanding federal protection for all property in those territories, upholding the Fugitive Slave Act, and advocating the acquisition of Cuba from Spain as soon as practicable.” Many delegates walked out, but not the North Carolinians. They would walk out when the convention met again in Baltimore. Once North Carolina left the Union, Avery served as a member of the provisional Confederate Congress and as chairman of the committee on military affairs. Avery failed to win an appointment to the Confederate senate and returned to western North Carolina, where he worked on raising a regiment for Confederate service. W.W. Avery was mortally wounded while leading local home guard in a skirmish with raiders in northern Burke County in late June 1864, dying on July 3, 1864. Avery was married to Mary Corinna Morehead, daughter of Governor John Motley Morehead, and they had several children.[1]

Clark M. Avery

   Clark Moulton Avery was the next son with a wartime connection. He was born in October 1820 and, like his older brother, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unlike his brother, he was not a politician, but instead farmed a large piece of property in Burke County. In February 1861, friends enticed Avery to run for the state secession convention, and election that he won. However, the convention did not meet. Avery would not serve when the actual convention met in May. Instead, when the principles of the foundation of the United States came under attack, Avery joined the military. On April 25, 1861, he was elected captain of Company G, 1^st North Carolina Volunteers, fighting at the battle of Big Bethel in June 1861. Then-colonel D.H. Hill wrote that "Captain Avery Company G displayed great coolness, judgment and efficiency in the battle of Bethel." As the regiment neared the end of its six-month term of enlistment, Avery was elected lieutenant colonel of the 33^rd North Carolina Troops, and then in January 1862, colonel. In March 1862, Avery was captured at the battle of New Bern, being released seven months later. He returned to his regiment and was wounded in the fighting at Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg. At the battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, Colonel Avery was struck in the left arm. When he refused to go the rear, a stretcher was brought forward, and he was carried along the lines, encouraging his men. Avery was eventually struck four times that day, including in the leg, neck, and through the body. Avery survived for six weeks before dying of his wounds on June 18, 1864. Avery was married to Elizabeth Tilghman Walton and was survived by four children.[2]

Isaac E. Avery 

   Isaac Erwin Avery was born in December 1828 in Burke County. For one year, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill but then left the school to help manage his father’s farms in Burke and Yancey Counties, North Carolina. He also worked with Charles F. Fisher and Samuel McDowell Tate to construct the Western North Carolina Railroad. When the war came, he worked on forming a company that became a part of the 6^th North Carolina State Troops. Avery was elected captain of Company E on May 16, 1861. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 6^th NC and was wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill. On July 2, 1863, while leading Hoke’s brigade in an attack on the Confederate left, Avery was mortally wounded, penning the famous note after his wound: “Major, tell my father I died with my face toward the enemy.” Avery died the next day. Colonel A.C. Godwin, 57^th NC, wrote in his official report that, upon the death of Avery, “the country lost one of her truest and bravest sons, and the army one of its most gallant officers.” His slave, Elijah, began to return to Burke County with the body, but he was forced to stop and bury Avery in Williamsport, Maryland. Avery’s body was later moved to Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown.[3]

   Alphonso Calhoun Avery was born in September 1835. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Avery studied law under Chief Justice Richmond M. Pearson and was licensed in June 1860. AC Avery helped his brother Isaac raise a company and was then elected first lieutenant in that company in the 6^th NCST. Following the battle of Seven Pines, he was promoted to captain, but by the end of 1862, he was transferred to the staff of Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill as assistant inspector general. Major Avery later served on the staffs of John C. Breckinridge, Thomas C. Hindman, and John B. Hood. At the end of the war, Avery was commanding a battalion in the western parts of North Carolina, attempting to curtail some of the damage being done by Federal raiding parties and bushwhackers. Avery was captured in Salisbury by some of Stoneman’s men and was imprisoned at Camp Chase until August 1865. After the war, Avery practiced law and was elected to the state senate; he lost his seat when the radicals came to power, served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1875, and then served as judge of the superior court. Trinity College (now Duke University) conferred upon him a MA, and the University of North Carolina honored him with an LL.D. In 1888, A. C. Avery was elected an associate justice of the Supreme Court, serving for eight years. In 1892, he assumed the position of dean of the law school at Duke University. Avery retired in 1897 and became a prolific writer, respected historian, and prominent member of the Southern Historical Society. His first wife was Susan Washington Morrison, daughter of the Rev. R. H. Morrison. His brothers-in-law included D.H. Hill, Stonewall Jackson, and Rufus Barringer. Avery’s second wife was Sarah Love Thomas, the daughter of Col. William Holland Thomas. A.C. Avery died in June 1913.[4]

   The last Avery brother to serve in the war was Willoughby Francis Avery, born in Burke County in May 1843. He was attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when the war broke out, and, leaving the school, he joined the 3^rd North Carolina Cavalry, where he was elected third lieutenant. When the company was reorganized, he failed to win reelection and resigned. Avery was then appointed a second lieutenant in Company C, 33^rd North Carolina Troops. Promotion to first lieutenant came on January 14, 1863, and on December 15, 1863, he was promoted to captain and transferred to Company E. A month later, he was transferred to Company I. Captain Avery was wounded in the mouth and throat at the battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, returned to duty in November 1864, and was captured at Salisbury on April 12, 1865. He was confined at Camp Chase and released in June 1865. After the war, Willoughby Avery edited newspapers in Charlotte and Asheville before returning to Burke County and establishing a newspaper in Morganton. He was married twice and died November 1876.[5]

   There are, of course, the Avery daughters as well. Adelaide Leah Avery (1822-1897) never married but became one of the first librarians in Burke County. Mary Ann Martha Avery (1831-1890) married Joseph Franklin Chambers. Harriet Justina Avery (1833-1902) married Pinckney B. Chambers, a major in the 49^th North Carolina Troops. The last daughter, Laura Myra Avery (1837-1912), never married.

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[1] Warner and Yearns, Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress, 9-10; Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:67.

[2] Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:111; Allardice, Confederate Colonels, 68.

[3] Jordan, NC Troops, 4:266; Allardice, Confederate Colonels, 47; The Herald-Mail, November 4, 2007.

[4] Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:66-67.

[5] Manarin, NC Troops, 2:221; Jordan, NC Troops, 9:220; Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:72.

Old Capital Prison

   In November 1861, Secretary of State William H. Seward told Lord Richard Lyons, British Ambassador to the United States, “My Lord, I can touch a bell on my right hand, and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio; I can touch the bell again, and order the imprisonment of a citizen of New York; no power on earth, except that of the President, can release them.” Of course, this type of tyranny is one of the things the South most feared. The lowest estimate of the number of people arrested by the Lincoln Administration during the war was 14,401 civilians, or, one out of every 1,563 Northern citizens. Anyone was liable to be arrested by the Lincoln Administration. This included sitting judges, U.S. Senators, U.S. Congressmen, farmers, businessmen, and even foreign citizens. Of course, the U.S. Constitution forbade just this type of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. That topic is one that bears further explanation in a different post.[1]  

Old capital Prison (LOC) 

   Many of these political prisoners were incarcerated at the Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C., awaiting trial and a chance to face their accusers (which seldom took place). The Old Capital Prison in itself has an interesting history. Sitting directly behind the US Capitol building, where the US Supreme Court building now sits, the structure was constructed in 1800 as a boarding house and tavern. Following the burning of the capitol building by the British in August 1814, the government purchased the building, renovated it, and used it as the meeting place for the US House and Senate while renovations were taking place across the street. Hence the name, Old Capital Building. In 1861, the city’s provost marshal commandeered the Old Capitol building. One historian consider the prison complex “a depressing jumble of structures strewn along today’ Capitol Hill.”[2]  

   Speer, in his history of military prisons during the war, writes that the “first inmates to be moved into this facility were mostly political prisoners.” Following the battle of First Manassas, the first Confederate prisoners of War arrived. The building was divided into different rooms. Room No. 19 was the Superintendent’s office. It was here that those incarcerated where interrogated by the Superintendent or a detective. Rooms No. 14, 15, and 18 were for citizens from Virginia. Those confined in Room No. 17 were Federal officers. Room No. 16 contained both “Western prisoners” and honorable representatives of the learned professions, merchants of the highest character and standing…”Another building in the complex housed blockade runners, bounty jumpers, and people that Commandant Wood deemed “tough citizens generally.” Another building in the rear held those accused of defrauding the government, spies, or otherwise dangerous.[3]

   Prison Commandant William P. Wood, a cabinet maker from Alexandria, Virginia, estimated that over 30,000 women and men passed through the Old Capitol Prison. Colonel Levi C. Turner believed the number closed to 150,000. Many of them were Confederate soldiers, usually officers, whose stay was short as they were quickly funneled to other prison camps. But what of those prisoners of state? That list is rather long.[4]

Bell Boyd, Virginia Lomax, and Rose Greenhow, with Greenhow’s eight-year old daughter, were three of the most famous women incarcerated at the Old Capital Prison. Three other women, one from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, were imprison there for disguising their identity and enlisting in the Federal army as soldiers.[5]

Among Northern citizens incarcerated were farmer Joseph Kugler, of New Jersey, who told several that “Lincoln had no right to call out seventy-five thousand troops, without first convening Congress; and that if the South had her just dues there would never have been a rebellion…”. Doctor Israel Blanchard, of Illinois, arrested for speaking disrespectfully of President Lincoln, discouraging enlistments, and attempting to raise a company to burn in bridge in Illinois. John W. Smith was known as the “Wandering Jew.” He was old, homeless, and partially blind. Smith had lost his store to John Brown’s extremists in the 1850s. When the war began, he designed a bomb that would disable a locomotive, but not damage the train itself. Smith tried to get the Federal government interested in his invention, and his letters to a friend in St. Louis were intercepted, and thinking he had “some diabolical design against the Federal government,” was arrested and sent to the prison. The reason Dr. A. B. Hewitt was arrested, of Chatham, Illinois, is still unknown. George W. Wilson, a Maryland newspaper editor, was arrested for an editorial criticizing “the unjustness of the apportionment of the population of his State, which included white and black, freeman and slaves, in the basis for a draft.” Thomas W. Berry, of Virginia, was arrested for being a Confederate officer who had killed Union men. Every one of these above were later discharged from the Old Capital Prisoner without a trail.[6]

Among the Confederate officer imprisoned there were famed cavalry leader John Mosby, captured in July 1862, spent just ten days at Old Capital Prison before he was sent south for exchange. Confederate General Rufus Barringer, captured on April 3, 1865, was also incarcerated in the Old Capital Prison, after meeting Lincoln. Captain Henry Wirz was kept there, and executed in the prison yard.[7]

Several with ties, or thought to have ties to the Lincoln conspirators were held at the Old Capital Prison, including Dr. Samuel Mudd and Mary Surratt, were held there while they tried. Others with supposed connection held were Actor Junius Brutus Booth and theater owner John T. Ford, along with two of his brothers.[8]

Southern governors John Brown of Georgia, Zebulon Baird Vance of North Carolina, and John Letcher of Virginia occupied a cell together in the summer of 1865.[9]

Secretary of War Stanton ordered the prison closed towards the end November 1865, and the adjacent Carroll Prison Annex was also torn down.[10]

It is surprising that there is no current book on the history of the Old Capital Prison. The closest we have is David L. Keller’s Military Prisons of the Civil War: A Comparative Study, released in 2021. The book looks at both the Old Capital Prison and Castle Thunder in Richmond.

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[1] Miles, “To All Whom it May Concern.” The Conspiracy of Leading Men of the Republican Party to Destroy the American Union, 5; Neely, “The Lincoln Administration and Arbitrary Arrests,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 5, Is. 1, 1983.

[2] Speer, Portals to Hell, 41; Davis, “The ‘Old Capitol’ and Its Keeper,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 52, 207.

[3] Speer, Portals to Hell, 41; Marshall, American Bastile, 322, 324.

[4] Davis, “The ‘Old Capitol’ and Its Keeper,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 52, 208.

[5] Davis, “The ‘Old Capitol’ and Its Keeper,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 52, 214.

[6] Marshall, American Bastile, 127, 176, 243, 266, 463, 485.

[7] Mosby, The Memoirs of Col. John S. Mosby, 128; Davis, The Confederate General, 1:62; Williamson, Prison Life in the Old Capitol, 143.

[8] https://www.fords.org/blog/post/photos-from-the-archives-the-old-capitol-prison-and-the-lincoln-assassination/

[9] Davis, “The ‘Old Capitol’ and Its Keeper,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 52, 2214.

[10] Speer, Portals to Hell, 310.