“Notorious for its cruel and unsanitary living conditions” is how the Irving Block Prison in Memphis has been described. The building was constructed in 1860 as a hotel. “This section of town was notably tough and iron slates were used to cover the windows,” a 1939 guide to Tennessee recorded. Located on the west side of Court Square, the building was three stories tall. When the war came, the building was used as one of the Confederate hospitals, and it was run by the Southern Mothers. When the Confederates abandoned Memphis in June 1862, Federal officials repurposed the building as a prison for Confederate and Federal soldiers, along with civilians and spies.
Absalom Grimes was one of the men imprisoned at Irving Block. Grimes was a river boat pilot who was selected by Sterling B. Price to carry or smuggle the mail between the South and the North. Grimes was captured numerous times, including once in Memphis.[1] After being interrogated by the provost marshal, Grimes was taken to the Irving Block Prison. “That prison was on the west side of Jackson Square in Memphis . . . three stories high. A pair of stairs led from the lower storeroom into the basement, where there was an excavated doorway leading into the yard. This doorway had boards nailed over it, and one wide board was off about three feet above the ground,” Grimes wrote after the war. “When I was placed in this cellar a ball with a chain about three feet long was riveted to my right ankle and one end of the chain was stapled to the floor. There were eighteen other prisoners chained to the floor in like manner, placed in a row from the front to the rear of the long cellar. I was chained next to a big stove . . .” Grimes wrote of there being a Federal soldier in the cellar, “imprisoned for stealing government mules out of the corral and selling them.” Grimes was held in the cellar for more than two weeks, “and my daily fare consisted of two stale crackers and a piece of rotten bacon and some water, or coffee made of beans and dried Cherokee rose leaves.” Adjoining the room where Grimes was held was a room for female prisoners. Grimes was eventually transferred to Alton, Illinois.[2]
Irving Block Prison in 1864. (Historic-Memphis)
Some of those female prisoners could have been prostitutes arrested in a raid in mid-1863. The “house of ill repute” was at 115 Beale Street, and the proprietress was Kate Stoner. Six or seven girls were arrested and locked up in the Irving Block Prison until they could be tried. All were found guilty and sent north of Cairo, Illinois, with a promise of imprisonment if they returned to Memphis.[3] Another woman arrested was named Pullen. An officer on picket suspected her of being a smuggler and sent her back to the city where she (and probably her son) were locked up in Irving.[4]
Colonel R. F.
Looney and Capt. A.D. Bright were sent by General Chalmers into west Tennessee
to arrest and bring back into Confederate lines Confederate deserters and
stragglers. They were captured near Arlington and sent to Memphis and the Irving
Block Prison. “They were placed in a back room and strongly guarded, but in a
short time the officer ordered that they be moved to the third story, a dirty
place, where thieves, thugs, and cut-throats were kept, and where vermin
abounded . . . There was not a bed of any description in the long room, neither
was there a chair or bench to sit on. They walked the floor all night.” These
men were later paroled.[5]
In another instance,
Lt. Jason Hoey, 17th Arkansas, wrote to the Secretary of War that
Lt. Col. Woods had bribed a Federal officer, Lt. Denis Lewis, to allow him to escape.
After effecting his escape, Lewis had Woods rearrested. Woods complained that
Lewis, “did not act the gentleman with him; he had given Lieutenant Lewis his
money and then he (Lewis) betrayed him.” Lewis went to the prison, was shown
into the cell where Woods was, and finding Wood asleep, Lewis drew his pistol
and shot Woods in the head, killing him. According to Hoey, Lewis was tried by
a court-martial, but “went to parts unknown.” He supposedly was tried and
convicted of the crime, but escaped.[6]
The Memphis Bulletin, in November 1863, related had it was so cold, and
fuel in so short of supply, that some of the prisoners tore up fifty bunks to
burn and keep warm.[7]
There were some successful
escapes. Captain M.A. Miller was caught smuggling two boxes of cavalry swords
across the Mississippi River. He was tried by courts-martial, found guilty, and
condemned to death. At this early date, prisoners from the city were allowed to
visit their homes with a guard, and under the pretext of having a sick child,
Miller was able to escape. Much of the plan previous to his escape was passed
along when his family brought him food, “as the prison fare was unfit to eat.”[8]
There were reports of sixty or more who escaped in February 1864, and eleven in
May 1864.[9]
U.S. Grant appointed Maj. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut as commander in Memphis. While the Irving Block Prison had various commanders, Hurlbut would appoint Capt. George A. Williams in 1863.
 |
| Maj. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut (LOC) |
In April 1864, Lt.
Col. John F. Marsh, 24th Veterans Reserve Corps, was sent to inspect
the prison. March stated that Irving Block Prison was “the filthiest place the
inspector ever saw occupied by human beings . . . The whole management and government
of the prisoners could not be worse. Discipline and order are unknown. Food
sufficient, but badly served. In a dark, wet cellar, I found twenty-eight
prisoners chained to a wet floor, where they had been constantly confined, many
of them for months, one since November 16, 1863, and are not for a moment
released, even to relive the calls of nature.” The prison hospital had a “shiftless
appearance ad the guard dirty and inefficient.” There was no “book of
memorandum showing the disposition of the prison fund.”[10]
Charges were drawn up and Williams arrested. He argued that he had actually
done much to improve the prison. It did come out that Hurlburt, and maybe Williams,
were running a multi-faceted extortion ring in Memphis. For example, they demanded
ransoms from local wealthy families for the release of prisoners. Hurlbert also
engaged in profiteering, getting cuts from the cotton that moved through the
city. Hurlburt also targeted the Jewish population of Memphis, closing their
businesses, but leaving non-Jewish businesses open. Hurlbut was brought up on
charges toward the end of the war, but was allowed to resign. [11]
History says that
Lincoln ordered the prison closed in 1865.[12]
However, that does not seem to be true. In March 1865, Col. John P.C. Shanks,
commanding a cavalry brigade in west Tennessee, makes mention of capturing two “Guerrillas”
and sending them to Irving Block Prison.[13]
John G. Ryan, on parole, was passing through Memphis in July 1865 when he was
arrested and hauled by the provost to Irving Block Prison. Ryan described the
third floor room he was taken to as having “shackles, manacles, handcuffs and
balls and chains.” A ball and chain was affixed to his left ankle. He was
removed to another room and chained to the floor. Several days later, Ryan was
sent to Washington, D.C. He was believed to be John H. Surratt, a spy accused
of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap and assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Ryan
was not released until October, and later sued the Federal government for false
arrest.[14]
The building was
demolished in 1937.
[1] Ralls
County Record, March 31, 1911.
[2] Grimes,
Absalon Grimes, Confederate Mail Runner, 150-51, 153.
[3] Lowery,
Confederate Heroines, 90-5.
[4] Jackson,
The Colonel’s Diary, 98.
[5] Dinkins,
1861 to 1865, by an Old Johnnie,
217-18.
[6] OR,
Series II, 5:945; Confederate Veteran, Vol. 27, No. 1, 19.
[7] Memphis
Bulletin, December 1, 1863.
[8] Confederate
Veteran, 157, Vol. 13, No. 4, 157.
[9] The
Illinois State Journal, February 22, 1864; Daily Missouri Republican,
May 14, 1864.
[10] OR,
Ser. 2, 7:402-3.
[11] Lash,
A Politician Turned General, 137; Korn and Nevis, American Jewry and
the Civil War, 154.
[12] Daily
News, January 10, 2013: “Irving Block Prison” https://historic-memphis.com/memphis-historic/irving-block/irving-block.html
[13] OR,
Series I, Vol. 49, 1:79.
[14] Memphis
Avalanche, March 14, 1888; The Boston Globe, July 10, 1888.
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