Recently, while reading through Charlie Knight’s From Arlington to Appomattox, Robert E. Lee’s Civil War Day by Day, I came across a line about John William Irvine (sometimes Irwin). Born in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1846, Irvine enlisted in what became Company A, 9th Virginia Cavalry, on June 4, 1861. His occupation was listed as a student. He re-enlisted for two additional years, collecting a $50 bounty. On November 15, 1862, Irvine was captured.
Seldom does the
capture of an individual soldier call for a response from Army of Northern
Virginia commander Robert E. Lee. Irvine’s capture did. Captured behind Federal
lines, he was suspected of being a spy. He was quickly transported to the Old
Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Lee wrote to Federal commander Maj. Gen.
Ambrose Burnside on December 19, 1862.
Irvine was tried on
December 21, 1862. His charge: “Being found and arrested within the lines of
the Army of the Potomac.” Irvine was found in civilian clothes and was behind
Federal lines “during a time when important movements of that army [Army of the
Potomac] were being made.” The military court found him guilty. The punishment:
“hung by the neck until he be dead.”[1]
Word got to Lee,
and after he spoke to Col. Beale, 9th Virginia Cavalry, and Brig.
Gen. William H.F. Lee, a letter was sent through the lines. Irvine was not a
spy. Instead, he was given permission to go back to Stafford County to procure
a fresh horse. “This is a permission commonly given in similar cases and at the
time it was not known that the place Private Irwin wished to proceed was within
the lines of your army.”[2]
Burnside stepped in, and Irvine was ordered to be held as a common prisoner.[3]
Irvine was sent to
Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., where he was released on May 13, 1863.
He was captured again just a few short weeks later, on June 30, 1863, in
Hanover, Pennsylvania. This time, he was sent to Point Lookout until exchanged
on April 30, 1864. Irvine appears on the last company roll dated October 6,
1864.[4]
Irvine survived the war, passing away in April 1875 in Monroe County, Missouri.
[1] John
W. Irvine (Irwin), CMSR, Roll 0093, M324, RG109.
[2] OR,
Series 2, Vol. 5, 98.
[3] OR,
Series 2, Vol. 5, 104.
[4] Krick,
9th Virginia Cavalry, 81.
