The Other Confederate Prisoner Held Hostage.

    In 1863, the Federal army executed two Confederate prisoners from the 4^th Kentucky Cavalry at Johnson’s Island. After their capture in Northern Kentucky, the district commander, Ambrose Burnside, authored an executive order dictating that men captured recruiting behind the lines were be treated as spies, tried, and, if found guilty, executed. The execution of the two Confederates led to the selection of two Federal officers imprisoned in Richmond for retaliatory measures. Upon catching word of these upcoming executions, Federal officials then selected two Confederate officers to be held as hostages should the Confederates carry out their plans. One of those Confederate officers was Rooney Lee, Robert E. Lee’s son. The other was a Confederate captain. You can learn more about the background of this story here, here, and here.

Capt. Robert Tyler (findagrave)

   Federal General-in-Chief Henry Hallack, writing to his agent for exchange of prisoners, Col. William H. Ludlow, on July 15, 1863, stated that upon receiving news of the execution of the two Federals, he was to “hang General [W.H.F.] Lee and the other rebel officer designated” previously.[1] A month later, that officer was identified as Captain Winder.[2] In October 1863, Col. William Hoffman wrote to Ludlow, asking where Winder was confined. Ludlow confessed that he did not know. Ludlow had been told that the other was a “Captain Winder.”[3]

   Except, Hoffman confessed in November, the Federal government held no Confederate officer by the name of Winder as a prisoner of war. Official Records, Series II, 6:448. On October 8, 1863. Capt. Robert H. Tyler, 8^th Virginia Infantry, wrote from Carroll Prison to the Confederate Commissioner for Exchanger of Prisoners, wanting to know why he was being held in close confinement. The commander of the prisoner where he was held did not know the answer.[4] Writing on November 9, Hoffman confessed that it was not Winder who being held, but it was Tyler who was being held as a hostage.[5] Hoffman knew this, having signed the order to hold Tyler in close confinement on July 16, 1863.[6]

   Robert H. Tyler was born in Leesburg, Virginia, in 1838. He enlisted on May 8, 1861, at Haymarket, Virginia, and was elected first lieutenant of Company C, 8^th Virginia Infantry. On June 3, 1862, Tyler was promoted to captain. He was captured on May 15, 1863, and taken to the Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C.  In December 1863, he was transferred to Fort Lafayette. After several months at Fort Lafayette, he was moved to Fort Monroe, on March 3, 1864, then on March 11, to City Point for parole. Tyler was captured a second time on April 6, 1865, at Sailor’s Creek, Virginia, sent first the Old Capital Prison in Washington, then on April 21, sent to Johnson’s Island. Tyler was released after taking the Oath of Allegiance on June 20, 1865. While it appears that Tyler was in the hospital a couple of times during the war for illness, he was never wounded.[7]

   Known as “The Bloody Eighth,” the 8^th Virginia Infantry was composed of men largely from Loudoun, Fauquier, Prince William, and Fairfax Counties. They were mustered into service at the fairgrounds in Leesburg on May 8, 1861. Eppa Hunton, later a brigadier general, was the regiment’s first colonel. Their first combat experience came at Manassas in July 1861. Other engagements included Ball’s Bluff, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, the Seven Days, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, Hatcher’s Run, and Sailor’s Creek. The regimental historian wrote that the 8^th Virginia “died that day at Sayler’s Creek.” There were only eleven members of the 8^th Virginia left to surrender at Appomattox.[8] The 8^th Virginia served in the brigades of Philip St. George Cocke, George W. Pickett, Richard B. Garnett, and Eppa Hunton.

   Tyler returned to Northern Virginia, serving in the Virginia House of Delegates. At his death, the Richmond Dispatch noted that Captain Tyler “was one of the most gallant soldiers of the Confederacy . . . While a prisoner of war he was at one time with General W.H.F. (“Rooney”) Lee put into solitary confinement, to be executed in case certain prisoners held by the Confederate authorities were put to death. But this did not occur, they were eventually exchanged.”[9] Tyler died in 1902 and is buried in the Tyler Family Cemetery, Haymarker, Virginia.

 

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[1] Official Records, Series II, 6:118.

[2] Official Records, Series II, 6:219.

[3] Official Records, Series II, 6:358.

[4] Official Records, Series II, 6:362.

[5] Official Records, Series II, 6:488.

[6] Tyler, CMSR, NA

[7] Tyler, CMSR, NA

[8] Divine, 8^th Virginia Infantry, 1-38.

[9] Richmond Dispatch, January 28, 1902.

A 9th Virginia Cavalry Trooper Saved by Robert E. Lee

    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, 9^th 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, 9^th 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.

  

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[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, 9^th Virginia Cavalry, 81.

The Confederate graves at Arlington

    At a recent event, someone posed a question about the Confederate graves at Arlington. His ancestor is one of the ones in Section 16. But the greater question is: were there Confederates buried in Arlington during the war? That is a great question, and the internet is all over the place.

   Arlington was constructed by George Washington Parke Custis and was home to him and his family. The house sits on Arlington Heights, overlooking Washington, D.C. Custis’s daughter Mary married Robert E. Lee, and after the death of Custis, the house passed to her. When Robert E. Lee was in town, and not on duty someplace, this is where he called home. Lee was here when called upon to put down John Brown’s insurrection at Harpers Ferry, and it was here Lee returned when called from Texas in 1861. It was here that Lee chose to resign from the United States Army and enter the service of Virginia. It was in mid-May when Mary Lee left Arlington for the last time. On May 23, 1861, 10,000 Federal troops crossed the Potomac River and seized Arlington Heights.[1]

   The home and grounds became a military encampment and headquarters. Irvin McDowell set up his headquarters in the house. Fortifications were constructed nearby. Arlington would be inside those fortifications protecting Washington, D.C. 

Graves in Arlington, ca. 1865 (LOC)

   In 1862, the U.S. Congress passed an act dealing with collecting taxes “in the Insurrectionary Districts within the United States.” Mary Lee was taxed $92.07, and she sent the funds through a relative. However, the tax commissioners refused to accept the payment, declaring that the payment had to be paid in person by the legal owner. Mary was unable to do that The property was seized, and a sale held where the U.S. government, for $26,800, purchased the house and 1,100 acres.[2]

   Due to the proximity of the front lines, sometimes at the very door of the city, Washington was one vast military hospital. Churches and schools were pressed into service in emergency duty. Early in the war, the civilian hospital, the Government Hospital for the Insane, and the Union hotel were seized for permanent hospitals. Others were opened: the Providence Hospital, the Judiciary Square Hospital, Mount Pleasant Hospital, the Armory Square Hospital, St. Aloysius Hospital, and others. At the height of the Maryland Campaign, there were about sixty hospitals in the capitol.[3]

   Many of the Federal dead were taken to the Soldiers Home Cemetery, on Rock Creek near Fort Totten. Needing more space, Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General of the Army, who was in charge of the burial of Federal soldiers, allowed Federal soldiers to be buried on the grounds of Arlington. The first documented war-time grave appears to be that of Pvt. William Christman, 67^th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was interred on May 13, 1864, near the slave cemetery on the grounds of Arlington. A few others followed, but on June 15, 1864, Meigs requested Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to declare Arlington House and two hundred surrounding acres, a military cemetery. Stanton approved it the same day. It is often speculated that Meigs’ actions were to keep the Lee family from ever returning to the property. By the end of 1864, over 7,000 graves were located on the grounds.[4]

   Confederate soldiers, Southern civilians, and Northern political prisoners were kept at the Old Capital prison, a former hotel that had served as a hotel, and as the U.S. Capitol building after the British burned the Capitol in 1814. Official records record that 5,761 prisoners passed through this prison. Many were on their way to some other installation. However, at least 457 died while incarcerated at the Old Capitol Prison, most of them in the prison hospital or another hospital within the city. Some of those were interred at the Congressional Cemetery, about a mile away from the prison. (You can read more about the cemetery here) But were all of them?

    Apparently not. They were buried in different cemeteries across the city, including Soldiers’ Home Cemetery, Rock Creek Cemetery, Congressional Cemetery, and starting in 1864, Arlington. Samuel E. Lewis was a Confederate doctor during the war, moving to Washington, D.C. after the war where he continued his practice. He was also a member of the Charles Broadway Rouss Camp, No. 1911, United Confederate Veterans.  Lewis was concerned with not only the care of aging veterans, but also with the burial of Confederates who died during the war. There were over 500 Confederates who died in the Federal capital. There was a modest relocation of 241 Confederate soldiers’ remains to Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1870s, organized by various Ladies Memorial Associations. Yet the others remained.

A map showing the original location of Confederate
graves with the new section. (Virginia Museum of History)

   It was Lewis who urged the military, Congress, and the president to get involved and designate a number of acres within Arlington for the reburial of the remaining Confederate dead in Washington, D.C. Taking care of the Confederate dead was something that President McKinnley advocated in a speech in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1898. Congress appropriated $2,500 for the purpose of removing those dead from the Soldiers’ Home Cemetery and three different plots within Arlington, to Section 16 of the Arlington National Cemetery in 1900. Not everyone was in favor of this idea. The Southern Memorial Association wanted the remains of the Confederate soldiers returned to the various states and reburied in Southern cemeteries, most notably, Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Eventually, Lewis won the argument.[5]

   There were 136 Confederate graves at Arlington, and 128 at the Soldiers’ Home Cemetery. Reinterment work began in early 1901, and the work was finished in October 1901. Each soldier’s grave was marked by a white marble tombstone. What became known as the Confederate section was near what was then the main entrance of the cemetery.[6]

   To return to our question, yes, there were Confederate prisoners of war buried at Arlington National Cemetery once internment began in the spring of 1864. There were also Confederates interred at other cemeteries as well. Those interred at Arlington were originally in three different sections and were consolidated into Section 16 in 1901. There are still Confederates buried in the Congressional Cemetery as well. Probably half of the Confederates who died and were buried in Washington, D.C., during the war were returned to Virginia and North Carolina.

[1] Perry, Lady of Arlington, 230-31.

[2] Ashabranner, A Grateful Nation, 30.

[3] Janke, A Guide to Civil War Washington,  69, 76-80.

[4] Ashabranner, A Grateful Nation, 32-34.

[5] Krowl, “In the Spirit of Fraternity” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 111, 2:151-186.

[6] Ibid.

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.

William J. Allen and the proposed secession of Southern Illinois

   Talk of secession was nothing new in 1860. You can read more about various states and territories at this previous post. One of the less discussed secession movements occurred in late 1861 and early 1862 and dealt with the southern part of Illinois. There were some who wanted that portion of the state to form a new state and join the Southern Confederacy.

William J. Allen

   Illinois became the twenty-first state in the Union on December 8, 1818. It was created out of the old Northwest Territory. The idea of a part of Illinois breaking off was not new. Between 1840 and 1842, several northern counties attempted to secede and rejoin the state of Wisconsin. Why? Northern Illinois was settled by those from New England and New York. Southern Illinois was populated by those from Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Starting in 1840, those in the north – including Jo Daviess County, Stephenson County, Winnebago County, and Boone County, voted overwhelming to secede from Illinois and join Wisconsin. When Chicago itself would not get on board, the project died.[1]

   Allan G. Bouge, in The Congressman’s Civil War, writes of another attempt of secession in Illinois. U.S. Congressman William J. Allen, “openly advocated the division of Illinois so that the southern region might secede to join the Confederacy.” William J. Allen was born in 1829 in Wilson County, Tennessee. His family moved to Illinois about 1830. He was educated in local schools and received his law degree from the Law Department at the University of Louisville in 1848. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1849, practiced law, served in the Illinois House, was a U.S. Attorney, and was Judge of the Illinois Circuit Court. Allen ran as a Democrat and won a seat in the 37^th United States Congress, replacing John A. Logan, who had resigned to accept a commission as colonel of an Illinois Infantry Regiment.[2]

   William J. Allen undoubtedly caused quite a stir across the Northern states when he was arrested in September 1862, along with several others, for involvement with the Knights of the Golden Circle. A Chicago newspaper considered Allen “an undisguised secessionist” and thought he “ought to be beaten.” In reality, Allen had probably agreed with the sentiment expressed throughout many southern Illinois counties: the southern portion of the state should secede and join the Southern Confederacy. One source even stated that Allen had openly proposed this to John A. Logan and had encouraged Illinois men to go south and enlist in the Southern army.[3]

   Allen was taken to Cairo with several others and was placed on parole and allowed the freedom of the city, but they were required to check in once a day. There was apparently no writ or warrant for their arrest. On September 2, Allen was supposed to be heading to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. However, since he was sick, he was left in a hotel in Springfield, Illinois. It is not clear if Allen was ever incarcerated in the Old Capital Prison. On September 10, 1862, Lincoln wrote to Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand that Allen “may be discharged if you advise it, on such terms as you may advise.” One newspaper reported that Allen was back in Springfield by early October.[4]

   Despite his arrest and incarceration, Allen was again on the ballot for election to the U.S. House, again running as a Democrat. And despite his alleged support of the secession of the southern half of Illinois, he again won that election, serving until 1865. He did not run for re-election. Allen did serve in the Illinois constitutional convention of in 1862 and 1870, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from 1864 to 1888 and received a recess appointment from President Grover Cleveland in April 1887 to serve as a Federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, and position that was later confirmed and one that Allen held until his death in 1901.  

   Information about Allen and the secession of Southern Illinois is hard to come by. James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom, considered the standard work on the war, makes no mention of William J. Allen. Neither does Weibley’s A Great Civil War, nor Keegan’s The American Civil War. A reader must turn to older texts, such as Allan Nevins’s War for the Union, 1862-1863 (1960) or Cole’s The Era of Civil War, 1848-1870 (1919). The rampant dissatisfaction caused by the radicals in the Federal government seems to be swept under the rug.  
 

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[1] “The Illinois North-South Split.” Chicago Tribune, October 1, 2015.

[2] Bouge, The Congressman’s Civil War, 43.

[3] Bellow Falls Times, September 19, 1862; Chicago Tribune, September 26, 1862; Illinois State Journal, July 30, 1862. See also Cole, The Era of the Civil War, 1848-1870, 302.

[4] Marshall, American Bastile, 295, 393-394; Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 5:413; The Brookville Jeffersonian, October 15, 1862.

Confederates buried at the Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

    Recently, Dana Shoaf, editor at Civil War Times, did a live stream from the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. When the guide was asked about the row of Confederate tombstones, he did not really seem sure how they came to be buried in what is considered the nation’s first “national cemetery.” Likewise, the self-guided tour brochure for the Congressional cemetery, states that “Historians believe that these wartime burials were Confederate soldiers who succumbed in nearby hospitals.” Let’s clear this up: these are the graves of Confederate soldiers who died at either the Old Capitol Prison or the Old Capitol Prison Hospital during the war. There are also more graves than the ten tombstones all lined up in a row. According to records, there are at least twenty-five Confederate soldiers interred at the Congressional Cemetery, along with three (or more) civilians.

   The Old Capitol Prison has an interesting history. Located right behind the U.S. Capitol, where the U.S. Supreme Court building now sits, the structure was constructed in 1815 to house Congress after the British burned the capitol building in August 1814. It would take time to reconstruct the U.S. Capitol. Congress met in the building until 1819, and President James Monroe was inaugurated here on March 4, 1817. After 1819, the building served as a private school, then as a boarding house until 1861. (John C. Calhoun died here in 1850.)

   At the start of the war, the property was acquired by the Federal government and turned into a prison for captured Confederates, spies, political prisoners, prostitutes, and Union officers. Among those incarcerated here were Rose Greenhow, Belle Boyd, John Mosby, Henry Wirz, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Mary Surratt, Louis Weichmann, and John T. Ford. Originally, the building could house up to 500, but the acquisition of adjoining buildings pushed the number to 1,500.

   The Old Capitol Prison often served as a funneling spot for other prisons. Most of the prisoners were captured in the eastern theater of the war. Officers passed through and went to Johnson’s Island in Ohio, while privates were sent to Fort Delaware (usually, but not always). According to the official Records, 5,761 prisoners of passed through the Old Capitol Prison. It is unclear if that number covered just Confederate prisoners, or all prisoners. Like other prisons, The Old Capitol Prison had a hospital, although information about this structure (or room), seems to be lacking. At least 457 prisoners died while incarcerated at the prison. Some of these men were buried a mile away at the Congressional Cemetery. (see the Official Records, series 2, volume 8, 990-1004 for additional numbers.)

   In 1807, the Congressional Cemetery was established by a private association. In 1812, once the purchase was paid off, the cemetery was turned over to Christ Church and officially named the Washington Parish Burial Ground. According to the cemetery’s web site, if a member of Congress died in Washington, he was likely interred in this burial ground. The first was Connecticut senator Uriah Tracy, who passed in 1807. Congress soon began purchasing plots, eventually owning almost 1,000, hence the name, Congressional Cemetery, although the property is still owned by Christ Church. There are more than 60 members of Congress buried here, along with former mayors of Washington, Vice President Elbridge Gerry, the Choctaw Chief Push-Ma-Ta-Ha, and John Philip Sousa. There are supposedly more than 60,000 graves, although only about half are marked.

   It is unclear why the Congressional Cemetery was chosen for Confederate Prisoner of War burials. The first appears to be Thomas Chambers, 6^th Alabama Infantry. It is unclear where Chambers was captured, but he was admitted to the “General Hospital, Capitol Hill,” on August 18, 1861 and died on August 22, 1861. (All information on Confederate soldiers was gathered from their Compiled Service Records, Record Group 109, National Archives). Most of the burials took place in 1863. Several who were captured at Hatchers Run in April 1865 died in the following weeks and were buried at the cemetery.

   There are undoubtedly more than those Confederates listed below buried within the Congressional Cemetery. There are also quite a few on this online list of burials, who are listed as Confederate soldiers, but who are, in fact, Federal soldiers. Maybe in time, more research can be done and this piece of forgotten history recovered.

Confederates buried at the Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

ANDRESS, SETH A, Company G, 41^ST Virginia Infantry. Captured on May 3, 1863, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Arrived in Washington, D.C., May 4, 1863. Transferred to Old Capitol Prison. Died Old Capitol Prison Hospital, May 16, 1863.

 BARR, DAVID, Company I, 2^ND Virginia Infantry. Captured August 3, 1863, at Chester Gap, Virginia, and confined at Old Capital Prison, Washington, D.C. Admitted to the Old Capitol Prison Hospital September 16, 1863, and Died December 11, 1863.

 BARRETT, LEVI, Company C, 15TH North Carolina State Troops. Captured October 14, 1863, Bristoe Station, Virginia. Confined at Old Capitol Prison, October 16, 1863. Admitted to the Old Capitol Prison Hospital November 23, 1863. Died November 27, 1863.

 BAXLEY, WILLIAM G. D., Pvt., Company A, 2^nd Maryland Infantry. Wounded in right thigh and captured on April 2, 1865, at Hatchers Run Virginia. Confined at Old Capitol Prison, April 5, 1865. Died on April 22, 1865. [later removed and reinterred elsewhere]

 BEARD, WILLIAM S., Company B, 28^TH North Carolina Troops. Captured December 3, 1862, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Confined at Old Capitol Prison January 27, 1863. Admitted to the Old Capitol Prison Hospital, March 25, 1863. Died of Fever, April 10, 1863.

 BROOKS J. M., Stafford County, VA, d. 5/--/1863

 CAMPBELL, A LORENZO, Company I, 11^TH North Carolina State Troops Captured in hospital in Winchester, Virginia, July 21, 1863. Confined at Old Capitol Prison. Admitted to the Old Capitol Prison Hospital, July 30, 1863. Died August 5, 1863, of pneumonia.

 CARLTON, C WINSHIP, Company C, 44^th North Carolina Troops. Captured at Brisoe Station. Died Old Capitol Prison of “pleurisy and pericarditis”

 CHAMBERS, THOMAS, Company A, 6^TH Alabama Infantry. Unclear where he was captured.  Admitted to the General Hospital, Capitol Hill, August 18, 1861. Died October 14, 1862, of Variola.

 CHANEY J., Pvt., 6^th Alabama, d.1/28/1862

 COCKRELL, BAILEY, Farmer, Loudon County, Virginia. d. 03/03/1864

 FARROW, R S, CAPTAIN, CONFEDERATE, CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY, d. 04/01/1865.

 FOSDICK, HENRY A, PVT, Company I, 6^TH Alabama Infantry. d. 09/19/1863.

 GASQUE, THOMAS, Company H, 1^st SOUTH Carolina Rifles, d. 09/11/1862

 HARDCASTLE, JOHN, CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY, d. 05/01/1863.

 HARRINGTON, JOHN, Company E, 33RD North Carolina Troops. Captured October 18, 1863, Bristoe Station, Virginia. Confined at Old Capitol Prison October 22, 1863. Admitted to the Old Capitol prison Hospital, November 16, 1863. Died December 10, 1863, “chronic diarrhea.”

 HODGES, JOHN T, CPL, Company H, 61^ST VA Infantry. Captured at Rapidan Station, Virginia, October 7, 1863. Listed as “rebel deserter.” Confined at Old Capitol Prison October 9, 1863. Admitted to the Old Capitol Prison Hospital on October 9, with a “gunshot wound of arm.” Died October 16, 1863.

 HUGHLETT, JAMES, CPL, Company F, 47^TH Virginia Infantry. Date and place of capture unknown (Possibly Gettysburg). Admitted to Old Capitol Prison Hospital July 18, 1863. Died August 3, 1863, of pneumonia.

 JACKSON, JOHN C, Company H, 20TH North Carolina State Troops. Reported missing in September 1862. Admitted to the Capital Hospital, September 21, 1862, Transferred to the Capitol Prison Hospital, September 30, 1862. Died October 30, 1862, dysentery.

 KEYS, REUBEN, CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY, d. 04/18/1863.

 MCMILLAN, WILLIAM, Company A, 14^TH LOUISIANA Infantry. Captured November 7, 1863, near Brandy Station, Virginia. Confined Old Capitol Prison, November 8, 1863. Admitted Old Capitol Prison November 25, 1863. Died December 1, 1863, typhoid fever.

 MILLS, WILLIAM J, Company D, 12^TH GEORGIA Infantry. Captured May 30, 1862, near Front Royal, Virginia. NFR.

 MILSTEAD, JAMES, Company H, 6^TH Virginia Cavalry. Wounded left thigh and captured April 1, 1865, at Hatchers Run, Virginia. Admitted to hospital at City Point, Virginia, April 3, 1865. Transferred to the Lincoln General Hospital, Washington, D.C., April 11, 1865. Died May 23, 1865, of “Chronic Diarrhea.”

 MORAN, ROBERT, Farmer, Loudon County, Virginia. d. 02/29/1864.

 MURCHISON, CICERO, Company G, 44TH, Georgia Infantry. Captured on November 28, 1863, Mine Run, Virginia. Confined at Old Capitol Prison, December 5, 1863. Admitted Old Capitol Prison Hospital, December 6, 1863. Died December 11, 1863, pleurisy.

 NAAK, LUDWIG, 1ST LT & ADJ FIELD &, CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY, d. 01/30/1862.

 NEALLY, ISIAH, Company D, 20TH North Carolina Infantry. Captured December 3, 1863, Mine Run, Virginia. Confined Old Capitol Prison, December 3, 1863.Admitted Old Capitol Prison Hospital, December 24, 1863. Died December 24, 1863, pneumonia.

 PIERCE, STEPHEN, Company D, 48^TH Virginia Infantry. Captured in Front Royal, Virginia, May 30, 1862. NFR.

 POWELL, CHARLES, Company F, 35^TH Georgia Infantry. Reported missing May 5, 1862. Reported in U.S.A. Hospital, Williamsburg, Virginia, May 9-11, 1862. NFR.

 RUCKER, JAMES S, Moorman’s Company, Virginia Horse Artillery. Captured September 13, 1863, near Culpepper, Virginia. Confined at Old Capitol prison September 14, 1863. Admitted to the Old Capitol Prison Hospital on October 3, 1863. Died on October 7, 1863.

 SHIPLETT, WILLIAM, UNKNOWN, ROCKINGHAM, CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY, d. 05/01/1863.

 STONE, JOHN W, CPL, Company H, 4^TH Virginia Cavalry. Captured near Brandy Station on February 23, 1863. Arrived in Washington, D.C., February 23, 1863. Assigned to Old Capitol Prison on February 23, 1863. Admitted to the Old Capitol Prison Hospital on March 9, 1863 Complaint: Pneumonia. Died on May 12, 1863. 

TRIGGER, ROBERT, Company E, 15^TH Virginia Cavalry. Listed as a deserter on Federal prison records. Took the Oath of Allegiance February 19, 1863. Arrived in Washington D.C., February 21, 1863. Died Old Capitol prison, February 25, 1863, of Pneumonia.