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| Henry Wirz, second commander of the Tuscaloosa Prison Camp. |
On October 25,
1861, Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin wrote to Alabama governor A.B. Moore about
a facility to house prisoners: “I am told,” Benjamin wrote, “you have at
Tuscaloosa not only legislative buildings, but an insane asylum and a military
institute, all unoccupied. We are greatly embarrassed by our prisoners as all
our accommodations here are required for our sick and wounded. It would be a
great public service if you can find a place for some, if not all, of our
prisoners. We have over 2,000 here.”[2]
Added to this, in November 1861, a group of Union operatives destroyed several
bridges through East Tennessee. Those who were caught and “identified as having
been engaged in bridge-burning” were tried by a “drum-head court-martial” and,
if found guilty, were “executed on the spot by hanging.” Those without proof of
involvement but suspected, were arrested and sent to Tuscaloosa, imprisoned “at
the depot selected by the Government for prisoners of war.”[3]
By November 28, some twenty-two prisoners from Carter County had been arrested,
sent to Nashville, and were expected to be sent to Tuscaloosa (it is not clear
if all twenty-two were to be sent, or just “5 or 6 known to have been in arms.”)[4]
An abandoned paper mill that was totally
unsuited for the job as a prison was selected. When the prisoners began to
arrive, some locals were used as guards.[5]
Prisoners, at least those captured in the east, were transported via rail from Petersburg,
Wilmington, and Montgomery, then steamboat via the Alabama, Tombigbee, and
Black Warrior rivers.[6]
Were all 2,000
prisoners that Benjamin referenced, plus an untold number from the bridge
burners, sent to Tuscaloosa? Probably not, but just how many were sent is
unclear. There were enough for new Alabama governor John G. Shorter to write to
Benjamin on December 19 that he had “Better send no more prisoners to
Tuscaloosa . . . Accommodations exhausted.” Also, the state asylum was not available
to be used as a prison.[7]
In December 1861, Capt.
E. A. Powell organized a company of prison guards. Powell stepped aside and the
company became known after their new captain, C.D. Freeman (Freeman’s Company
of the Alabama Prison Guards. They served at the prison in Tuscaloosa until the
fall of 1862 when they were transferred to the prison in Salisbury.[8]
On March 5, 1862, Braxton
Bragg ordered that the Federal prisoners in Memphis were to be forwarded to
Tuscaloosa.[9] After
the skirmish on the Elk River near Bethel, Tennessee, on May 9, 1862, the
prisoners were sent “over the mountain by the turnpike road to Tuscaloosa”[10]
As early as December 1861, Capt. Elias Griswold was reported as in command of
the prison at Tuscaloosa. Griswold apparently held this command through April
11, 1862, when he was promoted to major and ordered to Richmond, Virginia, to
be provost marshal.[11]
On learning that Griswold was heading to Richmond, local citizens asked that
his assistant, Henry Wirz, be placed in command.[12]
Some of the Federal
prisoners from the battle of Shiloh in April 1862 were sent to the prison at
Tuscaloosa.
The Confederate prison in Tuscaloosa was closed by the fall
of 1862 and the prisoners were paroled or sent elsewhere.[13]
Tuscaloosa was later reopened in the spring of 1864, housing Federal soldiers
captured during the Overland Campaign and Brice’s Cross Roads.[14]
Just when the prison finally closed and if it was still using the old paper
mill is unclear.
[1] Hubbs,
Tuscaloosa, 40.
[2] Sanders,
While in the Hands of the Enemy, 49.
[3] Official
Records, Series 1, Vol. 7, 701.
[4] Official
Records, Series 1, Vol. 7, 701.
[5] Hesseltine,
Civil War Prisons, 64.
[6] Colton,
Travels in the Confederate States, 60.
[7] Sanders,
While in the Hands of the Enemy, 49.
[8] CSR,
Roll 0502, M331, RG109.
[9] Official
Records, Series 1, Vol. 10, part 2, 298.
[10] Official
Records, Series 1, Vol. 10, part 1, 887.
[11] CSR,
M331, RG109.
[12] CSR,
M331, RG109.
[13] Sanders,
While in the Hands of the Enemy, 122.
[14] Sanders,
While in the Hands of the Enemy, 219; Radley, Rebel Watch Dog,
170,
