President Taylor's Grandsons Fought for the Confederacy-- Part 2: Col. Robert Cooke Wood

Service in the Confederate Army:

1861

Captain in the Confederate States Regular Army

Assistant Adjutant General to Gen. Braxton Bragg  in Pensacola

Resigned his rank as captain on October 15, 1861

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1861-1863

Lt. Col. of Adam's Mississippi Cavalry Regiment

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1862

Captured at Lebanon, Tennessee, on May 5, 1862

Prisoner of War held at Johnson's Island Prison in Ohio

Exchanged in prisoner exchange in September of 1862

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1863-1865

Colonel of Wood's Mississippi Cavalry Regiment

1864-1865

Acted as  Brigade Commander Mississippi Cavalry

1864

Acted as commander of Central Sub-District of Mississippi

1865

Paroled in Jackson, Mississippi, on May 17, 1865

--Old Secesh

McHenry County Civil War Round Table's Prisons Discussion 3/27/21-- Part 4: Talking About Camp Douglas Today and John Yates Beall

**  There is a Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation that has a primary mission "To provide  active leadership in the development,  delivery, and preservation of  educational and  historic information regarding  the Upper Midwest, especially Illinois and Chicago during the Civil War."

**  And then there was an interesting character by the name of John Yates Beall, who led attacks on Union shipping on the Chesapeake Bay, was captured, released, then was involved in a scheme to release Confederate officers at the prison on Johnson's Island on Lake Erie.  That failed.  But then was captured trying to derail a train near Buffalo, New York.

Jailed again, and after a questionable trial and Abraham Lincoln declining to extend leniency, was hanged at Fort Columbus on Governor's Island in New York Harbor.

**  Abraham Lincoln and Sec. of War Edwin Stanton once visited Point Lookout in Maryland to view Union black soldiers.

**  One of the people at the meeting said he had an ancestor die at the Confederate prison at Danville, Va.

**  Libby Prison was in an old tobacco warehouse.  Prisoners there experienced horrible conditions.

--Old Secesh

Answers to MCCWRT Prisons Quiz-- Part 2: Fort Fisher and a Great Lakes Warship

9.  Enlisted Confederates captured at Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865, were mostly sent to Elmira Prison Camp in New York.

10.  The Confederate nickname for this prison was "Hellmira" because of the horrific conditions.

11.  Two of the main prisons to which Confederate officers were sent during the war were  both in bodies of water.  One was Fort Columbus in New York Harbor.  The other was Johnson's Island in Lake Erie.

12.  Who was the highest ranking Confederate officer to die while a prisoner?  Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting.  He was wounded at Fort Fisher, recovered from the wound, but died from dysentery.

13.What U.S. warship was the target of a Confederate plot to free officers held at Johnson's Island in Lake Erie?    USS Michigan

14.  The USS Michigan served for a long time but near the end of its career, its name was changed to the USS Wolverine.  Why?  So the name Michigan could be given to the battleship USS Michigan (BB-27).

How'd You Do?  --Old Secesh

John Yates Beall-- Part 2: Privateering, Johnson's Island, Hanged

In the meantime, he began a series of privateering missions along the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.  he was captured in November 1863, and imprisoned at Fort McHenry in Baltimore.  This led to reprisals by the Confederate government.

On May 5, 1864, he was formally exchanged.

With Beall's own initiative and without government support, he returned to Canada with his original aim of liberating the prisoners held at Johnson's Island.

On September 18, 1864, Beall and a small group of men captured the steamers Philo Parsons and Island Queen.  However, he was unable to get to Johnson's Island because of a mutiny in his followers.

Wearing civilian clothing, he was captured in civilian clothing at Niagara, New York, on December 16, 1864,   Tried a a guerrilla, he was found guilty and hanged at Governor's Island, New York, on December 24, 1864.

--Old Secesh

Johnson Island Prison Camp in Ohio Being Surveyed-- Part 2

The island was farmed after the war until 1950, then abandoned and trees began growing there.

It was located on the island because it was easier to defend and harder to escape.  Close proximity to Sanduskey made it easier to get supplies.  It was originally intended for use of officer and enlisted Confederates, but eventually it just housed officers.

Prison population peaked at 3,200 later in the war.

--Old Secesh

Johnson Island Prison Camp in Ohio Being Surveyed-- Part 1

From the April 5, 2014, Met Regional News.

From 1862-1865, 10,000 Confederates were held there at the island in Lake Erie near Sanduskey.  Today, very little of the prison camp remains other than 250 grave markers for Confederates from Mississippi, North Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee and other states.  Many of them are unknown.

There is also a modest plaque saying the site is a National Landmark but little else concerning the history of the 17 acres.

School children, college students and researchers will begin a detailed archaeological excavation of the site this summer, though work there began twenty years ago.

The camp is partners in the Civil War Trust's Park Day to be held the first Saturday in April.  Branches and debris from this past harsh winter will be removed.

--Old Secesh

"Little More Than a Dead Skeleton": Civil War Prisons-- Part 3

Currently, there is much archaeological work being done on Civil War prisons.  Not only is work being done at the recently located Camp Lawton in Georgia, but also at Illinois' Camp Douglas in Chicago, Johnson's Island, Ohio and Camp Asylum in Columbia, South Carolina.

Camp Lawton was only open for six weeks and was essentially lost to history.  It was hurriedly abandoned with the approach of Union General Sherman's Army on his famous March to the Sea.  Ten thousand Union prisoners were held here, most from Andersonville, and between 750 and 1,000 died in that time.  Union soldiers were so enraged by finding unburied dead prisoners that they essential destroyed every trace of Camp Lawton.

People knew the general location of the camp, but not its exact spot.

--Old Secesh

Some More on Johnson's Island

It is still there, so evidently efforts to save it from development have been successful. There is also another group to protect it called the Johnson's Island Preservation Society.

You can get to the Friends and Descendants site at http://www2.heidelberg.edu/johnsonsisland/

From Wikipedia. After the war, the camp was abandoned and the former owner took over again. Most of the buildings were auctioned off, but some fell into disrepair and were razed. The majority of the Civil War-related sites have been destroyed or built over after decades of farming and quarrying. In 1897, an effort was made to turn the island into a seaside resort, but it failed.

In 1990, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark and a causeway was built to connect it to the mainland. Heidelberg College conducts an annual archaeological did at the site. There is also a museum at Marblehead on the mainland.

Let's Not Forget That Wonderful Marblehead Lighthouse Either. --B-R

Johnson's Island, Ohio

The Spring 2005 Hallowed ground Magazine of the Civil War Preservation Trust had an article by David R. Bush on the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Johnson's island in Sanduskey Bay, Lake Erie, in the northwestern part of Ohio.

This was primarily a camp for Confederate officers captured in the western theater of the war, There were twelve housing blocks, two large mess halls, a hospital and several outbuildings enclosed within a 15-foot high stockade wall.

More than 10,000 prisoners were taken here during the course of the war. Some were exchanged soon after arrival while others spend months and years planning escape. There were lots of letters, diaries along with thousands of artifacts buried on the site.

NEW BATTLE

In 1989, Johnson's Island Prison Depot was optioned for development of a housing complex, but the Friends and Descendants of Johnson's Island were able to save the site by obtaining a mortgage for it., but, as of spring 2005, they were about to lose the 17-acre lakefront area to the highest bidder. And being lakefront, you know developers are eying the site intently.

I'll have to follow up and see what happened.

www.johnsonsisland.com

Hope They Saved It. --Old B-Runner