A Presidential Pardon for De Villiers-- Part 1

From the 2015 PBS Antiques Roadshow

Ken Sanders of Ken Sanders Rare Books of Salt Lake City, Utah, gave this appraisal to a woman on the popular PBS appraisal show in Tucson, Arizona.  He estimated the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Pardon to Charles Villiers was worthy between $12,00 and $15,000.

It read:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

To all  to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting:

Whereas, it appears that at the March Term, 1861, of the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia,  one Charles  de Villier was indicted and convicted for obtaining goods under false pretences [six], and it was by the said Court sentenced to be imprisoned in the Penitentiary for the period of eighteen months;

And whereas, the said Charles de Villier has now served out more than six months of his said term of imprisonment, and it appears from the certificate of the Deputy Warden of the Penitentiary that "he has been uniformly obedient and faithful to every duty" in the institution.

More.  --Old Secesh

Ellsworth & the U.S. Zouaves-- Part 15: Charles DeVilliers

CHARLES DeVILLIERS--  Colonel of the 11th Ohio Infantry.  Captured and sent to prison, but escaped.  Once back in the Union Army, he was court martialed on 13 counts of misconduct, including stealing from local citizens and selling to Army members.

Dismissed from service and returned to France.

This was from our speaker but I forgot his name.

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Looked up this man and found this on Virtual American Biographies.

CHARLES A. De VILLIERS

Soldier born in 1826.  He had been an officer in the French Army and afterward became colonel of the 11th Ohio Infantry.

At the beginning of the Civil War he was taken prisoner, 17 July 1861 and sent to Richmond.

Next...  His Escape.  --Old Secesh

Edward Kittoe Inspects Camp Douglas in Chicago-- Part 2

Continued from February 6, 2023.

The part of Camp Douglas where the Union guards were quartered were by and large very good.  However, when it came to the Confederate prisoners being held there, it was quite another story.

The prisoners stayed in quarters built in 1861, when Camp Douglas was used for traing Union troops.  The floors were not raised to allow the flow of  of air beneath.  The floorboards were taken out to prevent tunneling and as a result floors were a "mass of mud and filth."

The buildings were 100 feet by 30 feet and into which 125 to 150 men were crammed, "who are mostly in a filthy and disgusting state and swarming with vermin."

They are supplied with ample rations, but arrangements for cooking are poor and food improperly prepared, resulting in much waste.  There is a great "neglect of police duty"to the grounds.

--Old Secesh

Edward Kittoe Inspected Camp Douglas Prison in Chicago in 1864

From Official Records War of the Rebellion.

Report of inspection made by Edward Kittoe by order of  Cpl. R.C.  Wood, Assistant Surgeon General , U.S. Army,  on January 18, 1864.

He reported that the site was not very good  because of drainage and proximity to Lake Michigan and exposure to cold, damp winds.  "Marshy character of the soil" perfect for fostering diseases.  Plus, at time of inspection ground covered by frost and snow.

As far as prisoners, the soil is excellent for tunneling for escape.  Plus, proximity to large city pf Chicago makes it hard to guard against southern sympathizers.

Barracks and latrines of guards in very good shape.

However, this can not be said for the conditions of the prisoners.

--Old Secesh

First Memorial Day in U.S. Plaque in Charleston, S.C.

From the same article as the previous four blog entries on Memorial Day.

FIRST MEMORIAL DAY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, May 1, 1865.

At the time of the Civil War, Hampton Park was the site of the Hampton Racecourse, which was owned by the South Carolina Jockey Club and was one of the most famous racetracks  of the antebellum  South.  In late  1864, this site became a large open-air prison for thousands of Union troops evacuated from Andersonville, GA. prison in advance of Sherman's March to the Sea.

Before Charleston fell in February 1865, several hundred of the prisoners died and were buried in mass graves.  In an effort led by African-American churches in April 1865, the dead were reinterred in orderly graves enclosed by a picket fence.  Over the gate was written: "Martyrs of the Racecourse."

In May 1, 1865, a parade in honor of the prisoners of war who died here took place with ten thousand participants, according to contemporary sources.  Nearly 3,000 were school children from the new Freedman's Bureau Schools.

The children led the parade, carrying armloads of flowers  and singing patriotic songs.  They were followed by  women's organizations, church leaders, Unionists, recently emancipated  slaves and Union troops, including members of the 54th Massachusetts.

The soldiers were late buried at Beaufort and Florence National Cemeteries or in their hometowns.  

Annual events to honor the dead of both sides of the Civil War eventually became known as Memorial Day.  The event that occurred in what is now Hampton Park is acknowledged by most historians to be  the first Memorial Day  in the United States of America.

--Old Secesh

Why Do We Commemorate Memorial Day?-- Part 1: It's a Civil War Thing

From May 27, 2022, USA Today "Why do we observe  Memorial Day?  Here's the true history of the holiday" by Camille Fine.

It was originally called Decoration Day and honors all soldiers who have died during service to the nation.

It was declared a  national holiday  through an Act of Congress in 1971, and its roots date back to the Civil War era.

The origins can be traced back to local observances for soldiers with neglected gravesites from the Civil War.

Some historians believe the very first observance  of what would become our Memorial Day took place in Charleston, South Carolina, at the site of a horse racing track that Confederates had turned into a prison for captured Union troops.  Blacks in the city organized a burial of deceased prisoners and built a fence around the site.

Then, on May 1, 1865,  they held an event, including a parade including Blacks who had served as soldiers in the Union Army, spiritual readings and songs, and picnicking.  A commemorative marker was erected there in 1810.

--Old Secesh

Ten Facts About Battle of Ball's Bluff-- Part 8: Who Was to Blame?

Fact 8:  Both Stone and McClellan blamed  Col. Edward Baker  for the tremendous loss.

When called before the Joint Committee, Charles Stone testified that he had given Edward Baker the responsibility to decide whether to send more troops across the river or to withdraw the ones already there.  By sending reinforcements, Stone argued, "Colonel Baker chose to bring battle."

General McClellan agreed.  After hearing  Stone's version of the events, McClellan publicly exonerated Stone from any blame and published in an army circular that "the disaster was caused by errors committed by the immediate commander [Baker]."

Although Stone and McClellan both  testified that Baker was the cause of the defeat, Stone remained the popular scapegoat for the failure.  When Stone was called to appear before the Joint Committee, they laid the blame  on him.  Stone was the friend of McClellan, a known Democrat, and his word amounted to little for the abolitionist Radical Republicans who dominated the committee.

They accused Stone of disloyalty to the Union, and Stone was arrested on February 8, 1862,  on the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.  He was taken to Fort Lafayette, a prison designated for known Confederate  sympathizers, where he was held in solitary confinement without trial.

With no charges filed against him, Stone was released after six months, and Stanton ordered him demoted to colonel. and kept out of field work.  In 1864, Stone resigned from  the army.

--Old Secesh

Woodstock, Illinois, in the Civil War

Taken from 80th Anniversary edition of the Woodstock Sentinel, 1937.

Page 7.

"There was a general illumination Monday evening in honor of Lee's surrender.  The square  presented a lively and animated appearance...."

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"The remnants of the 15th Illinois (many from McHenry County), so long confined in rebel prisons, had been confined in rebel prisons had been paroled and were in Vicksburg awaiting transportation home.  The men who had escaped with Hanaford and Lascelle were recaptured and one of them wounded."

Hopefully none of them were on the Sultana.

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The 15th Illinois suffered big casualties at the Battle of Shiloh, including the death of Captain Harley Wayne who I have written a lot about.

--Old Secesh

Forrest's 1864 Railroad Raid-- Part 2: On to Sulfur Creek Trestle

Battle of Sulfur Creek Trestle.

After Forrest defeated Union forces at Athens and Fort Henderson, he  moved north along the railroad with the intent to destroy the strategic trestle at Sulphur Creek, six miles north of Athens.

There, Union forces had erected to blockhouses and fortifications.  There were 928 Union troops defending it including the 111th USCT and the 9th Indiana Cavalry under Col. Ely Lilly.  Rifle pits connected the various defenses.

Forrest surrounded the fort and had 8 pieces of artillery against the Federals 2 cannons.  Outnumbered and outgunned, Lilly surrendered..  Forrest burned the fortification and Union losses were 200 killed and 720 captured.

Union prisoners were transferred to Confederate prisons and many of them died on April 27, 1865, when they were returning home and on board the tragic SS Sultana.

--Old Secesh

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

The Confederate Monument in Danville, Kentucky: Robert D. Logan

From Wikipedia.

This monument is located between Centre College and the Presbyterian Church of Danville at the corner of Main  and College streets in Danville, Kentucky.  It is dedicated to the Confederacy and on the National Register of Historic Places.

It was dedicated in 1910 by the surviving  veterans of the Confederacy of Boyle County and the Kate Morrison  Breckinridge Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The statue consists of a granite pedestal and a marble statue depicting Captain  Robert D. Logan, who was actually from Lincoln County, but lived in Boyle County after the war. Captain Logan served with John Hunt Morgan in the 6th Kentucky Cavalry's Company A and was captured during Morgan's Raid in Cheshire, Ohio,  on July 20, 1863.

He spent much of the rest of the war in various Union prisons, including the Ohio State Penitentiary.

Robert Logan died  on June 25, 1896, fourteen years before the construction of the monument.

--Old Secesh

Fort Delaware in the Civil War: Gen. Pettigrew and the 'Bull Pen'

From Wikipedia.

Fort Delaware saw its main use during the war as a prison for captured Confederates, convicted federal soldiers and local  political prisoners as well as  privateers.  The first prisoners arriving were housed  inside the fort in sealed off casemates, empty powder magazines and two small rooms inside the sally port.  In those small rooms Confederates carved their names and you can still see them.

According to the Philadelphia  Inquirer, the islands "contained an average population of southern tourists, who came at the urgent  invitation of Mr. Lincoln."

And, the fort also held captured Confederate generals.  The first  one housed there was Brigadier General  Johnston Pettigrew.  He was the first of about a dozen held at the fort.

In 1862 and 1863, two separate phases of construction took place  at Fort Delaware.  A barracks for enlisted men known as the "Bull Pen" by Confederates was built.  Most of the Confederates captured at the Battle of Gettysburg spent time there.

Some Tourists Indeed.  --Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table Prisons Discussion-- Part 7

Continued from April 6, 2021.

Continued from the March meeting of the McHenry County Civil War Round Table discussion group.

**  Barracks were more often built in Northern prisons than Southern ones.

**  56,000 from both sides died in prisons.

**  13,000 alone died at Andersonville.

**  At Andersonville, one group of Union prisoners called the Raiders and Regulators were buried separately.  they were tried by the other prisoners and eight executed and others forced to "Run the Gauntlet."

**  In contrast, during World War II, German and Italian prisoners held in the United States had it made.

**  At Rock island, food was distributed to barracks and prisoners passed out proportions.

**  Boston Corban, who shot Booth, spent four months at Andersonville.

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The topic of discussion for April will be April/May 1865, which was a very important period of time in the war with the fall of Richmond, surrenders, assassination of Lincoln and hunt for Booth.  This was our first hybrid Live/Zoom meeting and it was a success with four in attendance and four more on Zoom, including one from Florida.

--Old Secesh

Galvanized Yankees at Rock Island Prison-- Part 1

From the April 6, 2021, WVIK MPR Quad Cities  "Galvanized Yankees" by Roald Tweet.

We were just talking about the Rock Island Confederate prison camp at Rock Island at the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table discussion group at the end of March.

In August 1863, Union troops arrived at Rock Island to build a prison camp for Confederates.  Beginning with 468 Confederates captured at the Battle of Lookout Mountain, who arrived in December 1863 the camp eventually housed  more than 12,000.  Author of "Gone With the Wind," Margaret Mitchell,  called it the "Andersonville of the North."

It was set up like other Union prisons, only this one also had  a Union Recruiting Office that was set up in the prison in 1864.  A Union naval officer  arrived in January and within a week had 660 former Confederates enlisted in the Navy.

One unrepentant Confederate wrote in his diary that they were "664 traitors to our country."  But, serving on a Union ship was seen by some Confederates as being better than living under the horrible prison conditions.  Plus, the Union Navy always faced manpower shortages.

In September 1864, the recruiting officers began getting prisoners enlisted to fight out West.  A large part of the prison was set up for these brand new Yankees.  Prisoners remaining loyal to the Confederacy derisively dubbed these men "Galvanized Yankees."

--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

Answers to the MCCWRT Prison Quiz (Or Was That a Test?)-- Part 1

1.   There were 4 prisons in Illinois for Confederates.

2.  Their names were:  Alton Penitentiary, Camp Butler, Camp Douglas and Rock Island Prison.

3.  The Alton Military Prison was replaced by the Joliet Correctional Center. 

4.  Camp Butler was not named after Benjamin Butler, but William Butler who was Illinois' Secretary of the Treasury.

5 and 7.  William Butler was a member of the Lincoln's  Long Nine.  (I later found out that he wasn't a member of the Long Nine, but Lincoln stayed at William Butler's house.)

6.  The Joliet Prison later was featured in the movies "White Heat" with James Cagney and "The Blues Brothers" with John Belluchi.

8.  The "Long Nine" got their name because they were all tall and weighed around 200 pounds.  They were state representatives and senators and largely responsible for moving the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield.

Okay, questions 5,6,7 and 8 were a bit off topic.  But, of course our discussion groups have NEVER EVER gotten off topic.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Discussion Group Civil War Prisons-- Part 2:

Some more prison questions:

7.  William Butler, for whom Camp Butler was named, was a member of what famous Illinois group of politicians which included Abraham Lincoln?

8.  How did this group get their name?

9.  Enlisted Confederates captured at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, on January 15, 1865, were mostly sent to what prison in New York.

10.  What was the nickname Confederates held at this prison gave it?

11.   Two of the prisons in which Confederate officers were sent were in New York Harbor and Lake Erie.  What were the names of these two prisons?

12.  Who was the highest ranking Confederate officer to die while a prisoner?

13.  What was the name of the U.S. ship which was the target of a clandestine operation to free Confederate officers held in the Lake Erie prison?

14.  Why was this ship later renamed the USS Wolverine?

Answers in Next Post.  --Old Secesh

McHenry Civil War Round Table Discussion Group Meeting Today: Here's Your Quiz

We'll be trying a hybrid live and Zoom meeting at 10 a.m. at Stucky's in Johnsburg, Illinois.

Today's topic:  Civil War Prisons North and South.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

1.  How many prisons were in Illinois?

2.  Where were these prisons?

3.  The Alton Military Prison was replaced by what Illinois prison?

4.  Who was Camp Butler named after?

5.  William Butler was a member of what famous Illinois Lincoln group? 

6.  The Joliet Prison was featured in two movies.  Name one of them.

--Old Secesh

Sgt. Ivy Ritchie-- Part 2: Battles, Captured, Wounded, Promotions, Death and Burials

**  Captured at Sharpsburg, Maryland, September  17, 1862.  (Battle of Antietam)  Confined at Fort Delaware until exchanged at Aiken's Landing, Virginia, Nov. 10, 1862.

**  Married Clara Sophia Christina Ridenhour in Stanly County while on leave December  14, 1862.

**  Wounded at Chancellorsville, May 10, 1863, and promoted to corporal  two days later.

**  Rejoined Company H, 14th N.C. in August 1863.

**  Participated in every major battle of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1864, including the Battles of Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor.

**  Promoted to sergeant in July 1, 1864.

**  Killed at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

**  Buried at Appomattox Station.

**  Body moved to Poplar Grove National Cemetery and interred in Grave 4824 as Ivy Ritchie from New York state.

Oops.  --Old Secesh