Found 7 collections related to United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons

The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), 1861-1879, was a civilian organization authorized by the United States government to provide medical and sanitary assistance to the Union volunteer forces during the United States Civil War (1861-1865). As the USSC broadened the scope of its work during the war, Regular troops, sailors and others also benefited from its services. The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, military service claim files, registers, diaries, financial records, scrapbooks, posters, illustrations, photographs, printed matter, maps, ephemera and artifacts concerning the Commission's sanitary, medical and relief work during the Civil War, as well as its post-war relief work and publication activities. The collection also includes the records of the American Association for the Relief of the Misery of Battle Fields, founded in 1866 by USSC officers and former associates. less

Charles E. Pierce (1842-1907), a farmer from Oneida County, New York, served as a private in Company I of the 146th New York Infantry from 1862 to 1865 during the American Civil War. The Charles E. Pierce cash book, 1853-1879, contains a narrative of his capture at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864 and imprisonment at Andersonville, Georgia and Florence, South Carolina; records kept at Camp Parole Hospital, most likely by W. L. Cooper and Pierce as chief ward masters, 1865; Pierce's post-war cash accounts, and his genealogical notes. The volume was previously used by the mercantile firm of Orme, Wilson & Co. of Loudon, Tennessee, and individually by its partner R. T. Wilson, 1853-1863. The volume is accompanied by a letter written by Pierce at Camp Parole to his mother, 1865 May 21; a form letter from a veterans' association dated 188-; his admission ticket to the Soldiers' Reading Room in Philadelphia, and a few clippings relating to the Civil War. less

Harry Rockafellar (1840-1875) was an American merchant, Civil War veteran, and commanding Colonel of the 71st Regiment, New York State National Guard, from 1869 to 1872. Harry Rockafellar was the son of Mary M. and Asa J. Rockafellar of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He resided in New York City prior to the Civil War, and enlisted in the 71st N.Y.N.G. at its outbreak, serving in Company F. Rockafellar was severely wounded at the battle of First Manassas, resulting in the amputation of his left arm and capture by the Confederates. He spent several months in Liggon's Tobacco Warehouse, a hospital and prison in Richmond, Virginia. He served in other units after his exchange, notably as a Captain in the U.S. Army Invalid Corps (Veteran Reserve Corps). After the war, Rockafellar worked in New York City as an importer and commission merchant in the clothing trade. He maintained his connection with the 71st N.Y.N.G., serving as commanding Colonel of the regiment from 1869-1872. He married Jenny L. Baker, daughter of Alfred E. Baker, a New York City fire marshal, in 1867. Harry Rockafellar died in Orange, N.J. in 1875. The collection consists of letters written by Harry Rockafellar, 1860-1875, reflecting his Civil War service, his business travels abroad, and his personal and family life, as well as a small amount of related correspondence, photographs, writings and miscellaneous personal items. Most of the letters are written to his mother, Mary M. Rockafellar; other recipients include family members and his future father-in-law, Alfred E. Baker. Wartime letters, 1861-1864, with mention of camp life, social activities, and family matters, mainly document his wounding and capture at battle of First Manassas and his life as a prisoner of war in Richmond, Virginia, in 1861, and his duties as an Invalid Corps officer, 1863-1864, while stationed in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Also present are Rockafellar's 19 Nov. 1861 letter to the editor of a Philadelphia newspaper concerning prisoner exchange, and a letter of appreciation dated 7 Jan. 1862 from Congressman Alfred Ely, a fellow former prisoner. Postwar letters concern his marriage to Jenny L. Baker in 1867; three business trips to Europe in 1871, 1872 and 1873; his health; and his mother's well-being and financial affairs. Business travels took him mainly to Manchester, London, and Paris. The 1872 trip, taken with his wife Jenny, is extensively described in their separate letters to his mother and uncle. Notable content includes seven letters written 1861 July 26-Oct. 1 as a prisoner of war, and his letter of 27 July 1871 describing conditions in Paris in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. Photographs include an 1862 carte-de-visite of Harry Rockafellar in uniform, and a later portrait; a carte-de-visite of Alfred E. Baker in his uniform as fire marshal, 1865; and a photograph of Sudley Church, Bull Run (Brady's Album Gallery no. 315). Writings include an undated 5-page typescript of reminiscences recalling his encounters with President Abraham Lincoln, while on guard duty in Washington, D.C., at Fort Stevens, in a personal interview, and as part of the guard of honor over his remains; and an 1868 offprint of the report of the Seventy-First Regiment's Civil War service submitted by Lt. Col. Rockafellar to the Adjutant General of the State of New York. Personal miscellany includes Rockafellar's wedding announcement and business card, and seven specimens of 19th-century Confederate, U.S. and Canadian paper currency. less

James S. Williams was a sergeant of the 114th Infantry Regiment, Company F, Volunteers during the American Civil War. He kept this diary from January 1-December 31, 1864. Entries describe maneuvers in Louisiana; being taken prisoner (April 9); hospital and prison life; his exchange and transport from New Orleans to Key West and New York; ill treatment; Fortress Monroe, Washington, and Harpers Ferry; returning to his regiment and being appointed sergeant; and camp routines. Parole documents and letters are inserted in the volume less

This diary and notebook was kept by Mrs. C[atherine] V[irginia] Baxley of Baltimore, Maryland after her arrest as a blockade runner for the Confederacy and during her confinement at the Old Capital Prison, Washington, D.C. from February 24-July 2, 1865. It is written in a copy of Alfred Tennyson's Enoch Arden, (Boston, 1865) which was presented to her by Colonel N[ewton] P. Colby on February 14, 1865. Attached is a statement of Ellie E. Clark, a cousin of Mrs. Baxley, vouching for the authenticity of the record Entries include a list of women prisoners at the Old Capital Prison, including Mrs. Surratt and her daughter, and the causes for which they were arrested. Baxley also tells of the death of her own son, a Confederate soldier, in the same prison. The diary provides a valuable psychological record of the effects of confinement, and of war psychosis in the South. Baxley had been previously arrested as a spy, on December 30, 1861, and was one of the first women confined in the Old Capital Prison less

Major W. G. Terrell kept this diary from July 9-12, 1874 while he was in prison in Burlington, Kentucky awaiting trial. In the reverse of the diary are memoranda of H. Buchanan recording stoppages of payments to officers and private of the United States in the year 1862, with references to Major W. G. Terrell, Paymaster, of Memphis, Tennessee less