Columbia Military Prison
Union Officer POW Camps
By January 1862, both Charleston and Columbia were housing some captured Federal
officers and enlisted men in
Castle Pinkney
and in the
Richland County Jail.
In some accounts, the is referred to as the "Jailhouse Prison" but generally as "Richland Jail".
During the period of May-November 1862, Captain Thomas P. Whitesides' Co. of
York District served as prison guards for 80 Federal prisoners. This company was
assembled at Camp Johnson, Lightwood Knot Springs, north of Columbia, on 25
April 1862, and upon mustering into Confederate service on 13 May was
designated Co. H, __ Battalion SC Volunteers. The battalion designation was
left blank because it was apparently intended that the company would become the
8th company in either the 1st (Charleston) Battalion SC Infantry, or the 3rd
(James') Battalion SC Infantry, should either of those organizations be
increased to a regiment. In the event, neither became a regiment, and in
November 1862, Whitesides' company was instead assigned to the 5th SC infantry.
The company left for Virginia on 17 Nov, and joined the regiment in camp at
Fredericksburg on 24 Nov, where it became Co. G. In addition to Whitesides, the
company officers were 1st Lieutenant James M. Bird, 2nd Lieutenant J. C.
Jackson, and 3rd Lieutenant H. Nichols.
These individuals were confined there with other captured Union Soldiers, some
Tories (Union Sympathizers), and Southern Deserters, along with the other
criminals until the fall of 1864. The Union POWs appear to be those taken in
battle in South Carolina and a large percentage were Naval Officers captured in
and around Charleston harbor. Union officers were housed within the cells
of the jail and the non-commissioned officers and enlisted men were kept in
tents in the grounds if the Jail.
There were plans all during the war to build a large POW camp near Columbia.
Both the Governor and the Mayor of Columbia, citing military needs (keep
closer to Union for exchange) and logisitics (the South was hard pressed for
any resource and movement of POWs would consume many). The more likely reason
for the Mayor is that any POW camp would cause food shortages and sky high
prices. They were able to keep the number down.
By the end of The War, Union prisoners were segregated by rank into different
prisons. It was thought that by separating officers and enlisted men escapes
would be reduced. Prior to 1864, there were 3 major camps:
1)
Camp Sumter,
Andersonville, Georgia for non-commissioned officers ( * )
2)
Camp Oglethorpe,
Macon, Georgia for company grade officers (mostly Captains and Lieutenants)
3) Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, for Majors, Colonels, and Generals.
and there was some mixing of prisoners, but this is
the general structure of the Confederate Military Prison system.
There were other prisons thruout the Southern sates including
Salisbury. North Carolina,
which housed POWs from 1861 until troops under General George Stoneman burned
the prison buildings April 12-13, 1865. The new prison designed to hold 2,000
would eventually overflow with 10,000 or more. Between 6,500 and 11,700 unknown
Union soldiers are thought to be buried in 18 trenches, each 240 feet long, dug
in an abandoned corn field outside the Confederate Prison. nowe encompassed in
Salisbury National Cemetery
With Richmond under heavy pressure, many of the officers at Libby Prison were
sent South. Per diary of 2nd Lieutenant George A. Chandler, 5th Maine
Infantry, they left Libby Prison 6 or 7 May 1864, then Danville, VA,
Greensboro, NC, Charlotte, NC, Columbia, Augusta, GA, and then Camp
Oglethorpe, Macon, GA by 17 May 1864. Some others were sent to Andersonville,
After the fall of Atlanta, it became apparent that the Georgia Camps were also
under threat.
General John Henry Winder,
commander of all Confederate military prisons east of the Mississippi River,
ordered the able bodied prisoners from Andersonville and Macon towards the
coast. On 24 July 1864, 600 left prison for Charleston, South Carolina. They
were housed all around town but mainly at the
Charleston City Jail.
On 28 July 1864, 600 more left prison for Savannah, (George included), and
were housed on the Old U.S. Marine Hospital grounds. On 29 July 1864, the
last of them, about 600, were sent to Savannah. On 13 Sept 1864, they left
Savannah for Charleston to be housed at Charleston City jail yard. As the
pressure on Charleston increased, the decision was made to move them inland, 5
Oct 1864.
The enlisted men were sent to the newly established Florence Stockade.
The transportation of large numbers of Federal officers to Columbia occurred
after General Sherman's Army of the West penetrated deeply into adjacent
Georgia and numerous military prisons there were hurriedly evacuated, with
their inhabitants transferred to Charleston, South Carolina. On 29 September,
Major General Samuel Jones,
decided to transfer the accumulated Federal officers, estimated at 1,400 (some
estimates range as high as 1,700), from Charleston to Columbia, escorted by
the
32nd Georgia Volunteers
and 1 or more companies of the 8th Battalion, SC Senior Reserves. The train
ride afforded another opportunity to escape, which many did per diary of
1st Lieutenant Alonzo Cooper, 12 New York Cavalry, Company F
Technically, Major General Jones had no authority to order the transfer of the
prisoners. His failure to communicate his plans to
Brigadier-General William M. Gardner,
(the officer in charge of Confederate military prisons east of the Mississippi
River) contributed materially to the poor conditions that prisoners had to
endure at Columbia.
The officers were met at the depot by a group of Military Cadets from
The Arsenal
and escorted to the Columbia Military Prison. It appears that the enlisted men
in Richland Jail may have been sent to Florence but I have been able to find so
few I am not sure. It is clear that most of the US Naval Officers were put
into the Jail, perhaps because there was some pending exchange talks.
Located near Columbia,
While there were empty buildings in town, the fear of Yellow Fever, the reason
they were sent to Columbia, and the logistics of guarding several buildings,
were the most likely reasons the out of town location was chosen. A prison in
name only, it was an open field, a five-acre track of cleared ground without
walls, fences, buildings, a ditch, or any other facilities. Llike all other POW
Camps, a "deadline" was established by laying wood planks ten feet inside the
camp's boundaries.
Soldiers were issued a few axes to build the few structures that were made
Conditions for existence in this camp were poor as they were in all the prison
camps during the war. The rations consisted of cornmeal and sorghum
molasses as the main staple in the diet, thus the camp became known as "Camp
Sorghum". This name "stuck" (as did the food it was named after) and can be
found in CSA official records. There is no indication that the guards ate
better than the POW's, quite the opposite. Many POW's had access to funds and
money always buys solutions. The guards were poorly and seldom paid and
resorted to barter and theft to survive. Stealing from a "yankee" is no crime.
Commandants of Camp Sorghum were Lieutenant Colonel Robert Stans ( Stark )
Means of the Invalid Corps, who previously served with 17th SC Infantry,
Captain E. A. Simple (who had been sent to Columbia to locate and map out a POW
camp near Columbia), and Major Elias Griswold ( As a captain, he had served as
Provost Marshall in Richmond under General Winder), Captain J. S. Richardson.
assistant quartermaster and paymaster, Lieutenant T. P. Haller, and Assistant
Adjutant. The guards included 4 or 5 companies from
1st Battalion of State Troops
under Captain Edward Powell of Company B,
2nd Battalion of State Troops,
Company G and 1 or 2 companies from
4th Battalion of State Troops,
at least 1 company from 8th Battalion of State Troops,
Company C,
all under Lieutenant John McCarley of Company C, as well as the 10 companies of
the
Columbia Local Defense Battalion.
These units were formed in the summer of 1864 from the State Militia, of men
over 44 and 17 year old boys, known as Senior Reserves. In addition, three
companies of 32nd Georgia under the command of Captain J. F. McElmurray and an
artillery detachment from 1st SC Artillery, Company K under the command of
First Lieutenant J. Furman Dargan.
Due to the lack of any security features, escapes were common and of those
imprisoned there, around 25% escaped by one estimate I have seen. Conditions
were terrible, with little food, clothing or medicine. Disease was a major
problem within the Camp and among the guards, with deaths noted of both POWs
and guards. Some POW's recorded their experiences after The War at
Camp Sorghum.
On 12 December 1864, Camp Sorghum was deactivated with the remaining POWs
(about 500) being moved to a much more secure and hospitable facility, the
State Lunatic Asylum (hence the nicknames Camp Lunacy and Camp Asylum), located
on the present site of the South Carolina State Hospital on Bull Street. By
this time both the 32nd Georgia and 1st SC Artillery, Company K had been
removed and a replaced by a detachment of Artillery under the command of a
Lieutenant Holyland and another company from 8th Battalion of State Troops,
Company C.,
The POWs were not housed with the mental patients but were confined in a large
open space within the asylum walls behind the male dormitory, at the corner of
Calhoun and Barnwell Streets. A board fence was erected to separate the
prisoners from the patients, and they were given materials with which to
build shelters. While supplies remained limited, at least there was a roof to
sleep under and escape the cold.
With rumors rife regarding a raid on Columbia, on 12 Feb 1865, Colonel C H
Forno requested advise as to the course to be adopted for the security of the
1,200 Federal officers, prisoners of war, in the Asylum prison. In the face of
Sherman's forces, a prison was being constructed at Killian's Mills, eleven
miles from Columbia, on the Charlotte Railroad. The work was being urged
forward as rapidly as possible, and the prison will be ready for the reception
of over 15,000 prisoners by 22 February, including 7,000 enlisted men from
Florence under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Iverson, and nearly 1,200 officers
here under command of Major E. Griswold.
Between 13 & 14 February 1865,
Company G of 2nd Battalion of State Troops
escorted the remaining 1,200 prisoners to Charlotte, NC, and ultimately to
Wilmington, NC, where those who had not escaped were turned over to Federal
authorities during the first week of March 1865. Some of the POW's mingled with
the mental patients and were freed when Sherman captured
(then burned)
an undefended Columbia, on 17 February 1865.
( * ) Note:
While Andersonville ( Camp Sumter ) was an enlisted man's prison, there were
some officers held in a smaller stockade between Andersonville station and the
prison stockade. The smaller stockade by the name "Castle Reed " was in
operation from the end of February 1864 until May and about 65 officers werre
confined. When the Confederate Forces became concerned about the
overcrowding, they transfered the Union Officers to Macon where they were held
at Camp Oglethorpe. This stockade was for officers only and was where the City
Park is now located. It was on what was the original city fairgrounds and as I
have been told, there is no marking at the site.
My opinion is that the officers were moved to Macon at the stop of exchanges
since so many were dying at Andersonville, and with the " Value" of officers in
trade being more than privates. This would help keep the more valuable
prisoners alive so that when exchanges resumed, it would be more of an
advantage to higher ranks to trade for more enlisted men.
Search Partial POW Rosters (56749)
My long term goal is to accumulate enough information to publish a book for
inclusion in the resources of the South Carolina Archives. If you have any
information about these units or their members, please E-Mail me at:
Background
Columbia Military Prison
Union Officer POW Camps
