#9060 Salisbury Confederate Prison
Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials
MSS #9060
August 2000
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Abstract: This collection contains information on the Salisbury Prison, its prisoners, monument dedications and the Salisbury Confederate Prison bibliography. Documents include photocopies of letters, newspaper and magazine articles. Topics covered include baseball in the prison and prisoner diary excerpts, genealogical information and finding aids to collections of their papers.
Subject Headings in Catalog:
Salisbury Confederate Prison (Salisbury, NC)
North Carolina History Civil War, 1861-1865 Prisoners and Prisons
United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 Prisoners and Prisons
Size: 2 boxes. 1 linear foot.
Provenance: Donations from various individuals indicated with the items. Articles gathered by library staff.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Introduction
The Salisbury Confederate prison came into being in 1861, and following the first battle of Bull Run at Manassas, Union prisoners of war streamed into Salisbury. Joining the POWs were Southern political prisoners and conscientious objectors, as well as Confederate and Federal deserters. Originally a cotton mill and, for a short time, a boys academy, the prison grounds had held a meat packing plant for the Confederate Army. It was also the site of the general muster ground, where local boys joined the Southern Army.
Life early on in the prison was harsh, but prisoners had the benefit of a large yard in which they could move about. Supplies and rations were tight but manageable. Parole and exchanges of prisoners made the Salisbury Prison little more than a way station for those individual soldiers returning home. When exchanges and paroles all but ceased late in the war, the prison soon became greatly overcrowded, and supplies fell to almost nothing. Locals who had scant rations themselves could do little to help those behind the stockade. Many prisoners died and were buried outside the walls. This was the beginning of Salisbury’s National Cemetery.
Salisbury Prison gained added notoriety due to the fact that two noted journalists of the major newspaper of the day, the New York Tribune, were held there. Also there, was Col. Michael Corcoran, a popular New York Irishman, who had been chosen at random to receive the same fate as Southern privateers that the North had declared to be pirates. David Livingstone, the famous abolitionist, had a son who died in the prison under an assumed name, Rupert Vincent. The prison also held the very first POW of the war. (KC)
Folder List:
Box 1
Prison Bib Correspondence
Alexander, N.- To “Dear Santa”
Andersonville, N.Y. – Monument Dedication – Stop at Salisbury
Bats, Balls Baseball & The Civil War
Blackmer, Luke – Pardon Attempt
Bowman, Gilbert – Elizabeth Tinsley
Bradshaw, Harriet Ellis – R.L. Bealle
Carle, Gen. James – Prisoner
Ben Cass – Letter to W.D. Grimes
Carpenter, George Coles – NY 5th Heavy Infantry
Carte de Visite – Prison (Guard’s Tent?)
Cave Dwellers of the Confederacy
Clippings #1
Clippings #2
Clippings #3
Confederate Veteran – May 1927
Cook, John D. – Prisoner – Genealogy
Craven, R.C. - Letter – Guard
Crocker, John S. – Correspondence
Derbyshire, George
De Wolf, George G. B. – Poem, Lines for the Paroled Prisoners Lately From Salisbury, N.C., and biographical information.
Dill Correspondence
Drummond, Robert – Correspondence
Drummond, Robert L.
Duel, James F. – 45th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry – 1912
Eberly – Prison Town
Eberly “Salisbury”
Efrid, Martha Jane
Fendler (?), John W. – Guard Letter
Fowler, Patrick – “In Memory of Pvt. Patrick Fowler”
Gee, Dr. John Henry – Poems
Godwin – Family Papers
Goff, Nathan, Jr. – In The Civil War – WV History Journal – Online
Box 2
Hale, Albert, Prison Survivor
Hamilton Family Papers – Loyalty & Liberty in Fayette County
Hanes, Lewis Clark Papers
Harlan, George W.
Honnell, Thomas – Letters
Ladd, Henry Harrison Diary – Transcript
Loan, William – Letter
Maine Monument – Salisbury National Cemetery
Mangum, A.W.- Salisbury Prison
Mangum Family Papers, - Finding Aid
McCowan, Archibald – The Prisoners of War
McClain, Samuel – Papers
McRae’s Battalion – History
Miscellaneous
National Cemetery – Historical Publication
National Cemetery – “The Soldiers of Salisbury” Charlotte Observer article (5/10/96 p.10F)
Nicols, George H. – Diary Excerpt – Transcript
Owen, William – Dairies
Pennsylvania Monument – Commission Members
Pennsylvania Monument – Postcard Sent From Dedication
Prisoner Lists – Army Dept. of Henrico
Richards, R.G. – Prisoner – Photo
Richardson, Albert D. – Secret Service
Salisbury Reunion Medal
Salisbury Story, The – Louis Brown
Sparks from the Campfire
Spiritsail - "More Dead Than Alive"
Stamp Articles
“Strike For Liberty “ – O. Edward Cunningham
Stoneman’s Failed Bid for Glory
Thermal Imagining Study
Vincent, Rupert – Robert Livingstone
Walk of Journalists
“War & Peace” – Our State – June 1999
Willard Wheeler Diary – Finding Aid
Wood, William Nicol
Zimmerman, James C. – Papers – Duke University – Brief Description