Archival & Manuscript Materials
Salisbury Confederate Prison
Bibliography - Archival & Manuscript Materials
*Designates materials NOT available at Rowan Public Library. The library may have photocopies of some of these items in various collections, which have been noted in the descriptions.
On Microfilm:
General Courts-Martial of John H. Gee, file NM 3972. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1974. Microfilm.
This does not appear to be the transcript of the entire trial.
Index of Prisoners of War of the United States Army Who Enlisted in the Rebel Service at Salisbury, NC. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1974. Microfilm
The origin of this list is unknown. Louis A. Brown thinks that it was created by General Bradley Johnson. It contains the names, addresses, and rank of the “galvanized” Yankees.
Letters Orders, and Circulars Issued and received, Military Prison Hospital, Salisbury, North Carolina, 1864-1865. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1973. Microfilm
Original Register of Federal Prisoners of War of the United States Army Confined in Prison Hospital, Salisbury, NC 1864-1865. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1965. Microfilm.
This register is from the Commissary General of Prisoners’ Office. It consists of those who entered the hospital, their rank, cause of admission and their release (or death). This is a copy of an original record, which was made in 1880. The whereabouts of the original is unknown.
Parole Lists, May 1862, Salisbury, North Carolina. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1965. Microfilm.
Prisoner lists. CSA Army Dept. of Henrico. Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.
Lists of prisoners apparently sent to Richmond prisons. Some lists contain only men sent from Salisbury. These have been photocopied and are held by Rowan Public Library in Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060. Some lists appear to hold prisoners from several facilities. Those that specifically stated “sent from Salisbury” have been abstracted and are filed with the photocopies.
Roll of Honor (No. XIV): Names of Soldiers Who, in Defense of the American Union Suffered Martyrdom in the Prison Pens Throughout the South. Washington, DC: National Archives. Microfilm.
A typescript is also available at Rowan Public Library.
Rowan County, North Carolina, Book of Deeds. Book 34: 382, Book 38: 206-207, Book 39: 543, Book 42: 354. Microfilm.
Deed records list the owners and dimensions of the prison site.
Samuel R. Harrison Rowan County Furniture and Coffins, 1859-1861. Raleigh, NC: State Archives of North Carolina, 1991. Microfilm.
A Salisbury casket maker’s record book. It reveals the purchases of caskets for the prison during the first few months of its existence.
War Department Collection of Confederate Records, Chapter V, volume 20-21 “Quartermaster Department, Letters and Telegrams Sent: February 1864 to January 1865,” Washington, DC: National Archives. Microfilm.
Manuscripts:
A single letter. Gilbert Bowman to Elizabeth Tinsley.
Photocopy, location of original unknown. The letter of a guard to his wife. .A photocopy may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023, Rowan Public Library, Salisbury, North Carolina.
This collection contains the research notes of Louis A. Brown who wrote the most comprehensive treatment of the prison. Photocopies of many of the sources he cites in his work may be found in this manuscript collection. Some of these sources from his research notes have been duplicated, cataloged separately, and are available in Rowan Public Library’s History Room.
James Cannon Diary. Wisconsin State Archives.
Cannon makes frequent and fervent appeals to The Almighty to deliver him from the prison. A photocopy of the diary may be found in the Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023, Rowan Public Library.
A single letter. “Dear Sarah” from N. (Shepherd or Alexander?)” January 4, 1865. Charlotte, NC: Mint Museum.
A guard’s letter home to his wife complaining about his health and describing the lack of food and supplies at the prison. A photocopy may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
A single letter. R. C. Craven to Pamelia Craven. Nov. 27th, 1864.
The letter of a guard to his wife, which describes an attempted prison break. A photocopy of the letter and a typescript may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library. The original is in private hands.
John S. Crocker Civil War Correspondence. Brockett Collection. Department of Manuscripts and University Archives. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Libraries.
General John S. Crocker was a prisoner in Salisbury from May through July of 1862 when he was exchanged. He gives a fairly favorable review of the facilities. A photocopy of these materials may be found in the Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023.
*William Y. Davis Diary. Maine State Library.
Davis, a member of the 12th Maine Volunteers kept a diary April 16-Oct. 28, 1864, which includes his stay in the Salisbury Prison. A typescript of the diary is held by the Maine State Library.
Dill Correspondence. Scattered in private, unknown hands.
The Dill correspondence consisting of four letters from William H. Dill and Daniel M. Dill, brothers from Gray, Maine. They were captured at the battle of Seven Pines and transferred to the Salisbury Prison in June of 1862.These letters were discovered in Maine (Confederate Philatelist Sept.-Oct 1997) and sold at auction in 1999. The auction house of Robert A. Siegel aided Rowan Public Library in obtaining photocopies of two of the four letters. The photocopies may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
*A single letter. “Fullerton, R. R. to wife Eliza, May 24, 1865.” Dartmouth College Library.
Describes impression of social conditions in Salisbury where he was stationed after the burning of the prison grounds.
Gaither Family Papers. Southern Historical Collection. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Thomas William Gaither and J. Burgess Gaither were Confederate soldiers with the 4th and probably 18th and 19th North Carolina Infantry regiments. A photocopy of one of these letters may be found in the Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023, Rowan Public Library.
Godwin Family Papers. Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.
Two letters written by a clerk with the Confederate Provost Marshall’s Office. He was stationed primarily in Petersburg but did venture to Salisbury for a brief period. His letters briefly describes the scene in Salisbury in 1864. Photocopies may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
Charles Carrol Gray Diary. Southern Historical Collection. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Gray was a medical doctor imprisoned in Salisbury from May 17 to July 28, 1862. A photocopy may be found in the Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023, Rowan Public Library.
Prison Letters of Solomon Frazer, Friends Historical Library. Swarthmore College.
Typescripts of letters from a Quaker conscientious objector incarcerated at the prison. Photocopies of these letters may be found in the Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023, Rowan Public Library.
*Joseph W. Hall Manuscripts. Manuscript Dept. Duke University Library.
Joseph (or Josephus) Hall was a medical doctor at the prison. Miscellaneous letters, including a copy of the appointment of Hall as surgeon in the prison.
Hamilton Papers. Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA.
James B. Hamilton of Fayette County, WV was held in the Salisbury Prison and died there. He was a civilian. Also in this collection are letters by a West Virginian named William Richmond and John W. Woolsley of New York, both were friends of Hamilton while in prison who wrote to Hamilton’s widow after the war. The letters reveal prison practices concerning control of a deceased man’s personal effects. These materials were formerly a part of the Thornton Taylor Perry Collection at West Virginia State University. Photocopies may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
*Captain Lewis C. Hanes Papers. Southern Historical Collection. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Hanes was a quartermaster in Salisbury. His papers concern supplies, muster rolls, requisitions for the sick, etc. A finding aid only may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
*John Steele Henderson Papers. Southern Historical Collection. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
*Bradley Tyler Johnson Papers. Manuscript Dept. Duke University Library.
*Mary Hunter Kennedy Papers. Southern Historical Collection. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Henry Harrison Ladd Diary. Transcript was published on the Web, http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/1419/hladd.html
Ladd arrived in Salisbury on Oct. 8, 1864. His short daily entries note rations, the cold, the dying men, and lice. He left Salisbury for the North on Feb. 22, 1865. Rowan Public Library holds a printout of the transcript in its Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060.
A single letter. “Dear Mother and Sisters, Nov 29, 1864” from William Loan. Typescript in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library. Location of original unknown.
*Macay-McNeely Papers. Southern Historical Collection. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A. W. Mangum Letters. Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mangum was a chaplain at the prison for two years and returned to Salisbury as a Methodist minister in 1864. These letters to his father often mention conditions in Salisbury and the prison. Photocopies may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
Samuel McClain Papers. Bowling Green State University Papers.
The diary of a prisoner, holding brief daily entries. Also letters written to his family before his capture. A photocopy may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
Oscar D. Morhous Diary, MSS 9916, Rowan Public Library, Salisbury, North Carolina.
Oscar D. Morhous enlisted in the 118th New York Infantry Volunteers the 11th of August 1862 for three years. He was taken prisoner on Oct. 27th 1864 and died in the Salisbury Prison on 24 December 1864. His diary, written in fragments, lists the rations received and chronicles his fight with dysentery. The library has the original and transcripts.
William Owen Diaries. SUNY Morrisville
Owen served with Company K of the 86th New York State Volunteers. He was captured and escaped from the prison in Florence, SC, was recaptured after crossing the Catawba river on a float held together with grape vines, arrived in Salisbury on October 10, 1865. Very little description of Salisbury. Photocopies may be found in the Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
Salisbury Confederate Prison Materials, MSS 9060, Rowan Public Library.
This collection contains information on the Salisbury Prison, its prisoners, monument dedications and other pertinent information. 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.
Salisbury Manufacturing Company Shares, MSS 9047. Rowan Public Library.
This collection consists of three blank shares of Salisbury Manufacturing Company Stock, which shows the main building of the enterprise to be built. This structure became the central building in the Salisbury Confederate Prison.
*Small, Joseph L. "The True Experiences of a Union Prisoner at Salisbury Prison." Manuscript Dept. Washington State University Library.
*Cornelia Phillips Spencer Papers. Southern Historical Collection. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Spencer requested R. L. Beall to write an account of Stoneman's raid in North Carolina. Written in 1866, this report is still in Spencer's papers. Photocopied excerpts may be found in the Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023, Rowan Public Library.
*Thomas W. Springer Civil War Diary. University of Virginia Special Collections Department.
*John Wesley Walker Papers. Manuscripts Dept. Duke University Library.
Correspondence of Confederate soldiers serving in Virginia and North Carolina and their friends and relatives discussing personal and family matters, camp life, prices, disease in the army, and the Confederate Prison at Salisbury, North Carolina.
*Willard W. Wheeler Diary. William L. Clements Library, Schoff Civil War Collection, University of Michigan.
Willard B. Wheeler was a private in the 7th Ohio Infantry Regt., and was captured in 1861. Wheeler stayed only briefly in Salisbury while he waited to be exchanged. The University of Michigan holds a photocopy of the diary.
*James C. Zimmerman Papers. Manuscripts Dept. Duke University Library.
Included in this collection are letters of A.J. Spease to his sister Adaline Spease Zimmerman about his time in the guardhouse during the war. A copy of the abstract of the finding aid is in the Louis A. Brown Collection, MSS 9023, Rowan Public Library.
*Designates materials NOT available at Rowan Public Library. The library may have photocopies of some of these items in various collections, which have been noted in the descriptions.