Johnson's Island

Roger Pickenpaugh

Description

In 1861, Lt. Col. William Hoffman was appointed to the post of commissary general of prisoners and urged to find a suitable site for the construction of what was expected to be the Union's sole military prison. After inspecting four islands in Lake Erie, Hoffman came upon one in Sandusky Bay known as Johnson's Island. With a large amount of fallen timber, forty acres of cleared land, and its proximity to Sandusky, Ohio, Johnson's Island seemed the ideal location for the Union's purpose. By the following spring, Johnson's Island prison was born.Johnson's Island tells the story of the camp from its planning stages until the end of the war. Because the facility housed only officers, several literate diary keepers were on hand; author Roger Pickenpaugh draws on their accounts, along with prison records, to provide a fascinating depiction of day-to-day life. Hunger, boredom, harsh conditions, and few luxuries were all the prisoners knew until the end of the war, when at last parts of Johnson's Island were auctioned off, the post was ordered abandoned, and the island was mustered out of service.There has not been a book dedicated to Johnson's Island since 1965. Roger Pickenpaugh presents an eloquent and knowledgeable overview of a prison that played a tremendous role in the lives of countless soldiers. It is a book sure to interest Civil War buffs and scholars alike.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• United States of America
• History of the Americas
• American Civil War
• États-Unis
• Prison
• Guerre de Sécession

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781631012020
• Langue: English

Extrait

Johnson’s Island
CIVIL WAR IN THE NORTH
Broken Glass: Caleb Cushing and the Shattering of the Union · John M. Belohlavek
Banners South: A Northern Community at War · Edmund J. Raus
“ Circumstances are destiny”: An Antebellum Woman’s Struggle to Define Sphere · Tina Stewart Brakebill
More Than a Contest between Armies: Essays on the Civil War · Edited by James Marten and A. Kristen Foster
August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry · Translated and Edited by Joseph R. Reinhart
Meade’s Army: The Private Notebooks of Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman · Edited by David W. Lowe
Dispatches from Bermuda: The Civil War Letters of Charles Maxwell Allen , U.S. Consul at Bermuda, 1861–1888 · Edited by Glen N. Wiche
The Antebellum Crisis and America’s First Bohemians · Mark A. Lause
Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer · Paul Taylor
Northerners at War: Reflections on the Civil War Home Front · J. Matthew Gallman
A German Hurrah! Civil War Letters of Friedrich Bertsch and Wilhelm Stängel, 9th Ohio Infantry · Translated and Edited by Joseph R. Reinhart
“ They Have Left Us Here to Die”: The Civil War Prison Diary of Sgt. Lyle G. Adair, 111th U.S. Colored Infantry · Edited by Glenn Robins
The Story of a Thousand: A History of the 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry · Albion W. Tourgée, Edited by Peter C. Luebke
The Election of 1860 Reconsidered · Edited by James A. Fuller
“ A Punishment on the Nation”: An Iowa Soldier Endures the Civil War · Edited by Brian Craig Miller
Yankee Dutchmen under Fire: Civil War Letters from the 82nd Illinois Infantry · Translated and Edited by Joseph R. Reinhart
The Printer’s Kiss: The Life and Letters of a Civil War Newspaperman and His Family · Edited by Patricia A. Donohoe
Conspicuous Gallantry: The Civil War and Reconstruction Letters of James W. King, 11th Micigan Volunteer Infantry · Edited by Eric R. Faust
Johnson’s Island: A Prison for Confederate Officers · Roger Pickenpaugh
Johnson’s Island
A Prison for Confederate Officers

Roger Pickenpaugh
The Kent State University Press · Kent, Ohio
© 2016 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2015036106
ISBN 978-1-60635-284-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
Quotations from the J. L. Stockdale Diary, from the Confederate Prisoners of War Collection in the Alabama Department of Archives and History, appear courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Quotations from the Papers of Thomas Gibbes Morgan Sr. and Thomas Gibbes Morgan Jr. appear courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Quotations from the John Harvey Reece Civil War Diary, 1864–1865 (part of the John H. Reece Civil War Papers, AC 1990–0011M) appear courtesy of the Georgia Archives. Quotations from the Robert Bingham Papers, Joseph Mason Kern Papers, Luther Rice Mills Reminiscences, and Virgil S. Murphey Diary appear courtesy of the Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pickenpaugh, Roger, author.
Johnson’s Island : a prison for Confederate officers / Roger Pickenpaugh.
   pages cm. — (Civil War in the North)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60635-284-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ∞
1. Johnson Island Prison. 2. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Prisoners and prisons. 3. Ohio—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Prisoners and prisons. 4. Prisoners of war—Ohio—Johnson Island—History—19th century. I. Title.
E616.J7P53 2016
973.7′71—dc23
2015036106
20  19  18  17  16       5  4  3  2  1
To ANYA and MIKE with wishes for happiness
Contents
Acknowledgments
1 “Decidedly the Best Location”
Establishing the Prison
2 “A Prison for Officers Alone”
Early Days of Operation
3 “Everything in Prison Is Elated”
The Road to Exchange
4 “It Requires Only Proper Energy and Judgment”
The Second Wave of Prisoners
5 “This Horrid Life of Inactivity”
The Battle with Boredom
6 “A Matter of Necessity”
Prison Economics
7 “A Guard for Unarmed Men”
Guards and Commanders
8 “Almost a Fixed Impossibility”
Escapes and Attempts
9 “The Wrath of Hunger”
Rations and Union Retaliation
10 “A Pitiful Scene”
Climate and Health
11 “Sad and Glad at the Same Time”
The Road to Release
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
As with so many other books, the greatest debt incurred in writing this one is to my wife, Marion. As in the past, she assisted in the research process, helped compile the index, and listened patiently to my ideas and complaints.
My mother, Fern Pickenpaugh, was again an eager proofreader.
Family in northern Virginia made research trips to the National Archives and the Library of Congress much easier and much more fun. Thanks to stepdaughters Anya Crum and Jocelyn Brooks, Anya’s boyfriend, Mike Huie, and Jocelyn’s husband, Patrick, as well as grandchildren Parker and Harrison Brooks.
Locally, members of the Noble County (Ohio) Authors’ Guild, including Wes Bishop, Tammy Kirchner, Jim Leeper, Mary Lou Podlasiak, Gary Williams, and Ken Williams, provided both assistance and sympathetic ears. Jim also spent hours guiding me through those aspects that required computer skills.
Archivists at the institutions listed in the bibliography were universally professional and personable. So was the staff of the Sandusky Public Library, where I secured photos. I remain indebted to the staff of the Muskigum University Library in New Concord, Ohio. They handled a large number of interlibrary loan requests, saving travel time and expense. Thank you, Zelda Patterson, Nicole Robinson, Jamie Berilla, and Elaine Funk.
This is my first adventure with the Kent State University Press. I hope it will not be the last. They have been courteous, professional, and understanding of inane questions and my near total lack of computer skills.
1
“ Decidedly the Best Location ”
Establishing the Prison
Montgomery Meigs was a realist. He had to be. As quartermaster general of the Union Army, he was also a man charged with tremendous responsibilities. A career officer, fifth in the 1836 graduating class at West Point, Meigs had gone on to a solid career as an engineer in the peacetime army of the 1840s and 1850s. His crowning achievement—in a near-literal sense—was the dome of the United States Capitol, which was nearly completed when the guns aimed at Fort Sumter fired on April 12, 1861, plunging the nation into civil war. The following month Meigs was promoted to brigadier general and named to the post that he would hold during the four years of the war. His daunting task was to keep the Union armies supplied and on the move. In doing so, Meigs would eventually oversee spending in excess of $1.5 billion. 1
Unlike many of his civilian superiors, General Meigs realized that the war was likely to be long and difficult, and he urged officials to plan accordingly. On July 12, writing to Secretary of War Simon Cameron, he addressed an issue that other officials had overlooked. “As in the conflict now commenced it is to be expected that the United States will have to take care of large numbers of prisoners of war,” Meigs wrote, “I respectfully call your attention to the propriety of making some arrangements in time.” The quartermaster general called for the appointment of a commissary general of prisoners. This official would be “charged with the care of prisoners now in our hands and preparations for those likely to fall into our possession.” Meigs also urged that a site be selected for “a depot and place of confinement for prisoners of war.” Specifically, he recommended “the Put-in-Bay Islands of Lake Erie.” 2
Cameron approved the recommendations, and Meigs issued orders to put them into effect. In early October he named Lt. Col. William Hoffman to the post of commissary general of prisoners. The son of a career army officer, Hoffman had followed in his father’s footsteps. After being graduated from West Point in 1829, he served at a succession of frontier posts. During his three decades of service, he had established a reputation as a strict and capable officer. “Although never brilliant,” his biographer notes, “he was an able and efficient officer.” He was also notoriously thrifty, insisting that buildings be constructed of the cheapest materials and that his men provision themselves by raising their own crops. At the posts he commanded, Hoffman established a “post fund” by reselling surplus rations to the commissary. The fund was used to purchase such luxuries as an ice house, a bowling alley, and curtains for post buildings. 3
His prewar duties, including the erection of Fort Bridger and the rebuilding of Fort Laramie, provided Hoffman with practical experience that would serve him well as he oversaw construction of the Union’s proposed prison. He also brought brief experience as a military prisoner to his new position. Hoffman had commanded the 8th United States Infantry, stationed in Texas, when that state seceded. His superior officer, Gen. David Twiggs, surrendered the unit to a state home guard and promptly joined the Confederate Army. Hoffman and his men were quickly paroled, and they started north after pledging not to take up arms or serve in the field against the Government of the Confederate States of America until exchanged. This made Hoffman available for the post of commissary general of prisoners. He did not want the job, lobbying for a special exchange that would free him for duty in the field. His efforts failed, and good soldier that he was, Hoffman assumed his new duties. Except for a few months in late 1864 and early 1865, he would remain in the thankless position for the remainder of the war.
On October 7, 1861, Hoffman headed for Lake Erie to select a suitable site for what was then expected to b