They Have Left Us Here to Die

Glenn Robins

Description

The chronicle of a Union soldier's seven months in captivity Besides the risks of death or wounding in combat, the average Civil War soldier faced the constant threat of being captured by the enemy. It is estimated that one out of every seven soldiers was taken captive-more than 194,000 of them from Union regiments-and held in prison camps infamous for breeding disease and death.Sgt. Lyle G. Adair of the 111th United States Colored Troops joined the thousands of Union prisoners when part of his regiment tasked with guarding the rail lines between Tennessee and northern Alabama was captured by Confederate cavalrymen. Adair, who had first enlisted in the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the age of seventeen and later became a recruiting agent in the 111th, spent the remainder of the war being shuffled from camp to camp as a prisoner of war. By the war's end, he had been incarcerated in five different Confederate camps: Cahaba, Camp Lawton, Blackshear, Thomasville, and Andersonville."They Have Left Us Here to Die" is an edited and annotated version of the diary Sergeant Adair kept of his seven months as a prisoner of war. The diary provides vivid descriptions of each of the five camps as well as insightful observations about the culture of captivity. Adair notes with disdain the decision of some Union prisoners to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy in exchange for their freedom and covers the mock presidential election of 1864 held at Camp Lawton, where he and his fellow inmates were forced to cast votes for either Lincoln or McClellan. But most significantly, Adair reflects on the breakdown of the prisoner exchange system between the North and South, especially the roles played by the Lincoln administration and the Northern home front. As a white soldier serving with African Americans, Adair also makes revealing observations about the influence of race on the experience of captivity.Complete with numerous annotations comparing Adair's accounts with other diaries, memoirs, and official reports, "They Have Left Us Here to Die" provides a platform for delving deeper into the culture of captivity and the Civil War soldier experience."'They Have Left Us Here to Die' touches on the important themes of combat motivation, race, the end of slavery, the experience of captivity, and the competing stories of how the war was remembered. And it does so in the hands of an able storyteller who brings Lyle Adair's story to life." - Scott Reynolds Nelson, Legum Professor of History, College of William & Mary

Sujets

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

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 20 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612779874
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

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C I V I L WA R I N T H E N O RT H Series Editor, Lesley J. Gordon,University of Akron

   William Blair,Pennsylvania State University Peter S. Carmicael,Gettysburg College Stepen D. Engle,Florida Atlantic University J. Mattew Gallman,University of Florida

Elizabet Leonard,Colby College Elizabet Varon,University of Virginia Joan Waug,University of California Los Angeles

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heyHaveLeftUs Here to Die he Civil War Prison Diary

of Sgt. Lyle Adair,

t U.S. Colored

Infantry

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heKentState University Press Kent, Oio

©  by he Kent State University Press, Kent, Oio 

A   Library of Congress Catalog Card Number   ---- Manufactured in te United States of America

Lyle G. Adair’s diary is reproduced courtesy of Andersonville National Historic Site.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Adair, Lyle, b. .  hey ave left us ere to die : te Civil War prison diary of Sgt. Lyle Adair, t U.S. Colored Infantry / [edited and annotated by] Glenn Robins.  p. cm. — (Civil War in te Nort)  Includes bibliograpical references and index.   ---- (ardcover : alk. paper) ∞ . Adair, Lyle, b. —Diaries. . Prisoners of war—Confederate States of America—Diaries. . Prisoners of war—United States—Diaries. . United States—History—Civil War, –—Prisoners and prisons. . Military prisons—Confederate States of America—History. . Captivity narratives—Confederate States of America. . United States—History—Civil War, –—Personal narratives. . United States. Army. Colored Infantry Regiment, t (–) . United States—History—Civil War, –—Regimental istories. I. Robins, Glenn. II. Title.  .   .'—dc 

Britis Library Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.          

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Preface vii Acknowledgments xi heUnknownSoldier  Capture   Caaba   Millen  Blacksearandhomasville heSecondAndersonville

 he Anatomy of a Captivity Narrative  Suggested Reading  Index 

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Preface

L G. A,    Civil War soldiers, was a largely unknown figure. A few details about te onetime sergeant of Com- pany B of te t United States Colored Infantry can be derived from te fragmentary evidence of te federal census records and is military personnel records. An exception to te lack of primary source material is Adair’s self-titled diary “Seven Monts in Prison,” wic recounts in vivid detail is experiences as a prisoner of war 1 in te Confederate prison camps of te Deep Sout. here is a certain degree of symmetry ere regarding te number seven. Ap- proximately, one out of every seven soldiers of te American Civil War became a prisoner of war, and, of tat number, one out of every seven “perised at te ands of teir captors.” Adair’s story is in many ways a very unique and personal narrative, yet is experience also speaks for tousands of anonymous comrades wo were left to die 2 in te uman dungeons known as Civil War prisons.  here were a combined , prisoners of war; te Nort eld 3 , and te Sout eld ,. heOfficial Records of te War

 . Lyle G. Adair Diary, ANDE accession number , ANDE catalog number , Andersonville National Historic Site, Andersonville, Georgia (ereafter ANHS).  . A total of , prisoners died in captivity, , Union soldiers and , Confederate soldiers. Carles W. Sanders Jr.,Wile in te Hands of te Enemy:Mili- tary Prisons of te Civil War(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, ), .  . Ibid.

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viiiPreface

of te Rebellionidentifies tirty-two “principal places for te con- finement of Union prisoners eld by Confederate autorities.” Of tat number, tirteen camps were located in te Deep Sout states 4 of Georgia and Alabama. From September  to April , Sgt. Lyle Adair was eld in five of tese prisons: Caaba, Millen, Black- sear, homasville, and Andersonville. In many of tese camps, Union war prisoners encountered great ardsips as tey faced incarceration witout adequate food, cloting, selter, or medi- cal treatment. hose wo survived eld to te possibility of being paroled or excanged. But for most, including Sergeant Adair, tat dream only came to fruition after monts of captivity and toward te literal end of te war.  A relatively small number of Civil War prisoners publised ac- counts of teir captivity experience. Altoug twenty-six accounts appeared in  and , “production slowed in te s,” and wile former prisoners continued to offer teir stories to te read- ing public, te yearly average of te decade of te s and s was less tan two publised accounts per year. A variety of motives inspired te former prisoners to construct written records of teir pligts. Some were driven by a desire to “document te patriotism of captured soldiers,” oters oped to bear witness to deliberate mistreatment at te ands of brutal captors, and many sougt to 5 establis “testimony” necessary for securing a government pension. Despite te very real instances of suffering in captivity, te postwar recollections often contained “exaggerations and misrepresenta- 6 tions.” One former prisoner, Jesse Hawes, seemed intent on provid-

 . he Georgia camps were Americus, Andersonville (Camp Sumter), Atlanta, Augusta, Blacksear, Millen (Camp Lawton), Macon (Camp Ogletorpe), Marietta, and Savanna. he Alabama camps were Caaba, Mobile, Montgomery, and Tus- caloosa. U.S. War Department,War of te Rebellion: A Compilation of te Official Records of te Unionand Confederate Armies, vols. (Wasington D.C.: GPO, –), ser. II, vol. : (ereafterOR).  . Ann Fabian,he Unvarnised Trut: Personal Narratives in Nineteent-Cen- turyAmerica(Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, ), , .  . William Marvel, “Jonny Ransome’s Imagination,”Civil War History (Sept.

Prefaceix

ing a ranking of comparative suffering: “Wen te facts are known Caaba must go down in istory as worse in a great many respects 7 tan Andersonville or any oter military prison of te Confederacy.” Because of te legitimate concerns over te credibility of postwar narratives, te Adair diary offers a less distorted and more reliable interpretation of te prisoner-of-war experience.  his book is not a biograpy of Lyle Adair. he primary purpose ofhey Have Left Us Here to Diewas to transcribe Adair’s diary, add contextual annotations, and provide an analytical paradigm for inter- preting te Civil War prisoner-of-war experience. In Capter , I tried to reconstruct Adair’s military service prior to capture wit special attention to te controversial decision to enlist black troops and te experience of wite soldiers wo served wit tose freedom figters. Capters  troug  are te edited diary itself. Werever possible, footnoted annotations were used to eiter explain certain issues or situations or to compare Adair’s observations wit is fellow prison- ers or, in a few instances, wit tose of is captors. Furtermore, in order to understand te prisoner-of-war experience, one must also know te istory of te prison camps as well as teir surrounding communities. At te beginning of tese capters, a eadnote is pro- vided to elp te reader place Adair’s captivity experience witin te broader context of Confederate prisons as well as te Soutern ome front. he final capter, Capter , offers a systematic framework for reading prisoner-of-war accounts. By utilizing te seven captivity narrative event scenarios—precapture, capture, removal, landscape, resistance, release, and lament—te reader can avoid a fixation on suc mundane matters as descriptions of te weater and rations 8 and focus on te essential temes of te prisoner experience.

): . See also William B. Hesseltine, “he Propaganda Literature of Confeder- ate Prisons,Journal of Soutern History (Feb. ): –.  . Jesse Hawes,Caaba: A Story of Captive Boys in Blue(New York: Burr, ), .  . Robert C. Doyle,Voices from Captivity: Interpreting te American POW Nar- rative(Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, ), .