Taking prisoners

[gary]

Has there ever been a study that examined when soldiers took prisoners or when they just shot them instead?

Setting aside race relations and the Fort Pillow Massacre, most accounts that I've read involving "white" soldiers, they were willing to accept prisoners but in a few cases, they either refused to accept their surrender or finished them off.

Gary,

I am unaware of any specific study. I think though in many quarters during that war, the taking of prisoners was desired over the killing of them. It was a pride and morale issue. Also, during the prisoner exchange period, they were quite valuable.

I think as with any war, you had those who killed when they shouldn’t have. Just as you had those who stopped them. I think the arena the war was fought was a primary factor as well.

On a personal note, just after the Battle of the Bulge, my father stopped the killing of a captured Hitler Youth. He did it basically by dint of saying if you kill him I will kill you. And meaning it. Yet he also made issue of there are times you just cannot take prisoners for various reasons. Also many prisoners were led off and just out of sight there would be the sound of a shot, when the guard returned, a casual shrug and deadpan claim he tried to escape.

Yet on the whole, I think during the Civil War, both sides took prisoners. I am a bit mentally challenged today but I recall (hopefully I‘m right) A.P. Hill’s Light Division had over run a Union retreat, capturing an officer whom Hill was acquainted. The Officer come running up to Hill pleading not to let his men kill him. To which Hill replied “**** it man, we are not barbarians” then ordered him to safety in the rear.

YMOS
tommy

Correction. It was Col. Mayo of the 47th Virginia under Hill who received the plea from Gen McCall and gave the angry reply that his soldiers were not barbarians.

(Message edited by aphillbilly on October 24, 2003)

[tamaroa]

Gary,

If you have access to the O.R. (Official Records of the War of the Rebellion) there is an entire section devoted to prisoners of war. Some of the reports are pretty horrible. I read one of a Confederate soldier who arose in the middle of the night to use the chamber pot, he went to dump the contents out of the window of the shack and was killed by a Union sentry.

Bill

[gary]

Thanks guys.

For clarification, I'm interested in battlefield conditions and not PoW camp settings. I've read plenty about Confederate prisoners or Union prisoners being shot for crossing the "dead line" or attempting to escape or even if the guard had a bad hair day.

[tamaroa]

I'll check my copy when I get home, however, I believe it includes ANY correspondence regarding POW's not just those in camps. I could be wrong but I'll check :-)

BD

[johan_steele]

Sharpshooters had a tough time of it and often weren't taken prisoners. When elements of 1st USSS captured a large batch of CSA sharpshooters there was general relief that they were captured by fellow sharpshooters as other troops might not have given them the opportunity.

At Chickamaugua (I swear I never spell that the same way twice) Confederate troops bayoneted the wounded of a Regular Army Battery when they overran the position... (within sight of their Brigade Commander) of coarse there were better than three hundred Confederate dead and wounded in front of the battery.

The Regulars of the John Kings Brigade nearly refused to take one officer prisoner (he had been their commanding officer in Texas prior to the war) as it was they were intent on trying him for treason. Though this was thwarted by Gen King.

It was generally a pretty touchy few minutes when troops tried to surender. A lot of it often had to do with how hard they had just fought. It's kind of hard to take prisoner the man who might have just killed your best friend.

Surrendering is an act that is woefully underused in reenactments. Surrenders were common place and often quite brutally received.

There are numerous examples of troops not being allowed to surrender or the wounded executed, in particular black troops. The bayoneting of wounded troops wasn't terribly uncommon, though many considered it a Coup de gras instead of murder. The same was true of cannoneers who had ran themselves out of ammunition. Men who had glass bullets in their cartridge boxes were all but guaranteed a rope or a firing party. Guerillas had a tough time of it as well, especially those w/ poor reputations. And God help the pro Union guerrilla that tried to surrender in East TN or other parts of the CSA.

The activities of pro Union guerrillas is an aspect of the War that I have only recently read anything about. Of all the CSA I think only Texas handled the situation of pro Union men w/ any modicum of sense... though quite a few were hanged even in Texas.

Officers were actively sought as prisoners because of their worth in priosoner exchanges. Surgeons would be pulled from hospitals and sent to the rear as prisoners leaving the hospitals w/out surgeons resulting in countless deaths that might otherwise have been avoided.

All in all the taking of prisoners has never been easily accomplished. Americans certainly don't hjold the record for mistreatment of POW's... that dubious honor would probably have to rest w/ the Japanese, Germans & Russians in WW2.

(Message edited by johan steele on October 24, 2003)

[gary]

I've read about the 3rd Arkansas being captured by the Berdan Sharpshooters at Devil's Den. "They begged lustily" were the words as I recall from Stevens. Specifically, anybody have any cites where sharpshooters were killed on the spot? BTW, apart from specialized guns (globe sighted rifles or scopes) or uniforms (Green for Berdan or bucktail if one considers them as sharpshooters), how did a soldier distinguish a sharpshooter from a regular infantryman who fought well?

Regarding the killing of "colored" troops, I've seen enough accounts of that along with one Confederate account of where a "colored" soldier was trying to shoot him and he hid behind a Union guard until he spotted a fellow Mason who was an officer. He called the officer over, threw a Mason sign and complained hoping that the officer who send the colored soldier away. The officer became outraged, pulled out his revolver and unsatisfied with pistol-whipping the colored soldier, shot him as he ran.

Now, the "glass" bullet business. I haven't read of that. Where did it come from (please cite source).

Finally, regarding officers, I've read one account where a Union officer discarded anything identifying him as such and gave his rank as a sergeant. He knew he could get paroled a lot faster and use this deception for a quicker return. Sometimes it's better to be an average guy.

[tamaroa]

WHAT WAS I THINKING . I completely forgot about this guy. Richard Smith, 95th New York, from my home town of Haverstraw, New York. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for CAPTURING 2 officers and 20 men of Hagood's Brigade at Weldon RR, in August, 1864. What did he do with 22 men??? Here is his citation:

SMITH, RICHARD

Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 95th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Weldon Railroad, Va., 21 August 1864. Entered service at: Haverstraw, Rockland County, N.Y. Birth: Haverstraw, Rockland County, N.Y. Date of issue: 13 March 1865. Citation: Captured 2 officers and 20 men of Hagood's brigade while they were endeavoring to make their way back through the woods.


(Message edited by Tamaroa on October 26, 2003)

[johan_steele]

The glass bullet issue is in common w/ carving an X into the point of bullets so they would expand further. I have read many accounts referencing Sgt's telling men not to carve an X in their bullets. I'm not certain but the glass bullet issue seemed to be more of an issue in the eastern theatre though I have seen references to them in the west as well. For some reason I can't recall seeing refernce to glass bullets except w/ Confederate use, though I'm certain both sides used them on occasion. At Vicksburg an Iowa Regiment made it clear to a unit in the opposing trenches that if they found another glass ball in their paraphet their would be no option of surrender.


Carving an X in bullets was quite common, though frowned upon as a bit muderous. It was particularly common w/ Spencer Carbines & rifles as their reputation as for poor knockdown power was well known. It seems to have been a more common practice among western men.

Civil War Guns by Edwards mentions glass bullets and exploding bullets as well in passing. Though I have read accounts of NCO's & men going through prisoners knapsacks & cartridge boxes in search of bullets that had been tampered w/ from several different sources.

[johan_steele]

Another note on this subject is the battle of Shiloh... apparently after a Regiment of Iowa troops had surrendered and had been disarmed after the Hornets Nest surrender they were fired into by a Regiment of Louisiana troops. "The Tennesee troops who were guarding us stopped the murder only by interjecting their own bodies in front of the leveled guns." An unnamed Private of the 14th Iowa after his exchange.

Also; "We found perhaps a score of tents in Prentiss's camp burned... they contained the bodies of men who had been sick, many suffering from dysentery, and thus unable to escape the burning tents. They had burned to death. There was ample evidence that the rebels started the fires, purposefully burning these men alive." Shiloh After Action report from the Regulars of Buells command. I don't know what was meant by ample evidence, I'm not certain I want to know.

"We came across four bodies of our cavalry this morning, they had been shot in the back at close range. They had been robbed and their boots had been stripped from their bodies. The ambulance, and its passengers, they had been escorting was found a half dozen rods further down the road still smoldering. The teamster and a hospital steward had been hanged from a nearby tree... apparently after having been tortured. The wounded men in the ambulance had been burned alive.

The men of the regiment are furious and I fear their actions if we are ordered to guard prisoners." Capt of a Regular Inf Company during the Atlanta campaign.

These items come from a batch of letters and After Action Reports I'm wading through.

(Message edited by johan steele on December 28, 2003)