Camp Chase or Johnsons Island?

lelliott19

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Trying to help out another member @alan polk track down more info about his ancestor G W Cannon 1st Lieut and Ensign 35th MS Infantry.

In past research I have run across numerous records of Confederates who were captured and listed as POW at Camp Chase and a few listed at Johnsons Island. Reading more it seems these two prisons were connected? I have read that "most of the officers" were sent to Johnsons Island while the enlisted men were held at Camp Chase? Does that mean only Commissioned Officers? Would a man listed as 1st Lieut and Ensign have been held at Camp Case or Johnsons Island? Is there a way to know for sure? Would some of the prisoners have been received and paroled from Johnsons Island - even if they were held at Camp Chase?

Here is a link to @alan polk 's OP http://civilwartalk.com/threads/hel...-with-confederate-master.108605/#post-1030968
 
In the Unit I have been researching, 2nd Lieutenant Augustus Milledge Hartsfield of Company C, 4th Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters was captured at Missionary Ridge and was sent to Johnson's Island. So Lieutenants were certainly sent there. My opinion is that he probably was sent to Johnson's Island which was ONLY for officers.
 
In the Unit I have been researching, 2nd Lieutenant Augustus Milledge Hartsfield of Company C, 4th Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters was captured at Missionary Ridge and was sent to Johnson's Island. So Lieutenants were certainly sent there. My opinion is that he probably was sent to Johnson's Island which was ONLY for officers.
Kinda like that Blues. It is my understanding that Johnson's Island was for Officers. Of course, there are always a few exceptions.
 
The Adjutant of the 4th Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters John Richard Youree was wounded and captured at the Battle of Hoover's Gap on June 24, 1863. He was also sent to Johnson's Island. Only tree officers of the Battalion with the rank at or above Lieutenant were captured during the war, the other one besides the ones I have already mentioned was Captain Benjamin M. Turner of Company C...all tree were sent to Johnson's Island. So I figured Lieutenants were included. Conversely 1st Sergeant Thomas P. Larus of Company A was also wounded and captured at Hoover's Gap and he was sent to Camp Chase. So to me it seemed like Lieutenant was the cut off for Johnson's Island. I could be wrong though, Lieutenant Hartsfield could very well be the exception, not the rule.
 
Thanks for everyone's replies so far - very helpful! Are there others who can cite examples?

What about part 2 of the Q @William Bechmann? Do you know if prisoners were received and paroled from Johnsons Island - even if they were held at Camp Chase?
 
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IIRC, Camp Chase was designed to house Confederate officers only. After US Grant's victory at Fort Donnelson, Dover, Tennessee, Confederate enlisted were transported to Camp Chase just west of Columbus, Ohio. Over 2,000 Confederates died at this Union Prison.
 
Thanks for everyone's replies so far - very helpful! Are there others who can cite examples?

I believe Johnson's Island was a prison for officers.

A 2 x great-granduncle (maternal side) 3rd LT. Richard Copass Co E 60th Tn Infantry. Captured at Big Black River Bridge, Miss. May 17, 1863. Sent to Johnson's Island. He died there Aug.28th and is buried on the Island. Richard's brother John, a Private in Co.E was also captured the same day. He was sent to Fort Delaware, where he died on October 4, 1863.

A 2nd cousin, 4 x removed (paternal side) Captain Robert Houston Isbell, Co.D 1st Alabama Infantry. Captured July 9, 1863 at Port Hudson, La. He was a prisoner at Johnson's Island till March 21, 1865, when he was exchanged.
 
There is actually a pretty good book about Johnson's Island if you are interested:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0786444711/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

Awhile back, I managed to get in touch with a gg grandson of Augustus Milledge Hartsfield. He has a fairly fantastic story about his ancestors time at Johnson's Island, one that I wasn't sure I believed. I bought his story here to these forums and someone had this book and the book seems to suggest that the story could very well be true. The descendant has the officers sword of Lt. Hartsfield, the story was it was returned to him after his release from Johnson's Island. There is a also a charcoal portrait of Hartsfield that the descendant owns that was supposedly done while he was a prisoner at Johnson's Island. It certainly seemed to be a lot more luxurious than the other Prisons.
 
There is actually a pretty good book about Johnson's Island if you are interested:

http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Confederate-Johnsons-Island-Prison/dp/0786444711/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1421969743&sr=8-5&keywords=Johnson's Island

Awhile back, I managed to get in touch with a gg grandson of Augustus Milledge Hartsfield. He has a fairly fantastic story about his ancestors time at Johnson's Island, one that I wasn't sure I believed. I bought his story here to these forums and someone had this book and the book seems to suggest that the story could very well be true. The descendant has the officers sword of Lt. Hartsfield, the story was it was returned to him after his release from Johnson's Island. There is a also a charcoal portrait of Hartsfield that the descendant owns that was supposedly done while he was a prisoner at Johnson's Island. It certainly seemed to be a lot more luxurious than the other Prisons.

Several years ago on "History Detectives" (I think that was the program's title) an episode dealt with one of the prisoners putting together a "home-made" camera, and actually taking photos of some of his fellow P.O.W.'s.
 
Heidelburg University has done a great deal of work at Johnson's Island and they have an excellent website which even has the prisoner's names and what block (building) that they were housed in. www.johnsonsisland.org and http://johnsonsisland.heidelberg.edu/
I saw that but the list of prisoners they have compiled is not complete. None of three members of the 4th Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters that I mentioned above appear in the list. Most of men on the list appear to have been captured early in the war, I see a lot of Island No. 10's, Shiloh's, and Fort Donelson's.
 
Heidelburg University has done a great deal of work at Johnson's Island and they have an excellent website which even has the prisoner's names and what block (building) that they were housed in. www.johnsonsisland.org and http://johnsonsisland.heidelberg.edu/
I had no idea the "Island" was so small!!!
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Sketch of Prisoner of War Stockade made by prisoner for autograph book of Confederate Captain C. W. Fraser. http://www.johnsonsisland.org/imagePgs/index01.htm
 
I had no idea the "Island" was so small!!!
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Sketch of Prisoner of War Stockade made by prisoner for autograph book of Confederate Captain C. W. Fraser. http://www.johnsonsisland.org/imagePgs/index01.htm

Johnson's Island Prison during the war :

d521f941-380d-403b-8e0b-c8810a07724e?client=TreesUI&maxSide=500.jpg
 
LOL... it's not quite THAT small. It's about 300 acres. Though I have no doubt it'd have seemed smaller than that if one was stuck there with a few thousand of one's closest friends...
That's funny :bounce: I did assume that the sketch exaggerated the small size. But Im sure youre quite correct that it would have seemed like a postage stamp if you were confined in a POW stockade for more than a few hours.
 
I have ancestors who were confined at both camps. Johnson's Island was for officers. As pointed out above, there were always exceptions. When my ancestor was paroled from Camp Chase, he took the oath and was given a transportation voucher to get him back to Tennessee. Officers could cash checks at the Sutler's, but my enlisted ancestor had his money confiscated. A ledger book shows he was due $6.00 for that. There was even a system using Canadian banks to exchange Confederate dollars for US so the prisoner(s) could buy things. Enlisted men were given chit books to represent their money, and sometimes officers as well.

I doubt that anyone confined at Camp Chase would have to report to Johnson's Island to be processed out.
 
A sidebar to all this is the case of Col. (then captain) Reuben R. Ross. He commanded a battery of heavy guns at Fort Donelson. On his way to a POW camp after the fort was surrendered, he was spotted by his old friend Schofield, who took his gloves off and gave them to the freezing Ross. He then lobbied to have Ross released to his own home, near Clarksville, Tenn. While at home, Ross wrote many a letter urging that he be exchanged. Being required to report to St. Louis once a month, he aroused the suspicion of a guard, who insisted he open his baggage. Ross was carrying his pistols and some of his artillery kit, so he was arrested and sent to Camp Chase, not Johnson's Island. Transcripts of his interrogation survive. There are also some letters in the OR he sent to Gen. Halleck in DC, insisting that he had not violated his parole, and that he would be glad to travel to DC to explain that to Halleck in person. He had even purchased arms for a Confederate officer while en route to St. Louis, and had offered to escort some ladies to Richmond. He insisted that Halleck order his captors to release him and give him back all the arms and kit they had confiscated. No dice on the contraband, but they did release him. He then traveled to Richmond and testified to a CS congressional committee about why Donelson was surrendered. So, even though an officer, Ross was held at Camp Chase for two or three weeks in October 1862 before being exchanged. The guy had hutzpuh. Sadly, he was killed in Kentucky in 1864 at the same time the Battle of Nashville was being fought. He refused to surrender during a hand-to-hand fight when Union troops intercepted his raiders. Any number of stories show what nerve he had, not just in battle, but while using really wild cover stories during some of his espionage activities.
 
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