Civilian POWs

[debwallsmith]

A number of men listed as "civilians" were imprisoned at Andersonville and Millen/Camp Lawton. Is there a comprehensive list of civilians that were captured? Or a list of civilians assigned to regiments? I would be happy to share my list of Millen/Camp Lawton civilians if anyone were interested or could help with identifying them.

 

[Story]

From what I vaguely remember, oft times they were sutlers from units overrun. You *might* find their names on appointment letters at Regimental level, for whatever that's worth.

 

[debwallsmith]

From what I vaguely remember, oft times they were sutlers from units overrun. You *might* find their names on appointment letters at Regimental level, for whatever that's worth.

I have also found blacksmiths and teamsters listed. I suppose I will have to leave them as "unverified" in the database unless I can find incontrovertible proof of their presence at Millen. I shouldn't be disappointed as I have about 3900 men identified and verified.

 

[Gary Morgan]

A number of men listed as "civilians" were imprisoned at Andersonville and Millen/Camp Lawton. Is there a comprehensive list of civilians that were captured? Or a list of civilians assigned to regiments? I would be happy to share my list of Millen/Camp Lawton civilians if anyone were interested or could help with identifying them.

I sent you my two lists that I compiled - did they get there? One is non-military prisoners who died at Andersonville, so you can pretty much rule them out as having been at Millen; the other is non-military prisoners who survived Andersonville and I'm sure that at least some of them ended up at Millen. If memory serves, the two lists together add up to about 300 guys, or just .006% of the 45,000 prisoners held there.

Most were teamsters, but there were a few railroad workers and at least one telegraph operator. Farmers would sometimes sign on with the Quartermaster General to serve as teamsters during their winter months. Alas, if they died - at Andersonville or elsewhere - there was no provision and no pension for their families, leaving their widows and children in dire straights, indeed.

 

[debwallsmith]

I sent you my two lists that I compiled - did they get there? One is non-military prisoners who died at Andersonville, so you can pretty much rule them out as having been at Millen; the other is non-military prisoners who survived Andersonville and I'm sure that at least some of them ended up at Millen. If memory serves, the two lists together add up to about 300 guys, or just .006% of the 45,000 prisoners held there.

Most were teamsters, but there were a few railroad workers and at least one telegraph operator. Farmers would sometimes sign on with the Quartermaster General to serve as teamsters during their winter months. Alas, if they died - at Andersonville or elsewhere - there was no provision and no pension for their families, leaving their widows and children in dire straights, indeed.

Thanks, Gary. I received them. I appreciate your help.

 

[Bentonville]

Captured civilians. Can't make a dollar without a hassle sometimes.

Those teamsters, what percentage of them were African-Americans? I was wondering during as when the cartel broke down it was partially about reenslavement.

 

[Gary Morgan]

Captured civilians. Can't make a dollar without a hassle sometimes.

Those teamsters, what percentage of them were African-Americans? I was wondering during as when the cartel broke down it was partially about reenslavement.

As near as I can tell, none. The non-military prisoners weren't identified by race - technically, neither were the black prisoners, but you can sort off pick out the black prisoners by their regiments. And the 104 POWs who are identified as "negro," most of them were captured at Olustee and seem to have been scooped up from the make shift hospital following the battle. That was my sense after reading as many of their pension records as I could get my hands on.

There are very few accounts left by the black prisoners. Probably the best are the four who testified at the Wirz trial. They make no mention of anyone being given to a slave owner, and I think it would have been brought up in the trial if that had happened. All four mention a black prisoner who'd been sentenced to be whipped 500 times for refusing to work, although it was never completely carried out and that man's pension makes no mention of whipping scars in his medical report, but it does show other scars on the anatomical drawing that is somewhat irrelevantly known as "fig leaf guy."

The official stance when the first blacks were captured at James Island and Fort Wagner was that they should be treated like any other prisoner, and the ones at the Wirz trial said that they were. Although I can't think of any white prisoners who were whipped (or sentenced to be whipped), they were also reported to have been pretty brutally punished by things like being hung by their thumbs, "head hanging," and being places in the stocks with no shelter from the sun. There was a proclamation that captured "escaped slaves" should be returned to their "owners," but as near as I can tell, that never happened to any of the black prisoners who ended up at Andersonville.