Confederate Non-Soldier POW Question

[Bryan_C]

Someone told me recenly that a Confederate ancestor of his- a politician, and not a soldier- was captured in 1861 and not released until 1865. I found this odd, because of the prisoner exchanges that took place early in the war (before then end of prisoner exchanges over the refusal to exchange Confederates for USCT soldiers). Anyway, I'm really wondering if a politician was actually a POW (held at Camp Chase) during the entire war.

 

[RedRover]

Someone told me recenly that a Confederate ancestor of his- a politician, and not a soldier- was captured in 1861 and not released until 1865. I found this odd, because of the prisoner exchanges that took place early in the war (before then end of prisoner exchanges over the refusal to exchange Confederates for USCT soldiers). Anyway, I'm really wondering if a politician was actually a POW (held at Camp Chase) during the entire war.

Civilian prisoners in US military custody were not included in the Prisoner exchanges between the US and Confederate authorities generally because they were not "belligerent" combatants related to the civil war as recognized by the US Government.

The United States did not recognize the Confederate civil authorities as any kind of Political government, but to the extent of its resistance to the United States an insurrectionary combination, etc. Given the scale of the situation, after mid-August, 1861, the entire inhabitants of the Southern States under Confederate sway were declared in insurrection against the laws of the Union, etc., until the conclusion of the conflict (unless the persons subscribed to the oath of allegiance, etc. in the mean time) and the Presidential proclamations of 1866 declaring a conclusion to that insurrection.

The US, however, did concede a recognition of belligerent status upon the Confederate military forces, 1861-1865, as in civil war generally, and the US Government consequently treated with the Confederate military authorities, including the subject of Prisoner of war exchanges.

Civilian non-combatants arrested by US military authorities were sometimes sent to the military prisons for incarceration, and a large number were held at Camp Chase and many of the other military facilities in the North generally holding P.O.W.'s. For example, Lucious Desha of the Kentucky legislature was arrested and held at Camp Chase for several months in 1862-63 for his pro-Confederate sympathies.

During 1863 Congress passed an act requiring that civilian or political prisoners arrested by the authority of the President "otherwise than of prisoners of war" be referred to the civil courts for charges, etc. or released after a certain period of time...

In 1863, Judge Advocate Holt reported his understanding that the 1863 act had no particular bearing upon persons, even civilian, arrested for military rather than strictly political violations, or who were imprisoned upon the decisions of military tribunals...

By 1865 the Secretary of War stated he was having all such arrests investigated to see if they were subject to the March, 1863 act requiring release to the civil courts, etc.

 

[Trooper "D"]

Someone told me recenly that a Confederate ancestor of his- a politician, and not a soldier- was captured in 1861 and not released until 1865. I found this odd, because of the prisoner exchanges that took place early in the war (before then end of prisoner exchanges over the refusal to exchange Confederates for USCT soldiers). Anyway, I'm really wondering if a politician was actually a POW (held at Camp Chase) during the entire war.

Ol' Honest Abe suspended Habeus Corpus and arrested many. The Maryland legislature was partly imprisoned because there was a good chance that the pro secession members would have been able to pass secession for the state of Maryland.
Abe arrested newspaper publishers who were not in agreement with the administration policies as well. People were escorted to the Southern borderlines and forced to travel Southbound out of Yankeedom for the duration.
Good Ol' Abe. Made war on the citizens of his own United States since he didn't recognize the Confederacy as legitimate. Death and devastation to all unfortunate enough to be in the path of the Yankee hordes, no matter what sympathies they held.

 

[lupaglupa]

I've occasionally seen civilians listed in camp records. Most references I've seen have been in court records.

 

[Bryan_C]

Ol' Honest Abe suspended Habeus Corpus and arrested many. The Maryland legislature was partly imprisoned because there was a good chance that the pro secession members would have been able to pass secession for the state of Maryland.
Abe arrested newspaper publishers who were not in agreement with the administration policies as well. People were escorted to the Southern borderlines and forced to travel Southbound out of Yankeedom for the duration.
Good Ol' Abe. Made war on the citizens of his own United States since he didn't recognize the Confederacy as legitimate. Death and devastation to all unfortunate enough to be in the path of the Yankee hordes, no matter what sympathies they held.

I like what "good ol' Abe" said- those who deny freedom to others don't deserve it for themselves. And I'm not certain about that "good chance" of voting for secession by the Maryland legislature.

 

[Trooper "D"]

I like what "good ol' Abe" said- those who deny freedom to others don't deserve it for themselves. And I'm not certain about that "good chance" of voting for secession by the Maryland legislature.

Funny, slavery was constitutionally protected throughout the war. One would think Ol' Abe would have pushed for full emancipation early on with quotes like that. Quotes such a that while invading and devastating an entire region of the country in order to keep that region from leaving by their own self determination. Gee, who wouldn't want to be part of that? That was the War of Secession. Keeping free people from separating peacefully. Stupid war that didn't have to happen. Hotheads on both sides forced that conflict into being.
All that aside, I was just informing you of civilians being incarcerated which you had touched upon with the POW/Civilian commentary.
If Maryland's secession was not a worry, then why lock up anybody at all? Why suspend Habeus Corpus?
The sad thing about all that is that Lincoln destroyed the U.S. in trying to preserve the Union.

 

[Bryan_C]

Funny, slavery was constitutionally protected throughout the war. One would think Ol' Abe would have pushed for full emancipation early on with quotes like that. Quotes such a that while invading and devastating an entire region of the country in order to keep that region from leaving by their own self determination. Gee, who wouldn't want to be part of that? That was the War of Secession. Keeping free people from separating peacefully. Stupid war that didn't have to happen. Hotheads on both sides forced that conflict into being.
All that aside, I was just informing you of civilians being incarcerated which you had touched upon with the POW/Civilian commentary.
If Maryland's secession was not a worry, then why lock up anybody at all? Why suspend Habeus Corpus?
The sad thing about all that is that Lincoln destroyed the U.S. in trying to preserve the Union.

Yes, you did inform me of something that I already knew about- prisoners of war who were not soldiers. But then you took it a step further and went into a list of President Lincoln's "sins," which, from what you're saying, mortally wounded this country. The Lincoln Haters Club was more than I asked for.

Anyway, I highly recommend the book Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes. The book answers the question some people have: If the war was about abolishing slavery, why wasn't the Emancipation Proclamation issued when the conflict started, instead of months later? Freedom National highlights all of the efforts made to destroy slavery before and after the EP, including General Ben Butler's brilliant precedent-setting "contranband of war" in May 1861; the First Confiscation Act, July 1861; Lincoln's presentation to Congress to compensate all enslavers, as the cost of 4 million enslaved people would be cheaper than the daily cost of the war; DC Emancipation, April 1862; and the Second Confiscation Act, July 1862. All of this occurred before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. And while this was happening, not only was the Fugitive Slave Act becoming more and more powerless, it came to the place that Union soldiers faced punishment for not helping freedom-seekers towrds their goals. In andy case, most understood destroying slavery one person at a time weakened the Confederacy.

You sound pretty locked in on your beliefs, so I don't expect you to read the book, and maybe you won't even read this far into my reply. But that's OK, because I'm writing this for anyone else who reads this and might be interested.

 

[lupaglupa]

This thread is straying off topic - discussions of slavery belong in that forum, not here.

 

[leftyhunter]

Ol' Honest Abe suspended Habeus Corpus and arrested many. The Maryland legislature was partly imprisoned because there was a good chance that the pro secession members would have been able to pass secession for the state of Maryland.
Abe arrested newspaper publishers who were not in agreement with the administration policies as well. People were escorted to the Southern borderlines and forced to travel Southbound out of Yankeedom for the duration.
Good Ol' Abe. Made war on the citizens of his own United States since he didn't recognize the Confederacy as legitimate. Death and devastation to all unfortunate enough to be in the path of the Yankee hordes, no matter what sympathies they held.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0813918944?tag=civilwartalkc-20
Except President Davis also incarcerated at least four thousand civilian prisoners during the ACW. During a civil war legal niceties aren't always going to be scrupulosity upheld.
Leftyhunter