How Does On Track Non-Military POWs?

Gary Morgan

First Sergeant
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Joined
Aug 2, 2019
You would think I would know this, but I don't.

I've got a pretty good skills set when it comes to tracking prisoners of war, both Union and Confederate, as long as they served in the military, but how do you trace non-military POWs? I know that there were approximately 300 "citizen prisoners" at Andersonville, and that civilians were also held in political prisons for being too sympathetic toward the enemy, or because they were political prisoners, conscientious objectors, citizens employed by the Quartermasters Department and others all sometimes found themselves as prisoners of war.

Is there a way to trace these folks? Once in a while the Union widows would file for pensions, but it was always shot down, and most didn't even bother. Does anyone know of any other sources to trace non-military POWs?

Thanks!
 
You would think I would know this, but I don't.

I've got a pretty good skills set when it comes to tracking prisoners of war, both Union and Confederate, as long as they served in the military, but how do you trace non-military POWs? I know that there were approximately 300 "citizen prisoners" at Andersonville, and that civilians were also held in political prisons for being too sympathetic toward the enemy, or because they were political prisoners, conscientious objectors, citizens employed by the Quartermasters Department and others all sometimes found themselves as prisoners of war.

Is there a way to trace these folks? Once in a while the Union widows would file for pensions, but it was always shot down, and most didn't even bother. Does anyone know of any other sources to trace non-military POWs?

Thanks!
The one I have tracked was a Confederate QM employee, captured near Chambersburg. He was classified "QM Department, Maryland" and is found in the POW records 5 times before his death at Ft. Delaware. His name was Benjamin L. Jacobs.
 
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