Libby Prison, August 1863

[Mike Serpa]

I don't know if this has been posted before. It claims to be "the only picture in existence," but I seems to me I have seen others.
View attachment 74059
Courtesy USMHM.

This view of Libby prison was taken by [Charles R.] Rees in August of 1863. It is one of only two wartime images of the prison known to exist. The four men in the foreground are William D. Turner, Erasmus Ross, prison clerk, Richard Turner, jailor and Thomas Turner, Commandant. Later postwar views show the walls whitewashed. This was done to better detect escapees against the white background.
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/old-libby-prison-building-richmond-va.93287/

 

[redst3]

Why, it looks a charming place! Perhaps we'll book a room when the kids are back from Camp Douglas.

Beautiful view of the cesspool in the center of the camp...Great medical care!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I'd like to see that source (Thos. Rose, or whatever). The only one I've read, Prison Life in the Tobacco Warehouse at Richmond (printed in 1862) describes the warehouse at the very beginning of its use as a prison. I'be been researching several men who were captured at Ball's Bluff, in Oct. 1861, and sent there -- all were paroled by June '62.

jno

Ah HA, and it cost me an entire evening, being in the midst of the printed eBook. Do NOT go there without 4 days to kill, a backpack full of freeze dried rations, a cooler full of er, never mind and your bed roll. And 3 dogs.
It's Rose's extensive sage although I've included another, briefer one. AND it's an Open Library, we may use it,.

First, found some delightful stuff, so thrilled couldn't get to sleep last night. This stuff gets to me.

Then, diagram with key

I guess what the sign originally said, had no idea!

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18765?msg=welcome_stranger#fig022

Had another, Microsoft kindly swiped my laptop this morning and removed a file I had with links glued there. Makes me a little crazy.

 

[John Hartwell]

Thanks for the reference, Annie. I didn't mean to keep you up all night looking for it! I hadn't seen that book.

btw: There is a lot of newspaper and other coverage on the "Great Escape" at Civil War Richmond.

jno

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Thanks for the reference, Annie. I didn't mean to keep you up all night looking for it! I hadn't seen that book.

btw: There is a lot of newspaper and other coverage on the "Great Escape" at Civil War Richmond.

jno

Ha! Not at all, I'm very happy to have found Project Gutenburg has a text copy- mine's in audio so a mess to bookmark. Libby is yet another point of interest, always looking for information. The Great Escape has fascinated me since we first crossed paths year ago- what a story! Gutenburg gives permission to use theirs as long as you publish their name and agreements and do not charge for it. The audio charged a LOT of money for it.

In your travels and digging, if you ever come across any information on Howard Prison/Hospital, I think NUmber 9 ( not certain ) in Richmond, right down the hill from Libby, let me know? It's where my grgrgrandfaather's brother was held, a civilian captured after Bull Run. Van Lew rescued him while sick with typhoid, took him to the Van Lew mansion- he died anyway but at least died in a home in a bed, not on a pile of straw and a piece of fabric. Howard is referred to as a hospital from what I've found so far, Van Lew rescued him from a prison and others captured with him were there. Perhaps early in the war Howard functioned as one thing, became another later.

Someone must have snitched about my uncle- honestly suspect one of his own. He'd made good his escape , suddenly found himself searched for intently. He had trustingly gone to view the battle with a political rival, Alfred Ely who was captured the day before. What better way to ensure one's rival is also out of the way than to ensure he is captured also- he was a law partner to Seward, had been his student and had just been Lincoln's pick to go settle things in Costa Roca. Ely had to have given the word to the Confederate who it was who was out there somewhere, in fact was accused of it by all of Rochestor,
NY.

'Scuse, rambling. Richmond, Libby- Civil War, always does this. Elizabeth had him buried in the family plot ( according to her own journal ). That was the beginning of the war. By war's end the family lost 3 sons altogether, Lincoln was dead, Seward, who they counted on was almost dead, I think2 brothers in law perished- Calvin is still there, unmarked. 1861, Richmond, marking a Yankee grave? OH no. Anyway, The family never really recovered and there was just no one to recover his body. Van Lew is buried standing up because her family plot ran out of room. Bet if she was not such a generous soul there would be room.