Libby Prison records

[Allyn]

My apologies if this has already been asked and answered. Has anyone worked with Union POW records at the National Archives? I have been looking through the NARA catalog, and some items seem promising. Is there useful material about individual prisoners? I know when and where the man I am searching for was captured, and when he arrived at Libby Prison, and when he was paroled, but nothing more about his stay there. He was in bad shape when he was released, don't know if he was ever hospitalized. He was briefly at College Green Barracks, and then Camp Parole. Would I find additional pertinent information about him in the NARA POW records?

 

[Gary Morgan]

Step One: Do a web search for the man's name and the words "Libby Prison." It's a bit of a long shot, but sometimes he or another prisoner wrote about his time there.

Step Two: If you don't have his pension records, see if there's one available. Pension records often include affadavits from either the man himself or by his fellow prisoners, which may contain information about his time as a POW. Going by the information you list, I assume that you have his Compiled Military Service Record, which will include a "Memorandum from Prisoner of War Records" form. The pension records tend to have more genealogical records with information about the individual as opposed to a compilation of information found in regimental files.

Step Three: Libby was sort of a campus with more than one building. Try searching for him with the words "Pemberton" or "Crews/Crewes," particularly if he was an enlisted man and not an officer.

Step Four: If you can't find anything more on his individual experiences, look for general books on Libby - there are quite a few prison memoirs written by men (Usually officers) who were held there. My favorite - mostly because he wrote about the sailors I was looking for, is the unlikely book "The Story of a Strange Career; Being the Autobiography of a Convict" by Anonymous. There's a snivelling intro by a prison official named Stanley Waterloo - a post war prison official, not one at Libby - warning the reader that the author is liar and not to be trusted, but when he wrote about Libby, I found him to be pretty accurate. Just don't believe him when he says he won a fortune in a South American Lottery; he was definitely lying on that one! I'd recommend searching for "Libby Prison" and "Internet Archives" to see what you get. It's a good way to read old, first person, out or print books for free.

If you want, you can post the man's name and regiment here and see if anyone knows anything about him. We tend to be a helpful lot. I know a bit about Libby, but am much better at Andersonville.

 

[Allyn]

Thanks for replying. David Conrad, 12th PA Cav., Co. L, captured while on picket at Charlestown, VA, 29 Nov. 1864, arrived at Libby 7 Dec. 1864; paroled 15 Feb. 1865. Got home, but had consumption, died at the age of 24 at his parents' home, did not leave any reminiscences of his time as a POW. His mother applied for a pension, and I have those records. I am so glad you mentioned "Crews." That shows up on the Memorandum, which merely confused me. What does that tell me?

He apparently was captured along with four others, but I don't know their names. I had thought I might try to see if any of them left letters or memoirs. He was captured by a group led by George Baylor, and I have found his slightly snarky memoir, Bull Run To Bull Run: Or Four Years In The Army Of Northern Virginia, Containing a Detailed Account of the Career and Adventures of the Baylor Light Horse, Company B, Twelfth Virginia Cavalry, CSA, with Leaves from My Scrap-Book. Also reading Leather and Steel, by Maier.

 

[2ndUSCavDescendant]

My apologies if this has already been asked and answered. Has anyone worked with Union POW records at the National Archives? I have been looking through the NARA catalog, and some items seem promising. Is there useful material about individual prisoners? I know when and where the man I am searching for was captured, and when he arrived at Libby Prison, and when he was paroled, but nothing more about his stay there. He was in bad shape when he was released, don't know if he was ever hospitalized. He was briefly at College Green Barracks, and then Camp Parole. Would I find additional pertinent information about him in the NARA POW records?

My apologies if this has already been asked and answered. Has anyone worked with Union POW records at the National Archives? I have been looking through the NARA catalog, and some items seem promising. Is there useful material about individual prisoners? I know when and where the man I am searching for was captured, and when he arrived at Libby Prison, and when he was paroled, but nothing more about his stay there. He was in bad shape when he was released, don't know if he was ever hospitalized. He was briefly at College Green Barracks, and then Camp Parole. Would I find additional pertinent information about him in the NARA POW records?

Hello again!

if you email NARA 1 (Washington DC) and tell them what you know and what you are looking for (in this case, more information and details on your relatives time as a POW) and ask if they can help point you in the right direction, they will give you some suggestions. You can either pay them to search and pull the records for you (if they find anything) or you can see about hiring someone who does record retrivial or genealogy at NARA 1.

Hope this helps!

 

[DorwinBlack]

Step Four: If you can't find anything more on his individual experiences, look for general books on Libby - there are quite a few prison memoirs written by men (Usually officers) who were held there. My favorite - mostly because he wrote about the sailors I was looking for, is the unlikely book "The Story of a Strange Career; Being the Autobiography of a Convict" by Anonymous.

One of my favorites is "Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons; a personal experience" by Homer B. Sprague, for a few reasons:

- It covers the relevant time period when my ancestor was imprisoned (1864-1865).
- Goes into detail about the march up the Shenandoah Valley and transfer by rail to Richmond in late 1864, as well as the process of being checked in at Libby.
- Despite being an officer, he was actually shipped further South to other Confederate prisons including Salisbury. He provides many fascinating details about Salisbury prison in late 1864.

 

[DorwinBlack]

Regarding "Pemberton/Crews", that was an additional brick tobacco factory in Richmond that was used to house prisoners after Libby became too crowded. Apparently it was used as a hospital as well:

Crew & Pemberton's Warehouse*

Civil War Richmond is an online research project by Mike Gorman about Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War.

www.civilwarrichmond.com

1862-05-12, Richmond Dispatch; Libby so crowded, Secretary of War authorizes use of Crew & Pemberton

Civil War Richmond is an online research project by Mike Gorman about Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War.

www.civilwarrichmond.com