Parole Forms for Vicksburg

DixieRifles

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Someone asked me a question that I would like to find an answer. In their ancestor's records is a parole form that was signed. The form is PRINTED with Vicksburg and the date line as " ____ July 1863".
Q: Were these Parole Form printed on-site just for the Vicksburg prisoners?

A secondary question involves those soldiers who were exchanged. I know many were exchanged in time to fight at Lookout Mountain. Did they sign a form? I wouldn't think so as I don't recall seeing one in any service records. But I'm not sure now.
 
These forms were printed in Vicksburg and there are several different ones. Most Vicksburg CS troops signed them. The ones that didn't went to a Union prison. Once the soldiers signed these they were sent to parole camps until exchanged. Many were here in Demopolis where they spent the winter regrouping. They left here in March of 1864 to join the CS Army in Tennessee.
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Someone asked me a question that I would like to find an answer. In their ancestor's records is a parole form that was signed. The form is PRINTED with Vicksburg and the date line as " ____ July 1863".
Q: Were these Parole Form printed on-site just for the Vicksburg prisoners?

I'm curious about that too - did Grant have a printing press - and printers - shipped to Vicksburg during the siege? Use a local print shop after capturing the town? Somehow the Union army had thousands of forms available with days of the surrender - with the July date.
 
Grant commandeered every printing press in town to print parole forms
 
These forms were printed in Vicksburg and there are several different ones. Most Vicksburg CS troops signed them. The ones that didn't went to a Union prison. Once the soldiers signed these they were sent to parole camps until exchanged. Many were here in Demopolis where they spent the winter regrouping. They left here in March of 1864 to join the CS Army in Tennessee.
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In the days following the surrender, before the paper work was completed, the soldiers probably got some decent bread and a piece of pork. Some decided to refuse parole. Some made plans to walk south and cross the river. Others began to see that the difference between a slave and a conscript was not that big, and the slave had some advantages.
 
Southern Mississippi had its worse summer and fall of resistance. If Grant had been in control, the US would operated against Mobile to support the resistance to Confederate rule. Most resistance groups in the Confederacy were eventually crushed, until late in 1864.
 
I'm curious about that too - did Grant have a printing press - and printers - shipped to Vicksburg during the siege? Use a local print shop after capturing the town? Somehow the Union army had thousands of forms available with days of the surrender - with the July date.
Grant commandeered every printing press in town to print parole forms
Grant's army also had its own presses and printers on hand to print all the other various forms on which any army exists. Of course the Vicksburg newspapers were all out of regular newsprint thanks to the blockade created by the siege, and had either ceased publication or famously substituted wallpaper for newsprint. One of those wallpaper editions was found ready to print by Union soldiers who printed it as is, but adding a notice that the city had been captured.
 
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This is one dated and produced at the end of the war. No specific date and not location. I have seen lots of these. This makes sense because almost every soldier had to sign one of these.
Clover Hill Tavern at Appomattox Court House NHP above has an interesting display of how the paroles were printed there using the Army of the Potomac's traveling presses. One room has been furnished as it probably looked while the printing was in progress; note the freshly-printed forms hung up on cords stretched across the room to dry like so much laundry:

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A case nearby contains some of the actual paroles printed and issued here:
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Say and think what you will about Grant, but in this case he was a pretty smart cookie; by paroling the Confederates, he didn't have to feed, transport or house them-he made the Confederacy do that and it still took them out of the War for months.
 
Grant's army also had its own presses and printers on hand to print all the other various forms on which any army exists.

I tend to believe that Grant's Army had their own presses and printers AND paper than they used captured Confederate equipment in Vicksburg. During the siege, Vicksburg ran out of paper. There are examples of newspapers printed on wall paper but I think these were not necessarily from Vicksburg.
Also, I imagine that it would be easy to order forms printed in either Memphis or New Orleans and within 2 days have them at the dock in Vicksburg.
 
Someone asked me a question that I would like to find an answer. In their ancestor's records is a parole form that was signed. The form is PRINTED with Vicksburg and the date line as " ____ July 1863".
Q: Were these Parole Form printed on-site just for the Vicksburg prisoners?

A secondary question involves those soldiers who were exchanged. I know many were exchanged in time to fight at Lookout Mountain. Did they sign a form? I wouldn't think so as I don't recall seeing one in any service records. But I'm not sure now.
Hello, this is a copy of my 2nd great grandfather's parole paper.

Surrender.jpg
 
In comparing the two Vicksburg copies, one can see suttle differences. One form has A.D. in the date line and other does not. To me that would indicate they were printed at different presses.
 
Welcome to the forums from the host of the Stonewall Jackson Forum! Did your G-G Grandfather return to service following his parole, and if so do you know what happened to him?

This is strictly rumor but he supposedly ended up at Fort Humbug. They fashioned charred logs to look like cannon. He made it home and lived out his life in Oakdale, Allen Parish, Louisiana. The copy of his diary that I have is mostly about his experience of mundane camp life.
 
These forms were printed in Vicksburg and there are several different ones. Most Vicksburg CS troops signed them. The ones that didn't went to a Union prison. Once the soldiers signed these they were sent to parole camps until exchanged. Many were here in Demopolis where they spent the winter regrouping. They left here in March of 1864 to join the CS Army in Tennessee.
View attachment 315865
same unit as 3rd great grandfather see above photo of the 30th Alabama
 
Do we have any reason to believe that there is a significant amount of Parole Forms missing from the records available online?

I have always wondered this as I have been unable to find records for my gggrandfather and his brothers. My grandfather is not to hard to understand as he was wounded in June and may have been taken away from Vicksburg before the surrender (another great mystery for me). But his brothers I cant figure out as they went on to fight the remainder of the war. This is one of my may long term projects to sort this out.
 
Do we have any reason to believe that there is a significant amount of Parole Forms missing from the records available online?

I have always wondered this as I have been unable to find records for my gggrandfather and his brothers. My grandfather is not to hard to understand as he was wounded in June and may have been taken away from Vicksburg before the surrender (another great mystery for me). But his brothers I cant figure out as they went on to fight the remainder of the war. This is one of my may long term projects to sort this out.

Didn't know if you had this: https://www.nps.gov/vick/learn/historyculture/confederate-parole-records-index.htm

You might want to check the spellings. I had an ancestor names SIMMONS the Yankees spelled it. SCIENOUSE!!!
 
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