Parole

[cw1865]

Can anybody explain the capture and parole rule?

What happens? The soldier has the parole and gets to go home? Who tells him when he's been exchanged?

It just seems so odd compared to WWII POWs....

 

[Will Posey]

My Confederate great-great grandfather was paroled at Vicksburg. He went home to Tennessee and just stayed there for the rest of the war.

 

[gary]

After captured, the enemy could release you on parole. Essentially you gave your word that you would not take up arms against them until you were exchanged and if you were caught violating parole, you could be shot. You were then freed to return to your own lines and some men returned home until notified by their regiments that they were exchanged. Others went to a parole camp where they waited for word that they were exchanged. The advantage to the enemy of paroling a PoW is that they didn't have to feed you and they got their own man back in return.

BTW Will Posey, hats off to your relative. I would have stayed home too!

 

[ole]

CW:

Depends on when. Early in the war there was an understanding that if you got captured, you might be released on parole and expected to stay out of the fight until someone on the other side got captured and was swapped for you. Then, somehow, someone got ahold of you and called for you to come back. What a paperwork nightmare!

Later in the war, if you were Union at least, they honored the parole by holding parolees in camps...even sometimes in prison camps.

And later still, paroles and exchanges were stopped altogether. It makes an entire study in and by itself. I believe this has been quite thoroughly discussed previously and, if you search "parole" and "exchange," you will find several hours of earlier discussions on the subject. If, after wading through all that, you still have questions, there is no doubt that you will be sorry you ever asked.

ole

 

[whitworth]

Confederate "Parole"

Some of those Vicksburg "paroles" never got paroled and got killed and captured later in the war.

Some Confederate "paroles" occurred to cavalry soldiers. The Confederacy rarely supplied horses and a lost horse had to be supplied by the individual cavalryman. Some cavalrymen went home to find a horse; some never came back.

 

[richard]

I wonder if the western theater was more lax in late '64 than in the east. Example: When Forrest made his Middle Tennessee raid in September of 64, most of the officers that were captured in Athens, Sulphur Trestle, and at the Elk river were exchanged in December. On the other hand, the enlisted men were held in Cahaba till April and sent to an exchange camp near Vicksburg and then loaded on to the Sultana and other steam ships. It does seem intresting that the officers were exchanged but not the enlisted men.

 

[gary]

One of the Civil War magazines had an article about the parole of Col. Patton of Virginia. Apparently, he was given his parole and returned home and waited to be exchanged. He was then called back to his regiment but when he learned that he had not been exchanged, was infuriated and refused to fight. His reasoning was that he gave his word of honor not to fight and to be tricked into fighting by the Confederacy was an affront. Patton felt his word was more important than the need of his services to the Confederacy and simply refused to participate until he was properly exchanged.

 

[Will Posey]

BTW Will Posey, hats off to your relative. I would have stayed home too!

Having survived Vicksburg, he cut his losses by staying home. I'm glad he did because he didn't become a father until after the war.

 

[samgrant]

It does seem intresting that the officers were exchanged but not the enlisted men.

I think that is very interesting, and wonder if anyone has any evidence that officers were more likely to be exchanged than enlisted men.