Andersonville Heroes
By Jessica Gray – Curator
prisoner and died under Confederate control.
There also exists online the invaluable resource “A List of The Union Soldiers Buried at Andersonville,” in part compiled by the efforts of famous nurse, Clara Barton. The list of names is organized by state, and Illinois’ list of dead is 5 pages long.
the Confederate forces from that position. Unfortunately, that is not what happened:
Working at a museum affords one the interesting opportunity to tell untold stories, or rather, unearth stories that have been forgotten – this is one. In the Museum’s collections is a newspaper clipping dated May 30, 1865 from the Chicago Tribune with the headline “The Andersonville Martyrs: List of Illinois Troops Who Starved in Prison at Andersonville, Ga., from March 7, 1864 to January 1, 1865.” “Prison” is a loose term – Andersonville was a 26.5 acre walled camp with minimal shelter, contaminated water, and rampant disease. 45,000 Union prisoners were held there; 12,920 died and were buried in a cemetery just outside its walls.
I was surprised to see in the article the names of nine men from Bureau County who served in the Ninety-Third Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The book History of the Ninety-Third Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, written by Aaron Dunbar of Dover and Harvey Trimble of Princeton, is a treasure trove of information. It extensively details the regiment’s movements throughout the war and lists every man and what happened to him, including whether he was taken
It is from these sources the following list was compiled: Pvt. Michael Batdorf, Neponset, Co. H, died Aug. 3, 1864, fever; Sgt. David Bear, Dover, Co. B, died Aug. 23, 1864, scorbutus; Corp. William Coddington, Dover, Co. I, died May 18, 1864, dysentery; Pvt. Thomas Craig, Princeton, Co. K, died Sept. 30, 1864, scorbutus; Pvt. Delos W. Darling, Princeton, Co. B, died June 10, 1864, scorbutus; Corp. Howard D. Gibbons, Clarion Twp., Co. K, died May 27, 1864, diarrhea; Pvt. Thomas B. Mason, Ohio, Co. B, died May 3, 1864, dysentery; Pvt. Michael McMahon, Arispie Twp., Co. E, died Aug. 4, 1864, diarrhea; Corp. John Nelson, Walnut, Co. K, died Sept. 22, 1864, scorbutus.
Scorbutus is a Civil War-era medical term for scurvy, a lack of Vitamin C. Victims experienced weakness in their limbs; their hamstrings contracted, drawing up the legs so the sufferer could not walk, while their legs and feet swelled. Sores appeared all over their body, their mouth and gums became tender. If they had any wounds received in battle, they did not heal well. In short, it was a miserable death.
Interestingly, the nine men were captured on the same day— November 25, 1863 at the Battle of Mission Ridge, Tennessee. What happened on that day?
From the History of the Ninety-Third, in the accounting of the battle, the 45,000 Confederate forces on the crest of Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain greeted the 60,000 federal soldiers who sought to claim it.
The brigade of the Ninety-Third Illinois on the left, the Tenth and Fifth of Iowa in the center, and the TwentySixth of Missouri on the right, were ordered to cross an open field and move approximately halfway up the Ridge to a white house and rail fence, where they were to stop and engage
“The line advanced… and then began the ascent of the Ridge. Under a deadly fire, the line of the white house and rail fence was reached— and passed—and on and up, and still on, and still up, without halting, that bleeding brigade still climbed and rose and fought its way to the very crest of the Ridge, nay, to the very jaws of certain death, to the very summit of those embattled heights blood-red with flames of fire from hostile guns and swept by shot and shell and fairly trembling beneath the surges of the conflict. And there, within twenty paces of the enemy’s lines, with only the very crest of the mountain between, baptized in blood, and falling and dying here and there and everywhere, for two hours and a half, the battle is maintained. It was a most desperate struggle, if not a useless one. Why the brigade went up to that position, exceeding its orders, was never very clearly told.” (Dunbar/ Trimble, 67).
In fact, General Ulysses S. Grant, from his position on nearby Orchard Knob, observed the brigade pass the line of the white house and move up the Ridge. He reportedly exclaimed “Who ordered that? Who ordered that? They cannot go up there!” (Dunbar/Trimble, 67) and then later, watching the fight through his viewing glass said, “When those fellows get started, all hell can’t stop them.” (The Fight for Chattanooga, Jerry Korn, 145.)
They fought in an area known as Tunnel Hill where Colonel Holden Putnam of Freeport, commander of the Ninety-Third, was shot in the head on horseback while reaching for the flag to rally his men onward. This battle-scarred flag is in the collection of the Museum. It was brought home December 24, 1863 by Lt. Col N.C. Buswell of Neponset who led the regiment after Putnam’s death. The Battle of Mission Ridge was eventually won by the Union, but the Ninety-Third paid a steep toll: 20 killed, 8 mortally wounded, 20 missing who died in prison or were never heard from again, 41 wounded, not mortally, and 8 missing who returned. The total loss
was 97 while 293 went into the battle. (Dunbar/Trimble, 78).
Beginning in 1861 to mid-1863, both the Union and Confederacy participated in a parole exchange system for neither had the means for housing large numbers of captured troops. A paroled prisoner promised not to fight again until his name was “exchanged” for a similar man on the other side. The exchange system collapsed in mid1863 when the Confederacy refused to treat Black prisoners the same as white prisoners, claiming they were likely ex-slaves who ought to be returned to their slave masters, rather than the Union Army. As a result, from 1863 to late 1864, the number of prisoners held on each side rose dramatically.
It is at this point, a few months after the exchange system collapsed, that the fates of the captured men of the Ninety-Third were held in the balance.
Andersonville Prison first accepted prisoners February 24, 1864. The men from the Ninety-Third were captured three months before, which means they were held elsewhere before being transferred to Andersonville, but where?
The list of dead at Andersonville tells one story, but there were men, very few, who survived that infamous place, one being George White of Princeton. White enlisted Aug. 15, 1862 with the 93rd, Co. K, and was captured at Mission Ridge. In the Museum’s collection are White’s prisoner of war medals and his two journals, wherein lies the clue.
One of White’s final journal entries, written in Princeton January 18, 1898, states: “was taken prisoner… and was taken to Belle Island prison Richmond Va and starved through the winter of 1863 and 1864. Was taken to Andersonville Prison early in the spring of 1864 and was parolled [sic] Nov. 20, 1864.”
Belle Isle was a 54-acre island located in the James River in Richmond. It
was meant to be a temporary solution for housing prisoners so no actual structures were built. Although its intended capacity was 3,000, there were only 300 prisoner tents for shelter, with ten men to a tent. At its peak, 10,000 men were held there.
Likely White and his comrades in the Ninety-Third were all kept together, and were all first sent to Belle Isle prison. According to prison records provided by the National Park Service, during the cold winter of 1863 up to fourteen people froze to death each night.
Almost 1,000 died at Belle Isle during its 18 months of operation. It is here that Conrad Bode of Buda of the 93rd, Co. C, died February 1, 1864, of unknown causes, although dysentery, typhoid, pneumonia, and smallpox took most men. Bode is buried there in an unmarked grave.
In early February 1864, Belle Isle closed and all its prisoners, including the nine men from the Ninety-Third, were relocated to Andersonville. According to the National Park Service, “The men who left Belle Isle were dirty, poorly clothed, and almost all of them weighed less than 100 pounds.”
All nine would be dead by the end of September 1864.
And still the list of prisoners of war from Bureau County is not complete. Pvt. James Daley, Neponset, Co. H, captured at Mission Ridge, died Dec. 17, 1863, at an unknown prison somewhere in Atlanta from wounds received in battle.
Pvt. James Gibson, Clarion Twp., Co. K; Pvt. Charles P. Johnson, Princeton, Co. K; and Pvt. Michael McCarthy, Arispie Twp., Co. E, were all captured Oct. 5, 1864 at Allatoona, Ga., and all were thought to have died in prison, location unknown.
Pvt. Nathan Lathrop, Manlius, Co. C, was lucky. Although captured by Confederate forces, he survived, though the prison where he was held is unknown. He mustered out June 23, 1865 and his last known address was New Bedford.
Lewis J. Listener, Berlin Twp., Co. B, captured at Mission Ridge, survived in prison nearly five months before dying April 10, 1864, somewhere in Richmond. The firm stance against prisoner exchanges was softened between the Confederacy and the Union in late 1864. As a result, two men from Princeton
were released from Confederate custody during this time only to face the same fate.
Pvt. Edgar Phillips of the 93rd, Co. K, was captured at Mission Ridge, and outlived his comrades at Andersonville, but only by a few months. He died Dec. 26, 1864, shortly after he was exchanged.
Pvt. David R. Reynolds of the 93rd, Co. I, was captured Sept. 3, 1864 near Allatoona, Ga., while on a foraging expedition under orders for that purpose. He was released on exchange March 15, 1865, only to immediately die at Annapolis, Md., where he’s buried. After cross-checking the list of 3,117 names from the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Princeton to the list of dead at Andersonville, four more names were found, though as yet it is unknown where and when they were captured.
Recruit William Boles, Neponset, 89th IL Inf., Co. E, died Sept. 27, 1864, scorbutus; Pvt. Osley A. Booream, Princeton, 64th IL Inf., Co. B, died July 7, 1864, diarrhea. In a particularly poignant detail, Cal D. Edwards, Berlin Twp., 51st IL Inf., Co. K, and Charles A. Farnham, Mineral, 51st IL Inf., Co. D, died on the same exact day—August 7, 1864—of the same cause, dysentery. This here ends the list of prisoners of war from Bureau Count—23 men —that we know of. There were no known records of prisoner names kept at Belle Isle, or at the 32 major Confederate prisons located throughout the South. It is to be noted however, the Confederacy was not alone in its harrowing prison camps—there were at least 13 Union prison camps, the worst of which was Camp Douglas in Chicago. 26,000 Confederate prisoners were held there and 4,000 died, mostly of starvation, execution, or exposure. All told, around 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the war, accounting for 10 percent of all Civil War fatalities.
John McElroy, prisoner of war for 15 months, wrote in his book Andersonville the following words, which today carry the force of all those who died in prison on both sides of the line: “The country has heard much of the heroism and sacrifices of those loyal youths who fell on the field of battle; but it has heard little of the still greater number who died in prison pen. It knows full well how grandly her sons met death… and but little of the sublime firmness with which they endured unto the death, all that the ingenious cruelty of their foes could inflict upon them while in captivity.”