Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16004, Confederate prison camps narratives, Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was a purchase from Beltrone & Company by the Small Special Collection Library at the Univesity of Virginia

Scope and Contents

Confederate prison camps narratives, 1864 September-1865, February 27, totaling 0.03 cubic feet, in which prisoners of war describe their experience in captivity because "no doubt some of our citizens would like to hear how prisoners of war are treated." There is a sixteen-page account that describes the prisoner's transportation in overcrowded freight cars without food or drink from Belle Isle, Richmond, Virginia to Salisbury, North Carolina, their time in captivity, escape plans, sleeping and eating conditions, and their release six months later. Also mentioned is Libby Prison, Danville, Virginia, and the death of Colonel William C. Raulston. There are also accounts on hand-written torn scraps of paper with descriptions of being robbed of all their possessions by Dick Turner, votes counted for Lincoln and McClellan, meals, treatment of 64 colored men, men being shot, scariness of seeing their own coffins, calculation of about 30 deaths in October, receipt of hardly any mail and know that their families think they are dead, escape plots, gambling and "rattling of dice was heard from morning until night" but some received sermons every day.