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Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [folder], Alfred S. Roe Report, 1865, Ms2023-108, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Source of Acquisition

The Alfred S. Roe Report was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in September 2017.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Alfred S. Roe Report was completed in September 2023.

Biographical Note

Alfred Seelye Roe was born to Rev. Austin Marinus Roe and Polly Catherine Seeyle on June 8, 1844, in Rose, Wayne County, New York. Roe was a school teacher when the American Civil War broke out. He enlisted on January 21, 1864, as a private in Company A, 9th New York Heavy Artillery, in the Union Army. On July 15, 1864, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war, primarily at Danville, Virginia, until February 1865. He transferred to Company L of the 2nd New York Heavy Artillery on June 27, 1865.

Following the war, Roe graduated from Wesleyan University in 1870 and returned to teaching, eventually becoming a high school principal in Massachusetts. He served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1892 to 1898. Roe also wrote and published on history topics.

Roe married Nora Ardelia Metcalf (1856-1910) on June 22, 1874, and they had four children. He passed away on January 6, 1917, in Worcester.

Source:

U. S. Federal Census, 1850-1910

"Alfred Seelye Roe", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101366456/roe , accessed February 17, 2025.

"Alfred Seelye Roe" in the U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1555/records/3157475 , accessed February 17, 2025.

Alfred Seelye Roe, The Ninth New York Heavy Artillery , Worcester, Mass.: Published by the Author, 1899, pp. 432-434, available online from Google Books at https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Ninth_New_York_Heavy_Artillery/waXJe-MEzXgC , accessed February 17, 2025.

Alfred S. Roe Civil War papers, 1862-1865, 1891-1892, Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA, https://archives.wesleyan.edu/repositories/2/resources/44 , accessed February 17, 2025.

Alfred Seelye Roe Papers, Worcester Historical Museum Archives, Worcester, Massachusetts, https://worcesterhistorical.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/roe-alfred-seelye-papers-1978.52.5.pdf , accessed February 17, 2025.

Scope and Content

This 1865 report by Alfred S. Roe details his experience as a prisoner of war (POW) during the American Civil War. The document is a questionnaire from the Office of War Prisoners' Division of the New York Bureau of Military Record. The first section asks numerous questions about Roe's capture and general experience as a Union POW in Confederate prisons, primarily at Danville, Virginia. The second section contains a letter from Roe addressed to Colonel A. J. H. Duganne, Historian of U. S. Prisoners of War for the Office of War Prisoners' Division. In this letter, Roe goes into more detail about the treatment and conditions that he and the other POWs faced during their confinement.

The collection also includes a transcription of the letter.

Related Material

Learn more about Alfred S. Roe and other places that have collections at the SNAC Cooperative.

See the following collections for more on Alfred S. Roe:

Alfred S. Roe Civil War papers, 1862-1865, 1891-1892, at Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University

Alfred Seelye Roe Papers, 1978.52.5, at the Worcester Historical Museum Archives

Alfred Seelye Roe, Papers, 1883?-1915, at the American Antiquarian Society Manuscript Collections

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the Alfred S. Roe Report by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).