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Preferred Citation:

Memories of Rebel Prisons, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Scope and Contents

Bound manuscript titled "Memories of Rebel Prisons".  Contains a list of Union prisoners from the Civil War kept in the Confederate prisons of 'Castle Thunder' and 'Libby' in Richmond, Virginia and a prison in Salisbury, North Carolina.  A memorandum written by Joshua Harris Aubin dated May 14, 1940 reads, "The first thirty pages are in hand writing of Captain W.B. Galucia (1834- 1902), after that in my hand-writing although I cannot recall when or in what circumstances."

Galucia's writing contains a list of enlisted men at 'Castle Thunder', July 3, 1862. He also describes life in the prison and the abysmal conditions suffered by those under Confederate guard.  Later the soldiers were moved to Belle Isle to make room for civilian prisoners.  Many soldiers died after that move as a result of their conditions, provisions, and treatment.  Galacia and surviving prisoners were paroled in late 1862.

The volume continues with Aubin's transcription of almost 500 more names, including rank, regiment, and outcome of Union prisoners.  Aubin also transcribed portions of a diary written by F. Hall, who was imprisoned in November 1864 as was held at 'Libby' prison in Richmond, Virginia and a prison in Salisbury, North Carolina until his death in the prison hospital December 30, 1864.  Aubin also transcribed an article by Lieutenant G. Duncan Forsyth titled "Life in Libby Prison, Another Officer's Experience" from the Toledo Blade newspaper November 1863.  Forsyth served with the 100th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Forsyth gives an account of the squalid conditions and scant provisions provided to the prisoners.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Richmond (Va.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Diaries
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865