Secrets of Confederate Military Prisons

 Confederate military prisons in Richmond became notorious during the Civil War. 

Libby prison was for Union officers.  It was considered second only to Andersonville Prison in Georgia as hell on earth.  Prisoners suffered from disease, malnutrition and a high mortality rate. By 1863, one thousand prisoners were crowded into the prison which had been a warehouse before the war.

According to the Daily Richmond Enquirer of February 2, 1864 “Libby takes in the captured Federals by scores, but lets none out; they are huddled up and jammed into every nook and corner; at the bathing troughs, around the cooking stoves, everywhere there is a wrangling, jostling crowd; at night the floor of every room they occupy in the building is covered, every square inch of it….”

Castle Thunder

A tobacco warehouse before the war, Castle Thunder was converted into a prison to house spies, political prisoners and traitors to the Confederacy.  The prison guards had a reputation for brutality.

On April 10, 1864, Dr. Mary Walker, a female Union surgeon, was taken prisoner by Confederate soldiers and accused of being a spy.  She was imprisoned at Castle Thunder.  Mary Walker spent six months as a prisoner, during which she wrote numerous letters to the press describing the horrible conditions at the prison.  She complained that her mattress was infested with insects, rats ran throughout the prison at night and food rations were meager and inedible. 

Dr. Mary Walker

Later in life Walker complained a guard had fired at her while she stood in the doorway to her cell, just narrowly missing her head.  Both the Confederate and Union armies were desperate for physicians, and on August 12, 1864, Dr. Walker was exchanged for a male physician, a Confederate major.

Belle Isle

Richmond’s Belle Isle, lying in the James River, served as a prison for Union soldiers. The prison housed more than 30,000 prisoners during the course of the war.  Some 1,000 of these prisoners died.  Prisoners were housed in tents surrounded by a stockade.

Belle Isle prison held 10,000 Union soldiers, with tents for only 3,000. With no barracks for the prisoners, exposure to the elements was a large factor contributing to a cruel captivity.

In February 1864, Confederate authorities began to evacuate Belle Isle, sending its inmates south to Andersonville, Georgia; to relieve overcrowding in Richmond. By October 1864, all of Belle Isle’s inmates had been transferred south and the prison was closed. 

Captain Henry Wirz

The Commandant of Belle Isle, Captain Henry Wirz, became the Commandant at Andersonville and was hanged after the war for his treatment of prisoners at Andersonville.

The Commandants of Libby Prison and Castle Thunder fled abroad fearing a similar fate.