I Fear I Shall Never Leave This Island: Life in a Civil War Prison

3. Where Is Your Letter?: (August 16–December 13, 1863)

r 17 Where IsY our Letter? (August 16–December 13, 1863) The Col. wrote to me telling me that you were not wounded but nobody knew where you were so you may know what a relief it was to get your letter. Catherine Makely to Wesley, August 18, 1863 Not knowing the fate of loved ones enlisted in the military during the Civil War must have been unbearable. Were they sick, dead, wounded, suffering? How was one to find out? Information in local newspapers was always a few days behind what was actually happening, and certainly the specific individuals of interest would not be covered. Those at home depended on letters from anyone remotely connected to a loved one’s military unit. In the army, letters from anyone in a family’s county or region might shed light on how parents, wife, or children were faring. Nothing better illustrates this point than Kate’s letter written to Wesley on August 18, 1863. In it she states, “I received your letter of the 22 of July you cannot imagin[e] the pleasure it gave me. The Col. wrote to me telling me that you were not wounded but nobody knew where you were so you may know what a relief it was to get your letter.” He was captured on July 8, ended up at Johnson’s Island on July 18, wrote his first letter to Kate on July 22, and she finally received the news on or just before August 18, a total of six weeks after he was captured. How unsettled thousands of families must have felt after the carnage of Gettysburg. Thousands died, thousands were injured, and thousands more were taken prisoner. As the papers reported on the immense battles , families must have been stricken with fear that loved ones were lost. How would they ever know? Some never did learn exactly what had happened. Many others did not find out the fate of a father, brother, or T hree 18 s I Fear I Shall Never Leave This Island son for weeks or months. Hospitalization or travel between temporary prison sites may have prevented a letter being sent immediately. Compounding the uncertainties, once a letter was received, it was usually short and gave only the barest of facts. If the writer was sick, the recipients were left wondering how sick. How long had he been sick? Was he getting better? Should they go to visit him? Getting answers to such questions would require even greater lengths of time. Prisoners at Johnson’s Island had several means of receiving news from the home front. A rush took place every time new prisoners arrived , inmates seeking news from their hometowns or recent battle updates . Newspapers were provided daily to paying prisoners, but they were northern papers. Prisoners suspected the northern newspapers were biased and wished to hear firsthand how things fared for the Confederacy . Newly arrived prisoners might also be able to provide more personal information about someone’s relatives. The most treasured means of receiving news from family and friends was to receive it by mail. For a prisoner to send mail back to his family in the South, the letter had to have Union as well as Confederate postage, or a due bill for the postage. Letters coming to the prison had to have the 3-cent 1861 U.S. stamp. Letters traveling between the Union and the Confederacy typically went by flag of truce to Old Point Comfort, Virginia (Fortress Monroe ), at which point they would be transferred by flag of truce boats to the Confederate postal system in Richmond, Virginia (Walske and Trepel 2008:70–73). Letters were limited in size to one page and required the full signature of the writer. Postage to Richmond would require an additional 5-cent Confederate stamp, and beyond Richmond another 5 cents. One prisoner’s description to his wife of how to send a letter back to him clearly explains the procedure: Ellen write your letter and put the United State Stamp on the envelop and then put a Confederate Stamp on another envelope put the United States envelope inside of the confederate envelope direct your confederate envelop to Hon. Robt. Ould Commissioner of Exchange Richmond Va. and on the United States envelope direct to M. C. Ready Prisoner of war Johnson’s Island, Ohio. Put Where Is Your Letter? (August 16–December 13, 1863) r...