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

1. Introduction

r 1 Introduction It has been nearly two years since I have seen you, and I suppose you have changed considerable since then. time makes a great many changes, and I hope it may not be long before I will be with you again. Wesley Makely to his daughter Lillie, December 27, 1864 Time does have a way of allowing for change. Captain Makely’s last note from prison to his little girl represented not only renewing the relationship with his daughter but also recognition that he too had been changed by the experiences of the past two years.1 Captain Wesley Makely, Company D, 18th Virginia Cavalry, arrived at Johnson’s Island Military Prison Depot days after being captured on July 8, 1863, near Hancock and Clear Spring, Maryland. On July 3 the 18th Virginia Cavalry , acting as rearguard for the Confederate Army, had retreated from Gettysburg to guard the wagon train into Virginia. They reached Williamsport , Maryland, on July 5, but weather stalled their attempts to cross the Potomac River. On the day of their capture Captain Makely and Company D of the 18th Virginia Cavalry were seeking provisions for their horses (Delauter 1985:8–10). This was the last time Captain Makely would be anywhere close to his home town or his military unit until after the war. Wesley Makely, described as six feet, one inch tall, fair-complexioned, with dark hair and gray eyes, was twenty-eight when he was captured (Delauter 1985). He had married Catherine (“Kate”) Appich and their first child, Mary Louise (“Lillie”) was two years old. As Wesley approached Block 1, his quarters on Johnson’s Island, on Saturday, July 18, 1863, he must have been worried for his wife, Kate, and young daughter , Lillie. Ten days following his capture, he was transformed from a leader defending his ideals and homeland to the ambiguous role of O ne 2 s I Fear I Shall Never Leave This Island prisoner-of-war hundreds of miles away from his family. He was among six hundred other officers captured during the fighting around Gettysburg who found themselves prisoners of the Union held at Johnson’s Island (Official Records, Armies, ser. 2, 8:991; hereafter cited as ORA). Wesley faced what all new prisoners-of-war faced, an unfamiliar role in an unfamiliar place. What was it going to be like to be a prisoner-of-war? What was life like on Johnson’s Island, in the North? How long until he would be exchanged? Would his family be able to communicate with him? Being a prisoner-of-war during the American Civil War was a plight full of unknowns. Both the Union and the Confederacy had to manage increasing numbers of captured soldiers. Many had served together before the war but now found themselves on opposite sides. A prisoner exchange system was developed early in the war to return prisoners to their homeland. Unfortunately, by May of 1863, exchange was no longer assured (Hesseltine 1930:96). In fact, few exchanges took place, and the prospect of being exchanged was slight. Thus prisoners like Captain Makely faced the reality of being a prisoner for an indefinite period of time unless they attempted to escape. The story of Kate’s and Wesley’s reactions to his imprisonment unfolds through their correspondence. Their frustration, pain, despair, suffering, struggle, and at times even their happiness are manifest in their letters. These are a firsthand account of life on the island, offering a picture of how lives are affected by war and by imprisonment. The prisoners at Johnson’s Island expressed a continual desire to hear from family and friends. The question of their return to the South through exchange was a constant source of frustration. This set of letters provides insight into the day-to-day struggle of imprisonment, a situation not unique to the American Civil War. Being institutionalized, and more specifically prisoners-of-war, forced those incarcerated to adapt to a restrictive way of life. The prisoners at Johnson’s Island must have felt the loss of all their freedoms. They were controlled in movement, limited in possessions, constrained in how they communicated with others (especially those outside the prison), and stripped of their military trappings. On the outside they Introduction r 3 would have felt in control of their destiny; inside, their fate was in the hands of their professed enemy. The goal of...