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2 “A very inconvenient and expensive problem” The search for new Prisons “everybody is asking, ‘What is to be done with the prisoners?’” According to the RichmondWhig of August 5, 1861, that was the burning question on the minds of residents of the Confederate capital. Answers ranged from sending them farther south to releasing the “better behaved” to go home, relate their experiences, and “frighten away others.” some suggested that yankee shoemakers be required to “earn their grub” by turning out footwear for southern soldiers. Although the specific recommendations varied, everyone seemed to agree that something had to be done. As the Examiner noted on september 7, “few are fully aware of the trouble, care and annoyance which their safekeeping devolves upon those entrusted with that duty.” evidently those officials agreed. on october 5 huger asked what he was to do with fifty prisoners, taken from a federal steamer, he was holding in norfolk. Adjutant and inspector General samuel Cooper pleaded with him to retain them. “We are too much crowded here already,” Cooper explained.1 By then Winder and Benjamin had begun to take steps to relieve the crowding, seeking states that would accept a few of their surplus prisoners. Their luck was decidedly mixed, but officials in a handful of states each agreed to take a handful of prisoners. on september 10 Capt. Gibbs left Richmond with the first detachment , a group of 150 prisoners bound for Charleston. Among them was Dr. Gray, who termed the first leg of the trip, to nearby Petersburg, “a pleasant ride.” There the group changed trains. The prisoners spent the night at Weldon, north Carolina, crowded into a single room that was “almost stifling.” Gibbs paroled the officers to the limits of the community. They rushed to secure hotel rooms and enjoyed “good beds which few had known for months.” The train reached Wilmington the next night, but everyone had to remain on the freight cars. “God for- 16 • Chapter 2 give the cowards guilty of such an outrage,” Gray wrote.They arrived at florence, south Carolina, at about 8:00 on the night of september 12, changed trains, and continued on to Charleston.2 The train bearing its human cargo pulled into Charleston at about 5:45 on the morning of the 13th.The local press had informed the populace that the yankees, “including the redoubtable Col. Corcoran,” were on their way. The early hour, however, precluded a large crowd. After debarking from the train, the prisoners formed into two columns. surrounding them were nearly a dozen guard outfits, including local militia and a company of louisiana soldiers that had accompanied them from Richmond. “They all wear uniforms,” the Charleston Mercury wrote of the prisoners, “although some of these are in a somewhat dilapidated condition.” The Mercury added, “When they first arrived they were generally taciturn, but during the day became communicative, in some instances, even loquacious.”The paper was pleased with their good behavior. “A Richmond paper had mentioned these prisoners as having been ‘selected chiefly from among those who had evinced the most insolent and insubordinate disposition,’ but their deportment . . . was generally as orderly as could be desired.”3 The prisoners marched about a mile and a half to the local jail. This was to be their temporary home until Castle Pinckney could be prepared for their reception . Gray was among a group of thirty-four officers locked up in a corridor he described simply as “pretty hard.” The prisoners received no rations until noon. They consisted of “an insufficient quantity of crackers, sugar, poor coffee & fried bacon.” in the evening more crackers arrived, along with some rice. Gray slept “tolerably well” his first night despite being pestered by mosquitoes. The rations remained about the same during the captives’ brief stay at the jail. The one bright spot was the opportunity to exercise in the jail yard.4 on september 18 the prisoners boarded the steamer Cecile for the short trip to Castle Pinckney. located on the southern tip of a small island in Charleston harbor, Castle Pinckney had been built in 1809. it was named for Charleston native and federalist politician Charles C. Pinckney, George Washington’s minister to france and a two-time presidential candidate. According to the Mercury, the prisoners “seemed highly delighted” with the facility.This may have been stretching things, but Chaplain eddy found the castle superior to the prisons of Richmond . “our condition is much improved here,” he informed his wife. “We have plenty...

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