Behind Wooden Gates. The stories of Civil War Prison Camps in Illinois

04/15/2022

This photo reportedly shows three soldiers of the 49th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, captured at Franklin, Tennessee in November 1864 and imprisoned at Camp Douglas, Illinois. The soldiers have been identified as Charles H. Bailey of Company A (left), Eddie Reed (middle), and Charles G. Shanklin of Company A (right).

02/14/2022

Pvt JFG Hutcheson, Co G, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry and wife Emily.

He was captured on Morgan’s Ohio Raid in July 1863. He was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio and transferred later to Camp Douglas, Illinois. He was held there until February 1865 when he was transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland and exchanged. He rejoined what was left of his unit and was present when it disbanded in May 1865 near Unionville, South Carolina.

On his pension application he wrote: “Never surrendered. Was disbanded. Genr’l (Basil) Duke told us to get home best we could.”
JFG was from Paulding Co., Georgia and rests in the Allgood Methodist Cemetery near Dallas, Georgia.

01/15/2022

The headstone of John Hatcher Neblett in Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville will hopefully get cleaned in the spring. Neblett was a native of Montgomery County but sometime prior to the Civil War relocated to Mississippi. When hostilities broke out, Neblett enlisted in the 34th Mississippi Infantry. He was captured at Lookout Mountain in 1863 and transported to Rock Island, Illinois as a POW. He was paroled on March 20, 1865. He returned to Clarksville after the war where he married and lived out his life. He died on February 16, 1897 at the age of 53 after a two year struggle with consumption. He was a member of the Methodist Church and the Order of Odd Fellows.

12/16/2021

Belford Duke Smith was a native of Todd County, Kentucky and enlisted in Company B of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry at the age of 17.

He was captured in Ohio with many of John Hunt Morgan’s men and imprisoned at Camp Douglas until February of 1865. He returned to the Hadensville community in Todd County after the war where he farmed.

Sometime prior to 1900 he relocated to the Peacher’s Mill area of Montgomery County. He died in June of 1901 after a months long battle with erysipelas (bacterial skin infection). He was a member of Forbes Bivouac and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

12/09/2021

A new addition for the museum. 1910 postcard with the G.A.R., Memorial building in Aurora, Illinois.

12/09/2021

John Hartwell Balthrop was a member of C company of the 49th Tennessee Infantry Regiment. He enlisted in November 1861 in Springfield, Tennessee and was soon a prisoner of war after the surrender of Fort Donelson. He spent approximately 6 months at Camp Douglas in Chicago. Following exchange, Balthrop and C company saw action at Port Hudson, Mississippi, Mobile Bay, Alabama, Dalton, Georgia and Peach Tree Creek, Georgia where Balthrop was wounded in the right thigh. His leg was amputated on July 20, 1864 and Balthrop spent the remainder of the war in hospitals in Cuthbert and Macon, Georgia. He was paroled at Macon on May 16, 1865.

Following the war, Balthrop taught school in Montgomery and Robertson counties, was Postmaster at Henrietta, Tennessee and worked in the mercantile business. He was a member of First Baptist Church and of Forbes Bivouac. Balthrop died on January 27, 1929 after being ill with pneumonia for several weeks. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville.

11/29/2021

Thomas Dade Luckett was a native of Jefferson County, Kentucky and journeyed south to Trenton, Kentucky in early 1863 to join John Hunt Morgan’s 3rd Kentucky Cavalry. He was captured at Buffington Island, Ohio on July 19, 1863 with most of Morgan’s men and incarcerated at Camp Douglas, Illinois until February 1865 when he was transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland to be exchanged. He briefly returned to his unit following exchange. He was surrendered at wars end at Washington, Georgia on May 7, 1865. Luckett relocated to Clarksville in 1875 and formed a partnership with fellow veteran Lewis Rogers Clark in the to***co business. He was married to Maria Gracey, sister of Frank P. Gracey. He was a member of Forbes Bivouac and of Trinity Episcopal Church. Luckett died on May 24, 1913 from the effects of a stroke and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

11/27/2021

Pvt. Alexander Duval Cooper and Pvt. Samuel Gwin Cooper, Company C, 3rd Tennessee Infantry (Clack's).

Alexander's military record includes just one page, noting that he died at home on 10 July 1861. Samuel was captured when Fort Donelson, Tennessee capitulated to Federal forces in February 1862. He died on April 25th, 1862 while being held as a POW at Camp Douglas, Illinois.

09/08/2021

Behind Wooden Gates has been working hard to raise money for relics and items for the museum. I am currently in the final stages of the legal aspect of things and the 501c standing for the museum. I've been able to get some great items for the museum and have my eyes on other items as well. It has been a long road to get to this point but I am extremely close. Before, I had started the donation process with a GoFundMe page, which is still active. Through very generous people who believe in this project, I was able to purchase items for the museum. Words cannot express how blessed I am for those who have helped me thus far. To help the donation process even more, Behind Wooden Gates now has a PayPal account. If you'd like to donate, click the link below. As I stated with the GoFundMe page, ALL donations go direction to acquiring more relics for the museum. I also realized this is by far easier than the GoFundMe page as donations are instantly available. So, if you'd like to help, click the link below. Again, I'd like to thank everyone who has donated to this great project thus far and be on the lookout for other Behind Wooden Gates updates.

Respectfully,

Matt Evans
Owner/Operator of Behind Wooden Gates LLC.

Go to paypal.me/BehindWoodenGates and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

08/12/2021

“I wondered what caused all of this fearful mortality….Was it starvation, neglect and cruelty? God alone knows.”

Camp Douglas

Pt. 48

Did the prisoners eat a dog? A small terrier owned by Lt. Joel A. Fife was often seen in Prisoner’s Square.

“This dog is a great favorite and pet of the prisoners,” according to accounts, “but one day the cooks in one of the barracks entice the dog into their kitchen, kill and dress it nicely, and cook it; then invite quite a number of other prisoners to dine with them, as they had a rare dish for dinner--they ate the dog and drank the soup.”

Fife posted a reward notice for the dog’s return and someone wrote under it,

“For lack of bread the dog is dead, For want of meat the dog was eat.”

Private J.M. Berry added, “we also ate all the rats we could catch. No doubt many died after the war from disease contracted on account of these things. I have written the foregoing in no spirit of ill will, but simply to state facts. It will not be long until we shall all pass under review in a better world than this. I am now sixty-three years old and am crippled and helpless.”

Eating the dog may have been for revenge more than hunger. Lieutenant Fife commanded patrols who made life miserable and interviewed men who wished to take the oath. Sweet soon discovered the gourmets and stopped their rations. They scattered among the rest of the prisoners who fed them. The poet was never found. Despite the hunger, Sweet was anxious for prisoners to look presentable to inspectors. On June 12th, 1864, he issued shoes, dark blue woolen pants, gray jackets or coats, high crowned gray hats, cotton drawers, woolen shorts, and a few socks. Sweet made sure that Prisoner’s Square did not fall into disrepair and heavy drafting of prisoners to dig ditches, level off the ground, grade streets, and repair barracks continued. Colonel De Land had never seemed able to address these problems.

The identical appearance of barracks became a source of hilarity as the prisoners often entered the wrong one and they soon numbered them with black paint. However, the men turned on each other more often as hope of exchange faded. Arguments and fights were common by the summer of 1864. Something as trifling as a rusty plate set off a battle. Others intervened quickly, because no one wanted a repeat of the McCarney stabbing. Continuing barrack changes caused tension over bunks. The men raced to new quarters because leaking roofs made top bunks the worst. Cold floors affected the bottom bunk, leaving the second tier as their choice. They discussed putting a stop to this “devil take the hindmost” mentality by drawing new bunks by lot. Nothing came of it.

One prisoner named Jerry Murphy refused to sleep with anyone and the other men tolerated him, although this meant less bunk space for the others. One night he came back from the sink and found someone in what he thought was his bunk. His roar of anger awakened everyone, only Jerry had wandered into the wrong barrack. The laughter could almost be heard in Chicago, as he retreated very apologetically. Miraculously, he was not shot.

M. Evans
Owner/Operator of Behind Wooden Gates LLC

08/07/2021

A little Saturday history on Camp Douglas for you to enjoy.

07/20/2021

“I wondered what caused all of this fearful mortality….Was it starvation, neglect and cruelty? God alone knows.”

Camp Douglas

Pt. 46

Even with reduced rations, Colonel Strong required that each barrack furnish a work detail of six men for the day,

“Two to bring water and cut wood for the kitchen, two to keep the barrack and street in front well swept, two to carry out the waste water.”

Families could send food packages, including clothing and to***co. The guard took a handful of ci**rs when Confederate prisoner Burke received a box at the express office. Inspectors usually snatched something for themselves. Otherwise, everything was there: a gray jacket and vest, socks, soap, crackers, marbles, and two novels.

Confederate prisoner Burke saw John T. Shanks from his regiment working in the express office when he picked up his package. Shanks may have been a spy for Colonel Sweet. He was Sweet’s agent in the Camp Douglas Conspiracy of 1864 (more to come on that). Something was wrong about the man because the prisoners already had his number. An incident intrigued them in which a prisoner named William Calameze struck Shanks. Neither one revealed the cause of the fight, which fueled more curiosity and suspicion. It was possible that Shanks forged Calameze’s name for a sutler’s check while working at headquarters.

Most of the square was out of food, after reductions in rations by Sweet and the War Department.

“It will be three or four days til we draw again,” Private Burke guessed.

By June 17th, the men were living on scraps and later they were supplied only two meals a day. Burke added,

“I saw one poor fellow who had lost his mind for fear of starving to death and his cried for bread were pitiful in the extreme.”

Guards punished anyone caught taking bones from the garbage by fastening the bone between his teeth, across his mouth, and then tying it like a gag.

R. T. Bean bitterly recalled,

“And then the poor fellow was made to fall down and crawl around on his hands and knees like a dog, a laughing stock for Federal soldiers, spies, and camp followers. There is more inventive meanness in the Yankee composition, than any other nation upon God’s green earth could conceive of during thousands of years!”

M. Evans
Owner/Operator of Behind Wooden Gates LLC