Cahaba Prison

Infobox Military Structure
name=Cahaba Prison
Castle Morgan
partof=
location=Cahaba, Alabama, U.S.A.
coordinates=


caption=Drawing believed to show Cahaba Prison (Library of Congress)


caption2=
type=Confederate Prison Camp
code=
built=1863
builder=
materials=
height=
used=1863-1865
demolished=
condition=
ownership=
open_to_public=
controlledby=
garrison=
current_commander=
commanders=
occupants=
battles=American Civil War
events=

Cahaba Prison, also known as Castle Morgan, was a prisoner of war camp in Alabama where the Confederacy held captive Union soldiers during the American Civil War. The prison was located in the small Alabama town of Cahaba, at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers, not far from Selma.Bryant, William O. "Cahaba Prison and the Sultana Disaster." Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990. ISBN 0817304681]

History

The Cahaba Prison was opened as such in June 1863.cite web|title="Cahaba Federal Prison"|work="Old Cahawba: A Cahawba Advisory Committee Project"|url=http://www.cahawba.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=17|accessdate=2008-01-07] The commanding officer was Captain H. A. M. Henderson, a Methodist minister. cite web|title="Cahaba Civil War Prison"|work="CensusDiggins.com: Civil War Prison Camps"|url=http://www.censusdiggins.com/prison_cahaba.html|accessdate=2008-01-07] The prison took advantage of an existing structure, built in 1860 as a brick cotton warehouse on Arch Street, above the banks of the Alabama River. This structure covered approximately convert|15000|sqft and was surrounded by a larger wooden stockade when converted into a prison. It was intended for only approximately 500 prisoners, but its population had grown to 660 by August of 1864. When Union General Ulysses S. Grant suspended the practice of prisoner exchange with the Confederacy the numbers began to soar. By October of 1864 the prison’s numbers had swelled to 2,151, they had grown to over 3,000 by March 1865. The regional district commander, Lt. Col. Samuel Jones, negotiated an exchange of Union prisoners from Cahaba for captured Confederates, with the prison being evacuated in March of 1865. The actual exchange would take place at Vicksburg, Mississippi in April 1865, after a long and arduous journey by the prisoners. Ironically, many of these freed prisoners perished in the subsequent "Sultana" disaster.

Conditions

R. H. Whitfield, the prison surgeon, reported unhygienic conditions at the camp, citing the lack of a sanitary water supply.cite web|title="Cahaba Federal Prison"|work="Old Cahawba: A Cahawba Advisory Committee Project"|url=http://www.cahawba.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=17|accessdate=2008-01-07] The warehouse building had one fireplace and only 432 bunk spaces. Despite all of this, the death rate was extremely low in comparison to most other Civil War prison camps, Confederate and Union. Federal and Confederate records indicate that between 142 and 147 men died at Cahaba Prison.

In late February 1865, heavy rains caused the Alabama River to flood the prison grounds at Cahaba. The water was so deep that on the morning after the high water reached the stockade, the Confederates in charge floated through the prison gate in boats. For four days and nights, prisoners had to deal with waist-high freezing water. Guards eventually allowed the prisoners to leave the compound to gather driftwood, which was stacked to form platforms for the men. John Walker, a private with the 50th Ohio Infantry, was one prisoner lucky enough to find a few pieces of heavy timber and cordwood, which he and seven comrades stacked high enough to clear the water. There they sat, back to back, for two days.

References

Bibliography

*Hawes, Jesse. (1888) "Cahaba: A Story of Captive Boys in Blue", 1888.
*Reed, Charles B. (1925) "The Curse of Cahawba."
*Hasseltine, William Best. (1930) "Civil War Prisons: A Study in War Psychology."