edited by
JAMES B. MURPHY
A Confederate Soldier's View of
Johnson's Island Prison
William Henry Asbury Speer of Yadkin
County joined the Confederate Twenty-
Eighth North Carolina Volunteers as
captain of its First Company when the regi-
ment was organized at Highpoint on
September 21, 1861. After training and post
duty at Wilmington, Speer and the
regiment moved to New Bern and then on to
Gordonsville and Rapidan Station,
Virginia. Ordered to join "Stonewall" Jackson
in the Shenandoah Valley, the
Twenty-Eighth moved north only to have its march
halted and reversed. At Hanover Court
House, Virginia, Federal troops under
General Fitz-John Porter were engaged on
May 27, 1862. Porter's troops won the
field, and Speer, along with 730 others,
was taken prisoner.1
Speer's story, as told in the diary
excerpts printed below, commences after his
capture, and with occasional deletions
by the editor, the account continues through
his imprisonment at Johnson's Island
Prison, Lake Erie, Ohio. This portion of the
diary concludes when news of release
from the prison came to him in late August
1862.
Following his transfer from Johnson's
Island on September 1, Speer rejoined
his regiment but apparently kept no
written record of his activities until March of
the following year, 1863. Then he
resumed his account in time to describe fighting
at the battle of Chancellorsville and
again at Gettysburg. Until August 1863, Speer
kept a fragmented record; then he lapsed
into an unexplained silence leaving the
rest of his story to be told by
others--a story which includes his rise to the colo-
nelcy and command of the Twenty-Eighth
and finally death on August 29, 1864,
as a result of wounds incurred at the
battle on August 24 and 25 at Reams' Sta-
tion, Virginia.2
1. The diary of W. H. A. Speer, a
portion of which is printed here, is now in the possession of
James M. Speer, Route 1, Booneville,
North Carolina. The diary was brought to the attention of the
present editor by an article on the
document and its author by Lil Thompson in the Winston-Salem
Journal and Sentinel May 6, 1962. A limited amount of information on Speer
is also available in Walter
Clark, ed., Histories of the Several
Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War
1861-65 (Goldsboro, 1901), II. Speer's account is unusual in
that he describes life in the prison during
the early period before September 1,
1862. His spelling and punctuation are printed as they appear in
the diary.
2. See Personal File of W. H. A.
Speer, Record Group 109, National Archives. For an account of
the fighting at Reams' Station, see Clement
A. Evans, ed., Confederate Military History (Atlanta, 1899),
IV, 270-272.
Mr. Murphy is assistant professor of
history at Southern Illinois University.
102 OHIO
HISTORY
The circumstances under which the prison
portion of Speer's diary was written
are not clear. Although the first entry
was dated July 16, 1862, seven weeks after
the battle of Hanover Court House, he
reverted to use of earlier dates and usually
wrote as though he were recounting his
experiences as they happened, day by day.
Other discrepancies likewise suggest
that a daily log was not scrupulously main-
tained. Since the total time lapse from
capture until transfer from Johnson's Island
was only some four months, this
construction does not seem to seriously damage
the authenticity of the observations.
May the 28 1862
8, oclock P. M. [near Hanover Court
House, Virginia]
All of us prisoners were now drawn up in
a line in the road before Dr. Kennies
house it was a long line of Rebels over
300, we were informed that we were to
be Sent to Genl. McClelon's [McClellan]
head quarters 18 miles we Started off in
a long Said looking line, we passed by
apart of the battle field, by where there
were burrying the dead on both Sides I
Seen 50 of our men all in one pile by
the Side of a large hole dug to burry
them in, the N. Y. Zouaves were very bussy
in pillidging their pocketts, after
their money pocket knives & other little tricks
I felt Sorry for these poor men fare
from home & friends as we marched along
the road we were continuealy meating
troops Redgts. Brigades etc. artileory after
artileory was hurrying on with numerous
cavelry & every now and then we would
pass long lines of Bagage waggons,
emence tranes of them drawn by the best
horses & mules I ever Seen, on we
went & on came McClelon's hosts it was ter-
able to Suffer the thought of what was
before our men Such equipements for the
dessturction of men I never had Seen
before, it was now 12 oclock & we had to
come to a halt to wrest our men were now
very tiard, the day was very warm &
Some of the men were already now giving
out we were garded by a cavelry com-
pany, Some of them were very kinde to
us--
we were not allowed long to take our
ease. we Soon were ordered up and on
march again. the road in Some places was
very muddy in Some places we had to
wade in mud & warter up to our boot
tops, all the time meeting Soldiers, Bagage,
Waggons & passing their camps, the
country on all Sides bore plane marks of the
invaders [Northerners'] destruction,
fencens thrown down bu[r]nt & crops turned
out We Seen but very few citizens, we
are now opsit a place, fine residence & a
gard is placed around the house, here a
cavelry man took my canteen and rode
out to a well & got me a canteen of
warter when he came back . . . he offered me
a drink of good whiskey which you Know I
took a harty one, in a Short time he
offered me his horse to wride. I was
glad to get the chance for I was near giving
out. It was 5 miles from here to camp.
this cavelry man was an Irishman, he let
me wride his horse to camp,--we now
passed 2 Redgts of infantory with 4 bat-
teries, 24 peaces cannon & Six of
the celebrated coffee-mill guns, they throw Sixty
balls in a minute, I took a good look at
them, the enemy told me they had Sevrel
of them in their army we were now in a
mile of camp the yankee Soldiers were
now on all Sides of the road to get a
good look at the dirty rebels we were gazed
& Stared at as if we had been live
Devels & they were nearly as ferful of us
many of our men had give out & had
to wride,--we were now in Sight of Mc-
Clelon's camp, we could See them forming
their lines to march us into camp,
every man fer & near was now on
St[r]etch as hard as his leggs could carry him
Johnson's Island Prison
103
to See the rebels--we were march under
heavy gard into camp where we were
halted & our names, rank and Regt
was taken by the fedral officers the heavy
gard could hardly Keep the out Siders
off they Seemed to be amased to See that
we were human beings as Same as
themselves, many odd remarks were made as
to our looks & dress, we all enjoyed
it very well to think men belonging to the
grand army of the U. S. had men who was
as egnorant as they were, this Satisfied
us if the mere apperence of the Rebels
without armes did Somuch to excite the
yanks what would they think of doing
when they come in contact with our boys
with their guns Just run as a matter of
getting away--after our names were taken
we were put then into a bull pen & a
double gard put over us, who were very ill
to us we were now almost Sta[r]ved to
death not having had anything to eat in
36 hours, [We had] Slept one night in
the rain without any tents march & fought
all day, taken prisoner, Slept on the
cold weat ground, & then marched 18 miles
over Some of the worst road in the
world, without any thing to eat, made us feel
much like eating, we Soon had plenty of
crackers & fresh beef issued to us & all
hands went to cooking Some of the men
were So hungry they eat the beef raw
as though it was the best diet in the
world we were all Soon dun cooking & eat-
ing & down upon the cold ground to
Sleep as though it was the best bed in the
world morning came May 29 a beautiful
morning, we all got our breckfast Soon
we were hardly dun eating before it was
anounced a nother large lot of prisoners
had arrived, all of us Rebs were anxious
to See them, So we Soon had the pleasuer
& found they were of our Regts &
Brigades our number now was increased to 500,
we were now put under march for the
Whitehous[e] landing3 16 miles away we
only had 8 miles to walk to dispatch
Station where were to take the trane for the
whitehous we were garded by infantry to
day who treated us very Kindly, but
Such a crowd of heathens, as we passed
through to day it is proper to Say they
were volenteers & not Regulars, we
passed many Soldiers to day & had all kinde
of abuse heaped up [on] us on all Sides,
whenever we passed by a camp it was a
genral rush to the road Side & then
we would get hard names thrust at us, Such
as G.D.--dirty rebels, Rebel cut throats
you out to be hung, have your throats cut,
burnt etc. Some would give us the credit
of being humans, didnot have horns nor
tails but d.m--them they are Rebels we
arrive at Dispatch Station at one oclock
and took the cars for the white hous we
were all very tiard & glad to get on the
iron horses waggons again, we Soon got
to the whitehous Landing, where we were
received by a very Strong gard with the
finger of derishion pointed to us & to
mend the matter here we found the plaged
nigger coming up making mouths at
us [as] if we were not worth any other Kinde of notice
& winked at by the yanks,
thinks I you will Soon find Something
elce to wink at Soon, when you See our
boys muskets & cannon blazing away
at you, the River here is wide & deep it
was full of transports gun boats &
vesels of all Kindes we had passed through a
once beautiful & rich country but it
is now entirely devastated & crops, fences
houses all seemed the whole county
looked like Starvation we were marched upon
a transport Steemer Ariel for Fort[r]
ess Monrow [Monroe]. we Steemed down
the River about 5 oclock it was a very
interesting time every rebel full of curi-
osity while at whithous landing we
amused our Selves & the Yanks by Selling
3. White House Landing was a Federal base
of operations on the Pamunkey River east of Rich-
mond, Virginia. General Porter's figure
of 730 as the number of prisoners includes those from other
than the Twenty-Eighth picked up along
the way. See Mark Mayo Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary
(New York, 1959), 373.
104 OHIO
HISTORY
them confederate Stamps N.C. & V.A.,
and Shinplasters [worthless paper money]
it was amusing to See how anxious they
were to get our money to Send to their
friends & it Suted us poor fellows
for we had not a Cent to buy any thing with,
we found Some clever men & who would
go ashore and buy many things for us
& bring to us,--we travel down the
Rive [r] at 25 miles when a gun boat that was
with us ran aground, So we here wated
for day to get off again. I passed through
the boat & the prisoners were all
down every where assleep So I looked out [for]
as Soft [a] plank as I could finde &
down I tumble & Slept Soundly,
As Colonel Speer recounted, he, his
comrades, and their captors sailed from
Whitehouse Landing down the York River
past the wreckage of war to Fort Mon-
roe on the sea coast. There they
embarked upon a steamer for transportation
northward. Their ship, Star of the
South, sailed on an apparently uneventful trip
except that, as Speer said, "Sea
sick had got hold of nearly all of us & quite a
Setling of accounts now took place . . .
." On June 2 the Star of the South sailed
into New York harbor where the prisoners
were transferred to Governor's Island.
The stay on Governor's Island proved to
be reasonably pleasant. Speer remained
in a healthy and positive frame of mind
and confided to his diary that "I am going
to take prison life as easy as I can and
I trust to pass it as pleasantly as I can, I
got me a law book to day & if I am
prisoner long enugh I will See if I cannot be
a lawyer, [even] if it is a Jack
legg." Such was Speer's satisfaction that he became
fretful when he learned that the group
would be moved to another prison.
The "unknown place we know
not" of Speer's distress proved to be Johnson's
Island, Ohio, on Lake Erie. He first
mentioned the move on June 18, and accord-
ing to his account he and his fellows
unhappily set off two days later. Speer did
not at the time realize it, but he would
spend the balance of his incarceration in
the newly built prison.
A stockade on one of the Lake Erie
islands near Sandusky had been planned
as early as July 1861. Believing that
the war would be short and that a single
compound would suffice for all captured
Confederates, Commissary General Wil-
liam Hoffman chose Johnson's Island as
the most suitable site for such an estab-
lishment. Located less than a mile away
from the mainland at the nearest point
and about three miles from Sandusky, the
location seemed to effectively obstruct
escape and yet offer a source of
supplies near at hand. Furthermore the three
hundred acre island could be easily
policed and all unauthorized persons excluded
without difficulty. All in all, it
seemed a judicious choice.
With construction completed and command
given to Major William S. Pierson
of Sandusky, the prison received its
first Confederate occupants on April 10, 1862.
At that time it was decided by Quarter
Master General Montgomery C. Meigs that
the camp should be designated for
officer prisoners only. This development, unique
among northern prisons, gave a distinct
character to the history of Johnson's
Island prison.4 This policy
had been established and its operation begun before
4. A few enlisted men were on the island
at various times until June 12, 1863, when the War
Department ordered the immediate
transfer of all Confederate officer prisoners in the Department of
Ohio to Johnson's Island. Thereafter,
with few exceptions, all prisoners sent to Johnson's Island were
officers. Phillip R. Shriver and Donald
J. Breen, Ohio's Military Prisons in the Civil War (Columbus,
1964), 29-32; Charles E. Frohman, Rebels
on Lake Erie (Columbus, 1965), 107; Charles R. Schultz,
"The Conditions at Johnson's Island
Prison During the Civil War" (unpublished M.A. thesis, Bowling
Green State University, 1960), 44.
Johnson's Island Prison
105
Speer and his comrades left Governor's
Island, New York. They arrived late in
June, and by the end of that month there
was already a total of 1141 prisoners
on hand.
June 18
to day we have notice of being moved to
some unknown place we know not,
we hope it is for home [by prisoner
exchange] but we fear it is not home, all is
excitement in the prison about where we
are to go to, I donot like to be a prisoner
but as I am I had rather Stay here than
to go anywhere elce, I can go to a wors
places than this, to day the prisoners
from Salisbury taken at bullrun & other
places came into the fort they are a
raged set of fellows they are incamped out-
side of the fort in tents they are wating
to get their pay. they give a good acct
of their treatment in Salisbury N.C. the
N.Y. ladies have come to see the Secesh,
if they were only Dixie ladies how I
would like & love to gaze upon them but we
are gazed at as if we were heathens but
O! they cannot love like our Sothern
ladies nor make half such loving
companions
June 19
to day I received a uniform Sute of
clothes from Mr. H. C. Hardie & Some
other clotheing all of which will make
me quite comfortable I am under obliga-
tions to him & my masonic friends as
long as I live,5 he has the well wishes for
his success & his famulies by all
the prisoners on govenors Island, I feel now like
I am as well fixed as any of the yankee
officers, the yankee ladies are over again
to get the last look of the secesh, we
are told this eavning to where we go, we are
to Start in the morning at Six oclock
for Johnsons Island near Sandusky Ohio, I
hate to go but I must obey, Some [of] us
are now cast down & Some of the Secesh
officers have took a little toomuch of
the ardent & are quite lively, the drums are
beeting for dress Parade, So here we all
go for the last time Col Loomus is com-
manding & here comes our Tipsy
Secesh officers all full of life & funn I fear they
will get into trouble, the dress Parade
is now over & back into the fort we go,
allhands packing up now to be off in the
morning a lively time in our quarters,
So to bed we go but Some of our officers
are quite noisey,
July 20 [sic]
Capt Clinton [of the United States Army]
arroused us up early this morning,
early breakfast & off to the boat
with our bagages we go, on the boat we march
& off for Jersey city, as we leve
the wharf, I see 4 ladies up to the left on the Island
waveing their Hankerchiefs to our
success, we bid farwell now to the old fort, I
hope never to See it again under Such
circustances, although I have had with my
troubles & hardships Some plesant
times in the old fort, we now are at the Jersy
side where the cares [cars] for Buffalow
were waiting for us, & here plenty of the
Feds were to see the live Secesh &
on the cares we got after our bagages was seen
Safe on the cars all our partie ocupise
one care in charge of Capt Clinton & Luit.
Miller, we came without any gard, as we
passed Some of the Stations the people
5. From his diary we know that Speer had
written to the Masonic Order in New York City and
to others he knew asking for help. In
answer to his pleas a Mr. H. C. Hardie of 47 Front Street, New
York City, gave him some clothes,and
another friend in Philadelphia sent a trunk full of clothes and
some money. The clothes were shared with
his fellow officers.
106
OHIO HISTORY
men, women, children & N [e] groes
were there to see us, some places there might
have been 800 or 1,000 people to see us,
it was amusing to see how foolish the
people would act & do when the car
Stoped it was one genral rush to the car
doores & windows to see the live
Rebs & then to hear their expressions, Some
would Say-well Damthem they are good
looking men-Dam, such fellows they ought
to be hung, lets hang them - by g [o] d,
lets cut their throats, I Kinder reccon
they wish they were out of here, hallow
what bigg rebels, - they are, good looking
men at one place we Stoped to get denner
& we had an excitent one, here they
got a good look at us all, many of our officers
were much admired for their Gen-
tleman apperance & manly Soldier
looks, we passed through much poor country
but highly improved & portions of it
very mountainous the Scenery was fine I
seen many things to engage my attention,
our partie were very many, we got a
fine Supper on the road & arived at
Buffalow about 11 oclock at night here we
changed cars & Started for
Cleveland, we seen but few persons at Buffalow as it
was late at night, we got to Cleveland
about good daylight, where we [helped] our
selves to a nice breakfast, from here we
Started for Sandusky got there about 11
oclock A.M. we marched from the cares
Stright to the boat So quick no one hardly
Seen us, upon the Steemer we got &
crossed the lake [Erie] 3 1/2 miles over to the
Island where the barracks were to hold
us, - Maj Pearson [William S. Pierson] is
in command here.6
this 21st day of June I never will for
get outside of the barracks we were met
by Maj Pearson halted & told we must
give up all the money we had to him or
be searched, this was quite humileating,
but as to myself I only had $10, but I
thought more of it than I would of 500
in Dixie but like men we handed it all
over, we were told by Maj Pearson that
we could draw at any time for what we
would Kneed,7 the Sentinel
opned the gate & we were marched in to the prison,
we were soon Surrounded by hundreds of
secesh officers all anxious to See who
we were & if they Knew any of us, -
I di [d] not Know a man out of all the 1300
prisoners now here one man rushed up to
me Slaped me on the Shouldier & Says
I have found you at last, O I ask your
pardon he says, I thought you was my
brother, he took me to his room with
Luit Bohannon & give us our dinner, I felt
badly for we were now in a Square lot of
16 2/3 acres of land inclosed with a heavy
Slab or plank fence 15 feet high very
strongly made, the top of the fence was
filled with Sharp spike nales, so you
could not press the wate of your hands on
them on the outside of the plank fence
is a platform all arround the outside of
the plank wall within 3 1/2 ft of the
top, upon this platform walks the Sentinals
who gards us, out of this place we are
not allowed to go unless into the lake to
6. The Sandusky Register reported
that forty-eight rebel officer prisoners "came up on the S.M. &
N. R.R. [Sandusky, Mansfield &
Newark Railroad] . . . and were taken over to Johnson's Island on
the steamer Little Eastern . . .
They were in the charge of Capt. Clinton of the U. S. Army," and
arrived on June 21, 1862. They had come
from Governor's Island, New York, and apparently Speer was
a part of this "very fair body of
men to all outward appearance." Sandusky Commercial Register, June
23, 1862.
7. Any money and papers found were
placed in an envelope which was marked with the prisoner's
name and the amount of money he had.
This information was then recorded in the prison record books.
Though they were not allowed to have
money in their possession, the prisoners did have the use of
"sutler's checks." The sutler,
or general store owner, received money requests from the prisoners which
he cashed with the post commander from
the money credited to each prisoner's account. The sutler,
in return, gave checks to the prisoners in amounts
ranging from five cents to one dollar. With these
checks, the prisoners could buy items
from the sutler's store. Schultz, "The Conditons at Johnson's
Island Prison," 46, 56-57.
Johnson's Island Prison 107
bathe there are 12 large block bildings
[barracks] in two rows on one Side of the
lot in which the prisoners are placed.
we all have a bunk a piece to sleep in I
felt horable at the idea of not being
allowed to pass about as we did at governors
Island, but Still more at the tales told
me about the Sentinels fireing into our
rooms & had Shot two men &
wounding them Severly, for life, this is dreadful
put men in prison & then Shoot them
like they were Savages,8 we all messed
ouselvs off in messes my mess mates were
Maj Low, Capts Johnson & Stowe,
Luits, Boh [a] non, Scott Ande [---] s
& Wheeler, I was with a nice Set of men,
our Straw matress & blanketts come
in & we are fixing our bunks for sleeping &
So we had a good nights sleep-
June 22
To day I got acquainted with many of the
prisoners, among them I found an
[?] cousen of mine from Tenn, a Luit in
the 18 Tenn Regt, taken at Fort Donelson9
a large portion of the prisoners here
were taken at Donelson I finde upon the
Statement of men who know that we only
had 250 Killed & [1110 ?] taken pris-
oners & that the yankees admit of a
loss equal to all our Killed & what they took
prisoners of our men, the prisoners here
are the most of them very respectable
looking men from every State in the
Confedrasy I have seen all the field officers
here & I must Say that out of the
large number, that N.C. & Ga has the two
finest looking C. M. Avery Col. of N.C.
& Col Olmstid [Charles H. Olmstead]
of G.a. are the finest looking officers
here, I am perhaps parshel to the above officers
& perhaps to the N.C. & G.a.
officers all for I think them the best looking officers
for the number that I have seen, & I
know there is nomore of Gentlemen in the
army than they are, and I must confess
that while I am prisoner, that I am glad
that I have been so fortionate as to
have fallen among such cleve[r] Gentlemen &
officers, various amusements are
followed by the prisoners, the most are imployed
in wring [ring] makeing in which they
use Guttapercha [gutta-percha] for the wring
& put in it sets of gould &
silver but mostly of Shell of various cullors some of
which are exceeding nice the Shells are
obtained out of Lake Erie we get them
when we go into the lake batheing by
diveing after them etc, Many thousands of
these wrings breast pins Shirt buttons,
Braceletts & watch fobs are made, Some of
the prisoners pass their time in makeing
canes of peculior Stripe & kinde various
pieces & kindes of furniture,
notions etc and I believe the Southern men can beet
the yankees to death on inventions &
tricks when necesity requires that they shall
put their hands, minde, & wits
towork,10 other prisoners pass their time in playing
at cards & various other games -
while others are reading etc, So various men are
8. For a firsthand description of the
prison in 1863, see W. A. Wash, Camp, Field and Prison Life
. . . (St. Louis, 1870), 352-355.
Apparently the thirteenth barracks building shown in most pictures of
Johnson's Island prison was added after
Speer left. His figure of 1300 prisoners is high if one accepts
the 1141 reported by the War Department
for June 30 as correct. See The War of the Rebellion: A
Compilation of the Official Records
of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington,
D. C., 1880-1901),
2, VIII, 987.
Very little was said in the public press
after the shooting incident of June 13 was reported in the
Sandusky Register on June 19. On
June 23 the paper was severely criticized by the prison guard for
having printed the prisoner's claim that
he was in no way in the wrong and also for the editorial remark:
"It is a matter of regret that a
prisoner should have been injured when there was any doubt of his
propriety." Sandusky Register, June
19, June 23, 1862.
9. Fort Donelson, the key Confederate
defense on the Cumberland River, fell to Federal forces on
February 16, 1862.
ingage various ways, I would like to get out of this place & look over the Island but no Sir I must Stay here, when it rains we have the nastiest place in the world, June 30 To day, we got an extra this eavning giving us the exciting news of the com- mencement of the grate battles before Richmond June 25 the news is grattefieing & we have the gratest excitement ever I witnessed Capt. Sims of Ga. is now on a Stump reading the news arround him over 1,000 men every now & then Shouting & waving hats & slaping hands in a wilde inthusiasm, I never have Seen as Lively & no[i]sy time, we were informed by Maj. Pearson next morning that if we had a nother such demmonstration in ou[r] bull pen that the gards will fire upon us, they have two block houses in which they have cannon loded ready to fire into us at any time, also port holes for musketry, we are now duly notified that we are liable to be Shot at any time, think of this condition to be in, liable to [be] shot down at any time without any self defence, had you not rather be Some where elce, yes I had rather be upon the battle field every day than to be here in this miserable, Suspence and horable condition of mind - Still the news we get to day are better 10. Gutta-percha is an elastic tree resin similar to rubber. First discovered in the 1840's in the East Indies, it was widely used in a variety of manufactured products such as buttons and rulers by 1860. These items, in turn, were refashioned into jewelry of various kinds. Jewelry and furniture-making were popular pursuits among Johnson's Island prisoners. For two firsthand accounts, see H. Carpenter, "Plain Living at Johnson's Island, Described by a Confederate Officer," Century Magazine, XLI (March 1891), 712, and Wash, Camp, Field, and Prison Life, 94-95. The Sandusky Register, January 4, 1866, predicted that furniture made by the prisoners would become collectors' items and be worth hundreds of dollars in later years. The prisoners were able to sell their wares to the Union guards directly or to turn them over to prison officials who sold them on the outside and returned the proceeds to the artisans. |
Johnson's Island Prison 109
from Richmond. we hope now to Soon be
exchange as we have got many of the
yankees prisoners,11 we have
been visited to day by a steemboat excu [r] sion from
Sanduskey loded with men & women,
wave their hankerchiefs in derision of us,
our men are waveing from their windows
various looking flaggs Some have the
black flagg waving at the yankees these
excursions come off every few days, but
we have got to treating them with Silent
contempt12 - the yankees now admit that
they have lost over 50,000 men in Killed
& wounded & prisoners at Richmond this
is from their own papers -
July 6th
This is my birth day Capt. G. B. Johnson
has services for us to day in our
room to day I got Some potatoes for
denner & we had a heavy rain Storm to
day. if it was not for the exciting news
of exchange, I think this prison life would
derange any one, the excitement is
certenly nesesary for the life of a prisoner of
war Some of the prisoners tried to
escape the other night as it was very dark
they however was discovered by the
Centinel & was fierd at by 2 Sentinels but no
one hit. they however came very near
being Killed & also quite near escaping,
but what could the poor fellows do if
they had got away as the island is Sur-
rounded by a sheet of warter over 3 1/2
miles wide [at some points], & very deep,
nothing would Keep the prisoners in here
if it was not that we are Surrounded by
warter, although some of us would be
Killed in attempting to escape but yet we
would try it, the horrows of the prison
are so grate, I think I will never commit
any crime to be put in Jale for if
everybody could Know & feel as I do I think
there would be nomore Jales bilt for any
more offenders. we have the pleasuer of
the excersion boats coming over here
with the women & men to look at us, but
to day caps all, the niggars are out to
day in two boats with their bands of music
celebrating the day Augst 1 as the birth
day of colonisation & of corse they must
come by & See the Secesh, O! how the
black Bucks & wentches laugh at us.
Augst 2
to day two large Steam boats from
Buffalow loded with men & women all to
see the bluddy Secesh on Johnsons
Island, our sperits to day are high on exchange
all hands are on the high horse to night
there are plenty of grape in the prison
this eavning grape is the name we have
for all the begg tales that go arround the
prison you can see the men from all
parts of the prison now on the rush to a
crowd up at the Suttlers Stand to hear
what is the news, if it was not for the
grape that comes in the prison I hardly
Know how I could live, I do believe if
Abraham [Lincoln] Keeps me in here much
longer that I will be a good lawyer
as to asking questions & finding out
the truth of all the reports.
11. A cartel providing a comprehensive
plan of parole and exchange was finally signed by Federal
and Confederate officials on July 22,
1862. See William Best Hesseltine, Civil War Prisons: A Study
in War Psychology (Columbus, 1930), 32-33, 69-113. By July 13, 1863,
however, the system of exchange
broke down completely due to northern
military successes at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.
12. Excursion boats were scheduled to
pass by Johnson's Island on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays. According to the Sandusky Register,
the women waved their kerchiefs, the band played
"Yankee Doodle" and "Star
Spangled Banner," and "the soldiers . . . cheered, waved their caps
and
seemed to like both the sight and
music." The paper, however, had to admit that "rebel flags" had
been permitted to hang out from the
windows of the prisoners' quarters as well as extemporized black
flags, indicating that all the inmates
did not welcome a visit from the sightseers. Sandusky Register,
June 30, August 15, 1862.
110
OHIO HISTORY
August 4th
to day I finished my watch chane and I
thought it was a very nice thing for
me to make, I hope to live through this
prison & the war & have my chane &
wrings that I have here made to Show to
my Grate grandchildren, Capt Farthing
was taken to the hospitol Sick, to day,
- we have lots of grape in this eavning
every body is high up all exspect now to
go home Soon,
Augst 8th
This eavning about 9 1/2 oclock P.M.
there was one of our officers Shot dead at
his own quarters Just as he was going to
his own bead, by one of the Sentinels
on the post it was cold willful and
premedetated murder the poor man told the
Sintinel that he was going to his
quarters but yet the murderous centinel firred &
Killed him, he was a young man very
peaceable quiet fellow, his name was Gib-
bon & from A.R. Ke. it was one of
the most horable things I ever Seen in life
there was a strong effort for us all to
make an attack on the centinels burst down
the plank fence & take the gards
guns & try to secuse [reduce] the block houses
& take the cannon, but to a man of
good Sence it was an act of rashness to Self
destruction & if we had got out how
then would our case have been any better
for we then still would have been
entirely Surrounded by warter, but good Judg-
ment & wise heads Stoped them, the
poor officer, was neetly burried in a nice
coffin & here is a pieace to his memorie,
there has two other men been Shot in
here before this beside Sevrel Shots
fired into our quarters only think of this treat-
ment13 we have [received] the
news of the battle of Ceader Mountin V.a. & the
news is very good, high times in the
prison now one other victory for our cause-
Augst 14
to day long faces in the prison exchange
low down we now begin to think that
we will have to be hung certin,
to day the 16, is a day long to be
rememberd, Six Cols & Luits Cols are now
very much excited discussing the subject
of being hung they however do agree
to draw lots with each other which Shall
be hung first it is right funny to see
Cols thus engaged & so anxious about
their necks, I now do think that I may as
well be looking out for squalls, if the
begg fish are to be thus delt with what will
little fellows like myself do, I think I
will get off some way for I am certain my
neck was not made for the halter, I do
intend to brake out & try to Swim the lake
13. From June 19 to September 1 the only
mention of the prisoners in the local press is the bare
announcement that C. B. Anderson, 2nd
Lt., 49th Tennessee Regiment died on August 24. Neither
Gibbon nor Anderson are mentioned by
name on the official list of dead or buried at Johnson's Island
prison. According to the incomplete
statistics kept by the War Department, there were six deaths in the
prison between July 1 and August 31,
1862. Sandusky Register, August 26, 1862; October 12, 1889; War
of the Rebellion, 2, VIII, 987. The "List of the Confederate
Dead" also appears in Frohman, Rebels on
Lake Erie, 127-129.
Speer's complaints notwithstanding,
historians of Johnson's Island prison have judged its management
favorably by comparison with other
camps. During the early part of the war when Speer was there,
prisoners' rations were the same as
those of the soldiers who guarded them, and additional supplies
could be purchased from sutlers who
plied their trade on the island. Shipments of food, money, and
letters from home were all permitted.
The mortality rate was relatively low, and the guards were not
unusually severe. As the war continued
and bitterness grew, the authorities hardened their attitudes
during 1863-64. By this time, however,
Speer had long since departed. Shriver and Breen, Ohio's Military
Prisons, 35-39.
Johnson's Island Prison 111
if I finde there is a chance for me to
be hung, we have many long faces through
all the prison now, but tomorrow all
will be up again for the grape will come in
some way & we foolish prisoners do
believe every think [thing] as to exchange,
tomorrow has come & with it the
grape has come shore we now hear that we are
to leve here in a few days, & every
body is high up O how happy we poor fel-
lows no[w] are
Augst 23 [August 27?]
This is the gratest day of all yet, we
are all now being mustered for exchange
it would do you good to see us all now,
heads all up & every body is wide awake
& all up for packing up amediately
for Dixie but I tell you all boys you are in
too high array you had better wate for
to day the 25 400, [sic] hundred more
prisoners have arrived from Camp moten,14
[Morton] the[y] toll us bad tales about
how our prisoners have been Shot at the
Camp in cold blood many of the pris-
oners are political prisoners & I am
Sorry for many of them etc.
According to official records, Colonel
Speer was with the 1122 prisoners that
were transferred to other stations to be
exchanged. Speer was sent first to Cairo,
Illinois, on the S D & C Railroad on
September 1, then was boarded on the
steamer Jno. H. Done bound for
Vicksburg, Mississippi, arriving September 20.
He was finally declared exchanged at
Aiken's Landing, Virginia, on November
10, 1862.15
14. The Sandusky Register reported
that four hundred "guerrillas" and "bushwhackers" were
transferred from Camp Morton,
Indianapolis, Indiana, to replace the 1135 out-going Confederate
prisoners from Johnson's Island who were
being exchanged under the cartel signed on July 22. The War
Department records show that 1122
actually departed on September 1, 1862 [for Cairo, Illinois by train],
that twelve were released [presumably by
taking the oath of allegiance to the United States], and that
332 joined the Johnson's Island prison
population [presumably from Camp Morton]. Sandusky Register,
August 27, 30, September 1, 1862; War
of the Rebellion, 2, VIII, 987.
15. Personal File of W. H. A. Speer,
Record Group 109, National Archives.
edited by
JAMES B. MURPHY
A Confederate Soldier's View of
Johnson's Island Prison
William Henry Asbury Speer of Yadkin
County joined the Confederate Twenty-
Eighth North Carolina Volunteers as
captain of its First Company when the regi-
ment was organized at Highpoint on
September 21, 1861. After training and post
duty at Wilmington, Speer and the
regiment moved to New Bern and then on to
Gordonsville and Rapidan Station,
Virginia. Ordered to join "Stonewall" Jackson
in the Shenandoah Valley, the
Twenty-Eighth moved north only to have its march
halted and reversed. At Hanover Court
House, Virginia, Federal troops under
General Fitz-John Porter were engaged on
May 27, 1862. Porter's troops won the
field, and Speer, along with 730 others,
was taken prisoner.1
Speer's story, as told in the diary
excerpts printed below, commences after his
capture, and with occasional deletions
by the editor, the account continues through
his imprisonment at Johnson's Island
Prison, Lake Erie, Ohio. This portion of the
diary concludes when news of release
from the prison came to him in late August
1862.
Following his transfer from Johnson's
Island on September 1, Speer rejoined
his regiment but apparently kept no
written record of his activities until March of
the following year, 1863. Then he
resumed his account in time to describe fighting
at the battle of Chancellorsville and
again at Gettysburg. Until August 1863, Speer
kept a fragmented record; then he lapsed
into an unexplained silence leaving the
rest of his story to be told by
others--a story which includes his rise to the colo-
nelcy and command of the Twenty-Eighth
and finally death on August 29, 1864,
as a result of wounds incurred at the
battle on August 24 and 25 at Reams' Sta-
tion, Virginia.2
1. The diary of W. H. A. Speer, a
portion of which is printed here, is now in the possession of
James M. Speer, Route 1, Booneville,
North Carolina. The diary was brought to the attention of the
present editor by an article on the
document and its author by Lil Thompson in the Winston-Salem
Journal and Sentinel May 6, 1962. A limited amount of information on Speer
is also available in Walter
Clark, ed., Histories of the Several
Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War
1861-65 (Goldsboro, 1901), II. Speer's account is unusual in
that he describes life in the prison during
the early period before September 1,
1862. His spelling and punctuation are printed as they appear in
the diary.
2. See Personal File of W. H. A.
Speer, Record Group 109, National Archives. For an account of
the fighting at Reams' Station, see Clement
A. Evans, ed., Confederate Military History (Atlanta, 1899),
IV, 270-272.
Mr. Murphy is assistant professor of
history at Southern Illinois University.