A Remarkable Confederate POW Newspaper, 1865

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 2060    

[My thanks to Rebecca Onion at Slate Vault for finding and surfacing this incredible document]

"One of the most remarkable productions of Fort Delaware was the Prison Times, a newspaper published in April, 1865, by Capt. Geo. S. Thomas, 64th Georgia Regiment, and Lieut. A. Harris, 32d Florida. It was written in a small but very clear handwriting by Capt. J. W. Hibbs, of the 13th Virginia Cavalry [sic], who proved himself a most expert penman." --from Edward R. Rich, Comrades! page 120, a small but dense 167-page book printed in Easton, Maryland, and published by S.E. Whitman, in1898, containing his recollections of his experiences in the Union prison.

[Source: the Library of Congress, here.]

The Prison Times was a hand-written, four-page newspaper produced by Confederate prisoners in April 1865 in the Union prison at Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River.  It was a short lived effort, the war ending just weeks after the paper appeared¹. As a matter of fact the editors hoped that the newspaper effort would not have to last very much longer, longing for the end of the war and to return home:

"Trusting that the difficulties of conducting an enterprise of this kind under the circumstances are duly appreciated by an intelligent public, we send forth this our first number hoping that ere we can have time to issue many numbers our prison times will be discontinued forever and our patrons and ourselves be far away in our loved Sunny South."

It is a remarkable document, enlisting the hope for normalcy of the 33,000 (or so) prisoners².  The newspaper made a statement of intent (and to avoid political discussion), and displayed useful information like barracks directors and a short piece on "our prison world".  There were also interesting short advertisements which were apparently real:  folks placed their services into play in the newspaper for engraving, jewelry (rings, chains, gutta percha), tailoring, washing & ironing, barbers, dental, music instructions, and shoe-making.  There were also a few short notices for debating and chess clubs, as well as a few pieces of poetry.  Overall, there was a lot of information packed into four 12x8" pages, an effort that showed that in this town-sized prison that there were definitely some forms of society and commerce taking place.     

Aerial view of Fort Delaware and Pea Patch Island:

[Two more pages, at bottom.]

Notes

1. "Prison Times, Vol. 1, No. 1 died almost as soon as it was born, for the ink was scarcely dry on its pages ere the news of Lee's surrender, reached Fort Delaware, and with the hopes of a speedy parole, the publication of the paper was suspended. It had, indeed, a short life; but it was full of interest to its readers, and should anyone whose eye glances over these pages have a copy of it, they will surely prize it as a treasured memento of their Prison life in Fort Delaware." 

2. Between August 1863 and April 1865 the prison population increased from 11,000 to 33,000 men. Of these, nearly 2,500 died--that is a figure far above the average of 7.5% mortality, though half of the deaths occurred during a smallpox epidemic in 1863.  Other causes of death included inflammation of the lungs (243 deaths), diarrhea (315 deaths, which was a complication of other ailments and an historically malevolent killer), smallpox (272 deaths), typhoid.malaria (215 deaths), scurvy (70 deaths), pneumonia (61 deaths), and gnshot wounds (7).  It should also be noted that about 150 Union military (109 deaths) and civilians (40) died there as well.