Hi:
I am attempting to locate any information concerning how Civil War Prisoners (Confederate and Union) was returned to Their homes at the end of the war?
Any help?
Jimmy

Jimmy,
One of your best sources for information about prisoners is Ancestry.com. Or, if you have a name of the individual or an unit number (ex. B Co., 23rd North Carolina Infantry), try Googling it and see what comes up. You want to look in the multi-volume history, Rebel Record, which was compiled after the war while the information was still fresh. These are 2 sources that will start you in the right direction.
My Great Grandfather was wounded and captured at Gettysburg, went to prison in Illinois, and was repatriated to Norfolk, Va, after the war was over. This was the route home for many of our guys.
Researching your ancestor's war experiences is absolutely fascinating and can fill in the gaps that come from wondering about what went on back then. I have assumed you are talking about a Southern Son here.

My gr, gr, grandfather was captured at 1st bull run. He was evidently exchanged as later he was wounded at bull run. Early in the war they traded prisioners. My grandfather was with the iron brigade from wisconsin. After the war on april 27th 1865 1,547 returning soliders were killed in a steamboat explosion. There must be books on the history of prisioners somewhere. It was said many of them were released prisioners trying to get home. Civil War vets are caught in steamboat explosion — History.com This Day in History — 4/27/1865

Today is Confederate Memorial Day.

All state offices are closed today.

Yes, the SULTANA blew it's boilers and caused the worst maritime loss of life in US history.

I do know that at the end of the Rebellion, Confederate soldiers were given the opportunity to take the oath of loyalty. Those that did were transported home at government expense. Those that didn't were left to make their own way home.

We had a Federal prison camp just north of us at Alton, Illinois. From what I've read, it was a hell hole.

__________________
James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Family lore has it that my G-G-Grandpa walked from Virginia to Arkansas after the war was over. I don't think that the losing side got any free transportation home.

The best site I know of is this one. Give it try: The American Civil War Homepage Unbelievable amount of info.

__________________
Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

I came across the service records of a couple of great, great uncles in some of my mothers records. The records of capture and death while POWs came from the old War Department sometime in the 1870's. They had both served with South Carolina units and were captured by the Union forces.

They found what was left of the Sultana in a soybean field across from Memphis in the 1980s. The Mississippi changes course as it's main channel was about a mile west of where it is now.1700 plus people died when two of it's three boilers blew, most of them Union POWs going back home.

__________________
LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

My Great-grand mother in a journal entry to a letter that her father received from a Yankee soldier who had returned home to New York after being shot by him at Brashier City in 1864. Lt. Elisha Embree was a member of the 2nd Texas Cavalry - Arizona Brigade, that served mainly in the Red River area but participated in the successful campaign against Union forces in Louisiana.
He wounded a soldier in the raid and after the action returned to him and ensured that he received adequate medical attention and arranged for him to be exchanged. The soldier wrote a thank you letter after he returned home and even invited the Embree family to visit him in New York when the war ended.

One of my Grandmother's brothers (hence my Grand Uncle) served in a Michigan Regiment, he was captured and held in a prison hospital near Richmond.
He was freed when Richmond fell then spent some time in hospital and finally travelled back to MI by train.
I don’t know much else about him except that he and his wife spent several years trying to collect some kind of ex-prisoners pension. He evidently never fully recovered from wounds and his stay in prison.

__________________
Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

Brashear City is now Morgan City Louisiana, the battle there, and others are written about in the book "Battle in the Bayou Country"
by Morris Raphael
Steve W
Steve W

I am by no means an expert, but I do love reading Civil War materiel. Seems that when prisoners were released, they were just simply released. How they got home was up to the prisoners. Most just started walking.

That was pretty much my impression, especialy for the south. I have got a lot of information off this site as it was my ancester`s outfit. Of course, it doesnt apply to all the other`s as much.

second wisconsin volunteer infantry home page

That was the experience of many if not most.

"The gate is open. You are free to leave....."

__________________
Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Camp Douglas was on the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago and housed Southern prisoners. About 6 miles south, still in Chicago, is the cemetery where prisoners were laid to rest. I took a walk out of curiosity by myself through that cemetery several years ago. Pretty spooky stuff. My G G Grandfather was with Gen Sterling Price out of Missouri. He was never captured.

__________________
SOS USA

Gee I was taught the south opened the ball at ft. sumpter. Go`s to show you cant trust school teachers.

+1 on walking out.

My GG Grandfather, 8th NHV. Shot in the leg at New Orleans. Spent some time in the hospital and then discharged. He walked to the train station and rode all the way back to NH, or so the family history tells.

Although I am from and live in the north, my avatar speaks volumes about my true feelings on that war. When I present programs to students, I refer to it as the "War for Southern Independence"! My first question is to ask how many believe the war was fought to free the slaves. When I see every hand in the audience raised, I grimace and tell them the truth. I also deplore the term "Civil War" because a civil war denotes a group of rebels trying to overthrow and control a specific government. In this war, the states of the Confederacy were merely fighting for the rights guaranteed them under the original Constitution and not the one rewritten after the hostilities ceased. Although it ended with a reunited nation as it should be, Lincoln and his fedreral cronies were scoundrels that changed to course of this country in ways that most people alive today will never understand.

In answer to the OP's original question, once freed from prisons or discharged from their army duties, the soldiers got home any way they could - train, wagon, horseback, walking, etc.

Here is aome interesting reading for you Civil War buffs.

confederate heritage

My great great grandfather was wounded and captured near Fredricksburg, VA. He was held there until hostilities ceased and was set free to get back to his home near Fountain Inn, SC. any way that he could. He did so successfully and liver another 60 years but always walked with a limp from the shot in his hip.

medxam

__________________
Doc Garrett
Dead Man's Doctor

The prison camps for POW's during The War Between The States were worse than death for those interred. Read "Andersonville" and it will chill you to the bone. Neither Federal nor Confederate prisons were kept to any resemblance of a humane standard.

Most prisoners were paroled on their word that they would not rejoin the fight. Then they started walking..

What do you suppose would have changed had the south been sucessfull in splitting? I would suppose neither the north or the south would have had enough resources to be the worlds policeman. I wonder if mexico, canada or any other country would have tried invadeing us. I know we are already invaded by mexico, but I wonder what the entire world would be like today. I am sure many things would be different, good and bad.
Likely many of us wouldnt even have been born! We all have our pet theorys, probley based mostly on where we were born or which side our ancestors were on. My theory is God sometimes steps in and controls world history. Not at all saying he controls every detail in everyones life, but I belive he does control america no matter what stinker might temporarly be in charge. It`s already been proficided 2,000 years ago who will defend isreal and who will try to distroy it in the end times.

Check out an interesting video C S A. The premiss is the south won. It is set up as a BBC style documentary in the 1990s. think of it as an alternative universe.

__________________
Wheel guns are real guns too.

My great grandfather walked from Elmira NY to Walhalla,SC.

Please don't get me started !