Life for Union soldiers in Salisbury’s old Confederate prison once wasn’t so miserable as people today might imagine, Kevin G. Carle believes.
“The place actually used to be a preferred prison,” he said. “Soldiers had coupons to leave during the day and had to be back by dark. They had acting clubs.”
Carle — whose great-grandfather’s brother was the highest-ranking officer ever held in the prison — said life for the captured Union soldiers turned for the worse in October 1864. That’s when some of an influx of 10,000 prisoners began to arrive from Richmond, Va. The Confederate Army moved them in anticipation of the Union capturing that city.
Unfortunately, the army didn’t send much extra food or supplies with the prisoners.
Carle and about 100 other re-enactors, history buffs and descendants of soldiers and guards at the Salisbury Prison have joined this weekend for the fourth annual Salisbury Confederate Prison Symposium. Events continue through Sunday afternoon.
A historian of Civil War prisons — on both sides of the Mason Dixon line — spoke about life in Salisbury’s Confederate prison. Freelance writer Lonnie Speer, who lives near Asheville, has researched prisons for about 12 years. Friday night he spoke about compassion in the prisons — a side seldom heard.
But Speer said soldiers also suffered retaliation just like prisoners in any other war. About 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the Civil War — a greater percentage of those held captive than free soldiers who died in combat.
“Sometimes they executed soldiers for something they did on the battlefield,” he said.
Speer wondered about the safety of the 24 U.S.soldiers being held in China after an American spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane, killing its pilot.
Salisbury sometimes still gets chided for how the captured Union soldiers were treated in the months before the Civil War ended. But city residents had little, if any, say in that, said Carle, who lives in New London.
“To blame the people of Salisbury is like blaming the people of Lockerbie, Scotland for an airplane crashing on them,” he said, referring to a passenger plane that was bombed there several years ago.
The symposium is more than a social event, participants say. They can share information that helps them learn more about their ancestors who were in war.
The Rev. Lee Grosh came from Alliance, Ohio, with several family members. His great-grandfather, Henry Oliver Spencer, died a month before prisoners were released, possibly from pneumonia.
“We came down and made new friends,” he said. “It’s delightful.”
Grosh said that the Union soldiers held in Salisbury Prison didn’t live much worse than the city’s residents.
“It was bad times,” he said. “The citizenry wasn’t faring much better than the prisoners.”
Sisters Alice French Anrews and Grace French came from Michigan. Their great-great-grandfather, a Union soldier named William Ferdinand Bowdish, survived for two years after he left the prison.
Andrews began researching Bowdish’s life about 10 years ago, relying on a copy of a journal he kept that was transcribed by her mother. She later found out that other relatives have the original journal and letters.
“His health was ruined,” Andrews said. “At least that was the story told. But he made it home to his wife and two daughters.”
The symposium continues today and Sunday with many other talks at Rowan Public Library and tours of historical sites.
“It amazes me every year, somebody brings something new,” said Sue Curtis, chairwoman of the symposium.
Carle said some of his best friends descended from men who were guards at the Salisbury Prison.
“There’s no bitterness,” he said. “We’re all trying to put together pieces of the puzzle.”
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