The N.C. Society of Historians, established in 1941, held its annual awards program Oct. 17 in Mooresville, and Ed and Sue Curtis of Salisbury were among the recipients.

Awards were presented by President Elizabeth Bray Sherrill to those sharing the history of people, places and events in North Carolina. The Curtises were recognized for their work in connection to the Salisbury Confederate Prison, which was active from December 1861 to February 1865.

Ed Curtis received a Joe M. McLaurin Newsletter Award as editor of  “The Prison Exchange,” the newsletter of the Salisbury Confederate Prison Association Inc.

This eight-page quarterly newsletter is received by members as well as some libraries and museums.  The newsletters included historical information gathered from official records, publications, letters and diaries; biographies with images of Pennsylvania and New York prisoners of war; biographies on guards from Cabarrus and Wilkes County; the ninth annual list of historical books that reference the prison or those who were there; an 1864 calendar; and several sketches of the prison.

Ed Curtis included announcements about talks and tours given by members in and out of North Carolina, donations made to the Hefner VA Medical Center for hospitalized veterans and to the LandTrust for Central North Carolina toward the preservation of Fort York, books written by members, a picture project of those connected with the prison in cooperation with the Historic Salisbury Foundation and the Rowan Museum and placement of wreaths during public and private memorial services.

Curtis helped produce the newsletter, which is mailed to members throughout the United States, Canada, and South Korea.

Salisbury Confederate Prison Association President Sue Curtis accepted a Malcolm Fowler Society Award for the SCPA’s work in accumulating and preserving history. A Paul Green Multimedia Award also was presented to Sue Curtis, chairman for the 18th Annual Salisbury Confederate Prison Symposium, hosted by the Robert F. Hoke Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, April 17-19.

The symposium featured a banquet, seven lectures, two memorial services and a tour of the prison site. Attendees were from Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.