Western Reserve College and the Civil War
“Our duty was entirely with guarding the two confederate prisons. As long as the camp was fully manned it was not severe, but when a considerable part of the force was called away it was pretty hard, some of the time the men were on duty every day right along for nearly twenty days in eight hour watches; (I am not quite sure as to the eight hour arrangement, but it averaged half the time for every man) I was officer of the day every other day. This was in July - Morgan’s raid in Ky. Only 5 companies were left in Camp. Men returned in about a fortnight or three weeks. There was some fear of an attempt of the prisoners to rise; and to give them the impression that there was still a sufficient number of guards the commandant used sometimes to have a great fuss made at guard-mounting in the way of drumming and band music, and now and then the music played as for a new regiment coming into camp. Of course the prisoners could hear but not see. There were several attempts by outsiders to communicate with the prisoners, especially with the officers prison where we had John Morgan’s brother at the time. The method was usually by throwing packages over the high fence at night, and one or two offenders were caught.”
“There were occasional attempts to dig out. One night when I was officer of the day I had to take a squad and go into the prison at midnight to investigate one of the houses in respect to which the commandant had obtained some information, - how I don’t know. We turned the occupants out, and found a tunnel some forty feet long. It had not quite reached the outer stockade, and would have required considerable more work to finish. Then on general principles we overhauled all the houses nearest the stockade in that prison, and found three more mines, one of them almost through to the outside. So far as I know no prisoners escaped Camp Chase that summer by tunnelling.”
In August, the US and Confederates agreed to a prisoner exchange. Company B was ultimately tasked with taking a group of approximately 1,000 prisoners from Ohio down to Vicksburg and to bring the Union troops received in exchange back North. Charles A. Young recounted the experience in the same 1904 letter:
“We arrived at Cairo on the 28th (Thursday), and there took on 200 more prisoners from Camp Morton. We had three transports, the Champion, the largest and finest boat on the river, the Chancellor, and I think, the Pringle; but as to the last I am not certain: below Memphis we had another, the Emerald, and I am not certain which, the Emerald or Pringle, started from Cairo. We had lost two prisoners at Cincinnati in the change of cars there in the evening: they violated their parole and, I suppose made their way over into Kentucky; I was told that they lived in or near Covington. From Cairo we were escorted by the gunboats Eastport and Queen of the West. We all carried flags of truce. We reached Memphis on the 30th, having been much delayed by the Eastport which kept getting aground. My own quarters were on the Champion with Capt. Lazelle of the Regular Army, who had been captured and paroled in Texas with Gen. Wool. Gen. Sherman was at the time in command at Memphis, and I reported to him. We staid there over night. The people were very surly and once as we (Lieut. Cutler and I) were walking through the street a couple of women spit at us."
“Here the Eastport and Queen of the West dropped us and their places were taken by the Louisville and Benton (iron-clads) fresh from Forts Henry and Donelson. The rest of our trip to Milliken’s Bend at the mouth of the Yazoo was without incident, and the whole trip was not uncomfortable except for the heat and mosquitoes. We reached the Bend, about six miles above Vicksburg, on the evening of Sept. 9th, and lay there four days, discharging our prisoners into boats sent up from Vicksburg, and receiving in exchange 350 Federal prisoners to be taken to Helena, Memphis, and Cairo. Here the Benton, I think, left us, tho[u]gh I am not sure that she did not go North with us some little distance. At any rate the gun-boat Tylor joined us here, and with the Louisville accompanied us as far as Memphis, beyond which point convoy was not considered necessary."
“Our progress northward was very slow; the gunboats could hardly make headway against the current. On the night of the 14-15 we met the second convoy of Confederate prisoners coming down, and Capt. Lazelle left us, turning over the command of the flotilla to me. We were very glad to get rid of him, for he had been anything but agreeable. On the 17th, about six miles above Napoleon, we were fired upon by a secesh picket on the Eastern bank. Their balls did not reach us, but the gunboats shelled them in very lively fashion for about ten minutes, without hurting anybody so far as I could learn. The rascals were in the woods and cleared out very quickly. The next day I received a communication from the Confederate commandant apologizing for this firing on a flag of truce, and promising to punish the offender. On the 18th we met a brigade of Federal troops on their way south. On the 19th we arrived at Helena about noon, turned over the men who were to delivered there, and took on coal enough to take us to Memphis, - all they could spare. Reached Memphis late on the 20th, got rid of the gunboats, landed some men, coaled, and started for Cairo very early on Monday morning where we arrived on Tuesday Sept. 23d in time to discharge the rest of our Federal prisoners, and one or two passengers who had been allowed to come North with us, among them one or two ladies. In the evening we took train at Cairo for Columbus and arrived there on Wed. the 24th. I was so tired and used up after getting through the duties at Cairo that I just curled up on the floor in a corner of the car and slept for nearly twelve hours until we reached Richmond Ind. on the border of Ohio. On the 26th and 27th we were paid off, mustered out, and discharged, and on Monday morning the 29th we started for home. Some of the fellows did not go to Cleveland but went home some nearer way; most of the men however kept with us as far as Cleveland, and scattered from there, not returning to Hudson for a week or ten days."
“Our military service was not very glorious, but I think it was really useful: The boys released for service in the field more than their own number of seasoned soldiers who otherwise would have had to be retained at the camp.”
“And I think they saved the College, for very few of them afterwards left the institution, as they would have been likely to do but for their brief experience of soldiering which saved them from the draft in 1863.”
“With all best wishes
Sincerely yours
C.A. Young”
Sources
For more information about Western Reserve College and the Civil War, see the list of published histories on our CWRU Archives Sources page. In addition to the published histories, information comes from Board of Trustees records and other Western Reserve College records in the Case Western Reserve University Archives.
The College did not keep records of all students who withdrew to serve in the military. But an 1873 directory of military service lists 140 students and three faculty. Frederick C. Waite, WRU historian, estimated that 400 Medical alumni served.
