Salisbury Prison Camp

[Gerry]

Well i have looked in a few places and have not been able to dig up much records. My ancestor, Christian Shoemaker of the 98th PA Co. A, was take prisoner and brought to Salisbury Prison Camp. I have tried a lot but i am just not able to find a lot of information on both the prison it self and the men who went there. :confused_ If anyone could lend me a hand i would be very thankful.

[Dignann]

Re: Salisbury Prison Camp

Gerry,

I guess it kinda depends on what type of info you're looking for. Although I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the info, here are a few websites that provide some background on the prison:

http://www.salisburyprison.org/

http://salisburyprison.gorowan.com/

http://www.salisburync.gov/prison/1.html

Eric

[edwardwatson]

Re: Salisbury Prison Camp

I'll try to get to the library in the next few days and look-up your ancestor. The reference room has a book on the prison and I believe it lists all those buried. I live about 20 miles from the prison.

[Gerry]

Re: Salisbury Prison Camp

oh wow, thank you Ed.

I am basically looking for any records i can find. I dont have a any good ideas or know what to do in order to find some things.

[edwardwatson]

Re: Salisbury Prison Camp

Gerry,
Stopped by the library today and checked that book for your ancestor, sorry, no luck. There were other Shoemaker's listed but not yours. Most of the lists in the long appendix were of soldiers that died in the camp or were hospitalized, diserted to the Confederacy, etc. The book I checked was _The Salisbury Prison: A Case Study of Confederate Military Prisons, 1861-1865_ by Louis A Brown published by by Broadfoot: Wilmington, NC, 1992. I found it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Salisbury-Pris...e=UTF8&s=books

Do you have his service record, did he die at the prison? You may try to email Gretchen Witt (wittgb@co.rowan.nc.us) the librarian at the local history room in the Rowan County Library.

I'll try to dig around a little more but had hoped to hit pay dirt in that book. Wish I had better news. Good luck!

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Salisbury Prison Camp

Mr McGowan, one free resource you might look into: pop into your local phone book and look for a Family History Center run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons). They're free to the public and most offer a regular series of free workshops on researching anscestors, with topics including searching government records (many of which will be on microfilm, fiche, and CD right there in the library, to use for free), and accessing atypical records. They can help you order in records, too (though there may be a small fee associated with the postage for borrowing some records from certain repositories.)

Those Family History Centers can be a good, free resource for research training and specific records. Might be a direction to take in looking for more information on this ancestor.

[10TnVI]

Re: Salisbury Prison Camp

IN the book "Images from the Storm"(ISBN 0-7432-2360-8) a collection of the CW images of Robert Knox Sneden (who's memoir-Eye of the Storm-is also available, there is a drawing of Salisbury Prison on page 200, drawn during Feburary of 1864. Sneden's accompanying diary entry is below:

Feburary 24, 1864 "we were marched into the [ Salisbury, N.C. ] prison yard for the night, there were about eighty of us. Here we met several hundred of our fellow prisoners who were dirt begrimed, ragged, and in a deplorable state, covered with mud from the yard which looked and smelt like a hog pen. They shouted ' Fresh fish, where did you come from? What army do you belong to? Where is Meade? and a hundred other questions all at once. There were five or six ragged sibley tents in the yard with the mud a foot thick all around them and dozens of skeleton looking prisioners crowded around us."