Abraham Lincoln's crucial blockade order on Southern ports is purchased by Illinois governor and wife and donated to presidential library in Springfield

Lincoln issued this order just after Fort Sumter fell (Photo: ALPLM)

President Abraham Lincoln’s monumental order that launched the “Anaconda Plan,” a strategy intended to place a stranglehold on the Confederacy, has been purchased and donated by Illinois’ governor and first lady to a library dedicated to the 16^th president.

Just a few days after the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln issued the order, which called for a naval blockade of vital Southern ports, to be imposed in conjunction with land assaults. The seven states cited in the order had seceded from the Union by that time.

The office of Gov. J.B. Pritzker made the donation announcement Tuesday. The news was first reported by the Associated Press.

Pritzker and his wife M.K., who purchased the blockade order on behalf of the people of Illinois, on Tuesday visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

The document will be available for viewing in the ALPLM Treasures Gallery beginning Wednesday and will remain on display until February 2025, when it will be transferred to the ALPLM vault for safekeeping, a news release said.

Cartoon of Anaconda Plan with caricatures (Library of Congress)

“To me, this document – and the museum as a whole – serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come,” said the governor. “Despite our divisions and challenges, more than 150 years later, our nation perseveres.” 

Steve Lansdale with Heritage Auctions confirmed to the Picket that the document was sold for $471,000 in July 2023. The document – formally entitled “Order to Affix Seal of the United States to a Proclamation of a Blockade” – had been owned by anonymous private collectors.

Lansdale says the company does not release information on buyers or sellers, and Pritzker’s office declined to provide details on the purchase or price.

Andy Hall, who has written extensively about the blockade, wrote in his Dead Confederates blog that Lincoln’s proclamation “was one of a series of actions and reactions that expanded the conflict between the national government in Washington and that of the seceded southern states. The blockade order was, most directly, a response to Jefferson Davis’ call on April 17 for privateers to obtain Confederate letters of marque to attack U.S. shipping.”

While the one-page order is now at the Lincoln library, the fuller proclamation is kept at the National Archives.

Harper's Weekly depiction of chase of a blockade runner (Library of Congress)

The blockade was meant to prevent the export of cotton from the South to foreign nations and the import of essential supplies into the Confederacy, according to Pritzker’s office.

The Lincoln document reads in full:

"I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to a Proclamation setting on foot a Blockade of the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, dated this day and signed by me and for so doing this shall be his warrant. Abraham Lincoln, Washington, 19th April, 1861."

Dr. Ian Hunt, the ALPLM’s acquisitions director, said the order captures Lincoln at an unprecedented moment of crisis.

“A lesser president might have dithered and delayed while searching for a ‘safe’ option,” Hunt said in a statement. “President Lincoln acted boldly by ordering a blockade. This is the symbolic tip of the spear in his long struggle to save the nation and, ultimately, end slavery."

Hunt, in a library Facebook video, provided some historical background to the Lincoln order. The president's Cabinet had some reservations about the idea, including the possibility it could be construed as recognition of the Confederacy as a nation. Union Gen. Winfield Scott argued a total blockade would be needed to crush the rebellion. 

The blockade required monitoring 3,500 miles of Atlantic and Gulf coastline with180 possible ports of entry, according to the library. “The United States had about 40 working ships at the time. By war’s end, it had 671. The Navy destroyed or captured about 1,500 Southern blockade runners over the course of the war.”

Hunt said the addition of the document to the library is "phenomenal."

'Thunder on the Bay': Reenactment, camp on sandy Alabama island recall siege of Fort Gaines, other clashes during the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay

(All photos by Civil War Picket)

The weather was near-perfect on Saturday as I donned a healthy dose of sunscreen and visited two Rebel forts that guarded Mobile, Ala., during the Civil War.

Our first stop was Fort Morgan State Historic Site, about 23 miles west of Gulf Shores. We then took a 35-minute car ferry across Mobile Bay to Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island for a reenactment.

Both forts saw action and surrendered in August 1864 during the Federal campaign for control of the port of Mobile and the waterway.

The battle was made famous by Union Rear Adm. David Farragut and his paraphrased command, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead” as his fleet maneuvered past Fort Morgan into the bay. (Click video above to see firing of gun)

On the way to Fort Gaines, our boat skirted natural gas platforms and large tankers, including one that steamed past, with dolphins leaping from the water at the bow.

The main event over the weekend was Fort Gaines’ “Thunder on the Bay” marking the 160^th anniversary of the Battle of Mobile Bay.

An encampment, living history, cannon fires and scores of reenactors in period uniforms greeted a sizeable crowd. A battle was held on Saturday, with a tactical exercise the next afternoon.

Pleasure boats a couple hundred yards from the fort  took in the fun and musket and artillery fire. Natural gas platforms also added a modern backdrop.

Among the participants were the Walton Guard, 6^th Alabama Cavalry and the Alabama Division of Reenactors. The 5^th Alabama Infantry Regiment Band, which maintains a busy schedule, provided music. 

It had been a while since I attended a re-enactment. This one was action-packed and there was plenty of flanking movement as Federal troops moved from the beach and to the fort. Saturday's battle ended with solemn music, including Taps.

Andrew Banasik named next superintendent at Antietam National Battlefield

Longtime Civil War history enthusiast Andrew Banasik next month will become superintendent of Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland.

“I'm humbled to be chosen to care for such a consequential treasure of American history,” Banasik said in a news release. “I'm excited to bring my passion for caring for park staff and resources, serving our visitors and partnering for the future.” He starts May 19.

The National Park service tallies 22,720 men on both sides killed, wounded or missing/captured at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, making it the bloodiest single day in U.S. history.

Banasik will move from a similar position at Monocacy National Battlefield, about 25 miles away. He has had a couple stints at that Civil War site near Frederick.

NPS regional director Kym A. Hall touts Banasik’s 25 years of park experience.

“At Monocacy, he integrated the park’s natural and cultural resources management programs, and preserved and protected historic structures, archeological sites, historic landscapes and wildlife habitat,” Hall said in the release. “He also expanded recreation opportunities by improving trails and park view sheds. I believe he will bring that tenacity and creative problem solving to his new role at Antietam.”

Banasik has also worked at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland and for the National Capital Region Exotic Plant Management Team.

A rare copy of photographer George Barnard's album recording William Sherman's campaign is up for auction. Here's why he was a master of memory and artistry

Rebel works in front of Atlanta and a scene of ruined depot in Charleston (Fleischer's Auctions)

Keith F. Davis recalls visiting a New York City gallery in 1977. On display was the full set of 61 images from George N. Barnard’s “Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,” a volume that documents the general’s game-changing conquest of Atlanta, Georgia and South Carolina.

What Davis saw set him off on a journey of discovery.

“They were quiet, without obvious action, and many were primarily ‘landscape’ photographs,” he says. “They were more about memory and meditation than ‘action’. All in all, I felt puzzled and challenged by this work, because it didn’t easily conform to what I had expected to see.”

Davis felt challenged by the photographs and began a deep study of them and the man, eventually leading to a book on the subject. Today, Davis is the leading authority on Barnard, who ranks among the top echelon of Civil War photographers – Gardner, O’Sullivan, Cook, Rees, Reekie, Gibson and Brady.

“None of them surpassed Barnard in terms of technical or creative skill,” says Davis (photo, left), a photography curator, author and collector. “It’s hard to say that any one of them was 'the best' but Barnard was second to none.” 

A rare copy of “Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,” thought to belong to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and signed in 1886 by his son Philemon, will be up for bid during Fleischer’s Auctions’ May 14-15 sale in Columbus, Ohio. (Sherman died in 1891.)

The Barnard album is among the top Sherman-related items in the auction. Notable items from the family, many of whom live in western Pennsylvania, include the general’s copy of the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, with his annotations, a trunk and saber used early in the Civil War, shoulder straps with rank insignia, photographs of Sherman and his daughter Minnie and a family Bible.

“These items … may represent the most important sale of Civil War artifacts in recent memory,” company president Adam Fleischer said in a statement. “It is my sincere hope that through this process, these items will find themselves in the hands of individuals or institutions who will preserve them, ensuring that General Sherman's story endures and continues to enrich our collective understanding of such a pivotal era in American history."

The auction includes relics of the Revolutionary War, the African-American experience (including a broadside used to recruit soldiers during the Civil War) and the Wild West.

Steve Davis, author of several books on the Atlanta Campaign, including “What theYankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta,” told the Picket that Union Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs took interest in Barnard’s work and asked him to photograph Nashville. The photographer also traveled to Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tenn.

Barnard, a pioneer in the field, served as the official photographer of the Military Division of the Mississippi, led by Sherman.

On July 28, 1864, Capt. Orlando Poe, Sherman's chief engineer, wired Barnard, "Hold yourself in readiness to take the field if telegraphed to that effect." A few days after Atlanta fell, on September 4, Poe telegraphed Barnard to join him.

“A week or so later -- we're unsure of the date -- Barnard arrived in Atlanta and was soon taking pictures of the city, its surrounding fortifications and the battlefields of July,” said Steve Davis.

Interestingly, a famous Barnard photograph of Sherman astride a horse (above, Library of Congress) is not included in the book.

On October 1, 1864, Sherman wrote his wife Ellen, "I sent you a few days ago some photographs, one of which Duke was very fine. He stood like a gentleman for his portrait, and I like it better than any I ever had taken." Sherman wore formal attire for the camera session – sash, sword and all.

“Barnard's famous picture of him sitting on Duke in a Rebel fort west of the city is iconic,” says Steve Davis (photo, left).

The volume -- featuring 10 x 13 inches images -- includes scenes of the occupation of Nashville, battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the Atlanta Campaign, Savannah, Ga., and South Carolina. In May 1866, Barnard traced the route of Sherman's North Georgia campaign, taking pictures at Resaca and elsewhere.

When Barnard arrived in Atlanta he took more, including his famous views of the downtown area that had been burned by the Federals before they left on November 15-16, 1864, says Steve Davis.) Many copies of the volume are held by museums and other institutions.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said Barnard's contract with the Army called for him to principally take photos of fortifications, and he took many.

“We're lucky that he had time to take photos of the Ponder house, car shed, etc.” says Crawford, who has led many tours of areas that were key in Civil War Atlanta.

“His 1866 photos destroy the myth that all of Atlanta was burned to the ground, since many of the same buildings appear in his 1864 photos,” says Crawford. “As Steve Davis writes in his book, destruction was concentrated along the rail lines, where many of the factories and warehouses were located.”

Remarkable clouds above railroad destruction in Atlanta (Fleischer's Auctions)

The Picket asked Keith F. Davis about Barnard’s techniques, artistry and legacy. He responded by email. The responses have been edited.

Q. What is the significance of this collection of his works? Apparently, relatively few of the volumes were made.

A. In its ambition, seriousness and artistic quality, Barnard’s album is one of the greatest photographic works in American history. Of course, it is one of two comparable productions of the immediate post-Civil War period. Alexander Gardner’s “Sketchbook,” with 100 original albumen prints, was issued in early 1866. Barnard’s “Sherman’s Campaign,” with 61 original prints was completed in the fall of 1866. Both were marketed to a wealthy and elite community of buyers -- largely former Union officers -- and sold by prospectus. Neither of these expensive works was ever intended for anything like “general” or “popular” sale. They were rare, deluxe collectibles, not “books” in any traditional sense. These are very different albums -- they cover different aspects of the war, with no overlap at all, and they cover their respective territories in distinct ways.

Barnard’s album was produced in an original edition of 100 to 150 copies, and priced at $100. Not very many have survived today, intact and in good condition. Some were lost or damaged over the years, and since the 1970s, a significant number have been cut up so that prints could be sold individually.

Q. Why did you choose to write about Barnard? What is his contribution to wartime journalism?

A. I became fascinated by Barnard (photo right by Brady, National Portrait Gallery) in 1977, when I was studying with (curator and art historian) Beaumont Newhall, getting my MA at the University of New Mexico. Dover had just issued a paperback reprint of Barnard’s album, with an introduction by Beaumont. I remember him talking about his work in class. In the summer of 1977, I saw an exhibition of a complete (disbound) “Sherman’s Campaign” album at a gallery in New York City -- perhaps the first time the full set of pictures had ever been displayed. I was struck by the quality of Barnard’s contact prints (made from 12x15” wet-collodion negatives) and, most importantly, by the “weirdness” of the whole set. I thought I knew something about the history of war photography, but these pictures seemed distinctly different from whatever “tradition” I knew. They were quiet, without obvious action, and many were primarily “landscape” photographs. They were more about memory and meditation than “action.” 

All in all, I felt puzzled and challenged by this work, because it didn’t easily conform to what I had expected to see. That triggered a deep fascination for Barnard’s life and work. I ended up getting an NEH research fellowship for this work in 1986, and published my book “George N. Barnard: Photographer of Sherman’s Campaign” in 1990, accompanied by a traveling exhibition in 1990-91. I was completely fascinated by the challenge or “problem” of Barnard and in my dozen or more years of intensive research, ended up greatly expanding what was known about him.

My real understanding of 19^th century American photography in general certainly grew from, and around, this project. (Davis also covered the topic in a Civil War chapter in "The Origins of American Photography: From Daguerreotype to Dry-Plate” below, 2007)

Barnard wasn’t primarily a “photojournalist.” A number of his works were reproduced in the illustrated papers of the day, and some stereographs were sold to a popular market. Primarily, however, he was working as a civilian employee of the Union Army’s Engineering Department, creating images that were primarily used for internal military use.

Of course, these boundaries were fluid: Barnard was friends with Theodore Davis, a skilled sketch artist and writer for “Harper’s Weekly”; he maintained connections to the commercial firm of E. and H. T. Anthony, which marketed war images to the general public; and, of course, he was a self-motivated entrepreneur who conceived, created and marketed his album to the elite audience described above.

Q. Can you speak to his technical and creative skills?

A. Barnard was extremely accomplished in both technical and aesthetic terms. He had been a daguerreotypist for more than a decade, then had worked for the Anthonys in New York City, and for Alexander Gardner in Washington, D.C. So, he was hugely experienced. In the field, he preferred his 12x15” view camera, making negatives of that size, and final prints that trimmed down to about 11x14”. And, as we know, he was an American pioneer in printing-in clouds from a second negative -- there are numerous instances of this in his “Sherman’s Campaign” album.

This technical labor was clearly not needed for strictly “documentary” purposes. Rather, he did it for aesthetic reasons, to make images that were both informative and artistic. And that gets to the key nature of his album. Rather than a “simple” work of documentation, it is instead something more complicated: a factual collection of places/views that combines memory, poetry and artistry in order to evoke something about the war’s justification, its horrific costs, and its relation to American character and values. There is a poetic and essentially literary aspect here that makes this album unusual and special.

Barnard's eerie image of McPherson's death site includes horse skull (Fleischer's Auctions)

In part, the nature of the album is a result of when and how the images were made. Barnard held a number of his original negatives from 1864. Once he decided to proceed with the album, he made a re-photographic trip back over the same ground in the spring of 1866 -- to record sites he had not photographed in 1864 and, in general, to enlarge his visual record of the ground that Sherman had covered.

He only printed-in skies in 1866; earlier prints from the same images exist, and they do not have the printed-in skies. Thus, the album blurs two distinct time frames: the 1864 views with troops visible, defensive works in optimum condition, etc; the 1866 prints of some of those negatives, now with cloudscapes; and the new 1866 views, without any evidence of military presence, of battlefields, defensive works, etc., as they stood a year and a half after the events of the war.

Q. Do you know whether he knew Sherman, and if so, to what extent? I understand Barnard worked for the Army and came to Atlanta soon after the surrender.

Barnard used clouds to bring drama to a scene, such as at an Atlanta fort (Fleischer's Auctions)

A. Barnard certainly knew Sherman, and vice versa, but they were not close friends or associates -- the social gap between general and staff photographer was just too great for that. But we know that Sherman supported Barnard’s project when he heard about it, and wrote a warm letter of endorsement. Barnard was aided in all of this by his superior, Orlando M. Poe, who was Sherman’s chief engineer. Poe supported Barnard consistently: he allowed Barnard to keep some of his wartime negatives for his own postwar use, and in 1866 he contacted Sherman and other generals to promote (and solicit buyers for) Barnard’s album.

Q. Do you have any anecdotes about his time in Atlanta and in the Carolina?

A. Barnard was a distinctly intelligent, ethical and upright man. He supported the Union cause wholeheartedly and was an abolitionist from the start. There is also, however, clear evidence that the death and devastation of the war shocked him to the core. He accompanied Sherman’s troops on the March to the Sea but – notably -- made not a single photograph along the way. They were moving quickly, sure, but if he had really wanted to make images, he could have found a way to do it. This says something to me about his dismay at what he saw Union troops doing along the way.

Capitol in Nashville and view from Lookout Mountain, click to enlarge (Fleischer's Auctions)

Q. Which of the photographs in the book particularly stand out?

A. In terms of my favorite individual images, that’s a bit difficult, since I love the totality of the album, but I have always been particularly fond of:

-- The Capitol, Nashville

-- Chattanooga Valley from Lookout Mountain

-- Scene of Gen McPherson’s Death

-- Rebel Works in Front of Atlanta No. 3

-- Destruction of Hood’s Ordnance Train

-- Ruins of the RR Depot, Charleston

Fort Fisher site in North Carolina to rebuild demolished earthworks and temporarily close for move to a new visitor center and museum

Planned traverses (top), reproduction guns, new visitor center, Civil War image (Fort Fisher, Library of Congress)

In a noteworthy project, Fort Fisher State Historic Site near Kure Beach, N.C., in coming months will restore a portion of earthworks that were leveled during World War II to make way for a training base airstrip. The work is in conjunction with a new visitor center.

The park will close Tuesday for a few months as workers relocate exhibits, artifacts and offices to the new 20,000 square-foot building, officials said. All site features west of U.S. 421 will be off-limits to visitors, including the museum, restrooms, tour trail and parking lot. The Battle Acre tour stop will remain available.

The Confederacy’s Fort Fisher was built on the peninsula between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Wilmington. 

On Jan. 15, 1865, after a naval bombardment, the Federal army attacked from the western, river side while Marines pushed in from the northeast bastion. The fall of the “Gibraltar of the South” cut off blockade runners and the last supply line through Wilmington to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. U.S. Colored Troops were among those taking part in the attack. (Click map at left to enlarge)

The visitor center is just north of the east-west line mounds of earth known as traverses that were part of the defenses. Much of the eastern part of the fort has been claimed by the ocean. 

The earthworks reconstruction will be done by Bordeaux Construction, which also built the visitor center. The design is based on historic maps, photographs and descriptions. “The architects at Clark Nexsen are striving for authenticity while also meeting modern safety requirements,” says Fort Fisher site manager Jim Steele.

The Picket asked assistant site manager Chad Jefferds about the significant upgrade at the park. The responses have been edited for brevity.

Q.  I understand all of the park, including staffing, will not be available for the next few months, except for one trail on the east?

A. All site features surrounding the current visitor center will be off the table – especially since there will be demolition of the current visitor center and reconstruction of the earthworks. It’s a safety measure.

New visitor center is in the middle, at left is current one, traverses above them (Fort Fisher)

Q. Regarding the new visitor center/museum, I understand the bottom floor will open sometime in July, with an information desk, restrooms and a gift shop?

A. Our plan based on the current construction schedule is to have a soft opening in July. We will be able to orient visitors, have some educational programming and conduct modified guided tours as well as offer restroom facilities and the gift shop.

Q. The top floor, with all the exhibits, is expected to open around Labor Day, right?

A. This is also correct, based on the current construction schedule.

New fortifications that will be built on site (Fort Fisher)

Q. Regarding "rebuilding the fort" what exactly will that involve? I know there are new reproduction Napoleon artillery pieces.

A. Rebuilding the fort will involve the reconstruction of the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th traverses and center sally port of the land face. These were destroyed during World War II when the Army built an airstrip when the area was used for training anti-aircraft and coastal artillery units. 

With three traverses will come two gun emplacements, and (we) will have a heavy cannon in each, along with two 12-pounder Napoleons in the center sally port.

(Trails map modifications showing new traverses/ Dennis Gast)

There will be a tunnel allowing visitors to pass through the fort at the center sally port as would have been the case originally, along with bombproofs under the traverses. 

This exhibit will allow people to interact with the fort in a whole new way, as the tunnels and bombproofs have been caved in and inaccessible since the late 19th century.

Montage of Timothy O'Sullivan photos of traverses; click to enlarge

Q. Were these features prominent in a particular action at Fort Fisher?

A. Yes. Essentially everything between Shepherd’s Battery on the western end of the fort’s land face and the center sally port were the scenes of intense fighting during the US Army’s assault in January 1865. The fighting went from along the traverses from west to east and was often hand-to-hand.

Archaeological work last summer on site of traverses (Fort Fisher)

Q. New South Associates, a cultural resources management services company, last summer did archaeology work ahead of this. Can you briefly summarize what they found? Did it add any understanding to the Civil War history of the fort?

A. In preparation for rebuilding the fort, New South conducted archaeology on the airstrip targeting where the bombproof under the 8^th traverse was located. We were able to confirm it using measurements taken by US Army engineers after the battle. It definitely added a new layer to our understanding of the fort and its construction. (The team of archaeologist uncovered the remnants of a Civil War ammunition magazine and its connecting tunnels, according to the Wilmington Star-News.)

Q. When do you hope the earthworks construction will begin and conclude?

New earthworks at left, new visitor to their north, at far right (Fort Fisher)

A. Earthworks construction has technically already been underway as workers have been moving dirt from the visitor center construction site to the earthwork construction site. It will begin in earnest within the next month or so, as the concrete forms for the bombproofs and tunnel are completed and arrive on site.

Q. Can you please tell me more about the new museum? Will it be much different from the current one? Will there be any new themes or artifacts? What are the most notable items?

Click to enlarge to see features of new earthworks (Fort Fisher)

A. The new museum will be three times larger than the current one, with more room for groups, educational space, rental opportunities, staff offices, etc. The exhibit area is also larger and will be based on the experiences of the place by the people who lived, fought, and died here.

While Fort Fisher is still the focus, the approach in developing our exhibits was much more driven by people, including underrepresented groups. There will be ways for all our visitors to connect with the shared experiences of this place – something for everyone.

In terms of artifacts and notable items, we do have a few things up our sleeve to help people understand the magnitude of the bombardments that took place here in late 1864 and early 1865.

Q. What do you want Fort Fisher visitors to learn from the museum and visitor center?

A. We all want people to leave here with is a sense of the importance of this place and the shared experiences of the diverse people who have walked before us here. 

Q. Will there be a movie? If so, is it the same as now? Are there any new technology/interactive features in the new museum?

A. In the immediate (future) we will keep the same orientation film we have been using, but we will likely produce a new one as funding becomes available. Budget constraints limited the technological features immediately available, but there is room to expand our interactive features in the future. (Current exhibit, left, Fort Fisher photo)

At Andersonville and elsewhere, crossing the 'deadline' meant death. Whatever the number of incidents, the existence of these barriers kept men in line

A.J. Klapp's drawing of a deadline shooting at Andersonville (Brown University Library)

Before the word deadline became synonymous with getting something done by a specific time, it was associated with a deadly feature of Civil War prisons. A captive crossing the deadline risked death, and there are instances of guards on both sides shooting them.

The deadline was intended to prevent the prison’s growing population from getting too close to the stockade wall, making escape more difficult. It was also supposed to reduce fraternization and trading between the prisoners and guards, according to the National Park Service.

Andersonville National Historic Site on Sunday marked the 160^th anniversary of the completion of the deadline at the site (April 7, 1864). Stockade commander Capt. Henry Wirz had made this a priority.

The light railing was made from posts 3 to 4 feet long and driven into the ground. Horizontal pieces of wood topped the design, which was roughly 18-19 feet inside the stockade wall.

Confederate guards in sentry boxes kept a sharp eye for POWs who extended any part of their body past the deadline. (Not all camps had such features).

The first Union POW to die at Andersonville for crossing the deadline was Caleb Coplan (Copeland), a young Ohioan shot just two days after it was completed.

The prisoner was wandering the northeast corner of the stockade, apparently in search of material to patch his shelter or clothing, wrote William Marvel in “Andersonville: The Last Depot.” (Photo at left courtesy of John Banks' Civil War Blog)

“Something under the dead line caught his eye -- a scrap of flannel, some said -- and he ducked under the line to retrieve it. The guard brought his cumbersome old smoothbore to his shoulder and let fly with a charge of buck-and-ball. The range was too short to miss, and the .75-caliber ball bored through Coplan’s breast near the heart. Onlookers carried him to the hospital tents a few yards away, where he died the next day -- the first man killed at the dead line.” (Photo below of his grave at Andersonville courtesy of Kevin Frye.)

There would be more to come, at Andersonville and other prisons. Archaeology at Camp Lawton near Millen, Ga., has uncovered two Confederate bullets possibly fired at captives.

Those who have researched these prisons express caution about try to tabulate the number of shootings at the deadline.

Prisoners often exaggerated the number; at Andersonville this claim amounted to hundreds. “Sometimes this was done on purpose and sometimes they were simply mistaken or remember incorrectly,” says Teri A. Surber, park guide at Andersonville.

Regardless of where they occurred, shootings at the deadline had a profound psychological impact on POWs.

Surber and Michael Gray, a history professor and author of “Crossing the Deadlines: Civil War Prisons Reconsidered,” said Union prisoners might receive more pension money by showing they suffered during confinement. There was an incentive to lie about being a prisoner or witnessing horrific incidents, they say.

Bob Crickenberger, president of the Friends of Point Lookout (a Union prison in Maryland), said people should be leery of  hearsay stories told years after the war, particularly those that begin with, “I was told”, “I heard,” or “it’s been said.”

“Unless a prisoner was there and was an eyewitness to the shooting, and there were many witnesses, should (a story) be taken as truth. Kind of like all those folks that said Sherman burned their farms when they were miles out of the way when he came through.”

Was this .57-caliber bullet fired at a POW at Camp Lawton? (Georgia Southern U.)

Gray notes that in the last two years of the war, prisoners were often manned by older, extremely young or disabled soldiers and training was an issue. “You are going to send the best men to the front.”

By any measure, life in a Civil War prison was marked by privation and despair. Matters worsened after prisoner exchanges ended by mid-war, resulting in a huge increase in camp populations on both sides.

Between the skill of the guards and the desperation of prisoners, there are documented cases of shootings at the deadline or elsewhere in a camp. Firm numbers are impossible to ascertain, but here’s a look at several, including Elmira, Camp Lawton and Point Lookout:

ANDERSONVILLE/CAMP SUMTER (Georgia – Confederate camp)

A.J. Riddle photo of prisons in August 1864 (Library of Congress)

At Andersonville alone, nearly 13,000 men died over 14 months – an average of more than 30 a day in that span. (Overall, 30,000 Union and 26,000 Confederate soldiers died in captivity during the Civil War). A relative few were shot by guards.

“Drawings of men being shot at the deadline were widely reprinted in Northern newspapers, and today, the term is almost synonymous with Andersonville prison,” according to the NPS.

Surber said there are eight documented cases of a guard shooting a prisoner.. A firm number will likely never be known.

"The only time guards shot at prisoners was when they crossed the deadline or if someone near them crossed it. There is an instance where a man reached over the line to get something, and the guard accidentally shot the man sleeping next to him," the park guide says.

(If someone had a gunshot wound from a battle, they were usually listed as having died of "wounds.")

“One confirmed shooting that I would say was the (wounding) of a man the prisoners called ‘Chickamauga.’ Robert Kellogg and several others wrote about the incident in their diaries or memoirs and also testified about it during the (Henry) Wirz trial. Another is Pvt. William Stewart, 9^th Minnesota Infantry, whose cause of death is recorded as ‘gunshot.’"

During the trial, prisoner George Gray testified that Wirz himself shot Stewart and took some money from him. Wirz (left) denied anything to do with Stewart. “There were rumors that guards were given a 30-day furlough for shooting a prisoner, but there is no actual evidence of that,” Surber says, adding there is no evidence Wirz shot prisoners.

Albert Harry Shatzel of the 1^st Vermont Cavalry wrote that he saw a shooting at the deadline.

“One of the poor Boys shot dead by Guard while geting a cup of watter,” Shatzel wrote, according to Civil War blogger John Banks. “The Ball passed through his head. He stuck his head under the Dead Line to get some watter but he will never go there again. Dam the laws of such men as those are hear for they consider it an honor to murder a man …all in all they are not to blame for they a Furlough of 35 days for every man they kill.”

Surber provided a list of the rare successful escapes at Andersonville.

None of the 33 dug out from the inside; they were already outside or on a work detail when they made a break for freedom.

“The answer to how many were shot while trying to escape is fairly easy,” Surber says. “None, as far as we know. All eight of these men were shot for crossing the deadline and were inside the prison. Of course, it is possible that someone could have been shot while trying to escape, as would be the practice of the day, but there is no way to know for certain.”

(Photo above, re-creation of POWs arriving at Camp Sumter / NPS)

CAMP LAWTON (Georgia – Confederate camp)

POW Robert Knox Sneden's map shows deadline and sentry boxes (Library of Congress)

Camp Lawton operated for about six weeks in the fall of 1864. Prisoners were sent from Andersonville amid worries Union raiders would try to liberate the camp. Of 10,000 troops held at Lawton, at least 750 Federal soldiers died.

Ryan McNutt, director of the Camp Lawton archaeological project at Georgia Southern University, said historical sources are not complete enough to come up with a full count of POWs shot by guards.

“As ever, there are confused and scattered references,” he tells the Picket. “(POW John) McElroy states that he couldn't recall anyone being shot at Lawton for crossing the deadline, and he raised it as a curiosity since every other camp he was at had at least a few instances of executions by guards. However, Cpl. Aldrich said, ‘Once in a while the guards would shoot a poor fellow just to keep his hand in it, still, there was not as much shooting as at Andersonville. One poor fellow was shot within 10 feet of my tent one night and he was not within 10 feet of the deadline.’"

John K. Derden, author and professor emeritus of East Georgia College, said while there are diary accounts mentioning shootings, he found only one incident that was seemingly corroborated. Regardless, there were fewer shootings than at Andersonville.

James Vance wrote in his diary for Nov. 6, 1864). “2 men shot 1 killed. The first ones.” Sgt. Amos Yeakle wrote in his diary the same day, “There was one shot dead by the guard and one wounded for getting over the dead-line.”  

Work more than a decade ago at Confederate barracks area (GSU)

Derden, author of “The World’s Largest Prison: The Story of Camp Lawton,” contends prisoners might hear a guard firing to clear a musket and assume the round was meant for a Federal soldier.

“As for the climate in the prison, I believe that things were a bit less fractious because of the lack of overcrowding, the water situation that allowed prisoners to bathe and even swim, and (at least initially) the somewhat better food supply. Also, Commandant Vowles was generally well liked by the prisoners as opposed to their bitter attitudes toward Wirz at Camp Sumter.”

Regarding the deadline, archaeology seems to indicate about a 30-foot clear space between shebang remains and the wall, says Derden.

McNutt said students have recovered at least two Confederate bullets that may have been fired at the inside of the Lawton stockade. The team in early 2023 found a poorly cast ball, likely fired from a Springfield Model 1842 percussion cap musket (photo below, courtesy of Camp Lawton project).

“Produced in large numbers, and floating around most of the arsenals in the South, these were still used despite the lack of accuracy and range in both the front lines and on the home front by militia. With a maximum range of 365 meters, and an average effective range from 90 to 275 meters, the location of the ball is well within range of the guard towers. And while most of the POWs at Camp Lawton recalled few instances of guards shooting POWs, our fired musket ball, along with other fired rounds from previous work inside the stockade, is a sobering reminder that Lawton still had many ways to die,” the professor writes.

Students led by Lance Greene, his predecessor, in 2010 found a spent .57-caliber bullet at the stockade. The round “has clear signs of rifling from being fired: deformation on the tip seems to show it only striking sand, though this doesn't preclude it having impacted a human,” McNutt says

Later analysis showed three groves and a right-hand twist indicating it was probably fired from a Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket. “Deformation on the nose matches experimental archaeology of impacts into soft surfaces, like sand or loamy soil,” according to McNutt. 

ELMIRA (New York – Union camp)

Confederate POWs at Elmira (Library of Congress)

Elmira did not have a deadline, even though it was a stockade prison. The camp was dubbed “Hellmira” by prisoners because of its 24 percent mortality rate. Gray said there are records of a Union guard shooting a Confederate prisoner.

According to the Star Gazette newspaper, Granville Garland shot A.P. Potts of the 38^th Georgia Infantry during a July 31, 1864, disturbance. Potts survived.

Inmates at Elmira weathered hunger, illness and melancholia and, even worse, exposure to the cold weather, according to the National Park Service.

POINT LOOKOUT (Maryland – union camp)

(Library of Congress)

The overcrowded prison saw 4,000 Confederate prisoners succumb to various causes, especially disease. Some were killed by guards, according to experts and histories. About 52,000 Union soldiers went through the prison.

The camp’s deadline was a ditch inside the prison approximately 15 feet from the parapet wall. The ditch was a foot wide by a foot deep.

Official records show African-American guards, some formerly enslaved, sometimes shot prisoners for crossing the deadline or trying to escape, says Gray. The prison is known for its racial tension.

“One commanding officer claimed that the black guards were more zealous than the white when it came to enforcement of prison regulations and were apt to fire first while calling for the corporal of the guard,” says Crickenberger.

He estimates 19 prisoners were shot and killed or wounded by white and black guards between November 1863 and August 1864 alone. Prisoners reported that there were instances where guards fired at prisoners without inflicting casualties. (Photo, Friends of Point Lookout)

“They shot frequently but missed more often than they hit,” Crickenberger says. “Regardless of the accuracy of the guard, such incidents kept prisoners on their toes making them wary and continually fearful of being shot either night or day.”

A Confederate prisoner drew notable watercolors of life at the prison, including interactions with guards. It should be noted that black POWs held at Andersonville faced discrimination from friend and foe alike.

The friends group has helped restore the fort, the southwest corner of the stockade and assists with living histories and demonstrations of camp life.

ROCK ISLAND (Illinois-Iowa – Union camp)

The deadline at Rock Island consisted of a series of white stakes (left, photo Rock Island Arsenal Museum) that were illuminated by lanterns at night, according to the NPS.

The barracks were enclosed by a stockade fence 1,300 feet long, 900 feet wide and 12 feet high. Sentry boxes were placed every 100 feet.

During the 20 months the prison was open, 1,960 prisoners and 171 Union guards died.

The North had reduced rations in retaliation for the treatment of Union prisoners at Andersonville. Conditions at Federal prisons often were deplorable.