United States, Records of Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1865

What is in This Collection?

This collection consists of an explanation of the records (which is listed as an index) and 429 volumes of Confederate Prisoners of War records. Most of the records are from the War Department's Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners. Others are from the Surgeon General's Office, a few Army commands, and individual prison camps. These records are for the years 1861 to 1865. National Archives microfilm publication M598, Selected Records of the War Department Relating to Confederate Prisoners of War,1861-1865.

This collection consists of the following lists and registers:

The collection is divided into the following levels of search:

1. AIDE: Index to Volumes - This search is not a name index. It lists the full description given by the National Archives and Records Administration of the individual lists.
2. The lists arranged by locality. Many of these localities are further divided by individual lists.

These lists may be have any of the following:

• Alphabetical arrangement
• Chronological arrangement
• Name index (at the beginning or end of the list)

This collection includes prisoner lists from the following locations:

AR, Little Rock, Military Prison	MO, St. Louis, Gratiot & Myrtle Streets Prisons
DC, Washington, Old Capitol Prison	MO, St. Louis, Gratiot & Myrtle Streets Prisons
DE, Ft. Delaware, Military Prison	MS, Ship Island NY, Elmira, Military Prison
Department of Missouri	NY, Ft. Columbus, Military Prison
Department of the Gulf	NY, Ft. Lafayette, Military Prison
Department of Ohio	NY, Hart Island, Prison Camp
District of West Tennessee, Provost Marshal's Office	OH, Camp Chase, Military Prison
Division of West Mississippi	OH, Cincinnati, McLean Barracks
IL, Alton, Military Prison	OH, Johnson's Island, Military Prison
IL, Camp Butler, Military Prison	Records of Several Prisons
IL, Camp Douglas, Military Prison	Records relating to all prisoners
IL, Rock Island Barracks, Military Prison	SC, Hilton Head, Prison Camp
IN, Camp Morton, Military Prison	TN, Knoxville
KY, Louisville, Military Prison	TN, Memphis, Military Prison
LA, New Orleans	TN, Nashville, Department of the Cumberland
MA, Ft. Warren, Military Prison	VA, Bowling Green, Provost Marshal's Office
MD, Ft. McHenry, Military Prison	VA, Newport News, Military Prison
MD, Point Lookout, Military Prison	VA, Richmond

"The War Department appointed Lt. Col. William Hoffman to be Commissary General of Prisoners in October 1861. Col. Hoffman was responsible for overseeing the handling and treatment of Confederate prisoners of war. In July 1862, the War Department established the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners, an independent agency within the Department, which was responsible for the supervision of Confederate prisoners of war and political prisoners confined in Union prisons. The Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners was abolished and the Confederate records eventually became part of the Collection of Confederate Records in the War Department. That collection now comprises National Archives Record Group 109, War Department Collection of Confederate Records."

Opposing armies kept an account of war prisoners so as to effectively trade them for their own soldiers. Prisoners were exchanged on the following basis:

• 1 general = 46 privates
• 1 major general = 40 privates
• 1 brigadier general = 20 privates
• 1 colonel = 15 privates
• 1 lieutenant colonel = 10 privates
• 1 major = 8 privates
• 1 captain = 6 privates
• 1 lieutenant = 4 privates
• 1 noncommissioned officer = 2 privates

More information on this can be found at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine's cached page of the American Wars 101 article, Union and Confederate Prisoner of War Camps.

Related National Archives Collections

• War Department. Office of the Quartermaster General. Office of the Commissioner for Locating and Marking Confederate Graves. (1906 - 10/23/1912)
• War Department. Office of the Commissioner for Locating and Marking Confederate Graves. (1906 - 10/23/1912)
• Records of General Marcus J. Wright Relating to Confederate Graves and Cemeteries, 1898–1899
• List of Confederate Dead at Rock Island, Illinois, 1912–1912
• General Correspondence, Reports, Workbooks, and Congressional Publications, 1908–1916
• Monument Rubbings of Confederate Soldiers' Headstones, 1914 ?–1918 ?
• Register of Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Who Died in Federal Prisons and Military Hospitals in the North, 1914–1914
• Correspondence, Burial Lists, Plans, and Photographs Relating to Cemeteries for Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Who Died as Prisoners of War in Northern Prisons, 1907–1912

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

To Browse This Collection

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for United States, Records of Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1865.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

Information in these records generally include the following:

• Name of prisoner
• Name of prison
• Date of entry in the report, list, or ledger
• Reason for entry in the repost, list, or ledger

Depending on the list, the following information may also be included:

Collection Content

Sample Image

• 

  1864 Ledger of Prisoners' Accounts