This log garrison home is the only surviving structure once used by the prison that stood across the street from it during the Civil War.
In 1861, the Confederate Government purchased about 16 acres of land here that included an abandoned three story cotton mill, a boiler house, six tenements, several smaller buildings, and a superintendent’s house. A stockade was built around the buildings and the first 120 prisoners arrived in December 1861, serving as the first and only Civil War prison in North Carolina. It housed Confederate and Union deserters, POWs, convicts, and political prisoners. They lived in relative comfort, they published a newspaper, presented lectures, passed the time by making trinkets, played baseball, and engaged in theatrical productions.
“The prison population increased to about 1,400 by late May 1862, when the inmates were paroled and returned to the Union. These POWs lived in relative comfort, passing the time by making trinkets, playing baseball, and even engaging in theatrical productions. After their departure, POWs at Salisbury Prison were outnumbered by Yankee deserters and dissident Confederates. This period of “normalcy” suddenly ended in early October 1864, when 10,000 prisoners began arriving at a facility that was intended to hold only 2,500. This huge increase, which resulted from the fall of Atlanta and the ongoing siege of Richmond, made it easier for the Union army to rescue its POWs. Salisbury received some of the Richmond prisoners, and after October 1864, the majority of newly captured Union POWs.” https://www.ncpedia.org/confederate-prison-salisbury
However, when Atlanta fell in Oct.1864, the prison population suddenly spiked to 10,000. In a facility designed for 2,500, thousands had to sleep outside on the ground as overnight temps fell to freezing. All available indoor space was quickly taken by the sick and wounded, and the only anesthetic available for surgery was whiskey. To ensure a stable supply of this medication, the confederacy took over a distillery just outside of Salisbury. Food was not fit to eat and filth brought lice and rampant disease.
Dozens died daily from starvation and disease. Escape was considered almost necessary to save one’s life. Tunnel escapes became popular, but only 300 reached Union lines. According to one prisoner, the easiest way to “get out of this cursed place“ was to defect to the Confederacy. Prisoner’s diaries often mention their faith in God, and Christian services were held at the prison. Occasionally, Salisbury residents would hear the sound of a familiar hymn coming from the prison and as one citizen recalled, it was like “a thought of heaven from a field of graves“. Bodies were collected daily at the “dead house“ and hauled in a one horse wagon to trenches in a nearby “old cornfield”.
I recently visited that cornfield, which is now the Salisbury National Cemetery, where 11,700 unnamed Civil War soldiers are buried. I was told by the grounds keeper that the death rate was so high and so fast, they had a hard time keeping up with burying them. He said sometimes soldiers’ diseased bodies were laid beside the trenches while they were still alive (but dying), and once they passed they were rolled down into the trenches with the others.
The prison was burned in 1865, three days after General Lee surrendered and two days before Lincoln was assassinated. This home is all that remains.
