Castle Morgan: The Cahaba Federal Prison
The Cahaba Federal Prison at Cahaba Alabama was unofficially known as
"Castle Morgan" after Confederate cavalryman John Hunt Morgan.
The prison was first used as a staging area for the larger prison at
Andersonville, Georgia. It was originally intended to house 500 prisoners
but as Andersonville became overcrowded it was reestablished as a
regular facility. By March 1864 the population had grown to 660 and by
the end of the war it was housing over 2,000 persons.
Colonel Sam Jones was commander of the post at Cahaba. He was
responsible for the garrison and prison guards. Captain H. A. M.
Henderson was responsible for operating the prison. Unlike Colonel
Jones, Captain Henderson was much admired by the prisoners for his
humane treatment. He was a Methodist minister who later presided at the
funeral of President Grant’s mother.
During his service at Cahaba Henderson worked diligently to effect
prisoner exchanges and to acquire basic provisions. In November 1864
Henderson sent 100 sick and wounded prisoners to Savannah and 400 to
Meridian for exchange. In December he negotiated with federal officials
to supply clothing for 2,000 prisoners under a flag of truce.
Opened in June of 1863, the prison was improvised from an uncompleted
cotton warehouse owned by Colonel Samuel M. Hill. Colonel Hill started
the warehouse construction anticipating the success of the Cahaba Marion
Greensboro Railroad. The Confederacy took up the railroad and its assets
to complete the more strategic Selma Meridian Railroad to Demopolis.
The brick walled warehouse Measured 193 feet by 116 ft. The roof was
completed just over one half of the warehouse building. It was
surrounded by a stockade of 2-inch thick planks set 3 ft into the ground
with a walkway at the top. Tiers of wooden bunks in the completed roofed
section slept 432 men. Water was supplied from a natural spring that ran
200yards in an open ditch through the town and through the building to
the water closet and finally into the Alabama River. The water closet
could accommodate 4 men.
There was a single fireplace in the building and fires were sometimes
built upon the earthen floor of the barracks. Cooking was done by the
prisoners on open fires outside the building within the stockade. They
were given a ration of cornmeal and bacon that was often rancid.
In February of 1865 the prisoners were shoulder deep in freezing Alabama
River floodwaters for 4 days. Finally they were allowed into the nearby
woods to collect cordwood to stand on.
Cahaba survivor Private Jesse Hawes was one of few who published memoirs
of their experiences. His 1888 publication unfavorable compared the
misery of Castle Morgan to that of Andersonville. Louis W. Day in his
history of the 101st Ohio Infantry wrote that it was an exceedingly well
ran prison. Memoirs of several other inmates testified to the humane
treatment.
The earliest mention in the official war records is an inspection report
by the prison surgeon Dr. R. H. Whitfield in March 1864. Among his
concerns was the intolerable pollution of the open water supply by
prison guards and town citizens. The water was than enclosed in pipe.
Barrels were buried into the earth floor to form reservoirs.
War department figures indicate a death rate in Northern prisons of 12%
and 15.5 % for Southern prisons. At Cahaba it was 5%. The high death
rate in Confederate prisons is not surprising when Southern states could
hardly feed and supply it troops. The low death rate at Cahaba could
have been for humane treatment, but more likely it was because of the
transit nature of the prisoners.
Cahaba is now an historic park with only a few vague landmarks to testify of its glorious past. The site of Castle Morgan is hardly more than a square on the site maps. Neighboring Casiste Indian village is now an important archeological site.
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