Crack Of Dawn Train Ride To NARA

 

Last Wednesday, Jan. 13, I made my first trip down to the National Archives. Along with Sandra Rumble and Donna Bremer, it was an exhausting day trip that I would gladly do again. While Sandy was interested in pulling 11 Civil War Pensions and Donna was wanting to search for family who fought in the War of 1812, I wanted to find letters. Letters in particular regarding Confederate soldiers.  Amongst the thousands of documents and pictures that are held by the National Archives is Record Group 249: Records of the Commissary General of Prisoners, 1861-1905. And it contains 161cu.ft! Here is a sample of what you can find in this Group:

 

• Volume 43:  Letters Sent by to  Office of Major General Benjamin F. Butler, 2/23/1864 - 4/29/1864
• Volume 241: Morning Reports of Confederate Military and Political Prisoners of War, 9/1863 - 6/1865
• Registers of Letters Received Requesting Information Relating to Confederate Prisoners of War, 1864-1867...within this section there are letters received from 1862-1865 and 1861-1867.

After filling out all the pull slips it’s time to wait. Since we arrived early and had our slips in just before 10.a.m, we didn’t have to terribly long of a wait. We headed to the second floor and there I picked up my first cart…well you could have knocked me over!

 

My First Cart!



But it was my second cart that was totally over whelming!

My Second Cart

Some of these boxes contained letters from wives, parents, or even grandparents requesting information regarding their loved ones. Some were requesting that an exchange be made or that the prisoner be released into their custody.

 

One letter was from Mrs. Celia Coe to Maj. Gen E. A. Hitchcock at Fort McHenry regarding her husband John Coe. In her letter she tells how she met John in Illinois and they were married in 1858. He returned to Virginia in 1862 to secure some property that was left to him by his father only to find it had been confiscated by the Rebels. He also finds his "mother in a very lonely and unprotected state."

Portion of Letter From Mrs. Celia Coe

He was promptly arrested and charged with being "very disloyal". She goes on to further state that he had taken an Oath of  Loyalty and has the certificate.  To gain his release, she was required to send a copy of his certificate of Oath of Loyalty.  Sadly there is no record if the copy was received. Perhaps its in another box! I can't wait to get back and start going through these boxes AGAIN! Want to come help?