'Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War' Excerpts Pg 4
Portals cover

By Lonnie R. Speer

© 1997 by Stackpole Books
5067 Ritter Road
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055

To access more information on this and
other Stackpole Books, go to
http://www.stackpolebooks.com
NYCHS logo
NYCHS presents
these excerpts
with the author
and publisher's
permission.
Their rights
are retained.

GOVERNORS ISLAND

"Our men are now suffering very greatly from disease," wrote prisoner Andrew Norman, 7th Regiment, North Carolina Volunteers on September 30, 1861, while being held at Castle Williams on Governors Island. . . .

Castle Williams on Governors Island in NY Harbor held Confederate en- listed men; Fort Columbus, on the other end. . ., held Confederate officers. [Courtesy of National Archives]

Dr. William J. Sloan, medical director of the Federal army, reported that the prisoners "are crowded into an ill-ventilated building which has always been an unhealthy one when occupied by large bodies of men.... There are now upwards of eighty cases of measles amongst them, a number of cases of typhoid fever, pneumonia, intermittent fever, etc. . . . Every building upon the island being crowded with troops, with a large number in tents, I know not how the condition of these prisoners can be improved except by a change of location.... If 100 are removed to Bedloe's Island as contemplated and including a large portion of the sick, there will be better facilities for improving the condition of those remaining [at Castle Williams]." Authorities took Doctor Sloan's advice and began transferring prisoners to Bedloe's Island in mid-October. Here they were confined at Fort Wood, a star-shaped rampart built in 1811 on the east side of the twelve-acre, eggshaped isle.

PAST
AND
PRESENT

After the Civil War, several changes took place on Governors Island. By the turn of the century, the land area of this site had dwindled from 170 acres to about 70 as a result of wave erosion. Its original size was regained, however, by using fill from subway excavations and dredged channels.

In 1904 the original name of Fort Jay was restored to Fort Columbus, and Castle Williams was used as a disciplinary barracks of the U.S. Army for many years. In addition, the island served as headquarters for the Second Corps Area.

In the 1930s, additional structures were built to house the 16th U.S. Infantry, including barracks, officers' housing, a polo ground, stables, and target ranges. The Works Progress Administration also had facilities on the island. . . .

[Excerpts Editor's Note: Occupied by the U.S. Army from the War of 1812 to 1966, Governors Island finally became the Coast Guard's largest installation. In 1996 the Coast Guard finally pulled up stakes, leaving the Island open for development still to be decided.]

But conditions for the prisoners confined in all of New York's harbor facilities continued to worsen as illness and deaths increased. Finally, on October 30, all prisoners confined at Fort Lafayette, Governors Island, and Fort Wood were evacuated and transferred by steamer to newly-converted Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Within a few months, though, as additional captives continued to be brought into the city, authorities ignored the previous recommendations, and again began filling the harbor facilities beyond capacity.

Fort Wood and Governors Island, consisting of Castle Williams and Fort Columbus, were situated in the Upper Bay area. Governors Island, 170 acres and 500 yards off the southern tip of Manhattan where the East and Hudson Rivers converge into the bay, was originally called Nutten, or Nut Island because of the massive grove of nut trees growing there. Wouter van Twiller, second governor of then New Netherland, purchased the island in 1637, and in 1698, the New York Assembly set the land aside for the "benefit and accommodation of His Majesty's governors," hence its present name. Castle Williams on the southern side of the island and Fort Columbus on the northern end of the isle were built originally as a defense against the British.

Fort Columbus dominated the island from a knoll. It was a red-brick, star-shaped structure built in 1794 with the name Fort Jay, in honor of John Jay, diplomat and the first Chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . During the Civil War, a quadrangle of officers' dwellings within the fort served to confine captured Confederate officers. Although the combined capacity of Fort Columbus and Castle Williams was estimated at five hundred, more than that number were incarcerated there most of the time . . .

Castle Williams was a circular fort, and because of its shape, was often referred to as "the cheese box." It was named in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Williams, who designed the structure. The fort was two hundred feet in diameter with walls of red sandstone forty feet high and eight feet thick. Construction had begun in 1807 but wasn't completed until 1811.

Castle Williams was used to hold Confederate enlisted men. These men were confined to their quarters at all times, while the officers at Fort Columbus were given the privilege of roaming about the west and south sides of the island. At times, the prisoner population of Castle Williams included deserters from the U.S. army, but generally it served as a POW facility.



[Top of Page] [List of Excerpts Pages] [Previous Excerpts Page] [Next Excerpts Page]
[NYCHS Home Page] [Chronicles Starter Page]
NYCHS logo

NYCHS presents
these excerpts
with the author
and publisher's
permission.
Their rights
are retained.
Portals cover © 1997 by Stackpole Books
5067 Ritter Road
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055

To access more information on this and
other Stackpole Books, go to
http://www.stackpolebooks.com