I checked Lieutenant Reagan’s Compiled Military Service Records. The fact line seems confused as to the date and place of his wounding and capture, and as to his leg amputation.

Company muster rolls reported him wounded at Kernstown on 24 JUL 1864 and left in the hands of the enemy. The register of a Winchester General Hospital (this may have been a Confederate field hospital) showed that he was admitted on 23 JUL 1864 suffering from a gunshot wound to the knee and placed in private quarters at Winchester. A register for the USA General Hospital, Frederick, Maryland shows that he was admitted there on 12 NOV 1864 suffering from a gunshot wound to the right knee joint. It stated that he was wounded at Winchester on 24 JUL 1864 and suffered a primary amputation of the “right thigh lower third” on 24 JUL 1864. A second Frederick General Hospital record states that he was received from a Confederate field hospital with an amputated right thigh lower third on 12 NOV 1864. It confirms his wounding and amputation on 24 JUL 1864 at Winchester. This record showed that he was treated at Frederick with “simple dressings” and sent to Baltimore two days later on 14 NOV 1864. Both Frederick hospital records give his age as 25 years.

A register for the West Buildings USA General Hospital in Baltimore shows that he was admitted 14 NOV 1864 from Frederick. It states that he was wounded at Winchester on 24 SEP 1864 and suffered a fracture of the right knee joint amputated same day, lower third (flap). This record states that he was transferred to the General Hospital at Point Lookout on 22 NOV 1864. His age was given as 26 years. Lieutenant Reagan next appears on a roll of POWs at Point Lookout which states that he arrived from the Baltimore Hospital on 23 NOV 1864 having been captured at Winchester on 19 SEP 1864.

Given the two Confederate records covering July 1864 and the two Federal records at the Frederick General Hospital, I am inclined to think the correct date for his wounding and amputation was 24 JUL 1864 at Winchester. I think the folks at Baltimore were confused and got it wrong, and the error was simply picked up and passed along in all of the subsequent records.

Lieutenant Reagan was transferred from Point Lookout on 2 JAN 1865 to Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC arriving there the next day. The Old Capitol Prison record copied the “captured at Winchester on 19 SEP 1864” error from the Point Lookout transfer records. Reagan was sent from Old Capitol Prison on 3 FEB 1865 to Fort Delaware. He arrived at Fort Delaware on 4 FEB 1865. He was released after the war was over from Fort Delaware under General Orders No. 109 which required that he take the Oath and that transportation be provided to a point nearest his home that could be reached by rail and/or water. He took the Oath on 12 JUN 1865. According to other officer’s diaries, 600 Confederate officers took the Oath that day, and on the following day, 13 JUN 1865, were transported by river steamer to Philadelphia where they got government provided train tickets for home. For transportation purposes, Lieutenant Reagan’s residence was given as Sweet Water, Tennessee.

Now to some comments on the third party 1916 memoirs:

The author of the Reagan memoirs wrote: >>> “The journey to [Fort Delaware] occupied perhaps a week or more.” <<<

The CMSR show that Lieutenant Reagan left Point Lookout on 2 JAN 1865, arrived the next day at Old Capitol Prison where he stayed for one month. He was then shipped by steamer from Washington, DC to Fort Delaware making the transit over the two day period February 3rd & 4th.

The author of the Reagan memoirs wrote: >>> “The sufferings of the wounded prisoners were terrible. Reagan had undergone a double amputation at Winchester and was from loss of blood in a very weakened condition” <<<

This seems a bit over the top with respect to Lieutenant Reagan.

Reagan suffered an amputation of his right leg including the lower third of his thigh. There is no record of any other amputation in his files.

Reagan’s leg amputation took place on 24 JUL 1864 at Winchester. He apparently was allowed afterwards to recover in a private home. Nearly four months later, when he was sufficiently recovered to be able to stand transportation, he was taken from Winchester to the Frederick General Hospital and admitted for evaluation on 12 NOV 1864. Two days later he was forwarded to the West’s Buildings General Hospital in Baltimore and admitted 14 NOV 1864. Six days later, on 22 NOV 1864, he was sent to the General Hospital at Point Lookout. He arrived at Point Lookout on 23 NOV 1864 and remained there for nearly six weeks until 2 JAN 1865 when he was sent to Old Capitol Prison. He stayed there for a month before being sent to Fort Delaware on 3 FEB 1864. And there are no surviving records showing that he was treated in the Fort Delaware Post Hospital during his relatively brief stay.

“Humanitarian” exchanges were begun in the fall of 1864 in which Confederate POWs deemed to be unfit for duty for at least 60 days due to illness, wounds, and/or general debility were released. Lieutenant Reagan was still in private care at Winchester when these releases were made. However, these “humanitarian” exchanges were resumed in February 1865. A delivery was made over the two days of 14/15 FEB 1865 consisting of 2,051 POWs who had been paroled for exchange at Point Lookout on 10 FEB 65. Over the two days of 20/21 FEB 65, 3,038 Confederate POWs were delivered to CSA authorities who had been paroled for exchange at Point Lookout on 18 FEB 1865. A total of 1,039 POWs were paroled for exchange at Fort Delaware on 27 FEB 65 and delivered on 2 MAR 1865. Finally, over the three day period 10/12 MAR 65, another 3,499 Confederate POWs were delivered to CSA authorities who had been paroled for exchange at Fort Delaware on 7 MAR 1865.

It seems to me that Lieutenant Reagan “in a very weakened condition from loss of blood” should have been a candidate for one of these releases. From Old Capitol Prison when the 1865 exchanges were authorized, he could have been returned to Point Lookout instead of being sent to Fort Delaware. He arrived at Fort Delaware in time to be considered for two releases in February from there. Instead, he was held until the war was over and released on 12 JUN 1865.

I think the author of the Reagan memoirs, a third party, not Lieutenant Reagan himself, was stretching the point for post-war political purposes. Clearly, six months had passed between the amputation on 24 JUL 1864, and his transfer from Old Capitol Prison to Fort Delaware on 3 FEB 1865. And that leg of the trip (no pun intended) took less than two days. The balance of the narrative seems to be a general rant that could be applied to several of the Federal POW camps. There is very little first hand material here to give us a useful glimpse into the conditions at Fort Delaware.

The author wrote: >>> “Fort Delaware from accounts of those who were there was one of the worst prisons. The guards were short term men, or foreigners who could scarcely speak English so as to be understood, and thought they would be commended for cruel treatment of the prisoners.” <<<

Well, there is some truth to be had here. Fort Delaware was expanded in the spring of 1863 to be a holding pen for 10,000 prisoners of war. Two heavy artillery batteries recruited in Pennsylvania remained as permanent garrison. Independent Battery A was recruited from Philadelphia and contained many new immigrants from Germany and other non-English speaking European countries. Communication problems with them is a matter of record. The two batteries were not enough to man all of the guard posts when the prison was full. Short term infantry units from Delaware and other states were rotated in and out to supplement the prison guards over the last two years of the war. The worst of the lot was the 157th Ohio Infantry, a non-combat, short term national guard unit who spent nearly two months at Fort Delaware in the summer of 1864. One of these men shot and killed Colonel Jones of the Virginia militia. Expecting to be commended for cruel treatment of prisoners is part of the story of the shooting of Colonel Jones. Also, in July, 1863, a full battery of men was recruited from among disgruntled Confederates in the prison pen ostensibly to serve as heavy artillery. Known officially as Ahl’s Battery, Delaware Heavy Artillery, they spent two full years guarding their former comrades at Fort Delaware. As you can imagine, there was plenty of friction between these “galvanized Yankees” and the Confederate prisoners.

Fort Delaware was not a nice place! But Point Lookout is my candidate for “Andersonville of the North”.

From an overall perspective, I am surprised that a cavalryman who had suffered a leg amputation at the thigh would have been held until the end of the war. Some possible reasons might be that he was an officer and that he was in reasonably good health except for having one leg.

Thanks for sharing this interesting account of prison life at Fort Delaware!!

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
www.fortdelaware.org
E-Mail: society@fortdelaware.org