Your query indicates that you already have a copy of Taylor B. REZER’s Compiled Military Service Records. The answer to your question should lie in these records. I only have access to Samuel Bates’ “History of Pennsylvania Volunteers” which shows that Taylor B. REZER was enrolled as a Private in Company F, 29th Pennsylvania Infantry on 19 AUG 1861 (not 1862) and that he died at Camp Chase, Ohio in 1863 [your date of 8 OCT 1862 may be more accurate] while a paroled prisoner of war.

Bates’ narrative on the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry contains an extensive description of the capture of a large portion of the regiment in the Valley of Virginia on 25 MAY 1862. Bates’ narrative states: “Colonel Murphy, and others of the Twenty-Ninth who were taken prisoners were sent to the rear, and on their way had a full view of the rebel forces as they rushed on, whooping and shouting, in pursuit of the national troops. Major Wheat [of the Louisiana Tigers], in whose charge the prisoners were placed, took Colonel Murphy and Captain Richards of Company I, to the Taylor House in Winchester for breakfast ---. The prisoners from Front Royal were brought in during the day. Of the Twenty-Ninth, there were, including those of the two companies captured at that place, seven officers and one hundred and forty-eight non-commissioned officers and privates. The men were organized into squads for drawing rations, and were placed under the charge of Sergeant Brown, of Company F. On the 30th, the prisoners arrived at Harrisonburg (Virginia), having marched seventy-six miles and received but four crackers per man during the four days march. Here the officers were paroled to report at Staunton (Virginia on the 6th).” Bates’ account of the regiment continues indicating that the 29th Pennsylvania regiment was stationed at Williamsport, Maryland at the beginning of the 1862 Maryland Campaign. “On the 12th of September, Colonel Murphy, and the other officers who had been prisoners of war with him [place not stated but perhaps at Staunton, Virginia], rejoined the regiment---. Two days later the returned officers were notified by Governor Curtin that they were not exchanged, but only paroled, and ordered to report at Camp Parole near Annapolis.”

Your query: “--any information that might give me a clue as to when Taylor B. REZER was sent to Camp Chase or others of his regiment. It must have been between June and September ’62, leaning towards the later.”

Sergeant Brown of Company F may have been Frederick Brown who was mustered in 13 JUL 1861 as a Private and mustered out 17 JUL 1865. His CMSR would be worth examining! His promotion to sergeant could have been temporary.

Bates’ indicates that 148 non-commissioned officers and privates from the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry were captured on or about 25 MAY 1862. From other accounts [Ohio Union prisoners] that I have studied, they likely were held in Lynchburg, Virginia until early September 1862 when they would have been delivered to Federal authorities at Aiken's Landing on the James River. Your input on Taylor B. REZER indicates that Camp Chase was also used as a temporary parole camp for returning Union paroled prisoners in late August or early September 1862 under the Dix-Hill Cartel.

During the spring and summer of 1862, prisoners of war were collected by both sides and sent to prison camps well behind the lines. Special exchanges were the only deliveries of prisoners that took place until August 1862. The Dix-Hill Cartel, a general exchange agreement between the two War Departments, was signed on 22 JUL 1862 which provided that all POWs then being held by either side were to be promptly paroled for exchange and returned to their respective sides. The returning paroled POWs were to be held in parole camps set up and run by their respective sides until declared exchanged in an accounting process that took place days and months after their return. Deliveries of paroled prisoners of war were to be made at Aiken’s Landing on the James River in Virginia and at Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. Arrangement of transportation took some time and delayed the process. The delivery of paroled Confederate prisoners from Fort Delaware took place on 5 AUG 1862 at Aiken’s Landing. By September 1862, the Union parole camp at Annapolis, Maryland was over flowing with returning Union paroled prisoners and new arrivals had to be sent elsewhere. Fort Delaware was pressed into service as a parole camp for some 750 paroled Union prisoners awaiting exchange. This large group of enlisted men arrived at Fort Delaware from the James River on 17 SEP 1862 and remained there until 24 DEC 1862 when the survivors were transferred back to Camp Parole at Annapolis to be officially declared exchanged and returned to duty.

I haven’t answered your Camp Chase questions directly, but provided some background and guidance for what you are looking for at Camp Chase. Since the Pennsylvania Compiled Military Service Records have not yet been digitized, I would be interested in seeing the records for Taylor B. REZER.

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