Tom:

Thank you for transcribing Lieutenant Finley's memoirs and commentary on his prison experience. He spoke of the Virginia officers refusing to ask to take the Oath after learning of the surrenders of General Lee (9 APR 1865) and General Johnston (26 APR 1865) until "about about the middle of May" which is consistent with other narratives I have read. He goes on to tell his editor "I was released May 4, 1865". I rechecked the Compiled Military Service Records card for Finley's Oath of Allegiance. The War Department clerk who did the extraction from the actual document wrote down May 14, 1865 as the date of his release. In either case, the explanation that "a good lady in Baltimore" secured his release by a direct appeal to General Grant explains his early release. Those who relented and asked to take the Oath "about the middle of May" had their names submitted through War Department channels.

One thing he left out of the post war narrative is that he was hospitalized at Hammond USA General Hospital on 26 APR 1864 suffering from chronic dysentery and released back into the prison camp population on 17 MAY 1864. He arrived at Fort Delaware on 25 JUN 1864 from Point Lookout. Three weeks later he was admitted to the Fort Delaware Post & Prison Hospital on 18 JUL 1864, no diagnosis provided, and sent back to the barracks on 26 JUL 1864. The Immortal 600 departed Fort Delaware on 20 AUG 1864. Given this previous history with chronic dysentery, I am still amazed that he was not hospitalized when he returned to Fort Delaware in March 1865 after the Immortal 600 ordeal. Perhaps he received better treatment at Hilton Head than his compatriots did who remained at Fort Pulsaki.

I will place a copy of this correspondence in Lieutenant Finley's research folder at Society headquarters.

Thanks for making this extra effort!

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