The Civil War Prisons Message Board

Re: Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison

Hello Dee:

My tentative conclusion is that Isaac J. HEATH was too old to have served in the Confederate army, especially after implementation of the Conscription Act began. You cited his pension application records. I did not find these online. Georgia did not start granting veterans pensions until 1870 and these were for men with severe disabilities. Isaac J. HEATH was born 3 APR 1802 (58 years of age in 1860) and died on 6 NOV 1866 according to the Find-a-Grave Memorial in his name. He would have been 60 years old in 1862.

The Compiled Military Service Records available at www.fold3.com contain an incomplete set of records for a soldier named I. J. or J. J. HEATH enrolled in Company K, 32nd Georgia Infantry. The first name Isaac does not appear in these records.

I. J. Heath voluntarily complied with the Confederate Conscription Act and enrolled on 10 MAY 1862 in Company K, Harrison’s Georgia Infantry (aka 32nd Georgia Infantry) and was paid the $50 volunteer enlistment bounty. No company muster rolls were found. The pay record you cited is for J. J. HEATH and dated 29 AUG 1864 at Charleston, SC. Special Order No. 209/1, Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida dated 25 AUG 1864 authorizes an exchange (swap) of J. J. HEATH for Private S. F. Rackley, Co. A, 5th Georgia Infantry. This was not a POW exchange. These were two Confederate soldiers. HEATH took RACKLEY’s place in the 5th Georgia and RACKLEY took HEATH’s place in the 32nd Georgia.

I found no Federal POW records in this CMSR file. I did not find any Oath of Allegiance document that would support the pension application claim you cited reporting that he was imprisoned at Hart’s Island or anywhere else.

The 1860 Federal Census for Burke County, Georgia enumerated on 1 AUG 1860 shows the household of Isaac J. HEATH, age 58, a planter, married to Nancy, age 45, with three boys Joseph (18), Julius (15) and Justin (13) and one daughter Antoinette (5).

I searched ancestry.com and found a posting indicating the Lillian Henderson’s “Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865” shows that Isaac J. HEATH was enrolled 2 OCT 1861 and mustered out 15 APR 1862 in Company K, 32nd Georgia Infantry. The online histories I found indicate that the 32nd Georgia Infantry was formed in May 1862 at Savannah. So this ancestry.com information does not make a lot of sense.

The Confederate Conscription Act passed 16 APR 1862 required enrolled Confederate service of white male residents ages 18 to 35 years for 3 years or the duration of the war. Volunteers already serving in a unit in the field who were under or over the age limits were discharged in the summer of 1862.

This doesn’t get you where you want to be, but it is all that I can find in the records.

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society

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Going Home to NC from Hart's Island
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Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison NY
Re: Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison
Re: Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison
Re: Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison
Re: Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison
Re: Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison
Re: Going Home from Hart's Island Civil War Prison
Re: Hart's Island Civil War Prison NY
Re: Hart's Island Civil War Prison NY