Identifying the soldiers was the first step to revealing the epic Civil War escape story. It wasn’t clear cut, and would require some sleuthing.So who were the 12 men in the photograph?
Front of Library of Congress copy of “The Photograph” (Click to enlarge)
When my North Georgia mountain neighbor shared the photograph with me. He told me the name of his cousin, the man in the far left middle row. David Ledford. Additionally, he told me that the back of the photograph had round a stamp that said “LC Fine Arts Division”. LC was a clue specifically leading me to one place – the Library of Congress.
Library of Congress copy of the photograph reveals the men’s identities
“Group of Union officers and their guides who escaped from Confed. prison at Columbia, S.C., in the fall of ’64…”, proclaimed the Library of Congress (LOC) website. Handwritten in pencil on the mounting board were the names of the men.
The LOC website summary identifying the soldiers states:
Photograph shows group portrait of former prisoners of war and guides taken upon their arrival at Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 1, 1865. Three of the prisoners of war, Capt. Mark M. Bassett of Co. E, 53rd Illinois Infantry Regiment, Lieutenant Thomas P. Young and Alfred S. Stewart of Co. A, 4th Kentucky Infantry Regiment, escaped from Columbia, S.C., on November 10, 1864. Major William Stanhope Marshall of Co. E, 5th Iowa Infantry Regiment, escaped from Columbia, S.C., on November 28, 1864.
Lieutenant Michael Hoffman of Co. D, 5th Iowa Infantry Regiment, was a prisoner at Columbia, S.C., but his escape date is unknown. Lieutenant John McAdams of Co. G, 10th West Virginia Infantry Regiment, was a prisoner at Columbia, S.C., but his escape date is also unknown. Three of the prisoners of war, partially identified as Capt. Dobbs, Fowler, and Page had escaped at other times and joined the group in the mountains. Guides were Confederate deserters Private David Ledford, Private Joseph Fleming (“Joe Flem”) Cisson (also spelled Cison) of Co. F, 2nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, and a boy labeled Tom Zachary who was 14 years old.
Research reveals differences of identification in the LOC summary.
Since some of the men were only identified with last names, I started tracking each man one by one. Soon I had a complete list of their first and last names, military records, dates of birth and death. After several months of research for Captured Freedom, I had identified the soldiers and their mountain guides, it became clear that some of the information at the LOC was incorrect. Here is the correct identification of the twelve men in the photograph:
Back Row: Major William Stanhope Marshall, 5th Iowa Infantry; 1st Lieutenant Henry M. Fowler, 15th New Jersey Infantry; 1st Lieutenant Michael Hoffman, 5th Iowa Infantry; Thompson Roberts “T.R.”Zachary (age 14), North Carolina guide.
Middle Row: Julius Ketron ‘Kit’ Ledford, North Carolina guide; 1st Lieutenant Lemuel Davis Dobbs, 19th United States Colored Troops (USCT); 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Payne Young, 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry; Joseph Fleming “Flem” Cison, North Carolina guide.
Front Row: Captain Mark M. Bassett, 53rd Illinois Infantry; 1st Lieutenant John McAdams, 10th West Virginia Infantry; 2nd Lieutenant Alfred Shelby Stewart, 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry; Captain John Elijah Page, 5th Iowa Infantry
The Library of Congress identification of the soldiers wasn’t entirely accurate
The LOC identifies William Stanhope Marshall as a Colonel and as a Major. He mustered out as a Major. But more importantly, it was impossible that David Ledford, one of the mountain guides was the Ledford in this photograph. That’s because David Ledford was dead when the photograph was made. He had been killed on December 11, 1864 by a Rebel guerilla group.
Back of Library of Congress copy of the photograph (Click to enlarge)
Clues to follow
When doing research, it sometimes becomes like a scavenger hunt, the most compelling evidence leads you to even more clues. In this case, one clue was that the LOC had acquired the photograph as a gift from Louise S. Ernst in 1944.Another clue was that another copy of this photograph was held by the Chicago Historical Society – identified as: “Group of Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., 1864. This prison was located just north of Douglas University, Cottage Grove Ave.”
They say every picture tells a story. It was soon obvious that this one tells many.
#book #history #CapturedFreedom #SteveProcko #nonfictionreads
