The Library of Congress (LOC) offered an interesting clue. There was a Chicago confusion mystery. The Chicago History Museum (CHM) had identified the photograph as member’s of Morgan’s Raiders at Camp Douglas. How did this happen?
Copy of the image held by the Chicago History Museum. Mounted on a backing cardboard. There is a hole at the top that appears to have come from a thumbtack Photo by Ray Johnson
I found the photograph with the “Morgan’s Raiders at Camp Douglas” identification not only at the Chicago History Museum, but also at the Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation’s website. It was also on the cover and featured inside “To Die In Chicago“, a book written by George Levy in the 1990’s.
For an unknown period of time up until the summer of 2022, the CHM’s website had this description attached to the photograph:
These men were members of General John Hunt Morgan’s Raiders, an infamous Confederate unit of the Civil War. They staged daring raids into the North, the most famous of which occurred in July 1863, when Morgan and 2,500 horsemen galloped through southern Indiana and Ohio, robbing banks, stealing horses, and skirmishing with Union troops. Eventually, Union forces captured Morgan and several hundred of his men, who were then imprisoned at Chicago’s Camp Douglas. In late October 1863, twenty-six of them attempted to escape by digging a tunnel ten feet underground past the fence, right under the guards’ noses. All of them were captured and returned, but their daring attempt made headline news, and they tried to get away again on more than one occasion. These men considered themselves an elite group, far superior to ordinary rebels, and this photograph clearly shows their sense of daring and comradeship, as well as the effects of army and prison life. You might wonder about how the photo was taken at all, and how it was that the prisoners had a rifle (center) in their possession! But the prison camp did boast a photography studio run by D. F. Brandon within its walls. Perhaps this is where Morgan’s raiders had their photo made, in which case one must assume that the rifle was unloaded and merely a prop! But it is also possible that the prisoners had the portrait taken when on the run in the city after one of their repeated, if ill-fated, escapes.
CHM Website; before summer 2022
Research in Chicago to clarify the confusion mystery
In February 2021, I reached out to the late David L. Keller, head of the Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation (CDRF). The organization’s website then featured the picture with its Morgan’s Raider’s identification. Keller’s own book “The Story of Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Forgotten Civil War Prison” also include the photograph. In my initial email I said, “the image was first shown to me by one of the descendants and I can say unequivocally that it is NOT of Confederate Prisoners or Morgans Raiders at Camp Douglas.”
Keller’s initial reaction when I then called him in Chicago regarding the confusion mystery was skeptical to say the least. But after I offered up the facts I had sleuthed regarding the men, David visited the CHM himself to take a look at their original copy of the photograph.
“Your research is very interesting.” said the email from David, “I, and I suspect, George Levy (To Die In Chicago) found the photo at the Chicago History Museum and assumed the reference was correct. The number on their photo X.2553.2004, does not provide any information on provenance.”
Identification mixup might have dated back to the nineteenth century
Near as David could tell, the photo at the CHM dated back to the nineteenth century. They had misidentified it in Chicago for a long time. History is full of self-perpetuating mistakes. There was a story to be found in the history of the men within the photograph. With the Chicago confusion mystery, there was also a story to be found in the photograph itself.
After presenting them with research used in writing Captured Freedom, the Chicago History Museum has updated its description of the photograph of twelve men. The new description says:
Portrait of nine Union officers who escaped from Camp Sorghum in Columbia, South Carolina, along with three scouts, Sweetwater or Knoxville, Tennessee, circa 1865.
chicago history museum – X.2553.2004
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