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Alton Penitentiary/Civil War Prison |
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More about the Alton Prison Picture of the Alton Prison, 1861
Read the entire history of the Penitentiary/Civil War Prison, from the Alton Evening Telegraph, January 15, 1936, as told by Doris McDow
Search for names of Confederate soldiers who died at the Alton Prison |
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The Alton Prison first opened in 1833 as the first Illinois State Prison, and grew from a structure containing 24 cells to one containing 256 cells in 1857. Records state the penitentiary closed in 1858, when the last of the prisoners were removed to Joliet, but I have found reference to a prisoner in 1859 being starved into submission. In 1862 it was reopened as a military prison during the Civil War. Thousands of captured Confederate prisoners were housed here during the war. In 1863, a small pox epidemic spread through the prison killing hundreds. The prison was closed down permanently in 1865 at the close of the war, and the remaining prisoners were sent to St. Louis or released. The prison was then dismantled, except for a portion of a wall which was relocated in 1970 to its present location in downtown Alton.
Commanders: Colonel Sidney Burbank, 13th U. S. Inf. (Feb. 9, 1862 - June 25, 1862); Maj. F. F. Flint, 16th U.S. Inf. (to Sept. 5, 1862); Colonel Jesse Hildebrand, 77th Ohio Vols., (to Apr. 18, 1863); Colonel William B. Mason, 77th Ohio Vols., (to July 30, 1863); Colonel George Kincaid, 37th Iowa Vols. (to Jan. 14, 1864); Colonel William Wier, 10th Kansas Vols. (to Apr. 26, 1864); Brig. General J. T. Copeland, U.S. Vols, (to Dec. 28, 1864); Colonel Ray Stone, 149th Pa. Vols. (to March 1865); Colonel John H. Kahn, 144th Ill. Vols. (to July 1865). [per Alton Telegraph, July 2, 1976] |
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The following are newspaper clippings on the Alton Penitentiary/Civil War Prison: |
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PRISON WARDEN DIES IN ACCIDENT Source: Albany, New York Evening Journal, August 27, 1835
Mr. David Owens, Deputy Warden
of the Illinois State Penitentiary, at Alton, came to his
death on the 25th ult. in a very singular and unexpected
manner. He was standing as guard over the prisoners who were
at work in the quarry adjacent to the prison, when his rifle
slipped from the edge of the rock upon which it was resting,
and in attempting to recover it is supposed to have drawn
the cock back by the projection of the rock, and while the
muzzle was not more than an inch from his body, the gun
discharged itself, and the ball entered obliquely, taking
some links of his watch chain with it. The unfortunate man
attempted to rise, but expired before his purpose was
accomplished.—St. Louis Herald.
PRISON INMATE - SETH T. SAWYER Source: Auburn, New York Journal and Advertiser, 1837 A Van Buren Man - Beauties of the Sub-Treasury - Seth T. Sawyer, late Public Printer at Vandalia, Illinois, has been sentenced to one year in the State Penitentiary at Alton for stealing the public deposits. ******************************************
PRISONERS ESCAPE Source: Albany, New York Evening Journal, September 1837 The Alton Spectator of the 7th contradicts the statement going the rounds of the papers, "that forty prisoners had escaped from the penitentiary at Alton," and says there never was over 12 or 15 convicts in it at a time. *****************************************
PRISON INMATE - DEWEY Source: Albany, New York Evening Journal, August 2, 1845 It is supposed that Birch and Sutton, alias William Fox, two notorious villains, who have been roaming the lines of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois for the past four years, are two of the gang who murdered Col. Davenport. Birch is said to be the man who sold a cream-colored horse at Peru, not long since, is the same man with whom Bridge (now in Rockford jail) exchanged the money with that he robbed Mulford of. We cannot yet get the name of the person at Peru who has the horse, but he is kept on the Island, and could tell the strange stories if he could talk. In this same gang is "Devin, the Kentuckian," who was in Lee county late in November last. He was arrested in Iowa last year, and with irons on his feet, was sent out to chop wood, with a guard. He struck the guard over the head with an axe, then got off his shackles and ran off to Bridge's in Washington Grove, Ogle Co., with his head shaved. He stayed at Bridge's, and wore a black handkerchief over his head until his hair grew out. He then went to Indiana and persuaded a man to come to Lee and Ogle counties, with several yoke of oxen and a cart to sell apples. The man had about $500 with him. He proposed to West to go with him and kill him. West would not go, and so the man was spared. This Davis, about six years ago, with a man by the name of Searls, found out that a man was traveling between Princeton and Hennepin with money. They awaited in the brush near Leeper's mills and shot him from his horse as he rode along the road. They got his money, from $600 to $800, dragged him to within 30 rods of the creek on the left-hand side of the road, and left him behind a log. This murder was never [unreadable], nor has the body ever been found. This Davis may be known by having one of his ears bit off. At Bridge's, in the [unreadable], near the house, a caucus was held which decided on the murder of Campbell. Bridge was present, as also were several of the Driskills, Birch, and Sutton. It was voted that young Driskill kill Campbell, as he did. Bridge was at Inlet Grove on the night of the murder, and West was making [unreadable] and selling it two for one for Michigan money at Flatteville, Wisconsin. West got clear when arrested for his [unreadable] there by getting Dewey and [unreadable] of Inlet Grove, to go his [unreadable] and he ran away. [unreadable] and Dewey are now in Alton Penitentiary. *****************************************
PENITENTIARY WALL PARTIALLY COLLAPSES Source: The Daily Star, Syracuse, New York, January 15, 1847 About fifty feet of the wall of the Penitentiary at Alton, Illinois fell down a few days ago. A cow was the only victim of the damage, and none of the convicts had an opportunity of benefiting by the unexpected enlargement of their boundaries. *******************************************
PRISON INMATES - CHICAGO CONVICTS Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Standard, January 9, 1850
Nine convicts arrived at Alton
from Chicago a few days since, and were safely lodged in the
Penitentiary. The Alton Telegraph says "Chicago is coming
out."
PRISONERS ESCAPE ON WAY TO ALTON Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Standard, August 2, 1850 Four prisoners, on their way to prison at Alton, Ill., leaped from the steamboat into the river. Two were recaptured, one drowned and one escaped. *******************************************
A VIEW OF THE PRISON Source: Auburn, New York Christian Advocate, August 20, 1853 [From an Illinois Correspondent, a description of his journey on the Mississippi River] ....We found the business part of this city [Alton] in water, the under part of the stores and warehouses being deserted. Alton is rendered famous as the place where the philanthropic Lovejoy met an untimely fate, by the violence of a ruthless mob. I could but realize that a martyr's blood was upon that city. Here also is the State Penitentiary. It occupies a position on the terminating slope of the great bluffs mentioned above. As we receded from the city, we had a fair view of the interior of the massive enclosure. The poor convicts, who are not so unfortunate as to be incarcerated in a dungeon, can, without doubt, enjoy an occasional view of the river scenery below. The tedium of their confinement and toils may have been relieved by a shy glance at our own gallant steamer, as she moved like a thing of life over the blue waters..... ****************************************
JUSTICE?
Source: Lyons, New York Gazette,
December 28, 1853 "My G— ! I only robbed a man, and I got ten. I wish I had killed him, for then they might have let me off as easy as you." "Yes, very likely."—Chicago Dem *******************************************
PRISONERS USED AT ALTON STATE FAIR, 1856 (read more about the 1856 Alton State Fair) Source: Alton Evening Telegraph Centennial Edition, January 15, 1936 In the penitentiary, Col. Buckmaster's prisoners were bending over their part of the work. The carpenter shop inside the prison walls turned out chairs, tables, window frames, etc., the blacksmith shop turned out fancy iron gates, horseshoes, foot-scrapers, and the tailor shop produced a number of high grade garments - all to be placed on exhibition at the Fair, to increase the fame of Alton abroad. ****************************************
PRISON GETS A TEACHER Source: Albany, New York Evening Journal, December 8, 1857
Brayman, the Chicago editor who
was sent to prison at Alton, Ill., for stealing letters from
the post office, is engaged in teaching some fifty or sixty
fellow prisoners, most of them old men who are too infirm to
labor.
PRISON GUARD (CRABB) TAKEN HOSTAGE Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Journal, March 18, 1858; New York, New York Harpers Weekly, March 27, 1858; Oswego, New York Palladium, March 17, 1858
We get the following from a
letter to the Chicago Journal: Springfield, Ill.,
March 9,1858: *****************************************
PRISON BURNED Source: The State League, Syracuse, New York, 1858 The military prison at Alton, Illinois, was partially destroyed by fire on the morning of the 17th of November. Several of the prisoners, just how many could not be ascertained—took advantage of the excitement to make their escape. *******************************************
PRISON CLOSING - PRISONERS SENT TO JOLIET, ILLINOIS Source: Albany, New York Evening Journal, June 21, 1858 The work of removing prisoners at the old penitentiary at Alton has already commenced. About sixty went up [to Joliet, Illinois] two weeks since. Within six weeks from now cells will be constructed [at Joliet] for more than two hundred. Capt. Pillsbury, formerly of the Connecticut Penitentiary, at Wethersfield, and more recently from the prison at Albany, N. Y., has been selected as a thoroughly competent and experienced man to whom to entrust the entire discipline of the Penitentiary. He has entered upon his duties, and in company with Mr. Casey is urging on the work of building and providing requisite accommodations for the prisoners now at Alton. *********************************************
PENITENTIARY FIRE
PENITENTIARY FIRE Source: The New Albany Daily Ledger, New Albany, IN, August 16, 1858 St. Louis, Aug. 14.-The work shops, the dining hall, the chapel, the hospital and two or three other small buildings, together with a large quantity of material and finished work belonging to the Penitentiary at Alton, were destroyed by fire last night. Loss $30,000; fully insured. The state loses nothing. Messrs. Sauger & Carri having purchased the entire property from the state sometime since. **********************************************
Source: Davenport Daily
Gazette, Davenport, IA, August 17, 1858
PRISONER - STARVED INTO SUBMISSION Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Journal, February 16, 1859 The Alton, Ill. Courier states that a convict in the Penitentiary at that place, who had been punished for insubordination and confined in his cell, was found to have a knife secreted about his person. The Warden ordered him to strip in his cell and walk out naked. This order he stubbornly disobeyed, and declared that sooner than do it, he would die. The Warden concluded to try the "hunger cure" upon the desperado, and food was withheld from him during the day. This did not reduce him to submission; he still declared that he would starve, but would not yield. The penitentiary physician was ordered to watch him, and the starving process was continued ninety-seven hours, more than four days, when the man was so weak that he could not rise, and the courageous officers then entered his cell and he was disarmed. The physician found the convict was becoming delirious, and at once attended to his case. The knife had a blade four inches long, ground to a sharp point. ***********************************************
PRISON INMATE THOMAS MORGAN DIED IN PRISON Source: Syracuse, New York Central City Courier, May 16, 1859
A few weeks since, Thomas
Morgan, a wealthy resident of Scott County, whose estate is
valued at $85,000, was incarcerated in the penitentiary, at
Alton, for an assault with intent to kill. The Courier of
Wednesday mentions the death of Mr. Morgan, in the prison,
and that his remains were sent up the river Wednesday
evening for interment at his former home.
REBEL PRISONERS RELEASED Source: Watertown, New York Reformer, 1861/1862 Four hundred and ninety-one of the rebel prisoners at Alton, Ill., have taken the oath of allegiance and been released. ***************************************************
PRISON INMATES - EIGHT BRIDGE BURNERS Source: Watertown, New York Daily Times, February 20, 1862 Gen. Halleck has issued an order that in consideration of the recent victories won by the Federal forces, and the rapidly increasing loyalty of the citizens of Missouri, the sentence of the eight bridge burners condemned to death are provisionally mitigated to close confinement in the military prison at Alton. If, however, rebel spies again destroy the railroads and telegraph lines, and thus render it necessary to make severe examples, the original sentences against these men will be carried into execution. No further assessments will be levied or collected from any one who will now take the prescribed oath of allegiance. Boards of commissioners will be appointed to examine the cases of prisoners of war who apply to take the oath of allegiance. On their recommendation, orders will be issued for their release. ********************************************************
PRISON INMATE - EBENEZER 'BEN' MAGOFFIN Source: Albany, New York Evening Journal, March 26, 1862 Ebenezer Magoffin, of Missouri, a brother of Gov. Magoffin, of Kentucky, and formerly an officer in the Rebel army, taken prisoner some months ago, released on parole, which he violated, and subsequently recaptured, has been tried by court martial for "violation of parole," and for "killing in violation of the ethics of war," found guilty and sentenced to be shot. Gen. Halleck has approved the sentence, and it will be carried into effect at a time and place hereafter to be designated. In the meantime, the prisoner will be confined in a cell of the Military Prison at Alton ************************************************
PRISON RELIC Source: The Daily Standard, Syracuse, New York, March 31, 1862 Mr. Alfred Wilkinson, who has recently returned from a southwestern tour, as far as St. Louis, has in his possession a pipe made by one of the rebel prisoners at Alton, Illinois, which is a rare specimen of ingenuity and skill, as well as persevering industry. The material of the pipe is cotton stone, a soft stone found in the south, easily worked, and susceptible of a fine polish. The bowl of the pipe is square, and is beautifully carved. One of the sides presents the new rebel flag, and the other the Palmetto tree, with the cotton plant and rattle, snake, appropriate emblems of the rebellion. The front bears the coat-of-arms of Missouri, with the usual scrolls and mottoes. It is understood that the work was executed with a pen-knife, by a young man who had no experience in carving, and regarding it in that light the work Is a marvel of taste and skill. ***********************************************
PRISON INMATE - COL. JENNISON
Source: The Syracuse, New York Daily
Standard, April 21, 1862 *************************************************
PRISON INMATE - ISHAM Source: Oswego Commercial Times, August 1862 Mr. Isham, the sensation writer of the Chicago Times, who fabricated the story of the ten iron-clad gunboats in Mobile harbor, has been arrested by a Government officer and sent to the Alton Penitentiary. He has lived out of jail long enough to establish a reputation as the biggest liar on the footstool. ***************************************
PRISONERS ESCAPE Source: Oswego New York Commercial Times, August 5, 1862 On the night of July 25th, thirty-five prisoners escaped from the prison at Alton, Ill., by digging a tunnel 50 feet in length, which furnished them an exit six feet beyond the sentinel's beat. Col. Magoffin, who had been sentenced to death for breaking his parole, was lucky enough to get away with the rest. [see these stories below, which tell of Magoffin's escape: January 15, 1936 & July 2, 1976] *****************************************
PRISON INMATE - ISHAM Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Standard, August 22, 1862 W. P. Isham, editor and correspondent of the Chicago Times, was arrested in Memphis on the 14th inst., and sent to the Penitentiary at Alton, by order of Gen. Grant. Isham is charged with sending to his paper false and pernicious statements, intended to benefit the rebel cause. Near Memphis, recently, he fell into the hands of a party of rebel guerillas, who upon learning the name of his paper, immediately let him go. Isham was the author of the gunboat and Cumberland-Gap canards, first published in the Times and then telegraphed to the Associated Press. A short lease of imprisonment at Alton may have the effect to moderate his zeal on behalf of the rebels. ****************************************
LETTER FROM A REBEL Source: Albany, New York Evening Journal, March 26, 1863 The St. Louis Union is publishing a number of intercepted letters, written by certain parties here, to friends and relatives in the Rebel army. The following, addressed to a Mr. W. F. Luckett, is a "Specimen brick:"— St. Louis, Feb. 3,1868. Dear Darling Frank—I suppose by this time you have received my other letter, and I am going to try this carrier. Enclosed you will find your ma's letter, and this carrier is so closely watched that I fear he will be captured, but we all hope for the beet. Miss Lucy, our "Intelligent contraband," watches everything so closely that we do nothing but lie. You Just ought to see how the Union people are shaking. They have very little faith in their glorious Union Government, and I do assure you we Rebels never felt as sure of a Southern Confederacy as we do now, and we do so pray for the time to come, when our brave soldiers and bushwhackers will be released from their prisons and be free men once more. There are now 800 men in Gratiot Street Prison, or McDowell's College, and so many of them have the small pox. There is over one thousand in the Alton prison, and they are almost destitute of clothing. Ma and I have been permitted to visit the Alton prison next Thursday. I have been sewing and mending old clothes for them all this week. Dick Beauford, United States Express messenger, promised to write a letter to you, but I have not seen it as yet. I received a long letter from your Ma, and Miss Loutie said I might love you if I was a real good rebel, and if that is all she asks of me I think you are my property. I will admit that I have talked to Feds, but after Pa shot that soldier we could not do as we pleased. He lived six days after he was shot, and the night he died, four black-hearted villains came bolting into Ma's room, and damned us to everything they could, and not a soul In the house but her and I, nor was there a person in town, or a friend any where that would come near us. We moved everything over to Mrs. Johnston's, and slept on the floor in our clothes and shawls, for six weeks, and every night was warned to leave the house, that it was going to be burnt. We could not live so, and all we could do was to lake some of the highest officers in our house to board, but Ma never got me to set with the contemptible hounds, if I was compelled to speak to them. No one knows what we have to contend with. May God speed Gen. Price and his noble army into Missouri, so that we poor persecuted "she devils" as that elegant paper the Republican chooses to term us, may have the satisfaction of trampling a few ...... ladies under our feet. ........Dr. came down last night. - He is living at College Mound, and he says there was a prisoner shot at that place on the 2d of February, for hurrahing for Jeff. Davis. We dare not breathe Jeff. Davis' name aloud here; but I wish you could see the picture Ma has of him. Mr. C. Y. J. gave it to her, and it cost $15. It is splendid. I have such a dreadful cold that I can scarcely speak above a whisper; but I will not die, because there is too many Southern girls down there. You must soon come home, for such I still call our house, and Ma says she does want to see her son Frank so much. Now I know you will come. Give my love to all the Rebels, Edward Barton, William Halleck, Shad, and more to yourself, and write, by the first carrier, a long letter. We all send much love to you, and Mr. Flanagan, and hope you will give the Feds your best Minnie ball, and shoot a few extra balls in revenge for us. You may look for several kisses in this letter, and you will find them. Write soon to Your true and devoted Rebel, Zaide L. Bagwill
[Note from your county coordinator: A few racial statements were removed from the above letter. The absence of the statements do not detract from the historical essence of this letter, and I saw no purpose in including offensive material.] ******************************************
PRISON INMATE - DR. W. A. CHEATHAM Source: The Syracuse, New York Daily Standard, May 13, 1863 Dr. W. A. Cheatham and family has been ordered to Alton, Ill, to be confined during the war. Mrs. Cheatham is the sister of Mrs. John Morgan. *****************************************
PRISON INMATES - BRIGADIER GENERAL JEFF THOMPSON AND CAPT. REUBEN KAY Source: Skaneateles, New York Democrat, September 24, 1863 Brigadier General Jeff Thompson, the notorious rebel swamp ranger and bushwhacker, with his adjutant, Capt. Reuben Kay, are now in the Alton, Ill. military prison. They will soon be transferred to Johnson's Island. ****************************************
PRISON INMATE - JOSEPH M. HAMILTON Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Journal, June 27, 1864
An actor named Joseph M.
Hamilton has been convicted of disloyalty In St. Louis. He
drank toasts in honor of Jeff. Davis and entertained a rebel
soldier, and did other deeds which have brought upon him the
penalty of wearing a ball and chain in prison at Alton for a
year.
ALTON PRISONERS RECAPTURED Source: Alton Telegraph, September 23, 1864 We learn from the Missouri Democrat of this morning, that Wm. Bamberg, the notorious rebel mail carrier, who was under sentence during the war and escaped from the Alton prison about two months ago, was recaptured in that city yesterday. His father is in prison at Alton. ****************************************
PRISON INMATES Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Courier, October 1864
St. Louis, Oct. 25.—The dead
bodies of Major Wilson 3d Missouri Militia and six of his
men, captured by the rebels at Pilot Knob, and given up to a
guerrilla band for execution, for the alleged reason of the
killing of some rebels, last summer, were found this
morning. A rebel Major and six privates now in Alton prison
in solitary confinement, held as hostages for Major Wilson
and men, will doubtless be executed in retaliation.
PRISON GUARD REGIMENT RAISED - IL 144th INFANTRY Search for members of 144th IL Infantry Source: The Alton Telegraph, August 19, 1864 General Rosecrans has requested the citizens of Alton to raise a regiment of soldiers to serve one year as guards for the prison at this post. The following is the appeal of the General: "By authority from the War Department and agreement with Governor Yates, I appeal to you to raise a regiment of infantry to serve twelve months. I want them for guards of Alton prison, but I want them to be of high soldierly bearing and to make their qualification and behavior the condition on which they will be kept on the duty. Each non-commissioned officer and private will receive a bounty of one hundred dollars and be exempt from the draft, while he will count on your quota. The officers will be commissioned on my recommendation by the Governor of Illinois. As these troops are wanted immediately, I hope for a prompt response. W. S. Rosecrans, Maj. Gen." The appeal to the citizens of Alton was received by the undersigned this morning, and I deem it an eminently fit opportunity for the citizens to respond cordially and with alacrity, as the occasion seems to require. The advantages to us are manifest, besides securing mild service at home, we shall have fill our quota on the last call and some to spare, and thus maintain the proud pre-eminence of the State of Illinois in responding voluntarily to all the calls of the Government. Every man thus employed will help to swell the ranks in the field with tried veterans, and I confidently appeal to the citizens of Alton to come forward at this time and thus rally to the support of our Government. Edward Hollister, Mayor. ******************************************
PRISON INMATES ARRIVING ABOARD "BELLE OF MEMPHIS" Source: The Daily Courier, Syracuse, New York, January 18, 1865 The steamer, Belle of Memphis, brings 35 rebel prisoners from Little Rock for Alton, Illinois. *******************************************
PRISON INMATE - DICK MORGAN Source: Utica, New York Weekly Herald, April 4, 1865 Dick Morgan, brother of John Morgan, is in the Alton Penitentiary, to which institution he has been sentenced for life. ********************************************
PRISON INMATE - CAPT. H. H. HINE - THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY Source: Ogdensburg, New York Daily Journal, May 24, 1867 .....It seems Capt. Hine had been tried, convicted (as he claimed, unjustly), and sentenced to the Alton Penitentiary. Before the sentence was carried into execution, however, he escaped and fled to Canada. ********************************************
PRISON INMATES - TEASON, HORNER, CRAWFORD Source: Utica, New York Morning Herald, 1869
Three prisoners escaped from the
Alton
jail in Illinois, on the night of the 23d ult. (leaving
behind them the following note to the City Marshal: "John
Young—Dear Sir: As we do not like your style of board we
have concluded to change our boarding place. We wanted Harry
to go, but he likes the board and says he means to stick to
it. Catch us if you can. **********************************************
PRISON INMATE - WILLIAM THURMAN/alias HARRY FREEMAN Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Journal, January 20, 1872 Alexander Manning, representing himself to be a Deputy Sheriff of Carroll parish, La , and another, giving his name as Laddy. arrived in St. Louis, Mo., Friday, from Lake Providence La., having in charge Harry Freeman, whom they allege is a burglar and murderer, and was an associate of Quantrell in the Lawrence, Ks., massacre during the war, for whom they state the Governor of Missouri offered $5,000 reward. They left their prisoner with Chief McDonough during the day, saying they expected the Sheriff of Atchison county to come and take him. Not having any authenticated papers. Chief McDonough suspected something wrong, visited the prisoner and found him barbarously ironed. He ordered the removal of the shackles and heard his story, from which be, McDonough, believed that the man had been kidnapped, and refused to deliver him to his captors until they produced properly authenticated papers. Today (Saturday) Chester Harding applied for a writ of habeas corpus, and Freeman was brought before Judge Ewing and discharged, his captor failing to show cause why he was arrested. The man, whose real name it Wm. Thurman, states that he was drugged in Lake Providence, some ten day* ago, and when ho came to his senses found himself on board a steamer, loaded down with irons, and on his way to Missouri. It appears from the man's own statements, and from the statements of others who knew him, that he was a Union scout and spy during the war, and rendered valuable service to the Federal cause. Ho served under General Harding, who was his counsel Friday, also under General Rosecrans, and others in that department. It is further stated by those cognizant of the facts, that in 1865 he was tried by a military court martial at St. Joseph, convicted of seven different murders, and sentenced to be hanged, but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment in the Alton penitentiary, from which he was pardoned after nine months imprisonment. He was one of the original Kansas Red Legs, and is said to have been one of Quantrell's gang. While acting as a Federal spy he was much in the rebel country, and fought, and was wounded in their ranks. Ho was captured by Union soldiers on one [unreadable], tried as a spy and sentenced to be hanged, but was pardoned by the President, through the intercession of General Harding, to whom he had always been true. After the war he was sent to the Missouri penitentiary for passing counterfeit money, but was pardoned by the Governor after serving two years. Since then he has been living in Louisiana and Mississippi. By his own story and statement he is, or has been, a most desperate villain, and but for manner in which he was brought to St. Louis, would have been held. He attributes his arrest to some of Quantrell's men living In Louisiana, who he says, were afraid he would expose them, and took this way of getting rid of him. **************************************
A VINDICTIVE SPIRIT - MURDER COMMITTED BY ONE OF THE "MATERIALIZED" Source: Utica, New York Daily Observer, December 9, 1874 The St. Louis Democrat publishes the following, commenting upon which another paper says: "if this story is true it puts Spiritualism in a new aspect and makes it a very practical matter of serious import to all." At Mendota, Ill., lives a medium of extraordinary force named Betty Milton. Although its' but a short time since her powers in this line have been developed, she has succeeded in producing manifestations, according to the testimony of respectable, intelligent, and credible witnesses, which are fully equal to any of the phenomena which have been observed among the most advanced Spiritualists. Lately she has been troubled by the presence of a Spirit whom she feared and dreaded, but who, in spite of all her efforts, persistently strove to gain control of her organization. It was evident that this spirit desired to manifest through her some strange and dark statement, and its nature could be guessed at by her occasional wild mutterings concerning hatred and murder, revenge and remorse. She gradually yielded to the influence of this troublesome spirit, and finally, near the close of last month, to be exact, on the 23rd of October--he stood beside her in the shape of a slender, tall young man, with long hair and German features! There were a dozen or more persons present, all of whom saw him and saw that the medium was in a state of trance, while the materialized spirit made his ghostly confession in these words, which were heard by all in the room: ‘I come to make a confession, to express my remorse, to atone as far as I may for a wrong doing. My name, when in life, was Carl Reystadt. On the night of May 8, 1872, I murdered Andrew Garrity. It was my crime for which Martin Fynes died in Alton prison. I was at the time in spirit form, but assumed the likeness of Martin Fynes when the deed was done, in order that he might be suspected of the crime and hanged for it. I stole his knife; I purposely encountered two men who knew him, that they might honestly swear to have seen him near the scene of the murder. |I hid the bludgeon where it was found at his house. I did all this that I might be revenged upon him for a great wrong he had done me. I was the instrument in the hands of an all-wise justice in taking the life of Andrew Garrity, for he deserved his fate; but my purpose |was evil. In my later spirit-life, in higher stages of progression I have learned forgiveness. I have been taught to repent the deeds of my wicked heart. For this reason I have come back to attest the innocence of Martin Fynes.’ Having finished this confession, the form began to fade, and shortly disappeared and was never seen again! The circumstance was so singular that inquiries were set on foot by two gentlemen, Mr. N. Moulton, of Mendota, and Mr. B. Longley of Centralia. They discovered that there had been such a person as Andrew Garrity, that he had been murdered as stated in the spirit confession, that Martin Fynes had been arrested for murder, and that he had died at Alton. They also discovered that Carl Reystadt been ill-treated by Martin Fynes, and that ee was dead when Garrity was murdered. In the trial the evidence was conflicting. Two men swore they had seen Fynes, on the night of the murder, near the place where the body was found, with a bludgeon in his hand, and that they had spoken to him but he did not answer them. Four other persons testified that he was at a distance from the spot where the murder occurred and accounted for all his movements during the night. It was proved, however, beyond a doubt, that the knife which was found near the murdered man was his property. Several other circumstances were put in evidence for and against the prisoner and the entire testimony was so puzzling that the jury could not agree and were finally discharged. Fynes was sent to the State prison for a third trial, but died before it could take place. In these proceedings, there was nothing unusual or supernatural, but there were some circumstances connected with Fynes’ prison life, in jail, and in State prison, which are entirely unexplainable except in view of the revelation which purports to have been lately make by the spirit of Carl Reystadt, through the mediumship of Miss Betty Milton. While in prison, Fynes professed to have been visited and persecuted by the ghost of the young German who appeared to him when his cell was dimly lighted, even in the presence of other persons, telling him that he (Fynes) was going to be hanged, and frightening him to such an extent that it was thought best never to leave him alone at night. The only person besides Fynes who claimed to have ever seen this spiritual persecutor was one of the keepers, who declared that he caught a glimpse of him at a time when Fynes' cellmate was removed for a few minutes. He described the ghostly intruder as being the exact counterpart of Martin Fynes, standing by his side, and differing from him in no particular of dress, or in feature. The keeper was so astonished at this vision that he hastily closed the door and called for help. In a few minutes it was opened, but the counterpart had disappeared, and Fynes was lying on his pallet in a fainting condition, or in a state of trance. Thereafter Fynes declared that the murder of Garrity had been committed by a demon that had taken his form and had possessed itself of his knife, and that this demon had frequently visited him in the jail at Carlinville, and in the State prison, terrifying him almost to death. Of course he was regarded as insane and the keeper who declared he had seen the vision above referred to was considered as being in no better mental condition. Fynes died without making any confession, but stoutly adhering to his statements concerning his supernatural visitant, and both he and his supposed crime were forgotten until the time of the remarkable revelation that purported to be made through the mediumship of Miss Betty Milton. It is a strange story as it stands, and we leave the credulous and the incredulous to puzzle their brains over it as they please, only adding that it is published here just as we received it. *****************************************
PRISON INMATE WALTER SHERIDAN Source: Utica, New York Daily Observer, March 25, 1876 The career of Walter Sheridan is a most wonderful one, considering the life of an ordinary criminal as a comparison. Sheridan is now thirty-eight years old. He was born in New Orleans of respectable parents, and received a very fine education. He is about five feet seven inches in height, weighs about one hundred and sixty five pounds, has light complexion, blue eyes, light hair, sandy mustache and beard, and is of a gentlemanly address. He has friends at Sandusky, Ohio, and his wife and one child live at Hudson, Mich.— When a mere boy he drifted into crime, and made has first appearance in the character of a criminal in Western Missouri as a horse thief about sixteen years ago. Then be became so accomplished general thief and confidence man, but especially distinguished himself as a bank sneak. In 1858 he was arrested in company with Joseph Moran, a noted Western robber, for a bank robbery, in Chicago, convicted and sentenced to five years in the Alton Penitentiary, which term he served....... ***************************************
GHOST OF THE PRISON Source: Auburn, New York Daily Bulletin, July 5, 1889 A ghost with the lockstep is one of the rarities of spiritualism, but that is what they say has been heard near the old prison at Alton, Ill. [Note: a lockstep is a way of marching in very close file, in which the leg of each person moves with and closely behind the corresponding leg of the person ahead.] ***************************************
ALTON - PENITENTIARY TRAGEDY Source: Rochester, New York Democrat Chronicle, December 7, 1902 One of the many prisoners received at the Alton Penitentiary when I was deputy warden was a man named Horton. He was editor and proprietor of a weekly paper. He was a pretty strong writer and made many enemies. The article which led to its author's imprisonment was a five-line squib ridiculing a local doctor. The doctor railed to demand a retraction, a fight ensued, and the editor had the misfortune to kill his man. He was sentenced to be hanged, but the Governor commuted it to imprisonment for life. When Horton reached the prison, he was in such a bad state of health that he had to go to the hospital, but after a few weeks he was made librarian to the prison library. After a year or so, Horton's wife got a divorce, his friends ceased to call, and he was virtually dead to the world. As far as I could judge, the man submitted to the inevitable without a murmur, and it has ever since been a sore thought with me that I made such a mistake in sizing him up. Subsequent events proved that he begun plotting from the very first, and we were to learn that he was a man willing to take the most desperate chances to regain his liberty. There was living in the town in which the prison was situated a young lady named Calhoun. She used to come in every Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock, with papers or other things for the prisoners, and sometimes she had company and sometimes not. Saturday afternoon was a holiday with the prisoners—that is, all were locked up in their cells after the noonday meal and could read, write or sleep. This order did not include the librarian and certain other "trusties." One Saturday afternoon Miss Calhoun was an hour late. It was in April, and the day was dark and foggy. The order was to pass her in and out without question. At 7 o'clock in the evening, some of her friends called at the prison to say that she had not returned home. At midnight, after a search of the town had been made, Miss Calhoun's friends returned to the prison. Horton was the first to be consulted. He said she had come in late, bringing two books and some tracts. The books were left in the library, but he went with her to the west corridor to distribute the tracts. We verified his statement by going to the corridor. The country around the prison was searched all night long, and soon after daylight the mystery was solved. The dead body of the girl was found in the Prison yard. On the second floor of a storehouse lay the half naked body, while hat, dress, skirts, and wrap were in a heap beside it. In spite of my good opinion of Horton I suspected him of this awful deed. There were nine other "trusties" who might possibly have had opportunity, and so the deed could not be brought home to him. Whoever had killed the poor girl had dressed in her clothes, but afterward had taken them off. If he had planned to go out in the disguise, his nerve failed him. About eight months after the murder, when Horton had been with us for three years and four months, he made his escape, by means of a tunnel which he had been over two years digging. It began in a clothes closet of the library and ended ninety-three feet away outside the prison walls. What was done had to be accomplished between 7 A. M. and 6 P.M. Horton could not bar anyone out of the library, nor could he tell what minute someone would enter. No convict ever worked for liberty with such odds against him. He simply took the one chance in a thousand. There were times when he descended to his tunnel and worked for an hour before coming out. After coming out he had to wash his hands and remove all dust and dirt, and he must have had nerves of steel and a will of iron to bear up under the hourly fear of discovery. That tunnel was more than a nine days wonder after discovery. You will want to know how I learned of certain things. A year after Horton's escape we heard of him in Montana. He had joined a small band of trappers and hunters and was living among in the mountains. After he had been located it was decided that I should be sent out to attempt his capture. When I reached Gallatin, I learned that Horton's party was in the mountains to the north and enlisted two men in the search for him. We were on the trail of the hunters for a month before we found them. One evening we rode into their camp prepared to capture or kill the fugitive murderer, but he was not there. Two days before, he had started out alone to inspect some traps and had not returned. The rest of the party, numbering six, had been out looking for him on the day of our arrival, but had found no trace. The search was resumed next day, and along in the afternoon we found him. He had fallen over a cliff and landed on a shelf about forty feet below. His fall had been broken by a bush, but he had been severely injured and was almost dead when we got him up. He had broken a leg and an arm, and as there was no way to get a doctor we knew that death soon must terminate his sufferings. During the last day of his life Horton was not only conscious, but talkative and free from pain. He insisted on telling me all about the tunnel business, and of course I was interested in the details. I plainly told him that I had suspected him from the hour of finding Miss Calhoun's body and that, figure it out as I might, no one else had the opportunity that he had. He did not answer me for several minutes, and then quietly said: "I will give you my idea of that affair, though of course it may be all wrong. When Miss Calhoun and I separated, she started for the exit and I for the library. There were several "trusties" about, and no doubt one of them spoke to her and she may have turned aside. It was a dark, foggy day, you remember, and the man might have clutched her by the throat to prevent an alarm and carried her to the storehouse. He took great risks, but was not discovered. I have always felt much grieved over the fate of that poor girl." "What motive do you think the murderer had?" I asked. "Probably to don her clothes and pass out to liberty." "But why didn't he carry out his plan?" "Probably something threw him off his nerve as he approached the wicket. He could have gone out unquestioned, but something happened to make him suspect that he would be nabbed." "And you will not confess, realizing as you must, that death is not far away?" "My dear man," Horton replied as a smile played over his pale face, "let's talk about that tunnel and drop all dismal subjects. So all of you called it an excellent bit of civil engineering, eh? Well, I think it was. I was very proud of that tunnel, and sometimes I felt like going back to have a look at it." Four hours later he was dead, passing away as peacefully as if he had never shed a drop of human blood. ************************************************
PRISONERS TRANSFERRED FROM ST. LOUIS TO ALTON (clip from a story about Sandford Kirkpatrick, chaser of moonshiners and member of Congress)
Source: Buffalo, New York
Morning Express, May 3, 1914
************************************************* SMALLPOX ISLAND DESTROYED - CEMETERY OF CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS Source: Utica, New York Observer, June 30, 1935 McPike's [Smallpox] Island Cut Away in Mississippi River Work - A Mississippi River island which once was shown as a dueling ground for Abraham Lincoln and later was the cemetery for Confederate victims who died of smallpox while in the military prison at Alton during the Civil War, is being removed piecemeal from the Missouri shore of the river to provide as base of operations for the federal government's work on a dam across the river at Alton. About 40,000 cubic feet of earth has already been removed from the piece of ground. It is no longer an island in reality, having been joined to the Missouri mainland by the action of river currents. The earth is being removed from a point about 200 yards from the dam. When Lincoln was supposed to have gone there for a duel, the land was known as McPike's Island. It was chosen as the site of a duel between Lincoln, then a country lawyer, and James Shields, brigadier of the Mexican War. Shields challenged Lincoln after the latter wrote an article which offended him. Tradition has it that Lincoln, given the choice of weapons, picked Calvary broadswords, a selection which his challenger did not particularly favor. The day of the duel, Lincoln "warmed up" by by slicing off a small willow tree with his immense weapon, at which Shields burst out laughing. Before they returned to the Illinois shore, their quarrel was made up, without the duel having been fought. During the Civil War, its use as a cemetery followed an outbreak of smallpox at the prison camp at Alton, where numerous Confederate soldiers were confined. After that episode, it was known as Smallpox Island. The dam now under construction by the government is one of many being built along the length of the river to control the effects of river currents and aid navigation. *********************************************
FEW STONES GRIM RELICS OF TRAGEDY IN ALTON PRISON Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 15, 1936 (Centennial Edition) by Doris McDow
'Secesh' Captives Died Like Flies in Civil War Epidemic Fragments of one wall is all that remains to mark the spot in Alton that was occupied by the first state institution of Illinois - the state penitentiary, located here 1833-1860, and used during the Civil War as a military prison. The ruin of the stone structure stands in Uncle Remus park, now used as a parking lot. The original gloomy structure, scene of many horrors, was the place Dorothea L. Dix, "mother of the prison system of Illinois and of Illinois mental hospitals," condemned in 1847 as being filthy and unfit to keep criminals in. Her plea for betterment of the prison system led to erection of a new prison at Joliet and transferring of prisoners to that city. Though the structure ceased to be a state prison in 1860, it was used during the war and then was its most intriguing history, a story of pain, pathos, peril, even romance.
As a new nation grew out of the colonies that had been settled by persons from various countries, the question of dealing with criminals arose, but it was not until 1826 and 1827 that the state of Illinois, then eight years old, turned thoughts to dealing with such persons. Tracing the development of laws, courts and punishments is an interesting study, but it must suffice here to state that prior to 1831 it was customary in all parts of the United States to punish criminals by whipping in public, the stocks, and pillory; county jails were built but were unstable and unsanitary places.
In 1831, by order of the general assembly of Illinois, confinement and hard labor, with occasional floggings by guards of prisons as they deemed it necessary, were substituted for the old forms of punishment, and the change caused comment. Governor Ford, discussing the change, said in the 15 years prior to the change, the increase of crime greatly exceeded the relative increase of population of the state, and something had to be done to suppress the wave of evil. There were many arguments of the subject, some saying no punishment was so deterrent of crime as the laying on of stripes. With this change came the growth and development of the first state penitentiaries and then the federal ones, with a regular system growing out of the practice for the control and sentencing of criminals.
Long before this change in the criminal code of Illinois took effect, a movement had been on foot for the government to supply the first state institution, in the form of a penitentiary. The fifth general assembly of Illinois, meeting at Vandalia in the winter of 1826-27, discussed the need of a prison and suggested Alton as a location, as county jails were inferior and unsafe. But the state was poor and oppressed by failure of the first State bank, and the subject probably would have been dropped had it not bee remembered that John Reynolds, later governor of the state, had sent a memorial to the assembly of the year before, suggesting that Illinois sell 30,000 unused acres in Gallatin County, Saline reserve, to raise funds. The assembly then voted to sell 40,000 acres of the reserve, one half the proceeds to go for the penitentiary and the other half to be used to improve the Wabash River and drain swamps. Commissioners appointed to supervise the sale and erect the prison were ex-governor, Shadrach Bond, William P. McKee, and Dr. Gersham Jayne.
The same John Reynolds, now governor, who promoted sale of Saline land, had the general assembly of 1831 pass an appropriation of $10,000 from the state treasury as additional funds, with a sum of $2000 set aside from treasury to be drawn on by the warden at order of the governor at such times as needed for supplies of provisions, clothing, mechanics' tools, materials for labor, and incidentals. In 1832 the general assembly gave inspectors authority to sell land adjoining the penitentiary site, to raise money to erect a wall around the buildings, and a workshop.
The state prison was opened in 1833 and was a model and near-perfect institution at the time, it was thought. In a short while, the shortcomings of the buildings were found and the establishment never was a success from the viewpoint of the purpose it was meant to fulfill - betterment of the jail system.
Prison Leased to Warden; State Men Could 'Farm Out' Convicts That was the "magnificent" prison erected at Alton! The congregated system was used instead of the brutal solitary system prevailing in county jails. The main building was a neat stone structure with 24 cells. This number was increased gradually. The location was a bad one, as the buildings were placed on a steep slope which extended to the river, the lower wall being within eight feet of the high water line. The buildings were on different levels, crowded within the wall, and the sloping area-way was not "graded or McAdamed" and had no drains as late as 1847, so that rains made the yard muddy with deep gullies that always threatened to undermine the walls. J. C. Bruner was warden from August 1833 to July 28, 1837.
For the first five years, the state conducted the prison, electing a warden biennially to receive a salary of $600. Under a law passed in 1837, the inspectors could, at their own discretion, farm out convicts and give a bonus of $800 in addition. During this year, Ben S. Enlow was appointed warden and served until 1840. From 1838 to the close of the prison it was managed by a lessee who took over the prison and men for a fixed sum; the lessee to furnish supplies, handle products of convict labor, employ guards, and exercise powers of warden. At the time the lessee system was initiated with S. A. Buckmaster the first to serve in that capacity, there were 38 convicts, and the system lasted in the State of Illinois 29 years, until 1867. Isaac Greathouse was warden under S. A. Buckmaster, from 1840 to 1842.
S. A. Buckmaster's first term as lessee expired in 1842, and two men, Nathanial Buckmaster and Isaac Greathouse took the lease together, without a bonus to the state, with N. Buckmaster serving as warden 1842 to 1846. The prison was re-leased to S. A. Buckmaster in 1845 for a term of eight years with a bonus to the state of $5,000, beside which he agreed to feed, bed and guard prisoners, pay physicians' bills and fees of inspectors. There had been a gradual increase from 24 cells in the prison in 1833 to 88 cells in 1845. Two men were in a cell and more room was needed. A journal of the day says that beds used by prisoners were of straw, covered with blankets and buffalo robes.
Filthy Conditions Existed In 1846 the general assembly, now meeting at the new state capitol at Springfield, decided it was the duty of inspectors to erect 96 new cells of same size as old ones and to complete the 14 in unfinished state - make necessary alterations for ventilation and admission of light to safeguard prisoners - erect additional story to warden's building and use this house for hospital - erect warden's house in niche at southwest angle of area of outer wall to be three stories high, 44 by 36 feet in dimensions, and built either of stone or brick - build a cooper shop 100 by 50 feet, a suitable distance from outer wall - sink a cistern to afford a bath for convicts and a supply of water for extinction of fires - build a kitchen adjoining the dining room - erect smith shop and wagon maker shop - construct a common silver, unless a convenient substitute could be thought out - macadamize or pave the area - put supports and security to walls as needed - all this ordered with the admonition that expenditure should not exceed the bonus due from lessee ($5,000). It was not stated whether the inspectors carried out the orders of the assembly or not. At this time, S. A. Buckmaster was appointed warden, as well as lessee, to serve 1846 to July 1860.
Prisoners Make Desperate Attempts to Escape; Few Succeed The investigating committee of 1847 reported to the legislature of Illinois the deplorable conditions of the prison, stating that the eating room had no flagging and the dirt floor could not be washed. According to Dorothea L. Dix, it was the only prison in the United States at the time where inmates stood to eat. The hospital was in a damp basement with neither light nor ventilation, and the floor flooded in rainy weather. There were no bathing facilities, the convicts washing their faces and hands in tubs or buckets in the shops, should they be so inclined. There was no chapel, and religious services were lacking. Prisoners wore gray-striped clothing, and in this year it was recommended to give a suit of clothing and a small sum of money to a discharged convict as his own clothes usually were lost or destroyed before the end of his term. Rope making from hemp and barrel making were the prison industries, the shops being attached to outer walls and so much lower that they were without ventilation and always filled with smoke.
Dorothea Dix, who took up the fight for betterment of the prison system of Illinois and for the establishment of mental hospitals, reported in a speech before the general assembly the abuses she saw at Alton prison and her speech was a factor that stopped further wasting of funds on this penitentiary which had proved to be hopelessly faulty. She urged the abandonment of the penitentiary at Alton and the building of one elsewhere. Her speech was to bear fruit in the years that followed.
About this time in the history of Alton the city was suffering from the setback which followed the Lovejoy assassination and the town was the target for unkind criticism of contemporaries of the Alton Evening Telegraph in the southern and eastern portions of the state. The Telegraph of Dec. 21, 1849 carried a cryptic notation that "Fear of the penitentiary appears to be the main cause of the opposition to Alton . . . They seem to hope to escape their inevitable fate of being occupants of that institution, by abuse of Alton and all it contains in advance. Be easy, gentlemen; you shall be dealt with as you deserve."
Not much is found in the records prior to that time, of attempted escapes of convicts, but from then on until its close as a state penitentiary the Telegraph news columns carried reports of attempts at escaping and treachery of convicts. When the place was opened during the Civil War as a military prison the condition was even more acute.
April 7, 1854, while a number of convicts were unloading a flat-boat of staves at the levee, one stripped off his clothing and plunged into the river. After a guard fired his rifle at the fugitive and missed, several skiffs put out and overtook him three or four hundred yards downstream. He was chilled and frightened, but returned to the prison without causing more excitement; the Telegraph in commenting on the incident thought the man a brave fellow for attempting to gain his liberty, but afterwards found attempts to gain freedom were too numerous to bother about, except to give a mere mention in the paper's columns.
One dash for liberty more audacious than the rest took place in May of 1854, when four convicts made a break for the north wall as prisoners were returning from the dining hall to the work shops. They threw a long beam against the wall, climbed to the top and jumped, then tried to escape across the bluffs. The alarm was given and two convicts were shot in the arms by a guard, but the wounds did not slow the flight of the men. Citizens joined in pursuit of the fugitives. The first surrendered at the residence of S. Wise, one of the prison lessees, where exhaustion and loss of blood caused him to give up the fight; the second was overtaken at J. H. Lea's residence on Prospect street (the present Loretto home), and though he threatened to kill any one who tried to recapture him, he was subdued when knocked down by several stones; the third was captured near the C. Trumbull residence before he had a chance to draw the knife he carried; the fourth hid under a tree trunk in a sink hole on the bluffs and when overtaken, ran to the edge of the bluff and threatened to kill himself, but reconsidered and went back to the prison. The last mentioned convict was said to be one of the most desperate, and wore an iron collar around his neck because of another attempt at escape he had made several months before.
On Saturday morning, Sept. 6, 1855, when the gate of the penitentiary yard was opened by the keeper to admit the bearer of the prison supplies, a negro prisoner named Wilkeson and a white prisoner, George Clarke, rushed out to escape. The gate keeper followed and arrested Wilkeson; a guard shot and killed Clarke when he disregarded the call to halt. Cells in the prison numbered 256 in 1857, and there were at least two men in each cell. S. K. Casey was appointed lessee for five years on the same terms as S. A. Buckmaster's agreement of 1845. Dorothea Dix's plea and the urging of others took effect, and in this year, 1857, the legislature passed a bill to move the penitentiary to Joliet and erect a new prison with 1,000 cells, building to be closer to the main source of supplies. The old prison was to be sold or razed. The legislators talked of using material in the old penitentiary to build the new one and having the convicts help with labor on the new structure, but that plan did not materialize. The law also provided that the office of inspector would be abolished and a superintendent appointed instead, to serve with lessees, the superintendent to reside at the prison and have discretionary power over punishments inflicted, to receive $1,000 per annum for his services, and be appointed by the governor by and with consent of the senate. Appointment of Governor Bissell make F. S. Rutherford, esp., the first superintendent, and the only one to serve at Alton before the prison eventually was moved.
Convict Capture Guard, Stages Three Day Rule of Horror in Cell In 1859 one prisoner, who was known to have a knife in his possession, chose to starve rather than give up the weapon or let a warden enter his cell; he took no food for 97 hours. At the end of that time, he was so weak that the guards were able to take the weapon from his and care for him.
One incident in the late 50s that aroused the entire city and countryside is recalled as the "three-day horror." A convict named Hall, serving a life sentence for murder, was a desperate man whose imprisonment had made him insane with rage and hate. He worked in the blacksmith shop and managed to make a short knife of a worn-out file. His cell, like all the others, was strongly built of blocks of stone and the door was of oak several inches thick, banded with bars of iron. The prisoner's bed shut down against the door which opened inwards so that the door could not be forced from without when the prisoner was in bed. In the door was a hole about eight inches square that was strongly barred, and the only other opening into the cell was in the outer wall where a narrow slit, also barred, admitted light and air. This window was near the ceiling and by reason of its narrowness and thickness of the wall, a person on the outside could not look into the cell. Hall understood all this. At 10 a. m., while he was working one day, he signaled the guard, Crabb, and said he was sick and wanted to leave the workshop, so, in accordance with the rule, Crabb started to the cell with the convict. As the guard opened the door, Hall struck him down and dragged him into the cell. He bound the guard with strips from the bed blanket and closed the door with the bed against it. The guard was stunned and unable to raise an alarm. Search was made for him when he did not return to the workshop. Hall, armed with the knife, was watching over the wounded guard when other officials of the prison came to investigate his disappearance. In negotiating with the prison officials in the corridor, Hall said he would kill the guard unless he, the convict, was given a full pardon and furnished with a loaded revolver, permitted to walk with a guard out of the prison to a carriage that must await him at the gate, and that Colonel Buckmaster should drive the carriage wherever the occupant ordered. He also stated that if attempts were made to take him, he would kill Guard Crabb.
The guard was well-known and liked, a respected citizen of Alton and head of a family, so that consternation over his predicament was great, and news of the barricade soon spread over the county and state. Communication was kept up between the convict and Colonel Buckmaster, who kept an armed guard in the corridor for three days, watching for a chance to shoot the convict, but Hall managed to keep himself covered with the body of his hostage and his vigilance never was relaxed. Hall told the watchers he had been trying to capture the warden but had been compelled to accept smaller game, whereupon Buckmaster offered to take Crabb's place in the cell, but Hall declined, though Buckmaster promised to enter the place naked. Food put into the cell could not be poisoned because the convict made Crabb eat with him.
When the desperate situation was realized, Governor Bissell sent a pardon for Hall to the warden to be used at his discretion, but the warden decided not to use it and free the maniac, except as a last resort. When every other expedient failed, the warden decided to force the door and when the door was opened a bit to admit the supper of the two men, Buckmaster inserted a crow bar to keep it open, and with the aid of another guard, rushed in and pulled Crabb out, but not before Hall had fallen on the guard and tried to kill him. Though Crabb was wounded seriously, he soon recovered. The guard was taken from the cell but Hall was not, and he barricaded himself again, refusing to surrender. Buckmaster still kept a close watch until he saw one foot of the convict exposed and instantly shot at it. The wound broke Hall's nerve and he exposed himself more so that he received a head wound. He was taken from the cell and died a day or two later. Crabb recovered and resumed his duties as guard, serving in the new prison at Joliet, as well.
Soon after this, transferring of prisoners from Alton to the new penitentiary at Joliet was started, in 1859. The men were forwarded to the northern part of the state in groups of 40 to 50, but all were not moved out of the Alton buildings until June 1860, at which time the Alton prison, with its extensive grounds and buildings bounded by Fourth street on the north, Williams on the east, Second or Short on the south, and Mill on the west, was ready to be abandoned.
Colonel Buckmaster continued to hold over his connection with the Alton penitentiary after its abandonment as his lease from the state gave him control until 1867, and it was before his term was up that the place was put into service the second time as a prison, this time as a military place of confinement. After 1864, Buckmaster had as partners in the lease Messrs. J. J. and W. H. Mitchell and Z. B. Job of Alton, and others. Although Alton boasted the first state institution in this prison, there were no other state institutions or buildings erected in Alton until the opening of the present Alton State Hospital for care of mental disorders.
With the beginning of the Civil War, Alton became a much talked of place because of its position on the border, and as the town was northern and supported the views of the Union in the controversy, its proximity to St. Louis gave it favor of the army officers, as a military post for protection of the citizens from raids of southern sympathizers across the river. The Alton post was under the jurisdiction of the federal commander at St. Louis, and the first garrison stationed here was three or four companies of the Thirteenth United States regulars, General Sherman's regiment that was to figure so importantly in the war before its finish. This was commanded by Lieut. Col. Sydney Burbank.
Even before the soldiers were brought to Alton, it had been suggested that the old State Penitentiary be used as a military prison for "secesh" prisoners and southern sympathizers. The town was divided in opinion on this move, some arguing that Alton would become the target of southern neighbors for raids and other depredations. The Alton Democrat went so far as to print in December of 1861 a statement that, should the 1300 Missouri rebel prisoners be brought to Alton as had been suggested, it would be a public nuisance. To this statement the Telegraph replied it saw no objection to the prison being established here if the army officers thought it helpful to the Union cause, and while the prison might be a nuisance in some respects, it would be that no matter where located, and Alton should be willing to make that contribution to the northern cause.
Late in the year the project began to take shape, with Gen. H. W. Halleck in command of the department at St. Louis, applying to Gov. Yates of Illinois for permission to use the old penitentiary for military purposes. S. A. Buckmaster still held the lease on the building, and his consent was sought, as well as her services.
January 17, 1862 it was decided that prisoners confined at McDowell College in St. Louis should be transferred to Alton. This announcement ripped the town wide open and many professed fear of evil consequences, stating the Missourians would cross the river and fire at Alton. The Telegraph had one suggestion to make, that if the prisoners were brought here, Alton should be protected by having the place garrisoned. This arrangement was made, later and on Feb. 1, 1862, permission was received from the governor to move the prisoners and use the buildings of the penitentiary.
Three days later Major General Halleck sent a letter from St. Louis to Lieut. Col. Burbank, placing him in charge of the prisoners, and the Thirteenth regiment moved into the old penitentiary property on a quiet Sabbath afternoon. The first prisoners were received at the Alton levee Feb. 9, 1862, having come from the south up river by steamer. They were landed between files of the Thirteenth and marched to the prison by way of the south wall gate. The prisoners, a motley crowd, were not all soldiers, but included spies, bridge burners, train wreckers and southern sympathizers of various grades. Among the first prisoners to be received was Colonel Ebenezer Magoffin, brother of the Governor of Kentucky. The colonel was a colorful figure who caused a great deal of trouble at the military prison several months later. Capt. Charles C. Smith of the Thirteenth reported to Lieut. Col. Burbank on Feb. 12 that he had received the invoice for the prisoners and if any more were transferred to Alton, there would be no room for the regiment within the prison walls. The surgeon had not procured a hospital at that time, prisoners were policing quarters, and the regiment expected to have the newcomers under control by the next evening. Supplymaster Decourcey had made requisition for needed supplies. There was no trouble as yet - that was to come later.
In April of that first year, there were 791 prisoners of war in the penitentiary, 88 of them officers - five Colonels, two Lieutenant Colonels, three Majors, one Chaplain, 18 Captains, 22 Lieutenants, and seven surgeons - and of that number, Capt. Carey and the seven surgeons were on restricted parole to the town limits. Union soldiers had taken 459 of the prisoners at Pea Ridge, 130 from Fort Henry and vicinity, and the others, taken at Milford included bridge burners, soldiers arrested for pillaging, and disloyal citizens. A letter to headquarters at this time reported that quarters at the Alton prison were "excellent, equal, if not superior to those at Camps Butler, Douglas and Morton." There were 300 men in the penitentiary proper, not in cells but in "wide passageways running around the three different tiers of 'cells'." Bunks were double. Other prisoners were lodged in outbuildings, and the report said, "In regard to their quarters, bunks and bedding, we heard but a single complaint." Six Illinoisans were in prison, charged with assisting prisoners of war to escape. They were confined in separate cells awaiting sentence. The list included W. P. Brooks, N. T. Brooks, A. C. Gish, W. S. Hutton, W. G. Nabb and William Richardson, all residents of Auburn, in Sangamon county.
When Romance Stirred Hearts of Alton's Girls for Boys in Blue Romance flourished in the days when Alton was garrisoned by men in uniforms, and the ladies bestowed special favors on the military visitors, one instance of which caused harsh comment in the press. A group of the fairer sex of Alton, some of them being so discreet as to wear masks, gathered outside the north wall of the prison and serenaded those within. The next issue of the Telegraph contained a scalding reprimand from the editor for the actions of the young ladies, stating that it was no bad enough that they had serenaded prisoners of war, but that they had sung "Dixie" amidst shouts and cheers of the southerners. But the next day the paper carried an apology to the ladies for a number of the "culprits" had visited the newspaper office and explained the situation. It seemed that Companies A and G of the regiment had moved from the building in the north yard of the penitentiary without having made public mention of it, and the ladies, thinking the soldiers still were there, went serenading the noble youths in uniform. They were filled with confusion to find that their gentle efforts had been wasted on secesh prisoners - and so far as singing the beautiful song of "Dixie," they wanted to know since when one portion of a country had a right to have full possession of so charming a song, and why they could not sing it. So the Telegraph, with an editorial chuckle, apologized and enjoyed the romantic atmosphere that permeated the town since the advent of the dashing regiment.
A tipsy crowd of prisoners arrived at Alton July 4, 1862, and went reeling into prison in a jovial mood. It seemed that the 180 rebels had enjoyed their trip from St. Louis on the Tatum steamer, as the lieutenant in charge of the shipment had allowed them quite some freedom. The boat load consisted of many old St. Louis rivermen, war prisoners taken at Corinth, and others from that vicinity arrested for disloyalty. When the lieutenant was not watching them, they proceeded to "get tight and kick up a few fights." Those who were disorderly, which included most of the boat load, were put under guard when riot was feared. Landing of the noisy outfit drew a crowd to the levee and Altonians watched the new prisoners reel down the gangplank and march (?) to the prison, singing and cheering for "Jeff Davis." Though none tried to escape or make more trouble, the ringleaders were locked in cells overnight, but received no other reprimand, as the warden thought the "headaches the next morning were punishment enough."
Daring Col. Magoffin Joins Group of 35 in Escape Through Tunnel | |
