Columbia Military Prison
Richland County Jail

  The crowded conditions in Richmond occasioned the removal of 40 officers and 116 non-commission and enlisted men to Castle Pinkney in Charleston Harbor, 10 September 1861 where the prisoners found their Richmond experiences duplicated. Gifts of food came from the friends of the prisoners in the city and the "Castle Pinkney Brotherhood" was created on the model of the Richmond Prison Association. Coffee and sugar remained on the rations until 16 October, when the effect of the blockade was brought home to the prisoners in the same fashion as it had been in Richmond. The last of October the prisoners were removed from the castle and taken to the Charleston jail. A few weeks later, some of them were moved again to the jail in Columbia. It was the County Jail for Richland County, located on Washington Street in the heart of Columbia. A three story building, the dimensions of the building was seventy by fifty feet, with the third story occupied by the district sheriff, which left the middle and lower departments available for POW's.

Records are very sketchy, I have identified a few men who were there and have attached those imprisoned in 1862 and those in early 1864.

The Post Commandor was Major C. D. Melton and by 16 September 1863, their number had grown to 273 Union and 27 Confederate prisoners and the surgeon was Dr. J. Ford Prioleau. On 18 August 1864, Major A. J. Green was commandant of post and 93 enlisted men and 132 officers languished within its confines. The guard was entirely crowded out of any place for the reliefs to sleep, and are now compelled to sleep on the ground in front of the jail. The officers were housed in jail cells and those below the rank of Lieutenant were housed in tents within the Jail walls. The Commander of the Post Guards was Captain R. D. Senn, was commissioned September 9, 1863, as enrolling officer and then order to Columbia. A first hand account of this process is in included in the diary of Chaplain H C Trumbull, Chaplain of the Tenth Connecticut.

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Background