Castle Thunder: Visiting the Southern Bastille

Castle Thunder, the Confederacy’s prison for political prisoners, women, slaves and deserters.

“Castle Thunder! What a horridly euphonious name for a prison place. So suggestive of doom and death. And so it proved to many a Confederate soldier, who, lying in the dungeons damp, or crowded into the common pens, for long weeks and months. . . .”

Sounds like a Southerner excoriating the North for the horrors of its military prisons during the Civil War, but Castle Thunder wasn’t a Northern prison, and the description comes from a just-after-the-war recounting in “Southern Opinion” about one of the few topics both sides could agree on: Castle Thunder—a unique Rebel prison entertaining men and women, misbehaving Confederate soldiers, captured escaped slaves, Union deserters, Union POWs and traitors—was a place of nightmares.

On March 1, 1862, Jefferson Davis increased the need for prison space by suspending writ of habeas corpus within 10 miles of Richmond, opening the path for arrest and incarceration of political prisoners.

The Castle opened for guests in summer 1862 in the heart of Richmond’s industrial district, combining three tobacco factories into a segregated (by race and gender) lockup. The entrance, offices and welcoming center to the prison faced Cary Street, between 18th and 19th streets–the former tobacco factory of William Greanor & Sons. It became the unwelcoming home for Southerner, soldier and civilian alike. Two smaller factories sided the main building. Whittock’s building was “used for negro quarters and prison for women”; and Palmer’s was “used for Yankee deserters.”

Combined, the buildings were designed for 1,400 prisoners, but at least at one point housed 3,000. The prison served the Confederacy to the end of the war, and in its difficult history, some executions were documented at the Castle.

The Confederates destroyed many Castle Thunder records before they left the capital and the buildings around the Castle burned as the government retreated from the city. But Castle Thunder (and Libby Prison) escaped the destruction. (In 1879, however, the Castle suffered–just delayed–the same fate, being gutted in a fire.)

The Union took over the prison when they occupied Richmond, and under its supervision Castle Thunder held Union political prisoners, Confederate soldiers and criminals. The supposed key to the Castle was smuggled North where it was sold to benefit orphans of fallen Union soldiers.

Castle Thunder Commandants

In its four-year run, the Castle had three commandants:

Captain Alexander used bucking and gagging as one punishments for prisoners at Castle Thunder.

 

The first was the most famous and infamous. Captain George W. Alexander opened the prison and oversaw the facility with a combination soft leather gloves for those prisoners he liked and an iron fist for others. His controversial methods led to a Confederate congressional inquiry where it was reported prisoners were strung up:

by the thumbs and raised up on their toes. . . . I don’t know how long they remained tied up, but from the best information they were kept sometimes eight hours. . . . I saw a man handcuffed around a post, raised up at first and afterwards cut down when his blood had stagnated. . . . Captain Alexander . . . put . . . men down in the pen outside, where they remained two or three days. They had no covering and it was raining. . . . I have seen prisoners whipped, . . . severely whipped on the buttocks with straps . . . . The whipping strap was secured onto wooden handles. They were made of harness leather or sole leather from eighteen inches to two feet in length. The blows were laid on about as hard as a man could do it. I have seen prisoners wear the same clothes for months until they were ready to drop off in rags. I think there have been instances of attempts to bribe the guard.

Another prison official testified:

I have seen on one or two occasions fifteen or twenty prisoners “bucked” and “gagged” at a time. The “gag” is effected by a stick inserted crosswise in the mouth, and the “buck” is to tie the arms at the elbows to a cross-piece beneath the thighs. They were generally ironed, wore ball and chain, and were charged with various offenses. I recollect now I only “gagged” one. I have seen the “barrel shirt” worn by a prisoner. The shirt is made by sawing a common flour barrel in twain and cutting armholes in the sides and an aperture in the barrel head for the insertion of the wearer’s head. The one I saw have the barrel shirt on wore it as a punishment for lying. He was tied up by the thumbs to the roof and stood on his feet, wearing it one day and part of the next day.

Congress exonerated the captain, but he was soon transferred because of later charges filed against him. Alexander was a playwright and kept a large, black Russian Bloodhound named Nero (or Hero) that some claimed he used to intimidate prisoners.

Late in 1863, Alexander was replaced by an urbane and efficient, but much less spectacular, commandant, Captain Richardson.

The March 2, 1865 Richmond Dispatch (Daily Dispatch) announced “Captain Lucian W. Richardson, for some time past commandant at Castle Thunder, has been honorably retired from the Confederate service on account of physical disability. His connection with the Castle ceased on Sunday last, since which time the affairs of that institution have been, and till further arrangements are made will be, under the charge of Captain Henry Callahan, the senior officer on duty there.”

Callahan oversaw the prison to war’s end and fled Richmond with the Confederate government. He returned to Richmond April 17 to surrender to Union authorities, who quickly released him on parole.

A Prison for Women

It’s variously estimated that about 100, more than 100 or hundreds of women were held at Castle Thunder–I haven’t seen any of the three verified.

 

Dr. Mary E. Walker, a four-month prisoner at Castle Thunder and the only woman to ever receive the Medal of Honor, poses in her “Reform Dress.”

But there were many incarcerated, including women held for spying, disloyalty, and Union military wives (and their children) who foolishly stayed behind in Winchester, Virginia, when the Union pulled out of the city. Escaped female slaves were imprisoned there. Several former female Confederate soldiers (Mary and Molly Bell and Millie Bean) whose gender was discovered were sent briefly to the prison till they could be placed in safety. No woman ever escaped from the Castle, but at least one internee, Mary Lee, gave birth to a child while locked up. Mary named her daughter Castellina Thunder Lee and often visited the prison after her release.

Most famous of Castle Thunder’s women prisoners was the first and only female recipient of the Medal of Honor Dr. Mary E. Walker who was captured by the military. She may have been spying for the North, but most Richmond residents were far more interested in her clothes. “She had a room to herself in Castle Thunder, and sometimes was permitted to stroll into the streets, where her display of Bloomer costume, blouse, trowsesrs [sic] and boots secured her a following of astonished and admiring boys.” She described it as “what is usually called the ‘Bloomer’ or ‘Reform Dress,’ which is similar to all ladies with the exception of its being shorter and more physiological than long dresses.” In short she wore trousers under a near-the-knee skirt or dress. Because of her incarceration, she suffered long-term health issues, her niece later reporting that she weighed 60 lbs. when she was exchanged after her four months in the Castle.

 

Sources:

“Castle Thunder.” Richmond Enquirer 12 August 1862. Web. 10 October 2013. <http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/Enquirer/1862/richmond_enquirer_81262a.htm>

Graf, Mercedes. A Woman of Honor: Dr. Mary E. Walker and the Civil War. Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 2001. Print.

Hanna, J. Marshall. “Castle Thunder in Bellum Days.” Southern Opinion, November 11, 1867. Web. 20 August 2013. <http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/Other_Papers/southern_opinion,_11_2>

McClarey, Donald R. “Jefferson Davis and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus.” The American Catholic 7 February 2013. Little Vatican. Web. 10 October 2013. <http://the-american-catholic.com/2013/02/07/jefferson-davis-and-the-suspension-of-habeas-corpus>

No Title. New York Times 6 September 1879. Web. 10 October 2013. <http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/NYC_Papers/new_york_times,_9_6_1879.htm>

Speer, Lonnie R. Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997. Print.

“The Prisoners.” The Richmond Dispatch 8 July 1862. Web. 10 October 2013. <http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/Dispatch/1862/richmond_dispatch_7862.htm>

“To be Evacuated.” Richmond Dispatch 18 August 1862. Web. 10 October 2013. <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2006.05.0548%3Aarticle%3Dpos%3D29>

 

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