Libby Prison Archives - New England Historical Society

Abner Small of Waterville, Maine, narrowly evaded capture at the Battle of Gettysburg, only to be taken prisoner of war 13 months later.

He was first incarcerated in Richmond, Va., at Libby Prison, infamous for overcrowding, malnutrition and disease. He survived his ordeal and was exchanged for Confederate prisoners in time to lead his regiment in the last days of the Civil War.

Libby Prison

Battle of Gettysburg

Abner Small was 25 years old when he enlisted in the Maine 3^rd Infantry Regiment on June 4, 1861, according to the Maine Historical Society.

He was mustered out of the 3rd Maine and commissioned an officer in the newly formed Maine 16th Infantry Regiment, famous for its heroism at Gettysburg. The regiment’s delaying action on June 1, 1863, allowed the retreat of 16,000 Union Army troops, but at a dreadful cost. More than 200 were killed, captured or wounded. Only 38 lived to fight another day. Abner Small was one of them.

Maj. Abner Small

After the battle, he wrote how the men of the Maine 16^th prevented the Confederates from capturing their flags – the regimental flag and the Stars and Stripes — as they overran what was left of the regiment:

“For a few last moments our little regiment defended angrily its hopeless challenge, but it was useless to fight longer. We looked at our colors, and our faces burned. We must not surrender those symbols of our pride and our faith.” The color bearers “appealed to the colonel,” Small wrote, “and with his consent they tore the flags from the staves and ripped the silk into shreds; and our officers and men that were near took each a shred.”

He won special notice for his bravery during the battle.

Battle of Globe Tavern

Thirteen months later on Aug. 18, 1864, Abner Small was captured south of Petersburg, Va., at the Battle of Globe Tavern. After he suffered through Libby Prison, he was taken to Salisbury in Rowan County, N.C., then Danville Prison in Danville, Va.

The Globe Tavern. Photo by Matthew Brady.

“Our condition is humiliating, degrading & almost unbearable,” he wrote in his diary on Nov. 17, 1864. He complained of cold, hunger, filth, vermin and illness.

Money helped. The prisoners sold their possessions for Confederate scrip, which they exchanged for food. Small sold his watch and shared the proceeds with his men. Not all officers were so generous. Small complained about those who simply looked out for themselves.

I am sick & hungry & can borrow no money
have no money – by no money neither
can I find the virtue called charity

On Aug. 19, 1864, Abner Small wrote in his diary:

Petersburg Va.

Captd (captured) on 18th with Capt. Conley, Lieuts. Broughton
& Chapman. Confined in lockup (negro prison) with E M (enlisted men)
until 11 A.M. 19th. Moved to island in Appomattox river
Sold watch for 150$ Confed. Scrip. Watkins scout
gave me 10$. While in Petersburg I gave
Lieut. Chapman 20$, Lieut [name erased] 10$
Wrote to Col T [Tilden]

Three Cheers

Abner Small then spent six months in Confederate prisons.

On Feb. 15, 1865, incarcerated at Danville, he learned he and the other prisoners would be exchanged for Confederate prisoners. “The welcome intelligence has at last arrived!” he wrote. “[W]e leave for Richmond for ex[change] on Friday & Saturday. 3 cheers were given…”

The first 200 men in alphabetical order left the prison by railroad on February 17. Small got no sleep that night. He then left the next day, arriving at Libby Prison in Richmond, Va., at 2 p.m. on February 18. The next day, “Enjoyed luxury of hot coffee milked and sugared!” he wrote.

Not until February 22 did he win his release.

Left the southern hell
at 8 A.M. placed our
feet on God’s soil near
Cox’s landing 10 A.M.
got sight of Stars & Stripes
at Aiken’s landing at
11:30 — Left A L [Aikens Landing] in “Geo.
Leary” at 1:30 P.M.
Ham white bread and coffee
issued — 1/2 ra [ration] whiskey.

On February 24, he received $233 for his service during December and January.

Aftermath

Twenty-one years later, Abner Small wrote a history of the Sixteenth Maine Regiment in the War of the Rebellion. He married right after the war and then married again after his first wife died. Small and his second wife had two sons, and he worked as head bookkeeper at the Dunn Edge Tool Co. He became the company’s treasurer, then clerk and eventually corporate officer of the Somerset Railroad.

He died in Oakland, Maine, in 1910.

With thanks to mainememory.net. Photo Detail of Libby Prison by Alexander Gardner. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. This story was updated in 2022.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic gave Julia Ward Howe something she wanted that her husband didn’t want her to have: Fame.

Julia Ward Howe by John Elliott

Julia Ward Howe

She was a bit of a diva, the pretty, pampered daughter of wealthy New Yorkers. Julia Ward was the fourth of seven children born to Samuel Ward III and Julia Rush Cutler on May 27, 1819. She was smart, well educated and ambitious.

Visiting Boston in 1841, she met the dashing Samuel Gridley Howe, 18 years her senior. His nickname was “Chevalier,” or “Chev,” as he had followed Lord Byron to Greece to fight for Greek independence. He then became a physician, worked for Polish relief, took part in the July Revolution in Paris and founded the Perkins School for the Blind in South Boston.

Samuel Gridley Howe

They married in 1843. After a European honeymoon, Samuel expected Julia to devote herself to him, to their children and to their home. She did not. Already a published author by the time they married, she wanted to continue to write.

The two fought bitterly during their marriage over her desire to have a life outside the home. Having six children only made her more eager to have a public life. They separated in 1852, but then reconciled.

In 1861, Samuel Gridley Howe served as a director of the Sanitary Commission. It cared for the war wounded and tried to prevent disease in Union camps. In November of that year, he and Julia visited federal troops in Washington, D.C. They traveled with Massachusetts Gov. John A. Andrew and their pastor, James Freeman Clarke.

John Brown’s Body

One day in Washington a review of the troops was planned for Julia, her pastor and their friends Mr. and Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple. But the review was canceled before they arrived, because a skirmish with the enemy broke out. On their return to the hotel, marching regiments delayed their carriage. To relieve the tedium of the slow carriage ride, they began to sing John Brown’s Body. The marching soldiers shouted, “Good for you!” and took up the chorus.

Clarke said to Julia, “Why do you not write some good words for that stirring tune?” She said she’d been thinking about it.

Julia Ward Howe went to bed that night at the Willard Hotel. Suddenly she awoke in the early dawn with the words running through her head. She grabbed a pencil and Sanitary Commission stationery, wrote the lyrics and then went back to sleep.

Libby Prison, 1865

The Battle Hymn of the Republic was published anonymously in The Atlantic on Feb. 1, 1862. The publisher, James T. Fields, suggested the title, and Julia had made some changes. She was paid $5.

Overnight Success

She had no idea of its instant success, according to the biography written by her daughters, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, Volume 1.

It was sung, chanted, recited, and used in exhortation and prayer on the eve of battle.’ It was printed in newspapers, in army hymn-books, on broadsides; it was the word of the hour, and the Union armies marched to its swing.”

Chaplain McCabe, the fighting chaplain of the 122^nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, memorized the lyrics the first time he read them before getting up from his chair. He was later incarcerated in the Confederacy’s notorious Libby Prison with hundreds of northern soldiers. When the prisoners got word of the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, McCabe led them in the Battle Hymn. Wrote Howe’s daughters:

“Every voice took up the chorus, and Libby Prison rang with the shout of ‘Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!’”

McCabe later told that story in Washington, and ended by singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic once again:

Julia Ward howe at 90

“The effect was magical: people shouted, wept and sang, all together; and when the song was ended, above the tumult of applause was heard the voice of Abraham Lincoln, exclaiming, while the tears rolled down his cheeks, —

“Sing it again!”

Julia Ward Howe, Besieged

Julia Ward Howe was then besieged by requests for autographed copies of the Battle Hymn of the Republic until her death. The song put her in the public eye, and she took full advantage of it. She then published a literary magazine and accounts of her travels to Europe. By 1868, Samuel Gridley Howe no longer opposed her public appearances.

She became a pacifist and a suffragist, continuing to write and lecturing and touring widely. Then when he died in 1876, she was further freed to lead a public — and famous — life.

Julia Ward Howe died on Oct. 17, 1910, at her home, Oak Glen, in Portsmouth, R.I. At her memorial service 4,000 people sang Battle Hymn of the Republic. Her daughters’ biography of her won the Pulitzer Prize in 1915.

This story last updated in 2022.