The Union Colonel Who Showed Mercy on Confederate POWs During the Civil War

On this episode of Our American Stories, Boston’s Fort Warren housed Confederate POWs during the Civil War, but it was no Andersonville. Only 13 Confederate prisoners out of the more than 2,000 rebels who were imprisoned within its walls died during the Civil War. That was largely thanks to the fort’s commander, Justin Dimick.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
comes from our regular contributor, Christopher klein Line is the
author of four books and is a frequent contributor to
the History Channel. Here he is with the story of
a forgotten Civil War hero.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
As the autumn dust cloak Boston's island studded Harbor, the
beak in a top Boston light started to glow. The
beams radiating from the lighthouse sparkled in the eyes of
the men huddled aboard the steamer State of Maine as
it crept toward the military prison at Fort Warren and
Island Garrison near the harbor's outer edge. Just as it

(00:58):
had been to generations of tempest tossed mariners, the postcard
perfect lighthouse was a welcome site to the nearly eight
hundred tired and hungry Confederate prisoners of war wedged together
on the ship, barely seaworthy to begin with, the State
of Maine was lugging double its capacity on its journey
from New York City on October thirty first, eighteen sixty one.

(01:21):
Food with sparse The quarters were so tight that many
prisoners have been forced to remain standing through the night.
The captives crowded the port side of the ship to
catch their first glimpse of their new island home. Although
the granite fortress on windswept George's Island exuded rugged New
England strength, it generated little enthusiasm among the Confederate soldiers.

(01:44):
A more desolate place could not be imagined anywhere this
side of the Arctic regions, one prisoner wrote, awaiting a steamship.
On the piers stood the grizzled figure of Colonel Justin Dimmick,
his white beers standing out amid the darkening skies. The
Army veteran had been stationed at Virginia's Fortress Monroe when

(02:06):
the Civil War broke out, but the duties were too
trying for the sixty one year old. Fort Warren promised
to be a less demanding assignment, but the West Point
graduate was about to face an unexpected challenge. The War
Department had instructed Demick, who had only taken command of
Fort Warren days earlier, to prepare for the transfer of

(02:29):
some one hundred political prisoners, including former Kentucky Governor Charles
Morehead and Baltimore Mayor George Brown. As the steamer inch
closer to the Island. However, Dimmick realized the Department had
given him a much bigger task, because, in addition to
the political prisoners, more than six hundred Confederate soldiers captured

(02:51):
at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, were suddenly dumped upon the
ill prepared garrison, which was still under construction and barely
revisioned for its Union volunteers. Except for four North Carolina companies,
the prisoners were forced to spend another night on the
crowded vessel without supper. Lucky captives slept in the stateroom

(03:13):
beds and rotating three hour shifts. Once they were brought
ashore the following morning, the prisoners didn't find their lots
much improved. The hospital, already facing their prospect of treating
dozens of prisoners suffering from typhoid, was still unfinished and
lack critical supplies. Famished prisoners had to subsist on handfuls

(03:33):
of dry crackers and morsels of raw hand There were
no beds, no cots, no blankets, so most captives slept
on the fort's cold, bare floors. The fortunate received wooden
boards on which to rest their heads. Boston newspapers printed
sympathetic accounts of the conditions facing the prisoners and urged

(03:56):
city residents to respond charitably to assist the new Our
citizens should contribute liberally with things as are needed. The
Boston Post implored, for the sake of humanity, the authority
should move at once to alleviate the condition of these
unfortunate men, besiech the Boston Daily Journal. Local residents responded

(04:17):
by donating food, iron bedsteads, mattresses, blankets, medicine, clothing, and
other supplies. They left care packages with the Police chief
to be transported on the daily Harbor police boat route.
The American Track Society delivered books, and Mayor Joseph Whiteman
even procured supplies from a charitable institution established aid Union servicemen,

(04:39):
a decision at earned him the score of political opponents
who accused him of aiding the traders. Bostonians were inspired
by charity, but they also hope the proper treatment of
the prisoners might generate equal compassion towards Union prisoners of war.
According to the Boston Daily Journal, the friends of our
prisoners now laying wishing in the South will reach them

(05:01):
by the shortest method if they set an example of
magnanimity towards these rebels. The fact will soon become known
to the South and their hardships will be lessened. Thanks
to the donations, the crisis quickly abated. In fact, the
city's largest made life inside Fort Warren relatively luxurious, particularly

(05:23):
for the political prisoners and Confederate officers, who were able
to supply themselves with nearly anything they could afford to
be shipped across the harbor, including furniture, bedding, food, cigars, newspapers,
and even alcohol. Not only did the Confederate political prisoners
live better than the military prisoners, they ate and drank

(05:44):
more sumptuously than Union privates. When weather permitted, they were
allowed outside their quarters to congregate, walk, pitch quoits, or
have a smoke. The Boston Daily Traveler reported that the
political prisoners would quote smoking conversing like a party of
do nothings in front of a fashionable hotel. Such lax

(06:05):
regulation was largely due to the character and humanitarian impulse
of Colonel Dimmick, who was widely admired by both Union
and Confederate troops for his years in military service and
his strong Christian convictions. Dimmick diligently complied with the initial
order that the prisoners were to be treated with all kindness,

(06:29):
and his humane tone was largely echoed by the Union troops.
The rank and file had a pretty good too, Private
Alexander Hunter of the seventeenth Virginia Infantry, who would later
pen Johnny reb and Billy Yank Rhododemic. In that large
heart of his no bitterness, no malice, no sectional hate

(06:49):
could find an abiding place. There was not a prisoner
under his charge who did not learn to respect and
love him before a week had rolled over their heads.
While doing his duty as a soldier, he did not
sacrifice his humanity as a man. When Dimmick received orders
in March eighteen sixty two to direct General Simon Bolivar Buckner,

(07:12):
an old acquaintance from the Mexican American War, to solitary confinement,
Fort Warren's commander was so distressed that he wept while
conveying the order and ultimately had to be consoled by
Buckner himself. Buckner wasn't the only Confederate general with whom
the Union colonel had deep bonds, However, A devout Episcopalian,

(07:33):
Dimmick was one of Stonewall, Jackson's baptismal sponsors when the
pair served together in the U. S. Army in eighteen
forty nine. Little couldemic have known that fourteen years later,
both Jackson and his own son would meet similar fates.
During the Battle of Chancellorsville, moments after Jackson was accidentally
shot by his own troops, a battery led by twenty

(07:56):
three year old Lieutenant Justin Dimmock Junior, unleashed a firestorm
upon the Confederate troops desperately trying to carry the wounded
general out of harm's way. Hours later, rebels crying remember
Jackson shot the son of Fort Warren's commander in the spine.
Within days, both the younger Dimmock and Jackson were dead

(08:17):
from their wounds. By some accounts, Lieutenant Dimmick went to
his death carrying a letter from Fort Warren's prisoners requesting
humane treatment for him should he be captured by the South.
And yet, even after losing his only son on the battlefield,
Dimmick did not retaliate against the Confederate prisoners inside Fort Warren.

(08:39):
It couldn't last forever, though the colonel left his command
in November eighteen sixty three, for health reasons, and Confederate
prisoners inside Fort Warren enjoyed fewer freedoms under his successors,
in part due to tightening federal regulations. When Dimmick passed
away in eighteen seventy one, both Union and conve officers

(09:01):
served as his pallbearers. But perhaps a greater testament to
Deemick and the relatively unique conditions of Fort Warren is
that only thirteen Confederate prisoners out of the more than
two thousand rebels who were imprisoned within its walls died
during the Civil War, or just over half of one percent,
compared to the twelve percent mortality rate for Confederates in

(09:24):
all Union prisoners combined.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and production by
Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to Christopher Klein, who
contributes regularly here at Our American Stories and is also
a frequent contributor to the History Channel. And what a
record and legacy justin Dimmick left, My goodness, the fact
that officers from the Confederates and Union armies were pallbearers

(09:53):
at his funeral is testimony enough, But then only half
of one percent of the prisoners of war at his camp.
Camp Warren died when the standard was twelve percent across
Union camps. Well, that's just a testimony to his kindness
and his decency. I love what Klein set about Dimmock.

(10:14):
While doing his job as a soldier, he did not
sacrifice his humanity as a man, and at the age
of sixty one at West Point Grad he was responding
to the call of duty when the Union went to war,
and he wanted to serve in battle. But it's just
well it was impossible at his age. But there he
was doing his job for the cause and serving both

(10:36):
Union and Confederate soldiers as human beings and political dissidents
as well. The story of Justin Dimmock here on our
American Stories