Both Plyn
Williams and his brother-in-law Thomas Mayo were among the many soldiers
of the Civil War. Plyn to part in Sherman's March to the Sea and the
subsequent attack on Columbia, SC. Thomas took part in the Battle of
Gettysburg. Plyn came home missing his right arm, and Thomas perished
from diarrhea in Andersonville Prison as a POW. Listed below are some
of the sources I found regarding this part of their lives.
Plyn
Williams' Regiment Details | Thomas Mayo's Regiment
Details | Conditions at Andersonville Prison,
GA
Plyn
Williams' Civil War Regiment Details
courtesy Nat'l Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/index.html)
1st
Regiment, Engineers and Mechanics, Michigan
Organized at Marshall, Mich., September 12, 1861, and mustered in to
date October 29, 1861. Left State for Louisville, Ky., December 17,
1861. Assigned to duty by Detachments as follows: Companies "D," "F"
and "G" with Thomas' 1st Division, Army of the Ohio; Companies "B,"
"E" and "I" with McCook's 2nd Division, Army of the Ohio; Companies
"C" and "H" with Mitchell's 3rd Division, Army of the Ohio, and Companies
"A" and "K" with Nelson's 4th Division, Army of the Ohio, to June, 1862,
Unattached, Army of the Ohio, to November, 1862. Unattached, Dept. of
the Cumberland, to muster out.
SERVlCE.-Companies
"D," "F" and "G" with Thomas at Camp Dick Robinson and Somerset, Ky.,
constructing roads to Mill Springs. Action at Mill Springs January 19,
1862. Other Companies on Green River, Ky., building storehouses, fortifications,
etc., till February, 1862. Advance on Bowling Green, Ky., February 14-15.
Occupation of Bowling Green February 15 (Cos. "C" and "H"). Advance
on Nashville, Tenn., February 14-28. Engaged in building railroad bridges
at Franklin, Columbia, Murfreesboro, etc., till April. 8 Companies moved
to Shiloh, Tenn., April 3-15, building bridges and repairing roads.
2 Companies remained with Mitchell and engaged in running trains, etc.,
on Memphis & Charleston Railroad and Nashville & Decatur Railroad during
May. Regiment engaged in advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April
29-May 30. Skirmish near Corinth May 9. Buell's Campaign on line of
the Memphis & Charleston Railroad in Northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee
June to August, building bridges, repairing railroad, etc. At Huntsville,
Ala., and building bridges, repairing track and running trains on the
Tennessee & Alabama Railroad and the Memphis & Charleston Railroad till
August. Companies "C," "F," "I" and "K" at Stevenson, Ala., till August;
rejoining Regiment near Gallatin till September. Companies "A," "B,"
"D," "G" and "H" moved to Nashville, Tenn., August 20-22, and building
bridges on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad till September 16. March
in advance of the Army to Louisville, Ky., September 16-26. Pursuit
of Bragg into Kentucky October 1-22. Battle of Perryville October 8
(Cos. "A," "C" and "H"). March to Nashville, Tenn., October 22-November
7, and to Mill Creek, near Nashville, November 22. Duty there till December
31. Battle of Stone River December 31, 1862, and January 1-3, 1863.
Lavergne January 1, 1863. Repulse of Forest's attack. Duty at Lavergne,
Murfreesboro, etc., till June 29 building bridges, magazines, repairing
railroad and other engineering work. Repairing line of the Nashville
& Chattanooga Railroad from Murfreesboro to Bridgeport, Ala., till September.
Engineering duty at Chattanooga, Bridgeport, Stevenson and on line of
the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, Nashville & Northwestern Railroad,
Tennessee & Alabama Railroad and Memphis & Charleston Railroad building
block houses, etc., till May, 1864. Chattanooga October 6, 1863. Reopening
Tennessee River October 26-29, 1863. Brown's Ferry October 27, 1863.
1 Battalion at Chattanooga May, 1864. 1 Battalion on Memphis & Charleston
Railroad building block houses from Decatur to Stevenson, Ala., till
June. Companies
"L" and "M" at Stevenson, Ala., till November 28, 1864. Regiment on
duty on the Atlantic & Western Railroad building block houses, etc.,
till September. Ordered to Atlanta, Ga., September 25. Old members mustered
out October 31, 1864. Duty at Atlanta September 28 to November 15. March
to the sea destroying railroad track, bridges and repairing and making
roads November 15-December 10. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Carolina
Campaign January to April, 1865. South Edisto River, S. C., February
9. North Edisto River February 12-13. Columbia February 16-17. Fayetteville,
N. C., March 11. Averysboro March 16. Battle of Bentonville March 19-21.
Occupation of Goldsboro March 24. (Cos. "L" and "M" detached at Stevenson,
Ala., working on fortifications there and on Nashville & Chattanooga
Railroad building block houses, etc., till December, 1864; then at Nashville,
Tenn., till March, 1865. Participated in siege of Murfreesboro, Tenn.,
December 5-12, 1864. Near Murfreesboro December 15. Co. "L" captured.
Rejoined Regiment at Goldsboro, N. C., March 25, 1865.) Advance on Raleigh
April 10-14. Occupation of Raleigh April 14. Bennett's House April 26.
Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond,
Va., April 29-May 20. Grand Review May 24. Ordered to Louisville, Ky.,
June 6; thence to Nashville, Tenn. Duty at Nashville July 1 to September
22. Mustered out September 22, and discharged at Jackson, Mich., October
1, 1865.
Regiment
lost during service 1 Officer and 12 Enlisted men killed and mortally
wounded and 351 Enlisted men by disease. Total 364.
Thomas
Mayo's Civil War Regiment Details
courtesy
Nat'l Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/index.html)
6th Regiment, Michigan
Cavalry
Organized at Grand Rapids, Mich., May 28 to October 13, 1862. Mustered
in October 13, 1862. Duty at Grand Rapids, Mich., till December 10.
Left State for Washington, D. C., December 10, 1862. Attached to Provisional
Cavalry Brigade, Casey's Division, Military District of Washington,
to February, 1863. Provisional Cavalry Brigade, Casey's Division, 22nd
Army Corps, Dept. of Washington, to March, 1863. 1st Brigade, Stahel's
Cavalry Division, 22nd Army Corps, to June, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division,
Cavalry Corps. Army of the Potomac, to March, 1864. 1st Brigade, 1st
Division, Cavalry Corps. Army of the Potomac and Middle Military Division,
to June, 1865. District of the Plains, Dept. of Missouri, to September,
1865. tered out November 24, 1865. District of Dakota, Dept. of Missouri,
to November, 1865.
SERVICE.-Duty
in the Defences of Washington, D.C., till June, 1863. Scout from Centreville,
Va., to Falmouth, Va., February 27-28, 1863. Marstellar's Place, near
Warrenton Junction, May 14. Reconnoissance up the Catoctin Valley June
27-28. Occupation of Gettysburg, Pa., June 28. Action at Hanover, Pa.,
June 30. Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 1-3. Hunterstown, Pa., July
2. Monterey July 4. Smithburg July 5. Williamsburg and Hagerstown July
6. Boonsboro July 8. Hagerstown July 11-13. Falling Waters July 14.
Ashby's Gap July 17, 18 and 20. Berry's Ford July 20. Battle Mountain,
near Newby's Cross Roads, July 24. King George Court House August 24.
Expedition to Port Conway September 1-3. Advance from the Rappahannock
to the Rapidan September 13-17. Culpeper Court House September 13. Somerville
Ford September 14. Raccoon Ford September 14-16. Somerville Ford September
15. Reconnoissance across the Rapidan September 21-23. Madison Court
House September 21. White's Ford September 21-22. Robertson's Ford September
23. Bristoe Campaign October 8-22. James City October 8-10. Bethesda
Church October 10. Near Culpeper and Brandy Station October 11. Gainesville
October 14. Manassas Junction October 15. Groveton October 17-18. Gainesville,
Catlett's Station and Buckland s Mills October 19. Advance to line of
the Rappahannock November 7-8. Stevensburg November 8. Mine Run Campaign
November 26-December 2. Morton's Ford November 26. Raccoon Ford November
26-27. Demonstration on the Rapidan February 6-7, 1864. Kilpatrick's
Raid on Richmond February 28-March 4. Fortifications of Richmond March
1. Campaign from the Rapidan to the James River May 3-June 24. Battles
of the Wilderness May 5-7, Todd's Tavern May 5-6; Brock Road and the
Furnaces May 6, Todd's Tavern May 7-8. Sheridan's Raid to James River
May 9-24. Beaver Dam Station May 9. Ground Squirrel Church and Yellow
Tavern May 11. Meadow Bridge and fortifications of Richmond May 12.
Hanover Court House May 21. On line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Hanovertown
Ferry, Hanovertown, and Crump's Creek May 27. Haw's Shop and Aenon Church
May 28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Old Church and Mattadequin Creek May
30. Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, May 31-June 1. Bottom's Bridge June
1. Sheridan's Trevillian Raid June 7-24. Trevillian Station June 11-12.
Newark or Mallory's Cross Roads June 12. Black Creek or Tunstall's Station
and White House or St. Peter's Church June 21. Jones' Bridge June 23.
Muddy Branch, Md., July 26 (Detachment). Demonstration north of the
James River July 27-29. Deep Bottom July 27-28. Ordered to Washington,
D. C. Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign August 7-November 28. Toll
Gate, near White Post and Winchester, August 11. Cedarville or Front
Royal August 16. Kearneysville and Shephardstown August 25. Leetown
and Smithfield August 28. Smithfield Crossing, Opequan, August 29. Berryville
September 4. Charlestown September 9. Locke's Ford, Opequan Creek, September
13. Sevier's Ford, Opequan Creek, September 15. Battle of Opequan, Winchester,
September 19. Fisher's Hill September 21. Clifford September 22. Luray
September 24. Port Republic September 26-28. Mt. Crawford October 2.
Luray Valley October 8. Tom's Brook "Woodstock Races" October 8-9. Battle
of Cedar Creek October 19. Edenburg November 7. Near Kernstown November
11. Expedition into Loudoun and Faquier Counties November 28-December
3. Raid to Gordonsville December 19-28. Madison Court House December
21. Liberty Mills December 22. Near Gordonsville December 23. Expedition
to Little Fort Valley February 13-17. 1865. Sheridan's Raid from Winchester
to James River February 27-March 25. Occupation of Staunton and action
at Waynesboro March 2. Duguidsville March 8. Appomattox Campaign March
28-April 9. Dinwiddie Court House March 30-31. Five Forks April 1. Scott's
Cross Roads April 2. Tabernacle Church or Beaver Pond Creek April 4.
Sailor's Creek April 6. Appomattox Station April 8. Appomattox Court
House April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. Expedition to Danville
April 23-29. March to Washington, D. C., May -- Grand Review May 23.
Moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, June 1. Powder River Expedition and
operations against Indians on the plains till November. Consolidated
with 1st Michigan Cavalry November 7, 1865. Old members mus-
Companies "I" and
"M" served detached from Regiment February, 1863, to May, 1864. Attached
to Jewett's Corps of Observation February to June, 1863. Guard and patrol
duty along the Potomac to prevent blockade running across that river
to Baltimore, Md. Stationed at and operating about Rockville, Great
Falls, Edward's Ferry, Poolesville and White's Ford, Md., till June,
1863. Skirmish at Oakland, Md., April 26 (Co. "I"). Skirmish with Moseby
at Seneca Mills, Md., June 10. Gettysburg, (Pa.) Campaign June-July.
Forced march during night of July 3 from Fredericksburg, Va., and action
with Lee's Bridge Guard at Falling Waters July 4. Detachment of 140
men surprised and dispersed a much larger force guarding Lee's Pontoon
Bridge swinging on the Virginia side of the Potomac, capturing men and
ammunition and completely destroying the pontoons and trains which General
Lee admitted delayed his army seven days. Occupation of Harper's Ferry
July 7. Attached to Well's Brigade, Maryland Heights Division, Dept.
of West Virginia. Operating from Harper's Ferry and having almost continuous
Raids, Expeditions and skirmishes in the Shenandoah Valley, Mechanicsville
Gap and Moorefield Valley till April, 1864. Skirmish near Harper's Ferry
July 14, 1863. Halltown July 15. Waterford August 8. Skirmishes at Charleston
and on the Berryville Pike October 18. Expedition from Charleston to
near New Market November 13-18. Skirmishes at Woodstock, Edenburg and
Mt. Jackson November 16. Operations in Hampshire and Hardy Counties,
W. Va., January 27-February 7, 1864. Skirmishes near Romney February
2, Moorefield February 4 and Smithfield February 5. Ordered to rejoin
Regiment in Army of the Potomac April 25, and joined May 3, 1864.
Regiment lost during
service 7 Officers and 128 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded
and 251 Enlisted men by disease. Total 386.
Conditions
at Andersonville Prison
-picture
one of stockade at Andersonville
-picture two of stockade at
Andersonville
-picture of wooden grave markers
for prisoners
I. Conditions at
Andersonville Prison
Courtesy
of The National Park Service, Southeast Archeological Center
In November 1863, Confederate Captain W. Sidney Winder was sent to the
village of Andersonville in Sumter County, in south-central Georgia,
near the present-day towns of Americus and Plains, to assess the potential
of building a prison for captured Union soldiers. The Deep South location,
the availability of fresh water, and its proximity to the Southwestern
Railroad, made Andersonville a favorable prison location. The settlement
of Andersonville, with an 1863 population of less than 20 persons, could
not politically resist the building of such an unpopular facility. Andersonville
thus became the site for a prison that was soon to become infamous in
the North for prison conditions and the thousands of prisoners that
would die there before war's end.
A prison for enlisted
soldiers, it was designed to hold 10,000, but by August 1864, due to
deteriorating resources and the breakdown of the prisoner exchage system,
the prison population had swelled to over 32,000. This atrocious overcrowding
quickly led to health and nutritional conditions that resulted in 12,
912 deaths by war's end in May 1865. The prison guards, composed mostly
of older men and boys, watched from sentry boxes (called "pigeon roosts"
by the prisoners) perched atop the stockade and shot any prisoner who
crossed a wooden railing, called the "deadline." The prison pen initially
covered 16 1/2 acres, but was enlarged in June 1864 to 26 1/2 acres.
A small, slow moving stream running through the middle of the stockade
enclosure supplied water to most of the prison. Eight small earthen
forts located around the exterior of the prison were equipped with artillery
to put down disturbances and to defend against union cavalry attacks.
Handicapped by deteriorating
economic conditions, the Confederates lacked the necessary materials
and amounts of food for 10,000 prisoners, not to mention the 26,000
that were confined there by June 1864. Available shelter was deduced
to crude shelters huts of made scrap wood, tent fragments, or simple
holes dug in the ground. Many had no shelter of any kind against the
elements of rain, heat, and cold. No clothing was provided, and many
prisoners were left with rags or nothing at all. The daily ration for
the prisoners was the same as for the guards: one and one-fourth pound
of corn meal and either one pound of beef or 1/3 pound of bacon. This
sparse diet was only occasionally supplemented with beans, peas, rice,
or molasses.
With these unspeakably
miserable conditons, almost 30 percent of the prisoners confined to
Andersonville died at the camp during its 14-month existence. Diseases
such as dysentery, gangrene, diarrhea, and scurvy took many. The Confederates
lacked adequate facilities, personnel, and medical supplies to combat
the diseases.
II. Andersonville
Prison February 1864 - April 1865
Source: The Civil War Society's "Encyclopedia of the Civil War."
Officially named Camp Sumter, the most notorious Civil War stockade
was hastily constructed in early 1864 near the town of Andersonville
in southwest Georgia. The number of Union soldiers held near Richmond
had swelled with the breakdown of prisoner exchange agreements, posing
a threat to the Confederate capital's security and taxing Virginia's
already limited resources.
In late February,
Federal prisoners began to be transferred to the still-unfinished Georgia
facility. By July, Andersonville, built to accommodate up to 10,000
captured soldiers, was jammed with over 32,000, almost all enlisted
men. The open-air stockade, enclosed by 20 foot-high log walls, grew
to 26 acres, but remained horribly overcrowded and conditions became
more and more intolerable. Running in the middle of the camp was a stagnant,
befouled stream, absurdly named Sweet Water Branch, used as a sewer
as well as for drinking and bathing. There were no barracks; prisoners
were forbidden to construct shelters, and while some did erect tents
and flimsy lean-tos, most were left fully exposed to the elements. Medical
treatment was virtually nonexistent.
With the South barely
able to feed its own men, the prisoners, who were supposed to get the
same rations as Confederate soldiers, starved-receiving rancid grain
and perhaps a few tablespoons a day of mealy beans or peas.
The poor food and
sanitation, the lack of shelter and health care, the crowding, and the
hot Georgia sun all took their toll in the form of dysentery, scurvy,
malaria, and exposure.
During the summer
months, more than 100 prisoners died every day. Others fell victim to
thieves and marauders among their fellow captives. The desperate situation
led a Confederate medical commission to recommend relocating those prisoners
who were not too ill to move, and in September 1864, as William T. Sherman's
advancing army approached, most of Andersonville's able-bodied inmates
were sent to other camps.
Remaining in operation
until the end of the war, Andersonville held more captured Union soldiers
than any other Confederate camp, a total of more than 45,000, nearly
30 percent of whom died in captivity. The North had learned of the camp's
appalling conditions well before the emaciated survivors were released
in 1865, and outraged citizens urged retribution on Southern prisoners
of war. That was hardly necessary: the Union had its own wretched prison
camps, including Elmira, New York, where the death rate approached Andersonville's,
even though the North was far better equipped to cope with captured
soldiers. Mismanagement and severe shortages were more to blame for
the horrors of Andersonville than any deliberate attempt to mistreat
prisoners.
Nevertheless, many
Northerners insisted that the abuse was deliberate and demanded vengeance.
Consequently, after being tried by a U.S. military court and convicted
of war crimes, the prison's commander, Captain Henry Wirz, was hanged
in November 1865 for "impairing the health and destroying the lives
of prisoners." Meanwhile, Clara Barton and other government workers
compiled a list of 12,912 prisoners who had died at the camp. Andersonville's
mass graves were replaced by a national cemetery, which is today still
used as a burial ground for American veterans.
Carpe Diem!
