POW Exchanges
Information on POW Exchanges in Richmond, VA during the Civil War.

Written Accounts

1862-07-28, Richmond Dispatch; 1100 WIA POWs sent away over the weekend. 300 more arrive from Savage’s. Talbott & Bonn’s Factory, 18th Street, still has officers. Other factory prisons now empty.
1862-07-30, Richmond Dispatch; 800 Yankees to be sent away on 7/31
1862-08-01, Richmond Dispatch; Sick Belle Isle prisoners have been taken to Libby, preparatory to exchange
1862-08-02, Charleston Mercury; "War Gossip" mentions criticism of the Dix-Hill Prisoner Cartel, the condemnation of Gen. Butler, South Carolinians at Camp Lee, and describes the newly formed Belle Isle Prison - notes that there are 4600 POWs there
1862-08-02, Richmond Dispatch; 600 Yankees have been exchanged, including women from Castle Thunder; the sickest men from Belle Isle and Libby are sent first; 4,100 remain on Belle Isle, and 400 at Libby Prison
1862-08-02, Richmond Dispatch; sick and wounded Yankees in prison at the “corner of 2d and Cary streets” not yet sent to City Point [this is probably a typo, and refers to Libby Prison at the corner of 20th and Cary]
1862-08-02, Shippensburg (PA) News; early set of letters from Libby Prison, relates especially impressions of the exchange system and his relatively short stay in prison.
1862-08-04, Richmond Examiner; very detailed description of Belle Isle Prison
1862-08-06, Richmond Dispatch; 2,500 Lynchburg prisoners and 600 Salisbury prisoners will be brought to Richmond for exchange, including Col. O. B. Wilcox, ad Col. Michael Corcoran
1862-08-06, Richmond Dispatch; 3,000 Belle Isle prisoners have been exchanged; no officers this time; says there are 1,700 prisoners left

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