County of site: Madison County
Location of site: Williams St. & Broadway Ave., Alton
Multiple text and markers erected by: Illinois State Historical Society, Greater Alton Chamber of Commerce, & Madison County Historical Society
"Ruins of the first state prison in Illinois. Built in 1830-31. Unsanitary conditions aroused persistent criticism from Dorothea Dix, pioneer in prison reform. All inmates were transferred to Joliet prior to 1860. During the Civil War many Confederate prisoners were incarcerated here and deaths averaged to ten a day." ~ text of historic marker
PRISONERS AT ALTON MILITARY PRISON
1862 - 1865
The Alton Military Prison was inhabited by four different classes of prisoners, Confederates, civilians, Federal soldiers and a group called guerillas [sic] of bushwackers.
Confederate prisoners of war made up the majority of the prison population.
Civilians who had been arrested for spying, feeding or housing Confederate soldiers, vocally supporting the rebel cause or a variety of other offenses were also imprisoned in large numbers, especially early in the war.
Union soldiers who were sentenced after court martial for desertion, rape, murder, etc. occupied a portion of the cell block. The presence was particularly irritating to the Confederates.
The fourth group, bushwackers or guerillas [sic], included men who were not sworn members of a Confederate unit but were caught fighting Union soldiers or destroying vital property such as telegraph lines, bridges, rail lines, or causing general mayhem.
Captain Griffin Frost
[photo in gallery]
Griffin Frost joined the Missouri State Guard in August of 1861 and fought in the Battles of Athens, Lexington, Pea Ridge and Corinth. He was captured while recruiting in Arkansas in November of 1862 and was sent to Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis until his parole in early 1863. In October of 1863 he was recaptured in Arkansas. Frost spent the duration of the war in Gratiot Street Prison and Alton Federal Military Prison in Alton.
During his confinement, Frost kept a journal of his experiences in the two prisons and in 1867 published
Camp and Prison Journal.
The photo is from 1905
Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman
[photo in gallery]
Captured at Fort Henry, Tilghman and his staff were restricted to the city limits of Alton and not imprisoned. He was sent to St. Louis on February 24, 1862. Later exchanged, General Tilghman was killed by a cannon ball while personally manning an artillery piece at the Battle of Champions Hill, in Mississippi, near Vicksburg.
Erasmus Potts
Civilian
[photo in gallery]
"Colonel" Erasmus Potts was born in Lincoln County, South Carolina on August 8, 1801 and eventually moved to Mississippi. He was too old to fight when the Civil War broke out so he devoted his time and money supplying Confederate troops. He was arrested at home in Marshall County, Mississippi, on December 27, 1862 for selling supplies to the Confederates and was sent to Alton. He died on January 15, 1863 of chronic diarrhea. His body was shipped home in a metal box filled with wood shavings. He is buried in the Potts Cemetery near Winborn, Mississippi.
Private William Hill
[photo in gallery]
William Hill and his son, Archibald Buchanan Hill, joined the Confederate service in the fall of 1864 near Fayetteville, Arkansas. Both men fought at Fayetteville under Colonel Brooks.
William Hill was wounded near Prairie Grove, Arkansas and transported to Fayetteville where he was captured by Federal troops on November 4, 1864. William was visited by his wife at Fayetteville before being sent to Alton, arriving here on November 7, 1864.
William was admitted to the hospital on January 21, 1865 and died January 30, 1865 of Erysipelas, an inflammatory infection of the skin and mucous membranes.
Private Henry Whitman Moses
Monroe's Battalion, C.S.A.
[photo in gallery]
Henry Whitman Moses was born in Lowndes County, Alabama on May 8, 1831. He married Caroline Raleigh in 1854 and in 1856 moved with his family to Hempstead County, Arkansas.
On May 13, 1862 he joined the Confederate Army and was with General Sterling Price on his Missouri raid, participating in many battles and skirmishes. He was captured on October 12, 1864 near Mound City, Kansas and sent to Alton via St. Louis. He arrived in Alton on November 4, 1864 and was transferred to Rock Island, Illinois on December 24, 1864. He was later transferred to Richmond, Virginia where he was paroled on May 2, 1865.
Henry returned home to Hempstead County and resumed farming. He and Caroline had none children. He died July 3, 1920.
UNITS GUARDING THE
ALTON MILITARY PRISON 1862-1865
77th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
[photo in gallery]
37th Iowa Volunteer Infantry
[photo in gallery]
10th Kansas Volunteer Infantry
[photo in gallery]
Pvt. George Tracy
Co. A, 10th Kansas Infantry
[photo in gallery]
Although only 15 at the outbreak of the war, George Tracey was big for his age and went from one enlistment station to another until he was accepted. He fought in several significant battles including Newtonia, Fort Wayne and Prairie Grove before the unit was assigned here in January of 1864. Duty at Alton at that time was as dangeous as a battlefield assignment because of a severe winter and bad outbreak of smallpox. 10 of the regiment died during service at Alton.
George T. Tracey was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth Kansas on September 10, 1865. He married Anna Eliza Kenhart and they raised 12 children in Miami County, Kansas. George Tracey died in 1918.
The Alton Military Prison closed July 7, 1865 when the last prisoners were released or sent to St. Louis. The buildings were torn down over the next twenty years until only a small remnant of the cell block remained. Stone from the prison buildings is found in walls and other structures all over Alton area. The land was developed into a park and playground named after the Joel Chandler Harris character "Uncle Remus" from Song of the South. The remnant of the cell block was moved to its present location in 1970 when the lot was paved for ConAgra Company parking.