The Prisoner Database


The Database

Escaped prisoners survived because of the food, shelter, clothing, and guidance they received from enslaved persons and the families of disloyal white, Confederate deserters, and Unionist guerrillas. Their adventures took place in a society that was disintegrating under the pressure of war: slaves were at war with their masters, women and children were engaged in violence, the Confederate government no longer provided basic local security, and thousands of refugees fled the ever-widening war zones.

Once these prisoners reached Union lines, they were processed by military officials and returned to their regiments, or in the case of officers, to the headquarters of the adjutant general of the U.S. Army in Washington D.C. The Fugitive Federals database was constructed from hundreds of these military records, and consolidates several year's worth of sources into one easily accessible resource. 

Gathering all of this information on individual soldiers was a daunting task, extending far beyond one historian's, or even a small team's, capabilities. To help expedite the research process and broaden the scope of the database, the project was migrated into the classroom, where students taking the specially designed Research Methods course have written hundreds of comprehensive biographies. A selection of particularly well-researched biographies are published and can be found to the right. The full database, including all current student biographies on file, can be accessed by clicking the button below or explored through the 'Visualizations' page. The database updated nearly every semester as new information comes to light and more student biographies are added.



Where Did the List of Escaped Union Soldiers Come From?


In the nineteenth century, Federal clerks at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. made lists of Union soldiers who escaped from Confederate prisons. They included information about the soldier’s regiment, company, capture location, escape location, and arrival location. The database on this website is a compilation of those records in the National Archives. Below is a list of the records used to create the database. The column titled “Info source” in the database cite the source where the soldier’s name and information appeared.   

“Register of Federal Prisoners of War Who Escaped from Confederate Authorities,” Record Group 249, entry 31, no. 45

“Memorandum of Escaped Prisoners from the Hands of the Rebels,” Record Group 249, entry 32, box 1.

“Union Prisoners of War – Escaped from Confederate Authorities,” Record Group 393, part 1, entry 4318. 

“Rolls and Reports of Federal Prisoners of War Who Escaped from Confederate Prisons,” Record Group 249, entry 32, box 1.

“Statements of Escaped Union Prisoners, Refugees, and Rebel Deserters,” Record Group 393, part 1, entries 4294 and 4295.

“Lists of Escaped Prisoners, Deserters, and Refugees,” Record Group 249, entry 107, box 11, roll 979.

“Letters Relating to Union Naval POWs: Reports from Officers and Seamen of the U.S. Navy Who Were Prisoners of War in the South,” Record Group 45, entry 56. 

Exemplary Biographies

Is the Information in the Database Accurate?


Not necessarily!  Remember, the database reflects the information in the sources at the National Archives. Sometimes the Federal clerks who made the lists misspelled the soldier’s name or wrote down the wrong date of capture. Students who write biographies for this project are finding and correcting the errors in the original sources. That is why we have added a “Confirmed Name” column that gives the correct name for the soldier. The biographies will provide the best-researched information on the details of the soldier’s capture, prisons, and escape.

I Know of An Escaped Prisoner That is Not in this Database


Great! This on-going research project is seeking to add names and biographies to this database. Soldiers who were in the original lists compiled by Federal clerks in the National Archives have a NARA ID number in the “Person ID” column. At the bottom of the database, we are adding the names of escaped prisoners who have been discovered by researchers for this project. They do not have the letters “NARA” in the person ID column. If you have information on an escaped prisoner to add to this database, please email project director Lorien Foote at lfoote@tamu.edu.


Problems with the Arrival Column in the Database


For some soldiers in the database, the location given in the “Arrival Location” column is the place where the soldier first arrived inside Federal lines. But for others, the Federal clerks who made the lists on which the database was built put the arrival location as a parole camp, usually either Camp Parole or Camp Chase. These were places where escaped or exchanged prisoners of war were sent to be processed. From there, they went home on furlough or returned to their regiments. It is important to recognize that if the “Arrival Location” column lists Camp Parole or Camp Chase, that is not the first point of contact with the Federal military for an escaped prisoner.