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[60] were of heavy planks and were sometimes divided by partitions, but oftener the entire area of the floor was in one large room. Among these factory prisons was Liggon's, where the Bull Run and Ball's Bluff officers and a part of the privates were confined. This was next used as a hospital, then closed for a time, and again opened to receive Federal sick. Castle Thunder, where Confederate soldiers undergoing punishment, deserters, and citizens who were accused of disloyalty were confined, was another of this sort. Perhaps a half-dozen other factories in Richmond were used for prison purposes at different times during the war. Warehouses were also used for prison purposes in Danville, Lynchburg, Shreveport, and other towns. Castle Thunder was perhaps the worst of these, but it was a penitentiary rather than a prison of war. Libby Prison is often incorrectly called a tobacco-factory. It was the warehouse of Libby and Sons, ship-chandlers, situated on the James River at the corner of Twentieth and Cary streets. It was a large four-story building, containing eight rooms. No furniture was ever placed in it, and the men slept upon the floor. From it, Colonel Rose and his companions escaped, in 1864, by tunneling from the basement floor under the street, but escapes were generally few. This prison was under command of Major Thomas P. Turner, though a subordinate, Richard Turner, had more direct control. For a time an attempt to preserve reasonable sanitary precautions was made. The floors were washed; a rude bathroom was installed, and the walls were frequently whitewashed. As the months went on, conditions gradually grew worse, as it was generally crowded, even after some of the officers were sent to Macon, Danville, and Salisbury. The prison at Cahaba, Alabama, was an old cotton-shed, partially unroofed, with bunks for five hundred men. A few hundred prisoners were confined here early in 1864, but were transferred to Andersonville soon after that prison was opened. In the summer of 1864 prisoners were again sent here, and in
Review of Reviews. New York. 1912.
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