The History of the North Carolina Confederate Prison

Commandant Frederic M. Kent eluded discovery by historians until just recently. He was born in New Hampshire in November of 1814 and moved to Louisiana, where he joined the 1st Louisiana Regulars. Lieutenant Colonel Kent commanded Salisbury Prison for less than ten days before he died. His service as commandant was revealed in the diary of a Salisbury prisoner, a USS Housatonic sailor, and in local newspaper articles.

When Kent died in April of 1864, the Salisbury newspaper wrote that he had served under Gen. Braxton Bragg at Shiloh. An article published in 1886 noted that his wooden grave marker in Salisbury's Old English Cemetery had become unreadable, and a local citizen had written the secretary of state of Louisiana. Kent's son-in-law, Capt. Thomas Hurst of Texas, a native of Virginia who had served in an Illinois unit, sent funds to put the grave in good condition. A marble stone was erected, but over time it was broken and partially overgrown until its restoration in 2005.

The exact date and place of birth for George Washington Alexander is in question. His obituary stated that he was born in Pennsylvania in 1831, while other sources gave Georgia, 1829.

His career in the Navy began in 1848, and he was with commodore Matthew Perry on the 1853 voyage that opened Japan to trade. In 1861 he offered his services to the Confederacy. He was captured and imprisoned at Fort Delaware, from whence he made the first recorded escaped from a Federal prison during the War.

Alexander served as a provost marshal in Richmond before being appointed the first commandant of Castle Thunder Prison. His treatment of prisoners was investigated, but he was cleared and reassigned. He commanded Salisbury Prison during May and June of 1864, when the stockade held about 600 prisoners and was staffed by 350 guards.

Following the War, Alexander went to Canada. After President Ulysses S. Grant extended amnesty, he moved to Washington and edited a weekly newspaper. He died in February of 1895 in Laurel, Maryland, where his body was buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery.

John Alexander Gilmer was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in April of 1838. He graduated from the University of North Carolina and completed the law course at the University of Virginia before working in his father's law practice. His father later served in the Confederate Congress.

Gilmer entered Company B, 27th North Carolina Regiment, in 1861. He participated in numerous battles and was wounded at the Battle of Bristoe station in 1863. Upon release from the hospital in June of 1864, he was assigned to the command of Salisbury Prison to relieve Commandant Alexander.

This tour of duty was short, as an attack of fever effectively ended his military career. He returned home, applied for his medial retirement, and resigned his commission in January of 1865.

After the War, Gilmer practiced law and served a s a state senator and superior court judge. He died in March of 1892 and was buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Greensboro.

John Henry Gee is probably the best known Salisbury commandant, as he was arrested and brought to trial in 1866 in Raleigh, North Carolina; however, unlike Wirz, he was acquitted. Even the New York Herald reported: "the evidence given tens rather to exculpate than to incriminate Major Gee in the atrocities committed at Salisbury."

Gee was born in 1819 in South Carolina. He served his M.D. from the medical college of South Carolina in Charleston. While living in Quincy, Florida, he was appointed assistant surgeon during the Second Seminole War. During the Mexican War he lived in Alabama and was surgeon of the state's troops.

Gee's confederate service began in January of 1861 as aide to the governor of Florida. Next he served as captain of company G. 1st Florida, and as inspector of the Army of Mobile. At Perryville, Kentucky, he commanded two regiments. He later raised the 4th Florida Battalion. General Bragg ordered major Gee to Salisbury to relieve Gilmer in the fall of 1864, just before the prison population rose dramatically to 10,000 and the death rate soared.

Dr. Gee died tragically in a fire in 1876 and was buried in Quincy.

Bradley Tyler Johnson was the last commandant at the prison and the highest ranking officer to hold the position. Born in Frederick, Maryland, in 1829, he graduated from the college of New Jersey, later known as Princeton, before serving in the state legislature.

When war broke out he was offered a commission in Virginia but chose to help Maryland units for the CSA. Johnson served in the 1st Maryland Infantry and, by the spring of 1862, assumed command. He participated in numerous campaigns before being promoted to brigadier general in 1864.

In November, Johnson was assigned as commandant to Brig. Gen. John Winder. Conditions at the prison were the same under Johnson as with his predecessor. He was charged but never brought to trial, although he was called to testify at the trial of major Gee.

Johnson remained at Salisbury until the end of the War. He moved to Richmond, where he practiced law and served in the Virginia Senate. He died in Amelia, Virginia, in October of 1903, and his body was buried at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore.

Not all of these individuals coveted the assignment of commandant, and not all went unscathed by the responsibility, but all helped shape the prison for those who were there and will forever remain a part of the history of the Salisbury Confederate Prison.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about these 10 men. As Americans that had ancestors that fought in the Civil War, please don't let them vanish from memory!