The Salisbury Confederate Prison - Long Lost with Time

Many Civil War historical sites have disappeared over the years along with the history of the men that fought in that bloody war. It is the job of descendents and as a UDC member, to carry on the history, of the battles, who fought in these battles, who the commanders were, how lives were lived, and lives that were lost. I would like to tell you about ten brave and honorable men that commanded a prison that has disappeared with time.

North Carolina seceded form the Union on May 20, 1861, and negotiations between the state and the Confederate government soon began for a military prison site. The property purchased in Salisbury, North Carolina, included sixteen acres, a large abandoned cotton factory made of brick, and six houses. This was the only Confederate Prison in North Carolina.

The majority of the guards were from North Carolina. The prison population came from northern and southern states and varied in number and categories of offense. Ten men from carious backgrounds and localities were sent to Salisbury as commandants between 1861 and 1865 to manage the physical property, personnel, and prisons.

The first to command the prison was educator and minister Braxton Craven. He was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, in 1822. By the age of thirty he had received honorary Master of Arts degrees from both Randolph Macon College and the University of North Carolina. In 1874 he received a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Missouri.

Craven served as president of Union Institute, which became Trinity College prior to the War Between the states. The college was later moved to Durham and became Duke University.

In 1861 Craven organized a home guard of students, faculty members and neighbors to quiet local disturbances and suppress citizens who did not side with the Confederacy. In November of that year, North Carolina Governor Henry Clark offered Craven command of the prison at Salisbury. Craven and the Trinity Guards were at the prison from December of 1861 to January of 1862. The next year he accepted the pastorate of a Methodist Church in Raleigh.

After the War, Craven returned to Trinity College and was re-elected president. He remained in this position until his death in November of 1882. His body was buried in a cemetery close to the college.

The second soldier to command was George Couper Gibbs. He was born in April of 1822 on St. Simons Island, Georgia, but grew up in Florida and later moved to New Orleans. There he joined the 4th Louisiana Volunteers and served in the Mexican War. A Florida resident in January of 1862 and assigned to Salisbury.

Gibbs raised several companies from the prison guards. His next transfer was delayed by Gen. Robert E. Lee until after approximately 1,400 Salisbury POW's were exchanged in late May of 1862. Gibbs and his recruits, now part of the 42nd North Carolina Regiment, departed Salisbury for Lynchburg, where he assumed command of another prison. He resigned from the regiment in 1864, served at two Georgia prisons, and was called to testify at the trial of commandant Henry Witz.

After the War, Gibbs lived in St. Augustine, where he died in 1872. According to one source, he was among a number of Confederate colonels appointed as brigadier general whose commissions did not reach them until after the War.

Archibald Campbell Godwin was born in 1831 in eastern Virginia. He left the state at the age of nineteen and settled in California. There he became a successful gold miner , rancher, lawyer, and politician who, in 1860, lost the Democratic Party's nomination for governor by only one vote. He returned to Virginia in 1861 and was commissioned by President Jefferson Davis as assistant provost marshal of Libby Prison.

In June of 1862, Captain Godwin was assigned to command Salisbury Prison. He served there until September while raising the 57th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. Godwin's regiment saw action during the Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg campaigns. He was captured in November of 1863 at Rappahannock station and sent to Johnson's Island until exchanged the following summer.

Godwin was appointed brigadier general in August of 1864. He was killed in September at the Battle of Winchester and was buried in Stonewall Cemetery, near the location where he died.

Capt. Henry McCoy became commandant when Godwin was reassigned. He had previously served as assistant quartermaster in Richmond and had been ordered to Salisbury by Secretary of War Judah Benjamin in November of 1861 to serve as the new prison's first quartermaster.

While serving as commandant, McCoy did not enjoy a good relationship with the citizens of Salisbury or North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance. During his tenure at the prison, there were a large number of political prisoners in the stockade, and McCoy refused the governor's request to free specific civilians being held. In a letter to Richmond, Vance accused the commandant of resisting civil authorities.

Captain McCoy, a relative of Confederate commissary General Prisons John Winder, held the Salisbury commandant's position until October of 1863. In November of that year he was appointed as the first commandant of the new Danville, Virginia prison.

Alexander Swift Galloway was born in June of 1840 in Brunswick County, North Carolina. He left his teaching occupation in 1861 and enlisted in company H, 3rd North Carolina Regiment. Galloway was severely wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill and was unable to return to the regiment.

In October of 1863 he was detailed to Salisbury as commandant. In February of 1864 he raised a company for local defense. Galloway was considered a good commandant, and he received compliments from prisoners for his courtesy and generosity. He left Salisbury in May of 1864 to serve in General Cox's Brigade in various staff positions until hospitalized at Danville, Virginia, in April of 1865.

After the War, Galloway returned home and served as a commissioner of navigation and pilot age of the Cape Fear River and bars. He also studied lay and was a Greene county attorney prior to being elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, where he served as chairman of the Veterans Pension Committee.

Captain Galloway died in December of 1908 and was buried at Saint Barnabas Episcopal church in Snow Hills.

Please continue on to part 2 of the Salisbury Confederate Prison Long Lost with Time, The Ten Commandants Lost and Forgotten. So these men will be remembered in history!