I was hoping Dennis Brooke would respond to this question. He has been compiling information on the four companies of galvanized Yankees from Fort Delaware enrolled in the Union 3rd Maryland Cavalry. The regiment was sent south from Baltimore to New Orleans at the beginning of 1864.

The Compiled Military Service Records for the 3rd Maryland Cavalry show that several of these men deserted after reaching New Orleans. Arrested, they were confined in New Orleans until tried, but the records generally don't say where. I remember reading that the Orleans Parish Prison was used for criminal detention during the Union occupation but can't tell you where I found that tidbit. Many of these men were also charged with bounty jumping meaning they subsequently enrolled in another Union army unit without first being legally discharged from the 3rd Maryland Cavalry. The objective was to get the volunteer enlistment bounty offered.

Convicted by Union army court-martial of desertion, and in certain cases, of bounty jumping, they were sentenced to serve up to one year at hard labor and sent off to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Florida.

Relative to the Confederate army in Louisiana, every command level had a Provost Marshal detention center. Beyond army headquarters in the field, the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department would have had a detention facility near Shreveport. Camp Ford over in Tyler, Texas was, I believe, used exclusively as a POW camp. The Confederate army was generally so desperately short of manpower that every attempt was made to keep men in the ranks. Those court-martialed for desertion were most likely to have been reduced in grade, required to forfeit pay for a specified period of time, and returned to the ranks. This relied on peer pressure to keep them in the ranks. However, my general impression has been that most deserters never got caught but were able to make their way home and hide out for the balance of the war. Many joined outlaw bands and roamed the countryside pillaging and plundering all they encountered. Many of the Union deserters outside of New Orleans joined these same bands or formed their own.

I would look into the history of the Orleans Parish Prison for more on the Union army court-martial cases in Louisiana.

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
Website: www.fortdelaware.org
E-mail: society@fortdelaware.org