Hi guys!

Thought I would put my "two cents worth" in on this question.

An agreement was reached on July 22, 1862 at Haxall's Landing on the James River between Federal Major-General John A. Dix and Confederate Major-General D. H. Hill for a general exchange of prisoners of war. Called the Dix-Hill Cartel, this agreement provided for the immediate release of all prisoners of war held by the two sides. In the future, prisoners of war were to be discharged on parole within ten days of their capture, and transported to the mutually agreed upon delivery points (Aiken's Landing and Vicksburg). Article 7 specified that all prisoners now held on either side, and all prisoners hereafter taken, should be sent "with all reasonable dispatch" to A. M. Aiken's, below Dutch Gap, on the James River in Virginia, or to Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. See the Official Records, Series II, Volume IV, pages 266-268 for the full text.

Prisoners were returned to their respective sides as “paroled prisoners” and an exchange accounting done as soon as possible thereafter. Meantime, the paroled prisoners were placed in parole camps by their own side to await an exchange declaration. Men were declared exchanged by name having been traded on a “man for man, or equivalents” basis. Equivalents meant that one officer was worth some number of privates. The table of equivalents for this trading was included in the Cartel. Declared exchanged, an individual soldier was free to return to duty.

The movement of POWs between the two sides began almost immediately. The date of release for prisoners from different prison camps was a matter of arranging transportation. At Fort Delaware, some 3,059 Confederate POWs were loaded aboard three steamers at the end of July and delivered to Confederate authorities at Aiken's Landing on August 5, 1862.

In the Western Theatre, things moved a bit more slowly. Vicksburg was designated as the western delivery point in the Dix-Hill Cartel. My biggest sample of Confederate POWs delivered at Vicksburg involves an entire company of the 9th Louisiana Infantry (re-enlisted veterans and new recruits) who were captured at Huntsville, Alabama on April 11, 1862 while en route back to Virginia. Shuffled around, most ended up at Camp Chase, Ohio. Their individual CMSRs state that they were released (on parole) for exchange at Camp Chase on August 25, 1862 and delivered (the record actually says exchanged) on September 11, 1862 from the Steamer Jno. H. Done. Major N. G. Watts, the Confederate assistant commissioner of exchange at Vicksburg, received 1,020 returning prisoners at Vicksburg on that date. A roster accompanied this "delivery for exchange" which was copied and sent to Virginia for confirmation.

The exchange accounting process of checking off names (man for man, or equivalents) that resulted in an exchange declaration for each individual soldier was done in Virginia and it took some time to gather up copies of the several delivery rosters and go through the accounting process. The exchange of these 9th Louisiana POWs (by name from the delivery roster sent to Virginia) at Vicksburg was agreed to on November 10, 1862 by Lieutenant Colonel William H. Ludlow, the Federal Agent of Exchange, at Aiken's Landing in Virginia. Judge Robert Ould was the Confederate Agent of Exchange from August 1862 until the fall of Richmond in early April 1865.

These 9th Louisiana POWs delivered at Vicksburg did not return to Virginia. They were gathered in a camp for exchanged prisoners at Jackson, Mississippi and re-organized on September 22, 1862. The wording on this muster card suggests that there were several camps scattered around Jackson processing returning POWs and sending them off to their units once the exchange documentation was complete. Since almost the entire company had been furloughed home from Virginia as a reward for re-enlisting to serve for three years, and they had been quite successful in recruiting new volunteers, there were 91 officers and men in camp at Jackson on September 22, 1862. The Confederate War Department decided to reassign this company to the 12th Louisiana Infantry and they joined that regiment at Holly Springs in mid-October 1862. Those few men not furloughed home and still on duty in Virginia with the 9th Louisiana Infantry were allowed to transfer to the 12th Louisiana Infantry to continue serving with their comrades.

While the dates and places will be different for other Confederate POWs delivered to Vicksburg in August and September 1862, the pattern described above should be about the same. This information will appear in each man’s Compiled Military Service Record. If his name appeared on a transfer roster, this information with date and circumstances should appear in his CMSR.

It is worth noting here that, in spite of the “hoo-rah” generated over the prospective treatment of black soldiers enrolled in the Union army after January 1, 1863, the Dix-Hill Cartel operated more or less as intended from July 1862 through June 1863. Captured POWs were processed and returned to their own side within weeks of their capture. The excess of paroled prisoners delivered to one side or the other were sent to parole camps operated by their own side and held until a subsequent exchange accounting resulted in their exchange declaration. In July 1863, all of that changed. Had the ten day rule, been adhered to during the last two years of the war, the horrors of the prison camps would not have occurred.

To "woodstock gal": you need to get a copy of your ancestor's Compiled Military Service Records. Genealogy lists such as ancestry.com don't report all the interesting details that appear in the CMSR. Be sure to read the footnotes on each record card. The August 1, 1862 date you are questioning is probably the date he was released on parole from Camp Douglas (if that is where he was being held). The CMSR should also show a delivery date at Vicksburg, and may as well name the steamer from which he was delivered, and confirm receipt of the man and roster by Major N. G. Watts. If your ancestor died in a camp for exchanged prisoners at Jackson (or in a hospital there) while awaiting confirmation of his exchange, then he is likely buried as an unknown in the Confederate section of Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.

Hope all this helps!

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
12th Louisiana Infantry Descendant