Hi Norma:

Jim Martin called my attention to your posting. I was out of town yesterday on a research trip to the United States Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania and had not yet caught up with all my Internet business!

I spoke with the Fort Delaware Society Chief Archivist just now about your query. Yesterday she answered an e-mail query from another person about this same soldier.

Our records show that Private Harrison REDFOM (corrected to REDFEARN by still another family researcher) was a member of Company D, 1st Mississippi Cavalry. He was captured on June 23, 1863 at Ripley, Mississippi and sent to Alton, Illinois. Sent sick to the prison hospital at Alton in early July, he remained at Alton until he was transferred to Fort Delaware on February 29, 1864. Fort Delaware records show his arrival in March 1864 and he remained there until after the war ended. He was released from Fort Delaware upon taking the Oath of Allegiance on June 11, 1865.

Much of this information comes from a family researcher in Kentucky. If you have a copy of this man's Compiled Military Service Records, we would appreciate receiving a copy for our files. We would also appreciate copies of his pension application - those portions which describe his military service. Do you have any military age photos of this man?

For the record, there was no Union prison in New Jersey. Fort Delaware is located on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware River. The northern or eastern edge of the river at this point is the state line of New Jersey. Finns Point National Cemetery, the burial ground for Confederate and Union dead from Fort Delaware, is located on the New Jersey shore across from the Fort Delaware. From Alton, Illinois, Private Harrison REDFEARN and others were transported by railroad to Philadelphia and by river steamer from there down river to Fort Delaware.

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society