Neither Armstrong nor Hitchcock show on the Exchange lists. I do list them as prisoners, as Hitchcock is also referenced in Duganne's book as well as in some OR correspondence. Both Hitchcokc and Armstrong are listed as prisoners with just their last names and "1st Kansas" in a diary kept by Lt. Col. J. B. Leake, 20th Iowa.

Sutherland is listed on the May 22, 1865 exchange list as "D.M.Sutherland, "K" 1st Kansas Colored, captured at Flat Rock, C.N. 9/16/1864. The time frame of 10 months captivity on Armstrong is interesting. As 504 prisoners were transferred from Camp Ford to Camp Groce in the summer of 1864, and that camp was closed in December 1864 with all of the surviving prisoners being exchanged in Galveston in December, I also got the lists from that exchange, and he was not on those lists. If the ten months is correct, that would put him as being exchanged in February 1865. The only February exchange was of Camp Ford prisoners which was February 25, and he is not on that list either. That exchange was at Red River Landing, where the Red flows into the Mississippi.

Several things could account for this. As to Armstrong, as he was a white officer of colored troops, he might very well have switched identities with a deceased prisoner. I have read references to this, but have never actually documented who did it. The QM department rolls of honor are poor, very poor, as to Camp Ford, and they completely overlooked the dead from Camp Groce.

There are CS references to a large number of escapes in late April and early May of 1865. One guard was arrested in mid May for allowing prisoners to go over the wall. He was to be court martialed, but the end of the war prevented it. I have never been able to document or identify how many got out during this time, and it is possible that this could explain Hitchcock, but that is conjectural. I have found that the exchange lists are generally accurate, so I don't know how else to answer about these two. Obviously they were here, but they don't show on the exchange lists.

If you have service records on them, do they show anything?

Hope this helped.

Randy Gilbert