Hello Mr. Hart,
The prisoner-of-war information should be in the Compiled Service Record of John Carrigan. If he survived the war, then some information may be in a pension record.
The following is from the Official Records:
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 2, vol 5, Part 1 (Prisoners of War)
C. S. MILITARY PRISON,
Salisbury, N. C., February 9, 1863.
B. R. WELLFORD, Esq., C. S. Commissioner.
SIR: Although I understand that your visit to this place is made only for the purpose of investigating the cases of parties confined here for political offenses and therefore myself and the eleven officers lately attached to U. S. steamer Columbia who are held as prisoners of war are not directly included among its object I take leave to submit to you a brief statement of our case and to request that you will do me the favor of bringing to the notice of the proper authorities at Richmond the exceptional circumstances under which we became rather than were made prisoners.
The Columbia, at that time one of the blockading squadron in the vicinity of New Inlet, N. C., while running in the evening of the 14th ultimo with the intent to anchor for the night in obedience to orders, some three miles from shore and when by the soundings she should have been at that distance and the order had been given to bring ship to anchor found herself (owing to an error of the leadsman in calling the depth of water) close in with breakers, and before her engines could be reversed she struck on the reef off Masonborough Inlet, where all efforts to get her off by lightening her of her guns and coal proving fruitless she became a total wreck. At midnight the foremast was cut away to prevent her canting broadside to the surf, in which case all on board would probably have perished. On the afternoon of the 15th the U. S. steamer Penobscot hove in sight and toward 4 p. m. two of her boats succeeded in approaching near enough o catch a small line thrown from the end of the bowsprit. By means of a strong rope attached to this thirty of our crew were dropped overboard and hauled some hundred and fifty yards through the surf to the boats, all but two reaching them alive. An end was put to this effort to rescue us by the coming on of the night, which brought a heavy gale from southwest that raised a violent surf, causing the vessel to strike with fearful force and exposing us momentarily through the long hours of the night to be swept from the quarter-deck where all hands were crowded for greater safety, drenched by the seas that broke over them and the rain which fell in torrents and toward morning half frozen by the bitter cold which followed a sudden shift of the gale northwest.
While in this helpless and perishing condition, with no vessel in sight and our only chance for life being apparently an escape to the shore, a fire was opened upon the wreck from two batteries a short distance back of the beach several of whose shells passed just over the vessel, on which I ordered the white flag to be hoisted at the peak in token of our surrender (not having a gun to reply with) and the ensign to be set upon down in the rigging as a signal of distress. Soon after this the southernmost battery ceased its fire, but the other kept it up nearly two hours longer not seeing as I was afterwards told our white flag. Between 9 and 10 a. m. (16th) two U. S. steamers made their appearance in the offing, and the firing on the wreck from the northern battery being still kept up I dispatched to the commander of the nearest a boat that narrowly escaped being swamped by the surf with a note requesting him to send in his boats and endeavor to take us off. To our astonishment, however, instead of doing this after his communication with the other vessel both of them commenced replying to the batteries at long range. Upon seeing this I at once (although the wind was at the time bowing a violent gale offshore) lowered my last boat and ordered an officer to pull in for any practicable point with a flag of truce and inform the commander of the post of our defenseless condition and surrender when the battery ceased firing on us.
On the return of the boat I went on shore myself at the request of Colonel Lamb but surrendered to Colonel Wilson, of one of the Georgia regiments, who informed me that the was the senior officer on the station.
It was not till the following morning (17th) that the ship's company could be got on shore when we were taken to Wilmington and ordered thence to Richmond the same night by General Whiting.
On reaching Goldsborough, however, the twenty-eight seamen only who accompanied us pursued the route to Richmond, myself and officers being sent on to this place by order as I have since been told of General Smith.
Never having seen the proclamation of President Davis issued on the 12th ultimo I am not competent to speak with confidence of its tenor or bearing on our case; but if I have been correctly informed that it is directed in express terms only against officers of the Army of the United States who shall be found in arms on the soil of any of the Confederate States endeavoring to foment a servile insurrection I would respectfully inquire whether naval officers not being referred to in it can under the strict construction to which all such documents are subject be fairly held to come within its scope, and whether in view of this alone the officers (myself and fellow prisoners) might not non obstante the proclamation be granted a release on parole?
But without presuming to decide a question in regard to which my information is limited permit me to urge as a far stronger argument in favor of our being paroled the peculiar nature of the circumstances which led to our becoming prisoners-defenseless, shipwrecked mariners barely escaping with life to the shore which for eighteen hours it was doubtful whether we should survive to reach. Our situation is one which has ever been recognized by civilized nations as establishing a claim upon the hospitality of even their enemies which I shall not readily believe the Confederate Government will be the first the deny, and I cannot suffer myself to doubt that on the facts of our case being fairly in its possession it will have no hesitation in according to us the parole we request.
I subjoin the names* and rank of the officers who are my companions in captivity, and have the honor, sir, to remain,
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAS. P. COUTHOUY,
Lieutenant, U. S. Navy, late Commanding U. S. Steamer Columbia.
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FEBRUARY 26, 1863.
Respectfully referred to the President.
The fact that this party came into our possession by shipwreck and that he asserts ignorance of the President's proclamation commends his case to favorable consideration.
J. A. SEDDON,
Secretary of War.
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SECRETARY OF WAR:
For the reasons set forth let the exception be made.
JEFF'N DAVIS.
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OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 2, vol 7, Part 1 (Prisoners of War)
LIBBY PRISON, Richmond, Va., March 13, 1864.
Honorable GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy:
SIR: On the 11th of November, 1861, I shipped on board the gun-boat Sciota, at Philadelphia, Pa., as landsman. In December, 1862, I was taken sick and sent to Brooklyn hospital, N. Y., and as soon as I recovered my health was sent to receiving ship North Carolina; from her to gun-boat Columbia, commanding officer Captain Couiser [Couthouy]. We were shipwrecked off Wilmington, N. C., in January. 1863, and I was taken prisoner by the Confederates and sent to Richmond. Being of African descent (though nearly white) I have not been exchanged, as they do not recognize me as a soldier entitled to treatment as a prisoner of war. My home is in Philadelphia, Pa., and I am a freeman by birth. If it is in your power I most earnestly request that you try and get me released.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CLARENCE MILLER.
P. S. - I send this through by an exchanged prisoner of war.
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SEE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Columbia_(1862)