Smuggled out of a Confederate POW Camp, this song sold a million copies in 1865.
In the winter of 1864-65, my Great-Great Grandfather, Reuben DeLay, was confined to the Confederate prison called Camp Asylum in Columbia, South Carolina. One of his fellow prisoners was S. H. M. Byers who had been captured at Missionary Ridge in the Battle for Chattanooga. Byers and DeLay like most of the prisoners had been confined in Georgia during the previous summer. As General Sherman took Atlanta and began his march to the sea, the prisoners were moved out of the path of his advancing army. The prisoners kept informed of Sherman’s progress from newly captured comrades and southern newspapers smuggled into the prison. The papers tried to paint Sherman as losing every battle, but the prisoners could see that the battles were moving across Georgia toward the sea. Eventually, the Confederate papers admitted that Sherman had reached the sea at Savannah.
The news of Sherman’s successful campaign hit the 1500 or so Union officers incarcerated at Columbia like a bolt of lightning. Though they didn’t know it yet, Sherman would soon turn north in his war-ending campaign through the Carolinas.
Byers was a bit of an amateur poet. He penned an inspiring poem about Sherman’s march and showed it to his comrades. It was called “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” The poem was the first time the phrase, “Sherman’s March to the Sea” had been used to describe Sherman’s march across Georgia. Prisoners made copies of the poem on any scrap of paper they could find and circulated it broadly.
Another talented officer put the poem to music. The prison Glee Club performed if for the first time to a crowd that included almost all of the prisoners, their guards and various spectators from the surrounding community. Reuben DeLay was undoubtedly in the crowd that heard the song that day.
Shortly afterward, a copy of the song was smuggled out of the prison in the wooden leg of a paroled prisoner. Once it reached Union lines, it was widely printed and distributed throughout The North. The sheet music was said to have been a million-seller.
For his achievement with the song Byers got one of the few privileges that could have been afforded to a prisoner. He got to sleep in the camp hospital building. By mid-February, 1865, Sherman’s army was threaten Columbia, Byers secreted himself in the building’s attic as the other prisoners (including my Great-Great Grandfather) were evacuated. Upon liberation, Byers wound up on Sherman’s staff for the remainder of the war. Though few remember Byers’ one hit wonder of 1865 now, there is another tune he wrote which is still sung in his home state of Iowa. “The Song of Iowa” is their state song.
I have obtained our ancestor Reuben DeLay’s Civil War records. The do not provide much detail about his time in Confederate POW Camps, but some assumptions can be made from other historical records. The record is old, last recopied in 1883. I believe that the scribe was a single woman named Miss _______. She may have been in a hurry. The POW record is about the size of an old hand receipt. There is writing on both sides with some bleed through.
Here’s what we have been able to recover from it:
Reuben DeLay’s POW Record (Front)
MEMORANDUM FROM PRISO0NER OF WAR RECORDS\
(This blank to be used only in the arrangement of said records.)
NAME Rank ORGANIZATION INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM
No of Area of Records
Regt State Service Co of Vol Page Vol Page
DeLay,Reuben 3 Iowa Cavalry I Miss ? 844
2Lt EX 10 81
______ ___ 41 57 39
Captured at Ripley, Miss Feb 12[1], 1864 Confined at Camp Asylum Columbia SC
Date not given 186_
Admitted to Hospital at (Blank)
Where he died (Blank)
Paroled at N E Ferry, NC, Mar 5, 1865; Reported at Camp Parole MD Mar 7, 1865
6921. _AS_ 83 Copied by _____________
Rear Side Panel
(RECORD CONTINUED)
This is accepted as referring to Reuben DeLay
Co I, 3 Regt Iowa Calvary
And records will be corrected accordingly.
___________________________
Assistant Adjutant Gen’l
Reverse side
(Record Continued)
Furloughed Mar 12, 1865 for 30 days to report to _______
Deserted (Blank) 186 , Rec’d leave of absence with ____
Report to _____ BB ___. No further record to ______report
Mustered in as Reuben DeLay ___ Co I, 3 Iowa Garrison
No other ____ form to ________ _report
Could refer to /3 Iowa Cavy
_______ _______ to ___________ August 9, 83
[1] Note the correct date should be June 11, 1864. Reuben was captured the day after the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads near Ripley, MS.
Preliminary interpretation:
We know from this and other sources that Reuben was captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads which took place near Ripley, Mississippi on June 10, 1864. Other sources indicate he was captured the day after the battle (June 11) as the 3rd Iowa Cavalry was serving as the rear guard for the Union retreat after losing to Confederate forces under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. (Yes, the same guy who founded the Ku Klux Klan.)
We don’t know much about what happened after that. I assume Reuben was held in at least four Confederate prison Camps. National Park Service records show he was initially held at Camp Cahaba, Alabama and Camp Sumpter, Georgia which is better known as Andersonville. The only one mentioned in his Prisoner of War record is Camp Asylum near Columbia, South Carolina. Though Andersonville was almost exclusively for enlisted prisoners, National Park Service records say a Reuben DeLay from Iowa was incarcerated there and survived. According to John McElroy’s book, Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons, about 300 officers were discovered among the Andersonville prisoners in late August 1864 and sent to an officer’s prison at Macon. He wrote:
Reuben’s stay at Andersonville was about 2 months long. The capture of Atlanta by Sherman’s forces on September 1, 1864 meant that his stay at Oglethorpe would also be short. About half of the prisoners from Oglethorpe went to Charleston, South Carolina to serve as human shields against the Federals bombarding the city. The other half went to Camp Sorghum, South Carolina where the prisoners from Charleston eventually rejoined them. About 300 prisoners escaped, from the unwalled camp Sorghum but few reached Union lines. The primitive camp was replaced by Camp Asylum in December of 1864. Camp Asylum opened in mid-December. As the name implies it was the former South Carolina Lunatic Asylum. It had a 12 foot wall round it and some buildings to provide shelter. By February 14, 1865, it had been evacuated due to Sherman’s renewed march north through the Carolinas. We don’t know where Reuben was next moved to. In all probability they moved him further north. At about the same time Asylum closed, the Confederates also closed the Salisbury North Carolina and Florence, South Carolina camps.
Ultimately, Reuben was said to have been “paroled” at “N.E. Ferry” North Carolina on March 5, 1865, and made his way, permeably by ship, to Camp Parole, Maryland two days later. He was home in Iowa in April 1865 and secured a Doctor’s statement dated 28 April requesting 20 more days of leave because he was suffering from “Bilious Fever.”
Here is the text of the notarized copy of the affidavit:
Reuben R, DeLay Civil War Records
Medical Release April 28, 1865
Page 8
Transcript:
Copy furnished Justice of Peace August 31, 1883
Second Lieutenant Reuben DeLay of the 3rd
Iowa Vol Cavalry appeared to me on the
10th of April 1865 for a certificate
I do hereby certify that I did
carefully examine this officer and found that
he was suffering from debility the result of
an attack of Bilious fever
and thus in consequence thereof is in my
opinion unfit for duty and not able to
travel. I further declare that he should
not be able to resume his duties in a l_ps
service? than 20 days and if nothing
else befalls him he could at that time
be able to travel and resume his duties.
The original leave of absence was
granted on the 24th day of March 1865
P.B. Audrey Centerville, Appanoose Co Iowa
______ at Centerville Iowa April 29 1865
Franklin Eills MD
X
Sworn and subscribed to at Centerville,
Appanoose County, Iowa this 29th day
of April 1865 (Appears to be a Notary stamp and signature.)
I will keep you posted as I learn more and resolve discrepancies.
POW Record FrontPOW Record Reverse SideDepiction of Camp Asylum at Columbia, SC during the Civil War.
National archives record on Reuben DeLay’s time as a prisoner of the Confederacy. (Jun 1864-May 1865) (Note: This link will only work for 30 days ending about July 13, 20223. If you want the file in its most legible for, download it to your own device before then.
Check back later as I add more information from Reuben DeLay’s records
Reuben DeLay, my Grandmother’s Grandfather served in the 3rd Iowa Calvary during the Civil War.
Here is some information gleaned from His January 1, 1864 reenlistment papers:
Reuben joined the Union Army along with his brother and two cousins on August 20, 1861. He appears to have mustered in at St Louis, Missouri on Sep 6, 1861. His original enlistment was for 3 years.
On January 1, 1864, Reuben DeLay reenlisted as a Sergeant at Little Rock, Arkansas. He swore an oath that is very similar to that sworn by countless other members of the US military up to the present time.
He was examined by a Doctor who found him “free from bodily defects and potential infirmity.
The description given was:
-Eyes: Hazel
-Hair: Black
Complexion: Dark
-High: 5 Ft. 11 3/4
Here is the transcript of the actual document. Let me know if you see anything I missed due to my bad eyesight and inability to decipher ancient cursive.
Virtually all of the members of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry reenlisted along with Reuben. (Over 500 men.) They were returned to Keokuk, Iowa for thirty days of well-earned leave on Feb 12, 1864.
Some say there was only one survivor from the ill-fated Torpedo 8 Squadron at the Battle of Midway. For the 15 Devastator crews that launched from the carrier Hornet that is true. Torpedo 8 was in the process of getting re-equipped with the newer, better Grumman Avenger when the battle took place. Six crews got their Avengers too late to make the Hornet’s sailing. They flew from Hawaii to Midway to join the attack on the Japanese fleet. Five of these planes were lost, but one badly shot-up Avenger made it back to Midway. The pilot , Ensign Earnest, and Radioman, Harry Ferrier joined Ensign Gay as the only survivors of Torpedo 8.
The badly shot up TBF Avenger of Ensign Earnest and Radioman Ferrier after crash landing at Midway. The tarp covers the remains of the third crewman who did not survive.
Video of Harry Ferrier, one of three survivors of Torpedo Squadron 8 in the Battle of Midway
Harry Ferrier stayed in the Navy, eventually becoming an officer. Though I didn’t know it at the time our paths once crossed aboard the USS Princeton off Vietnam in the Mid-Sixties. Ferrier was the Aircraft Maintenance Officer on the ship while I was attached to the Marine Battalion Landing Team on board. He retired as a Commander in 1970 and died in 2016.
GySgt R. Lee Ermey of the long running show Mail Call on the History Channel
On a lonely hill
Above an emerald green valley
Indian Country
Scan the sky
Two Skyhawks roar in low
Whistling death
Napalm
Screams
Choppa Choppa Choppa
The supply bird
Pregnant Guppy
Skyhawks, Rockets this time
Keeps them hunkered down
We rush to the LZ
Chopper lands,
Dust stings our faces
A PFC steps out
Starched utilities
A.J. squared away
He’ll learn
Maybe
We rush to unload
Four Deuce rounds
Plasma, more plasma
C-Rations. Don’t eat the cheese!
Give it to the Vietnamese
Lucky Strikes, ordinance green cans
Mail! From the World! Playboys!
Four Marines load Murphy
Lance Corporal, USMC
Seven digits
Serial Number
Catholic
Bagged and tagged
Corpsman loads a limping Corporal Kempton
Flesh wound
He’ll be back
A round kicks up dust
Near-sighted Nhat
He’s out of his hole
An M-60 answers
Short bursts
We work faster
The chopper roars off
The A-4s make a strafing pass
Quiet
Store the ammo
Head for the hooch
An hour later Sergeant Tocki enters
With the mail and the Word
He’s gruff
No letter for him, the Word is not good
Mail Call!
We gather round
Gomez!
The local paper
Homecoming Queen
Normal
Black!
Corporal Black is White,
PFC White is Black
All Marines are green, and grungy
Perfumed letter, X’s and O’s
Ooo La La!
Smith!
Box of cookies
Crumbled and old
It’s the thought
Murph….
Tocki chokes, his face blanches
He puts the letter aside
Wilson!
Wilson rushes to grab it
A letter from Jen
It’s typed
Shaky hands tear it open
It begins
Dear John….
LDT June 10, ‘23
As I wrote this I remembered going through my Mother’s things after she died in 1988. She had saved my letters from Vietnam. I grabbed them. They were part of my history, but best kept in a box. Then I wondered why she had kept these letters and no others. Today it hit me. She never knew which one would be the last.
Outlaws, Outrages and Outright Lies 