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 3^rd

Iowa Vol Cavalry appeared to me on the

10^th 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 24^th 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 29^th day

of April 1865    (Appears to be a Notary stamp and signature.)

I will keep you posted as I learn more and resolve discrepancies.

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.

G11-811318067E Pvt. Reuben Delay Military Service Records.pdf – Onehub

Here is the NPS link where Reuben DeLay is show as having been imprisoned at Andersonville: Search For Prisoners – The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Complete record pdf: