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are unknown. Food sufficient but badly served. In a dark wet cellar I found twenty-eight prisoners chained to a wet floor, where they had been constantly confined, many of them for several months, one since
November 16, 1863, and are not for a moment released even to relieve the calls of nature. With a single exception these men have had
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on their way to the North, and the United States soldiers awaiting trial and which is located in a large block of stores is represented as the filthiest place the inspector ever saw occupied by human beings. The whole management and government of the prison could not be worse! Discipline and order
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became determined to free the prisoners from Irving Block, and led a raid on
Memphis in August 1864 to accomplish this goal and free captured Confederate Generals. He didn't find the generals, although one did manage to escape during the night with 500 other prisoners, and he was successful in
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that the prisoners were kept in, leading to
Stanton dismissing Captain Williams from his post. However, General Grant intervened on Williams' behalf, and Williams was reinstated as prison commandant. After Williams returned to the prison, and after the removal of Hurlbut from command, Williams
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Hurlbut appointed
Captain George A. Williams prison commandant in 1863, and together they expanded the extortion ring to include the commanding officers at the Irving Block prison. Williams was emboldened by their success, demanding ransoms from wealthy residents who sought to release captive
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The building that later became used as the Irving Block Prison was constructed in 1860 on Second Street in
Memphis, as an office building. To protect the building from burglary, iron slats covered the windows. During the Civil War, it was converted into a Confederate Hospital by the
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soldiers from confinement at the prison. John Hallum, a
Memphis lawyer, wrote publicly about Hulbut and Williams' crimes and uncovered a scandal involving Hurlbut, making him a liability to Hurlbut's operation. Hallum was arrested and confined at
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As the war intensified, the situation grew worse, and some prisoners remained in chains for months at a time, receiving little food or medical attention. Complaints about the conditions in the prison prompted an investigation by
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The prison was so notorious that it was eventually closed by order of
President Lincoln himself in 1865. At that time the prison held about 1200 soldiers and 100 citizens. The building was condemned and demolished during the
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in charge of
Memphis and the Irving Block prison. Hurlbut had been instructed to crack down on Confederate sympathizers and the smuggling of cotton, but instead set up an
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in April 1864 that Lt. Col. John F. Marsh found the prison conditions to be unacceptable. The report detailed Marsh's first hand account of the prison, stating:
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ring to profit from the turmoil in the city. Hurlbut also began extorting money from
Memphis merchants, imprisoning them in Irving Block on false charges of
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in 1862, it was turned into a prison to house soldiers and civilian
Confederate sympathizers, including women and Memphis mayor John Park.
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and demanding exorbitant bond fees, then never calling the accused to return to court, keeping the bond or sometimes finding them guilty
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dissolved the extortion ring and resolved to clean up the prison. In July 1864, the prison was officially designated a U.S.
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39:. Notorious for its cruel and unsanitary living conditions, it was also known as the "
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A Politician Turned General: The Civil War Career of Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
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influencing Union forces to return to Memphis from northern
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Stopping Points Historical Markers & Points of Interest
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The prison which is used for the detention of citizens,
255:"Garage Demolition Site Locale of Notorious War Prison"
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as an excuse to confiscate the rest of their property.
20:Attack on Irving Block by General Forrest in 1864
395:Demolished buildings and structures in Tennessee
310:Galbraith, William; Galbraith, Loretta (1990).
385:Buildings and structures in Memphis, Tennessee
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380:Buildings and structures demolished in 1937
173:During the war, Confederate Major General
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370:1860s architecture in the United States
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400:Government buildings completed in 1860
143:In April 1864, an officer reported to
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106:inspection of Irving Block in 1864.
420:1865 disestablishments in Tennessee
261:. The Daily News Publishing Co. Inc
221:Lash, Jeffrey Norman (2003-01-01).
410:Office buildings completed in 1860
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313:A Lost Heroine of the Confederacy
415:1862 establishments in Tennessee
375:American Civil War prison camps
287:"Irving Block Prison - Memphis"
227:. Kent State University Press.
316:. Univ. Press of Mississippi.
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152:shockingly inhuman conditions
390:Defunct prisons in Tennessee
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253:Dries, Bill (2013-01-10).
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124:President Abraham Lincoln
169:Second Battle of Memphis
74:General Ulysses S. Grant
56:organization. After the
31:was a wartime prison in
175:Nathan Bedford Forrest
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117:Judge Advocate General
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338:"Irving Block Prison"
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259:Memphis Daily News
78:Stephen A. Hurlbut
58:capture of Memphis
37:American Civil War
33:Memphis, Tennessee
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180:Mississippi
120:Joseph Holt
91:in absentia
364:Categories
347:2016-01-12
296:2016-01-12
265:2016-01-12
199:References
110:Conditions
76:appointed
62:Union Army
195:in 1937.
86:espionage
82:extortion
72:In 1862,
68:Extortion
137:no trial
47:Creation
41:Bastille
186:Closure
150:of the
60:by the
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29:prison
318:ISBN
229:ISBN
24:The
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
