George W. Hall Diary

Extracts by Neil Allen Bristow
from a Typescript in the Library of Congress

George Washington Hall, a private in the 14th Georgia,¹ was captured 12 May 1864 in Spotsylvania, Virginia. He tells of being marched (on an empty stomach) to Fredericksburg, then on to Belle Plain Landing on the Potomac, where a large number of prisoners ("six or eight thousand") were gathered, awaiting transport. After a crowded and eventful voyage around the peninsula via Cape Henry, during which the steamboat ran aground and was lost in the fog, he reached Fort Delaware on the evening of the 20th. He describes the barracks, the inadequate rations, and the boredom and loneliness that were the lot of POWs. Private Hall remained at Fort Delaware for almost ten months, until 7 March 1865, when he and fellow Georgians were transported by ship to Camp Lee near Richmond, where they were paroled on the 10th. Hall had been raised in south Georgia, but lived near Quincy, Florida, northwest of Tallahassee.

He sometimes indulges in rather florid soliloquies of a patriotic and religious nature (he became a Baptist minister after the war and preached for 45 years), but he does give straightforward descriptions of day-to-day life and those unusual events that relieved the monotony. Although he mentions very few persons by name, he does faithfully record the weather. Should anyone need to know, for example, that Monday, June 13, 1864 began with a cool morning and that the evening was fair & warm, Hall's diary is the place to look. All in all a valuable resource. Here are three entries that caught my interest:

Sunday May 22nd 1864
Par cloudy & warm No one knows the tediousness & trouble of a captivity confined to a small island & a much smaller compass inside the prison walls of which we are confined & we could pass the time off more congenial to our feelings if we could get enough to subsist on but we could eat all we get in 2 days at one meal & we draw more for one days ration in Dixie than we get here in 3. But the Lord is with us & I hope will saunctify our troubles to our good & soon deliver us. ² <

Saturday June 4th 1864

Partially fair & windy. Nothing of interest transpires here one day more than another. The dull monotony that seems to hang over us like some terrable & dense fog is never dispersed. The close confinement & strict almost unbearable disciplined rules we are subjected to goes verry hard with one who has been used to liberty all his life but my whole trust is in God & my earnest prayer is to Him day & night that He will send us speedy deliverance & I believe He will not forsake us if we will trust all in his almighty powerer. ³

Sunday Aug 31st [1864]
M rain E par cloudy Time seems to pass off slow & the hours drag heavily along. I have now been here over 3 months & it seems like ages since I first came into these gloomy & dreary prison walls. We do not get enough of the subsistence of animal life to satisfy the cravings of hunger. I have been hungry nearly all the time I have been here & I have almost forgot how one feels who get[s] a plenty to eat. It is a most miserable life to live & always be hungry & also to see a plenty of good things to eat all around you every day & for it to be impossible for you to get any of them. Those of the prisoners who were fortunate enough to have green backs in their possession when captured & also those who have friends or relative[s] inside the Federal lines, have every thing they want in abundance but us who no friends nor money are in a deplorable & lamentable condition, but the Blessed Lord bears me up & reminds me that this is not my rest & if I only prove faithful, I will soon secure an everlasting home where I will never hunger nor thirst any more. ⁴

Source notes:

¹ The Roster of Confederate Soldiers places him in Co G.

² Diary of George Washington Hall, 14th Georgia Volunteers, Confederate States of America, 1861-1865. Vol 2, Sec (4), 21. Typescript. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Miscellaneous Manuscripts 915.

³ Hall, 25.

⁴ Hall, 33.

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This page updated 14 February 2009.