Price $39.95 plus $4.00 postage/handling. Pennsylvania residents add $2.40 sales tax.

“Historians and authors of the Civil War era have long neglected the history of Florence Stockade. Rev. Dr. Albert H. Ledoux has now remedied this oversight with the publication of The Florence Stockade. The stockade’s story is told on many levels in this history, in the context of the prisoner exchange crisis, through the prisoners’ eyes, through the Confederate perspective (officially and from guards’ accounts), and from the perspective of those who dared to assist escaped prisoners. Ledoux draws from numerous prisoner diaries and accounts, but wisely distinguishes between those accounts contemporary with the war and those published years after the war. The latter accounts often reflected inaccurate hindsight often influenced by postwar political sentiment. Ledoux also draws upon the records of the US Sanitary Commission and the Southern Claims commission to document supplies received by Florence prisoners and the role of Unionists in giving aid and comfort to escaped Union soldiers. There is much in this account that satisfies our quest for Florence Stockade detail including information on prisoner and guard rations, the weather, prisoner exchanges, Galvanized Yankees, escape attempts, the Stockade Confederate leadership, the Election of 1864, burials, Florena Budwin, and other topics too numerous to mention. This work is a must for the subscribers of this newsletter and for all with an interest in the Florence Stockade or Civil War prisons in general.”

-- John L. Andrews, Jr., editor

Friends of the Florence Stockade Newsletter

“Ledoux has done an extraordinary job researching his subject. In utililzing over 225 diaries, manuscripts, newspapers, archives, personal collections, and other primary and secondary sources, he has created a well-written, detailed history of the Florence Stockade. … The Florence Stockade is one of the best books about Civil War POW Camps, North or South.”

-- Jay Jorgensen, Civil War News

The History of the Florence Stockade: A Chronicle of Prison Life in the Waning Months of the Civil War: 400 pages, 6x9 format, hard back, Price $39.95 plus $4.00 postage/handling. Pennsylvania residents add $2.40 sales tax. Order from Rev. Albert H. Ledoux, Ph.D., 811 Church Street, Gallitzin, PA 16641.

Published by SCHROEDER PUBLICATIONS 2008. Softcover, 250 pages, index, more than 50 photos, maps, and illustrations and 16 maps. ISBN 1-889246-42-5. Price $29.00, postpaid (Proceeds go to support the Friends of the Florence Stockade).

Using richly descriptive letters passed down through generations of the Brandegee family, the author had presented the story of one young man, set on adventure and possessed with an earnest desire to sever his beloved country during its most wrenching conflict. Charlie’s Letters follow young Charles Brandegee from his enlistment with the 5th New York Infantry (Duryee Zouaves) and later, service in the 146th New York Infantry, through his entire army experience including his capture at the Wilderness and subsequent imprisonment at Andersonville and Florence. Charlie’s story is one of patriotism and hope, cynicism and despair, valuable for its depiction of the common soldier’s experience.

From the Foreword: For students of the American Civil War—be they researcher, buff or historian—the discovery of an extensive set of wartime letters is invariably a cause for celebrating. Sitting down with a huge packet of correspondence, previously unknown to anyone outside the soldier’s immediate family or his descendants, evokes an excitement not unlike that of a small child contemplation the beribboned gifts beneath a Christmas tree. I know those were my sentiments when, through a fortuitous chain of events, I found myself reading the Civil War letters of Charles Brandegee.

The story of the Florence Stockade is a little known chapter in the history of the War Between the States. The Stockade was opened in September, 1864 and continued in operation until February 1865. During this time between 15,000 and 18,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned on less than 24 acres. It is estimated that between 2,500 and 2,800 prisoners died in captivity during the five months the prison was operational. After the capture of Atlanta, Georgia by Union forces, Confederate authorities decided to transfer the majority of Union prisoners from Andersonville, Georgia. Due to its proximity to major rail lines, Florence was chosen as the site for a new prison camp. In this book, Rev. Ledoux, a board member of the Friends of the Florence Stockade (FFS), documents over 1,500 Union soldiers who died in the Florence Stockade.

The majority of the original records of the Florence Stockade did not survive the War Between the States, thus documenting those who died there proved to be challenging. Ledoux consulted nearly sixty primary and secondary sources to determine the names of those who died within the Stockade walls. For each Union soldier listed the following information is provided: name, rank, military unit, date of death, and source of information. These soldiers are interred in the Florence National Cemetery in unmarked graves, thus making the information provided in this book invaluable to historians of the War Between the States, family researchers, and genealogists. The book is a joint effort between the Old Darlington District Chapter, South Carolina Genealogical Society and the Friends of the Florence Stockade. © 2000, 41+ viii pages, soft cover, Library of Congress Number- 00-103054. Price- $27.00 postpaid. Order from: Old Darlington District Chapter, SCGS, P.O. Box 175, Hartsville, SC 29551-0175 or use the convenient Pay Pal link to use your credit or debit card.