For Researchers

The Fugitive Federals prisoner database is an exhaustive list of nearly 3,000 escaped prisoners of war, built from records in the National Archives. Consolidating so much information in one place makes it a valuable tool for historical research. The following authors have utilized the database for their publications, further expanding our knowledge about the daring escapes these men undertook to reach the freedom of Union lines. 

Peter Carlson, Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey.  New York: Public Affairs, 2013. 

• Narrates the capture, incarceration, and escape of famous New York Tribune journalists Junius Browne and Albert Richardson.

W.F Oscar Federhen, Thirteen Months in Dixie, or the Adventures of a Federal Prisoner in Texas.  Ed. by Jeanine Surette Honsetein and Steven A. Knowlton.  El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2022.

• A newly discovered manuscript account by Oscar Federhen, a soldier in the 13th Independent Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery, of his capture during the Red River Campaign, his imprisonment in Camp Ford, the largest POW camp west of the Mississippi River, and his escape through Texas. 

Steve Procko, Captured Freedom, forthcoming, spring 2023: capturedfreedom.com

• Narrates the 350 -mile escape journey of nine Union officers and uncovers the truth about a photograph of them taken in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

Selected published primary sources from fugitives discussed in Yankee Plague:

Abbott, A.O.  Prison Life in the South: at Richmond, Macon, Savannah, Charleston, Columbia, Charlotte, Raleigh, Goldsborough, and Andersonville, During the Years 1864 and 1865.  New York:  Harper & Brothers, 1865.

Browne, Junius Henri.  Four Years in Secessia: Adventures Within and Beyond the Union Lines.  Hartford: O.D. Case and Company, 1865.

Byers, S.M.H. What I Saw in Dixie; or Sixteen Months in Rebel Prisons.  Dansville, NY: Robbins & Poore, 1868. 

Cochran, M.A.  “Reminiscences of Life in Rebel Prisons.”  Sketches of War History, 1861-1865. Papers Prepared for the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of The United States.  1890-1896. Vol. 4.  Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company, 1896. 

Drake, J. Madison.  Fast and Loose in Dixie.  New York: The Authors’ Publishing Company, 1880. 

Drake, J. Madison.  Narrative of the Capture, Imprisonment and Escape of J. Madison Drake, Captain Ninth New Jersey Volunteers.  S.I., 1866. 

Fales, James M.  Prison Life of Lieut. James M. Fales.  Providence: N.B. Williams & Co., 1882.

Glazier, Willard Worcester.  The Capture, the Prison Pen, and the Escape.  Albany: S.R Gray, 1865.

Hadley, John V.  “A Day with Escaping Prisoners.” War Papers Read Before the Indiana Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.  Indianapolis: Published by the Commandery, 1898.

Hadley, John V.  Seven Months a Prisoner; or Thirty-Six Days in the Woods.  Indianapolis: J.M. & F.J. Meikel & Co., 1868.

Hadley, John V.  Seven Months a Prisoner.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898.

Hunt, Charles O.  “Our Escape From Camp Sorhum.  By Lieutenant Charles O. Hunt.  Read December 3, 1890.”  War Papers Read Before the Commandery of the State of Maine, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.  Vol. 1.  Portland, ME: The Thurston Print, 1898. 

Johnson, Hannibal A.  “The Sword of Honor From Captivity to Freedom.” Personal Narratives Of Events in the War of the Rebellion, being Papers Read Before the Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society.  Providence: Published by the Society, 1903.

Langworthy, Daniel Avery.  Reminiscences of a Prisoner of War and His Escape.  Minneapolis: Byron Printing Company, 1915.

Murray, William W.  “From Macon, Georgia, to the Gulf.  An Escaping Prisoner’s Experience.” Sketches of War History, 1861-1865.  Papers Read Before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.  Vol. 5.  Cincinnati: R. Clark, 1896.

Prison Life in Texas.  An Account of the Capture, and Imprisonment of a Portion of the 46th Regt.  Indiana Veteran Volunteers, in Texas.  Logansport, IN: Journal Office, 1865.

Racine, Philip N., ed. “Unspoiled Heart”: The Journal of Charles Mattocks of the 17th Maine. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1994.

Richardson, Albert D.  The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon, and the Escape.  Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1865. 

Robertson, James I. Jr.  “An Indiana Soldier in Love and War:  The Civil War Letters of John V. Hadley.”  Indiana Magazine of History.  Vol. LIX (September, 1963): 189-288.

Sabre, G.E.  Nineteen Months a Prisoner of War.  Narrative of Lieutenant G.E. Sabre, Second Rhode Island Cavalry, of His Experience in the War Prisons and Stockades of Morton, Mobile, Atlanta, Libby, Belle Island, Andersonville, Macon, Charleston, and Columbia, And His Escape to Union Lines.  New York: The American News Company, 1865.

Swift, F.W.  My Experiences as a Prisoner of War.  A Paper Prepared and Read Before Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, December 1st, 1866.  Detroit: Wm. S. Ostler, 1888.