Most important, the price was right. The
factory's
owner wanted only $15,000 for the 11
acre complex,
which included $500
worth of machinery. He was also willing
to accept
payment in Confederate bonds. And while
$2,000 was
needed for iron
bars and other security measures, Clark
was assured
that the prison could be resold after
the war for
$30,000 to $50,000,
bringing a tidy profit. So on November
2, 1861, the
Confederate government purchased the
complex.
Surrounded by a simple board fence,
Salisbury Prison
promised to be a comfortable detention
center for
deserters, spies,
and Southern citizens suspected of
disloyalty. Mid
December 1861 brought the first Union
prisoners, and
by March 1862
Salisbury housed a total of 1,500
prisoners.
Conditions were good until late 1863.
Food and room
were plentiful, and
the prisoners even formed baseball
teams. Only one
death was reported.
As the Union army advanced, more and
more Northern
prisoners were transferred to Salisbury
from
occupied territories. The
prison's capacity of 2,000 was reached
early in
1864. By October 1864, over 10,000 men
were crowded
into tents, mud huts,
and even holes in the ground, as the
prison
buildings were increasingly used as
hospitals. The
Confederate government
couldn't afford the bills. Salisbury's
acreage
became a quagmire, with no stream
running through
the camp to carry away
waste, sanitation was a nightmare, and
the wells
became fouled.
For more information please visit the Salisbury Confederate Prison Association, Inc.
When Gov. Henry T. Clark of North
Carolina
shopped for a new prison camp, the
abandoned cotton
factory in downtown
Salisbury seemed like a good deal. It
was on a rail
line, facilitating prisoner movement,
and the brick
factory and
accompanying wooden boarding houses
were deemed
sufficient for the anticipated 2,000
inmates. Wells
provided fresh
water, and the local countryside was
rich in
produce, making provisioning easy.