The following War Department memo written and signed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton pertains to the confinement of James Washington and Herbert Alexander, Prisoners of War (POW), at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore.

Herbert Lee Alexander (1846-1866) was the son of William Pearson Alexander (1801-1863) and Hannah Lee Washington (1811-1881) of Claymont (name of farm), just west of Charlestown, Jefferson county, [West] Virginia. According to a letter by Col. John Peter Shindel Gobin, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry, Herbert was arrested in his own home when a note was found in his pocketbook identifying him as a conscript and with instructions to report to the 12th Virginia Cavalry. He was unarmed and apparently frail in constitution. “His mother, an estimable lady [with ancestral ties to George Washington], is exceedingly fearful a rigorous confinement will completely prostrate her son, his health being naturally precarious.”

Muster roll records for Co. A, 12th Va. Cavalry, state that Herbert was captured on 31, 1865 and confined at Fort McHenry on 8 February 1865. In the remarks, he is identified as a “Guerrilla: not to be exchanged during the war. By order of Maj. Gen. Sheridan, commanding Middle Military Division.” While at POW at Ft. McHenry, Herbert was sent to the post hospital suffering from anemia. He was eventually released from Ft. McHenry on 27 April 1865 and he died at home on 3 October 1866, probably from tuberculosis.

The other prisoner identified in the memo only as “James” was Pvt. James Cunningham Washington (1847-1865). Though James and Herbert were relatives, they were not brothers as might have been presumed by Edwin Stanton. James was a member of Co. B, 12th Virginia Cavalry and he was taken prisoner with Herbert at the Claymont Farm near Charlestown, also labeled a “Guerrilla, not to be exchanged during the war.” According to family legend, 17 year-old James was starved and inhumanely treated by his Yankee captors and he died in the post hospital on 24 February 1865, less than four weeks after he was taken prisoner. Curiously, the National Park Service website for Fort McHenry claims that, “in contrast to the high death tolls at other prisons, the death toll at Fort McHenry was only 15.” Color me skeptical of that number.

Mrs. Lyle, mentioned in the memo, was Herbert Alexander’s aunt.

Transcription

War Department, February 20, 1865

Case of James [Washington] & Herbert Alexander, Prisoner of War in Ft. McHenry

Referred to General [William Walton] Morris to permit Mrs. Lyle to have an interview with them under usual regulation. — Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War