Camp Parole Maryland 6th Vermont Infantry Frank Robbins civil war soldier letter

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Camp Parole Maryland 6th Vermont Infantry Frank Robbins civil war soldier letter:
$60.00

Original civil war letter, possibly from a paroled Union prisoner, datelined Camp Parole, Maryland October 30, 1862, from 6th Vermont Infantry soldier Frank H. Robbins. This is an original civil war soldier\'s letter with the envelope/cover.Camp ParoleCamp Parole (Annapolis, Maryland) was established in June, 1862 by the War Department to process Union prisoners during the Civil War. The facility, one of three in the North, was a camp where Union prisoners were sent following their exchange and release from Confederate prisons. Their next stop after Camp Parole was either to return to their unit to fight again or to be sent home.The camp was originally set up at St. Johns College in downtown Annapolis. Prisoners arrived by boat and were housed in eight wooden barracks. The accommodations were quite inadequate and Union officials sought an alternative site.When Stonewall Jackson captured 12,500 Union soldiers at Bolivar Heights on September 15, 1862 (the war’s largest surrender) the men were sent to Camp Parole because no prison was large enough to house them. They were processed out as quickly as the camp could handle them.On May 1, 1863, a two hundred acre farm west of Annapolis, near the Annapolis-Elkridge Railroad, was leased for a new camp and the Union processing operations were moved. Eighty three buildings were eventually constructed there including a hospital with approximately 170 beds. As before, the amount of men sent to the camp exceeded the facilities. As many as 20,000 Union men were camped at this location at one time during the conflict.Clara Barton, Civil War nurse and later founder of the American Red Cross, had her headquarters at Camp Parole. Part of her mission while she was there was to set up a registry of missing Union soldiers.When General Ulysses S. Grant cancelled the prisoner exchange in August 1864, Union prisoners were no longer paroled.Camp Parole continued to operate until it was closed in late June, 1865. Many Union records today of men held in Confederate prisoners who survived show the listing of “mustered out, Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland.”The U.S. National Military Cemetery, located nearby, contains 2,482 graves. Many of those graves are marked as Union soldiers who died while being held at Camp Parole.Sixth Vermont InfantryColonels: Nathan S. Lord, Oscar S. Tuttle, Elisha Leonard Barney, Sumner H. Lincoln
Lieutenant Colonels: Asa P. Blunt, Oscar S. Tuttle, Elisha Leonard Barney, Oscar Adrian Hale, Franklin George Butterfield, Sumner H. Lincoln, William J. Sperry
Majors: Oscar S. Tuttle, Elisha Leonard Barney, Oscar Adrian Hale, Richard Bailey Crandall, Carlos W. Dwinell, Sumner H. Lincoln, William J. Sperry, Edwin R. Kinney.The 6th Regiment, recruited from the state at large, was mustered into the U. S. service for three years at Montpelier, Oct. 15, 1861, and immediately ordered to Washington, where it arrived on the 22nd. It proceeded at once to Camp Griffin, where it was attached to the Vermont Brigade. The command remained at this post during the winter and broke camp on March 10, 1862, for the Peninsula Campaign. On April 6, 1862, at Warwick creek, Va., the regiment was first in action, fortunately without loss. The brigade was first a part of the 4th and later of the 6th Corps, with which it was generally known. In the battle of Golding\'s farm the 6th won complimentary mention from Gen. Hancock. The loss at Savage Station was severe, and in the Maryland campaign it bore an active part. It was active at Fredericksburg and soon after went into winter quarters at White Oak Church, where it remained until camp was broken for the Chancellorsville movement in the spring of 1863. There and at Gettysburg and Funkstown later in the summer, the regiment proved its right to be known as a brave and gallant band. After sharing in the Mine Run campaign, the 6th went into winter camp at Brandy Station, Va., until the opening of the Wilderness campaign in the spring of 1864. In this memorable campaign the part of the Vermont Brigade was both important and tragic. The work was arduous and the loss terrible. It joined in the famous assault at Spotsylvania and was repeatedly in action at Cold Harbor. Soon after the arrival of the army at Petersburg the 6th Corps was ordered to the defense of Washington and rejoined the Army of the Potomac in Dec, 1864, to remain with it during the remainder of the siege. In Oct., 1864, the original members not reenlisted were mustered out and the veterans and recruits consolidated into a battalion of six companies. After the surrender of Lee at Appomattox the regiment was mustered out at Washington, June 19, 1865, and ordered home.The total number of members of the 6th was 1,681, of whom 189 were killed or died of wounds, 189 from disease, 20 from imprisonment and 2 from accident.Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States 1861-65, (Federal Publishing Company, Madison, WI, 1908), i:111-112.

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