Comfortable Confederates in Fort Warren — 1864

Books and reading matter were evidently available to these Confederates in Fort Warren, 1864. The men in this photograph are C. T. Jenkins, seated on the left; W. W. Helm, standing behind him; R. H. Gayle, in the center with the pipe, and I. Kensfick, seated, with a paper in his hand. Behind him stands Orderly Carey. The only signs of prison are the massive walls and the sergeant on guard with his gun. Many Confederate civilians as well as prominent officers were confined in this strong- hold, one of the forts guarding the port of Boston, during the course of the war. Martial law reigned supreme in those days so far as regarded men with Southern sentiments, but once in Fort Warren the prisoners were treated with the utmost respect, well-fed, and placed in comfortable quarters. Beyond the fact that they were under guard as prisoners of war, they had little to complain of as to their treatment by their captors. Many of these men were taken in the North while traveling from city to city. When they were recognized as Southerners who had uttered  secession sentiments they were quietly taken from the trains, put in charge of a provost-guard, and transported to Fort Warren or some similar Federal prison.