In the various prisons he was confined to, James had minimal contact with civilian personnel who were prisoners of the Confederate government. However, he does specifically mention one individual, a reporter of the New York Tribune, Albert D. Richardson.
To meet James' prison mates from other areas, click one of the categories below:
 | Albert D. Richardson - 1833-1869 |
| War is, by its very nature, the property of soldiers and
sailors, not of civilians. But at times and by certain accidents
of fate, such as the areas in which they reside, or their peacetime
professions, civilians are drawn into the terrible realities of
conflict. Such was the case of the civilians of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, and Atlanta, Georgia. Such was also the case of
photographers like Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner, and newspaper
reporters like Albert Richardson and Junius Browne. War brought Albert Richardson and Frederic James to the same Confederate prison in Salisbury, North Carolina. It might have been the fact that they were both from Massachusetts and their fatherhood of young girls that made them more than fellow inmates. When James heard on March 19, 1864, of the death of Mrs. Richardson, he must have shared deeply in Albert Richardson's sadness at not being with his family at such a time.
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Excerpt from James' diary:
| "Mr. Richardson, a N.Y. Tribune reporter, resident of Medway, Mass. held here as a citizen prisoner recd the sad & wholly unexpected news of the death of his wife, leaving his four little ones motherless. " |
Biographical Sketch
Albert D. Richardson was born in Franklin, Massachusetts, Oct. 6, 1833. He married Mary Louise Pease of Cincinnati in April 1855 and had five children with her. He was the chief war correspondent for the New York Tribune and traveled extensively gathering war news for his articles. On Sunday evening, May 3, 1863, Richardson and Junius H. Browne of the Tribune, and Richard T. Colburn of The New York World embarked on the event of their lives up the Mississippi River. The expedition consisted of two large barges with a small tug between them. There were 35 persons on board; the tug's captain, Mr. Ward, Surgeon Davidson of the 47th Ohio Infantry, fourteen enlisted men and other officers and citizens. The vessels sailed unmolested for some three hours when suddenly a rocket shot up and pierced the sky; signaling the Confederates of their approach. A shell struck one of the barges and it exploded. In a very short time, both barges and the tug were disabled and all the men were either killed or captured. The prisoners were transported east traveling through such cities as Jackson , Selma and Montgomery Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia and then north to Richmond, Virginia. On May 16, 1863, they were placed in Libby Prison and on September 2nd transferred to Castle Thunder, commanded by Captain George Alexander. On February 3, 1864, they were again moved, this time to Salisbury Military Prison in North Carolina, under the command of Captain Swift Galloway. It was at Salisbury that Richardson came in contact with officers mentioned in James' diary: Captains Julius Litchfield, Edward Kendall, Edward Chase, Benjamin Reed and Ralph Ives. On December 18, 1864, Richardson and three others, using false passes, simply walked by the prison guards and into future freedom. The three other prisoners were Thomas Wolfe, Junius Browne and William E. Davis. They crossed into Federal lines on January 13, 1865. In his own biography, Benjamin Booth (22nd Iowa), himself a prisoner in Libby and Salisbury prisons, records the escape of Richardson in his entry of December 20, 1864: "A correspondent of one of the New York papers, named Richardson, has been in the pen for some time but has also been busily engaged in maturing a plan for his escape. Day before yesterday he carried his plans into execution by assuming the role of a hospital physician, and as such, he boldly walked up to one of the gates and passed out, the guard showing him all the respect due one of their own physicians. His plans succeeded admirably and he is now breathing free air, while he is making all speed toward the Federal lines, followed by our earnest prayers that he may succeed in escaping the rebels and their bloodhounds." |
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Information about his war service is taken primarily from his book The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon, and the Escape published in 1865 in Hartford, CT, by American Publishing Company. He also wrote about his post-war travels in the west in "From Beyond the Mississippi" in 1867, and "A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant" in 1868. Richardson died tragically in 1869 at the age of 36, shot by the jealous ex-husband of the actress Abby Sage McFarland. Daniel McFarland shot Richardson in the office of the "Tribune." On his deathbed Richardson was married to Abby McFarland by Henry Ward Beecher.
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Colonel Hoffman, Commissionary-General of Prisoners: Sir: On the evening of the third of May, 1863, three newspaper correspondents, Messrs. A.D.Richardson, and Junius H. Browne of the New York Tribune, and Richard T. Colburn of the New York World, were taken prisoners at Vicksburg while attempting to run the blockade in a small tug-boat to join our forces below. They were taken to Richmond and thrown into Libby Prison. In a few days, Mr. Colburn was released while Messrs. Richardson and Browne were detained and have ever since been kept confined notwithstanding all efforts to secure their release or exchange. Late letters represent Mr. Browne (whose health has already been precarious) as being very ill and not likely to survive a much longer confinement. Both the gentlemen were formerly citizens of Cincinnati (and Mr. Browne still is) and a special interest is therefore felt in having every means possible exhausted to procure their release. Cannot some specific retaliatory measure be adopted under the President's recent proclamation to secure the exchange or release of these gentlemen, or if that be deemed inexpedient, is there not some further step in their behalf the Government can take?
Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, Series II, Vol. VI, p. 183 |
Hon. Robert Ould, Commissioner for Exchange: Sir: Dr. James P. Hambleton has been for many months a prisoner of war at Fort Monroe. He is in some way connected with the Southern press. A.D. Richardson has been in Libby Prison as a prisoner since April 1863. He was captured on a steamboat in the Mississippi River. He is connected with the Northern press. Will you exchange one for the other? Hambleton claims that he has a paper from you saying you will do so, and upon this he vexes all my friends and me continually. Please say definitely that you will or that you will not, so that I can stop his mouth.
Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, Series II, Vol. VII, p. 575 |
Honorable Secretary of War Mr. Richardson, of the New York Tribune, has been in a Confederate prison about sixteen months. There have been many unsuccessful attempts by his friends to get him released. E.A.Pollard, of the Richmond Examiner, the New York World of the Confederacy, is a captive in our hands on his parole in Brooklyn I am assured that if he can be permitted to go on his parole to Richmond we can obtain Mr. Richardson. If there is no reason why not, please send Pollard to me.
Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, Series II, Vol. VII, p. 103 |
To meet James' prison mates from other areas, click one of the categories below: