[CIVIL WAR] Historic POW Diary: 18 Months in Confederate Prisons

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Day 2: The American Civil War

By Fleischer's Auctions

Apr 25, 2026

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• Lot Description

  EIGHTEEN MONTHS IN SIX DIFFERENT CONFEDERATE PRISONS: THE PRISON DIARY OF UNION OFFICER LUTHER SIBLEY

   

  HISTORIC PRIMARY ACCOUNT OF A UNION PRISONER-OF-WAR THAT INCLUDES A DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS "TUNNEL ESCAPE" FROM LIBBY PRISON

   

  Autograph diary of Lieutenant Luther Sibley (1836-1920), Co. B, Ohio 116th Infantry. Various places, January - December 1864. 6 x 3 inches. With signatures of 91 fellow prisoners of war who served time along with Sibley.

   

  Sibley was born on Mary 4, 1836 in Racine, Meigs County,  Ohio, where he resigned his position as a clerk in the Common Pleas Court at the outbreak of the Civil War. He enlisted in 1862 as a 2nd Lieutenant and was commissioned into Co. B, Ohio 116th Infantry. Initially assigned to the Railroad District of West Virginia, Sibley and the 116th traveled first to Clarksburg, then Romney, where they were tasked with guarding the forage train. He was captured with part of General Robert H. Milroy's command on June 15, 1863, near Winchester, Virginia by the advance of Confederate forces under Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell. Incredibly, he carried this diary with him during his confinement at six different prison camps, including Libby Prison, writing of his wartime imprisonment:

   

  "On June 22nd I went to Libby. May 7, 1864 I went out, going to Danville, Virginia, about a week, and thence to Macon, Georgia, where I stayed till July 30th, when I was taken to Savannah. There I was kept till September 13th, when I was carried to Charleston, S.C., and put 'under fire' (from our bombardment of the city) until October 5th, when I was taken to what came to be known as Camp Sorghum, about three miles from Columbia, S.C. There I stayed until December 9th, 1864 when, as one of the sick or wounded, I was taken back to Charleston and the next day (the 10th) was exchanged, being a prisoner eighteen months, lacking five days."

   

  The majority of Sibley's time was spent at Libby Prison, from where he describes everything from the quotidian. He details books he reads, the weather, the arrival of "Fresh Fish" (newly captured soldiers), his health, and, excitingly, the prison breaks of his fellow inmates. On January 29th, 1864, Sibley writes that "Major [Erastus Newton] Bates and Capt. [John F.] Porter escaped today. The former going by guards in citizen's dress and the latter in Confederate soldier's clothes." A few weeks later, he writes about the famous tunnel escape, wherein a group of officers led by Colonel Thomas E. Rose started digging in a rat-infested area of the prison where the guards seldom ventured: "One hundred and nine officers espied last night by a tunnel from the prison under a street into a yard near. Only seven retaken this evening. As soon as roll was called, the escape was known, and then another roll by name which occupied most of the day."

   

  On May 7, 1864, Sibley begins the journey to Danville, which he describes grimly: "Left 'Libby' forever I hope. An hour after day[light], crossed river and took cars for Danville, Va. Here put into box cars like so many hogs, 50 to a car. Weather very hot and the confinement almost intolerable...two or three escaped from train."

   

  By the middle of May, the band of transferred prisoners reached Camp Oglethorpe, a lesser-known Union officers' prison in Macon, Georgia just northeast of Andersonville. The camp was in an open field, and any shelter was to be built by the prisoners themselves: "[The camp is] without tents - no shelter of any kind...camp becoming organized. Ten thousand ft. lumber given to make shelter and floor for 942 men!" As grueling as the journey and construction of this camp have been, Sibley expresses gratitude that he has been spared the "horrible...condition" of Andersonville, writing that "29,000 of our soldiers are confined there. 4,000 are now sick in hospital and they die at from 70 to 75 per day."

   

  On September 13, 1864, during a period of very poor health, Sibley is among a group of soldiers transferred to the City Jail in Charleston, South Carolina, which he describes as "one of the dirtiest holes [he] was ever in -- an abominable place." His confinement there coincided with the Union bombardment of the city, and Sibley describes the brutal practice of using prisoners of war to deter the shelling: "[Men are] put in range of the batteries shelling the city...A good many shells go over us and burst near us day and night. We are 'under fire' of our own arms in the accursed jail of Charleston."

   

  The rest of Sibley's year of imprisonment was marked by continued illness and the witness of the grisly execution of Lieutenant George Turbayne, 66th New York Infantry, for crossing the camp's "deadline" barrier in early December: "A most atrocious and brutal murder committed by one of the guard day. Lt. George Turbayne of the 66th New York Vols. was the unfortunate victim."

   

  The next week, however, Sibley receives word that he was on the list for "special exchange," and he prepared for departure by the afternoon of December 9, 1864. He traveled by steamship through the Charleston Harbor, where. he describes the blockade fleet, then on to Washington, D.C. via Annapolis, where he received his back pay.

   

  After the war, Sibley returned to his family in Ohio and was admitted to the bar in 1865. He became Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1883 and served on the bench for fourteen years before receiving an appointment to the Ohio Codifying Committee. He died on November 5, 1920 following a prolonged illness. 

   

  [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Prisoner of War, POW, Andersonville, Libby Prison] 

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