Customer Reviews

Hell on Belle Isle: Diary of a Civil War Pow

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This book was of special interest to me because an ancestor of mine was captured at Limestone Station with the 100th OVI and imprisoned at Belle Isle during the time period in which Coburn wrote his diary.

J. Osborn Coburn's diary is especially well-written, and gives detailed accounts of activities at the prison camp, as well as describing the suffering that occurred in that place. By comparing my ancestor's record with Coburn's account of an exchange of 600 prisoners, I learned that my ancestor was almost certainly one of the fortunate 600.

Unfortunately, Coburn found release from his suffering only in death, but his journal somehow survived. Now it is available to us through Don Allison's book, which skillfully combines bits of narration and illustrations,with the thoughts of Coburn. There is also a good index.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Civil War prisons.

On October 18, 1863, while serving with Co. I of the 6th Michigan Cavalry in Charles Town, West Virginia, J. Osborn Coburn became a prisoner of war. A fairly large Confederate force under Brig. Gen. John Imboden attacked and captured the town that Sunday, and over 400 Union soldiers, including Coburn and 25 other enlisted men of Co. I, were marched to Belle Isle, the Southern prison camp located on the island of that name in the James River in Richmond. A lawyer from Big Rapids, Michigan, Coburn began keeping a diary of his experiences almost from the moment the men were marched south. This is that diary, and it's a powerful and saddening testament of man's cruelty to his fellow man.

Expecting to be paroled or exchanged at first, Coburn and the others were in good spirits. His early entries comment upon the beautiful fall weather, of playing cards and checkers, and only a little of the hunger they feel when rations are cut. But release from the prison doesn't come, and as winter sets in, conditions worsen dramatically. Shelter is scarce, the men are freezing; disease is more prevalent, especially diarrhea, which begins to take lives. Basic animal instincts begin to take over: bribes and barter are used to get additional rations, the sight of men dying becomes second nature. Coburn is often ill, and much of the diary tracks his condition. Before the end, shear desperation and despair set in, entries become single sentence cries: "Same as yesterday, why encumber the pages with more ..." Coburn dies on March 8, 1864, of chronic diarrhea and is buried in Richmond National Cemetery. Of the other 25 Co. I prisoners, 17 died on Belle Isle.

Interspersed with Coburn's entries, editor Don Allison has included other pertinent information regarding Coburn's history and what life was like for POWs in the Civil War. Closer to Belle Isle, he also relates some of Confederate Maj. Isaac Carrington's Nov. 1863 inspection report of Belle Isle prison where conditions are described as "comfortable," and "healthy." Something like 40,000 men died in prison camps, North and South, during the war; reading Coburn's account of his experiences puts a human touch on what might otherwise be just an appalling statistic.