OHS - Fight for the Colors - Behind the Lines - We Can Forgive, But Never Forget: Ex-POW Flags in the Ohio Battle Flag Collection
We Can Forgive,
But Never Forget: Prisoner of War Flags
Ex-POW Flags in the Ohio Battle Flag Collection
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Regimental Colors, front. From State Archives series 4605, Y 5a. |
Two
of the more unique flags in the Ohio Battle Flags collection belonged to a Union
Ex-Prisoner of War regiment. Records from the Ohio Adjutant
General's Office indicate that at least one of the prisoner of war flags belonged
to the Franklin County, Ohio Association of Ex-Prisoners of War. Unfortunately,
further documentation about the flags and the Ex-Prisoners of War has been
lost over the years.
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Regimental Colors, back. From State Archives series 4605, Y 5b. |
The regimental flag has a unique design on each side with the text, "We can
forgive, but never forget" on the front and "Death before Dishonor" on the back.
The back of the regimental colors features a small image of a soldier being attacked by
a dog--a symbol of the soldiers' horrific experiences in Confederate prisons.
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National Colors. From State Archives series 4605, Y 11. |
Listed on the stripes of the Ex-P.O.W.s' national colors are the many Confederate
prisons in which the Union soldiers were imprisoned, including Andersonville,
Libby, Belle
Isle, Florence, Salisbury,
Danville, Millen,
Charleston, Macon,
Columbia, Castle
Thunder, Savannah,
Cahaba, Black
Shear, Tyler, and Pemberton.
More than 674,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were taken prisoner
during the Civil War, or nearly 16% of the enlisted troops. Fifty-six thousand
Union and Confederate soldiers died in the prisons as a result of overcrowding,
poor sanitation and malnutrition. Many soldiers were in poor health
when they were finally released.
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Interior of Libby Prison. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Famous Leaders and Battle Scenes of the Civil War, p. 531. |
The
prison system for captive soldiers was an afterthought of battle preparation.
Many of the prisons were converted warehouses and open fields with no sanitation
facilities and little space. When supplies became scarce, the prisoners' rations
were the first to be cut. Ultimately, many died of starvation. Confederate prisons
were frequently moved as Union troops infiltrated deeper into the southern states.
This frequent movement resulted in make-shift prison camps with little or no
shelter for the prisoners. Diseases such as scurvy, dysentery, small pox and
yellow fever took a heavy toll on the prisoners, Union and Confederate alike.
African American Union prisoners of war suffered even greater losses
than their white counterparts. Although there are few records documenting
the actual number of deaths, there are many reports of black soldiers being
murdered rather than taken prisoner. Those black soldiers that did
make it to the prison camps were given partial rations of food and clothing
and were forced into hard labor building stockades and burying the dead.
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