Making a Break in Milledgeville: Women Using the Military to Escape the Law

Motivational factors that drove women into the ranks varied.  For some, the army served as a refuge from oppressive situations at home, which had turned into a virtual prison for them.  Some women, however, joined the ranks in order to escape a literal confinement after finding themselves behind bars as a result of poor life choices.  Such is the case of at least two women who were serving time in the state penitentiary in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Construction began on the three-story facility in 1812 with work completed in 1816.  The first prisoner arrived in March 1817.   During the Civil War, it was used as an armory where inmates manufactured rifles for the Confederacy.

Milledgeville - prison is on the left
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gabaldw2/penitentiary.html

There were relatively few females incarcerated at the prison, and they were held in a single room on the second floor near the kitchen.   One was Nellie Bryant who escaped along with three other women on January 23rd, 1864.  Prior to taking flight, Nellie made sure to leave the principal keeper a note where she asked him for her trunk.  The brazen convict then included a post script in which she begged forgiveness for her poor penmanship.  After all,  she was rather tired from digging a hole in the wall with a pair of scissors  She wouldn't need her possessions shipped to her, however, because the haughty Bryant was caught two days later in Augusta while in the process of enlisting in a Confederate company in which she no doubt had planned to hide from the law.  Who would think to look for a female convict hidden in the ranks as a disguised male soldier?  Men in trouble with the law did it, too, by assuming an alias and enlisting in the military.

Later that year when Sherman's troops came through Milledgeville during his march to the sea, the penitentiary was burned.  Sources vary regarding the perpetrators.  Some claim that it was the Federal soldiers who set the building ablaze.  Others say it was the work of prisoners who remained behind - including women - after Governor Joe Brown had pardoned and released most of the male inmates upon their word that they would help defend the town from the Yankee invaders.

Burning of the penitentiary at Milledgeville, November 23rd, 1864
New York Public Library Digital Commons

Regardless, at least one female convict  took advantage of the situation and fled to the camp of the 33rd Indiana after somehow procuring a uniform and, as one modern author quoting a local historian as saying that she, "plied an ancient trade."  A chaplain with the 22nd Wisconsin remarked on the incident and said that when they entered Milledgeville, "There were some women left - very hard cases.  One of them dressed herself in federal uniform and entered our army."  He made no mention of her prostituting herself.   She may have.  It's difficult to say or sure without more sources.  Like the  activities in which she engaged after joining the army, her identity remains unknown, but it is interesting to ponder whether she was Nellie Bryant making another break for it.  Regardless, this woman - whoever she was - was joined in Sherman's army by an escaped male inmate from the penitentiary where he had been serving a life sentence for murder.

The penitentiary in Milledgeville was eventually rebuilt but fell into disrepair from disuse in the 1870's after Georgia began to utilize the convict lease system.  The acre upon which the facility sat was cleared for commercial development and the square is now part of Georgia College and State University.

Over the summer, Mark and I visited Milledgeville on a rainy day and stopped by the location of the former facility.  Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend there.

Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh

Until next formation...rest.

Sources:

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/georgia-penitentiary-milledgeville

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gabaldw2/penitentiary.html

Confederate Union, January 26th, 1864

Confederate Union, February 2nd, 1864

Burke Davis, Sherman's March

George S. Bradley, The Star Corps