Women Soldiers at Old Capitol Prison

My friend, Aaron, recently pointed me to a website which includes a virtual recreation of the Old Capitol Prison.  He recalled me mentioning that women soldiers were held there and thought I would be interested in seeing these images.   Indeed I would.  And you probably would, too.  First, let's start with a period photograph.

Old Capitol Prison, Library of Congress

Old Capitol Prison, virtually recreated

You can find more photos from this project by visiting the website: Virtual Architectural Archaeology Recreating Washington DC's Lost Built Environment.  

Click on the link for "Old Brick Capitol and the Old Capitol Prison" to bring up a slideshow of the images.

Early History

The prison was actually a complex consisting of two sections:  the Old Capitol and the Carroll buildings named after the family who sold the site to the government.  

National Archives

 

Virtually recreated bird's-eye view of the Old Capitol prison and its outbuildings
See the website above for more images

The brick structure temporarily housed Congress after the British burned its building during the War of 1812.  Once Congress returned to the reconstructed Capitol building, the brick structure came to be called the "Old Capitol" and began to be used as a private school and then a boarding house.  One of the tenants was John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina Senator and former Vice President of the United States.  As a Congressman, he met in the Old Capitol building from 1815 to 1817.  He ultimately died in the boarding house in 1850.

Civil War Years

 

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, the government purchased the property to repurpose it as a prison.  Inmates housed there included Confederate POW's, political prisoners, local prostitutes, smugglers, saboteurs, and spies.  Among the Confederate prisoners were Mosby and some of his men who apparently found amusement by throwing bricks at the guards.  The spies included Belle Boyd, Rose Greenhow, and Antonia Ford.   

Mary Surratt was held there as were Dr. Samuel Mudd and others connected — directly or indirectly — with the assassination of President Lincoln.  And while Surratt and other conspirators were hung elsewhere, Henry Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville, met his fate on the gallows in the yard of Old Capitol Prison.

Hanging of Wirz, Library of Congress

Virtually recreated view of the gallows where Wirz was hung with soldier barracks in the background
See the website listed above for more.

Women Soldiers at Old Capitol and Carrol Prisons

Please note that the records for the prison are incomplete as is my research for some of the women whose stories I share below.  If I learn new information, I will make the necessary corrections, additions, or subtractions, which I have done with previous posts.

Unfortunately, there is nothing else beyond a very blunt description of the personalities of two female Confederate corporals imprisoned as spies at Old Capitol.   One contemporary noted their utter lack of Victorian feminine virtues,

 "They are a tough couple and talk far worse than any degraded witch possibly could.  They are impudent and can beat any private in the oath uttering line."  

That, my friends, is quite a feat.


Speaking of spies, Antonia Ford was one mentioned above who was imprisoned at Old Capitol.  And it was another female spy, Frances Jamieson, who helped put her there.  Jamieson, though, did not engage in espionage in the beginning.  Rather, she served in a Federal cavalry unit as "Frank Abel" with her husband until he was killed at First Manassas.  Following his death, she shed her disguise to serve as a nurse in an army hospital, a role in which she engaged until September 1862, when she began her spy work for Major General Nathaniel Banks.  Confederates captured her the following month and subsequently exchanged her for Belle Boyd in December.  Jamieson then began espionage work for Lafayette Baker until she was arrested and imprisoned at Old Capitol on a variety of charges, including drunkenness and fornication.  She remained in prison until the summer of 1863 when she was released.  She then resumed her work for Baker.  It was during this time when Jamieson infiltrated the Ford residence while posing as a Southern refugee attempting to return home to New Orleans.  After gaining the family's confidence, she was able to procure enough evidence for the Federals to arrest Antonia and her father.

While engaging in espionage, Jamieson, utilized a variety of disguises, including that of a male.

The government spent $28.50 to outfit Jamieson in men's clothes
for her espionage work.  (National Archives)

While she did disguise herself as a man in her detective work, I have yet to find any evidence that she disguised herself to serve as a soldier.   In a statement in March 1863, she admitted to going with her husband, William H. Abells, to Toledo where he worked as a recruiting officer.  But she never said anything about her serving as a soldier.  She definitely did not appear to be of the best character.  As a matter of fact, she was exiled out of the department for working part time as a prostitute.

And then there were Sarah Mitchell (also spelled Mitchel) and Jane Perkins.  The former was 16 or 17 (depending on the source) from either Winchester or Wheeling (depending on the source) who claimed she had served in Imboden's Confederate cavalry as "Charley West" or "Charles Wilson" (depending on the source) before she was captured at Sandy Hook, Maryland while wearing a Federal uniform.  Perkins was taken in the vicinity of Hanover Junction, Virginia in May 1864.  She was in her 20's and had been serving with a Virginia battery.

From White House Landing, Perkins was sent to Point Lookout before joining Mitchell at Old Capitol prison. Mitchell was initially taken to the provost at Harpers Ferry before arriving in Washington.

It is interesting that the Federals differentiated between Perkins being held as a prisoner of war and Mitchell a spy. 


Perkins certainly distinguished herself during her stay at Old Capitol Prison, and she showed she was always up for a fight, on or off the battlefield.  A guard there described her as "large, muscular masculine looking" and noted that she was "noisy and troublesome, and steadily sets at defiance all the rules for the government of the prison."  A carpenter discovered this the hard way as he became an innocent and unsuspecting target of Perkins's surliness.  He was merely trying to do his job of making some repairs in a quiet fashion when she tossed his tools out a window before literally kicking him out of the entry way.  She laughed at the officer of the guard when he ordered her to be quiet and return to her room.  There were some heated exchanges and then they were rolling on the floor in combat.  When they rose, Perkins found herself in irons.  It was probably never a dull moment while she was at Old Capitol Prison, and I'm sure everyone was relieved when she left. 

Both women departed Washington for Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the site of a prison for particularly difficult women.  There, a fellow female prisoner noted that Perkins had a paralyzed arm and leg. Perkins herself told a newspaper reporter that she had been shot in the arm by a guard.  While it is unknown where she was harmed — whether at Old Capitol or not — it is clear Perkins's defiant attitude caught up with her.

From Fitchburg, Perkins and Mitchell were sent to Fortress Monroe for exchange.  The Confederates accepted Perkins while rejecting Mitchell, claiming they did not know her.  And after she refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, she was sent back to Fitchburg where she remained for months after the conclusion of the war. 

Not all women soldiers at Old Capitol Prison were prisoners.

Rosetta Wakeman, who served as Pvt. Lyons Wakeman in the 153rd New York Infantry, stood guard duty at Carroll Prison in August, September, and October 1863.  Recall that Carroll Prison and Old Capitol were in the same complex.

 Pvt. Rosetta "Lyons" Wakeman

Interestingly, in one of her letters home, she wrote,

"Over to Carroll Prison they have got three women that is Confined in their Rooms.  One of them was a Major in the union army and she went into battle with her men.  When the Rebels bullets was acoming like a hail storm she rode her horse and gave orders to the men."

Pvt. Wakeman gave no clues as to the identity of this woman and did not mention her again, but from my research, I believe her to be Anna (or Annie) E. Jones.

Jones's twisted tale ultimately involved politicians, several notable Federal generals, and even President Lincoln himself.  And I'm sure they rued the day when the charismatic 17-year-old orphan left her home in Massachusetts bound for the front and whatever adventure awaited her in Virginia and surrounding locales.  She originally applied for a nursing position but was turned down due to her young age.  After the rejection, she just decided to rove from camp to camp, connecting herself to any powerful military personality she could.  By the fall of 1862, she was the guest of General Franz Sigel.  Next, she moved on to General Julius Stahel who bestowed upon her an honorary position on his staff as a major.  One newspaper remarked that she "rode with the general on all his hazardous forays" and that "[h]er orders were wont to be obeyed because she was recognized as a staff officer."  After Stahel was relieved, she drifted into the camp of General Judson "Kill-cavalry" Kilpatrick, where she maintained her rank.  A notorious womanizer, Kilpatrick welcomed her into his camp and bed.  

Hugh Judson Kilpatrick

Kilpatrick lavished his mistress with a horse, a major's uniform, and a pass that gave her free reign to go wherever she wished.  And where she went was to General George Armstrong Custer's camp.  Custer allowed her to spend the night and sent her away with a warning that should she reappear, he would have her escorted under guard out of his camp.  He swore he had nothing else to do with her.  The knowledge that Annie had abandoned him in favor of a lesser officer angered Kilpatrick, and he accused Jones of espionage.  She was arrested and sent to Old Capitol Prison in September 1863.  Annie confessed that, while there, she engaged in an affair with a guard whom the superintendent ultimately relieved.

Jones remained at Old Capitol until Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ordered her release in November.  So she was indeed at the prison complex when Rosetta performed guard duty there.  And with her case such a prolific one in which so many important officers were involved, it would have been difficult for Rosetta not to have heard of Major Annie Jones.

Unsurprisingly, the Federals opened an investigation in which Lincoln himself became involved.  When he asked Jones her side of the story, she admitted to spending time with various officers who provided her with "her own tent, horses, orderlies, escorts, sentinels...rations, etc."  But she vehemently denied engaging in espionage.  In 1864, officials dropped the charges and banished her from Washington and the Army of the Potomac.  However, she was back three weeks later.  And she was arrested yet again.  But this time, the Federals sent her to Fitchburg in Massachusetts where she joined Jane Perkins and Sarah Mitchell.  Like the others, she vanished from history following her release upon the conclusion of the war.

You can't say that Old Capitol Prison was lacking in colorful characters.

The U.S. Supreme Court building now sits on the location of the prison.  And there are still colorful characters.

Until next formation....rest.