Troutman Brothers: The North and South War Dilemma

To tell the story only of my great-grandfather Daniel A. Troutman during the Civil War without adding the story of his brothers, especially two who fought beside him, would be to omit key elements. Daniel had six brothers: Jacob (1821-1891), Henry Martin (1825-1904), Robert Leonard (1827-1918), John Burette (1833-1864), Adam Carmi (1841-1911), and Theophilus Falls (1849-1935).[1] As in many families in North Carolina, opinions about the war varied among the sons of Henry Troutman.

The oldest, Jacob, does not appear in Civil War service records for North Carolina. Jacob is reported to have had some sort of “spells” during which he mind was affected.  As a result, his neighbors called him “Crazy Jake.” These attacks probably kept him from being conscripted.

The next brother, Henry Martin, opposed secession, so when a regiment of Union soldiers marched through the area, he allowed them to encamp on his land and provided them with food. This action was credited to having saved the surrounding area from  being plundered and destroyed.[2]

For Robert Leonard and Theophilus Falls, there seems to be no record of military service.[3] Theo was very young at the start of the war, only 12, but R. L. was of age. He somehow managed to keep out of the fray.

As for John, Daniel, and Adam, the war had been in progress for a year before the latter two joined the 48^th North Carolina regiment, and longer than that for John. Daniel and Adam volunteered on 1 March 1862, and were mustered in 17 April, the day following passage of the Confederate Conscription Act.[4] 

Perhaps more reluctant to join the military because he had a wife and two small sons, John stayed home as long as he could, but he was conscripted 1 August 1862 and joined his brothers in the 48^th.[5] The Troutman brothers’ reluctance to sign up and march off to war at the outset, as so many young men did, suggests the differences of opinion that may have occurred in discussions in their family about the war.  

Unlike people living in the Deep South where secession was cheered, where emotions ran high, where the economy was heavily dependent on slaves to work cotton plantations, those living in the Upper South were less eager to secede and loyalties were divided. The latter were leery of both zealous secessionists and adamant abolitionists. They wanted to work within the Union to procure opportunities for economic growth and due regard for Southern rights.[6]

In the Piedmont area of North Carolina, the people generally were not cotton planters, but farmers who worked the land on their own or with the help from their sons. Their crops included barley, corn, oats, rice, rye, sweet potatoes, and tobacco. Generally, they did not own slaves and did not want to own them.[7] Many non-slave owners, nonetheless, did not approve of large scale freeing of slaves. They feared the chaos it might bring, and they didn’t want former slaves in competition for jobs on the same level with poor whites.[8] They viewed slavery as necessary for keeping social order, but not a particularly admirable institution.[9] In other words, they saw it as a necessary evil. Issues were very complicated, not defined clearly, not simplistic.[10]

Until Lincoln was elected, most North Carolinians were against secession. His election showed that they were more pro-North Carolina than pro-Union.[11] The catalyst for secession for North Carolina occurred when the North mobilized troops and sent them South.[12] North Carolina was the last state to secede, which they did on 21 May 1861 “only grudgingly” to prevent warring against its neighboring states.[13] Ironically, North Carolina is closely tied with Virginia in sacrificing more of its men to the war than any other state.[14]

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[1] Thomas L. Troutman, ed., Descending Jacob’s Ladder (Unknown place: Unknown publisher, 1993), 51.

[2] Troutman, Descending Jacob’s Ladder, 62.

[3] A search of Civil War service records on Fold3 and Ancestry.com produced negative results for Robert Leonard and Theophilus Falls. Also in Robert Leonard’s profile in Descending Jacob’s Ladder, page 62, there is no mention of military service, nor a reason that he may not have served.

[4] Adam C. Troutman, Muster Rolls of Co. C, 48th North Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865, database Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/image/20/49857893/ : accessed 10 September 2014); NARA M270, roll 0472. Also, Daniel A. Troutman, Muster Rolls of Co. C, 48th North Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865, database Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/image/20/

49858276/ : accessed 10 September 2014); NARA M270, roll 0472.

[5] John B. Troutman, Muster Rolls of Co. C, 48th North Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865, database Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/image/271/49858394/ : accessed 10 September 2014); NARA M270, roll 0472.  

[6] William R. Trotter, Silk Flags and Cold Steel: The Civil War in North Carolina: The Piedmont (Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, Publisher, 1988), 11.

[7] Trotter, Silk Flags, 12.

[8] Trotter, Silk Flags, 11.

[9] Trotter, Silk Flags, 13.

[10] Trotter, Silk Flags, 14.

[11] Trotter, Silk Flags, 13.

[12] Trotter, Silk Flags, 15, 20.

[13] Jennifer L. Larson, “Highlights: A Free and Independent State: North Carolina Secedes from the Union,” Documenting the American South (http://docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/

secession.html : accessed 25 September 2014).

[14] Cameron McWherter, “Numbers War Between the States: New Research Questions Who in the Confederacy Had the Most War Dead,” The Wall Street Journal, 26 March 2011 (http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704662604576202823930087328 : accessed 25 September 2014). Also, “Civil War Casualties: The Cost of War: Killed, Wounded, Captured, and Missing,” Civil War Trust (http://www.civilwar.org/education/

civil-war-casualties.html : accessed 25 September 2014).

© 2014, Z. T. Noble

Daniel A. Troutman, Prisoner of War

Captured at Petersburg on 1 October 1864, my great-grandfather, Daniel A. Troutman, 48^th North Carolina Regiment, faced imprisonment at Point Lookout prison camp for Confederates located at the extreme tip of St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The camp housed over 20,000 prisoners on 23 acres during its nearly two years of operation. Of that number, 3,389 died, about 17%. “The deaths came from bad management, lack of adequate supplies such as clothing, blankets, wood and food, failure to establish sanitary conditions, and brutality and senseless killing by the guards.”[1]

The winter of 1864-1865 was intensely cold at Point Lookout.[2] In November, the new provost marshal, Major A. G. Brady requested “4,000 shirts, 3,000 pants, 2,500 pairs of shoes and 1,500 blankets. (At this time there were 13,811 Confederate prisoners plus 201 civilian prisoners).” When the supplies arrived, Brady protested that his request was filled with surplus “regulation U. S. blue pants” which he thought would make it easier for prisoners to escape, so he refused them. As a result, some of the prisoners apparently had to go without pants or wore rags. Prisoners also suffered from insufficient wood to keep a fire going, as firewood was rationed to three pieces of wood to a tent, every other day. Some days they had no fire.[3]

Journals, memoirs, and letters written by several prisoners offer a glimpse of Daniel’s life at Point Lookout. He arrived aboard a steamer[4] on October 5,[5] a “cloudy and pleasant day,” amongst a “batch of prisoners . . . from the Army of Northern Virginia.”[6] He was assigned to a tent with 12 to 16 tent mates.[7] When they slept, “they arranged themselves in a circle like spokes in a wagon with their feet toward the center.”[8] On cold nights they “spooned” to keep warm. Without mattresses, they slept on cold, damp ground.[9] The tents, arranged in two rows closely spaced side-to side and back-to-back, “fronted onto a wide avenue.”[10] Every morning, the men endured roll call and searches of themselves and their tents.[11] Sometimes the guards confiscated blankets and stole personal belongings.[12]

To relieve boredom, the prisoners formed drama and musical groups and staged plays and concerts.[13] Books and sometimes newspapers were available, and prisoners eagerly read the latter for news of the war.[14] They could also attend worship services and Sunday school.[15] Some of the prisoners with particular skills, such as mechanics or artisans, developed small business enterprises and sold or bartered their wares. One fellow even started a distillery “and made whiskey from potato rinds or whatever refuse he could pick up. . . .”[16] Some resorted to “chicanery and trickery” to get what they wanted. “Every conceivable trick was resorted to in order to make buckle and tongue meet. It was ‘root, pig, or die,’ and what was the then general term with the prisoners was ‘a possum eyed time.’”[17]

The food was good, one journalist wrote, but the men were always hungry. Breakfast consisted of bread or biscuits, butter or molasses, and tea or coffee, sometimes hard tack or potato pies.[18] For dinner, the menu included soup or a small piece of meat, with vinegar poured over it to prevent scurvy.[19] Occasionally, they enjoyed shipments of fresh vegetables and fruit.[20] Sometimes, they supplemented their diets by fishing.[21]

One practice at the camp that irked Rebel prisoners was that U.S. Colored Troops were assigned to guard them. Some of these guards seem to have abused their position. One prisoner notes in December 1864 (spelling and punctuation are his), “We have white gard now for patrols in camp of knights the Neagros got so mean that the General would not allow them in Side of the Prison they got so when they would catch any of the men out Side of thir tents after taps they would make them double quick or jump on their backs and ride them and sometimes they would make them get down on this knees and pray to God that they might have their freadom and that his Soul might be sent to hell”[22]

The prisoners were allowed time on the beach to bathe, and sometimes they seized opportunities to work outside of camp in various jobs, such as helping unload a boat or chopping wood or whitewashing a building.[23] A few prisoners attempted to escape during their time on the beach by hiding under a barrel and floating along the shore until out of sight of guards, then “taking to the woods.” These attempts were infrequent and often unsuccessful. “The punishment for trying to escape was cruel. Those who were caught at it were strung up to a pole by the thumbs, with the tips of their toes just touching the ground. Sometimes the men would faint, and had to be cut down.”[24]

Daniel A. Troutman endured prison life until he signed the oath of allegiance and was paroled on 14 May 1865.

Note: John I. Omenhausser, a prisoner at Point Lookout from June 1864 – June 1865, drew numerous detailed sketches of life at Point Lookout, events he experienced during the same time Daniel Troutman was there. I would like to post a few of them that illustrate some of the scenes described above, but they are copyrighted. You can view Omenhausser’s humorous and sometimes grim sketches, with captions, at this web site: University of Maryland, Digital Collections.

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[1] “Point Lookout Prison,” National Park Service, Civil War Series

(http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/civil_war_series/5/sec6.htm#3 :

accessed 9 September 2014).

[2] Edwin W. Beitzell, “Life in the Prison Camp,” chap. 4 in Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates (Leonardtown, Maryland: St. Mary’s County Historical Society, 1972), 23.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Luther Hopkins, “Prison Life at Point Lookout,” in “Diary and Other Accounts of Prison Life, chap. 6, in Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates, by Edwin W. Beitzell, (Leonardtown, Maryland: St. Mary’s County Historical Society, 1972), 87.

[5] Daniel A. Troutman, Muster Rolls of Co. C, 48th North Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865, digital image Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/image/271/49858308/ : accessed 10 September 2014); NARA M270, roll 0472.

[6] Charles Warren Hutt, “The Diary of Charles Warren Hutt of Westmoreland County, Virginia (Kept While a Prisoner of War At Point Lookout, Maryland – 1864),” in “Diary and Other Accounts of Prison Life, chap. 6, in Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates, by Edwin W. Beitzell, (Leonardtown, Maryland: St. Mary’s County Historical Society, 1972), 82.

[7] Hopkins, “Prison Life,” 88. Also, C. W. Jones. “In Prison at Point Lookout,” in “Diary and Other Accounts of Prison Life, chap. 6, in Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates, by Edwin W. Beitzell, (Leonardtown, Maryland: St. Mary’s County Historical Society, 1972), 91.

[8] Hopkins, “Prison Life,” 88.

[9] Jones, “In Prison,” 92. Also, Beitzell, “Life in the Prison Camp,” 22.

[10] Hopkins, “Prison Life,” 88.

[11] Hopkins, “Prison Life,” 88.

[12] Beitzell, “Life in the Prison Camp,” 22.

[13] Bartlett Yancey Malone, “The Diary of Bartlett Yancey Malone,” in “Diary and Other Accounts of Prison Life, chap. 6, in Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates, by Edwin W. Beitzell, (Leonardtown, Maryland: St. Mary’s County Historical Society, 1972), 62. Also, Hutt, “The Diary of C. W. Hutt,” 86.

[14] Hutt, “The Diary of C. W. Hutt,” 86.

[15] Malone, “The Diary of B. Y. Malone,” 61.

[16] Hopkins, “Prison Life,” 89.

[17] Jones, “In Prison,” 90.

[18] Hutt, “The Diary of C. W. Hutt,” 86.

[19] Hopkins, “Prison Life,” 88.

[20] Hutt, “The Diary of C. W. Hutt,” 82.

[21] John I. Omenhausser, “Scene on the Bay,” sketch in “True Sketches and Sayings of Rebel Characters in the Point Lookout Prison Maryland,” in Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates, by Edwin W. Beitzell, (Leonardtown, Maryland: St. Mary’s County Historical Society, 1972). The sketch pages are not numbered; “Scene on the Bay” falls between pages 76 and 77.

[22] Malone, “The Diary of B. Y. Malone,” 62.

[23] Jones, “In Prison,” 91.

[24] Hopkins, “Prison Life,” 88.