OLD
CASTLE THUNDER
Death of Colonel Alexander, Who Was Superintendent of This Prison
THE SPLENDID DOG NERO.
History of This Noble Specimen of a Lordly Canine Race – Alexander as a
Dramatist and Actor – How He Managed Those Under Him.
Colonel George W. Alexander died in Laurel, Md., last week
of paralysis. He was one of the most conspicuous, notable men in Richmond during
the war. A sketch of his life will doubtless be interesting to all, but
especially to the comparatively few of our citizens who were here during that
time and knew him.
He was born at Francesville, Penn., and was 66 years of
age. On October 31, 1848, he was appointed assistant engineer in the United
States navy, and remained in the service until April 5, 1861, when he resigned.
During that time he was stationed for a long time at the Portsmouth navy-yard,
and in that city he married a Virginia lady, Miss Susie Ashby, who survives him.
On the 15th of June, 1861, he became a lieutenant of Marylanders,
who, with great difficulty, made their way to Richmond and offered their
services to Governor Letcher for the Confederacy.
CAPTURED
THE ST. NICHOLAS.
Captain Alexander became a conspicuous man in Richmond the
day he put his feet in the city. The knowledge which the people had of the
recent exploit in which he had taken part made him so. Everybody had heard of
the capture of the St. Nicholas, which, as it was on its way from Washington to
Norfolk, laden with valuable commodities, was entered by Colonel Zarvona Thomas,
Captain Alexander, and a picked set of men, all in disguise, as passengers, some
of them in women’s apparel, and at a concerted moment the party threw off
their disguise, captured the officers and crew, and brought the vessel to
Fredericksburg, where its contents were sold, and realized some time afterwards
$10,000 in gold. Everybody recollects, too, that a short time afterwards Captain
Alexander was captured by the Federal forces in Maryland and incarcerated in
Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, and how, after some months’ suffering, in that
Federal fort, he made his escape in a manner which greatly attracted public
attention and aroused public sympathy. He happened to have that greatest
blessing that God ever vouchsafes to man – a true, noble, courageous little
wife – who determined to release her husband from captivity. In furtherance of
her design she got permission to visit him at Fort McHenry, whither she went,
carrying with her a suit of Federal uniform, concealed under her dress. She
prevailed upon him to don this suit and make his escape. Near night the Captain,
thus equipped, left his cell, passed some of the sentinels, but, being
discovered by one of them, who fired at him, he leaped over the wall into the
river, and although he had badly sprained his ankle in the fall, swam to
Baltimore, where he was concealed for some time by his friends, until, finally,
after much difficulty, he escaped to Richmond. Here he was received with great
cordiality by Governor Letcher, who at once gave him a commission of captain n
the Virginia forces, and General Winder, the military commandant of Richmond
soon afterwards appointed him assistant provost-marshal of Richmond and gave him
the command of the Confederate prisons.
CAPTAIN
ALEXANDER’S DOG.
Well do the people of Richmond of that day remember him in
his tight-fitting suit of black trousers, buckled at the knees; his black
stockings and black loose shirt, relieved only by a white collar, with his long,
black whiskers flowing in the wind, riding at full gallop on his black horse
along our streets, with his large, magnificent black dog Nero following at his
heels.
A short history of this dog will not be out of place or
uninteresting. Since the war I have seen many accounts published in our papers
about him, all of which, in some particulars, were incorrect. I heard during the
war from the Hon. James Lyons and Mayor Joseph Mayo the history of Nero, and I
will give it as it was related to me by them.
Some time in 1859 or 1860 he was brought to Richmond, a
puppy, by the captain of a Bavarian vessel which landed at Rocketts. The captain
gave the puppy to Mr. John Allen, of the firm of Ginter & Allen. Mr. Allen
gave him to Mr. James Lyons. Mr. Lyons allowed Joe Mayo, the Mayor of the city,
to take him and keep him in the city jail, as a sort of guard, because he was
too large and ferocious-looking to be permitted to go at large. When Captain
Alexander came to Richmond, he saw Nero in the city jail and was greatly struck
at his size and beauty. He persuaded Mr. Mayo, with Mr. Lyon’s consent, to
allow him to take Nero to Castle Thunder, and there he remained until the close
of the war. He was of the breed known as the Bavarian boar hound – dogs used
for hunting the wild boar in Bavaria and in the interminable forests of Germany.
The wild boar is one of the strongest and most courageous of animals, and does
not fear even the terrible tiger. In India sportsmen have come across boars and
tigers dead, the latter bearing the marks of the boar’s terrible tusks. When
aroused and brought to bay the eyes of the wild boar look savage and glow like
red-hot charcoal. Their strength is sufficient to rush beneath a horse’s belly
and bear him and the rider on his back sheer off his legs, and sometimes their
tusks are seven inches long.
NERO A NOBLE
SPECIMEN.
It was to hunt such game as this that Nero’s noble
progenitors were used, and truly he was a noble specimen of his lordly race. He
weigh 182 pounds, and was well able to enter the combat with such a foe.
Visitors at the Castle were amazed at him, and their spontaneous exclamations at
sight of him would be: “Goodness! What a splendid dog!” He was permitted to
run about the Castle as he pleased, and was a great favorite with the prisoners.
Ordinarily he was good natured, playful, and docile, but when angered or
provoked he was terrible looking, and dangerous. I have seen Captain Alexander
whip him with a horsewhip, at the same time have a cocked revolver in his other
hand, which occasionally he would fire over his head, and then he appeared the
very impersonation of ferocity subdued by the will of man. After the city fell
into the hands of the Federal troops and Castle Thunder was vacated, Nero took
up his abode with Mr. Stephen Childrey, who had been commissary of the prison,
and while there had generally had him fed. Some time in the summer of 1865 some
Yankees took the dog and carried him through the Northern States and exhibited
him as a show to the people. Flaming advertisements were posted about him. He
was said to be the dog which was kept at Libby Prison to eat Yankee prisoners,
and his qualities, disposition, and immense size were set forth in grandiloquent
style. This, of course, attracted public attention, and much money was realized
from his exhibition. Mr. Childrey, who accompanied him on this northern tour,
returned home six months thereafter and he told me that his share of the profits
was $3,000.
FOND OF THE DRAMA,
Captain Alexander, when in Richmond, was very fond of
theatrical performances. He wrote several plays, which were acted at the
Richmond Theatre. One of these, “The Virginia Cavalier,” was a great
favorite with the people during the war, and it ran for the unprecedented time
of 100 nights, consecutively, at the Theatre. In one of the scenes Captain
Alexander appeared for a short time, mounted on his black horse, with Nero
barking at his side, and rode across the stage at a rapid gait, and this
spectacle always aroused among the spectators the most vociferous applause.
In the earlier years of the war Castle Godwin (Lumpkin’s
old jail) was the Confederate military prison, but in August, 1863, this prison
was closed and some 250 prisoners therein confined were removed to Castle
Thunder.
CASTLE
THUNDER.
This prison was so named by Captain Alexander because, as
he said, he desired its very name to be a terror to evil-doers. Castle Thunder
became notorious throughout the whole country. The building was an old
tobacco-factory, in which the late John Enders had manufactured many thousand
dollars’ worth of tobacco before the war. It occupied one half of the square
between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, with its front on Cary street, facing
the dock and the river, running back to an alley in the rear, dividing the
square. The building was of brick, and in the shape of a parallelogram, three
sides being occupied by connecting houses and the whole enclosed by a high wall,
the interior space forming a large yard, in which the prisoners were allowed to
take daily exercise. It had the capacity to hold about 1,500 prisoners, and for
the balance of the war it averaged daily from 1,000 to that number. The books of
the prison will show that the whole number of prisoners incarcerated therein
during the war was about 40,000 or more. Castle Thunder was divided into
compartments, in which Confederate soldiers who had committed any grade of
military offences were confined, and also into rooms in which were placed
disloyal persons and civilians who were captured as attaches of the Federal
army, and all others not prisoners of war, these latter being always confined in
Libby Prison, two squares off, down Cary street.
THE PRISON’S
SUPERINTENDENT.
It is my purpose to speak mainly of Captain Alexander in
his official capacity as the superintendent of Castle Thunder, and I do not
hesitate to affirm, from an intimate knowledge, which a cognizance f the facts
will arrant, that General Winder’s discernment put the “right man in the
right place.” Captain Alexander was eminently qualified to discharge the
responsible, arduous duties of the superintendent of the prison, and he did
discharge them to the entire satisfaction of the commander-in-chief. I know that
he made many enemies in Richmond, but he also ha many warm friends, too. I
apprehend that my sketch of him will be obnoxious to the criticisms of many who
knew him through the representations of his enemies, but still I think that what
I shall say is the truth, and will be received as a correct judgement by all who
will weigh the facts which I shall present. Captain Alexander was called upon to
manage a congregation of many of the worst men in the Southern Confederacy.
Perhaps there never was brought together in such close contact a more
ungovernable, desperate class of men, They were, for the most part, the refuse
of the southern army - men who would fight like tigers when the contest was on
hand, but who would brook no control during the intervals of inaction in camp;
men capable of committing any crime within the decalogue without the slightest
compunctions of conscience. A few examples of what they actually did will
exhibit these characters more plainly than any mere statements of mine.
SOON TOOK
HIS CLOTHES.
On one occasion a prisoner was brought into the Castle upon
the charge of being absent from his company without leave, and, as usual, he was
put into a room where there were some 400 prisoners. When he entered he was
dressed in a suit of black cloth, with a beaver hat, and a pair of new boots,
and at once the cry of “Fresh fish! fresh fish!” greeted him from the
throats of the whole crowd. Immediately after the officers of the prison ha left
him, the poor fellow was found with his eyes bunged up and blood trickling down
his face, with his suit of clothes, hat, boots, and watch gone, and he clad in
his undergarments and stockings. It was impossible to find out the guilty
parties, as none of the prisoners would tell. On another occasion I have known
them to knock out the eye of an old prisoner without provocation.Then, again, a party of the prisoners cut a hole through a floor, which
let them into the room below, where muskets were kept, and, arming themselves,
at night they approached one sentinel, whose post was near the entrance within
the prison, knocked him senseless with the butt end of a musket, then advanced
and killed the sentinel on the outside of the building, and made their escape
before the necessary measures to prevent it could be carried out. Again, upon
two occasions, they endeavored to blow it up by the explosion of gunpowder,
which they had secreted and intended to use for that purpose. These are some of
the instances of rascality and crime which this ever-changing, ever-renewed mass
of desperate mankind indulged in while they were in prison. Such were the men
whom Captain Alexander had to manage and keep in order as best he might.
Educated in the United States navy, he was trained to the necessity of obedience
to orders and exact discipline in military affairs; and, therefore, he
prescribed certain rules and regulations for the management of the prison,
which, if violated by his subalterns or the prisoners, subjected them to prompt
and certain punishment.
LIKE A
MAN-OF-WAR SHIP.
He seemed to look upon the prison as a man-of-war ship.
From top to bottom its floors were every morning washed by the prisoners, and
scrubbed dry, so that all the departments were kept perfectly clean. Once every
week the whole prison, inside and outside, was whitewashed, and it all the time
presented a neat appearance, and this cleanliness tended to promote the health
and comfort of the prisoners. But his prison discipline was immediate and
certain, and in the cases of the graver offences it was severe but necessary.
Whenever a prisoner was found guilty of having committed one of these offences
the guilty party was at once taken down into one of the large rooms and stripped
to his waist, and then his hands were tied around a post. The guard of the
prison was placed around him to preserve order, and all of the other prisoners
were assembled in the room to behold the infliction of the punishment. Captain
Alexander would then address them and tell them of the crime which the condemned
man had committed, after which he would order a detective to give him
thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, which were well laid on.
OTHER WAYS TO
PUNISH.
At other times I have known him to have prisoner tied up by
the thumbs to a cross-piece overhead for a short time, so that their toes would
barely touch the ground, and sometimes he would put them on bread and water for
a week or so; sometimes keep them in solitary cells, chained by one leg, and
punish hem in divers[e] other ways, always suiting the severity of the
punishment to the magnitude of the offence committed. This course of punishment
had the desired effect, as all the prisoners saw it inflicted and were informed
at the time why it was done. As a prison discipline it was salutary to prevent
the commission of crimes by the prisoners upon one another, as well as their
escape from the prison.
But it aroused a spirit of indignation among many people
against the commandant, an the report was spread through the city that he was
cruel, until at last it was brought to the cognizance of the Confederate
Congress. The House of Representatives, then in session, appointed a special
committee, of which the Hon. Daniel C. Dejarnette, of Virginia, was chairman, to
examine into the management of Castle Thunder and report whether or not the
prisoners were cruelly treated by the superintendent. I appeared with Captain
Alexander before the committee, as his counsel, and we put in for his defence,
as the lawyers say, a plea of confession and avoidance - that is to say, he
admitted that he had punished certain prisoners as I have already stated, and he
justified his acts as being necessary for proper prison discipline, and as being
the best, if not the only, method of managing such prisoners. The committee,
after a most thorough investigation, during which many witnesses were examined
and many days consumed, came to the conclusion, and reported to the House, that
Captain Alexander’s methods of punishment, although unusual, were not cruel
under the circumstances, but were allowable and necessary for the preservation f
good order and obedience in the prison.
CAME NEAR BEING
TROUBLE.
An incident occurred during one of the sessions of this
committee, in the Senate chamber of the Capitol, which came near ending in
bloodshed. While one of the witnesses was narrating his account of the whipping
of the soldiers in the castle, it seemed greatly to excite the indignation of
one of the members of the committee - the Hon. Mr. Herbert, of Texas, who, in an
excited tone, exclaimed: “By God, if a man was to whip one of my sons I would
kill him on sight!” and while he thus spoke he was looking angrily at Captain
Alexander, who was sitting in front of him. The Captain remarked that all he had
to say was that if his son, or anybody else’s son, had been in the prison, and
had there acted as these prisoners had done whom he had whipped, he would have
inflicted the same punishment upon them. The reply greatly excited the member,
and he arose and approached towards the Captain in an angry, menacing manner,
and said: “Captain Alexander, you must take that back,” repeating it several
times. Captain Alexander replied: “Sir, I have only stated what I should have
done, and I will not take it back” and at the same time he quietly put his
hand under his coat-tail, and grasped the handle of his revolver, expecting, no
doubt, an immediate assault. But immediately, Mr. Dejarnette, seeing the
situation, reminded the member that this was not the place for an altercation,
and requested him to take his seat, which he did, with suitable expressions of
regret that he had permitted his indignation to overcome his judgement, and so
the matter ended.
CHARGE OF
TAKING BRIBES.
The Captain’s enemies, discontented with this triumph on
his part, then brought charges against him, alleging that he had received
greenbacks from prisoners in consideration that he would endeavor to have them
discharged. Upon these charges he was suspended from the duties of his position.
He demanded a court of inquiry, which was at once ordered. Colonel Wyatt M.
Elliott was the presiding officer of the court, and that court, after a patient
investigation, reported that there was no evidence to sustain the charges and
acquitted him. But they suggested in their report that they had ascertained that
Captain Alexander had become unpopular with many people in Richmond, and for
that reason it would be well for the public service if the commanding general
would assign him to some other sphere of duty. Therefore General Winder ordered
him to the command of the military prison at Salisbury, N. C., and his career in
Richmond was closed. To the prisoners who obeyed his orders he was kind; to
those who disobeyed them he as severe and quick to punish. He was genial and
generous to his friends, and always ready to repel with vigor the blows aimed at
him by his enemies. He was paroled at Appomattox. He obtained transportation by
sea to New Orleans, thence he went up the Mississippi to Canada, where for some
time he taught the French language to French children. When the war feeling had
subsided and it was safe to return to the United States Captain Alexander came
back and settled in Baltimore, where he was occupied in the business of sanitary
engineer, in which he acquired a competency. The last time he was in Richmond
was at the unveiling of General Lee’s monument. He was a true Confederate
soldier, and all who knew him in the days of war will revere his memory and
mourn his death.
