Hayes Lowe
Demopolis
Sat Sep 16 01:18:49 2000


The Demopolis Parole Camp. I don't know what other uses it had, but most of the forces paroled at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 were sent to this camp to await exchange.

Union pundants have written that the soldiers had to be kept in this camp to keep from deserting to home. I find this to be spurious, at best. It was typical for soldiers (from both sides) to return home to await exchange. Yes, there were Confederates who used their paroles to avoid conscription, but this was a legitimate claim to exemption.

The Confederate explanation was that the units were kept intact so as to be ready to go back into battle immediately upon exchange. Otherwise, officers would have had to be sent to the home counties to recall the regiments once they were exchanged. This was a very time consuming process.

[Sorry for the additional commentary, but I thought it might be interesting additional information regarding the situation at Demopolis.]