Roger Brothers
POW's
Tue Sep 26 21:44:20 2000


Pat
When a soldier was paroled he signed an oath not to bear arms against the opposing side until he was "exchanged" by his government for a prisoner of equal rank. The soldier thus paroled was allowed to go home until this "exchange" was done on paper. "Your" Thomas was probably exchanged, returned to his regiment after his wound healed then paroled again at the end of the war. "Your" John probably did spend all that time at Ft. Delaware. The exchange system was ended by Lincoln in mid 1864. As for prison conditions I know very few specifics on Ft. Delaware but conditions at other Yankee prisons were horrendous.