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Salisbury Confederate Prison

The Baseball was played at Salisbury in the early part of 1862 when POWs from New Orleans and Tuscaloosa were sent to Salisbury. W.C. Bates mentioned the advent of Baseball at Salisbury in his Stars and Stripes but regretted "that we have no official report of the match-game of baseball played in Salisbury between the New Orleans and Tuscaloosa boys, resulting in the triumph of the latter; the cells of the Parish Prison were unfavorable to the development of the skill of the 'New Orleans nine.' "¹ Prisoner Gray mentions that baseball was played nearly every day the weather permitted. Claims have been made that these were the first baseball games played in the South.

This is a Painting of the "First Baseball Game played in the South"

This picture is an indication of the hospital conditions in the Salisbury Prison.
In the background you may note the dead being loaded onto a cart for burial
in the trenches with a swing and a heave.

Click for full size ( 200 k )

This is the only structure that remains from the Confederate Prison. It is located in the 200 block of East Bank Street.

It originally was a story and a half log house owned by William Valentine, a free man of color, who was also a banker.

Across the railroad tracks from the guardhouse a commissary house once stood. The railroad arrived in 1855 and was the perfect corridor for shipping supplies. On December 9, 1861 the first of 120 union prisoners were unloaded at Salisbury.

This is an original document of the Confederate States Prison Rules

The most ambitious escape attempt took place on Friday, November 25, 1864. Owing to lack of food, very little shelter, the extreme winter of 1864 and overcrowding due to transfers from Andersonville the prisoners rushed the gates. The gate cannon was fired three times killing 65 persons outright and wounding and unknown number. Official reports put the number of prisoners who died from wounds and cannon fire at over 250.

This is an artists rendition of the "Massacre of the Union Prisoners
attempting to escape from the Salisbury Prison on November 25, 1864.

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