Several years ago, Prof. Bart Talbert was the speaker in the Pt. Lookout Confederate Cemetery and he talked about the number of dead at Pt. Lookout and how many were/were not accounted for. It was a haunting that has never left me. The federal government gave us a list of only 3,384 names that are inscribed on the monument plaques. From prisoners' diaries and other reports, we have learned that over 14,000 died while incarcerated in this prisoner of war camp. Seems like someone owns us the whereabouts of over 11,000 prisoners! I can still hear Prof. Talbert saying...."do the math folks! These numbers are wrong! Take the number of deaths that the prisoners reported and times that by the number of days the camp was open and you'll get a far better number than what's inscribed here in the cemetery!" Another government cover up? "One" unknown is listed on the monument...are the feds saying that "one" person has no name? So far, I have 538 additional names of those who died at PL, but are not listed on the monument. I once heard that a true reporter gives all the facts and then lets the reader make up his/her own mind. Below are some reports......

The prisoners' ordeal began the minute they were placed on that unhealthy spit of land. They were forced to discard anything bearing the initials "U.S.," which for almost all Confederates meant more than half of their belongings. Men were crowded into drafty tents and allowed only one blanket regardless of the season. Firewood and the essentials for health and comfort were scarce. Confederate Sergeant Charles T. Loehr, captured on April 1, 1865, at the battle of Five Forks, received a rude awakening his first night at the camp. He was one of forty men placed in a tent designed for sixteen. Six or seven of the forty had died by morning, including the two on either side of Loehr.

Federal authorities refused to permit Marylanders to aid the inmates with the bare necessities of life, and thousands of prisoners died for lack of food, medical care, or proper sanitary conditions. Loehr wrote that his captors were "negroes of the worst sort and very brutal; when the prisoners were driven out of their tents at night by diarrhea, the guards would make them carry them on their back; they were quick-stepped about the grounds, forced to kneel and pray for Abe Lincoln, etc.!" There was a "dead line" ditch some fifteen feet from the fence and any prisoner who approached it was fired upon. Confederate Sergeant Major of the Camp, P. Thoroughgood, reported that the "conduct and conversation of the colored men evidence that there is a sort of rivalry among them to distinguish themselves by shooting some of us." He wrote that the "one who does so gains an eclat which the others envy; and animated frequently by vindictive feelings, they make pretexts to vent them."

The man responsible for these atrocities was Provost Marshall (Major) A.G. Brady, who, as it turned out, personally made in excess of $1,000,000 during his time as camp commander. The mortality rate at Point Lookout was greater than that of the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. Even more damning is that the fatalities at Point Lookout were due to unnecessary neglect, while those at Andersonville were due to a real want in the Confederacy as a whole. The official number of Confederate dead at Point Lookout was 3,384, but other accounts suggest that many more perished. Sergeant Loehr wrote that it was "not unusual to hear of 60-65 deaths per day and `it is said that 8,600 Confederate dead were buried near [the] prison pen.'" ...Prof. Bart Talbert, University of Salisbury, MD

1. SHSP, "Point Lookout," XVIII: 113-120.
2. Chronicles of St. Mary's, vol. 14, no. 1, January 1966, 225.
3. Pogue Yesterday in Old St. Mary's (New York: Carlton Press, 1968), 18
4. Chronicles of St. Mary's, vol. 9, No. 8, August 1961, 199.

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Further Proof of Point Lookout Dead

Compiled by Descendants of Pt. Lookout POW Organization

1. "This monument records the names rank and unit of the CSA of 3,384, who died . My people knew that the contractor who move the bodies, took up 12,000 bodies." ...Charles Fenwick, St. Mary's County historian.
2. "The monument to these dead list 3,384, but some of the prisoners claimed that several times that many died...some of them were buried in the sand on the beaches and storms and the tides covered their graves forever."....Robert E.T. Pogue "Yesterday in Old St. Mary's County"
3. We have about 18 thousand here now but they are dying off like the devil. We bury about 15 of them everyday so that makes room in the bull pen for more. .... in a letter written from a "yankee guard" Enos E. Barkdull, at Pt.Lookout, July 2, 1864!
4. Dr. Joseph N. Jones, a civilian when captured at Isle of Wight, VA and sent to prison at Pt. Lookout, was allowed to work in Hammond Hospital because of his doctoring abilities. Dr. Jones wrote that 8,000 died while he was there.
5. "One day I looked through a knothole in our enclosure and could see acres of coffins stacked one on the other. Believe me, that was the last time I looked. "....Albert Spicer, 7th VA Inf. Co. K, prisoner of Pt. Lookout. In a newspaper interview before he died, Pvt. Spicer stated that 14,000 prisoners were buried while he was in Pt. Lookout.
6. In a total of five weekly reports in early 1865, thirteen citizens were reported to have died. If it is figured that on the average 2 or 3 citizens died weekly for the period that the camp was in operation then the death rate among civilians was in excess of 50% of those imprisoned..."Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates" pg. 120, by Edwin Beitzell.
7. "When re-interring the dead at the Point, I found 70 unknown Confederate dead and others had been buried outside of the Small Pox Hospital....E. Edward Gilbert, Agent of the Quarter Master Dept., July 12, 1866.
8. The 10th was a nice day and I saw the man today that makes coffins at this place for the Rebels and he says that TWELVE men die here every day, that it averages 12. ....January 10, 1864, Sgt. Bartlett Y. Malone, 6th NC Inf. Co. H, Pt. Lookout POW
9. The number of deaths among the prisoners reported was, from April to July {1865}, over 6,800...David Emmons Johnston, Pt. Lookout POW, "A Story of a Confederate Boy in the Civil War" pg. 340.
10. I'd like to know why after almost 140 years we still have so many (UNKNOWNS) in Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery? In my heart and soul, I believe there was a deliberate plot to keep the numbers low, so Point Lookout would not go down in history as not being worse than Andersonville. I have two Great Grand Uncles who enlisted and fought at the Battle of New Bern.They were captured at Fort Fisher and incarcerated at Point Lookout. Robert took the oath and went home. William died of a gunshot wound in prison on Feb.14,1865.
11. It was not unusual to hear it stated that sixty or sixty-five deaths had occurred in a single day; and it is said that eight thousand six hundred (8,600) dead Confederates were buried near that prison pen. ... Charles T. Loeher, Pt. Lookout POW {in a speech that he gave as Past Commander to the Pickett Camp Confederate Veterans, October 10, 1890}
12. I have heard men pray to be made sick that the appetite might be taken away. The prisoners being so poorly clad, and the Point so much exposed to cold, it caused them great suffering. Every intensely cold night from four to seven prisoners would freeze to death. Almost no wood was furnished. About a cord of green pine to one thousand men for five days. It was a mockery...Rev. J. B. Traywick, Pt. Lookout POW.
13. Friday, April 28th, [1865] Clear and warm. About 11 o'clock very heavy artillery firing up the Potomac river but don't know the cause. No rations today. Very Hungry. I don't know what will become of us if we remain here this summer. There are from 25 to 40 dying a day here now....Pvt. William Andrew Jackson, Company C., 12th. Virginia Infantry, Pt. Lookout POW.
14. By the time John Sparkman (Sgt. with 13th KY Cav. Co. A) was transferred, the death rate at Pt. Lookout Prison was around 10 a day, but earlier had been as high as 65 a day, when 20,000 Confederate prisoners were crammed into the camp living in tents....A Sifter Full of Bullets by Faron Sparkman, pg.71

At birth,William was named-William W.Hunnings by his Parents.
At death, William was named-UNKNOWN by Vet.Admin 
MAY GOD REST HIS SOUL!!!
 ....Ernie Hunnings

Burial at Pt. Lookout: When the prisoners' remains were moved from Tanner's Creek to the present cemetery, they were moved by two black men, William Shorter and Yaret Hewlett. The skulls were put in one box, the arm bones in another and the leg bones in a third box. However, they were paid in accordance with the number of skull bones. Frequently, after having had too much to drink, they would gamble with the skull bones as stakes...'Pt. Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates" pg. 198, by Edwin Beitzell.

Bones were dropped and left in the road. Children while walking to school would pick them up, not knowing what they were and take them to class for show-n-tell.

Upon arriving at Pt. Lookout: There were 9,000 prisoners in that place and it averaged 9 deaths a day. ... George Washington Noble, 5th KY Mtd. Inf., Pt. Lookout POW

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Deaths, removal and the arrival of more wounded men would sometimes cause our wards to be emptied and filled again in the same day.  And, oh how often would they die faster than we could explain the necessity of Baptism to them...Then, truly there was a harvest of souls gathered to Heaven for hundreds after hundreds were brought that seemed to have been sustained for the regenerating waters, dying as soon as these were applied......Sisters of Charity

I just happened to stumble across your website and it immediately brought to mind an anecdote that my great-aunt who lives in Luray, VA related to me several years ago about Point Lookout. It seems that her grandfather was a Confederate POW there for a while before being released. He used to tell her that his favorite number was always "2". He related that while at Pt. Lookout, a whole group of Confederate soldiers were rounded up and were asked to pick a number, either 1, 2 or 3. He chose 2. The 1s and the 3s were shot on the spot and the 2s were allowed to live. What precipitated this mass execution I don't know, nor does she, although she did mention something about the lack of food and resources. It was a gross act of barbarity that I don't even know is officially recorded except through oral knowledge....Elizabeth Vogt, Clemson, SC

Click Here for a listing of Confederate Americans who were imprisoned and died in captivity while in service to their country; but, whose names are not listed on the monument.

Names Not on the Monument