Congressional Prisoner of the Confederacy: Alfred Ely (1815-1892)

Have you ever been so angry with a politician that you wanted them sent to prison? That happened to the second civilian from Western New York captured during the Civil War.

Alfred Ely (February 15, 1815-May 18, 1892) was the eighth of ten children born to Charles Ely (April 19, 1772- December 19, 1854) and Elizabeth Hyde (September 2, 1778-March 10, 1858) in Lyme, Connecticut. His father was a merchant in Hartford, Connecticut who later returned to farm the ancestral homestead in Lyme.

Congressional Representative Alfred Ely (1815-1892)
From: Frontispiece of Journal of Alfred Ely, 1862.

In 1835, Alfred relocated to Rochester. He took to studying law in the offices of Smith and Rochester (one of whose partners was a son of city founder Nathaniel Rochester). Alfred was admitted to the bar in 1841, and before the Civil War his practice primarily served local milling interests.

It was through his milling contacts that he met and married Caroline Lydia Field (1817?-July 14, 1912), daughter of mill owner (and future mayor) Joseph Field. With Caroline, Alfred had four children, but none of them survived him.

Alfred Ely’s former home (since demolished) on the southeast corner of Troup Street and Plymouth Avenue South. From: Rochester Public Library’s Local History & Genealogy Division.

In 1858, Alfred became the Republican candidate for Congress. He would serve but two terms (1859-1863), the period covering the first two years of the Civil War. During his first term he served on the Committee on Claims; in his second, he served as Chair of the Committee on Invalid Pensions.  He was active in raising companies of men to fight in the war, and it was his interest in military preparedness that led him to witness the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861.

In the early stages of the battle it appeared the Federal troops might win, but a late rally by Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson led to a rout of Union soldiers and curious civilian onlookers alike. Trailing behind the fleeing soldiers, Ely was captured and brought before a Confederate colonel.

The officer asked the civilian to identify himself, to which he replied, “I am the Honorable Alfred Ely, Representative in Congress from New York.” The officer replied, “You white-livered Yankee. You’re just the cuss I have been looking for!”

The Confederates were pleased to have captured a member of the “Black Republicans” (party members favoring the abolition of slavery and the provision of civil rights for African Americans) whom they most resented. Ely was placed in a converted tobacco warehouse in Richmond, Virginia to await developments.

Ely’s incarceration would last more than five months, in part because of the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Union-held Confederate prisoners from the privateers Savannah and Jefferson Davis.  Their treatment —be it incarceration or execution—would in turn dictate the destiny of captured Union soldiers. While awaiting news of their fate, Ely remained in the custody of the Confederates.

Ely was initially detained in a converted tobacco factory, but was later moved to the notorious Libby Prison in Richmond, which he shared with Union officers and enlisted men, though his imprisonment was significantly more comfortable than theirs. Ely had quarters to himself and was fed three times a day. He was permitted to receive daily newspapers and many visitors, some of whom brought food, flowers, and other comforts.

Libby Prison circa 1863
From: Library of Congress.

 

He did not luxuriate in these “comforts,” however. With the permission of General John Winder, he was allowed to visit prisoners in his facility and in nearby hospitals and did what he could to alleviate their sufferings. Through appeals to Congress, he informed them of prison conditions and arranged for the release of many of the soldiers.

He also founded what was humorously called the Richmond Prison Association, a group designed to relieve tedium for his fellow prisoners. He set up debates, card games, singalongs, and other activities to make life easier for the incarcerated.

Probably the scariest moment for Ely came on November 9^th, 1861, when Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Secretary of War Judah Benjamin compelled him to draw lots to select Federal officers to be executed should Union authorities execute the officers and crew of the aforementioned Confederate privateers. Fourteen high ranking officers were selected; six were relocated to prisons in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while the remainder were transferred to the Henrico County Jail to await word. The crisis was resolved in February 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln revoked the death sentences of the privateers’ crews.

As for Ely, on Christmas Day 1861, he was exchanged for Charles James Faulkner, the former U.S. Minister to France, who had been held at Fort Warren in Boston. Following his release, Ely returned to Rochester and resumed his legal practice, where he did extensive work for the New York Central Railroad. He also served as President of the Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Bank. He died on May 18, 1892, at age 77, after being in declining health for the previous two years. His mortal remains reside in the Ely mausoleum in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Ely Mausoleum, Mount Hope Cemetery. From: FindaGrave.com

 

-Christopher Brennan

For Further Information:

Elizabeth R. Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, A Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Joseph W. Barnes, “Rochester’s Congressmen, Part I, 1789-1869,” Rochester History, 41, no. 3 (July 1979), 18-20.

Journal of Alfred Ely, A Prisoner of War in Richmond, edited by Charles Lanmen (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1862).

“Hon. Alfred Ely,” Democrat and Chronicle, May 19, 1892, p. 8, col.5.