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In September 2024, Mac Farland, Inc., published my book, Yankees in the Hill City: The Union Prisoner of War Camp in Lynchburg, VA, 1862-1865, the first in-depth study of this facility. Some authors have mentioned it in a sentence—or at most a paragraph—while others ignore it altogether. The Lynchburg camp differed from other Confederate auxiliary POW camps, like Libby, Belle Isle, Andersonville, Salisbury, or Danville. Union captives who were wounded or ill when they arrived in Lynchburg were triaged and assigned to a hospital, many of which also contained Confederate patients. Those who died while prisoners in Lynchburg were buried by the mortuary managed by George A. Diuguid. Each day, the dead from both armies were collected, placed in coffins, their personal data recorded, and then they were buried in the City Cemetery. There was a daily roster of ministers who held burial services for the fallen fromboth armies, and the Confederate government paid all the funeral expenses. This service was available to Black Union soldiers as well as white soldiers. After the war, the remains of some soldiers were returned to their families, while most of the Union dead were moved to Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg.
With the restoration of peace, the facilities used to care for prisoners quickly returned to their previous functions, in part because Lynchburg was the only major urban center in Virginia unoccupied and unharmed by the war. The camp was forgotten because it was repurposed time and time again, but the manuscripts, diaries, memoirs, and regimental histories that contain the data clarifying what the “Lynchburg system” was and how it functioned need only be examined and assembled to reveal another piece of the puzzle that is the American Civil War. All that remains of the Lynchburg prisoner of war camp are the sentinel oaks that were saplings in the summer of 1862 when, in their shade, the first Union captives, weary and longing for home, sought shelter from the sun. As they grew into massive trees, the land not only protected orphans, but it also became a park, the site of Lynchburg’s 1886 Centennial celebration, a residential neighborhood, a shopping precinct, and finally, the site of E.C. Glass High School, which serves the children of Lynchburg, regardless of gender, race, or creed. Most of the Union soldiers who braved the summer heat and winter cold were reared in communities where access to free education was their birthright, and this school, mellowed by time, resting where they slept and dreamed of home, is a fitting memorial to their sacrifice, which must never be forgotten.
Speaker Biography:
A native of Lynchburg, Dr. Clifton Potter, Jr. ’62 was educated in the city schools, graduating from E.C. Glass High School in 1958. He holds a B.A., magna cum laude, in history from Lynchburg College, a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and he was a Fulbright scholar.
Fellow at Oxford University. He joined the history department at Lynchburg College in 1965 and served as Chairman from 1990 to 1996. He held the John M. Turner Distinguished Chair in the Humanities from 2002 until 2005. For several years, he served as the faculty parliamentarian and College Marshal. He retired in 2019 as Professor of History, Emeritus.
Dr. Potter is a member of the Taylor-Wilson Camp #10, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and the Virginia Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Its membership is composed of descendants of Union officers. He has served as Commander of both these heritage organizations.
His wife, Dorothy T. Potter, holds a master’s and a doctorate from UVA, and was also a member of the Lynchburg history department, retiring in 2017 as Professor of History, Emerita. Together, the Potters have written four histories of the city. The latest is Lynchburg, 1757—2007, which was published to commemorate the Sesqui-Bicentennial of Lynch’s Ferry. They are currently editing A Good and Pleasant Company: Lives and Legacies of Central Virginia, a project endorsed by LYH250. Their son, Dr. Edmund D. Potter, is also a historian.
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