Junius L. Hempstead and 600 other Confederate officers crowded into the dark hold of a Federal steamer. Sea-sickness and lack of sanitation bedeviled them for two weeks.
They arrived at Morris Island (outside of Charleston, South Carolina), and entered Fort Gregg. Its cannons were pointed at Charleston and two Confederate forts, Sumter and Moultrie. The prisoners were held behind the cannons, inside a wooden stockade, four men per tent.
A Matter of Retaliation
The POWs were there because of vengeance. A year earlier, in 1863, Union troops had captured Fort Wagner, further west on Morris Island. They began firing cannons at a civilian neighborhood of Charleston; some of the shells were incendiary. Months later, seeking relief, Confederates placed forty-five Union officers and five generals in the besieged neighborhood. In retaliation, the Union Army placed the 600 POWs in the line of fire of Confederate guns aimed at Fort Wagner.
The bombardments began on Junius’s second night.
He couldn’t escape the screaming shells, and convulsive, shaking ground. Some nights, he was so hungry, he drifted off to sleep. By day, Junius could see Charleston and hear the church bells.
He prayed, “O! God, how long will the misery continue.” Hunger pushed him “to eat bean soup full of sand and gravel.”
He wrote, “[I] am getting so tired [of] retaliation. It is a mean thing, dishonorable in both governments to treat prisoners of war – we are so helpless – in the way they do. We fight and die for them, and this is the way they treat us.”
Fort Pulaski
After 42 days, the Federal Government moved the POWs to Fort Pulaski, off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. Chilly Atlantic winds blew in. Junius couldn’t get warm since he had neither blanket nor fire for warmth. He wrote his parents that his daily ration was “a pint of corn meal full of worms and bugs, a pickle, and no meat.”
His parents were frantic. Judge Hempstead was convinced that “prisoners cannot live long if they are treated in this manner.” He started pulling strings to free his son. There was only one condition: Junius had to swear allegiance to the United States.
Promises, promises
Junius balked. He felt he had to keep his promise to defend Virginia. He thought he would perjure himself (that is, violate his earlier oath) if he swore allegiance to the U.S.
Judge Hempstead decided not to push his son to do anything that he felt was dishonorable. “He is now of age to act for himself.”
Junius wouldn’t accept reality. He asked President Lincoln to free him on parole, without taking the oath. He wrote his father, “You all think I am a trouble, I know.”
He wrote his mother: “I am almost naked, my clothing is quite ragged and I need some badly … Come and see me please … You can get me out of this hard scrape by using your influence.”
After President Lincoln’s assassination, Judge Hempstead kept trying to free his son. He described Junius as “a boy who went into the war without mature consideration, and as he supposed, to defend the state of Virginia.”
After the war ended, Junius finally took the oath of allegiance. He returned briefly to Dubuque and conceived a book about “the cruelty of the Federals to Confederate Prisoners.” His book has been lost.
Junius thereafter lived in Memphis and then Louisiana, mainly writing poems and novels. He became President of the Immortal Six Hundred association.
Steve Hanken
24 Apr 2015An unfortunate situation, no doubt. Junius father, I have to believe, was largely responsible for Junius believing he had to defend Virginia and it’s ties to slavery. Stephen Hempstead, although a brilliant legal mind, had been through tough times in Connecticut as a child but his fortunes changed after his uncle, the Territorial Governor of Louisiana Territory, died from a fall from his horse. Once Stephen was established in St. Louis, he became part of the elite slave holding class. Two of his aunts were married to the two biggest fur traders in the city and with his father in charge of his uncles estate and farm, things went well for Stephen. As a young man he and his brother entered Illinois College, but neither lasted long there, my guess is they didn’t fit well with President Edwin Beecher’s feelings on abolition of slavery. So, as was usual for the time, Stephen headed to Wisconsin Territory to study law under yet another uncle, his slavery notions firmly fixed. His marriage to Lavinia Moore Lackland , born in Montgomery, Maryland, was likely in agreement with her husband on the question of slavery. Both probably infected their children with southern ideals and chivalry on questions of loyalty that took Junius to the place he found himself and no way to exit his situation.
David Connon
24 Apr 2015Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Steve! My take on Junius is a bit different, and I’d like to explain why. It’s true that his father, Iowa Governor Stephen Hempstead, spent late teenage and early adult years in Missouri. However, the sources I’ve read suggest that his family connection to slavery was rather distant (or “arm’s length”) at best. I’m also reminded that Gov. Hempstead originally wanted to send Junius to West Point in 1860, but he couldn’t arrange an appointment at that time. VMI was an option for a “good civil and military education.”
You made an insightful comment about Junius’s Maryland-born mother, Lavinia. She and Stephen may have influenced Junius regarding southern views of loyalty and chivalry. Politically speaking, she and Stephen were Douglas Democrats. Near the end of the Civil War, she wrote that the Civil War never would have happened if Stephen A. Douglas had been elected president.
I am inclined to attribute a large part of Junius’s motivations to defend Virginia to these things:
1. The influence of Southern peers (at VMI and elsewhere).
2. His own principled interpretation of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
3. A sense that he had no choice but to take the VMI cadet’s oath to defend Virginia.
4. A love of adventure and/or a desire for glory.
Thanks again for discussing this!
Catherine Shallcross
27 May 2015I believe that Junius was my great great grandfather, my grandmother’s grandfather. My grandmother’s name was Sunbeam Lackland Mason and my mother’s maiden name was Elise Hempstead Wallace. I remember my great grandmother, who must have been his daughter, but I was tiny at the time and she was very old. Though our family ancestry was discussed often, his name was never mentioned though Lavinia’s was. I realize by reading these accounts online that he must have split from the family when my great grandmother was very young, and that my grandmother might not known of his existence.
David Connon
27 May 2015Hi, Catherine.
Thanks for sharing your personal connection to Junius L. Hempstead. And thanks for reading my blog! Best wishes, David
Kathleen Parsons
24 Apr 2015Again, your description of Junius’ moral struggle is compelling. Thanks for an excellent read.
David Connon
24 Apr 2015Thank you!
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David Connon
21 Aug 2016Thank you for your kind comment. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any suggestions for getting listed on Yahoo News.