cox_solomon

The surviving records of the Rock Island Prison Barracks are located at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Also see the Rock Island Museum FAQ.

1) "The Rock Island, Illinois, Civil War Prison, 1863-1865", by Kathryn Kost (1965).
2) "History of Rock Island", 3 parts. Bibliography of references pertaining to Rock Island Arsenal, Fort Armstrong, and the Rock Island Prison barracks.
Rock Island Prison barracks. [by Walker, T. R. 1962] Rock Island Prison barracks, 1863-1865", by Michael Walker (1967).
3) "A Short History of the Rock Island Prison Barracks", by Otis Bryan England, Rock Island, Ill., Historical Office, US Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command (1985).
4) "A History of Camp Douglas Illinois, Union Prison, 1861-1865", by Dennis Kelly (August 1989).

Rock Island Arsenal Museum
Building 60
Rock Island, IL 61229-5000

9-30-2002: I spoke with a lady at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum. She did not find Solomon Cox listed among the dead at the prison, so he may have survived to be inducted into the US Navy. Records sent to me from Rock Island Arsenal Museum show:
"Pvt. Solomon C. Cox of the 10th S. Carolina Inf., Co. F, was captured at Missionary Ridge on Nov. 26, 1863. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was sent to Naval Rendezvous Camp Douglas Jan. 25 (or 21?), 1864."

However, it is conceivable that he died before induction into the US Navy. Camp Douglas is said to have been the largest prisoner of war camp in the North during the Civil War; it was especially brutal, and it is possible that Solomon died there. The following information was found in "Confederate soldiers, sailors, and civilians who died as prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., 1862-1865", by Alexis A. Praus, Edgar Gray Publications (Jan. 1, 1968):
Camp Douglas was used as a prisoner of war camp from February 1862 until the end of the war. The first Confederate prisoners were received in March 1862 after the fall of Fort Donelson, Tennessee. By July 1862 there were 7,850 prisoners at the camp. The maximum prisoner count was in December 1864, when 12,082 were on record.

The mortality rate is said to have been high. In February 1863 there were 3,884 prisoners, of which 623 were sick and 387 had died. In July 1865 only 30 men (who were patients of the hospital) were at the camp. In November 1865 the camp was torn down. In all, about 30,000 Confederate prisoners of war were housed at Camp Douglas between 1862 and 1865; 4,454 are documented to have died there.

The following are Cox prisoners of war who died at Camp Douglas:
    Cox, Abraham (Pvt., 16th SC Inf., Feb. 10, 1865)
    Cox, C.A. (Pvt., 1 Ala., May 31, 1862)
    Cox, Jas. M. (-, 17 Tex. Inf., Mar. 27, 1863)
    Cox, John D. (Pvt., 29 Ala. Inf., Feb. 15, 1865)
    Cox, Jos. (Pvt., 18 Tex. Cav., Feb. 7, 1863)
    Cox, S.H. (-, 49 Tenn. Inf., Apr. 8, 1862)
    Cox, S.H. (Pvt., 11 Ark. Inf., May 1, 1862)
    Cox, T.L.K. (Pvt., 2 Miss. St. Cav., Apr. 1, 1864)
    Cox, W.M. (-, 18 Tex. Cav., Mar. 30, 1863)
    Cox, Wm. R. (Pvt., 3 Ala., Dec. 8, 1864)

These men are all buried at the Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery (Chicago, Illinois). None of them appear to be Solomon C. Cox, and only the 4 men indicated in italics would have been at Camp Douglas after the date indicated by the Rock Island records. Of these, only Pvt. Abraham Cox was from a SC unit, and he died more than a year after Solomon C. Cox was sent to Camp Douglas.

The following is a list of men from Marion County, SC who: 1) served in Co. F, 10th Regiment Infantry (SC Volunteers from Marion County) and 2) were captured at Missionary Ridge. See Sellers' "A History of Marion County, SC.", p. 629:
Curry, G.W.
Cox, S.C.
Cox, John (no indication that he was captured, only that he was a member of the Company)
Foxworth, A.B.
Johnson, J.J.
Johnson, T.H.
Parker, S.F.
Bostick, J.N.

Also see pp 86-112 of microfilm Roll 47 for 10th Co. E and F battle records. P. 87 shows Georgetown, SC as the Company E station. On Aug 31, 1861 the E and F stations are "Camp Marion near Georgetown".

The 10th Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Marion, near Georgetown, South Carolina, in July 1861. Its members were raised in the counties of Georgetown, Horry, Williamsburg, Marion, and Charleston.
The regiment moved to Cat Island where many of the men suffered from typhoid fever, measels, and mumps. In March, 1862, it was sent to Mississippi, then in the Kentucky Campaign it was involved in the capture of Munfordsville. During the war it was assigned to General Manigault's and Sharp's Brigade and from September, 1863 to April, 1864, was consolidated with the 19th Regiment. The unit served with the Army of Tennessee from Murfreesboro to Atlanta, endured Hood's winter campaign in Tennessee, and saw action in North Carolina. It lost 16 killed, 91 wounded, and 2 missing at Murfreesboro, and the 10th/19th had 236 killed or wounded at Chickamauga and totalled 436 men and 293 arms in December, 1863. During the Atlanta Campaign, July 20-28, the 10th Regiment lost 19 of 24 officers engaged and surrendered on April 26, 1865, with no officers and 55 men. The field officers were Colonels Arthur M. Manigault and James F. Pressley, Lieutenant Colonels Julius T. Porcher and C. Irvine Walker,and Major A.J. Shaw. -- reference

An exhaustive search of the 1870 (SC and NC) and 1880 (national) censuses has failed to find any trace of Solomon C. Cox.

There is a marriage record in Alabama (see reference below) showing a Solomon Cox who married Cary Manis (or Manns) on Dec 13th 1866. The Alabama census of 1880 shows two males named Solomon Cox, but both were 8 years old and born in Alabama. One of these boys was living in a family, but the other appears to have been living in an orphanage (there are 11 children, ages 9-4, living with Sister Elizabeth (age 47, born in VA) and Sister Irene (age 17, born in AR). One of the other boys in the orphanage was Newton Cox, age 6. These two boys would have been born between 1872-1874, but in both cases their father and mother's place of birth is given as Alabama (although it may be that the boys were orphaned at an early age, and simply did not know where their parents were born). Perhaps the Alabama census of 1870 could resolve this question; the 1870 census would give the birthplace of the Solomon Cox in question.

From the LDS 1880 database one finds for the "orphan boy"...