Fort Columbus
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Location: Governors Island, New York County, New York, United States
Surname/tag: us_civil_war
Formally named Fort Jay. Following the 1806 rebuilding, and with the change in presidential administrations and the recent transfer to the federal government, the fort was renamed Fort Columbus, presumably for Christopher Columbus.
In the early years of the Civil War, the north barracks were used to hold Confederate officers taken as prisoners of war pending transfer to other Union prisons such as Camp Johnson in Ohio, Fort Delaware or Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.
Fort Columbus and Castle Williams also served as a temporary prisoner of war camp and confinement hospital for Confederate prisoners during the war. Major General William H. C. Whiting (CSA) died of dysentery in February 1865 in the post hospital shortly after his surrender at the Battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. He was the highest ranking Confederate officer to die as a prisoner of war.
Sources
- Fort Jay-Wikipedia"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jay"
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