The DPAA Identifies Five MIA/POW Service Members from the Korean War and World War II

From the Novemeber 2, 2022, Stars and Stripes.

The Defense Department's  Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has recently identified five missing servicemen, three from Pearl Harbor in World War II and two from the Korean War.

Both Korean War soldiers  -- Sgt.  Howard Malcom, 23, and Sgt.  Allen Tuttle, 23--  had been unaccounted for since December 1950 and died in the same POW camp, according to the DPAA.

Malcom, who died in  August 1951, was accounted for on October  25.

Tuttle, who died  in March 1951,  was identified  on October 26.

You can go to my Tattooed on Your Soul:  World War II blog to read about the Pearl Harbor sailors who were identified.

Other Facts About the Battle of Princeton

From the Mt. Vernon Organization.

**  WEATHER:  21 degrees at 8 am  "Fair & Frosty."    Some reported "shin deep snow" on the Clarke Farm battlefield.

**  STRENGTHS:    American - 4,500 est. with 35 artillery pieces.  British - 1,200 est. with  6 to 9 artillery pieces.

**  CASUALTIES:  Exact numbers are not known and estimates vary.  Fischer reports 232 killed and wounded for the British with maybe another  200 to 300 captured.  American losses were likely 31-37 killed, upwards of  37 wounded and 1 captured.

**  At the time of the battle, Princeton University was known as the College of New Jersey.  The name was changed to Princeton in 1896.

**  The Continental Congress convened in Nassau Hall from June 30, 1783, to November 4, 1783.  Congress moved here from Philadelphia to avoid risk from mutinous Continental  Army officers in and near Philadelphia.

--Cooter

USS Confederacy-- Part 4: Captured By the British

Captain Nicholson replaced Seth Harding on 20 October 1780.

The Confederacy was homeward bound on  from Cape Francois in the West Indies in 1781 with military stores and other supplies and escorting a fleet of 37 merchantmen on 14 April when she encountered the HMS Roebuck (44 guns) and HMS Orpheus (32 guns) off the Delaware Capes.

The British ships forced the Confederacy to strike her colors.

Most of the merchantmen she was escorting escaped.  Many of her crew were sent to the old prison hulk ship Jersey, though some ended up in Mill and Forton prisons.

The Royal Navy took her into service as the HMS Confederacy, under the command of Captain James Cumming.  He paid her off in September 1781.  She was broken up at Woolrich in March 1782.

--Cooter

Camp Perry in Ohio

I wrote about this camp in my Not So Forgotten:  War of 1812 blog earlier today.  Camp Perry is named after War of 1812 naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry and has received a $271,000 federal funding to redo its historical lighting system.

From the September 21, 2021, Sandusky (Ohio) Register "Camp Perry receives federal funds" by Andy Ouriel.

**********************

HISTORY:

**  Camp Perry was the primary training center for the Ohio National Guard for much of the 20th century.

**  It is located close to Port Clinton, Ohio, and consists of 640 acres.

**  Established in 1907, it is named for Oliver Hazard Perry.  The main reason it is located where it is is to allow the Ohio National Guard to practice rifle and artillery firing into Lake Erie.

**  The camp has the largest outdoor rifle range in the world.

**  While originally intended for use by the Ohio National Guard, during World War I to train officers and marksmen.  During World War II, Italian and German  prisoners were held at the camp.

**  Beginning in the 1960s, use of Camp Perry began to decline.

**  Today, several units continue to be housed at the camp.  They include the  213th Ordnance Company, the 200th Civil Engineering  Squadron, the 372nd  Missile Maintenance Company (DS) and the Ohio Naval reserve.

**  In addition to military usage, Camp Perry has also been  the site of the World Series of the Shooting Sports since 1907.  This event is sponsored by the National Rifle Association, and marksmen and women from around the world participate in the competition.

--Cooter

WW I German Prisoners Come to Hot Springs, NC-- Part 2: A German Brass Band and Bavarian Village

Unable to return these men home, the government leased  the luxurious Mountain Park Hotel in Hot Springs, N.C., to house them.  Each of the hotel's steam heated rooms with electric lights accommodated between 3-5 German officers from those interned ships.  (Many of these ships were turned into troop ships during the course of the war).

Rows of barracks and accessory buildings were constructed on the resorts grounds and golf courses to house crew members.

When not farmed out  for lumbering or road building, homesick internees inside the barbed wire enclosed camp created a Bavarian village using driftwood from the French broad River, tin cans and whatever else they could find.

They also grew gardens, crafted furniture  and played sports.  A German brass band provided concerts for townspeople every Sunday afternoon.

The internees remained there for 17 months, until the end of the war.  Many even returned after the war to visit.

If You Have to be a Prisoner, This Isn't a Bad Way to Go.  --Cooter

WW I German Prisoners Come to Hot Springs, N.C.-- Part 1: From German Ocean Liners

I have been writing about the Chattanooga National Cemetery in my Tattooed On Your Soul:  World War II blog this past week or so.  One of our last two WW II Medal of Honor recipients, Coolidge was recently buried there as was Desmond Doss, another WW II Medal of Honor winner.  He was made famous in the movie "Hacksaw Ridge."

Also, eight members of the Civil War's Andrews' Raiders are buried there.  They are the ones who stole the Confederate locomotive and were chased across northern Georgia.

Another thing I found of interest about the Chattanooga National Cemetery is that there is a monument put up by Nazi Germany on the grounds honor German prisoners who died in the United States during World War I.

From the June 9, 2014, Appalachian History. Net  "First World War I POWs arrive at Hot Springs, NC" by Dave Tabler.

On June 8, 1917, the first of 2,300 German prisoners arrived by train at Hot Springs to begin life in an internment camp.  Their civilian merchant ships had been docked at various  American ports two months earlier when the United States entered World War I.

At that time, the government seized those vessels and declared the crews of those ships to be "alien enemies."

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler Co., Pa.,-- Part 6: A "Forgotten Epidemic?"

The epidemic faded from public memory almost as quickly as the disease itself vanished.  The deaths of servicemen in the Great War received far more attention than the deaths caused by the influenza.

Furthermore, on November 11, 1918, the Great War, known now as World War I in the U.S. and the First World War in Britain (hey they wouldn't have known about the second one back then) which overshadowed the influenza outbreak in western Pennsylvania (well, it was also in Chicago and in much of the rest of the United States in October that year).

This was kind of like the Civil War's Sultana Disaster which took place April 27, 1865, when the steamboat Sultana blew up while carrying several thousand recently released Union prisoners.  It is regarded as the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history with at least 1,168 deaths. But it was soon forgotten what with the end of the Civil War, Lincoln Assassination and the killing of John Wilkes Booth all occurring around the same time.

The Influenza epidemic of 1918 became "The Forgotten Epidemic" until various other outbreaks in more recent history brought back the memories.

I'm not so sure it was all that forgotten, but definitely this new coronavirus we're involved with these days has brought back the memory.  I was completely unaware of how hard western Pennsylvania was hit, though, until I came across the information about the immigrant cemetery in Butler County which started this thread.

And, there is still one more entry to go.

--Cooter

Chicago's Mercy Hospital-- Part 2: The Civil War and the Growth of a Chicago Health Care Provider

Mercy Hospital helped Chicago's need for health care as the city grew rapidly in the 19th century.  There were  outbreaks of cholera and tuberculosis.  It became a modern hospital and remained an anchor for care on the city's South Side even to today.

During the Civil War, the Sisters of Mercy treated Union soldiers as well as Confederate prisoners.  In the middle of the war, they moved the hospital to 26th Street and Calumet Avenue near its current location.

Thousands of doctors have trained at the hospital and it was often on the cutting edge of medicine.  In 1955, Mercy neurosurgeon Dr. Harold Vors and his team performed the first successful separation of twins joined at the head.   The hospital also had the first oncology unit in the city.

Over the years the hospital expanded, eventually moving into a new 517-bed facility in 1968.

--Cooter

Fort Washington (NY)-- Part 3: Only 800 of 2,838 Americans Captured Survived

The British were immensely helped in their attack with information given them by one of Col. Magaw's officers, William Demont, who had deserted November 2 and had given detailed information on the fort.

American losses were 53 killed and  and 96 wounded in addition to the rest of the garrison being captured.  The British and Hessian troops had 132 killed and 374 wounded.  2,834 Americans were captured and marched through the streets of New York where they were jeered by a pro-British crowd.

Most of them were interned in British ships in the harbor where they were deliberately starved or died of disease in the really cold winter.  At the exchange, only 800 had survived.

These were the conditions that James McHenry (who Fort McHenry was named after) protested as he was also captured at Fort Washington.

--Brock-Perry

The Sinking of the USS President Lincoln-- Part 6: Lt. Edouard Izak Medal of Honor Winner

Continued from June 21.

The U-90 surfaced and came among the survivors looking for officers and particularly the commanding officer.  They took G.A. Anderson but returned him.  Most of the officers had removed their insignia and many of the men said that the captain had gone down with the ship.

The Germans were able to identify one officer, Lt. E.V.M. Isaacs, USN, and they took him.  Edouard Isaac later received the Medal of Honor.  He escaped from a German prison camp and got back to Allied lines and reported what he had learned about German submarine operations during the time he was on the U-90.

He died in 1990, the last living recipient of the Medal of Honor from World War I.

(His actual name was Edouard Izak.  He changed the name after the war to this.)

--Cooter

Major Watson's American Revolution Service

This man was a veteran of both the American Revolution and the War of 1812 and was captured in both wars.  he is buried in the Hebron-Linn Cemetery in Hebron, Illinois, the only known American Revolution veteran buried in McHenry County, Illinois.

Despite his first name, major, he is listed as a private.  (Too bad he wasn't a major then he would have been Major Major Watson.)

He is listed as enlisting on March 11, 1777, and deserted September 7, 1777.  He joined again in March 5, 1778 and was taken prisoner at Fort Stanwix in July 1779 and never exchanged until the end of the war.

I doubt that his desertion is of the type we usually consider desertion.

--Cooter

Illinois Beach State Park: Not a Civil War Prison

From Wikipedia.

Illinois Beach State Park was established in 1948 with both North and South Units that stretch for six and a half miles along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

The Northern Unit was previously Camp Logan which I have been writing about in recent posts.

The Wikipedia account and another account says that Camp Logan was also a prisoner of war camp during the Civil War.  I had never heard that there was a Civil War prison there (and I am quite a big Civil War buff).

The Illinois in the Civil War site does not list it as a prison.  It does give the name of four prisons where captured Confederates were kept in the state:  Alton Penitentiary, Camp Butler (Springfield) Camp Douglas (Chicago) and Rock Island Prison.

And, besides that, Camp Logan wasn't established until 1892, long after the Civil War.

--Cooter

Secret Alcatraz Tunnel Found in 2014

From the Feb. 28, 2014, Yahoo! News "Under the Rock: Alcatraz's secret tunnel discovered" by Mike Krumboltz.

Researchers from Texas A&M, using ground penetrating radar discovered a network of tunnels under the island in San Francisco Bay.

These tunnels date from the 1800s when there was a fort on the island (before it became a prison). They also found a building that was used for a magazine for the powder and shells.

Alcatraz became an infamous federal prison and shut down in 1963 over fears of the Bay Area weather impacting on the walls and the escape of three prisoners.

Wouldn't It have Been Something Had Those Tunnels Been Made By Escaping Prisoners.  --Cooter

The El Reno Federal Reformatory

located in El Reno, Oklahoma, it is west of town and north of I-40. During World War II, enemy prisoners were held here and at nearby Fort Reno.

In 1934, it was the fifth largest prison constructed about two miles west of town and originally called Southwestern Federal Reformatory and housed men under the age of 35.

In the mid-1970s, it was renamed the Federal Correctional Institution of El Reno and then housed men of all ages. To this day, it is El Reno's largest employer.

In the Jailhouse Now. --DaCoot

German Prisonerrs on the US Homefront-- Part 2

Continued from October 13th.

Roland Brashears got together with a reporter from the Grady County (Ok) Express-Star and recounted his memories at the prison camp.

"All this area was fenced off with about eight to ten foot high barbed wire fence to keep the prisoners in. You know, actually they didn't want to escape. It was better than what they had where they came from. Here they got three meals a day, cigarettes and a place to sleep. The guards carried rifles, but because of the Geneva Convention rules they weren't even loaded.

I didn't find out until later that when our boys would go overseas, they would send the POWs back on the troop shops. Since our boys were gone fighting, we needed the POWs to work the farms."

Farmers could come to the camp and make deals for the prisoners. They had to haul the prisoners back and forth to the fields and each truck had an interpreter.

There were escapes occasionally, but they always came back. "Where were they going to go? And, they couldn't speak English."

The Germans would not get intothe trucks if they were dirty, "We would have to take the cattle out at night, clean out the truck and have it ready to go for them to load at 6 a.m.. They carried their own lunchbox. The farmers didn't have to feed them."

More to Come. --Cooter

German Prisoners on the US Home Front-- Part 1

From the September 15th Grady County (Ok) Express-Star. "Local Man Recalls Driving WWII Prisoners" by Debi Desilver Terry.

Roland Brashears was only 16 during World War II and too young to serve, but he did his part for the war effort by transporting German prisoners from what is now the Grady County Fairgrounds to work in the broomcorn and cotton fields.

Today. many Americans do not know about German POW camps in the United States, bur there were. Oklahoma alone had 34 camps scattered across the state.

Chickasaw had two separate camps. One was located on the south side of Highway 62 at the fairgrounds which opened August 17, 1944 as a branch of the Alva Camp and later a branch of the Fort Reno camp. Between 240-400 Germans were held here before it closed Nov. 16, 1945.

The second camp was located on the west side of Chickasha at the Borden General Hospital and was a branch of Fort Reno. It opened April 16, 1945. Some of the prisoners may have worked at the hospital before the camp opened. It closed after a couple weeks, May 1, 1945.

Taking Care of the Prisoners. --Cooter

German POW Camps in Wilmington, NC-- Part 1

From the My Reporter Column in the Jan. 15th Wilmington Star-News.

Between February 1944 and April 1946, there were three German prisoner of War camps in the Wilmington area.

The first group of 250 Germans arrived February 7, 1944 and were held in a camp at the intersection of Carolina Beach Road and shipyard Boulevard. They had been captured in North Africa in 1943 (probably members of Rommel's Afrika Korps).

By September 1944, the camp had become overcrowded and a second one opened in a four-block area around 8th and Ann streets. During World War I it had been a Marine hospital. By October, this camp was open and all prisoners were transferred there and the first one shut down.

These prisoners were put to work in local sawmills, fertilizer plants and farms. A third group worked in the officer's mess and grounds keeping at the Bluethenthal Army Airbase, now Wilmington International Airport.

Local citizens took Sunday drives out to see the prisoners.

The Life of a German POW in the US. --Cooter

Wartime Drama in Bowmanville, Canada

Back on March 7th, I wrote about the demise of the German POW camp in this town. If you had to become a prisoner of war, I guess this is where you would want to be sent. But things were always not wonderful here.

The March 6th Toronto Star also had a sidebar about Thanksgiving weekend 1942 when the Germans seized control of part of the camp when plans to shackle 100 officers were learned. The Canadian government ordered this in retaliation of Hitler's orders to shackle Canadian troops captured in the Allied raid on Dieppe.

Both prisoners and guards battled without firearms. Canadian guards used baseball bats. The three day standoff ended when the Germans were hit by high-pressure water hoses. Dozens were injured on both sides.

One inmate, however, was shot through the stomach by a tower guard after prisoners dragged a Canadian officer into the mess hall. The bullet hole is still there.

Very few German and Axis prisons remain in the US and Canada. It would be a shame to lose this one.

Save That Old Prison. --Da Coot