Murphy, Virgil S.
Autograph Album, 1865

Biography/Background:

Col. Virgil S. Murphy served with the 17^th Alabama Infantry, Confederate forces, during the American Civil War. Murphy was captured by Union forces and held as a prisoner of war at Johnson Island (Ohio), on Lake Erie.

John Washington Inzer, a Confederate soldier from Ashville, Alabama, is among the signatories of this album. Inzer’s diary, which includes his account of Johnson Island prison, has been published as The Diary of a Confederate Soldier. Inzer does not mention Murphy in the diary, but he does allude to the keeping of autograph books by prisoners, and mentions one autograph book sent to prison by a woman for him to sign (p. 74).

Sources:

Inzer, John Washington, The Diary of a Confederate Soldier: John Washington Inzer, 1834-1928 (edited by Mattie Lou Teague Crow). Huntsville, Ala.: Strode Publishers, 1977.

Scope and Content:

This small hardbound volume contains autographs of Confederate soldiers, accompanied by each man’s unit, hometown and state. These are apparently men held as prisoners at Johnson Island with Murphy. The volume also contains two poems, a pencil sketch of the prison, a newspaper clipping of a personal advertisement apparently taken out in a Richmond Virginia newspaper for Murphy and reporting on his condition in prison, a published drawing of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and a receipt for money that Murphy apparently deposited with authorities at Johnson Island prison.

Guide to Collection: Not available.

Subject Areas:

Johnson Island Prison – History.
Murphy, Virgil S.
Soldiers – Southern States.
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Prisoners and prisons.

Collection Number: 1707

Size: ¼ linear foot (1 box)

Restrictions: Standard preservation and copyright restrictions. Do not photocopy.

JB/1-20-00