List of prisoners at Gratiot Street Prison from NARA M598 roll 72 :
646 names transcribed
Go to Transcribed List #1 - 200 names
(names added June 14, 2001--list complete)
Go to Transcribed List #2 - 200 names
(36 names added October 31, 2001--list complete)
Go to Transcribed List #3 - 34 names
(34 names added February 21, 2002--more names to come)
Go to Women & Children Transcription List - 212 names
(9 names added April 12, 2002)
Explanation of Transcribed Prisoner Lists
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These transcribed lists are from a Gratiot Street Prison ledger. They represent only a portion of the thousands of people who passed through the St. Louis prisons. Only a few of the ledgers contained descriptions of the people. Bit by bit, I'll transcribe these ledgers. The names are in the order they were received at the prison starting in August of 1863. You can search for a particular individual by using your browser's "find" function under "edit". Transcription errors when deciphering old handwritten documents are always a problem so try alternate spellings. A hyperlink on a name will take you to more information about that person.
You can see from these listings that a considerable number of "citz,"--citizens--people we would now call civilians, were taken to Gratiot. Often these will contain a comment in the remarks column about them having been sent there by order of "PMG" or "P M Genl". This means by order of the Provost Marshal General. Missouri was under martial law and the Provost Marshals had near absolute power. All legal processes and civil rights we think of as normal in the USA were gone, replaced by the will--or whim--of the Provost Marshals. Some Provost Marshals were decent, skilled men trying to do a good job as they saw it (which could be pretty vicious in itself). Some, along with their cohorts in the Federal police, were opportunists who appear as powerful people only for the span of the war years before sinking again into obscurity. A major role these people served in Missouri was the confiscation of private property. Citizens were arrested without charges and imprisoned for as long as the authorities saw fit. Many of those listed as citizens were certainly aiding the Rebels. Some, however, were targets opportunity for property seizures.
Also falling within the citizen category are the spies, mail carriers, and saboteurs. Many of these were legitimate members of the CSA military, however they never listed this connection or any rank they may have held.
You'll also see Federal soldiers listed. Those who committed offenses from drunkenness to theft to murder were imprisoned along with the Confederate soldiers they had been guarding.
These lists represent only a portion of the thousands of people--men, women, and even children--who passed through Gratiot Street Prison.
If you know anything about any of the people listed, please email it to D. H. Rule.
Some abbreviations they used:
Geo-George
Jas-James
Jno or Jn-John
Jos-Joseph
Wm-William
Robt-Robert
Thos-Thomas
M S P - Myrtle Street Prison (administratively part of Gratiot)
Alton is in Alton, Illinois, 25 miles up the river from St. Louis. It was a penitentiary converted for military use and was under the control of the St. Louis Provost Marshals.
Go to Transcribed List #1 - 200 names
Go to Transcribed List #2 - 200 names
Go to Transcribed List #3 - 34 names
(34 names added February 21, 2002--more names to come)
Go to Women & Children Transcription List - 212 names
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Updated April 12, 2002
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