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Photo by Alexander Gardner via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
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Photo by Russell, Andrew J., photographer via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Photo by Russell, Andrew J., photographer via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Photo by Alexander Gardner / Mathew Benjamin Brady via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
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Background
Castle Thunder, located between what is now 18th Street and 19th Street on northern side of E Cary Street in Richmond, Virginia, was a former tobacco warehouse in three buildings, located on Tobacco Row, converted into a prison pursuant to an order of Richmond's provost-marshal John Winder by August 1862. The Confederacy there housed civilian prisoners, including captured Union spies and deserters, political prisoners and those charged with treason during the American Civil War.
President Jefferson Davis is reported to have said that for every Confederate sailor hanged he would hang a Union soldier of corresponding rank, chosen by lot from among the thousands of prisoners in the Richmond tobacco warehouse. Indeed, many inmates were sentenced to death. Moreover, the prison guards had a reputation for brutality, though the inmates were sometimes allowed boxes of medicine and other supplies.
