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"Searching for James Kinsella - Irish Yankee"
James Kinsella's Life
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Use the Music Control at the top to replay or stop "Ashokan Farewell" by Jay Unger and Molly Mason from their Harvest Home CD.
This plaintive theme was featured in The Civil War, the Ken Burn series aired by PBS.
Belle Isle

"Island of Misery"


Photo by B. Ingram

SITE OF SUFFERING
During the Civil War over 30,000 northern enlisted men passed through this 6 acre open air prison. Without much shelter, food, or sanitation they died by the hundreds in squalor and misery. Unconceivable today, it was official policy on both sides then to make prisoners too weak to rebel or fight again.

CANONS & CORPSES
Big guns on the hill deterred riots in the over-crowed prison encampment. Few escaped, most died of starvation, dysentery and disease. In total about 1,000 men perished.
From the Historical Markers from James River Park System, Richmond, Va.

"Walt Whitman's question when he saw prisoners returning from Belle Isle can give us some insight into the human suffering endured there. He said, Can those be men? Those little livid brown, ash streaked, monkey-looking dwarves? Are they not really mummified, dwindled corpses?

www.censusdiggins.com/prison_bellisle.html.


Site of Hospital #21.
Photo by S. Ingram
 James Kinsella was confined at Belle Isle from July 21, 1863 until admitted to the hospital at Richmond, Va., on November 13, 1863.

Most prisoners from Belle Isle were sent to Hospital #21, located at the corner of E. Cary and S. 25th Sts.

He was transferred Div. No. 1 USA General Hospital, Annapolis, Md., on November 18, 1863.

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