From the January 19, 1902 BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD 

 But I want to go back to history. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have Judge Cochrane, that old-time, modern ideal mayor, with big, wholesome heart, to take me on a ride to some of the old places. We went to where the old factory stood during the war, and where bales of cotton thread were sold, 100 only per day, at $5 each; to the old Governor's mansion; to the old State Capitol; to the modern places; to the industries, to the old colonial houses, so noticeable; and to the buildings where Yankee prisoners were guarded in the sixties. I passed these places and as their histories were told to me, I could not but wish I had lived in the picturesque, grand days gone by.

 The story of the killing of a Yankee prisoner by a Confederate guard, because he looked out of a window persistently, was exceeding sad.

The poor man was deaf, he was tired and he looked longingly out of a window the world passing by. The guard below had instructions not to allow such action. He ordered the prisoner to move once, thrice, several times. Then he shot and the prisoner fell headlong to the ground dead. That Incident is still spoken or regretfully by old and young alike, especially by old soldiers.

At the old Governor's mansion, where I was told of those days when grandeur reigned, where beauty was not shorn of the joys which one experiences when spending money, adorning and bejeweling it, and when love was not a question of dollars or acres, I wanted to change the present life to that of past. Then, too, I wished for the State of Alabama to buy its present Governor a house commensurate with the dignity of his position. Many other States have such homes and this one certainly should not be behind procession. Last night I went over to the old State Capitol-now occupied Giles' Central Female College, noted throughout.

1. United States
2. Alabama
3. Birmingham
4. Birmingham Post-Herald
5. 1902
6. Jan
7. 19
8. Page 3
9. Article clipped from Birmingham Post-Herald
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    1. From the December 12, 1861 SOUTH WESTERN BAPTIST 
    (Marion)

    
    

11. Secular Intelligence

12. ARRIVAL OF YANKEE PRISONERS -The steamer Waverly, from Mobile, brought to our city, on yesterday morning, 500 Yankee prisoners, under a guard  of 125 men. They were chiefly from Manassas, Leesbug and Western Virginia. Their physiognomies indicate they are a mixture of Germans, Irish and Yankees. They were brought here under the command of' Major Griswold, of Maryland. Taking them altogether, they are a rough-looking, wo-begone set, They are quartered at the Washington Hall -elegant winter apartments -better than they deserve.-Tuscaloosa Ohserver..

    
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from the December 11,1861 Memphis Daily Appeal



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22. from the March 11, 1863 Tuscaloosa Observor and Flag of Alabama
    
    from the March 15, 1862 Memphis Daily Appeal
    

    Thomas Clinton article from the April 8, 1928 Tuscaloosa News        My information concerning the Washington Hall during the Civil War period is not altogether complete, especially as regards the ground floor. During the early part of the war the top story was used as a prison where federal soldiers were kept. And during the later part of the war, and for a while after, it served as a hospital for sick and wounded Confederate soldiers.     General Forrest came through Tuscaloosa on March 30, 1865, when he was on his way to fight the battle of SeIma. I knew parties who talked to him in the Washington Hall that day.

    But I have no knowledge as to whether he was guest of the hotel. or whether he came to see the sick and wounded soldiers. But, concerning this visit of General Forrest, I have been told by parties who were present at the time, that the general and his staff officers rode up in front of hotel. They had come from Columbus by way of Carrollton, Pickensville, Vienna, Romulus. and Northport, When they reined up their horses in front of the hotel all the staff officers dismounted and unhitched their saddle girts that the horses might rest.better for a short while. But General Forrest remained seated on his horse. Col. J. M.

    Vanhoose made a short but appropriate speech by way of extending welcome to the gallant soldiers. Several others spoke expressing words of welcome, admiration, and goods feeling. It here observed that General Forrest had attached his hat a large and beautiful ostrich plume, and a delegation of ladies came to him and asked that he leave the treasured plume with them in commemoration of the notable occasion. General Forrest expressed regret that he could not comply with their request. He told them that in time of action, when a battle was going on, his men could better distinguish, and locate him on the large plume.

    He stated that he never ordered his men, "go on boys," but he always gave the command "come on boys." He said that he "never ordered his men where he would 'not go himself'."

    (Colonel J.M. Vanhoose)  "Late that evening it began raining, and I met Jackson's division of Forrest's cavalry above the University riding in the rain and deep mud. They were all in royal good spirits, laughing and joking despite the weather. That night they camped at Box Springs above Alberta. But, resuming about the old Washington hall and regarding the time when the place was used as a prison for federal prisoners, the following facts are pertinent: When the Battle of Shiloh was fought April 6. and 7, 1862.

    and just before Albert Sydney Johnson received his death wound. the Confederates captured three thousand of Grant's own individual soldiers. In the battle they had been under command of a brigadier general named Prentice. Most of the way from field to Tuscaloosa they were shipped by water. They went in boats down the Mississippi river to New Orleans.

    From New Orleans they were sent to Mobile. And from Mobile they came to Tuscaloosa in a number of steamboats. They came to Tuscaloosa soon after the battle, probably late in April. When the big cargo of passengers came to the old Tuscaloosa wharf, about half way between the county bridge and the M. & O.bridge, it happened that the Warrior River was remarkably high. A large warehouse stood on the top of the first elevation from low water mark. The river was SO high that prisoners came on a plank into the warehouse. They stayed a short while under guard in the warehouse and were then placed in the second story of the Washington hall. and in the Rosenau building on the west side of the avenue from Washington hall and in an old abandoned paper mill that stood west of the present Stallworth Lake.

    But probably most of were quartered on the second story of the Washington hall. A few tunneled their way under the walls of the paper mill and escaped. At the Rosenau corner, then called the "Drish building," on one occasion a prisoner put his head out the third window on the second story and verging north from Broad Street. There was a guard patrolling the avenue. This called to the prisoner to take his head in.

    The command given the prisoner three times, and he continued to keep his head out the window. Then the guard raised his musket and shot the prisoner dead. The dead fell back in the room and his derby hat lodged on the window sill. Soon after the war was ended this guard was arrested by United States officials and was tried for shooting the prisoner. He was acquitted the court declaring it was in accordance with the usages of warfare. The Washington hall prison was under a man named Wirtz. He probably had charge of the other two prisons also. He remained in charge these prisons till into the fall of 1862. He had charge of various prisons, and at different places, until at length made head official at Andersonville prison in south Georgia in 1863.

    He stayed in this capacity till the war was over. Soon after peace was declared he was arrested by United States authorities on the charge of cruelty to prisoners. He was tried in court at Washington and convicted, and on November 10. 1865, was hung.

    The best defence of him known to me was written by a federal prisoner of the Andersonville prison. Wirtz was a Swede, and a practicing physician in Louisiana before the war. When the prisoners were, confined in the Washington Hall, two of them escaped. They made their way across the river at night and, probably traveled the Byler road.

    Near the twelve mile post they became exhausted and hid in a wheat field. A resident of the neighborshood found and brought them back to the prison. .

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