I’ve already written two posts about relatives who were held at Andersonville Prison during the Civil War: James Allen Sailors, who spent two months here in 1864 before being transferred to the Florence Stockade in South Carolina (and survived); and David Burroughs Allen, who was captured in the same battle and met the same fate as today’s subject, Ichabod W. Dowd.
Born in Hocking County, Ohio in 1830, Ichabod W. Dowd, our 1st cousin 4x removed on the Dowd/Woodard branch, moved west with his family in the 1840s. His parents, William & Martha (Woodard) Dowd, eventually settled in Iowa, but he ended up in central Illinois. Ichabod was working as a farmer near Peoria when he volunteered for service on November 25, 1861, after finishing the fall harvest. He enlisted at Spring Lake Township, Tazewell County, signed up by Captain A. M. Pollard. He was 31 years old, single, 5 feet 7¼ inches tall, with light complexion, grey eyes, and light hair.
Dowd traveled south to Pilot Knob, Missouri, where he was mustered into the 38th Illinois Infantry, Company G, on December 31, 1861. The 38th Illinois remained in southeast Missouri until early March 1862, when they moved to Reeve’s Station on the Black River, then to Doniphan and Pocahontas, seeing action at Putnam’s Ferry on April 1. In May the regiment marched to Jacksonport, Arkansas, then on to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and finally Hamburg Landing, Tennessee, arriving May 24.
The 38th Illinois Infantry then joined in the Siege of Corinth on May 26. The Mississippi railroad hub had been under attack by Union forces since April 29. Ichabod’s brother, Alexander Dowd (more on him in a future port), was already stationed outside Corinth, his regiment having been involved in the siege from the beginning.
After the siege ended (with the Union victorious), the 38th Illinois Infantry joined the pursuit of Rebel forces to Booneville, Mississippi, from May 31 to June 12, then marched to Jacinto and Ripley from June 29 to July 4. They then returned and stayed at Corinth until August 14.
From there they marched through Alabama to Nashville, Tennessee, then on to Louisville, Kentucky, pursuing General Bragg’s troops, from August 14 through September 26, and then followed Bragg farther through Kentucky in October.
According to The Union Army, Volume 3 (Federal Publishing Company, 1908): “In October [8, the 38th Illinois Infantry] was engaged in the Battle of Perryville, capturing an ammunition train, 2 caissons and about 100 prisoners. [Followed by Manchester and Stanford, Kentucky, October 14.] In November it went on a scout to Harpeth Shoals, destroyed a large quantity of salt, captured a Confederate wagon train and 100 horses and mules.” Dowd’s regiment didn’t just capture troops and ammunition at Perryville, but was engaged in the first street fighting of the Civil War. The 38th Illinois Infantry chased the Rebels into town near the end of the battle, and a firefight erupted with the Chaplain River as the dividing line—Union forces in the buildings on the west side, Rebel forces on the east.
We visited the Perryville battlefield in 2023, as well as the nearby town, where Dowd fought the Confederates. Many of the buildings from that day survive, and are clearly marked.
Though the 38th Illinois Infantry marched on to Nashville in late fall, Ichabod W. Dowd was reported “left sick at Hospital Bowling Green, Kentucky,” in November–December 1862. It isn’t clear if he was ill or injured, but he returned to duty in late December, just in time to fight at the Battle of Stones River. According to The Union Army, the 38th Illinois “lost 34 killed, 109 wounded, and 34 missing.”
On February 28, 1863, Dowd received a new uniform, valued by the army at $23.69. Dowd continued on with the 38th Illinois until May–June 1863, when he was “left sick at convalescent camp,” probably in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where the regiment was stationed through June 1863.
Dowd was back with his unit during the Tullahoma Campaign in middle Tennessee, from June 24 to July 3, 1863. The Union Army: “It was also engaged at Liberty Gap, in which action it charged across a plowed field under heavy fire and drove the enemy from his works, capturing the flag of the 2nd Ark[ansas]. On June 26 it skirmished with the enemy all day, losing 3 killed and 19 wounded.”
The worst was still to come. On September 18, Dowd and the 38th Illinois Infantry faced off against Confederate forces at the Battle of Chickamauga in north Georgia. The Union Army: “It entered the battle of Chickamauga, near Gordon’s Mills, formed a line on the double-quick under fire, and was hotly engaged until dark. On the second day of the battle it was moved to the left, went into position at 10 am, and was heavily engaged. Of 301 men of the regiment who entered the fight 180 were killed, wounded, or missing.” That's two out of three!
Dowd was one of those men captured on September 20. He was sent to a Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia, on September 29, likely the Belle Island Prison, but possibly the infamous Libby Prison. He was then transferred to a prison in Danville, Virginia, on December 12, and was listed as a prisoner there as late as February 29, 1864. He was sent to a hospital ward with pneumonia on April 14, then returned to the general population nine days later. (It is possible the hospital ward was not here but later in Andersonville, though unlikely—the record is unclear.)
Sometime in that spring of 1864, Dowd was transferred to Andersonville Prison in Georgia, one of the worst prisoner-of-war camps in the South. He had $40 when he entered, which was confiscated. Then on June 8, 1864—162 years ago today—he died of “acute dysentery.”
Ichabod W. Dowd’s name was recorded on the secret “death list” compiled by Dorence Atwater, who later smuggled it out in his knapsack. After the war, Atwater and Clara Barton (who later founded the American Red Cross) would use the information to find and properly mark the graves of the Union dead. Today, Ichabod W. Dowd rests in Section K, Grave 1727, at Andersonville National Cemetery.
A small portion of the Andersonville stockade has been rebuilt on the site today, which you can see in this video from the American Battlefield Trust:
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