Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-08-18
CIVIL, WAR
fifty YEARS AGO TODAY
June g. 1861-Leut John l. Worden of the u S. Navy Was
in Prison at Montgomery Ala, the First Prisoner of War
in the Great ConfIct-UnuSua Features of His Case

Fifty years ago today John L. Worden'
a lieutenant in the United States navy
afterward to be known to fame as the
commander of the celebrated Monitor In
the first fight between iron-clad vessels
OF war-was lying in jail at Montgomery,
Ala, a prisoner of the Confederates.
Lieutenant Worden was the first officer
on either side to suffer Imprisonment In
the war, and, in fact, was the first pris-
oner of war in the great conflict.
He was taken the day after actual war
began, on April ID, and was destined to
remain In prison seven months, through
the trying heat of a southern summer,
before released by exchange
Fifty years ago today part or the
people of the north were talking about
Lieutenant Worden, because OF the recent
publication Of a few meager particulars
of his life in prison; but they had little
information of his condition, and in the
hurry of great events then taking shape
day by day in the war he was not likely
to be long remembered.
Indeed, the publication mentioned in
a northern newspaper called attention to
him as to one whose existence seems
to have been forgotten by his country
and his friends"
"A brief, sad note about him was placed
In my hands not ten minutes since,
wrote a correspondent to the New York
Tribune, land 1 cannot resist the i'm
pulse to put the statement of his case
at the head of my letter.
The correspondent then quoted the note,
which was from a friend in Montgom-
cry.
.'The poor fellow 1t ran. has no
capital he had has been paid, from time
to time, for food and trivial comforts to
the family of his jailer"
The closing comment of the Tribune S
correspondent on the case OF Lieutenant
Worden was: No one has spoken or
written anything about him. no one
seems to care whether he lives or dies
HIS IMPORTANT TASK.
The case of this first prisoner of war
in the great struggle was not unlike that
of many other men in respect to his be-
ing forgotten when in prison, but 1t was
out of the ordinary in the nature of the
events that led up to It.
Lieutenant Worden was messenger OF
the government when taken Though an
officer in the navy he was 300 miles from
the sea at the time
He had sought the duty that cost him
his liberty undertaking a journey
through the south that he knew would
be attended with much hazard He had
carried message, the delivery of which
was of the first Importance to the gov
ernment; had delivered 1t in time for the
naval force off Pensacola harbor to throw
reinforcements into Fort Piekens before
the result OF the attack on Fort Sumter
was determined. These reinforcements
and others that quickly followed, render
ed Fort Pickens too strong to be at
tackled. It's retention greatly strengthen
ed the federal government on the gull
seaboard.
When Lieutenant worden was assign.
ed to this delicate and dangerous task
he had been but few hours in Wash.
ington.
Forty-three years old, native OF
Kew York state, and at the time the
war began executive officer Of the old
sloop-of-war Savannah, on the home
station, Lieutenant Worden had been al
first assigned to special duty, but had
promptly applied for active service.
1t CHANGED that on the afternoon OF
his arrival in washington the secretary
Of the navy. was looking about him fol-
man who could be trusted to take 9
message to the senior naval officer of
Pensacola and deliver 1T without delay
Troops had been off the fort fol-
weeks, on the frigate Brooklyn, but had
not been landed because of conditions
that justified the senior naval officer
present, Capt. Henry A. Adams, in de-
clining to land them without specific
orders from Washington.
Captain Adams had sent one of his
officers, Lieutenant Washington Gwath.
mey, a virginian, to Washington with
report to the effect that he had not
landed the troops from the Brooklyn
as the war department had requested
him to do, because of the existence OF
an agreement between the previous ad-
ministration and the confederate author
tiles at Pensacola, to the effect that nc
reinforcements would be landed at Fort
Pickens unless 1T were attacked OF
threatened.
This report reached Secretary Welles
on April 6. II went at once to the