Tag: Hoffman (William)

Wikipedia says: William Hoffman (1807–1884) was a 19th-century officer in the United States Army. The West Point graduate was involved in the Black Hawk War, Seminole Wars, Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. During the Civil War he served as the Commissary-General of Prisoners and set policy for the treatment and release of prisoners.

…Hoffman was in San Antonio at the start of the American Civil War. He was taken as a prisoner of war by the Confederates when Brigadier General David E. Twiggs surrendered the Union command on February 18, 1861. On April 25, 1862 he was promoted to colonel, 3rd U.S. Infantry, while still a prisoner of war, and was released in a prisoner exchange on August 27, 1862.

He was reassigned to Washington, D.C. where that year he became Commissary-General of Prisoners. The Office of the Commissary-General of Prisoners had been organized on October 7, 1861 under the Quartermaster General’s Department. It was made directly responsible to the Secretary of War on June 17, 1862, so when Hoffman took the position, he had access to the top of the military and political structure.

On November 11, 1864 the office was divided into an Eastern and Western Branch. Hoffman, who had been in charge of the whole office up to that date, was placed in charge of the Eastern Branch. On February 1, 1865, it was restructured as a single unit, and Hoffman was placed in charge overall again.

Over 104,000 Confederate soldiers deserted the army during the war, with a third of them surrendering to the Union army. In addition, the army captured thousands of soldiers, whom they held as prisoners of war, transferring them away from the fronts to camps set up to house them. The two governments negotiated a prisoner exchange, which operated from 1862 and 1863 before it broke down for a variety of reasons.

The Union was not prepared to handle the number of prisoners it took in and scrambled to set up facilities. On both sides, the prison camps were overcrowded, suffered food shortages and poor sanitation, and were plagued with infectious disease. In 1862 some of the Confederate prisoners of war refused to be exchanged, saying they would not return to the South.

Hoffman, working with President Abraham Lincoln and War Secretary Edwin Stanton, developed a procedure whereby Confederate prisoners of war and deserters could swear allegiance to the Union to gain their release. Release requests from Union officials, Confederate soldiers, and Southern family members came to Hoffman’s office for review and evaluation. Hoffman believed deserters, because they had already renounced their military obligation to the Confederacy, provided an opportunity to “reconstruct” the rebel soldiers and undermine the Confederate war effort. Military field commanders could administer the oath of allegiance to deserters if they could verify their stories and be assured they were not spies. He believed that prisoners of war presented a problem, as they could return to their units or act as spies. They could only be released after Hoffman’s staff reviewed each case individually and the release was approved by Secretary of War Stanton.

To encourage desertion, the Union started to offer incentives to Confederate soldiers, such as transportation home. Hoffman narrowed the conditions for Confederates to take the oath of allegiance, and the number of prisoners released decreased dramatically.

On October 7, 1864 Hoffman was brevetted to brigadier general for faithful and meritorious services during the Rebellion, and then brevetted to major general on March 13, 1865, for faithful, meritorious and distinguished services as Commissary-General of Prisoners during the Rebellion. He served in the post of Commissary-General until November 3, 1865.