Recent discovery of an extensive Civil War prisoner of war album from Johnsons Island, Ohio containing 187 Confederate officer signatures and one non-officer, complete with rank and where captured and/or hometown. The album also contains scarce signatures from Confederate officers from Maryland and Florida. Included among the signatures are five (5) Confederate Generals: Issac Ridgeway Trimble, James Jay Archer, William Nelson Rector Beall, John Wesley Frazier, and John Roberts Jones. Two Confederate Generals were captured at Gettysburg, one was captured escaping from Gettysburg, one at Vicksburg, and one at Cumberland Gap. Of special interest is the signature of George E. Tabb, 2nd Lieutenant in the Signal Corps, who served aboard the Merrimac (CSS Virginia) in the Battle of Hampton Roads. The album also contains 14 signatures from Tennessee officers. Included in the album are poems written by prisoners, most notably by "Asa Hartz", the nom de plume of Major George McKnight who became associate editor of the New Orleans Picayune after the war's conclusion. In a poem by Hartz, p. 92, he writes of his time on Johnson's Island, stating that "A Yank with loaded gun keeps me in sight". Lieut. Fras. F. Leer presented this autograph book to Miss Sallie F. Godwin in May 1864. A total of 11 Confederate States plus the three border states of Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky are represented in the album. Album 8" x 5 1/2". Circa 1863-1864. Additional items - two large binders, 12" x 11 3/8", the first of which contains a brief summary of the album by state, a transcription of the autographs as they appear in the album, and stapled photocopies of pp. 146-150 of ​Rebels of Lake Erie by Charles E. Froeman. The subsequent content contains research conducted regarding the identities of the prisoners, including biographies of the generals, summary of records of the Staff Officers, and the summaries of the officers of each state arranged alphabetically. The summaries of each Confederate officers records were obtained from microfilm records within the Civil War records of the National Archives; the title and roll number of the microfilm record is indicated at the end of each record. Additional resources, including Who Was Who in the Civil War by Stewart Sifikas, were also used and are referenced at the end of each record. Also included in the lot is a book titled The Boys Who Went to War from Cumberland University 1861-1865 by William C. Floyd and Paul Gibson, published by Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, PA, 2001, that contains additional information about some of the prisoners in the album. Some personal letters and records are included from the National Archive.

The original autograph book has a separated spine, worn front and back covers detached from spine, pages with signatures in good condition, gilt on top of pages still evident.