John Monroe Irvin

John Monroe Irvin, Civil War POW

by Kelly Warman-Stallings

(Published to "Window to the Past" website, March 2015)

The story of John Monroe Irvin (pictured on left) is an interesting one, even though he never lived in Miller County. His family later migrated to Maries County very near the Miller County line. The Irvin family once resided close to the once busy hamlet of Marstown, not too far from Van Cleve.

John Monroe Irvin was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania on 15 Oct. 1832. In 1840 there was an estimated 139 Irvin households scattered throughout the nation from Iowa Territory down to Louisiana and from New England to the Eastern seaboard; John (at the age of 8 years) was living in Mercer County, Pennsylvania during this era. By 1850 he was listed in the census as being single and living in Pittsburgh, Ward 2, Pennsylvania.

Sometime during the mid-1850s John Irvin left his home state of Pennsylvania and migrated west into Missouri. Around 1855 he married Eliza Ann Skinner (1833-1910) in Missouri and they settled near Haw Creek in Morgan County. According to the U.S. General Land Records, John purchased acreage in this area of Morgan County on 1 June 1859. John and Eliza had at least five (5) children: Elmira M. (1856-1870); George W. (1857-1920); James G. (1860-1919); John Monroe, Jr. (1863-1932); and William L. C. (1865-1946).

Note: James G. Irvin was my great-great grandfather. His daughter, Ardora Irvin Jones, would later move to Miller County.

By 1863 the Civil War was raging throughout the country and John was mustered into service in July of 1863. He fought on the Confederate side [which I found odd considering his home state of Pennsylvania and the majority of Missouri had their loyalites with the Union side]. I know it was hard to leave a wife and 4 small children; his youngest son, John, Jr. was only 2 years old when he left for war. A fifth child (William Lewis Clark Irvin) would be born after the death of his father.

It is unclear if his Confederate troop fought in Missouri or Illinois, but sometime between 1863-1865, John was captured by Union forces and taken to the Rock Island POW Camp in Rock Island, Illinois (present-day Arsenal Island). The POW Camp was built during the Summer of 1863 when prison camps in the North began to overflow with Confederate prisoners and the prison camp opened in December of that same year.

The Confederate prison was designed to hold 10,000 inmates at one time and during the final 18 months of the war more than 12,000 captives passed through its gates, which I am sure John Monroe Irvin was one of those prisoners. The conditions at the POW camp was deplorable with smallpox and pneumonia running rampant through the prison, killing many Confederate soldiers. Others died from unsanitary conditions and exposure to the elements.

John Monroe Irvin died at the Rock Island POW camp on 5 February 1865, just a couple of months before the Civil War officially ended. He was buried in the cemetery established by the Union Army [in March, 1864] which would later be known as Rock Island Confederate Cemetery. His cemetery description is as follows:

Irwin, John, d. 02/05/1865, CONSCRIPT, MO, Plot: 1853

The word CONSCRIPT - in the description - means one who is drafted into service. A lot of times these conscriptors would be drafted into service, against their will, and later imprisoned for desertion. Other conscriptors were mere substitutes for those who were able to jump through the loopholes, such as an only-son, a medical condition, or an occupational man (ie: doctor).

You will also note the last name is spelled IRWIN in the register of Rock Island Confederate Cemetery interments. In various census' the name is spelled both Irvin/Irwin and there is a good probability that John's last name was actually IRWIN and possibly a "close relative" of William Wallace Irwin, who married Sophia Arabella Bache, who was the granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. But that is another story... which I continue to research!