The Civil War Odyssey Of Elias Gibbs

Elias Gibbs was conscripted into the Confederate Army and joined the 64th North Carolina Regiment in 1862 when he was 19 or 20 years old. He was captured by the Union Army in Cumberland Gap, KY at the age of 22 and sent to Camp Douglass near Chicago, IL at the beginning of the winter. Shortly after he was imprisoned, the Union Army offered him a deal in which he would be able to volunteer for service in the Union Navy and it would get him out of the Prison Camp. He was sent to Brooklyn, NY for training and his first duty was serving on the USS Powhatan in a blockade of the Confederate port of Wilmington, NC and his last duty was on the USS Tallapoosa on the Mississippi River from which he was discharged in January 1866. In Elias' own words, his Civil War career lasted "3 years, 6 months, and 11 days." He had the rare distinction of being a Confederate soldier and in the United States Navy. He was turned loose in Memphis, TN to find his own way home and all of it by foot. It took him several months to get home and I know that it is about a 9 hour car ride from Memphis to Hendersonville.