Strother & Mary Ann Morris CORBIN

Strother Corbin was born 1817 in VA, to Bluford and Rebecca Jane Nicholson Corbin.

Mary Ann Morris was born 1823 in VA to John Allen and Elizabeth Welker Morris.

Strother & Mary Ann married on 20 Sep 1841 in Page County, VA.

They had 12 Children:
1. James Henry Corbin b: 4 Mar 1840 in Page County, VA
2. Ambrose Booton Corbin b: 16 Jan 1845 in Nethers, Madison County, Virginia
3. John Wesley Corbin b: 1847 in Madison, Madison County, VA
4. Bruce B Corbin b: 1848 in Madison, Madison County, VA
5. William Corbin b: 1851 in Madison, Madison County, VA
6. Joseph W. Corbin b: 1853 in Madison, Madison County, VA
7. Isaac Corbin b: 1854 in Madison, Madison County, VA
8. Peggy J Corbin b: 1855 in Madison, Madison County, VA
9. James Madison Corbin b: Jul 1857 in Madison, Madison County, VA
10. Mary T. Corbin b: 1859 in Madison, Madison County, VA
11. Amos Corbin b: 1863 in Madison, Madison County, VA
12. Phinnel Corbin b: 27 Jun 1867 in Madison, Madison County, VA

Strother Corbin was a Pvt. in Co A 18th VA Calvery aka Imboden's Cav. Co. B - The only record is a single card from the records of NARA stating that the name of Strother Corbin appears on a Register of Prisoners of War at Fort Delaware, Delaware, and that he was received from Camp Chase on 17 March 1864. It was noted that most of the members of the 18th Virginia Calvery served in the 1st Regiment Virginia Partisan Rangers subsequently the 62nd Regiment Virginia Infantry.

Notes: Fort Delaware was completed in 1859 on the swampy island known as Pea Patch Island. This Union fortress constructed in the shape of a pentagon and covering approximately 6 acres was used for Confederate prisoners of war.

General Albin F. Schoepf was commandant of Fort Delaware and was dreaded by the Confederates. He was known by the soldiers as "General Terror".

The majority of Confederate prisoners contained within Fort Delaware during the Civil War were captured at Gettysburg. Many of these were from the 26th Georgia Regiment.

Prisoners were held in wooden barracks, providing shelter unlike many other Civil War prisons during the Civil War. After the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, the prisoners swelled to almost 13,000, leading to horrible conditions. Water and food became scarce. Scurvy, smallpox and severe malnutrition were rampant.

According to Captain John S. Swann (a prisoner at Fort Delaware), "We formed in line and marched to the mess hall, in which were several long rows of plank tables with pieces of bread and meat arranged along the sides at intervales (sic) of some two feet. When we were in place each prisoner took one ration. The bread was made of rye and wheat flour, well cooked, but the piece very small, about half enough for a well man. The meat a small chunk of beef. Occasionally all sinew or mostly bone. It was cut up very carelessly and very small, not half a ration. Some days the bread was substituted with crackers, and these were hard days on us. We were permitted to take these rations to our bunks. I ate mine but remained very hungry. When dinner came the same thing was repeated, except there was occasionally a tin cup of what was called corn soup very tasteless and insipid, with little or no grease."

He also wrote: "Not long after my arrival I heard a cry "Rat call! Rat call!" I went out to see what this meant. A number of prisoners were moving and some running up near the partition, over which a sargeant (sic) was standing and presently he began throwing rats down. The prisoners scrambled for the rats like school boys for apples, none but some of the most needy prisoners, and the needy were the large majority, would scramble for these rats. Of course but few were lucky enough to get a rat. The rats were cleaned, put in salt water a while and fried. Their flesh was tender and not unpleasant to the taste."

According to one prisoner, Randolph Shotwell, "The bacon was rusty and slimy, the soup was slop…filled with white worms a half inch long." One prisoner from Georgia wrote that the food was of poor quality and so scarce that he went from 140 pounds to 80 pounds during his stay at Fort Delaware.

According to Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, July 1863:

"The prisoners were afflicted with smallpox, measles, diarrhea, dysentery and scurvy as well as the ever-present lice. A thousand sick; twelve thousand total on an island which should have held four; large numbers of deaths a day of dysentry and the living having more life on them than in them. Lack of food and water and thus a Christian nation treats the captives of its sword!"

Some famous Confederates who saw the inside of Fort Delaware Civil War Prison were Burton H. Harrison (private secretary of Jefferson Davis) and General James F. Archer.

Approximately 2700 Confederate soldiers died while being held captive at Fort Delaware. About 2400 Confederates are interred at Finn's Point National Cemetery located across the Delaware River near Fort Mott State Park.

A marker reads:

ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES TO MARK THE BURIAL PLACE OF 2436 CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS WHO DIED AT FORT DELAWARE WHILE PRISONERS OF WAR AND WHOSE GRAVES CANNOT NOW BE INDIVIDUALLY IDENTIFIED.