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Captured Freedom: The Epic True Civil War Story of Union POW Officers Escaping from a Southern Prison
“ A thoroughly engaging account of trauma and resilience during the Civil War.” - Kirkus Reviews
2025 Independent Press Award Winner.
Captured Freedom is the epic true story of nine Union prisoners-of-war who escaped from a Confederate Prison known as Camp Sorghum in Columbia, South Carolina in November 1864. They scrambled north on foot in rags that had once been uniforms of blue. Traveling in brutal winter conditions more than 300 miles with search parties and bloodhounds hot on their trail. On the difficult journey they relied on the help of enslaved men and women, as well as Southerners who sympathized with the North, before finally reaching Union lines on New Years Day 1865. After arriving in Knoxville, Tennessee, and checking in with Union authorities, one of the men had a wonderful idea. The nine officers and their three mountain guides found a local photographer, hoping to commemorate what they had accomplished by posing together for a photograph. The instant, frozen in time, showed twelve ragged men with determination strong on their faces. It was a Civil War selfie. A moment that Captured Freedom. Author Steve Procko, an Emmy-award winning documentarian, received a copy of the more than 150-year-old photograph from a descendant of one of the mountain guides. Upon identifying and researching the men in the photograph, he realized their remarkable story had never been told. They say every picture tells a story. This one tells many.
"The Civil War is chock full of remarkable true stories, and Captured Freedom tells one that beats them all. Steve Procko's detective work uncovered the lives of an amazing group of escaped prisoners, and he tells their adventures with a narrative flair. Everyone will learn something they didn't know about the Civil War in the pages of this book."
Dr. Lorien Foote
Patricia & Bookman Peters Professor in History
Texas A&M University
"Narrative nonfiction aficionados will greatly enjoy Captured Freedom, which Civil War buffs will find a special treat. Exhaustively researched, richly anecdotal, and well-written."
Joseph Wheelan
Author of Libby Prison Breakout, The Daring Escape from the Notorious Confederate
Prison; and 10 other books of historical nonfiction
2025 Independent Press Award Winner.
Captured Freedom is the epic true story of nine Union prisoners-of-war who escaped from a Confederate Prison known as Camp Sorghum in Columbia, South Carolina in November 1864. They scrambled north on foot in rags that had once been uniforms of blue. Traveling in brutal winter conditions more than 300 miles with search parties and bloodhounds hot on their trail. On the difficult journey they relied on the help of enslaved men and women, as well as Southerners who sympathized with the North, before finally reaching Union lines on New Years Day 1865. After arriving in Knoxville, Tennessee, and checking in with Union authorities, one of the men had a wonderful idea. The nine officers and their three mountain guides found a local photographer, hoping to commemorate what they had accomplished by posing together for a photograph. The instant, frozen in time, showed twelve ragged men with determination strong on their faces. It was a Civil War selfie. A moment that Captured Freedom. Author Steve Procko, an Emmy-award winning documentarian, received a copy of the more than 150-year-old photograph from a descendant of one of the mountain guides. Upon identifying and researching the men in the photograph, he realized their remarkable story had never been told. They say every picture tells a story. This one tells many.
"The Civil War is chock full of remarkable true stories, and Captured Freedom tells one that beats them all. Steve Procko's detective work uncovered the lives of an amazing group of escaped prisoners, and he tells their adventures with a narrative flair. Everyone will learn something they didn't know about the Civil War in the pages of this book."
Dr. Lorien Foote
Patricia & Bookman Peters Professor in History
Texas A&M University
"Narrative nonfiction aficionados will greatly enjoy Captured Freedom, which Civil War buffs will find a special treat. Exhaustively researched, richly anecdotal, and well-written."
Joseph Wheelan
Author of Libby Prison Breakout, The Daring Escape from the Notorious Confederate
Prison; and 10 other books of historical nonfiction
362 pages, Paperback
Published July 21, 2023
About the author
Steve Procko
3 books18 followersSteve Procko is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker, historical nonfiction author, and documentary storyteller with a passion for uncovering America's forgotten histories. After founding and leading a successful production company for more than thirty years, he turned his deep love of research and narrative storytelling toward the written word.
His latest book, Captured Freedom (2023), explores the daring Civil War escapes of Union officers from Confederate prison camps — a true story of endurance and ingenuity that won an Independent Press Award. More about the project can be found at CapturedFreedom.com.
His earlier work, Rebel Correspondent (2021), reveals the remarkable story of a little-known Confederate journalist and also earned an Independent Press Award for excellence in historical nonfiction. Further stories and research can be explored at RebelCorrespondent.com.
In addition to writing, Steve produces and writes historical documentaries and feature stories through There's History Around Every Bend — a platform dedicated to bringing overlooked moments of the past to wider audiences, available at HistoryBend.org.
He is particularly drawn to the Gilded Age and Civil War eras, believing that history is best told through the voices of those who lived it. When not researching or writing, he can often be found visiting historic sites, poring over rare documents, and pursuing the overlooked threads that connect past and present.
Follow Steve here on Goodreads for historical insights, behind-the-scenes research updates, and first looks at upcoming projects.
His latest book, Captured Freedom (2023), explores the daring Civil War escapes of Union officers from Confederate prison camps — a true story of endurance and ingenuity that won an Independent Press Award. More about the project can be found at CapturedFreedom.com.
His earlier work, Rebel Correspondent (2021), reveals the remarkable story of a little-known Confederate journalist and also earned an Independent Press Award for excellence in historical nonfiction. Further stories and research can be explored at RebelCorrespondent.com.
In addition to writing, Steve produces and writes historical documentaries and feature stories through There's History Around Every Bend — a platform dedicated to bringing overlooked moments of the past to wider audiences, available at HistoryBend.org.
He is particularly drawn to the Gilded Age and Civil War eras, believing that history is best told through the voices of those who lived it. When not researching or writing, he can often be found visiting historic sites, poring over rare documents, and pursuing the overlooked threads that connect past and present.
Follow Steve here on Goodreads for historical insights, behind-the-scenes research updates, and first looks at upcoming projects.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 3, 2025
Captured Freedom: The Epic True Civil War Story of Union POW Officers is an extremely well-researched book about the escape from a Confederate prison of scores of Union officers. Steve Procko builds his narrative around a photograph of 12 escapees, and delves into each man’s background, military experience, capture, survival in the disease-ridden Confederate prisons, and their eventual escape after numerous failed efforts. He effectively brings to life each man and their agonizing experiences, illuminating the squalor of the prisons, cruelty of their guards, and amazing resilience and creativity of their escapes. Survival for these men meant overcoming battles, capture, imprisonment, starvation, and their incredible journeys after escaping to avoid recapture. In detailed research and documentation, Procko spotlights a lesser-known aspect of the Civil War, and in so doing helps the reader better understand the circumstances surrounding that most tragic of wars. While the book is nonfiction, Procko adds enough personal details of each man to make it more of a novel, though it adheres to factual accounts. He returns often to the photograph of the 12 men, but the book is also full of other photographs, maps, and drawings to keep the reader appraised of who, where, and what was occurring. Highly recommended not only to devotees of the Civil War, but to anyone interested in such an amazing, and true account of the human spirit.
August 2, 2023
Captured Freedom is a different type of Civil War history book. Most CW history books focus on battles, generals, tactics, or weapons in attempts to uncover something new about a conflict that started more than 160 years ago.
In the case of Captured Freedom, writer Steve Procko saw the potential of a book when a descendant of one of the men pictured texted him a single photograph of 12 men. They are a ragged, but tough-looking bunch; pants in tatters, brogans looking worn; faces haggard.
Procko looked at the photo and wondered who all the men were and why they all had their image made.
Captured Freedom not only identifies all the men, but tells their life stories through diary entries, newspaper accounts, and military records. Procko even discovered that the University of Chicago Historical Society had long mis-identified their copy of the photo as being of Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas in Chicago.
Nine of the men pictured were Union officers who escaped from Camp Sorghum, a prisoner of war camp just outside of Columbia, S.C. Three are the guides who helped lead them through the mountains of North Carolina in late 1864 to the Union lines in east Tennessee. On the day after they reached safety in Knoxville, Tenn., they all agreed to have their image taken to remember their harrowing experiences.
The 12 men in the picture could not have made it to freedom without the help of several slaves the Union soldiers remembered helped them along the war. In fact, it was the slaves who keep the men fed and warm along the way. Unfortunately, it does not appear that the Union soldiers tried to find the freedmen after the war to repay their kindness.
Procko has researched each man’s military career from enlistment through capture, escape, return home and right through their deaths. That task alone was difficult as the men came from seven different regiments, were captured at several different battles, and had been imprisoned in several different prison camps before all ending up at Camp Sorghum late in the war.
Procko eases the complications of trying to tell 12 separate stories by writing chronological chapters tracking each man’s experiences in battle, being captured, and then spending time in notorious prisons like Libby in Richmond. He uses post-war written accounts by the men to document what was happening to them at each turning point of their lives during the war.
Along the journey to making the photograph, the men graphically describe what they saw in combat, how they were treated in prison, how they survived, and how they tried to escape. Even the famous Dahlgren Raid toward Richmond to kill the Confederate cabinet finds mention in the book since freeing the Libby prisoners was one of the stated objectives of the raid.
Delving into a long dead man’s family history can be difficult for the reader. One soldier had been inaccurately declared dead in the newspapers rather than captured. His wife then took up with another man to keep food on the table for her children. When her husband turned out to be alive, a town scandal erupted. The freed prisoner had no choice but to divorce his wife once he returned home – something rarely done in those days.
There are no grand military maneuvers in Captured Freedom and no deep analysis of generals’ battlefield tactics. What the reader gets is a well-thought-out adventure story following 12 men who endured and survived. As this book is really 12 personal stories woven into one final adventure ending in triumph, it is well worth the purchase.
Yes, there are books on the Dahlgren Raid, on Libby Prison, and others on the prison camps of both sides of the conflict. But I cannot think of any books written quite like this one; a focus on 12 men who hardly knew each other who helped each other survive for several weeks over nearly 400 miles.
In the case of Captured Freedom, writer Steve Procko saw the potential of a book when a descendant of one of the men pictured texted him a single photograph of 12 men. They are a ragged, but tough-looking bunch; pants in tatters, brogans looking worn; faces haggard.
Procko looked at the photo and wondered who all the men were and why they all had their image made.
Captured Freedom not only identifies all the men, but tells their life stories through diary entries, newspaper accounts, and military records. Procko even discovered that the University of Chicago Historical Society had long mis-identified their copy of the photo as being of Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas in Chicago.
Nine of the men pictured were Union officers who escaped from Camp Sorghum, a prisoner of war camp just outside of Columbia, S.C. Three are the guides who helped lead them through the mountains of North Carolina in late 1864 to the Union lines in east Tennessee. On the day after they reached safety in Knoxville, Tenn., they all agreed to have their image taken to remember their harrowing experiences.
The 12 men in the picture could not have made it to freedom without the help of several slaves the Union soldiers remembered helped them along the war. In fact, it was the slaves who keep the men fed and warm along the way. Unfortunately, it does not appear that the Union soldiers tried to find the freedmen after the war to repay their kindness.
Procko has researched each man’s military career from enlistment through capture, escape, return home and right through their deaths. That task alone was difficult as the men came from seven different regiments, were captured at several different battles, and had been imprisoned in several different prison camps before all ending up at Camp Sorghum late in the war.
Procko eases the complications of trying to tell 12 separate stories by writing chronological chapters tracking each man’s experiences in battle, being captured, and then spending time in notorious prisons like Libby in Richmond. He uses post-war written accounts by the men to document what was happening to them at each turning point of their lives during the war.
Along the journey to making the photograph, the men graphically describe what they saw in combat, how they were treated in prison, how they survived, and how they tried to escape. Even the famous Dahlgren Raid toward Richmond to kill the Confederate cabinet finds mention in the book since freeing the Libby prisoners was one of the stated objectives of the raid.
Delving into a long dead man’s family history can be difficult for the reader. One soldier had been inaccurately declared dead in the newspapers rather than captured. His wife then took up with another man to keep food on the table for her children. When her husband turned out to be alive, a town scandal erupted. The freed prisoner had no choice but to divorce his wife once he returned home – something rarely done in those days.
There are no grand military maneuvers in Captured Freedom and no deep analysis of generals’ battlefield tactics. What the reader gets is a well-thought-out adventure story following 12 men who endured and survived. As this book is really 12 personal stories woven into one final adventure ending in triumph, it is well worth the purchase.
Yes, there are books on the Dahlgren Raid, on Libby Prison, and others on the prison camps of both sides of the conflict. But I cannot think of any books written quite like this one; a focus on 12 men who hardly knew each other who helped each other survive for several weeks over nearly 400 miles.
April 20, 2026
A fascinating book about the history of one picture taken during the Civil War. The author was able to research each of the men and how they entered the war, their escape attempts and their lives afterward. He also traces the history of the photograph itself and its copies and the identification and misidentification of the men pictured. Thoroughly researched and written in an engaging style. Goodreads Giveaway.
September 4, 2023
Very interesting book about how the men in the photo came to be in the Confederate POW camp and then how they escaped back to Tennessee. Five stars for content but three stars for formatting issues. Needed another pass by the editor.
August 31, 2023
I thought. I knew all about the Civil War. Boy. I was wrong. I never heard of POW escape.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews