Civil War Hostages: Hostage Taking in the Civil War

Anyone who regards the American conflict as having been civil in the ordinary sense of that term has only to read the hostage story to realize that in 1861-1865 conflict was uncivilized with no holds barred.

Soldiers and civilians alike were targets of hostage takers; even females were not safe when a commander thought he could use hostages to forces concessions from the enemy. Ordinary citizens occasionally took men in uniform as hostages, and guerilla units on both sides captured enemy civillians whose names they didn't bother to record.