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Appomattox County Jail

For this final blog post of this trip, we are visiting the Appomattox County Jail.  It’s been quite the diverse trip, and somehow I like the fact that it’s ending with a piece of history.

Appomattox County Jail

Here’s a closer view of the County Jail building that we glimpsed at in a previous post.  This “new” county jail was completed in 1867; the original jail burned during the war years.  The guard’s quarters were on the first floor, and the cells were on the top two floors.

 

Guard’s Bedroom

The guard’s bedroom is really very simple – almost as starkly simple as the slave quarters we viewed in a previous posting.  One thing that I found a bit unnerving – there was only 1 bed in the bedroom, and only 1 bedroom.  I don’t know how comfortable I’d be as the only guard with all sorts of prisoners in cells above me!

Desk in Guard’s Quarters

Here’s a simple desk that the guard would use for correspondence and perhaps whatever record-keeping that guards might have needed to do.  When I think of the size of my desk when I worked, I have to laugh!  It seems that the more space I had, the more “stuff” that appeared to take up residence on it!

Vintage Cleaning Tools

When I saw these in the room, I had to capture an image.  Gosh, I hate housecleaning with modern tools.  I think I would have gone insane back in the Civil War era!

Bars on the Cells

Wow!  These bars seem to be impossible to break out of!  I guess being the only guard might be ok……I think.

Bars on the Windows

Well, I guess the silver lining to being in this jail is that one could see outside, in between all the bars.  I think there were 3 or 4 layers of bars on these windows.

Reinforced Walls

In case the prisoners might think about breaking out thru the walls (and then jump from the 2^nd or 3^rd floor??), they put this grid of bars inside the walls when the jail was built.  I wonder – is this the way all jails were built, or was this considered a maximum security jail?  Did they even have them back then?

Reinforced Doors

There were doors that closed over the bars that covered the walkway into the cells.  What are they reinforced with? These are nails – lots and lots of nails that were half hammered into the door and then hammered sideways to eliminate the possibility of sawing thru the door.

Jail Door Lock

And here’s why someone might even think about trying to saw thru a door – this box is the lock on the door!  There was a large key that fit into the keyhole covered by the metal tab.  Then, of course, you’d need the key for the bars that were also between the prisoner and freedom.

Chain Loop

And, for those prisoners that were considered extremely dangerous (would that be almost all of them?), they would be chained to this loop on the floor in the middle of each of the cells.  It was an additional way to protect the guard.  Amazing the lengths they went thru to keep prisoners in jail!

Enjoy!