Military Monday–Andrew “Drew” Rivers

Very few people know the story of Andrew “Drew’ Rivers.

Andrew Rivers, aka as Drury was born about 1845 to John B. Rivers and Eliza Rivers. He was the middle son of a rather large family; five sibling older than he and 5 sibling  who were younger.

When the Civil War began in early 1861, he was just a lad about 16 years old; too young to go off to war. I sure he got all caught up in the excitement of all the young and older men around Chesterfield that were organizing and marching off to war. There is no record that Andrew ever volunteer and signed up for the War; but, he died as a prisoner of War in a Union POW Camp at Point Lookout, Maryland.  

After General Sherman’s march on and burning of Atlanta, he continued on to the sea at Savannah then headed north toward Columbia, South Carolina on his way to Goldsborough, North Carolina.  [Official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 47 (Part II), page 178]. By 1 February 1865, General Sherman entire Army was in march from Atlanta. On February 17th, 1865, he captured Columbia, South Carolina.

It’s rumor that the Union Army sacked and destroyed the city piling up bales of cotton to be burned in the streets of the city. Leaving Columbia, the next destination was Chesterfield Court House, the bedrock of secession.

As Sherman Forces moved eastward from Lancaster, through Mt. Croghan and on toward Chesterfield on the 24th of February 1865, Drew Rivers, a citizen of the Chesterfield County, a mere lad of  20 was captured and imprisoned.

He died in Pt. Lookout on 8 May 1865.



There’s a Confederate Tombstone for Drury Rivers in the Rivers Cemetery. I have found no record that Drury was returned to South Carolina. He is most likely buried at Pt. Lookout, Maryland in the mass grave that all the other prisoners that died within.

Drury RIVERS, Co. D, 6th SC Cav CSA**


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[1] 1850 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield District, South Carolina, enumeration district (ED) No ED, page 128A; Line 33, dwelling 462; family 462, Household of John B. RIVERS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed ); citing National Archives Microfilm M432 Roll 851.
[2] 1860 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, enumeration district (ED) No Ed, Page: 116; Line 15, dwelling 314, family 313, Household of Eliza RIVERS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 29 August 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm M653_1217.
[3]  Sherman's March Through the Carolinas, John G. Barrett, Page 106.
[4] POW's held at Point Lookout Maryland, Film #1303418, FHL, SLC Entry #3906. Death recorded as 8 May 1865 in same film, same entry.
[5] http://www.ancestry.com - short link -  http://ancstry.me/XrjWY2 - Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865 [6] Buried in the Confederate Cemetery at Point Lookout, Maryland is a  Drew Rivers, Citizen, Chesterfield, S. C. died 5/8/1865. Source: Register of Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Who Died in Federal Prisons and Military Hospitals in the North, Compiled in the Office of the Commissioner for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead, War Department, 1912. Re-issued by Frances Ingmire and Carolyn Ericson, Ericson Books, Nacogdoches, TX & Ingmire Publications, St. Louis, MO, copyright 1984.
[7] Johnson Hagood, Memoirs of the War of Succession (Camden, SC 29020: Jim Fox Books, 1997 (Reprint)).
[8] James C. Pigg, Chesterfield County Cemetery Survey; Self-Published, 1995, page 1160. Tombstone of Drury RIVERS; , Rivers Cemetery, Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina.

** I found no record for a Drury Rivers, Co. D, 6th SC Cav CSA, on the Website - http://www.fold3.com