Biography
Charles Howard was president of the Baltimore Board of Police Commissioners. On July 1, 1861, after federal authorities seized control of the city's police, he and his fellow commissioners were arrested by Union troops and imprisoned without trial or charge — first at Fort McHenry, then at Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor, and later at Fort Warren in Boston. They were held for more than a year before being released.
In Frank Key Howard's narrative reproduced in John A. Marshall's American Bastile (1869), printed pages 708-711, Charles Howard obtained temporary parole after news of his daughter's grave illness in November 1862. A November 12 notification was followed by departure on a twenty-day parole, with a planned December 3 return. He declined an indefinite extension on alternative conditions. The November 26 general release telegram and November 27 certificate included him while he was away. This documented parole means the first commitment and final discharge dates do not measure uninterrupted physical imprisonment. Source: https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog/page/n725/mode/2up.
Additional source for this Civil War detention: John A. Marshall, American Bastile (1869), printed pages 369-370, https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog/page/n384/mode/2up. This is a partisan retrospective account; its judgments should be read as attributed claims.
The Fort McHenry return records admission on July 1, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. It lists the historical residence as Baltimore, Maryland. The individual disposition or conditions read: Transferred Fort Lafayette July 29, 1861. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 226, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n241/mode/1up.
The Fort Lafayette return records admission on August 1, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. The return records transfer to Fort Warren on October 30, 1861; this is not final release. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 230, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n245/mode/1up.
The return lists arrest on July 1, 1861. It lists the historical residence as Baltimore, Maryland. The individual disposition or conditions read: Still held February 17, 1862. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 232, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n247/mode/1up.
The Fort Warren return records admission on November 1, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. The November 27 return separately records the prisoner’s reported arrest date as July 1, 1861; that self-report is not substituted for a conflicting contemporary record. It lists the historical residence as Baltimore, Maryland. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 154, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n169/mode/2up. The Fort Warren political-prisoner return dated April 15, 1862 records this individual’s commission disposition as: “Not examined.” The report date is not an exact release date. An offered parole, unaccepted order, or not-examined marker does not establish release or uninterrupted physical imprisonment through that day. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 285, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n300/mode/1up.
Portrait: oil on canvas by an unknown artist, undated. Original caption: Collection of Mrs. Herrick Kidder. Borders cropped from the original scan.
