Biography
William H. Gatchell was a Baltimore police commissioner. 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.
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: “Refused parole.” 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.
