Prisoners of Devil's Claw

In the waning days of the American Civil War, when the Confederacy was struggling to stay alive. The prison camps for Union soldiers were filled to capacity with starving men. A renegade officer of the Confederacy, took more than a thousand Union soldiers on a long trek to the American west, into a deep canyon where they were held like slaves. Here they mined silver in a hidden mine, with the proceeds going back eastward to support the efforts of the Confederate States of America in purchasing weapons, clothing, ammunition and food.

Many stories have been told of those dreadful days, but the story of the prisoners held in Devil’s Claw Canyon in the southwestern part of what was to become the state of Colorado has never before been revealed. Many died on the march to Colorado. Those who did survive were sick and weak from the journey, but enough survived to extract thousands of dollars of the precious metal for to support the cause of the Confederacy. The Prisoners of Devil’s Claw is the story of how Al Palmer, U.S. Marshall rescued the prisoners.

The author has gleaned important research information from the scraps of information in the forgotten files of the then War Department and U. S. Army. The author’s grandparents and great grandparents provided additional insight through oral history accounts. It’s a story you will not, and should not, forget about man’s inhumanity to man.