Ricey M. King Brooks (Born 15 October 1838; Died 5 August 1862), was a Son of John Sawyer Brooks and Rebecca (Mitchell) Brooks, Macon County, Georgia, residents.

Ricey M. Brooks became a Confederate Soldier, Military Rank of Private, in Company K ("Macon County Wise Guards"), 25th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Confederate States Army, during opening stages of the American Civil War (War Between the States).
Note: This same Co. K, 25th GA Inf. Regt., upon 30 November 1862, was redesignated to: Company B, 22nd Georgia Heavy Artillery Battalion, Confederate States Army.

Upon the tragic occasion of his 5 August 1862 Prisoner of War Death, Confederate Soldier Ricey M. ("R.M.") Brooks was a Married Man. He left behind a grieving War Widow, named, Julia Ann Margarette (McKinney) Brooks, of Talbot County, Georgia, and 2 Young Children:
1. Julia Rebecca Brooks, Daughter, Born 6 May 1860, Garland, Butler County, Alabama, and
2. Edward Curtis Brooks, Son, Born 30 October 1861, Talbotton, Talbot County, GA.

The Antebellum Marriage of R. M. K. Brooks and Julia Ann Margarette McKinney occurred upon 7 November 1858 in Talbot County, Georgia (Marriage Certificate dated 7 Nov. 1858, Talbot County, Georgia). Julia Ann McKinney was born upon 18 December 1838, Forsyth, Monroe County, Georgia, a Daughter of John McKinney and Julia Ann (Hunt) McKinney.

CSA Soldier Ricey M. Brooks mustered into wartime service upon 2 September 1861, after enlisting at age 23 years, and served honorably for nearly 12 months, until his untimely death on 5 August 1862.

According to Official Records of the United States (Union) Army and Confederate States (Rebel) Army, CSA Soldier Ricey M. Brooks was listed among those captured on 11 April 1862, following the garrison surrender of Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island. Important Confederate stronghold of Fort Pulaski was strategically situated at the Savannah River Mouth: to defend the nearby vital seaport city of Savannah, Georgia, located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away upriver.

Union Naval and Union Army Siege of Confederate Fort Pulaski lasted 52 days (nearly 2 months), culminating in a warfare-changing, 30-hour bombardment: world history's first usage of heavy or long-range, rifled artillery against a supposedly impregnable, brick masonry fortification. Fort Pulaski Confederate Garrison Unconditional Surrender of this battered, coastal citadel, upon 11 April 1862, produced the following lopsided battle statistics (based on Union Military Official Reports & Confederate Army Official Reports):
1 Union Casualty (Killed in Action -KIA-),
10,000 Army, Naval & U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force Troops Engaged,
5,275 Expended Artillery Rounds (Union Shot & Shell);
Seizure of 47 Intact Confederate Cannon,
70,000 Unused Ammunition Rounds (Confederate Stored Shot & Shell),
3 Month's Worth Military Food Provisions (Stockpiled to Feed 385 Confederate Troops),
385 Confederate Casualties (25 Killed in Action, 360 Prisoners of War -POWs-).

United States (Union) Army records show Confederate Enlisted POWs in mid-April 1862, were transported by Union Navy troop ships from Fort Pulaski, Georgia, to imprisonment in Fort Castle Williams, Governor's Island, New York City Harbor. Likewise, their fellow Confederate Officer POWs were confined in Fort Columbus, aboard the same island.

After enduring 3 months of captivity in New York Harbor, Ft. Pulaski Confederate Officer POWs were transferred northwestward via military railroad train and boats in mid-July 1862, to Johnson's Island Union Army POW Camp, nearby Sandusky, Ohio. Johnson's Island, a 300-acre military prison complex located in Sandusky Bay, Ottawa County, Ohio, along the Lake Erie southern coastline, was a stealthy death trap: a rather mild climate in Summer, but humid and mosquito-infested; Winter weather was miserably damp, bone-chilling, deadly cold, windy, and snowy.

Some 267 POW Deaths occurred amongst the 15,000 Confederate Officers confined in Johnson's Island Union Military Prison during 3 years of operation (1862-1865). The Johnson's Island 1.8 percent POW Death Rate equated to the lowest amongst all military prisons (Union or Confederate), throughout the American Civil War. Confederate Officer POW Dead are buried in Johnson's Island Confederate Stockade Cemetery: 206 graves are marked, while 61 additional graves pinpointed by ground-penetrating radar, contain Unknown Confederate Soldiers, Now Known Only to God.

Meanwhile, Fort Pulaski Confederate Enlisted Personnel POWs were transported southward via naval vessels in mid-July 1862, to Fort Delaware Union Army POW Camp, nearby Delaware City, Delaware. Confederate Enlisted Prisoners of War revealingly lamented Fort Delaware as, "80 Acres of Hell", because of the cruelty, disease and death witnessed therein. Confederate POWs in Fort Delaware died of various causes, such as, Camp Fever (Dysentery), Small Pox, Measles, Typhoid Fever, Consumption (Tuberculosis), Pneumonia, Blood Poisoning, Gangrene, Scurvy, Starvation, Dehydration, Cold Exposure, and Execution.

Soon after arrival in this fearsome military prison, CSA Private Ricey M. Brooks died of disease on 5 August 1862, as a Prisoner-of-War (POW) at Fort Delaware Union Army Military Prison, Pea Patch Island, Delaware City, New Castle County, Delaware, amidst the Delaware River, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) downriver and southwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The name of Confederate States Army Private Ricey M. Brooks was not listed upon the Confederate POW Memorial Monument at Finn's Point National Cemetery, nor included in the Register of Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Who Died in Federal Prisons and Military Hospitals in the North, which Official Report was published in 1912 by the Adjutant General, U.S. War Department, Washington, DC.

Omission Fact of the CSA Private Ricey M. Brooks name, from both Fort Delaware Confederate POW Dead registers, was discovered on 7 March 2020, by Dean Ledbetter, Family History Researcher and Author of this CSA Pvt. Ricey M. King Brooks Memorial Tribute Biographical Sketch.

Although originally buried in one of two POW Stockade cemeteries established at Fort Delaware, the remains of CSA Private Ricey M. Brooks were among nearly 3,000 Confederate POW Dead exhumed and reburied in 1875 in Finn's Point National Cemetery in Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Fort Delaware.

Confederate Prisoner of War Memorial Monument at Finn's Point National Cemetery, Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey, lists the names of 2,436 Confederate POW Dead, upon 12 bronze plaques, neatly arranged around the monument base. More than 500 Confederate POW Dead of Fort Delaware, whose names were not listed upon the 12 bronze plaques, additionally were buried in the Confederate POW Mass Grave in Finn's Point National Cemetery.

Research by Fort Delaware Society archivists and other interested genealogists discovered some 500 missing names of Fort Delaware Confederate POW Dead: Once Forgotten Soldiers, Known Only to God. Via ongoing research in the United States National Archives, Confederate Military Records and Southern States Archives, some 2,925 Confederate Military POWs, plus 39 Confederate Civilian Detainees, totalling 2,964 Fort Delaware Confederate POW Dead, thus far have been identified. However, no Tombstones mark Individual Graves: a Mass Grave of 12 trenches contains remains of nearly 3,000 Confederate POW Dead.

An additional 22 Fort Delaware Confederate POW Deaths & Burials, hereby are worthy of note. During the 1875 mass exhumations of the Fort Delaware POW Stockade Cemeteries, and thence, across-river reburials in Finn's Point National Cemetery, 22 graves were discovered to contain only empty coffins. During the decade between war's end in 1865 until 1875, several families visited Fort Delaware to claim the remains of deceased Confederate Soldier POWs. Undertakers used new coffins to bring home to Old Dixie Graveyards these Fort Delaware Confederate POW Dead. That accounts for the empty tombs or vacant graves, but not the identities those 22 Fort Delaware Confederate POWs removed by Southern American Families. If those 22 empty tombs are added to the 2,964 figure of Fort Delaware POW Dead thus far identified, the new and more accurate total equals 2,988 of Confederate Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Civilian Detainees, who perished from all causes at Fort Delaware, during 4 long years of the American Civil War (1861 thru 1865).

Originally, most or all of the Fort Delaware POW Stockade Graves had Wooden Gravemarkers, containing identifying "Inscriptions": Name, Rank, Military Unit (Company, Regiment, State, Service Branch), Birth Date & Death Date (Either Full Dates or Just Years). Ravages of Time, Weather, etc. caused the Wooden Gravemarkers naturally to deteriorate. Sloppy record-keeping and lost or destroyed sexton's records, compounded the problem of massive missing Graves Identification.

Consequently, for both Fort Delaware Confederate POW Dead and Ft. Delaware Union Army Guard Dead, decisions were made to create two separate mass graves in Finn's Point National Cemetery: respectively marked by a Confederate POW Memorial Monument (with name plaques) and a Union Army Guards Memorial Monument (with name plaques).

Fort Delaware Union Army Guards Memorial Monument in Finn's Point National Cemetery, commemorates 135 Union Army Guards, who died at Fort Delaware, during the 1861-1865 American Civil War. While 105 names were listed, 30 became unknowns, because some Wooden Gravemarkers deteriorated and Burial Records were lost.

Additionally, 13 German POWs of World War II, who died at Fort Dix, New Jersey, are buried in Finn's Point National Cemetery, Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey.

Moreover, Finn's Point National Cemetery is an active cemetery, with American Armed Forces Dead of wartime and peacetime buried here, even in more modern times of the 21st Century.

SPECIAL APPRECIATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
To: Mike B. (Find-A-Grave Contributor / Member 47525629)
From: Dean Ledbetter
Saturday, 7 March 2020

This Memorial Biographer expresses Special Appreciation unto Mike B. (Find-A-Grave Contributor / Member 47525629), for the kind submission of several Official Documents, i.e., Compiled Military Service Records, reference: Ricey M. Brooks, Confederate States Army Soldier & Prisoner of War, who died upon 5 August 1862, at Fort Delaware Union Army POW Camp, Delaware City, Delaware, AND War Widow's Claim Affidavit, re: Julia Ann (McKinney) Brooks. Digital Image Documents received were helpful to currently support the Memorial Tribute Biography and to promote continued Family History Research in the future.

Source References:
1. CSA Private & Prisoner of War Ricey M. Brooks, Company K ("Macon County Wise Guards"), 25th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Confederate States Army, "Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865, Volume III" (of 6 Volumes), Author/Compiler: Lillian Henderson, State Director, Georgia State Division of Confederate Pensions & Records, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Publisher: Longino & Porter, Incorporated, Hapeville, GA, Year 1959 (Original Book Copies in Georgia State Archives, Atlanta, GA and Campus Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI);
2. Confederate States Army Private Ricey M. Brooks, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers...from the State of Georgia, Author: U.S. National Archives, United States National Archives & Records Service (NARA), Washington, DC, Year 1959;
3. "Copy of Official Plan of the Siege of Fort Pulaski. Cockspur Island. Savannah, Georgia, April 1862": Fort Pulaski (GA) Historical Battle Map dated April, 1862, by Robert Knox Sneden, Cartographer, United States Library of Congress, Washington, DC;
4. Siege and Battle of Fort Pulaski, Savannah, Georgia, Dec. 1861-April 1862, Official Reports, United States (Union) Army, U.S. Army Center for Military History, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania;
5. Siege and Battle of Fort Pulaski, Savannah, Georgia, Dec. 1861-April 1862, Official Reports, United States (Union) Navy, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland;
6. Amphibious Expeditionary Campaign, Siege & Battle of Fort Pulaski, Savannah, Georgia, Dec. 1861 - April 1862, United States Marine Corps Staff NCO Academy Course of Year 1999, U.S. Marine Corps Institute, U.S. Marine Barracks, Washington, DC;
7. Amphibious Expeditionary Campaign, Siege & Battle of Fort Pulaski, Savannah, Georgia, Dec. 1861 - April 1862, United States Marine Corps Reserve Officer Course of Year 1990, U.S. Armed Forces Command & Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas;
8. Siege and Battle of Fort Pulaski, Savannah, Georgia, Dec. 1861-April 1862, Official Reports, Confederate States (Rebel) Army, U.S. Army Center for Military History, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania;
9. Confederate Memorial Monument with 12 bronze plaques of names, Finns Point National Cemetery, Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey, National Cemetery Administration (NCA), United States Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC.
10. Fort Delaware & Finn's Point Military Cemetery Confederate POW Burials 1861-1865 and Fort Delaware Exhumations & Finn's Point National Cemetery Reburials of Confederate POWs Official Reports, Civilian Detainees & Union Army Soldiers 1865-1875, Register of Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Who Died in Federal Prisons and Military Hospitals in the North, Adjutant General, U.S. War Department, Washington, DC, Year 1912;
11. John S. Brooks & Rebecca Brooks Family Household (including, Ricey Brooks, Age 12 Years Male), 1850 U.S. Population Census for Georgia, Macon County, Militia District 757 (Southwest Quadrant of Macon Co., GA), United States Census Bureau, U.S. Dept. of Commerce & Labor, Washington, DC, Enumeration Date: 6 August 1850.
12. Julia Ann Brooks, Wife of Ricey M. Brooks, Confederate States Army Soldier & Deceased Prisoner of War 5 August 1862, at Fort Delaware, State of Delaware, War Widow Compensation Claim Affidavit, District Court, Talbot County Courthouse, Georgia.

Ricey M. King Brooks (1838 - 1862)
Confederate States Army Soldier (Private Rank)
Memorial Tribute Biographical Sketch
Author: Dean Ledbetter
Published via Find-A-Grave Internet Website
Memorial Bio-Sketch Created: 7 March 2020
Copyright (C) 2020 by Dean Ledbetter,
All Copyright Provisions Reserved
(American & International).