I also saw the comment about Lincoln's brother in law possibly being a Richmond Prison Commandant. Well here are the facts about that. One of the most notoriously brutal was probably Lieutenant Todd of Richmond. So your wondering is true. David Humphreys Todd, born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1832, was the second of fourteen children in a semiwealthy, slave-owning family. He was also the half brother of Mary Todd Lincoln. The outbreak of the Civil War eventually divided the family. Eight of the children supported the Confederacy along with their father while six, including Mary, supported the Union. According to his family, even by his midteens, David had become notorious. He was in trouble with the law on several occasions and ran away from home, only to return months later with a tattoo of the Chilean flag on his arm. When the Civil War broke out, Todd was working as a plantation overseer, whose responsibility was to keep slaves in line.  He was said to be brutal in that position. After receiving his commission in the Confederate army, he was stationed in Richmond and, at 29 years old, placed in charge of Confederate POWs in that city. He quickly gained a reputation for being cruel and harsh and, according to many prisoners' accounts, he harassed and tortured the prisoners at every opportunity. According to a number of prison memoirs, Todd was intoxicated and belligerent most of the time. In October 1861, he was promoted to captain and transferred out of Richmond to the western front. In July 1863, Captain Todd was severely wounded at Vicksburg and died soon afterward. On the "flip-side", there were some prison commandants who were well-liked and later honored by their prisoners, such as Colonel Dimick of Fort Warren and Colonel Richard D. Owen of Camp Morton in the North, and Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Smith of Danville and Lieutenant J.T.W. Airston and Colonel Godwin of Richmond in the South.

GFS Jim