The American Civil War discussion

How bad were they? From what little I've read they were quite inhumane both North & South. Did reaction to them lead the USA into developing a pre-Geneva Convention Code of Conduct for treatment of POW's? I had heard they did. Any comments, titles?

Read John Ransom's book some time. It's pretty harrowing. Simply put, the Confederacy was in no shape to feed their own civilian population in a systematic way, from 1863 onward. They really had no idea how to run prison camps, nor much of a logistical train to keep them operational. Many Union captives at Andersonville were doomed to starve to death, in a hot field with no shelter, exposed to elements day and night for months on end. The one stream running through the camp was choked with filth.. you can imagine the impact of disease in such an environment.

Thank-you. Any thoughts on the Federal camps in New England & the Mid-West? From what little I have read on the subject some in the Mid-West were poorly equipped and resulted in deprivation while at least one (in Maine?) was run under deliberately harsh, evan deadly, rules & methods.

Coalbanks, that's a topic that I've always been interested in, but have found next to nothing in print (at least in modern times) on Union Camps.

Might have been something about Union Prison Camps from Wiley Sword at some point, I seem to recall a reprint of an old book on that subject. From what I recall of it, it described the Union camps as fairly dire, but not life-threatening like Andersonville and Libby were.

H.

I recall reading a magazine article about a POW camp in Maine where the commander was court-martialled for the deaths of prisoners under his care. Sad that power in the wrong hands can be so badly misused.

I realize this topis has been dead for a while but I just came across it.

Camp Douglas in Chicago was pretty bad although there were a fair amount of escapes for a while. In the past few years there have been articles in, I think, the Chicago Tribune magazine and, at least locally, there was a documentary on PBS. Disease was rampant and mostly untreated. Another instance where locals were shamed into providing food. Now it is a big park - Douglas Park. They cleaned it up when they had the big fair designed by Burnham as described in The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.

And Point Lookout in Maryland was no gem either. I have visited there when visiting relatives in the DC area. I picked up Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates on one of my visits. They have a little museum there, it is probably state run. It is in such a pretty area, surrounded by water - apparently also surrounded by disease at the time.

I have never heard anything good about the prison in Elmira, NY, either during its existence as a prison camp during the Civil War or its subsequent life as a prison. When I lived in Elmira I could see the prison on the hill from our house. Mark Twain's grave was also right around the corner. A very pretty cemetery.

So the South did not have a monopoly on evil prison camps.

Of special note is Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor
Like the "Killer Angels", "Andersonville" is a work of fiction and a powerful book winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1955.

I'll look into that one.

One of my great-grandfathers was supposedly among the group that escaped from Libby Prison. However, we were greatly disappointed not to find his name listed in Escape from Libby Prison by James Gindlesperger. It was an interesting book but disappointing to us on a personal note.

I read that Libby was one of a group of prisons in the area in Richmond. Does anyone know if there were escapes from these other prisons?

As a side note, he subsequently married an Irish girl who was living in Richmond who was taking care of her brothers. He was German. My imagination takes flight and wonders whether she might have taken him in and cared for him - he did lose an arm. I read that did happen in some cases.

It is too late to put my father's mind at ease on this subject - he passed away several years ago. But it is still a question I would like to resolve.

Ahh, maybe in my retirement years. Something to look forward to. Thanks.

There were about 10 who escape from Elmira. What information do you have on your ancestor who was in the Civil War? Name and unit would be nice to start with.

I don't know his unit. I don't even know what state he came from. Although they did settle in Baltimore.

And, unfortunately, the only name I know him by was Daddy Kraft - and I am not real sure on the spelling of Kraft. Could be Krafft, Craft or something along those lines.

The family story was that he escaped from Libby in their big escape.

After reading the book I did a little online research and it seemed as though there were two other prisons and a hospital in the area of Belle Isle, I think it was called.

I am just a fount of half-knowledge. Thanks.

Jan wrote: "I don't know his unit. I don't even know what state he came from. Although they did settle in Baltimore.

And, unfortunately, the only name I know him by was Daddy Kraft - and I am not real sure..."

Jan... without more info (in particular his name) and at least what state he was from, to find him will be very difficult unless you live in the DC area and can go to the National Archive every day until you get it sorted out.

I know.

This is why it will probably have to wait until I retire.

I have a book entitled "Andersonville: a Story of Rebel Military Prisons" by John McElroy that I read several years ago. It painted a very bleak picture of life there. McElroy was one of the prisoners and wrote this after the war.

I think it is a good book about life at Andersonville for those interested.

Note- this is an abridged version by Philip Van Doren Stern.

I just checked out Amazon - looks like there are four volumes to this book. Or am I wrong?

Jan- I think this is the one I have. Mine is a paperback from Fawcett Premier. Stern did the abridged version.

I don't have a 4 volume version. Hope this helps.


http://www.amazon.com/Andersonville-S...

It may be, because of the size, for the Kindle edition they had to divide it up.

Those interested in Union prison camps might look at George Levy's book "To Die in Chicago".

http://www.amazon.com/Die-Chicago-Con...

He was on a History Channel series "Secrets of the Civil War" segment entitled "80 Acres of Hell". It concerned Camp Douglas. I don't think it's available for Kindle.
I have not read this.

John wrote: "I have a book entitled "Andersonville: a Story of Rebel Military Prisons" by John McElroy that I read several years ago. It painted a very bleak picture of life there. McElroy was one of the prison..."

If you use a Nook... you can get that book in Nook format free. I just now downloaded it and will put it on my reading list... Thanks John.

I got the book about Camp Douglas a few weeks ago but haven't really started it yet. It looks pretty interesting though.

Jan wrote: "I got the book about Camp Douglas a few weeks ago but haven't really started it yet. It looks pretty interesting though."

What's the name of it?

I'm sorry - John referred to it above but I will include it here - To Die in Chicago: Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65.

There was a big to-do when the Daughters of the Confederacy (or some similarly named group) wanted to do something about the cemetery or a memorial in, I think, 1992. And, apparently the author, George Levy, was involved in the mediation. And smoothing a few feathers. So far, I've only really read the introduction so I can't really say to much about it yet. But the rededication was made in 1995.

And I really had no idea that the prison was right across the street from the University of Chicago - it was actually not the present University of Chicago. But a second University of Chicago has been erected on the site of the former University of Chicago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universi...

A friend of mine who lives in Delaware took me to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware River south of Philadelphia. It was a Union run prison. It was an impressive Delaware state run site. Below is the Wiki and the website of the prison. Had it's share of the usual, disease, lack of provisions, lack of sanitary conditions. Don't recall if they mentioned any escapes. It was about 1/4 to 1/2 mile out in the Delaware. The river had been dredged early in the 20th century so the original size of the island has been lost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Del...

http://www.destateparks.com/park/fort...