Story of Camp Douglas

Story of Camp Douglas PDF Author: David L. Keller
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1626199116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
If you were a Confederate prisoner during the Civil War, you might have ended up in this infamous military prison in Chicago. More Confederate soldiers died in Chicago's Camp Douglas than on any Civil War battlefield. Originally constructed in 1861 to train forty thousand Union soldiers from the northern third of Illinois, it was converted to a prison camp in 1862. Nearly thirty thousand Confederate prisoners were housed there until it was shut down in 1865. Today, the history of the camp ranges from unknown to deeply misunderstood. David Keller offers a modern perspective of Camp Douglas and a key piece of scholarship in reckoning with the legacy of other military prisons.

Story of Camp Douglas

Story of Camp Douglas PDF Author: David L. Keller
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1626199116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
If you were a Confederate prisoner during the Civil War, you might have ended up in this infamous military prison in Chicago. More Confederate soldiers died in Chicago's Camp Douglas than on any Civil War battlefield. Originally constructed in 1861 to train forty thousand Union soldiers from the northern third of Illinois, it was converted to a prison camp in 1862. Nearly thirty thousand Confederate prisoners were housed there until it was shut down in 1865. Today, the history of the camp ranges from unknown to deeply misunderstood. David Keller offers a modern perspective of Camp Douglas and a key piece of scholarship in reckoning with the legacy of other military prisons.

Camp Douglas

Camp Douglas PDF Author: Kelly Pucci
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738551753
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Thousands of Confederate soldiers died in Chicago during the Civil War, not from battle wounds, but from disease, starvation, and torture as POWs in a military prison three miles from the Chicago Loop. Initially treated as a curiosity, attitudes changed when newspapers reported the deaths of Union soldiers on southern battlefields. As the prison population swelled, deadly diseases--smallpox, dysentery, and pneumonia--quickly spread through Camp Douglas. Starving prisoners caught stealing from garbage dumps were tortured or shot. Fearing a prisoner revolt, a military official declared martial law in Chicago, and civilians, including a Chicago mayor and his family, were arrested, tried, and sentenced by a military court. At the end of the Civil War, Camp Douglas closed, its buildings were demolished, and records were lost or destroyed. The exact number of dead is unknown; however, 6,000 Confederate soldiers incarcerated at Camp Douglas are buried among mayors and gangsters in a South Side cemetery. Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison explores a long-forgotten chapter of American history, clouded in mystery and largely forgotten.

The Story of Camp Douglas

The Story of Camp Douglas PDF Author: David Keller
Publisher: History Press Library Editions
ISBN: 9781540213334
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
More Confederate soldiers died in Chicago s Camp Douglas than on any Civil War battlefield. Originally constructed in 1861 to train forty thousand Union soldiers from the northern third of Illinois, it was converted to a prison camp in 1862. Nearly thirty thousand Confederate prisoners were housed there until it was shut down in 1865. Today, the history of the camp ranges from unknown to deeply misunderstood. David Keller offers a modern perspective of Camp Douglas and a key piece of scholarship in reckoning with the legacy of other military prisons."

To Die in Chicago

To Die in Chicago PDF Author: George Levy
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Camp Douglas was built in 1861 as a Union recruiting and training depot, but by December 1864, it held over 12,000 prisoners of war, many of whom died of "starvation, neglect, cruelty ... pneumonia, dysentery, and small pox."--Jacket.

To Die in Chicago

To Die in Chicago PDF Author: George Levy
Publisher: Evanston Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description


Military Prisons of the Civil War

Military Prisons of the Civil War PDF Author: David L. Keller
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594163579
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description


The Story of Camp Douglas: Chicago's Forgotten Civil War Prison

The Story of Camp Douglas: Chicago's Forgotten Civil War Prison PDF Author: David L. Keller
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625854447
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
If you were a Confederate prisoner during the Civil War, you might have ended up in this infamous military prison in Chicago. More Confederate soldiers died in Chicago's Camp Douglas than on any Civil War battlefield. Originally constructed in 1861 to train forty thousand Union soldiers from the northern third of Illinois, it was converted to a prison camp in 1862. Nearly thirty thousand Confederate prisoners were housed there until it was shut down in 1865. Today, the history of the camp ranges from unknown to deeply misunderstood. David Keller offers a modern perspective of Camp Douglas and a key piece of scholarship in reckoning with the legacy of other military prisons.

Andersonville and Camp Douglas

Andersonville and Camp Douglas PDF Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781792655555
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "Wuld that I was an artist & had the material to paint this camp & all its horors or the tounge of some eloquent Statesman and had the privleage of expresing my mind to our hon. rulers at Washington, I should gloery to describe this hell on earth where it takes 7 of its ocupiants to make a shadow." - Sgt. David Kennedy "There is so much filth about the camp that it is terrible trying to live here." - Michigan cavalryman John Ransom Notorious, a hell on earth, a cesspool, a death camp, and infamous have all been used by prisoners and critics to describe Andersonville Prison, constructed to house Union prisoners of war in 1864, and all descriptions apply. Located in Andersonville, Georgia and known colloquially as Camp Sumter, Andersonville only served as a prison camp for 14 months, but during that time 45,000 Union soldiers suffered there, and nearly 13,000 died. Victims found at the end of the war who had been held at Camp Sumter resembled victims of Auschwitz, starving and left to die with no regard for human life.Rumors about the horrors of Andersonville were making the rounds by the summer of 1864, and they were bad enough that during the Atlanta campaign, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman gave orders for a cavalry raid attempting to liberate the prisoners there. The Union cavalry were repulsed by Southern militia and cavalry at that point, and even after Sherman took Atlanta, the retreating Confederates moved under the assumption that the Union would target Andersonville yet again. Before the end of the war, the Confederates were moving prisoners from Andersonville to Camp Lawton, but by then, Andersonville was already synonymous with horror. Unable to supply its own armies, the Confederates had inadequately supplied the prison and its thousands of Union prisoners, leaving over 25% of the prisoners to die of starvation and disease. All told, Andersonville accounted for 40% of the deaths of all Union prisoners in the South, and the causes of death included malnutrition, disease, poor sanitation, overcrowding, and exposure to inclement weather. In fact, Andersonville infuriated the North so much that Henry Wirz, the man in charge of Andersonville, was the only Confederate executed after the war. When Union forces marched through Georgia and liberated Andersonville in May 1865, photographers were brought in to record the scenes of overcrowding, sickness, and death, ensuring the sight was preserved for future generations to see. Conversely, Camp Douglas, closed at roughly the same time, was torn down, and its very existence was nearly wiped from memory. The attempt to forget Camp Douglas was understandable, because in the last two years of the war, at least 4,000 Confederate prisoners died there, meaning nearly 1 in 5 Confederates who were sent there never left. In many ways, the story of Camp Douglas is the story of the Civil War itself. The camp got its start as a brand new facility filled with men ready to fight a war that most on both sides believed would last only a few months. However, as the war went on, the facilities were overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the damage and the massive numbers of people involved. In the first few years of the war, the kind of total war practiced by Grant and Sherman in 1864 was unthinkable, and the two sides liberally conducted prisoner exchanges and paroled prisoners based solely on their word. As time passed, however, bitterness hardened between the two sides, and the war aims changed as the North looked for new strategies to finally subdue the South. The resulting chain of events led to the horrors of Camp Douglas. This book examines how Andersonville and Camp Douglas became so notorious, and what life was like there for the prisoners.

Rally 'round the Flag

Rally 'round the Flag PDF Author: Theodore J. Karamanski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742551374
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
In this landmark narrative history of Chicago during the Civil War, Theodore J. Karamanski examines the people and events that formed this critical period in the city's history. Using diaries, letters, and newspapers that survived the Great Fire of 1871, he shows how Chicagoans' opinions evolved from a romantic and patriotic view of the war to recognition of the conflict's brutality. Located a safe distance behind the battle lines and accessible to the armies via rail and waterways, the city's economy grew feverishly while increasing population strained Chicago's social fabric. From the great Republican convention of 1860 in the "Wigwam," to the dismal life of Confederate prisoners in Camp Douglas on the South Side of Chicago, Rally 'Round the Flag paints a vivid picture of the Midwest city vigorously involved in the national conflict.

A History of Camp Douglas, Illinois Union Prison, 1861-1865

A History of Camp Douglas, Illinois Union Prison, 1861-1865 PDF Author: Dennis Kelly
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781980458302
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
A detailed history of Camp Douglas, a Union prison for Confederate prisoners of war during the Civil War. Fourteen chapters cover topics such as the early history of Camp Douglas as a training camp for Union recruits, the building of the prison, the guard force, the hospitals, rations for prisoners, escapes and other crimes, and more.