The Other Side of the Coin

As I read stories and watch movies about the War Between the States, I am disappointed that the full story is not told. Reference is often made to the Union prisoners’ awful conditions at the Andersonville prison, but I’ve never heard mention of Rock Island prison, home to 12,000 Confederate prisoners. Complaints among Andersonville inmates included lack of food and medical care. It should be noted that the Confederate soldiers guarding that prison, and serving elsewhere suffered from the same lack of food and medical care. They couldn’t offer their prisoners what they themselves did not have. The Union Army had done an excellent job of cutting these necessities off from the South. Not only did the tactic succeed in crippling the Confederacy, it also starved their own men. The excuse at Rock Island? Rations were cut, as ordered by the U.S. government in response to the treatment of Union prisoners at Andersonville.[1]

In the end, 17% of the Confederate prisoners died at Rock Island compared with the 27% of Federal prisoners, who died at Andersonville.[2] If those numbers lessen the severity of Rock Island Prison, consider a lesser know prison camp in Federal territory that has been conveniently swept under the rug by the very critics of Andersonville, who also point out that Andersonville prisoners were cruelly mistreated. Camp Douglas was located in Chicago and had the highest mortality rate of all Union prisoner of war camps.[3]

"Prisoners were deprived of clothing to discourage escapes. Many wore sacks with head and arm holes cut out; few had underwear. Blankets to offset the bitter northern winter were confiscated from the few that had them. The weakest froze to death. The Chicago winter of 1864 was devastating. The loss of 1,091 lives in only four months was heaviest for any like period in the camp's history, and equaled the deaths at the highest rate of Andersonville from February to May, 1864. Yet, it is the name of Andersonville that burns in infamy, while there exists a northern counterpart of little shame."[4]

The next time you read a book or watch a movie that mentions Andersonville, remember Camp Douglas.


[1] Brenda Smelser Hay, “Rock Island Civil War Prison,” http://www.censusdiggins.com/prison_rock_island.html, 2008, par. 5.
[2] Ibid, par. 8.
[3] Brenda Smelser Hay, “Camp Douglas Prison,” http://www.censusdiggins.com/prison_camp_douglas.html, 2008, par. 1.
[4] Ibid, par. 3. See also “Camp Douglas” at http://geocities.com/BourbonStreet/2757/issues/camp.htm. Though the author of this web page seems to have had some trouble mastering HTML, his material appears to be well researched. After reading this account of Camp Douglas, Andersonville will not seem so unique.