Camp Douglas (Chicago)

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Camp Douglas was a Union training camp and later prisoner-of-war camp in Chicago, Illinois, USA, during the American Civil War.

1 Overview
2 Deaths
3 Conditions
4 Modern day
5 References
6 Reference Texts
7 External links

[edit] Overview

In 1861, a tract of land at 60th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago was provided by the estate of Stephen A. Douglas for a Union Army training post. The first Confederate prisoners of war—more than 7,000 from the capture of Fort Donelson in Tennessee—arrived in February, 1862. Eventually, over 26,000 Confederate soldiers passed through the prison camp, which eventually came to be known as the North's "Andersonville" for its inhumane conditions.

[edit] Deaths

It is estimated that from 1862–1865, more than 6,000 Confederate prisoners died from disease, starvation, and the bitter cold winters (although as many as 1,500 were reported as "unaccounted" for). The largest number of prisoners held at any one time was 12,000 in December 1864. Accounts vary as to precise numbers. According to 80 Acres of Hell, a television documentary produced by the A&E Network and the The History Channel, the reason for the uncertainty is that many records were intentionally destroyed after the war. The documentary also alleges that, for a period of time, the camp contracted with an unscrupulous undertaker who sold some of the bodies of Confederate prisoners to medical schools and had the rest buried in shallow graves without coffins. Some were even dumped in Lake Michigan only to wash up on its shores. Many, however, were initially buried in unmarked pauper's graves in Chicago's City Cemetery (located on the site of today's Lincoln Park), but in 1867 were reinterred at what is now known as Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery (5 miles south of the former Camp Douglas).

Nobody was ever held accountable for the conditions and actions at Camp Douglas.

[edit] Conditions

Henry Whitney Bellows, president of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, wrote to Colonel Hoffman his superior after visiting the camp: "Sir, the amount of standing water, unpoliced grounds, of foul sinks, of unventilated and crowded barracks, of general disorder, of soil reeking miasmatic accretions, of rotten bones and emptying of camp kettles, is enough to drive a sanitarian to despair. I hope that no thought will be entertained of mending matters. The absolute abandonment of the spot seems to be the only judicious course, I do not believe that any amount of drainage would purge that soil loaded with accumulated filth or those barracks fetid with two stories of vermin and animal exhalations. Nothing but fire can cleanse them."^{[citation needed]}

According to the History Channel documentary, the commander before Sweet imposed the following harsh conditions: 3oz daily meat portions, sitting naked in the winter, crippling sittings on a sawhorse device, and beating or shooting of those trying to circumvent food rations--even, for example, to punish the eating of snow. ^[1]

The documentary details Sweet's command of Camp Douglas by saying Colonel B.J. Sweet used reduced food rations--removing vegetables and decreasing the 3oz daily meat portions--to control the prison population and reduce attempts at escape. The reduced rations help disease such as scurvy to spread and help increase mortality rates. Sweet rewarded guards for shooting prisoners, restricted prisoner movement, and enforced nightly quiet hours. Acting on rumors of a pre-election Camp Douglas Conspiracy to break prisoners free, Sweet extends martial law from the blocks surrounding Camp Douglas to the city of Chicago and arrests about a hundred citizens suspected of treason.

[edit] Modern day

After the war, the camp was decommissioned and the infamous barracks and other buildings were demolished. Today, condominiums and part of the University of Chicago campus fill most of the site. In addition, Washington Park (formerly, South Park) is a protected 700 Acre tract of land that sits on what was the western edge of Camp Douglas.

For many years, a local funeral home later built on the site has maintained prisoner records and a Confederate flag at half-staff, despite being a black-owned business in a predominantly African American neighborhood. The business is slated to close December 31, 2007.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Pucci, Kelly (2007). Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison. Arcadia Publishing, 57. ISBN 0-7385-5175-9.
^ Shamus Toomey. "60-year legacy ends: GRIFFIN FUNERAL HOME", Chicago Sun-Times, November 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.

[edit] Reference Texts

To die in Chicago : Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, 1862-1865. 1994. by Levy, George, Evanston Pub. Co., Evanston, Ill.
A Civil War prison camp by the lake : Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois 1993. by Fulton, Lori Renee. Master's Thesis, IL State Univ
A history of Camp Douglas, Illinois, Union Prison, 1861-1865. 1989. by Kelly, Dennis. National Park Service, Southeast Region.
A comparative study of conditions at two Civil War prison camps : Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois and Camp Sumpter, Andersonville, Georgia. 1979. by Kubalanza, Joan Marie G., M.A. Thesis, DePaul Univ.
Site of Camp Douglas. 1976. by Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks.
Confederate soldiers, sailors, and civilians who died as prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., 1862-1865 1968. by Praus, Alexis A. E. Gray Publications, Kalamazoo, MI. [most buried at Chicago's Oakwoods Cemetery]
The History Of Camp Douglas, 1861-1865. 1961. by De Jonge, Karl Everard. Urbana, IL.
Camp Douglas & its prisoner of war letters. 1951. by Cabeen, Richard. American Philatelic Congress, Reading PA.
History of Camp Douglas 1942. by Clingman, Lewis B. MA Thesis, DePaul Univ.
A sketch of the Battle of Franklin, Tenn. ; with reminiscences of Camp Douglas. 1893. by Copley, John M. Eugene Von Boeckmann, printer,Austin, TX.
Biographical sketch of the late Gen. B.J. Sweet. History of Camp Douglas. A paper read before the Chicago Historical Society, June 18th, 1878 1878. by Bross, William. Jansen, McClurg & Co., Chicago.
The history of Camp Douglas : including official report of Gen. B.J. Sweet : with anecdotes of the rebel prisoners. 1865. by Tuttle, Edmund Bostwick. J.R. Walsh, Chicago.
Reply of the Judge advocate, H. L. Burnett, to the pleas of the counsel for the accused : to the jurisdiction of the military commission, convened by major-general Hooker, commanding northern department, in the case of the United States vs. Charles Walsh ... (et. al.) charged with conspiring to release the rebel prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois, and to lay waste and destroy that city. 1865 by Burnett, Henry Lawrence. Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, Cincinnati.
Chicago's Camp Douglas, 1861-1865. By Eisendrath, Joseph L.

[edit] External links

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