Many questions were raised about Union prison camps and their conditions on my last blog post, so I decided to continue with the topic and look more in-depth at those in particular. Some of the most notable among the prison camps in the North were Alton prison and Camp Douglas in Illinois, Point Lookout prison in Maryland, and Elmira Prison in New York. [1] Conditions at these prison camp were rarely better than those in the South. Overcrowding was the biggest problem as well as disease and shortage of food and shelter. [2]
Alton Federal Prison in Illinois is a gruesome example of the conditions brought on by overcrowding. Diseases like Smallpox and Rubella were rampant in the prison. More than 1,500 people died of disease at Alton prison, with one Smallpox outbreak killing over 300 men. [3] Illinois’ other prison, Camp Douglas, was known as “the Andersonville of the North.” [4] “Upon inspecting the camp, the U.S Sanitary Commission reported that the ‘…the amount of standing water, of unpoliced grounds, of foul sinks, of general disorder, of soil reeking with miasmic accretions, of rotten bones and emptying of camp kettles…..was enough to drive a sanitarian mad.’ The barracks were so filthy and infested that the commission claimed, ‘nothing but fire can cleanse them.’ ” [5] The conditions were so bad that roughly one in seven soldiers that were sent to Camp Douglas perished there, culminating to over 4,200 deaths by 1865. Union leaders were largely to blame for these conditions as they cut ration sizes and quality to line their own pockets. [6]
Point Lookout in Maryland was another case of overcrowding. At its peak, over 20,000 Confederate soldiers were housed at the prison, more than double its intended capacity. [7] This overcrowding let communicable diseases ravage the prison and claim the lives of many soldiers being held there. This large amount of inmates also surely caused supply problems which would have led to malnutrition and starvation.
Elmira Prison in New York was affectionately known as “Hellmira”. The commandant, Col. William Hoffman forced the Confederate prisoners to sleep outside with little to no shelter. [8] Elmira was also no exception to the overcrowding issue, its intended capacity was 4,000 prisoners, yet it peaked at over three times that amount. [9] Close to 3,000 men lost their lives at Elmira which gave it an almost 25% mortality rate among inmates. [10]
It was assumed that Union prison camps would be better supplied and nicer than Confederate camps; however, after researching for this blog I found that quite the opposite was true. Union camps may not have been equally as bad as prison camps in the South, but they were not nice by any means. They were vulnerable to many of the same problems as those in the South so many of the soldiers faced a similar fate if they found themselves captured by Union forces.
1. Gary Flavion, “Civil War Prison Camps,” Civil War Trust, accessed October 23, 2014, http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/warfare-and-logistics/pow-camps/prison-camps.html.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Ibid
7. Ibid
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
Group D 
I was also similarly surprised when I wrote my blog and discovered that a Confederate hospital had the lowest mortality rate of any hospital during the Civil War. It is interesting how today many of us interpret the Civil War from a Northern perspective, and we assume that the North was superior in all aspects because the Union was victorious. Are there any statistics about the percentage of Confederate soldiers who died in prison camps throughout the North? Do you think that the majority of Confederate soldiers died in these camps as opposed to in hospitals or from sickness? Did the average citizen know about the conditions in prison camps, and if they did, were they concerned about it?
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I had no idea. After I watched the movie Andersonville I assumed that Northern pow camps would naturally be better than their Southern counter parts. This just goes to show the brutality and devastating effect of war.
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I too find it interesting that there was no significant difference between Union and Confederate camps. Did you find anything during your research that spoke to the reason why these prison camps were in such poor repair? One would assume that the paucity of resources and simple lack of motivation would explain the bad condition but I wonder if there was a certain penal, or retributive, aspect lurking behind the scenes.
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Most of the reason for these terrible conditions was due to vast overcrowding. As I mentioned, some of these prison camps were occupying two to three times their expected capacity. With the majority of supplies going to soldiers in the field on both sides and the lack of medicinal knowledge at the time, it is not surprising that those that were imprisoned were in such conditions.
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I have never realized the inhumane and unsanitary conditions of the Northern prison camps. Honestly, it never even crossed my mind that there would have been a Union POW camp in New York. Posts like this one remind me to take a step back and attempt to reanalyze certain aspects of the Civil War through an unbiased lens. I have a tendency to associate inhumane atrocities and devastation largely with the South during this time period, and this is a great reminder to channel multiple perspectives, especially when looking at Civil War prison camps. Are there quite of few pictures of these camps in archives? I would love to take a look.
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There were several artist renderings of Andersonville and very few pictures of inmates from there. I did not find many pictures of Northern prison camps, but the one in the post is Elmira.
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One of the things that interests me is how these types of camps were horrible. I wonder if anyone made an attempt to clean them up and work the right to protect lives. Now we have people who go in and check the conditions and urge fair treatment for prisoners but, that wasn’t the case back then as far as I know. Do you know of any attempts to reform the prison systems at this time period.
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Aside from this blog and a documentary I saw on Camp Douglas several years ago, I knew very little about the prison camps in the North. I had no idea that the Northern P.O.W. camps were just as bad as the Southern camps. I also had no clue about the existence of Point Lookout in Maryland and Elmira Prison in New York.
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Was there no one at all attempting to at least keep these places somewhat clean? I feel like something being that nasty and uninhabitable is inexcusable. Before reading this post, I really thought that the Union camps would’ve been better taken care of. The number of lives lost due to how bad these prisons camps were is just astounding to me.
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I find this very interesting. I too would have assumed the Union camps would have been nicer. If not I would have thought they would at least be better supplied. One thing that I’ve learned so far in class was how better supplied the North than the South. Did your research ever say why the North didn’t supply the camps better?
Ps. I find this post very fitting with the time of year!
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This is really cool and it is actually something I have put a lot of thought into, so I’m glad you blogged about it. I have read about how the unhealthy living spaces for the troops on both sides lead to significant losses of men. I am surprised that the numbers weren’t drastically different between the North and South. I always thought sickness in the South was more of an advantage for the North, but this says otherwise. I am interested in learning what lead to fixing this problem – who started making it madatory for higher standards of cleanliness and less crowding?
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I had no idea that northern prison camps were just as bad or worse than southern ones. The reasoning behind that must be that the south wanted to look more forgiving to persuade northerners to follow their cause, but I am
Still astounded that both sides had the exact same problems.
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I’m not really surprised that Northern camps are just as bad as the Southern ones. North or South, a prison camp is still a prison camp. They are still holding POW’s, and they are still very prone to mistreatment and overcrowding, Even if the Union was more capable of supplying their camps, who says they would be more willing to then the Confederacy? They still had a war to fight, and prison camps were probably an afterthought. Sad, but it is a reality of war.
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