I recently reviewed “Andersonville Journey,” about the Union prisoners of war held at that “death camp,” and decided I should read about treatment of Confederate prisoners of war. The book by George Levy provides a wealth of information about Camp Douglas, named after a deceased Senator Stephen Douglas, but it is certainly not fun to read. The occasional quotes from prisoners are interesting. I was much less interested in the discussions of budgeting, construction, sanitation, security, and command and control. Chapter 15 is titled “Social Life Among the Prisoners,” and that sounded interesting. The chapter begins with discussions of scurvy, reinforcing the stockade, the commandant, organization of the fire department, favoritism among prisoners, the water supply to the bath houses and for flushing the sinks (latrines), deaths from freezing, the value of tobacco, sadistic guards and punishments, numbers of new arrivals, prisoner of war Confederate General Beall arranging the sale of cotton (the North needed cotton and the South needed money), and meal cooking arrangements. The social activities of the prisoners are discussed in a few short paragraphs (including arts, crafts, gambling, and entertainment) fifteen pages into the chapter.
The camp was constructed to house Union units being trained to fight in the Civil War, so there were decent barracks and other facilities. Supplies of food were often described as at least adequate, and sutlers sold fruits, vegetables, and other supplies to the prisoners. Occasionally the commandants would cut that off, and prisoners would develop scurvy. By comparison, Andersonville was a stockade with no shelter, didn’t have an adequate water supply, didn’t have a way to dispose of wastes, and food supplies were grossly inadequate for both prisoners and guards. The only advantage prisoners had at Andersonville was that they didn’t have to contend with the winter cold. Like Andersonville, Douglas was a serious mistake because of the unanticipated numbers of prisoners, parolees (Union prisoners exchanged for Confederates), guards, and soldiers in the many units that used the place. The early days of the camp were marked by a lack of discipline. There were 1037 men court martialed between January and August 1862 for drunkenness, insubordination, fighting, theft, destruction of property, desertion, shooting an officer, and “…playing cards with prisoners.”
The surrender of Fort Donelson in February 1862 brought thousands of prisoners to Douglas, and Grant had not disarmed the officers as part of their surrender agreement. Two prisoners were sent to search for water from the train transporting them, and the train left without them. They ran after the train to be taken aboard, preferring to go to a prison camp rather than to be left in “…the barren and frozen prairies of Illinois.” One prisoner was listed as “Child, 12 years of age.”
The book keeps a running commentary on the large numbers of prisoners and Union soldiers who died of dysentery, smallpox, pneumonia, measles, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, cholera, exposure, or just general poor health. Sanitation was a continual problem discussed often.
The percentages of deaths among prisoners at Camp Douglas were consistently three to four times the numbers of Union soldiers who died. Chicagoans and merchants often provided food and clothing to help combat the terrible conditions. The prisoners seemed to have sufficient money. The commandants often shut the enterprises down, but often opened them up to create humane conditions. “A free market economy was in effect at Camp Douglas.”
The frequent mention of rations indicated the prisoners were much better fed than the underfed soldiers in the Confederate army. One prisoner described that the hazards were boredom and overeating. There is information that would lead to other conclusions. Prisoners were described as killing rats and the dog of a Union officer for food. The quantity of food was described in another passage as “…barely sufficient to sustain life in the Chicago climate.”
There was a large contingent of Confederate sympathizers in Chicago, and the Chicago Tribune was pro-Confederate. The “Camp Douglas Conspiracy” to organize a massive escape is detailed in Chapter 14, and the author concludes the conspiracy was a hoax, despite the trials that convicted some apparently innocent people out of the eighty-one tried.
A major problem was created by the legal document called the Cartel, which described conditions for exchange or parole of prisoners. Eight thousand Union prisoners captured at Harper’s Ferry VA arrived after “parole” in September 1862 to join over 8,000 prisoners. The Cartel specified that paroled prisoners were not allowed to perform military duties, and the Union soldiers refused to perform guard duty or drill. They insisted they weren’t allowed to do anything but be fed and sleep. Chicago police were kept busy returning drunken parolees to the camp. Conditions worsened, and prisoners began being described as “cadaverous.” Doctors inspecting the camp called it an “extermination camp.” That encouraged some prisoners to take an oath of allegiance and join Federal ranks, which was called “swallowing the dog.” Prisoners were also offered the opportunity to join the cavalry to “…fight Indians.”
Black Confederate prisoners (either slaves of Confederate soldiers or willing soldiers) presented numerous problems (although some of them put on minstrel shows).
There are numerous descriptions of the nearly continual escapes from Camp Douglas. Many were accomplished through tunnels, although there were some from bribery of guards and others from direct assaults on the walls. The ultimate success of escape attempts often depended on the marksmanship, or lack thereof, of the guards. One black fourteen year-old boy was killed by guards during his attempt to escape.
A request from camp officials for funds to build more barracks was rejected by Secretary of War Stanton in late 1863. He responded that because of the treatment of Union prisoners he wasn’t inclined “…to erect fine establishments for their prisoners in our hands.”
I found a description of a Fourth of July celebration to be fascinating. The Confederate prisoners sang a modified version of the National Anthem. They substituted descriptions of their flag. One line that described the flag, “Whose cross bars and ‘leven stars thro’ the perilous fight,” and another, “Oh say, doth that cross spangled banner yet wave.” The book mentions a delegation of Andersonville prisoners sent to Washington to appeal to President Lincoln to restart the prisoner exchange program.
Record keeping was shoddy, but there were 4,234 recorded deaths of Confederate prisoners at Douglas. Some prisoners released at the end of the war had to walk home. My impression is that the survivors were probably better off than the starving remnants of the Confederate army when the conflict came to a close.