ALGENEVA-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: Camp Douglas
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 12:02:29 EDT

Camp Douglas, located near Chicago, Ill., was a sprawling training base for
Union soldiers before it was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp for
Confederate soldiers captured at the February 16, 1862, surrender of Fort
Donelson. More than 7,000 prisoners were in the camp, many of them ill-clad
and sick, with only one surgeon to care for them.

Conditions at Camp Douglas were horrendous. Disease, hunger, poor sanitation,
lack of adequate clothing, and miserably cold weather were endured by the men
incarcerated there. The president of the U.S. Sanitary Commission inspected
the prison and gave a dismal report of an "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.....enough
to drive a sanitarian mad." The barracks were so filthy and infested, he
said, that "nothing but fire can cleanse them."

In January and February 1863 an average of 18 prisoners died every day, for a
death rate of 10 percent a month.

Margie

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