The Civil War was the first time that the nation had to contend with
large numbers of war prisoners. As might be expected, therefore,
policies and treatment varied greatly--and oftentimes sadly.
During the war the Confederates captured about 211,000 Federal soldiers.
Of this number, 16,000 agreed to battlefield paroles--signed promises
that they would not bear arms again. Conversely, Federal forces took
some 215,000 Confederates as prisoners. At various times throughout the
war, both sides made efforts to establish a workable program of prisoner
exchange. (A ratio of exchange once existed whereby forty privates
equalled one major-general.) However, owing to misunderstandings,
violations of terms, and Grant's determination late in the war to bring
the South to its knees at all costs, prisoner exchange was slight and
sporadic.
The most notorious Southern prisons were: Libby and Castle Thunder,
which were converted warehouses in Richmond; Belle Isle in the James
River; "Camp Sorghum" at Columbia, S. C.; and Camp Sumter at
Andersonville, Ga. Among the worst of the Northern compounds were:
Elmira Prison Camp in southwestern New York State; Point Lookout, on the
Chesapeake Bay; Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie a few miles offshore from
Ohio; Camp Douglas, near Chicago; and Rock Island Prison Camp, Illinois.
Writing of these compounds in general, one historian has observed: "The
prisons of the Civil War were of a considerable variety in structure and
general make-up and for the most part consisted of temporary structures
or old unused buildings not originally intended to confine prisoners.
Most of them, judged by present-day standards of sanitation and safety,
would have been condemned as uninhabitable."
[Illustration: This is an artist's conception of the horrors of life
in Andersonville. The hastily built camp spread over 26 acres.]
[Illustration: A _Harper's Weekly_ artist sketched an orderly and
clean Elmira Prison that was a far cry from actual conditions. For a
modest sum, curious townspeople were permitted to mount observation
towers and view the prisoners.]
Small wonder that great suffering existed in most prison camps, both
North and South. In the nine-month history of the huge prison at
Andersonville, Ga., a total of 45,613 Federals were jammed into a
Stockade containing one polluted stream of water, few shelters, less
food, and no sanitation. Over 12,900 prisoners died of disease,
exposure, and starvation at Andersonville. Confederate authorities
maintained that Federal prisoners in Andersonville received the same
slim food ration as did their guards, and that the whole South suffered
badly for want of medicines.
[Illustration: Only captured Federal officers were confined in Libby
Prison. Several escapes, and innumerable charges of inhuman
treatment, marked this compound's four-year history.]
The North's prison camp at Elmira, N. Y., had many similarities to
Andersonville. This Federal compound existed for a year. During that
time, 2,963 of 12,123 Confederate prisoners died from various causes. In
the twenty-month life of Rock Island Prison Camp, 1,960 of 12,400
Southern inmates succumbed to exposure and disease. At six remote
tobacco warehouses in Danville, Virginia, 1,400 of 7,000 Federal
prisoners died of smallpox, malnutrition, and intestinal disorders in
the space of a year.
In all, the Chief of the U. S. Record and Pension Office reported in
1903, 25,976 Confederates and 30,218 Federals died in Civil War prisons.
It is difficult still to give an accurate and impartial summary of Civil
War prisons. Conflicting facts, lost records, and bitter feelings hamper
attempts to arrive at a just verdict. But perhaps Prof. James Ford
Rhodes was not far from the truth when he stated: "All things considered
the statistics show no reason why the North should reproach the South
[about atrocious prison conditions]. If we add to one side of the
account the refusal to exchange the prisoners and the greater resources,
and to the other the distress of the Confederacy, the balance struck
will not be far from even. Certain it is that no deliberate intention
existed either in Richmond or Washington to inflict suffering on
captives more than inevitably accompanied their confinement."
[Illustration: The Confederate Commissary General Of Prisons was
Gen. John H. Winder of Maryland.]
[Illustration: Winder's Federal counterpart, Gen. William H. Hoffman
of New York, likewise was accused of many atrocities.]