Brother Against Brother
I grew up with a healthy diet of American Civil War History. When I was young, my family took a thorough vacation to Gettysburg. The kids were bought blue and grey kepi hats, and fake rifles. I could reenact the 20th Maine’s bayonet charge down Little Round Top. And this was all before I was 13 years old.
So, I don’t think it is surprising that I often peruse the latest in American Civil War gossip and news. And what I found this time is very cool.
An Important Piece Of History
The fourth excavation of former Camp Douglas, one of the most infamous civil war prison camps, started this week on the 25th.
The camp was located in Chicago, Illinois, and in its heyday held over 18,000 confederate soldiers in horrific conditions.
Paling in comparison only to the southern prison camp Andersonville, Douglas was a very dark moment in American Civil War history, and even today it’s impossible to know just how many men died in the camp. Most records that were kept (when they were kept at all) were fudged, or conveniently misplaced.
Conditions Were Less Than Perfect
To keep the prison in business, death tolls were covered up and sanitation reports bribed. They worked with a meager budget based on the fudged numbers. The camp was made to house and support a total of 8,000 prisoners, but at any given time in its grim history, an estimated 12,000 prisons were crammed in. Overcrowding meant shortage of supplies, food, and the fast spreading of disease. There were no toilets. Excrement and rotting food were left in infectious standing water. Often, the lack of man power made it difficult to dispose of corpses.
Gangrene, small pox and scurvy took many of the lives in Camp Douglass. Throw in starvation and bitter Chicago winters, and the modern day estimate is 6,000 dead between 1862 and 1865. Many of them are still interred in Confederate Mound, the mass grave on site.
And that’s just a general synopsis.
Preserving For The Future
The fourth dig at the site is being led by Dr. Michael Gregory and the Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation, and will only last till the 30th. These short excavations have been held twice a year since 2013, and every dig brings up small personal items that belonged to the prisoners of war. With my love of Civil War History, I am very eager to hear what Dr. Michael Gregory and his team discover this time around.
Today, the original barracks are gone. There isn’t much left of the original camp, but as The Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation continues forward with its excavations, there appears to be hope! The foundation hopes to eventually mark the site with a Camp Douglas museum. And with it, a proper memorial for the confederate men who suffered through the camp.
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Life in Camp Douglas, a Civil War Prison
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