Camp Douglas , in Chicago, Illinois, sometimes described as "The North's Andersonville" is one of the largest Union Army Union warfare camps for the Confederate soldiers held during the American Civil War. Based south of the city on the prairie, it is also used as a training camp and detention for Union soldiers. The Union Army first used the camp in 1861 as an organizational camp and training for voluntary regiments. The camp became a prison camp of war in early 1862. Then in 1862, the Union Army again used Camp Douglas as a training camp. In the fall of 1862, the Union Army used this facility as a detention camp for the abandoned Confederate prisoners (these were Union soldiers who had been captured by the Confederacy and sent the North under the agreement that they would be temporarily detained while an official prisoner exchange was held outside).
Camp Douglas became a permanent camp for prisoners of war from January 1863 to the end of the war in May 1865. In the summer and fall of 1865, the camp served as a gathering point for the Union Army volunteer regimen. The camp was dismantled and the moveable property was sold later in the year. The land was eventually sold and developed.
After the war, Camp Douglas finally became famous for its poor condition and mortality rate of about seventeen percent, although there is a higher likelihood of going on. About 4,275 Confederate prisoners are known to be buried from graves to mass graves at Oak Woods Cemetery after the war.
Video Camp Douglas (Chicago)
Lokasi dan konstruksi
Training Camp
On April 15, 1861, a day after US military troops handed Fort Sumter to Confederate troops, President Abraham Lincoln summoned 75,000 State militia members into the federal service for ninety days to bring down the insurgency. On May 3, 1861, President Lincoln summoned 42,000 volunteers three years, regular army expansion by 23,000 people and the US Navy by 18,000 sailors. In July 1861, Congress retroactively approved Lincoln's actions and authorized another million volunteers for three years.
States and regions had to organize and complete the volunteer regiment until later in 1861, when the federal government became quite organized to take over the project. Immediately after Lincoln's call for volunteers, many volunteers from Illinois gathered at major public and private buildings in Chicago and then overflowed into camps in the meadows at the southeastern end of the city. Senator Stephen A. Douglas owns the land next to this location and has donated the land south of the camp to the original University of Chicago.
Henry Graves owns most of the property where the camp is located. Illinois Governor Richard Yates commissioned Judge Allen C. Fuller, soon to become a general aide to the State of Illinois, to choose a place for a permanent army camp in Chicago. Judge Fuller chose a site already used for temporary camps because only 4 miles (6.4 km) from downtown Chicago, a meadow surrounding the site, near Lake Michigan can provide water, and the Illinois Central Railroad ran within a few hundred yards of the site.
Fuller is not an engineer and does not realize that the site is a bad choice for a large camp because of its wet and low location. The camp lacked sewers for over a year, and the meadows where it was built could not absorb the wastes from thousands of humans and horses. Camp flooded with every rain. In winter, it is a sea of ​​mud when the soil does not freeze. When the camp is opened, only one functioning water hydrant. There was a shortage of latrines and severe medical facilities from the time of early use of the camp through the period of detention of the first group of Confederate prisoners in mid-1862.
The camp ran west four blocks from Cottage Grove Avenue to Martin Luther King Drive at this time. The northern border is what is now called East 31st Street, and its southern boundary is East East Place 33, which is then named College Place. A gate on the south fence of the camp provides access to a 10-hectare (4.0 ha) property donated by Senator Douglas to the Old University of Chicago, which was opened in 1857 at a location on Cottage Grove Avenue and 35th Street. Smallpox hospital, four rows of garrison barracks, and Illinois Central Railroad station are located in the former Douglas property.
The camp boundaries and the number, use and location of the buildings evolved during the war, but several major camp divisions existed over a significant period of time. "Garrison Square" contains officers' quarters, headquarters, post office, and parade grounds. "White Oak Square" accommodates both Union soldiers and prisoners until the end of 1863. White Oak Square includes the original camp prisons and buildings that will become the famous "White Dungeon Oak". Sentenced prisoners are subject to imminent confinement in small, dark and dirty conditions in this "dungeon". The "dungeon" is an 18-square-foot room (1.7 m 2 ), illuminated by a closed window near 18-by-8-inch (460 x 200 mm) from the floor, with entry only through a hatch of about 20-inch (510 mm) square on the ceiling. The room had a wet floor and an unbearable smell from the sink (toilet) in the corner of the room.
The prison hospital and the morgue are located south of the camp in an area of ​​10 hectares (4 hectares) known as "Square Hospital". In 1863, the army built "Prison Square" or "Prisoner's Square" in the western camp division, â € <â €
Yates's governor placed Colonel Joseph H. Tucker, leading the 60th Regiment, the Illinois State Militia, responsible for building the camp. Andrea also appoints Tucker as the camp's first commander. The state militia forces called Mechanics Fusiliers, who was an apprentice and boatman, built barracks in October and November 1861. The troops rebelled on 18 December 1861 when the State of Illinois tried to pressure them to serve as infantry after completing their work at Camp Douglas. The state pays them less than they believe they are promised for their work. Regular forces had to suppress the riot construction troops and restore order to the camp. After Fusilier Mechanics repaired the damage they caused on the fence, they were allowed to go home.
On 15 November 1861, Camp Douglas housed about 4,222 volunteers from 11 regiments. In February 1862, the recruiters suffered 42 deaths from illness. According to George 1999 from the 1999 camp, a total of about 40,000 members of the Union Armed Forces passed the camps for equipment and training before the facility was permanently converted to the POW camp. The history of 1960 by Eisendrath estimates the number of recruits by 25,000 based on the source at the time. Colonel Tucker's job as camp commander was not easy; he had to use increasingly harsh measures to reduce the drunkenness and irregular behavior perpetrated by those recruited in the camp. He also had to keep an eye on their behavior and sometimes take punitive action against them for action in the city of Chicago, where soldiers are abused beyond privileges.
Maps Camp Douglas (Chicago)
Prisoner of designated war camp, 1862
The orders of Colonel Joseph H. Tucker and Colonel Arno Voss
On February 16, 1862, the Union Army underneath, Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River, and Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, near Dover. With this victory, his troops took about 12,000 to 15,000 Confederate inmates. The army was not ready to deal with this large group of prisoners and rushed to find a place to accommodate them. Colonel Tucker told General Grant's superior, Major General Henry W. Halleck, that Camp Douglas could accommodate 8,000 or 9,000 prisoners, which is roughly equal to the number of recruits being built. It does not anticipate the necessary difference from the prison facility.
General Halleck's chief of staff at the scene in Tennessee, Brigadier General George W. Cullum, sent many prisoners to St. Louis. Louis before he received the War Department instructions to direct 7,000 prisoners to Camp Douglas. This pressure is relieved in Chicago, because the camp and its staff can not handle easily even the smaller number of inmates it receives. In the event, Illinois Central Railroad moved 4,459 prisoners of Fort Donelson to Camp Douglas from Cairo, Illinois where they were originally sent.
On February 18, 1862, Colonel Arno Voss took a brief interim command from the camp until Colonel Tucker returned from Springfield, Illinois a few days later. Voss had to get ready for arrival on February 20, 1862 from the first prisoner of Fort Donelson, who found a camp but no real prison. During the first few days, they are placed in the White Oak Square section, along with the newly trained Union troops who will set out to serve up front. Soldiers sent sick prisoners to the camp, even though there were no medical facilities at the time, and they were advised not to.
On February 23, 1862, Union forces left the camp, except for the little troops left to guard the prisoners. The guard consists of a regiment of 469 enlisted men and about 40 officers.
On February 25, 1862, General Halleck ordered Confederate officers to be moved to Camp Chase, Ohio; several hundred people were pulled out and Camp Douglas became a prison camp only for enlisted men. In less than a month, by the end of March, more than 700 prisoners had died. Around 77 fugitives were recorded at Camp Douglas in June 1862. Historians found no record of the escape that harmed civilians.
Colonel James A. Mulligan's Commandment
On February 26, 1862, General Halleck ordered Colonel Tucker to report to Springfield. Colonel James A. Mulligan, an Army Union officer from Illinois, was appointed commander of the POW camp until June 14, 1862. (Between 14 and 19 June 1862 Colonel Daniel Cameron, Jr. was responsible.)
The first group of prisoners were treated fairly well under the circumstances, although they did not have enough land, barracks, and sewer and water systems. Sewers were not allowed until June 1863 for the camp, â € <â € The Union Army sent three tons of cornmeal and a large number of blankets, clothing, shoes and cutlery to the camp on March 1, 1862. Diseases and deaths among prisoners, and even among some guards, reached epidemic levels. Frozen hydrants cause water shortages. One in eight prisoners from Fort Donelson died of pneumonia or various illnesses. After April 12, 1862, Colonel Mulligan finally allowed only doctors and ministers to visit prisoners to reduce exposure to the disease. Colonel Mulligan worked with the locals who provided the relief committees for the prisoners when they learned of the bad camp conditions. Mulligan apparently showed sympathy to the prisoners because he had been treated with respect by Confederate General Sterling Price when the Mulligan regiment was captured and released at the First Battle of Lexington, Missouri on September 19, 1861. Mulligan was exchanged on October 30, 1861. After the victory of the Union Army in the battle of Shiloh and capture Island no. 10 in the spring of 1862, Camp Douglas housed 8,962 Confederate prisoners. Conditions in the camp deteriorate with increasing density and escape. Some fugitives were aided by Southern sympathizers in Chicago and others were facilitated by a loose administration by Colonel Mulligan and the guards. The role of officers in the Department of the Army
To try to manage the large number of prisoners captured during the war, the Army Department established the Office of the Commissioner-General of the Prisoners and, starting in June 1862, this position was reported directly to the Secretary of War. In August 1862, Lieutenant Colonel William Hoffman, recently released from the POW Confederation camp, took over the office and served in it through war, setting out a national policy relating to the treatment of prisoners, prison camps, and conditions for exchanging or releasing prisoners.
Based on reports he received, Colonel Hoffman quickly realized that Camp Douglas was inadequate for the prison camp. He proposed the construction of a two-story insulated barracks in the camp, but the Army approved the maintenance or construction of only a thin one-story structure, which had been built for short-term use by volunteer trainees. In 1862, Colonel Mulligan, Colonel Tucker, and Colonel Hoffman all sought to raise funds to repair the sewers and build new barracks, but were not immediately successful. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs said the construction of a new sewer system would be too "wasteful". It was not until June 1863 that he authorized the construction of a sewer, after being suppressed by members of the United States Sanitation Commission.
(Historians of the twentieth century have criticized local commanders and Hoffman for failing to secure a proper balanced diet for prisoners.A better diet can help prevent the onset or spread of disease, including scurvy, caused by known vitamin deficiencies.)
The second command of Colonel Joseph H. Tucker
Although still with the Illinois militia and not in the federal army, Colonel Tucker returned to head the camp on June 19, 1862. To face local civilian sympathizers who might assist the escape, Colonel Tucker declared martial law on July 12, 1862. When twenty-five prisoners escaped on On July 23, 1862, Tucker captured several residents whom he believed helped escape. In addition, he brought the Chicago police to search for camps. This action caused a lasting hatred of the prisoners because the police confiscated many of the prisoners' valuables. Police also seized five pistols and bullets. Twenty runners were recaptured in two weeks.
In the summer of 1862, Henry Whitney Bellows, president of the US Sanitation Commission, wrote to Colonel Hoffman after visiting this camp:
Sir, the number of puddles, unburned soil, dirty places, unventilated and overcrowded barracks, general disturbances, miasmic accent soils, rotten bones and emptying camp kettles, is sufficient to make sanitarians hopeless. I hope no thoughts will be entertained to fix the problem. The absolute neglect of the place seems the only wise path. I do not believe that the amount of drainage will clear the soil laden with accumulated debris or the barracks with two stories of animal pests and discharges. Nothing but fire can clean them.
Hoffman has requested repairs at the camp, but he keeps the report a secret because he does not want to take a position contrary to what any of his superiors take, such as the Quartermaster General Meigs. Not only the prisoners are suffering. One of Colonel Tucker's sons, who served with him at the camp, fell ill and died in the summer of 1862.
Conditions at the camp boosted that summer as nearly all prisoners went in September 1862. About a thousand prisoners took a pledge of allegiance to the United States and were released. All the less painful prisoners to travel were exchanged for the implementation of the Dix-Hill Diocese cartel of 22 July 1862 between Union and Confederate Army. On October 6, 1862, some of the remaining prisoners who were too ill to leave early also disappeared. Until September 1862, 980 Confederate prisoners and 240 members and guards of the Union Armed Forces had died at Camp Douglas, almost all from the disease.
Training camp and camp for detained Parole detainees, 1862
In the fall of 1862, Camp Douglas was again a training camp for Union Union volunteers. The Union Army then used the camp for the most unusual purpose.
Union troops freed from Brigadier General Daniel Tyler's command
Union soldiers freed after their arrest by Lieutenant General of Confederation Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson at the Battle of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (later West Virginia) on September 15, 1862 were sent to Camp Douglas for temporary detention. Under the terms of the prisoners cartel, they must wait for official exchange before they can leave the camp. 8,000 freed Union troops began arriving at Camp Douglas on 28 September 1862. Brigadier General Daniel Tyler freed Colonel Tucker from the camp command. Under Tyler's command, these Union soldiers had to live in the same conditions as those of Confederate prisoners from Fort Donelson. His condition was worse because the camp became dirty and even receding during the occupation by the prisoners. The freed soldiers were lucky to have only about two months to live. They were able to tolerate conditions somewhat better than previous Confederate prisoners because the parole Union was warmer dressed and in better physical condition. Humid conditions and bad food still claimed. In November, forty soldiers from the 126th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment have died and about sixty have fever.
Under these oppressive conditions, Union Union Army prisoners became rebellious, ignited fires, and made many escape attempts. On October 23, 1862, General Tyler brought the US regular troops to stop the parolee unrest. War Secretary Edwin Stanton also ordered Tyler to loosen his strict discipline, which helped calm down the inmates. Most prisoner-of-war prisoners between the Union and Confederate troops under the cartel were completed in late November 1862. All parole leave the camp at the end of the month except Colonel Daniel Cameron and his 65th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, held until 19 April 1863 and working as a guard. Thirty-five men from this regiment also died of illness in the camp during their confinement.
prison camp, 1863-1865
Command Brigadier General Jacob ammen and the Second and Third Command Colonel Daniel Cameron
On November 20, 1862, Colonel Daniel Cameron, who had been a brief commander of the camp at the beginning of the year, and had been among the prisoners, once again took command of the camp.
On January 6, 1863, the Union Army ordered Brigadier General Jacob Ammen to take over the command of Camp Douglas, when Confederate prisoners from the Stones River Battle were sent to the camp. Around 1,500 people were poorly dressed and physically unwell, the Confederate prisoners arrived at the camp on January 26, 1863. About 1,300 other prisoners arrived the next day and 1,500 others arrived on 30 January 1863 after Union Army captured Fort Hindman (Arkansas Post). On February 2, 1863, General Ammen reported that many prisoners were too ill to survive in the camp. Neither the Army nor the War Department made any immediate improvements in the camps.
During February 1863, 387 of 3,884 prisoners were killed. This is the highest death rate in every Civil War prison camp for each month of war. Since the prisoners had just arrived at the camp over the previous few weeks, the prisoners were probably already in a weak and bad physical condition at the time. The reported temperature of the month is as low as -20 ° F (-29 ° C). Smallpox and other diseases are widespread among these prisoners. In March 1863, nineteen prisoners and nineteen guards were killed by smallpox. Smallpox then spread to northern towns and to Virginia by some infected prisoners who traveled along with many other prisoners through several major cities by train and steamboat to City Point, VA to be exchanged. Most of the prisoners were exchanged by April 3, 1863 under the prisoner cartel later.
On April 27, 1863, the final death toll from this prisoner group was 784. Levy pointed out that over 300 deaths had to be covered at that time, which would have made 784 significant numbers of prisoners' deaths to date. By the time these prisoners left in early 1863, the sources indicated that between 1,400 and 1,700 prisoners were likely to have died at Camp Douglas. But official records show only 615 prisoners to this date. The majority of deaths in the camp are caused by typhoid fever and pneumonia. The prisoners arrived in a weak condition, making them vulnerable to illness; in the camp they suffered from dirty conditions, inadequate sewer systems, very cold weather, and lack of heat and adequate clothing. Some prisoners were injured or killed by guards who saw them bypassing the "dead line" near the camp's border or making minor offenses, but such incidents were rare. Despite these difficulties, survivors from detention groups who wrote about their experience generally stated that they were treated humanely at Camp Douglas.
General Ammen was ordered to Springfield to lead the Illinois District on April 13, 1863. Colonel Cameron took over the command of the camp for a week.
Captain's Order Captain J. S. Putnam
For about two weeks, Captain John C. Phillips was a senior officer in the camp and as a commander. Between May 12, 1863 and August 18, 1863, Captain J. S. Putnam was responsible for an almost empty camp, which then held only about fifty prisoners.
Soldiers made some improvements at the camp and planned the other in the summer of 1863 because it was intended to return the camp to its original destination of housing and train new members of the Union Army. However, Union victory during the summer of 1863 resulted in a large number of prisoners. Camp Douglas was returned for use as a POW camp from now until the end of the war.
Command Colonel Charles V. DeLand
The first of the new Confederate prisoners, 558 guerrilla fighters under the command of Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan, arrived at the camp on August 20, 1863. Colonel Charles V. DeLand, who had been a previous Confederate prisoner in war and will return, and who has ordered the First Michigan Sniper in Morgan's pursuit, ordered to take command of the camp on 18 August 1863. Colonel DeLand was appointed as camp commander because he was a senior regimental officer guarding the prisoners as they were taken there. On September 26, 1863, a total of 4,234 Confederate inmates were detained at Camp Douglas. On October 9, 1863, Dr. A. M. Clark, medical director of detention, examined the camp and found that the number of detainees had increased to 6,085, with only 978 Union troops in the garrison to guard them.
Colonel DeLand tried to impose discipline in an unorganized camp but was frustrated by the ugly conditions and corrupt guards, including mainly from his own regiment. Since only two water hydrants are available to the prisoners, they have to wait in the cold for hours to get water. An open sink (toilet), or a ditch, flows in the middle of the camp. The slums provided inadequate shelter. The capacity of the hospital, with 120 beds for prisoners and 50 beds for guards, is very inadequate. The postal chapel is converted into a hospital room, but there is still inadequate capacity for all the prisoners and sick guards.
During this period, in retaliation for the treatment of Union prisoners by Confederates, officials withheld in high command ordered the cooking stove, which also provided heat, replaced with a 40-US-gallon (150 Â ° L) boiler. This large pot provides little heat for the building and destroys the quality of the food cooked in it.
DeLand puts infantry prisoners to work on building a new sewer system for camps. Prisoners are not required to work but many are voluntarily, perhaps in part because they are paid by chewing tobacco and clothing. He also told them to begin construction on a more substantial fortress. After criticism from Dr. Clark and Colonel Hoffman, who reviewed the reports in the camps, in mid-October 1863 DeLand provided detainees with cooking utensils, one hundred barrels of lime, twenty-four white washing brushes, and some wood for the repair and washing of the buildings. On October 25, 1863, DeLand ordered that prisoners clean up their premises regularly, but overcrowding appears to have made it impossible to maintain sanitation barracks. The construction of a new ditch was completed on 6 November 1863, but the new system did not have a 3 inch (76 mm) pipe and only runs along the two sides of the camp. Additional improvements at this time include the laying of water pipes and nearing completion of fences for the first time since the camp became a prisoner detention facility.
Inmates trying to escape are housed in Dungeon White Oak, an area of ​​18 square feet (1.7 m 2 ) under the guard room, which has only one small window and is infused with an unbearable odor. In his examination in October 1863, Dr. Clark found 24 prisoners in this space, whom he described fit for no more than 3 or 4. The Morgans were trying to escape because of weak security forces. Twenty-six prisoners escaped from the dungeon on October 26, 1863. More than 150 prisoners escaped during the DeLand camp command period.
Lincoln's brother-in-law, Ninian Wirt Edwards, an Army Union captain, contracted vendors to supply meat and other rations to the military camp. Their subcontractor sends low-quality quota directly to the custody in Camp Douglas and not to the commissioner's camp. Garrison also received poor quality meat from this subcontractor. This news evolved into a scandal brought to the administration of the next camp commander.
DeLand is pressed to improve security but has several factors working against it: the camp layout, the guardians of the Invalid Corps who can not perform efficiently, and quartering the prisoners and guards together at White Oak Square. Together with the ease of remittance or being taken into custody, these factors contribute to corruption and bribery. On one occasion, DeLand lined up the prisoners of the 8th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment when a tunnel was found under their barracks and ordered the guards to shoot "if anyone was seated." One prisoner was killed and two were injured by the guard before the lineup was concluded. Finally, fifteen to twenty people claimed to be the main diggers and sent to White Oak Dungeon. Later, DeLand hung three men with their thumbs so they had to tiptoe for an hour, allegedly because they threatened an informant. One of these people fainted and the other threw up on himself. DeLand imposes the same punishment at least once again.
DeLand ordered the men out of the barracks for long periods of time while tunnel searches were conducted. He ordered that the cooking stove be extinguished when "Taps" were played at sunset, which was a hardship during cold weather. Despite these measures, about 100 Morgan people fled through the tunnel on December 3, 1863. Most were recaptured. DeLand ordered the guards to shout only a challenge to the prisoners who came too close to the fence or outside the barracks at night before firing if they did not obey. Confederate Prisoner T.D. Henry points out that most of the shooting incidents at Camp Douglas occurred during DeLand's time as commander. To prevent escape attempts, prisoners who went to use the latrines at night had to leave their clothes in the barracks regardless of the weather.
On November 9, 1863, Colonel Benjamin J. Sweet, commander of the Eighth Defective Corps Regiment who guarded the camp, challenged Colonel DeLand's command at the camp because Sweet's commission had virtually preceded DeLand's. A few days later, DeLand immediately reacted to prevent the escape when the fire destroyed the line, fence, and director's shop on November 11, 1863. This was in his favor. Colonel Hoffman ordered Colonel DeLand to remain as commander. Hoffman ordered DeLand to cut the rations at the moment, which increased the prisoners' difficulties, although they still seemed to have enough daily food.
Due to serious fire damage, Hoffman decided to go to Chicago to check the camp itself, arriving on November 15, 1863. DeLand bribed prisoners with whiskey to clear the camp for Hoffman's visit. On November 18, 1863, Brigadier General William W. Orme, who reported directly to War Secretary Edwin Stanton, appeared to inspect the camp in preparation for Orme to take command. Orme notes that the garrison of 876 men was very small and that sixty-one people had fled in the previous three months.
The Army ordered binder shops in the prison camps closed on 1 December 1863 in retaliation for a reported Confederate uprising against Union prisoners. The shop at Camp Douglas closed on 12 December. After escaping on 3 December, Colonel DeLand ordered all floors to be robbed from the barracks, to be replaced by the ground even with the floor beams. This results in conditions that increase illness and death. Garrison also tore partitions in the barracks. DeLand seized a warm coat, presumably to prevent the escape but possibly retaliation for his previous escapees and attempts. On December 17, 1863, prison camp officials shut down barber shops and newspaper kiosks, and stopped selling stamps, envelopes and writing papers, possibly in retaliation for a major escape attempt. When Sergeant-Major Oscar Cliett of the 55th Georgia Infantry Regiment reported to DeLand that his men refused an amnesty offer if they joined the Union Navy because they could not swim, DeLand put him in jail for twenty-one days. Despite this crackdown, DeLand also worked to free fifty underage prisoners he found between the ages of 14 and 17. The army did not release them.
Order of Brigadier General William W. Orme
On December 23, 1863, Brigadier General William W. Orme freed Colonel DeLand as camp commander; Colonel DeLand remained at the camp until March 11, 1864 as garrison commander. Orme has arranged to increase the garrison; about 400 reinforcements for the guards from the 15th Unlawful Corps regiment under Colonel James C. Strong arrived the next day. On March 18, 1864, in an effort to improve morale, the Union Army renamed the Unlawful Corps as a Veteran Reserve Corps.
General Orme tries to deal with a sustained scandal over poor quality beef and other administrative issues he inherits. After investigation, he freed Ninian Edwards and the vendors, and blamed the meat issue only on subcontractors. Regardless of Edwards's release and his relationship with the President, the Army controlled subsistence camps away from Edwards on January 27, 1864. Edwards, a captain in the Union Army, was transferred as commissioner's food and treasurer's prison fund in March 1864.
The blizzard and the temperature of -18 Â ° F (-28 Â ° C) occurred on January 1, 1864. Some of the currently escaping prisoners were found frozen to death nearby. On 8 January 1864, General Orme instituted an armed guard patrol program. Some detainees reported killing and eating mice after the prison kitchen was destroyed on January 10, 1864 and food shortages occurred, but the report looked dubious. General Orme got some coats of Union troops outside the channel and distributed them to prisoners. But when Colonel Hoffman learned of his actions, he scolded him for running the rules outside.
Dr. Edward D. Kittoe from the surgeon's office examined the camp on January 18, 1864. He found barracks very congested in dirt and mud, and swarmed around pests due to lack of flooring. Less cooking and rubbish strewn on the streets. The old sync (toilet) is not sealed properly and the waste seeps to the surface. Dr. Kittoe gave high marks to the hospital but noted that 250 sick men stayed in the barracks because 234 beds were in full hospital. He found that thirty-six percent of the prisoners were sick, and fifty-seven prisoners had died in December 1863. The guards also suffered from poor conditions in the camp, with twenty-nine percent sick and six deaths among them on December. 1863. Dr. Kittoe concluded the camp was not worth using, but it was still in use.
On January 20, 1864, the prisoners began to be moved from White Oak Square to Prisoner's Square. Construction added 40 hectares (16 hectares) to the camp. Barracks must be moved with rollers. When unpaid prisoners refused to do further work while traveling, they were forced to use temporary shelters rather than be allowed to sleep in some of the displaced buildings. All prisoners were not transferred from White Oak Square until April 1864.
Thanks to another examination from the camp by Dr. Clark on February 4, 1864, the floor was returned to the barracks. Clark found that the number of working hydrants to supply water to the camp has been increased from three to twelve. On February 27, 1864, the floors were laid in all the barracks and the buildings were raised five feet from the ground on thick wooden legs. This not only improves the sanitary conditions of the barracks but also helps prevent shootings. During the move, many barracks and kitchens have been placed closer to the fence, which was found to encourage shootings. After the discovery of this escape attempt, the prison officers moved the barracks farther from the walls of the fort, and reduced the effort to escape by tunnels.
On March 11, 1864, Colonel DeLand and his regiment were sent forward. DeLand was wounded four times in battles in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg. He was held captive by the Confederacy but not persecuted despite his command at Camp Douglas. The Confederate catcher treats his wounds. DeLand was exchanged and dismissed from the army on February 4, 1865. On 13 March 1867, Congress confirmed the award to DeLand from the honorary class of the brevet general to rank of March 13, 1865.
Garrison Command from Colonel James C. Strong
The War Department appointed Colonel James C. Strong as the new head of the garrison. His orders began during the General Orme command at the camp and continued through the orders of Colonel Sweet. At the beginning of his duties, Strong has only about 650 healthy men to guard nearly 6,000 prisoners. The newly prepared prison roll is strong and finds that 84 prisoners are missing. He was the first garrison commander to force the detainees to work, but job details were limited to four hours per day. Between January and March 1864, when Colonel Strong had only 550 people available for guard duty, thirty-two escapes were made from the camp. The strong placement of the buildings on Square Prisoner contributed to the problem and made them move from the fence and closer to the center of the square. The fence separating Tahanan Square from the rest of the camp was completed on March 22, 1864. Around that time General Orme installed many bright oil lamps on the fence to illuminate the area at night.
A new, high-priced director, was set up in the camp around 1 April 1864. The construction of a hospital with 180 extra sophisticated beds, including mess room, kitchen, hot water, laundry and toilet flush, was completed on 10 April 1864. However, hospital facilities are still too small for all the needs of prisoners and carers. Although needed, the camp only added 70 beds in two old buildings. The separate smallpox hospital remained in a converted cavalry cage until it was moved to a place called Adele Grove, half a mile south of the camp on the south side of the University of Chicago, overlooking Cottage Grove. The expanded facility began operations on April 15, 1864.
Strict discipline and abuse of detainees are increasing at this time. Colonel Strong gave more power to patrol and put every barrack under the control of a sergeant, two corporals and five warriors. Some of these people are vengeful and even dangerous. On April 10, 1864, the guard made several prisoners standing on a barrel to buy whiskey from a guard. Others are made to wear signs indicating violations. A new dungeon about 20 feet (6.1 m) and 7 feet (2.1 m) high, with two small air holes, built in Prisoner's Square. Three people spent the night there to climb the roof to watch the racetrack. The punishment through extensive use of balls and chains, using a 32-pound (15 kg) ball beam chained to the foot of the prisoner, begins. Some prisoners received this punishment for denying a request to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.
On March 17, 1864, the War Department ordered that every shooting incident in a prison camp should be investigated by the board. Only eight incidents of shootings were reported at Camp Douglas: six in connection with escape attempts, one for urinating on the road and another for crossing the deadline. Two prisoners in a barrack were wounded when the shot missed a prisoner who had passed the deadline.
On April 16, 1864, Lieutenant Colonel John F. Marsh from the inspector general's office inspected the camp. He found loose control of sutlers, prisoners who were paid tobacco for garbage collection by private garbage contractors, barracks in bad condition, with torn floors, dirty beds, wet beds and poor police.
On April 17, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant canceled all of the prisoner exchange negotiations and said they would not continue unless they included the black Union detainees held by the Confederacy. This led to a months impasse in the exchange of detainees until shortly after the negotiations resumed on 21 January 1865. Both Union and Confederate forces had to accommodate many additional prisoners for longer periods than in the past. When the prison cartel has operated, many prisoners can expect to be exchanged within a few months.
On April 27, 1864, without authority, General Orme dismissed Colonel Strong as a garrison commander and installed Colonel Benjamin J. Sweet. Two days later, when Orme was ordered to fix the problem at the camp, he resigned. He was also reportedly ill at the time.
Command Colonel Benjamin J. Sweet
On May 2, 1864, the War Department appointed Colonel Manis as the camp commander. He had been in the camp for seven months and wanted the post. (Some historians now doubt his claims have been wounded in the battle of Perryville, as he claims that two injuries, including chest wounds, were treated by ordinary soldiers, not physicians.On the other hand, other sources say that his right arm was made useless by injuries.) However, Sweet was transferred to an Inappropriate Corps.
Sweet proved to be a rigid discipline that increased punishment and cut rations. This last act was in line with the revised War Ministry's policy of 1864. He proved to be more organized in many ways and a better administrator than his predecessor.
Colonel Sweet returned Colonel Strong as a garrison commander. A sweet tense relationship with Colonel Hoffman in the national office by refusing to stay in the camp and by moving his office to downtown Chicago. Her 12-year-old daughter, Ada, lives with her, apparently to act as her secretary. Confederate prisoner T. D. Henry notes that Sweet refers to "the name of the demon of Captain Webb [Wells] Sponable as a prisoner inspector." From this moment on, the darkest leaves in the tyrannical legend can not possibly contain more punishment. " The Sponable paton troop consists of 2 lieutenants, 10 sergeants, 20 corporals and 38 soldiers continuing to organize rations, cooking arrangements and job details. The 5-man squad is on a constant patrol at Prisoner's Square. Since Sweet is not in place, the prisoners feel that garrison troops will not be held responsible for their treatment. For some prisoners, patrols are beneficial because they protect prisoners from each other. The patrol cracked down on several guards whose actions were out of order.
Sweet changed the ration by removing the porridge, which she said was wasted, and the candle, which she believed was used to help the channeling. By using forced labor to build new units, he places more barracks of prisoners on parallel roads. Sweet told the prisoners to search every day for contraband to make sure the prisoners did not have the cash to bribe the guards, but such hidden money was not found. During a roll call in prison on May 24, 1864, the guards confiscated the overclothes from the prisoners' barracks.
The top ground in the camp has become so eroded that guards must wear protective goggles to protect against the blowing of sand and dust, and prisoners should close their eyes to move. On May 27, 1864, Sweet ordered two more sinks built at Prisoner's Square. He has more than six thousand feet of pine board sent for repairs to the barracks. He also tried to force detainees to keep the camp under repair.
The prisoners attacked the fence in an escape attempt on June 1 but were thwarted, mainly by ground guards using revolvers. Those on the fence are armed with rifles that may not work. No prisoners were killed in the incident.
As the number of prisoners in the camp increased in the summer of 1864, the War Department once again reduced the allotment, in retaliation for the Confederation to reduce the allotment for Union prisoners. Rations are reportedly no longer persisting for the period of time they are given. Some detainees reported that prisoners were forced to eat mice. The guards punish whoever gets caught taking bones from the garbage by tying the bone in the prisoner's mouth and making it crawl like a dog. Because the duration of confinement increases due to the lack of prisoner exchange, more fights between inmates appear. Other prisoners usually destroy them before the guards intervene. Job details are still required.
In June 1864, the guard had prepared a "donkey" or "wooden horse", a device of a kind of horse that was installed about 4 feet (1.2 m) from the ground, then raised to 15 feet (4.6 m). It has a thin, almost sharp edge, and is used as a punishment; prisoners are forced to sit on it. The inmates used their hands to restrain themselves while on the device, but a Confederate prisoner reported seeing people forced to sit on it until they fainted and fell. Sometimes the weights are tied to the legs of the prisoners. The device, which is outside, is used in all types of weather. A guard is also required to sit on the device as a punishment for an unrecorded violation. In line with the War Department's instructions, the post-operative surgeon refused the request of the Confederate surgeon to send the drug free of charge to the prisoners.
The 1864 'Camp Douglas Conspiracy' to destroy the prisoners
The conspiracy of Camp Douglas, considered a serious plan to attack the camp and free the prisoners, should have begun to fruition on November 8, 1864. Historians still disagree as to whether the plot is real, or the ploy is planned. by people looking to profit from misinformation. Lawyers and historian George Levy defended the "conspiracy" beginning as a fraud aimed at the Confederate agency that developed into a trick the Colonel Manis exploited for his own benefit. Levy writes that believing Camp Douglas conspiracy is a matter of faith: the Confederate agents thought they had made a workable path, and Colonel Sweet made their dreams come true. On the other hand, Kelly writes that Sweet seems to believe that the plot is real. Eisendrath also considers the plot real. Writing at a closer time to the event, Bross also described the plot as real.
In the spring of 1864, the Confederate government sent agents to Canada to plan for escape from prisons and attacks in the North. One of the agents, Captain Thomas Hines, believes he can increase the strength of about 5,000 Confederate sympathizers in Chicago to free prisoners from Camp Douglas. On the other hand, no evidence of the basic planning of the details for the attack had been found for the period before Hines began planning operations in mid-August 1864. He soon discovered that he had only 25 unstructured volunteers for a difficult mission. He seems to succumb to the scheme as a Democratic convention in Chicago, which should provide volunteers and cover for the implementation of the plan, which ends in late August. Sweet keeps the story alive, and tells superiors that he will destroy a dangerous insurgency. When Sweet made no effort to prevent the 196th Pennsylvania Infantry from leaving the camp 11 days earlier, Levy thought that his report to the boss was self-serving.
On November 6, 1864, Brigadier General John Cook in Springfield, IL allowed Colonel Sweet to arrest two Confederate agents in Chicago. Sweet sends a message, with hand delivery instead of telegraph, to Cook where he says that Colonel Marmaduke of the Rebel army and other officers are in town planning to release the prisoners. Sweet claims she must act immediately and also arrest two or three prominent citizens who are actively involved in the plot.
Without a warrant, Sweet men searched the house of Charles Walsh, leader of the "Sons of Liberty," who sympathized with the South, and found weapons and ammunition. These arms are not found in the amount needed to arm 2,000 people, as planned by the plot. Sweet in effect extended martial law from a few blocks around the camp to the rest of the city of Chicago. Sweet stated that 106 people were arrested, including Walsh and Judge Buckner Stith Morris of the Illinois Circuit Court, the treasurer of Sons. More than half of those arrested were immediately released. Another search on November 11 produced seventy-eight more weapons. Only six of the eighteen Camp Douglas prisoners from Chicago were arrested on November 6, while others were arrested between November 12 and 16. Sweet found only fifty-one of sixty-nine Chicago citizens on a list of 108 suspects on November 6. Chicago residents were arrested later and other suspects were arrested outside of Chicago in their home region. Claims Sweet has arrested Clingmann gang leaders from southern Illinois repellent designers and Southern sympathizers are not carried away by the records. Sweet enclosed those arrested in a church before moving them to Camp Douglas.
Stanton War Secretary approves Sweet's actions; General Hooker and Cook sent him reinforcements, and Governor Yates put the Chicago militia at Sweet's exile. Sweet then has about 2,000 troops available. Sweet captured five more members from Sons of Liberty on November 14, including Richard T. Semmes. He was not the brother of the Confederate Admiral, Raphael Semmes, as Sweet said at the time. He also arrested Vincent Marmaduke, who was not a Confederate colonel, according to Levy. After the release of a number of suspects, the total number of leaders and soldiers in alleged plotters to attack the camp and free the prisoners was sixty-six people. The soldiers agreed with Sweet's suggestion to try those arrested in front of the military command but ordered that the trial be held in Cincinnati, not in Chicago. Sweet did not arrest Mary Morris, pro-Southern wife of Judge Morris, but prosecutor, Major Henry L. Burnett, ordered her to be arrested. He is not prosecuted, possibly as part of the deal in return for his testimony. Her indictment then led to her husband's release.
Key informant and agent Sweet, John T. Shanks, a Confederate prisoner who is a former member of Morgan's Raider and a convicted criminal, testified against the defendants. Sweet continues to pretend that Shanks is not his agent and lies that Judge Morris has helped Shanks escape from Camp Douglas. In a letter recently discovered on 29 March 1865 from Sweet to Hoffman, Sweet told Hoffman to use Shanks, and requested a one-year payment approval from his prison fund. No record of reply from Hoffman has been found. Shanks criminal past was disclosed to the military commission, but they sentenced many defendants in any event. On December 12, 1864, President Lincoln awarded Sweet brevet brigadier general of the United States Volunteers for a rating of 20 December 1864, and the US Senate confirmed the award on February 14, 1865. Shanks was recruited as "Galvanized Yankee" in 1865. As the captain who led the Company I of the sixth US Voluntary Infantry, he is the only former Confederate detainee assigned as an officer.
The first usage recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary of the phrase, to hell in a hand basket, is in The Great North-West Conspiracy in All its Astonishing Details , an 1865 account by I. Windslow Ayer about the events surrounding Camp Douglas Conspiracy. Ayer alleges that, at the August meeting of the Liberty Children's Order, Judge Morris (mentioned above) said: "Thousands of our best people are prisoners at Camp Douglas, and if once free will 'send slavery to hell in a hand basket.' "
Last month
End of 1864 and 1865
Toward the end of 1864, surgeons refused to return prisoners who returned to the barracks due to the rampant scabies, caused by Hoffman's policy to keep vegetables from the prisoners. In October 1864, 984 of 7,402 prisoners were reported ill in the barracks. Meanwhile, in November 1864, when repairs were being made, water was cut off to the camp and even to the hospital. Prisoners should risk a shot to collect snow, even beyond the dead line, for coffee and other uses.
On December 5, 1864, detainees from the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, who had been destroyed at the Battle of Franklin and the Battle of Nashville, began arriving at Camp Douglas. These "weak and poor" prisoners were made to undress and stand outside for a long time on ice and snow while the guards robbed all the valuables. One of these prisoners, John Copley, stated that the ration was enough to make the men "hungry enough."
At this time, the new 6-inch (150 mm) water pipe makes the toilet run smoothly. With bath and laundry facilities now available, prisoners themselves are forced to wash their clothes and bathe if other prisoners are stubborn. Although censored, letters are sent and sent faithfully, even to and from prisoners in the dungeon. Little, if any, evidence supports some later statements that prisoners "often" freeze to death, although some sick prisoners who are supposed to be in hospital may die from cold. Toward the end of March 1865, the sewer pipe broke and with an incentive of forty-two barrels of whiskey, the prisoner was hired to fix it.
Camp officials contracted an unscrupulous committee, C. H. Jordan, who sold some of the Confederate Confederate corpses to medical school and the rest were buried in shallow graves without coffins. Several bodies were reported even dumped in Lake Michigan, just to wash in the shores. Levy stated that the corpses may have ended up in the lake because they were originally buried in shallow graves along the shore and exposed due to erosion. Jordan sent 143 bodies to Kentucky, according to official records, and claimed to have sent 400 corpses to the family of the deceased during the war. Many of the dead bodies of the prisoners were initially buried in the graves of the poor at the Chicago City Cemetery (located on the Lincoln Park site today). In 1867 their bodies were interrogated in what is now known as the Confederation of Mound at Oak Woods Cemetery (5 miles (8.0 km) south of Camp Douglas).
End of war
With the surrender of Robert E. Lee's troops on April 9, 1865, quite a number of former Confederate prisoners voluntarily enlisted in the US Army to "join the Indian border warfare" to fill ten companies. Although the war is coming to an end, some examples of cruelty by guards are reported even after this date. On May 8, 1865, the Colonel (and today, Brigadier General Brevet) Sweet received orders to release all the prisoners except those who were above the colonel. Those who took the oath of allegiance provided the home transportation but those who were not alone. Around 1,770 prisoners refused to take an oath. On July 5, 1865, the guards were withdrawn from the camp. Only sixteen prisoners then stayed in the camp hospital. Sweet resigned from the army on September 19, 1865 and was replaced as camp commander by Captain Edward R. P. Shurley. On October 1, 1865, Captain E. C. Phetteplace was appointed the last camp commander. About 26,060 Confederate soldiers had passed Camp Douglas camp prison at the end of the war.
After the war, the camp was closed and barracks and other buildings were destroyed. The structure was lowered in late November 1865. The property was sold or returned to its owners during the late 1865 and early 1866.
Aftermath
Death
The official death rate for Confederate inmates at Camp Douglas is provided by some sources as 4,454. The worst period for death at the camp was 1865 when 867 prisoners died before the war ended and the remaining prisoners were released, 2,000 in May and 4,000 in June. Only 16 people were hospitalized staying in the camp hospital according to Levy, 30 according to Kelly, after July 5, 1865.
In 1892, the United Confederate Veterans of Chicago (UCV) called for funds to build a monument at Oak Woods Cemetery where nearly all Confederate victims were interrogated from City Cemetery and funerals for those who died of smallpox near Camp Douglas. In the document, UCV estimates that about 1,500 more people die of unknown Confederates buried in Oak Woods. The document states that these bodies "can not be traced further, except in quantities, thus making the aggregate possibly as rounded as stated above" (6,000). In a book composing speeches and materials for monumentary sanctification in 1895, John Cox Underwood of UCV stated that he had identified 4,317 people buried in "Confederate Mound", mass graves in Oak Woods Cemetery, that 412 others were Identified by the US Government in a list of people who were intercepted from smallpox cemeteries and that estimated more than 1,500 were on the burnt list in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, totaling 6,229. In 1912, Josiah Seymour Currey wrote that "there were 6,129 Confederate army corpses lying at Oakwoods Cemetery."
More recently, in 2007, Kelly Pucci used the 6,000 mark for Camp Douglas death. In 2015, David L. Keller writes that "the total number of deaths at Camp Douglas is among 4,243 names contained in monuments at the Mound Confederation at Oak Woods Cemetery and 7,000 reported by some historians." He writes that the best estimate is between 5,000 and 6,000. He mentioned the bad record and the actions of the people who handled the corpse in the absence of a fixed number. Keller states that up to 50 percent of those who died before April 1863 were not found later. Since the City Cemetery is close to Lake Michigan, many corpses are swept into the lake.
In the aftermath of the war, Camp Douglas, though not exclusively, is sometimes described as "Andersonville" North because of his poor condition and a large number of deaths. Camp Douglas is one of the longest operating and largest prisons in the North. Although the number of prisoners who died there is more than in other locations, the percentage of prisoners who died at Camp Douglas is similar to most other Union war prisoners. The death rate of detainees at Camp Douglas is lower than in Andersonville and conditions in Camp Douglas are better. If there is one camp that could be called "Andersonville of the North," it would be more likely that Elmira Prison in Elmira, New York where death per thousand prisoners is 241.0 versus 44.1 in Camp Douglas.
Modern day
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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