(Photo)
engraving of Camp Douglas made from
a sketch by F. Munson
(Photo)
Statue erected at Camp Douglas
by the citizens of Chicago and
camps of the United Confederate Veterans
in memory of prisoners who died there
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.
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.