(Photo)
Hammond Hospital and depot for prisoners of war (foreground) and two fenced areas of sand where prisoners were held (background, upper right)
All inmates were enlisted men, and they
lived in
overcrowded tents, with no barracks to
protect them
from heat and coastal
storms. Water was scarce and polluted
and there was
never enough food or firewood; both were
strictly
rationed. Rats were
a major source of protein for some
inmates, and
catching them became a favorite sport in
the
camp.
There was much animosity between the
prisoners and
the guards, who were mostly black
troops. One Rebel
who had managed to
purchase his freedom from the prison
reported that
"murder was not only not scrupled at,
but
opportunities sought for its
commission by the guards, who are known
to have
been offered by the officer of the day
as much as
$10 and $15 apiece for
every prisoner they could shoot in the
discharge of
their duty."
Point Lookout, Md., was the largest and
one of
the worst Northern prisoner-of-war
camps. It was
established August 1,
1863, on the barren peninsula where the
Potomac
River flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The
prison
consisted of "two
enclosures of flat sand, one about
thirty and the
other about ten acres, each surrounded
by a fence
fifteen feet high.