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Between 1861 and 1865, American Civil War prison camps were operated by the Union and the Confederacy to detain over 400,000 captured soldiers. From the start of the Civil War through to 1863 a parole exchange system saw most prisoners of war swapped relatively quickly.
Prison camps during the Civil War were potentially more dangerous and more terrifying than the battles themselves. A soldier who survived his ordeal in a camp often bore deep psychological scars and physical maladies that may or may not have healed in time.
Plan of camp showing the prison, the "dead line," "Rebel camp," batteries, "Gen. Winder's headquarters," Capt. Wirtz's house, depot, cook house, dispensary, hospital, road, and drainage. Description derived from published bibliography. Available also through the Library of Congress web site...
Prison Types: 1) Existing jail/prison; 2) Coastal fortification; 3) Old buildings converted into prisons; 5) Cluster of tents enclosed by high fences. Back to top Massachusetts Prisoner of War Camps
The 36 acre prison camp was located between what are now 19th and 22nd Streets, and between Central Avenue and Talbott Street. The land had been established as state fairgrounds. In 1861 it was converted to a military training camp, and named after the governor.
There were over 160 prisons used throughout the Civil War. These institutions were established all along the East Coast as far north as Boston, as far south as Dry Tortugas Island off Key West, Florida, and as far west as Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Craig, New Mexico.
Point Lookout was the largest and one of the worst Union prisoner-of-war camps, established on August 1, 1863. It was located at the extreme tip of St. Mary's County, on the long, low, and barren peninsula where the Potomac River joins Chesapeake Bay.
Civil War prison camps were notoriously filthy and disease-ridden camps, warehouses, forts and prisons that held an estimated 400,000 captured Civil War soldiers, as well as spies and political prisoners, during the war.
Prison camps were largely empty in mid-1862 because of the informal exchanges. The exchange system broke down in mid 1863 when the Confederacy refused to treat captured black prisoners as equal to white prisoners. The overall mortality rates in prisons on both sides were similar, and quite high.
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