| UNION PRISONS During The Late Unpleasantness |
| THE IMMORTAL SIX-HUNDRED On August 20, 1864, a group of 600 Confederate officers were taken from Fort Delaware as prisoners of war. The purpose for this removal, to be shipped to Hilton Head, S.C. There they were place in stockades in front of the Union works at Charleston. Placed in the open, they were shelled by their own men, this lasted over a month! There is no record of any being hit by shells, but three died of starvation! On October 21, after 45 days under fire, the weakened survivors were removed to Fort Pulaski, Ga. Here they were crowded into the cold damp casements of the fort. On November 19 197 of the men were sent back to Hilton Head to relieve the overcrowding. A ration10 ounces of moldy cornmeal and soured pickles was the only food given for 42 days. Thirteen men died at Fort Pulaski and five at Hilton Head. The remaining members of the Immortal Six-Hundred were returned to Fort Delaware on March 12, 1865, where an additional twenty-five died. They became famous throughout the South for their adherence to principle, refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance under such adverse circumstances. |
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| The worst prison camp during the WFSI was NOT Andersonville but Rock Island, Illinois. This Union camp had an estimated 72% death rate as compared to Andersonville's 27% !! The Book Rock Island Prison A report on March 4, 1864 reported the current prison population was about 7,600. By the end of July 1864, the Confederate Cemetery had a population of over 1,300, fully two-thirds of the prisoner deaths that were to occur during the life of the camp, which had been in existence only eight months. It is estimated that the peak population of the camp, at any one time, was about 8,600. |
| Point Lookout Point Lookout was a genocidal concentration camp that housed over 52,000 Southerners, with a death count of over 14,000. Because of the topography, drainage was poor, and the area was subject to extreme heat in the summer and cold in the winter. This exacerbated the problems created by inadequate food, clothing, fuel, housing, and medical care. As a result, approximately 3,000 prisoners died there over 22 months. It is estimated that a total of 52,264 (WOR) prisoners, both military and civilian, were held prisoner there. Although it was designed for 10,000 prisoners, during most of its existence it held 12,600 to 20,000 inmates. More About Point Lookout Prison....HERE |
| Elmira "I speak in all reverence when I say that I do not believe such a spectacle was seen before on earth...On they came, a ghastly tide, with skeleton bones and lustreless eyes, and brains, bereft of but one thought, and hearts purged of but one feeling -- the thought of freedom, the love of home." Comment by a resident of Elmira, N.Y. seeing the prisoners arrival. From the Confederate Veteran If there ever was a hell on Earth, Elmira Prison was that hell, but it was not a hot one, for the thermometer was often 40 degrees below zero. There were about six thousand Confederate prisoners, mostly from Georgia and the Carolinas. We were housed in long prison buildings, say one hundred and twenty feet long and forty feet wide, three tiers of bunks against each wall. A big coal stove every thirty feet was always kept red hot; but for these stoves, the most of us would have frozen. Around each stove was a chalk mark, five feet from the stove, marking the distance we should keep, so that all could be warm. We were thinly clad and not half of us had even one blanket. Our rations were ten ounces of bread and two ounces of meat per day. My weight fell from 180 to 160 in a month. We invented all kinds of traps and deadfalls to catch rats. Every day Northern ladies came in the prison, some followed by dogs or cats, which the boys would slip aside and choke to death. The ribs of a stewed dog were delicious, and a broiled rat was superb.....UNION WAR CRIMES AT ELMIRA...HERE |
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| Confederate prisoners of war at Chattanooga, Tn Rail Yards, waiting to be shipped north to the death camps. |
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| INDEX * WHITETRASH * IMMORTAL FACTS CAMP DOUGLES * SPECIAL LINKS * MY AWARDS * I DIG-IT AWARDED * GUESTBOOK |
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