| Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison Contributor(s): Pucci, Kelly (Author) |
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ISBN: 1531632262 ISBN-13: 9781531632267 Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Library Editions OUR PRICE: $28.79 Product Type: Hardcover Published: December 2007 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - State & Local - Midwest(ia,il,in,ks,mi,mn,mo,nd,ne,oh,sd,wi - History | United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) |
| Dewey: 973.771 |
| Physical Information: 0.38" H x 6.69" W x 9.61" (0.91 lbs) 130 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Thousands of Confederate soldiers died in Chicago during the Civil War, not from battle wounds, but from disease, starvation, and torture as POWs in a military prison three miles from the Chicago Loop. Initially treated as a curiosity, attitudes changed when newspapers reported the deaths of Union soldiers on southern battlefields. As the prison population swelled, deadly diseases--smallpox, dysentery, and pneumonia--quickly spread through Camp Douglas. Starving prisoners caught stealing from garbage dumps were tortured or shot. Fearing a prisoner revolt, a military official declared martial law in Chicago, and civilians, including a Chicago mayor and his family, were arrested, tried, and sentenced by a military court. At the end of the Civil War, Camp Douglas closed, its buildings were demolished, and records were lost or destroyed. The exact number of dead is unknown; however, 6,000 Confederate soldiers incarcerated at Camp Douglas are buried among mayors and gangsters in a South Side cemetery. Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison explores a long-forgotten chapter of American history, clouded in mystery and largely forgotten. |