Existing comment:
Prisoner of War Camps:
-- "... we had attempted to escape twice, had been captured, had been taken once and put in a dungeon and kept there sixteen days with very little to eat, with rats in abundance, and cockroaches, weighing anywhere from one to six pounds apiece falling on us... I didn't think we could be punished any more." -- Major Andrew M. Benson -- Commander of Massachusetts -- 1900
Many soldiers were captured during the course of the Civil War, but Union and Confederate officials regularly exchanged prisoners during the early part of the struggle. They used a parole system which morally obligated an exchanged soldier not to return to combat duties for a specified period of time.
Later in the war, the Union came to understand that if they did not return prisoners they would be materially injuring the Southern cause, since the South had fewer men to direct into the war effort. Thereafter, conditions at prisoner of war camps deteriorated. More than 80 per cent of the Union soldiers held captive at Andersonville, Georgia for instance, died.
The North established prisoner of war camps in many areas including Chicago and, briefly, at Camp Randall in Madison. In total, more Confederates die while being held captives in the North than did Union prisoners in the South. |