Camp Douglass Case Study

to the battlefield. This meant that guards could never get used to the prisons life, and the daily routines of the prison, and when the guards finally did get used to the prison they had to return to the battlefield. This meant that the prison camps especially Camp Douglas had a huge problem with consistency. Another problem that Camp Douglas had was drainage of water. How Camp Douglas was set up meant that there was little room for any drainage of rain water. This lead to contaminated drinking water, and many of the prisoners getting sick from the water. The prisoners would have to stand out in water when they were outside, and the water even seeped into the housing. This caused disease to spread even easier throughout the camps. This …show more content…
Because of the lack of experience of the medical staff they had not noticed several cases of small pox. This resulted in several undocumented cases of small pox that were later discovered. These prisoners had been interacting with the rest of the camp that was healthy. This once again put all of the prisoners at risk of contracting small pox. The doctors checked all of the prisoners again, and found an additional thirty four undocumented cases of small pox. This increased the pressure on the medical staff to make sure that all of the prisoners were …show more content…
One of the first major improvements to Rock Island was the construction of a gravesite. This was constructed far away from the camp to make sure no more prisoners were infected. However Rock Island was vastly different in who fought for change. While Camp Douglas’s change was pushed by their new permeant leader and Quartermaster General M.C. Meigs, but Meigs was one of the most adamant against change at Rock Island. The one to lead the call for change at Rock Island was Assistant Surgeon General A. M. Clark who asked for a hospital, and better conditions for the prisoners. For a time Meigs fought against Clark wanting to keep the prison camp as cheap as possible, but with the body count rising Meigs gave in, and in 1863 approval was given to construct a hospital. This hospital consisted of two buildings one was for contagious diseases, and the other was for non-contagious diseases. While this did completely help fix everything at Rock Island it still made the lives of the prisoners easier. Rock Island was also helped out constantly by the local population. When the local population heard that the rations had been cut they sent food to the prisoners, and the locals made sure to send clothes along with other supplies to the camp. While life for the prisoners was nowhere near ideal their situation had