Many citizens of the United States after the Civil War knew somewhat of the horrible nature of the POW camps, but many people mostly knew the name of Andersonville in the north. For the south one of the most feared camps was Rock Island. Rock Island as a terrible prison camp did not reach the knowledge of everyone until the very popular book Gone With The Wind. In the novel it follows a plantation owner family the trial and turmoil of before and after the Civil War. One of the main characters husbands Ashley Wilkes is fighting in the Civil War, but is captured. The two characters of Scarlett O 'Hara, and Ashley’s wife Melanie Wilkes discuss how Ashley was taken to a horrible place called Rock Island. With the books immense popularity, and
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The solution was to build, and use training camps and transform them into prisoner of war camps or POW camps. In both the Union and the Confederacy there were multiple POW camps built during the Civil War. Some were small some were large, and Illinois possessed two large POW camps. These POW camps were camp Douglass in Chicago, and the Rock Island arsenal in Rock Island. Camp Douglass was made at the start of the Civil War, and was named after Illinois House member Stephen Douglass. During the start of the war Camp Douglass became the largest training camp in all of Illinois, and would see the training of most of Illinois troops. In 1862 prisoners were brought into the camp on a temporary basis with the thought that they would not need to be there long, but as the months drug on with no end to the war in sight the amount of prisoners climbed, and so in 1863 Camp Douglass became one of the largest POW camps in the union with a total of 18,000 soldiers held there throughout the war. The second POW camp was Rock Island arsenal in Rock Island. Rock Island had become a very strong …show more content…
For Camp Douglass the camp went through many different leaders. Most of them consisting of mostly Colonel’s in the army Camp Douglass saw multiple change in hands. These changes in hands lead to one problem in Camp Douglass. With the Colonel’s constantly on the move to various camps, or even to the front the Camp never really got consistency. While the Camp did have their overall goals, and some of the Colonel’s stuck around for quite a few months this still left a huge problem in consistency. The Colonels who headed the camps had their own way of running things. This meant that the POW camps would get into a routine of how to run, and operate things only to have that completely changed with the new Colonel. This meant that the camps could never get consistency of treating prisoners, how to punish prisoners, and how to treat prisoners. For Rock Island Arsenal there were some changes in Colonel’s, but not nearly as bad as those in Camp Douglass. Rock Island seems to be more run by various military guards. These guards would be the ones who would run most of Rock Island Arsenal , and would lead to a problem. Many of the guards who ran Rock Island Arsenal were ill trained to handle knowing what to do with prisoners. Many times they would not know when to, and when not to abuse prisoners especially when word reached them of how the South were treating their
The solution was to build, and use training camps and transform them into prisoner of war camps or POW camps. In both the Union and the Confederacy there were multiple POW camps built during the Civil War. Some were small some were large, and Illinois possessed two large POW camps. These POW camps were camp Douglass in Chicago, and the Rock Island arsenal in Rock Island. Camp Douglass was made at the start of the Civil War, and was named after Illinois House member Stephen Douglass. During the start of the war Camp Douglass became the largest training camp in all of Illinois, and would see the training of most of Illinois troops. In 1862 prisoners were brought into the camp on a temporary basis with the thought that they would not need to be there long, but as the months drug on with no end to the war in sight the amount of prisoners climbed, and so in 1863 Camp Douglass became one of the largest POW camps in the union with a total of 18,000 soldiers held there throughout the war. The second POW camp was Rock Island arsenal in Rock Island. Rock Island had become a very strong …show more content…
For Camp Douglass the camp went through many different leaders. Most of them consisting of mostly Colonel’s in the army Camp Douglass saw multiple change in hands. These changes in hands lead to one problem in Camp Douglass. With the Colonel’s constantly on the move to various camps, or even to the front the Camp never really got consistency. While the Camp did have their overall goals, and some of the Colonel’s stuck around for quite a few months this still left a huge problem in consistency. The Colonels who headed the camps had their own way of running things. This meant that the POW camps would get into a routine of how to run, and operate things only to have that completely changed with the new Colonel. This meant that the camps could never get consistency of treating prisoners, how to punish prisoners, and how to treat prisoners. For Rock Island Arsenal there were some changes in Colonel’s, but not nearly as bad as those in Camp Douglass. Rock Island seems to be more run by various military guards. These guards would be the ones who would run most of Rock Island Arsenal , and would lead to a problem. Many of the guards who ran Rock Island Arsenal were ill trained to handle knowing what to do with prisoners. Many times they would not know when to, and when not to abuse prisoners especially when word reached them of how the South were treating their