Salisbury Prison Essay

The beginnings of what was to be Salisbury prison was that of a cotton mill that was abandoned by the time North Carolina succeeded from the Union in 1861. The abandoned cotton mill was in a prime location for a desired confederate prison in the confederate states , being located close to the main railroad line that ran through the area. The main building was surrounded by several smaller buildings that were to have multiply functions but would later be only used as hospitals. The complexes were surrounded by a stockade that was designed for a total of 2,500 men at the start of the war but that number was surpassed shortly afterwards.3
The first prisoners arrived in 1861 in December with a total of 120 men, by May 1,400 men occupied the new prison. During the beginning period of inmate arrivals, soldiers had enough space and supplies provided to survive in relative comfort in their new surroundings. The men play a vary of physical exercises and spent most of their time writing and other means to pass the days in confinement. It wasn’t until the fall of 1864 when the Union stopped the exchanging of prisoners that problems began to arise. Without the participation from the Union in the …show more content…
Adolphus Williamson Mangum D.D, the Chaplin who worked in Salisbury prison during the suspending of prisoner exchange blamed the U.S secretary at the time Edwin M. Stanton. In Mangum's thoughts "up to the latter part of 1864, the prison presented few of those horrors which afterwards rendered it so shocking and deplorable."5 To Mangum, Stanton's decision was the reason for the over-crowding that prompted unmanaged conditions and a huge loss of life. His account of Salisbury prison from the period after; shows the changes of the prison being a low security complex that allowed prisoners to go into the city to a prison of ill means.