298 The American Civil WarThe most notorious of the Civil War prison camps
was the stockade at Andersonville, Georgia. Originally
planned for 10,000, it was home to more than three
times that number resulting in severe overcrowding,
sanitary problems, and disease. (Collection of the
New York Historical Society)
33,000. Amid the filth, congestion, lack
of shelter, and poor water supply, some
13,000 died there.
Large Federal prison camps existed at Point
Lookout, Maryland; iilmira, New York; Camp
Chase, Ohio; and Johnson's Island, Illinois.
Although Elmira earned the worst reputation
among Confederate prisoners, the conditions
there were better than at Andersonville.
Elmira housed less than one-third the number
of inmates on over 60 percent more acreage.
The Union also erected barracks to shelter the
inmates from the brutal cold of a Central New
York winter. Still, Elmira had a staggering
24 percent death rate for Rebel soldiers
incarcerated there.
No doubt, more intelligent planning and
effort on both sides would have alleviated
much of the misery in these camps. Of
the 195,000 Union prisoners of war,
more than 30,000 died. Federals held
215,000 Confederates, 26,000 of whom
perished. Nor did these figures include
all those who endured severe or chronic
ailments from prolonged hardships and
exposure. Yet despite postwar accusations,
neither the Union nor the Confederacy
deliberately intended to inflict horrible
suffering on their captives. Rebel prison
camps tended to be worse than Federal
pens, but Confederate soldiers fared worse
than Yankees. If the Confederacy struggled
to feed and clothe its own fighting men, it
should have surprised no one that its
prisoners would fare poorly.