Prisoners+of+War

PRISONER EXCHANGE media type="custom" key="5723059"

What were the prison camps like?

What 2 prison camps were considered the worst?

What were the prisons like?

What is the prisoner of war exchange and what does it do?

In the Civil War soldiers that were captured are put in prisons are called prisoners of war. During the Civil War, as you may know the North also known as the Union were fighting against the South or the Confederates. They started the war because the South wanted to break away from the Union, and I could see why the president would start a war over that I mean it is the United States of America. Any way, as the war was still raging the prisoners of war were kept quarantine and used as leverage to get some of their solders back, for example lets just say that "the south had 25 solders and the north had captured the same amount." In this situation what they would do is something called the "prisoner of war exchange." From the early 1860s to 1865 this exchange was very popular because both sides were trying to get back their people this form of trade was made by George B. Dams.

When the Union captured Confederate soldiers they treated them honorably and not like people that were rebels or traitors. In 1864, the Union camps became very bad in conditions because there were so many numbers of prisoners coming in. Reports say that there was 215,000 confederate Prisoners of Wars (POW’s). And of that 26,000 died while being held. Some of the Confederate prisoners that were caught by the Union, were given a spot in a “galvanized” or mixed units in the Army. Also some camps in the Civil War were in Elmira called “Camp Morton”, Columbus called “Camp Chase”, Chicago called “Camp Douglass”, Point Lookout, and finally Rock Island.

Point Lookout was considered the worst prison on the Union side. It was over crouded and the conditions were horrible. Point Lookout was made in 1863. It held 52,264 prisoners but most of the time it held 12,600 and it had a 1,400 hospital bed house for the injured. The prison was only ment to hold 10,000 prisoners. There still were 22,000 prisoners being held at the end of the war in 1865. Point Lookout wasn`t the only bad prison around in fact on the Confederate side they have a prison that is considered the worst prison. It`s name was Andersonville and that prison had about 33,000 when it could only hold 10,000. The Confederates hated the Union side so they treated them really bad unlike Point Lookout which was only considered bad because of the lack of supplies and super over croudedness. media type="custom" key="5659705"

Genealogy Inc. "Point Lookout Prisoner of War Camp." //www.mycivilwar.com//. HostMonster.COM, 15 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2010. .

Jameson, John, JJ. "Andersonville Civil War Prison." //www.nps.gov//. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 4 Jan. 2010. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. .