March 1864: Camp Douglas Mired in Mud and Misery

Colonel James C. Strong[i]

*A special note of thanks to Mr. James I. Evans for his most kind support and encouragement.

On March 1, 1864, diarist Curtis R. Burke recorded that his regiment had received tickets for ten days rations “which is unusual.” On March 3rd, Burke noted that new officers were arriving and “things will probably be harder.” Burke’s dark prediction proved correct.

“About this time Colonel Deland was ordered to the front. He was succeeded by Colonel B. J. Sweet as commandant of camp, Colonel Skinner as commissary of prisoners, and a fiend named Captain Webb Sponable as inspector of prisoners.

From this time forward the darkest leaf in the legends of all tyranny could not possibly contain a greater number of punishments. ”

-Deposition of T. D. Henry[ii]

On March 1, 1864, Colonel James C. Strong had arrived at Camp Douglas to serve as the new garrison commander. Previously, as a Lt. Colonel with the 38th New York, Strong had been severely wounded in the hip at Williamsburg, Virginia in May of 1862. Unable to move, Strong had lain beside a log for hours until his men located him by lantern light.[iii] Now serving with the Fifteenth Invalid Corps, Strong formally assumed command from De Land on March 3, 1864. [iv] De Land’s First Michigan Sharpshooters remained at Camp Douglas until 17 March 1864, when they left to join the Ninth Corps, in Annapolis, MD. In his diary, Burke recorded a camp rumor stating that some of the First Michigan Sharpshooters had deserted when they learned that they had been ordered to the front.

“March 4th, 1864

Today five months ago I landed here and I see no chance of exchange. Yet indeed I have every reason to believe that I will spend five months more under blue coat rule. I drew some comic picture of the convalescents which made Old dry Doctor laugh. Winter is not gone yet for it is snowing strong and swift…”

- Private William D. Huff[v]

Strong began with 526 men from Sweet’s Eight Invalid Regiment, 450 of his own, and the promise that four companies of the 11th Invalid Regiment would soon arrive. Unfortunately, about one third of these men were too sick or injured to serve duty. Thus, Strong was left to face the reality of controlling nearly six thousand prisoners with only 650 able bodied soldiers.[vi] Security was now at issue. Perhaps this was an underlying factor in Strong’s decision to take up residence in the city of Chicago despite Hoffman’s order to reside within the camp.[vii]

“About 166 men, amounting to 10 percent of the guard force, were ill on March 1, 1864. This emergency caused Colonel Strong to bar civilian workers from leaving camp ‘until all Prison workers had returned to their squares.’ He was referring to Prisoner’s Square and White Oak Square, where some prisoners remained.”[viii]

On March 5th Burke wrote that the prisoners received “positive instructions to write but one page of note paper.” By March 6th, new and rather inept officers took over roll call.

“Monday March 7th, 1864. Weather pleasant. We are kept out in the mud at roll call two hours again. The sutler store opened late in the day. I could not get to the counter and I got a friend ahead of me to make my purchases for me. We received the following additional orders:
1st. to rise at sound of bugle at sunrise.
2d. roll call at sound of bugle one hour after.
3d. dismissal at sound of bugle and breakfast.
4th. Fatigue detail at 8 o’clock A. M.
5th. recall of detail at 12 o’clock A.M.
6th. Dinner at 12 ½ o’clock P. M.
7th. Fatigue detail at 1 o’clock P. M.
8th. Recall of detail at 5 o’clock P. M.
9th. Supper detail at 5 ½ o’clock P. M.
10th. Lights out at 7 o’clock P. M.
Forty four more prisoners arrived today and were crowed in with the fourteenth Ky. As company F. They are a good looking set of men. Some of them were captured with paroles given them by the Yankees on a former occasion in their pockets, also writing from the Confederate authorities recognizing their paroles, and their being the rearrested was a violation of the rules of war.”

-Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[ix]

While the ban on packages from friends was lifted on March 11, 1864 censorship of mail increased dramatically.[x] Burke fumed that men often receive only an empty envelope, “The letters having been taken out at headquarters by the examiners on account of their being too long or containing contraband news.”

(Note: The following letter is presented in it's original format)

“Camp Douglas, Ill.
Mar. 12th, 1864

Dear Father,

Your kind letter of the 29th was received and read with interest George also received one from sister. It always cheers us up to hear to hear from the old home stead. You know that Georges very delicate and what inclined to have the blues anyway. I don’t think that his health is quite as good as it was when you were hear. The dyspepsy and chronic diarea are the two diseases that he suffers with. We heard directly from Brother John this week he is well and getting along first rate. The gentle man that brought the news belongs to the same Regt. that captured the 25th of Feb. James Gill is well so are Johnson West, Charley and all the rest of the neighbor boys that are hear. We kneed some more P. Stamps. When you write your letters must not be Longer that two pages of note or one of this kind of paper. I would like to have two calico and two woolen shits if you could find a convient way to send them. George joines me in love to all.

Your sons,

Wm H Adams”[xi]

A few small sanitary measures were begun around the camp during the change of command. On March 14th Burke’s barrack received two cast iron boilers. He was bemused with these contraptions, declaring “There is six feet of pipe to each, and they look like locomotives on a small scale at a distance.” However, the men now had means for washing their clothing. Even with this new means of maintaining of hygiene,
smallpox continued to spread throughout the camp.

“ Friday March 11th, 1864. Weather cool and cloudy. We had to attend roll call in a misty rain and snow. We drew beef and light bread and had soup for dinner. WE draw beef and light bread nearly every other day. We use the checker board in the mess now to kill time. Cards are rarely played. The small pox is raging moderately. Only four cases were taken from this square today. The mud on the way to and from the sutler store and sink is about eight or ten inches deep and no prospects of its drying up soon. This may encourage the spred of the smallpox. I hear of a man escaping every few nights although it had become a very difficult matter to get out.

Saturday, March 12th, 1864. Weather pleasant. We are still kept at roll call as long as usual. An order was read to us at roll call requesting all that wanted to take the oath to report to Col. Wm. Hoffman at Washington City D. C. by letter, stating why they wanted to take the oath, etc. etc. etc. I learn that two thirds of the prisoners sent to the smallpox hospital have died, and that there is about forty cases in the hospital now. There has been several escaped from there across the prairie on recovering. It rained after dark. Arguments, puzzles and hard questions are all the go this two or three past days to kill the time.”

-Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xii]

Rumors and speculation swirled about the camp. Through Northern news papers and smuggled reports, the prisoners were aware of general troop moments, victories, and defeats. Any glimmer of hope for the Confederacy gave rise to a new flurry of rumors. Such was the case by mid March. From February 3 to March 5, 1864, General William T. Sherman conducted a successful campaign around Meridian, Mississippi. Then, misfortune befell them when troops under General William Sooy Smith, intended to join Sherman, were defeated by Confederate cavalry at West Point, Mississippi on February 21, 1824.

“Sunday March 13th, 1864. Weather cool. A little snow on the ground. There is a rumor in camp that the Yankee army under Sherman has been defeated with heavy loss, and that we will be exchanged soon, and we are inclined to put some confidence in the rumor on account of the oaths being offered to us”

-Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xiii]

Strong, perhaps due to his own tragic experiences in the war, was not a humanitarian leader. He showed neither mercy nor concern for his prisoners.

“Strong was the first garrison commander to exploit forced labor, and he searched the barracks ruthlessly to conscript prisoners for work details.” [xiv][xv]

It would appear that in taking these actions, Strong had the full support of the Commissary-General of Prisoners.

“Major-General Rosecrans,
Comdg. Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo:

Your telegram of the 14th is received. Paroled prisoners may perform any service, not armed, necessary for their own preservation. The ordinary fatigue duties about their own camp barracks are not in violation of their parole.

W. Hoffman
Commissary-General of Prisoners”[xvi]

Strong began to use prisoner labor to construct a drainage system.

“Monday March 14th, 1864 Weather cool. Our Yankee sergeant brought six spades, one rake and two wheelbarrows and called for a detail of nine men to dig a ditch in front of the barracks. The detail was taken from company A in alphabetical order. They dug sixty feet of ditch by twelve o’clock and were dismissed. At one o’clock company B furnished the detail of nine men till five o’clock, and dug one hundred and fifty feet of ditch. James Allen, myself Henry Beach, Chas. Byrnes, Jas. Beeler, Jack Curd, Edwin Colgan, Jorden Cook, and Frank Davis were the detail. Jack Curd was as usual in his comic mood, and took charge of us. The Yankee sergeant kept near us bossing the job. Jack Curd Kept his eye on him and when he turned his back Jack would give the word rest and when he turned towards us Jack gave the word work. The Yank kept pretty close most of the evening .Jack stopped to blow a little and wiping the sweat from his eyes said ‘I told the sergeant my name was spelled with a K instead of a C, but he wouldn’t believe it.’ We were dismissed at five o’clock. The night was cold.

-Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xvii]

If the intent of the labor program was to break the men’s morale, it appeared to have had mixed success. Some men carried on undaunted. Others, who were exhausted by illness, starvation, over work, and homesickness, entertained thoughts of death as the ultimate escape.

“March 21st 1864

"Dear Friends,

We take this opportunity of informing you that we are all well at this time. Was hoping that these few lines will reach your kind hand and find you all well. We would like to hear from you all and would like to see you all but we cannot tell when that will be, but one thing we must do and that is prepare to meet in Eternity, for it God permits us to live we will live for the future and we tell you all now that we are determined by the help of God to make our way to a better world. So no more at present, write [unreadable].
Stamey J. Dyer
Noah is still around."

-John Henry Dyer
62nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment[xviii]

Dyer’s best friend, John Noah Frances, died in camp on December 30, 1864.

On March 18, 1864 the Invalid Corp were renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps and hence forth referred to as the VRC.[xix] Strong wrote to General Orme voicing his objections to finding that his men were living in an old barracks without a floor.[xx] This building was damp, poorly ventilated, and smelled of rotting garbage. Thus, the newly arrived jailors were living in the same conditions as the prisoners.

Cut off from the outside world, news became all important to the prisoners.

“In March 1864, members of the 14th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, Morgan’s Raiders, published a four-page newspaper called the ‘Prisoners Vidette.’ The name was derived from a variation on the Italian word for sentinel, and the handwritten newspaper carried reports and rumors. In addition to serious articles about unsanitary conditions and smallpox at Camp Douglas, prisoners placed personal advertisements, such as, “Wanted a Save Conductor out of Camp Douglas. Any price will be paid for the service. Rebel’ which was a sly reference to escape tunnels being dug by Morgan’s Raiders. Pvt. Abraham Lappin, who spent two years as a prisoner of war, placed an advertisement for handmade smoking popes, sold ‘wholesale and retail at Lappins factory. Block 17 three doors west of the south east corner. Give him a call you will hot be otherwise than satisfied.’’”[xxi]

While, strictly copyrighted by the Chicago Historical Society, the Diary of Private William D. Huff contains a drawing of “The Evening Journal.” It is possible to download Huff’s drawings from the History Lab lesson plans in “The Civil War” Up Close and Personal” section entitled “Who is William Huff? Blueback or Grayback” and “Look Out My Window. What Do You See? [xxii] The lesson plans may be accessed at http://www.chicagohistory.org/education/resources/history-lab/the-civil-war-up-close-and-personal

“Monday March 21st, 1864. Weather cool. Companies D and E furnished nine men each on detail to clean up around the barracks. The boys in next room are making a little newspaper called the Prisoners Vidette. It is on a sheet of foolscap and written with the pen altogether. It contains all of the camp rumors, original poetry, songs, and jokes, advertisement, etc. A good thing to kill time with.”

-Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xxiii]

As always, escape remained foremost in the prisoner’s minds.

“Wednesday March 23rd, 1864. Weather very pleasant. Twelve men escaped from the dungeon last night by means of a tunnel. Three of them passed out after day light, and but for day light coming too soon for them everybody in the dungeon would have escaped. The hole was soon discovered after day light and filled up. I visited David Hickey’s mess and saw a snow white mouse with pink eyes under a tumbler. It was the size of a common mouse and was caught in the coal box.”

“March 27th 1864. Weather cool. A tunnel was discovered by some treacherous rebel and reported to the Yanks. It is in the other square by the side of the fire place a kitchen near the fence. The rebs were busy cooking over the covered hole when an officer came in and said, “What are you cooking over that hole for? Ain’t you afraid your things will fall in?’ There is no hole here said rebs. Yes there is take the pots off, and I’ll show you. The rebs moved off their things and the officer removed the fire and ashes and raised a trap door disclosing the hole, much to the feigned astonishment of the rebs. The officer was angry and told the men that he would find every hole that they dug, and it was no use to dig them. The hole was filled up by pressing the rebs standing around into service. The men that dug it say that it would have been through on the outside of the fence in one more night. They had been detained a couple of nights on account of water rising in the hole. The ground being still very wet from the recent rains. There was only a few rebs that knew where the hole was, but there was a good many that suspicioned that there was one somewhere in that neighborhood and so put on their best cloths for two or three nights past in the hope of finding it, and escaping. The diggers were afraid of traitorous spies and worked secretly. Many true men were not posted. They were out slipping around as soon as it was well dark to learn something, and whenever they heard a noise or saw a Yankee patrol they would dodge into the nearest barracks like scared rats. Some rascally fellow played what would have been a severe joke on one Robert Lowery of Company A of this regiment, had he succeeded in escaping. “Secesh soap for sale!” were written on his back in large letters with chalk or soap. Of course, this would have caused his arrest on the first appearance of light. I received a letter from home from Brother Alonzo dated the 2th inst. The Chicago papers the Post and Tribune gives an account of the rebel Gen. Forest capturing Paducah, Ky and the city nearly burned down in the fight.”

- Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xxiv]

“The prisoners suspected treachery, but they were wrong. Reverend Tuttle wrote that Capt. Wells Sponable discovered the hole after spotting a prisoner running to the kitchen at one o’clock in the morning.”[xxv]

In response to the tunneling, kitchens near the fence were removed. Barracks were moved toward the center of the square, set on five foot post, and arranged into a grid pattern with streets between the buildings. Barracks floors which had been removed in December were now reinstalled and reinforced.[xxvi]

At the end of March 1864, 5, 462 Confederates were had been crowded into Camp Douglas.[xxvii] Hoffman had tents delivered in the event that the barracks could not handle that number of men. Rumor spread about the camp. Men were certain that the barracks would be destroyed and they would all be forced to live in tents. As usual, the rumor was incorrect and the tents were never used. [xxviii]

ENDNOTES

[i] New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center , NYS Division of Military and Naval Affairs http://dmna.state.ny.us/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/38thInf/38thInfPersonStrong.htm
[ii] Deposition of T. D. Henry, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. I. Richmond, Va., March, 1876.No.4. April - Pages 273 - 276
[iii] Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. “ The Theosophist, Part Six 1884 to 1885: Why They Couldn’t Hear Him” p. 75
[iv] Herek, Raymond J. “These Men Have Seen Hard Service” 1998, p.91
[v] Excerpts from the Diary of William D. Huff Chicago Historical Society, History Lab activities http://www.chicagohistory.com/
[vi] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 195
[vii] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 195
[viii] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 197
[ix] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[x] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 198
[xi] Wartime Letters of William Henry Adams http://morgans_men.tripod.com/adams.htm
[xii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[xiii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[xiv] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 197
[xv] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[xvi] Scott, Robert Nicholson. “The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Offical Records of the Union and Conferderate Armies, Series II, Vol VII, Republication 1972
[xvii]
[xviii] Deaths of Prisoners of War from the 62nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nchaywoo/campdouglasdeathsnc.htm
[xix] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 198
[xx] RG 94, Regimental Letter Book
[xxi] Pucci, Kelly. “Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Civil War Prison” 2007, p. 50
[xxii] Chicago Historical Society, History Lab activities http://www.chicagohistory.com/
[xxiii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[xxiv] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[xxv] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 199, Tuttle. Edmund B. “ History of Camp Douglas,” p.17
[xxvi] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry, Official Records, Ser. II, Vol. VII, 184-185.
[xxvii] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 199
[xxviii] Levy, George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 12, p. 199

January 1864: Frostbite, the Rumor Mills, and Moving Barracks

“ Fire and Ice
by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”

308 prisoners died at Camp Douglas in January 1864. This feeble essay is dedicated to their memory.

On January 1st, 1864, the temperature at Camp Douglas was recorded as 18 degrees below zero during the day and 25 degrees below zero later that night. The snowfall was very heavy. In his diary, William huff recorded awaking with frozen ears, nose and chin. During the night, the moisture from the men’s breath had frozen and two inch long icicles hung from the rafters. Huff’s wrath over the conditions was so great he was determined to report it to Head Quarters. The Union guard atop the walkway on the fence had to be replaced every half an hour due to the artic atmosphere.

The prisoners made the best of the bitter conditions.

“Friday, January 1st, 1864. New Year’s day. Weather bitter cold. The snow in some places was four and five feet deep, and a regular gale was blowing it about in drifts so that it nearly took a man’s breath from him to go even a hundred yards. Six or seven of the guards froze on their beats last night and this morning, so that they had to be taken to the Yankees hospital. I put a pot of dried peaches to cooking on the stove to make a big peach roll for dinner. Near twelve o’clock a guard was put at every door in the barracks and no one allowed to go out except for fuel, water or a case of absolute necessity. The severity of the weather remains unchanged, and I think these guards were taken from the fence to keep from freezing and put at the doors to prevent our escaping. I and Henry White [ate] our peach roll by ourselves. I intended to invite Pa and others in his barracks to take dinner with us, but the blockade cut off my communication. The men had to carry all the fuel and water they used, and some came near freezing at it. They had to go about four hundred yards to the wood yard by details. The wood and coal had always been hauled to us till today. At dusk an officer came around and notified us and the guards that in half an hour no one would be allowed outside of out barracks under any pretext whatever until daylight. The night was very cold, but the guards kept the coal stoves red hot all night, which kept the barracks warm, and we slept well.”

~ Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry [i]

“In each barrack there was only two stoves to two hundred men, and for a stove to warm one hundred men, it was frequently red hot.”

~ T. D. Henry, Company E, Duke's Regiment, Second Kentucky Cavalry[ii]

In contrast, the freezing weather brought the fury the camp leadership felt toward the escape attempts to a head. General William W. Orme placed new regulations in effect. Curtis Burke noted them in his diary:

“January 3rd, 1864. Weather cold, but moderated a little since yesterday. The snow lies mostly in drifts, some of them five feet high and so hard that a man can stand on them. A Yankees Sergeant came around to all the barracks and read a long list of new rules or orders signed by brig. Gen. Orme and H. Burr, Assistant Adjutant Gen. Commanding Post of Chicago. Co. De Land and the other officers at headquarters still remain in office. The substance of the new orders are as follows: 1st that we must only write every thirteen days and then only one letter of two pages of note paper each. The whole number of prisoners in camp was divided into thirteen squads each having a certain day to write. 2nd That we can not visit other squares unless we get a pass from the officer of the day. 3rd That we must be in our barracks by five o’clock p. m. and put out all lights and fires out at the beating of the drum at eight o’clock p.m. and no one allowed out side of the barracks till day, except to go to the sink. A man in F. Cluke’s’ eight Kentucky badly cut a comrade in a personal quarrel.”

~ Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[iii]

“We now write by "squad" of which there are 13 in the prison and one letter oneach day that the squad writes is allowed to each prisoner in it; so you see we are allowed to write one letter every 13 days.”

~ Robert W. Taylor, 10th Kentucky

“S. C. Crawford died Jan 4th 1864 of a protracted illness at Chicago”

~Ezekiel A. Brown, CO. G. 62 NCI[iv]

The new regulations did not seem to matter. Burke reported that guards found more tunnels on January 6th.

“Friday, January 8th, 1864. Weather cold. We have had rumors for several days that prisoners of war were ordered to Point Lookout, under gen. Butler’s jurisdiction to be kept till the Confederate Government will consent to recognize Butler and exchange negro soldiers captured. As far as I can learn, most of the prisoners would rather remain prisoners a year longer than be exchanged through Beast Butler (as we call him) for negro troops.”

~ Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[v]

Confederates first began to refer to General Benjamin F. Butler as “Beast Butler” on May 15th, 1862, when he issued General Order No. 28 which directed Union soldiers in New Orleans to treat “as a woman of the town plying her avocation’ any female who insulted in any way an officer of the United States.[vi]

“Saturday, January 9th, 1864. Weather cool. The ground has thawed some leaving standing water. There is a foolish rumor circulated through camp by some mischevious person to the effect that the whole number of prisoners in camp had to draw beans to get ten black beans. The persons getting the black beans to be shot, in retaliation for ten men reported shot at Richmond, Virginia. Absurd rumors of various kinds circulated through camp.

~Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[vii]

President Lincoln met with Congressman Brutus J. Clay, of Kentucky, and a very frantic woman by the name of Mrs. Haggard. Mrs. Haggard’s nineteen-year-old son Edward was a prisoner at Camp Douglas and she wished to petition Lincoln for his release.[viii]

“Executive Mansion,
Washington, Jan. 14, 1864.

To-day Hon. Brutus J. Clay calls with Mrs. Haggard, and asks that her son, Edward Haggard, now in his nineteenth year, and a prisoner of War at Camp Douglas, may be discharged. Let him take the oath of Dec. 8. and be discharged. A. LINCOLN

Do the same for William H. Moore. A. LINCOLN”[ix]

On January 18th, 1864, the number of prisoners at Camp Douglas reached 5,616. Overcapacity was noted during inspection. Dr. Edward D. Kittoe, of the surgeon-general’s office, found the prisoners “filthy” and their barracks overcrowded. He concluded that the camp was unfit for use.[x] Dr. Kittoe is noted for his tireless efforts to institute more sanitary conditions and better medical procedures during the war. The work of this single individual likely saved thousands of lives, Union and Confederate.

“ ‘The [camp] is low and flat, rendering drainage imperfect,’ admitted Surgeon Edward D. Kittoe, U. S. Volunteers, ‘ [I]ts proximity to Lake Michigan and consequent exposure to cold, damp winds from off this large body of water, with the flat, marshy character of the soil, must of necessity create a tendency to disease…At [times] the ground is covered with snow and the frost is severe. When the frost gives way and fogs and usual dampness of spring succeed, in conjunction with the surrounding with large cattle yards, slaughter-houses and other offensive matter usual to the suburbs of large cities…disease will assume as a low or typhoid type, and per consequence, the rate of mortality will increase.’” [xi]

Endless months of hunger drove men to eat anything they could find. Near starvation, some prisoners, desperate for protein, killed and ate the rats that ran from under floorboards as one of the old kitchen buildings was demolished.

“I have seen men eat rats and pronounce the flesh good and palatable.”

~ R. T. Bean, Company I, Eighth Kentucky Cavalry[xii]

“Two of the men gathered them up to clean them and to eat them. I understand that rat eating is very extensively carried on in the other squares, but my curiosity has never made me taste any rats yet…[the men] clean them like squirrels and let them soak well in salt water.”

~ Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xiii]

General Orme, determined to bring of order to the camp, began moving prisoners from White Oak Square to the new Prisoner’s Square in an effort to tighten security. To keep cost low, the old barracks were moved to the new square and set above the ground on five foot legs to prevent tunneling.

“The arrangements of the prison were changed. The barracks were all raised and placed on posts about four feet high, thus putting an end forever to future tunneling. An extra thickness of lumber was put on the fence to the height of about eight feet from the ground, and I realized that escapes were at an end.”

~ R. T. Bean, Company I, Eighth Kentucky Cavalry[xiv]

Prisoners were moved and shuffled in and out of various barracks for several days as the moving took place.

"Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! or The Prisoner's Hope" (1864)
As sung by Edwin Kelly of Arlington Kelly & Leon's Minstrels.
Words and Music by George Frederick Root

In the prison cell I sit,
Thinking Mother, dear, of you,
And our bright and happy home so far away,
And the tears, they fill my eyes
Spite of all that I can do,
Tho' I try to cheer my comrades and be gay.

Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching,
Cheer up comrades they will come.
And beneath the starry flag
We shall breathe the air again,
Of the free-land in our own beloved home.

In the battle front we stood
When their fiercest charge they made,
And they swept us off a hundred men or more,
But before we reach'd their lines
They were beaten back dismayed,
And we heard the cry of vict'ry o'er and o'er.

Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching,
Cheer up comrades they will come.
And beneath the starry flag
We shall breathe the air again,
Of the free-land in our own beloved home.

So within the prison cell,
We are waiting for the day
That shall come to open wide the iron door,
And the hollow eye grows bright,
And the poor heart almost gay,
As we think of seeing home and friends once more.

Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching,
Cheer up comrades they will come.
And beneath the starry flag
We shall breathe the air again,
Of the free-land in our own beloved home.

Near the end of the month, the weather finally began to improve and the last of the barracks were rolled to their new locations.

“Wednesday, January 27th, 1864. Weather pleasant. We had to move out before breakfast. The whole number of barracks three hundred feet in all in length have the rollers under them and a capstan[?] on each side near one end to pull them along. The yanks told us to lay hold and help them and some of the men did so, but were ordered around so roughly that they quit. Then the yanks swore that we should not sleep in the barracks while being moved because we would not work. I received a letter from home dated the twenty-fist inst. And a notice from headquarters of some things for myself and Pa at the express office. Six or seven of us passed the guards with Pa and got our goods, etc. I got nearly everything that my letter called for. There [were] some apples in my box and the examiner gave me one and Pa one and a Yank sitting by wanted one of them, till the examiner told him that there was more in the box. We were not allowed to have the boxes for fear they had false bottoms etc. with money or contraband news in them. In the evening a good many of the men took their things outside of the square on a grass plot and erected some sheds out of old timber to sleep under. A lot of us got up on the new hospital on the sly and saw the lake, city, and surrounding country. The country outside of the city as far as I could see was nearly level and thinly settled. Near dusk an officer came around and made us all move back in the old square, where the mud was six inches deep, to spend the night. I and Henry White took our blankets over to number eight barrack where most of the fourteenth KY were and slept in an empty bottom bunk. This barrack with barracks No. nine and ten will also be moved as soon as our five barracks reach their new position. I did not think that so long a string of building could be moved without breaking to pieces. The rats kept me awake most of the night running around my head.”

~ Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xv]

The above date, “the twenty-first inst.,” refers to the 21st of the current month. Thus the letter burke received from home was written on January 21, 1864.

On January 28th, 1864, Dr. William D. Lee, who had worked in the prison hospital, was arrested and charged in connection with bribery and an escape plot.

“William Lee, M.D. entered the Federal records in October 1863, when he was hired as a contract surgeon (a rank also called "acting assistant surgeon") at Camp Douglas, Illinois, providing care for the Confederate prisoners there. The following month, this Memphis-born physician took the Oath of Allegiance, and described how he and his family had been driven from his native Tennessee, because of his activities with the Union League.

A few months later, the city police in Chicago arrested a William R. Messick and found in his pockets many letters from John B. Messick (William's brother and a prisoner at Camp Douglas), a receipt that John had received $20 from Dr. Lee,... On the reverse is printed "D. F. Brandon, Photographer, Camp Douglas, Ill." Above that, in Lee's own hand, is: "Dr. W. D. Lee, M.D., Camp Douglas, Dec. 22'd, 1863." Lee's only defense was that he had known the Messicks before the war, through church, and was only trying to be helpful.

Lee was convicted of smuggling a total of $35 into the prison (enough to bribe a guard) and with smuggling letters out, also a serious offense. Hc was sentenced to two years of prison.

Incarcerated at Fort Delaware, Lee impressed Brigadier General Albin F. Schoepf, the prison's commander, and the post surgeon, Dr. C. E. Goddard. Schoepf wrote that Lee was a well-behaved prisoner and provided valuable health services to the Confederate officer prisoners. The effects of prison life and the deaths of his two children wore Lee down, and Schoepf recommended early release; Surgeon Goddard reported Lee to bc a "competent and useful doctor." In September of 1864, Lee was released and quickly applied for another Army post; his request was rejected on grounds of his previous conviction. Again, Schoepf intervened, sending a letter to the Surgeon General on Lee's behalf. By early 1865, Lee had another Army contract, this time signed in New Orleans. For the next eighteen months he worked at Baton Rouge, doing sick call and visiting the ‘cholera tents.’’[xvi]


ENDNOTES
[i] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[ii] Deposition of T. D. Henry, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. I. Richmond, Va., March, 1876.
No.4. April - Pages 273 - 276
[iii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[iv] Civil War Diary of E. A. Brown
[v] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[vi] Trefousse, Hans L. “ Ben Butler: The South Called Him BEAST!” 1957, p. 111
[vii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[viii] Basler, Roy P., Marion Dolores Pratt, and Lloyd A. Dunlap, eds., “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”
[ix] ADS-P, ISLA.
[x] Levy, George .“To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 11, p. 183-184
[xi] Speer, Lonnie R. “Portals to Hell: Military Prison Camps of the Civil War” p. 136
[xii] Account given by R. T. Bean
[xiii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[xiv] Account given by R. T. Bean
[xv] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry
[xvi] The sharp end, Jul/Aug 1999 by Beck, Michael, Valentine, Scott, Lyon, Robert, Fitzpatrick, Michael, Et al http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3905/is_199907/ai_n8852871/pg_3/

December, 1863: No Colder place

"At Camp Douglas, President Bellows of the United States Sanitary Commission found deplorable conditions. Declaring that only some special providence, or some peculiar efficacy of the lake winds, could prevent the camp from becoming a source of pestilence."[i]

Alas, the winds blowing across Lake Michigan proved to be no blessing. These frigid blasts forced the prisoners at Camp Douglas to spend longer amounts of time inside their over crowded barracks. John Barker, of Cluke’s Regiment, wrote home claiming there could be “no colder place that God ever designed.” With little heat, inadequate shelter, and insufficient clothing, the prisoners were quite literally caught in winter’s icy grasp. The Diary of Private William D. Huff, copyrighted by the Chicago Historical Society, contains a riveting sketch of December personified as a dark and bearded male. To view this sketch and a handful of other drawings from Huff’s diary, one must download the History Lab lesson plans in “The Civil War” Up Close and Personal” section entitled “Who is William Huff? Blueback or Grayback” and “Look Out My Window. What Do You See? [ii] The lesson plans may be accessed at http://www.chicagohistory.org/education/resources/history-lab/the-civil-war-up-close-and-personal

On December 3, 1863, nearly one hundred of Morgan’s Men escaped through a tunnel dug in White Oak Square. Only fifty were recaptured.

“I learned that one hundred and two prisoners escaped last night. I went a few doors above here and saw the tunnel. It was commenced in one of the small rooms in the bottom of a bunk and ran out under the kitchen and guard line and came up just outside of the fence. If they had come up two feet back, they would have been seen by the guard. The Yankees were so mad that they came around and tore down all of the partitions [turning] all of the little rooms into one big room in each barrack. They also tore up the floors except under the bunks, and we enjoyed ourselves by jumping around on the sleepers. Col. De Land said that he would turn us all out in the weather if we did not quit digging out. The night air had free range through the barracks, but I slept well.”

~Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[iii]

“A great many escaped by tunneling. On one occasion a tunnel was discovered under the barrack occupied by (Cluke's regiment) the eighth Kentucky cavalry. Without trying to find out who dug the tunnel, the whole regiment was formed in column of eight deep, and a guard placed around them with instructions to shoot the first man who sat down; this was just after sun up; at two o'clock a man who had just returned the day before from the small-pox hospital, unable to stand longer fell; a guard saw him and fired; one man was killed dead, two others were wounded, one of them losing an arm, as it was afterwards cut off. This same fellow, who did the shooting, was promoted to a corporal's position, whether for this act or not, it is impossible to say, for he affirmed that he would not take $100 for his gun, as that was the eleventh prisoner he had shot with it.”

~ T. D. Henry, Company E, Duke's Regiment, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry[iv]

Infuriated with the frequency of escapes due to tunneling, De Land ordered that all planking be removed from the barracks’ floors. This was a drastic measure to take during freezing weather, but the young Colonel, who had once been incarcerated in a Confederate prison camp, showed no compassion for his prisoners.

De Land conceived a drastic remedy to counter the tunneling. ‘In view of this I have ordered all the floors removed from the barracks and cook-houses and the spaces filled with dirt even with the top of the joist…This will undoubtedly increase the sickness and mortality, but it will save much trouble and add security. ’” [v]

Even the removal of the floor and partitions did not quell De Land’s wrath. He ordered his men to confiscate the prisoner’s coats, tools, and personal cash citing that such items aided their ability to escape. Defective clothing that had been rejected as unfit for army use was issued to prisoners.[vi]

“We were all marched to the main square in front of headquarters where we found all of the prisoners from the other square also in line. All of the Yankee Lieutenants and Sergeants were set to work searching us. Some took our knives, money, etc. and put it on paper, but others kept no account. Like was done at Camp Morton. Then they came around again and took every good coat in the crowd, and distributed some thin cottonade pepper and salt jackets, and some thin black ridiculous looking tight spade tail Yankee coats in the place of their warm coats received from home. Some photographs were even taken from our men. In the meantime, a squad of Yankees and work hands searched our quarters and took all the good clothing they found, and the work hands stole some of the men’s rations. All of the axes, wood saws, and spades were taken away, depriving us of the means of cutting up our wood and cleaning up our quarters. They left a few rakes I believe and said that we could comb our heads with them.”

~Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[vii]

On December 4th, William Huff recorded a snow storm followed by sleet. The ground was covered in ice. He lamented the confiscation of the prisoner’s coats and the intensely cold weather.

By December 9th workmen had removed flooring from every barracks and prisoners were allowed to fill in the spaces between the floor joists with sand.

Edwin M. Stanton, the United Sates Secretary of War, ordered that there be no trade with sutlers. Thus, De Land ordered the sutler’s store closed on December 12th but permitted him to sell out his remaining stock. The barber shop and news stand were closed on December 17th and the sale of stamps, envelopes, and paper discontinued. However, those prisoners fortunate enough to procure Union “greenbacks” were allowed to spend their money “at the commissaries after eleven o’clock on ration days.” [viii] Curtis Burke and his messmate Henry White began laying in the necessary items to prepare a Christmas dinner.

Emily Todd Helm, half sister of Mary Todd Lincoln, visited the White house accompanied by her daughter Katherine. Mrs. Helm’s husband, Confederate General Benjamin Hardin Helm, had been killed during the Battle of Chickamauga.

"I never saw Mr. Lincoln more moved, than when he heard of the death of his young brother-in-law Ben Hardin Helm, only thirty-two years old, at Chickamauga. I called to see him about four o'clock on the 22nd of September; I found him in the greatest grief. 'Davis,' said he, 'I feel as David of old did when he was told of the death of Absalom.' I saw how grief stricken he was so I closed the door and left him alone."

~ Senator David Davis [ix]

"Mr. Lincoln and my sister met me with the warmest affection, we were all too grief-stricken at first for speech. I have lost my husband, they have lost their fine little son Willie and Mary and I have lost three brothers in the Confederate service. We could only embrace each other in silence and tears. Sister and I dined intimately, alone. Our tears gathered silently and feel unheeded as with choking voices we tried to talk of immaterial things."

~ Emily Todd Helm[x]

It was far from a pleasant trip. Northern newspapers made a great fuss over Mrs. Helm having passed through Union Lines, a U. S. Senator publicly insulted her and her daughter Katherine quarreled with Lincoln children. Feeling highly uncomfortable, Mrs. Helm returned to Lexington, Kentucky. There she wrote to Lincoln requesting permission to send clothing to the prisoners at Camp Douglas.

"I hope I am not intruding too much upon your kindness and will try not to overstep the limits that I should keep."[xi]

On December 23rd, General William Ward Orme replaced De Land as commander of Camp Douglas. Orme was the law partner of one of Abraham Lincoln’s close friends. Orme was also dying of tuberculosis. Disgusted by the chaos he found, Orme tried to bring order to the prison ration and clothing allotment systems.[xii] Meanwhile, in the wake of the Ninian Edwards beef scandal, De Land and the First Michigan Sharpshooters were ordered to the front.

Was my second great grandfather, James Edward Evans, imprisoned at Camp Douglas, struck with homesickness as Christmas neared? While I have never found any letters written by James Edward Evans, there was mail service into and out of the prison camp. Prisoners could even send letters from one prison camp to another. Prison correspondence was, of course, subject to censorship. Article XVII of a 20 April 1864 Federal circular specified that outgoing and incoming letters are to be examined by non-commissioned officers, and must be no more than one page in length.[xiii] Prisoners typically used the little space they were allowed to reassure loved ones of their safety and to request items needed for their survival.

“Bureaucracies take on a life of there own, and mail service between Camp Douglas and the Confederacy continued without a blink. It was only a matter of postage. Mail within the Union lines could come and go directly, and mail traffic beyond that went through ‘Flag of Truce’ exchange points in enemy territory. Aiken’s Landing behind the Confederate Lines was designated as such in March 1862. Prisoners attached three cents in Federal stamps and ten cents Confederate, if they had them; otherwise, they had to enclose cash in an outer envelope.”[xiv]

A letter sent by T. M. Page, 2nd Ky. Cavalry to Miss Mary S. Read of Decatur, IL .in which he thanks her for items send to him saying, “ you may rely on the earnest devotion and native courtesy of a follower of the Starry Cross of Dixie for the cordial appreciation of your kindness.” The black oval stamp on the envelope was stamp was applied after the letter was read by censors at Camp Douglas.

Colonel Hoffman, who must not have been in the holiday spirit, ordered the prisoners' rations cut by one quart of molasses and two ounces of bread on the day before Christmas, 1863.

“The regulation ration which prisoners were to receive consisted of 3/4 of a pound of bacon and 1 ¼ pounds of beef, 1 1/3 pounds white or 1 1/4 pounds of corn-bread, 1/10 pound of coffee, and 1 1/2 ounces of rice or hominy, 1/6 pound of sugar, a gill of vinegar, one candle, a tablespoon of salt, and beans, potatoes and molasses in small amounts. Contracts were made with various camps for local dealers for these rations."[xv]

"Since these rations, which consisted of... were considered too much for men leading a sedentary life, portions of the issues were ordered withheld. The sale of this non-issued portion went into the prison fund….”[xvi]

Curtis Burke’s Christmas included a hearty meal, gifts, and a visit from his father who was also a prisoner at Camp Douglas.

“The prospects for a dull Christmas were large. The cry of Christmas gift was seldom heard, and when it was, it was given more as a salute or a joke, no gifts being expected. When Pa came over to get Sergeants Millers and Browns morning reports, I caught him and invited him to take dinner with us. A Yankee Lieutenant came to examine the barracks and asked us if any of us were engaged in the gopher business (he meant digging out.) I got the following articles on order today, 10 candles, one bottle of pepper sauce, two lbs. of coffee, 7 lbs. sugar, 1 paper of black pepper, 1 paper of allspice, 1 lb. of butter, and 1 lb. lard - $2.45. Pa came over and made me a present of a pair of buckskin cavalry gloves, a pair of socks, a fancy shawl pin, and a fifty cent sutlers ticket. I did not get dinner till late. The stove was so crowded by other messes. My bill of fare was biscuits, tea, beans and bacon, buttered bakers bread, toasted, molasses, boiled onions laid in butter, cheese, peach pie, apple pie, onion pie, plain doughnuts, and sweet doughnuts. The tea cups, mugs, and glasses were refilled and Henry White offered the following toast.

Toast of Morgan’s Men

Unclaimed by the land that bore us,
Lost in the land we find,
The brave have gone before us,
Cowards are left behind.
Then stand to your glasses, steady,
Here’s a health to those we prize,
Here’s a toast to the dead already,
And here’s to the next who dies.

My guests were all well pleased. There was nothing going on at night except several men hollowing New York. The effect of too much mean whiskey aboard.

~Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xvii]

The day after Christmas, Burke learned “that nothing would be sold at the commissaries after today.” He and Henry White devised a plan for hiding their store of food.

“Weather cold and windy with some snow. I got the balance of the order on the commissary filled and copied off three Southern songs for the Rebel clerk for his attention to filling our order properly. I and Henry White concluded to build a swinging bunk across the barracks near the roof for the safety of the contents of our cupboard. We nailed up the rafters for the new bunk after dusk. Henry White made a raid on the lumber pile where the new hospital is being erected and we walked on the planks to make them look old, so the Yanks would not notice it.

~Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[xviii]

Solomon Floyd Cook of Company G, 62nd Regiment, NC Infantry wrote home to his wife Martha Ann in East Laport, North Caroline.

“Camp Douglas, Chicago, IllDec. the 27th, 1863

Dear companion,

I take this method of letting you know I am well at present. Hoping these lines may find you and the children well. This day twelve months ago I left home. I have lived through many hardships since that time and I am yet alive and enjoying good health, better than usual. It is a sad misfortune that the horror of war has cast our lots in a foreign land but it is even so and we have to submit to its consequences whatever they may be. Hope it will not be long until we are exchanged and get back to our beloved homes and family.

The health of the reg and company is tolerable good at present.

Tell the friends of ____________[illegible], their relatives are generally well. M.M. Shelton is not very well but on the mend. ________ Hooper, L.W. and T.S. are all well. Send word to Pop and Elizabeth.

Martha I want you to write to me and let me know how you are all doing. You will be limited to a short letter otherwise it will not pass through. Write every week, probably I will get a letter after a while. Direct your letters to Chicago Camp Douglas Illinois marked to the Co. and Regt.

Nothing more but remains your affectionate husband until death.

S. F. Cook

Tell L. S. Shelton's family, he has been sick but getting well fast. Asks for them to write to him.”

Less than a year later, Solomon Floyd Cook died of smallpox while still incarcerated at Camp Douglas.

On December 30th, a blizzard and sub- zero temperatures were recorded at Camp Douglas. Neither more clothing nor additional firewood was allowed to the prisoners.

“Meigs [Montgomery C. Meigs, quarter master general of the Union army] vowed to provide supplies to prisoners with ‘the strictest economy’ and expected the prisoners of war to furnish their own clothing. This was impractical for prisoners who arrived at Camp Douglas wearing clothing unsuitable for winter.”[xix]

ENDNOTES

[i] Hesseltine, William Best. “Civil War Prisons” p. 52
[ii] Chicago Historical Society, History Lab activities http://www.chicagohistory.com/
[iii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[iv] Deposition of T. D. Henry, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. I. Richmond, Va., March, 1876. No .4. April - Pages 273 – 276.
[v] Levy ,George. “To Die in Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Chap. 10, p. 165.
[vi] Hesseltine, William Best. “Civil War Prisons” p. 46
[vii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[viii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[ix] Helm, Katherine. “ Mary, Wife of Lincoln”, p. 216-217.
[x] Helm, Katherine. “ Mary, Wife of Lincoln”, p. 221-222.
[xi] Holzer, Harold. “The Lincoln Mailbag,” p. 118.
[xii] Heidler, David Stephen, Heidler, Jeanne T., Coles, David J. “ Encyclopedia of The American Civil War” p. 345.
[xiii] Official Records, Series II, Volume 7, p. 75.
[xiv] Levy, George. “To Die In Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65,” 1999, Ch 2, p.44.
[xv] Hesseltine, William Best. “Civil War Prisons” p. 43
[xvi] Hesseltine, William Best. “Civil War Prisons” p. 44
[xvii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[xviii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[xix] Pucci, Kelly. “Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Civil War Prison” 2007 p.91.

November, 1863: Secret Tunnels, Escape Attempts, and Turning Out for De Land

Running water sewers and toilets opened at Camp Douglas on November 6, 1863 creating a much more sanitary environment. Yet, no one appeared eager to remain in camp.

“Some of the men of Cluke’s and Johnson’s regiments in another square dug some underground passages for the purpose of escaping, and came near finishing them when some traitor told on them, and the Yanks marched them all out in the public square in front of headquarters and put a guard around them with the orders to shoot any person that sat down. The Yanks were trying to make the men tell who the headmen in the digging were. After standing several hours a guard fired into the crowd without cause, wounding three of Cluke’s regiment severely. I could not learn the truth about the affair. Some fifteen or twenty finally stepped out and acknowledged being the principal diggers and were sent to the dungeon. The rest were sent back to their barracks.”

~Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[i]

Escapees were not the only source of excitement. A serious fire occurred in Garrison Square the evening of November 11th. Barracks, fences, and sutler’s shops burned down.

“About dinner time the Yankee barracks in the main square took fire and attracted a large crowd of prisoners. The Yanks got scared for fear the prisoners would try to break out and brought out the company of Indians belonging to the first Michigan sharp shooters. They loaded their guns, at the same time ordering the crowd to disperse to their quarters, and we did so on the double quick. The Indians came down and the white officer in command put them on guard around the square. Then [he] came in and notified us that if we left the square we would be shot. I could see the fire from the kitchen. The frame barracks and pitched roof made a heavy cloud of smoke. The fire was stopped by cutting the barracks in two, after burning about three hundred feet of barracks and kitchens. Some of the new fence and Mrs. Finley’s sutler’s store was burned also. Most everything in the building got burned as the fire spread rapidly. The fire was accidental and caught from a stove pipe.”

~Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[ii]

While, strictly copyrighted by the Chicago Historical Society, the Diary of Private William D. Huff contains a drawing of this fire. It is possible to download Huff’s drawings from the History Lab lesson plans in “The Civil War” Up Close and Personal” section entitled “Who is William Huff? Blueback or Grayback” and “Look Out My Window. What Do You See? [iii] The lesson plans may be accessed at http://www.chicagohistory.org/education/resources/history-lab/the-civil-war-up-close-and-personal

Prisoners in Camp Douglas[iv]

Unaccustomed to so much leisure time, many of the men fell prey to homesickness.

“Do they miss me at home, do they miss me?
'Twould be an assurance most dear,
To know that this moment some loved one
Were saying, "I wish you were here."
To feel that the group at the fireside
Were thinking of me as I roam
Oh yes, 'twould be joy without measure
To know that they missed me at home.
To know that they missed me at home.”[v]

Their suffering was compounded by cuts to the rations. What little the prisoners still received was hardly fit to eat. Ninian Edwards, husband of Abraham Lincoln’s wife’s eldest sister, supplied the camp with inferior beef.[vi] Likewise, a Chicago baker cheated the prisoners by cutting the weight of a loaf of bread to two ounces.

“We draw fresh beef every other day, but it is not a number one article being mostly neck, flank, bones, and shanks.”

~ Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry[vii]

Colonel Hoffman came to investigate Camp Douglas on November 15th.

“Kentucky cavalrymen know as Morgan’s Raiders, named for Gen. John Hunt Morgan, worked diligently to escape and return to battle. One of Morgan’s Raiders, Samuel G. Grasty of Virginia, simply walked out of Camp Douglas to a friend’s house downtown and boarded a train for Richmond, but his fellow soldiers had to work harder to escape. One group of Morgan’s Raiders dug their way out of the dungeon, which was an extra-security prison, drawing admiration from guards for their ingenuity. Others hid their tools in a haystack at night and by daylight dug tunnels beneath their bunks to the other side of the perimeter fence.”[viii]

De Land became absolutely sadist in his punishment. He began hung prisoners by their thumbs and began shutting down the sutlers so that there was no means of procuring supplies save bribing guards.

“A prisoner of war's first duty is to survive; his second duty is to escape.” [ix]

In a sworn statement, Private Thomas D. Henry reported:

“I saw men punished thus until they would grow so deathly sick that they would vomit all over themselves, their heads fall forward and almost every sign of life become extinct; the ends of their thumbs would burst open; a surgeon standing by would feel their pulse and say he thought they could stand it a little longer. Some times he would say they had better be cut down.”[x]

Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. In a few brief words, Lincoln gave dignity and honor to those who had fallen in battle and fostered resolve in the hearts of those destined to carry on.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

~ Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863, The Gettysburg Address.

The same day, Curtis R. Burke recorded:

“Some rain fell. Col. De Land came down and called us all out in line [in] front of our barracks to look for tunnels. The barracks were searched, but no tunnels [were] found, and we were dismissed to return to our barracks.”[xi]

The next day, Colonel De Land returned.

“About dark Col. De Land and Capt Rhines, our commissary of prisoners, came down and made the whole regiment fall out in line in front of the barracks. Then we were marched under guard about a hundred yards out of the square toward the sutlers store. The night was chilly and the most of us had thrown a blanket over us not knowing how long we would have to stand out. The Yanks were looking for some of Duke’s regiment who had dressed up to escape and come down to our square and had been reported by some traitor as being among the fourteenth KY. The Yanks caught Wm. Overton, Chas. Steel, and Tho’s Von [Thomas Vaughn?] dressed in citizens suits and marched them off to the guard house, and we were permitted to return to our barracks having been out about an hour and a half.”[xii]

Colonel De Land was back yet again on the evening of Sunday, November 22nd:

“An hour before dark my regiment was called out in line and marched to the main square in front of headquarters. The most of us did not know what it was for, but Col. De Land soon called for four or five men by name. Three were in ranks and stepped out. The Yankees said that these men had threatened to hang a man by the name of Stovall belonging to my regiment for telling on some of the boys that were trying to escape. The Yankees said that they would protect Stovall, and they tied the three men up by the thumbs to the railing of the stand around the flag pole. Then sent Pa (our Sergeant Major) and Sergeant Wm. Miller back to our quarters to find the other two men called for with the pleasing information that if they did not find the men soon that they would be tied up by the thumbs in their places. The men that were tied stood it over a half an hour in silence and then commenced groaning and howling. It made me almost sick to hear them. Several times the Yankee officers asked them if they were ready to tell what they knew, and they answered that they knew nothing to tell. A Yankee surgeon examined them to see how much they could stand. There were some citizens standing around and they tried to get Col. De Land to take the men down. The men were taken down after having been tied up so [long] that they had to partly tip toe for an hour. One of the boys fainted, and another threw up all over himself. Their names were James Allen, John Sweeny, and Wm. Wason. Col. De Land gave us a lecture about threatening any person that choose to tell of our escaping and told us to return to our quarters and find the other two men or he would surely bring us back and make us stand out all night. We returned to our quarters and the two men, who had just returned from a visit to another square went to headquarters and gave themselves up and received their share of the punishment. They were let down when this traitor Stovall said that he forgave them.”

Burke went on to mention that Stovall chose to remain in the protection of headquarters rather than returning to the regimental barracks.

During the Civil War, prisoners, both Northern and the Southern, often attempted escape. It was generally accepted as an obligation of the uniform. Even the United States Christian Committee of Maryland reported:

“It is the duty of the government to keep prisoners as securely as possible, but on the part of the prisoner, it is his right and his duty to escape just as quick as he can…” [xiii]

None of the punishments De Land concocted swayed his prisoners’ determination to escape. Thus, on November 24th, the frustrated colonel issued an order against it!

“A Yankee Sergeant at roll call read a strict order against our escaping.”[xiv]

On November 27th, after four months imprisonment in the Ohio penitentiary, John Hunt Morgan escaped with six of his officers. They too tunneled out, using table knifes to dig their way to freedom. Morgan donned civilian clothing then calmly boarded a train. Alas, it was necessary to seat himself next to a Union major! Only moments later the train glided past the penitentiary.

“‘That's where the rebel General Morgan is now imprisoned,’ said the major. ‘Indeed,’ replied the disguised Morgan, ‘I hope they'll always keep him as safely as they have him now.' "[xv]

Morgan made his way south eventually arriving in Richmond where he was received as a hero with a parade and two days of being lauded over by the Virginia legislature. His imprisoned men were forgotten.

ENDNOTES
[i] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[ii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[iii] Chicago Historical Society, History Lab activities www.chicagohistory.com
[iv] Harpers Weekly, April 5, 1862.
[v] Mason, Caroline A. and Grannis, S.M. “Do They Miss Me At Home?”
[vi] Pucci, Kelly. “Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Civil War Prison” 2007.
[vii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[viii] Pucci, Kelly. “Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Civil War Prison” 2007, p. 78.
[ix] Doyle, Robert C. “A Prisoner's Duty: Great Escapes in U.S. Military History”
[x] Alexander, Dee. “Morgan’s Raiders” 1959.
[xi] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[xii] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[xiii] Report of the United States Christian Committee of Maryland, 1864
[xiv] Diary of Curtis R. Burke, Co. B 14th Kentucky Cavalry.
[xv] Doyle, Robert C. “A Prisoner's Duty: Great Escapes in U.S. Military History”