Civil War Prisons Both North and South

BRUNSWICK CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE

MEETING – October 3, 2017

“CIVIL WAR PRISONS – BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH”

SPEAKER – Roger Pickenpaugh

Roger does the nearly impossible with smoothness, fairness and objectivity. Not once does he show any partiality. He looks not at atrocities but alacrity through objectivity.

Prisoner exchanges worked well at first but as more prisoners “accumulated” that system broke down. The Dix-Hill Cartel of 1862 was supposed to “cover all the issues” with any and all prisoners to be paroled within ten days of capture. More Northern black troops were captured by the South and immediately returned to slavery which completely unwound that system. Now it became a system of military advantage. When Lee looked for replacement troops he found none. Grant had a veritable plethora.

Roger does not sidestep the mortality rates. Although about 56,000 prisoners died, it accounted for only about 10% of the total casualties. He suggests that the microbe killed far more than the minie ball. Lister and germ theory came too late. He gives us percentages of the worst of the worst and a plausible reason — gross ineptitude. Sumter (Andersonville) at 28% slightly beat Elmira (NY) at 25%.

Ya just had to be there to find out which “country club” prison was exclusively for Confederate Officers.

Good old American ingenuity played a big role when it came to dealing with the boredom of prison life. They made “stuff” and lots of it. Homemade jewelry, rudimentary clocks and even a primitive camera. Andersonville attempted to make beer from foul water. Bandsfeaturing homemade musical instruments were everywhere. Johnson’s Island had a darn good baseball team and great snowball fights that sometimes turned bloody.

Perhaps no topic of the Civil War is more heated than how both sides treated their prisoners. Roger approached this topic with tenderness and pragmatism. He paints a believable picture of what happens when you combine overcrowding, non-existent medical care, poor supply policy and lack of organization. Throw in some loosely interpreted government“policy” along with poorly administered camps, and you get total chaos!!!! Is it any wonder that both sides remember their legacies with such great emotion?

Roger, you did a great job of “cutting to the chase” and giving us a most fair view of an impossibly complicated topic.

By Dan Fink