“Prison camps during the Civil War were potentially more dangerous and more terrifying than the battles themselves. A soldier who survived his ordeal in a camp often bore deep psychological scars and physical maladies that may or may not have healed in time. 56,000 men died in prison camps over the course of the war, accounting for roughly 10% of the war 's total death toll and exceeding American combat losses in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. “
Andersonville was built in April of 1864 . The Confederacy made Andersonville to hold captured Union soldiers because of better security and more supplied food. Andersonville is known as the South’s largest confederate military prison . The prison , after 14 months , had confined 45,000 soldiers with 400 more coming each day. Out of those 45,000 soldiers , 13,000 died from disease , poor living conditions , starvation , overcrowding , or exposure to harsh weather conditions.
Escaped slaves were hunted down. The eight brick cabins were a rare stonework slave village. Two slave families lived in each building, sometimes up to 10 people in each unit. During the Civil War, the slave quarters were used to house Confederate prisoners, up to twenty-five in each. Some soldiers died from
But when a prisoner got out of the camp, if he did, he would be stick-thin from near starvation and weak from the harsh cold they had to constantly endure. They would have permanent problems from that experience, physical and mental. The Civil War is not talked about as much as World War II, probably because it is not near as recent. But it was a horrific and bloody war, on the battlefield but also behind prison doors.
Mid-south Covenant Camp is a summer camp organized by the Mid-south Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church and located in Grapeland, TX, where we rent Frontier Camp. The primary goal of the camp is to show each camper the love, knowledge, and saving power of Jesus Christ. Counselors in Leadership Training (CILT) is a learning track for qualified high school students who have an interest in developing leadership skills and becoming camp counselors. They attend special CILT training sessions while at camp and participate in regular cabin and camp activities where they get "hands on" training experience.
August 1st, 1863 one of the worst prison camps for confederates in the civil war was created. Point Lookout was established right after the Battle of Gettysburg to take confederate soldiers. Point Lookout had caused many conflicts for prisoners in camp. Some conflicts that Point Lookout caused for soldiers was disease, hunger, and even death. Nearly 50,000 soldiers became prisoners and 4,000 died in the process.
Most suffered from PTSD for the rest of their lives, along with other permanent mental and physical damage. After returning home, the Union soldiers told stories of the hardships they endured at the Andersonville Prison. Northerners and Southerners alike were appalled after finding out what was really going on in Southern prison camps. Demanding someone be blamed for these horrors, government officials asked those involved, and the answer was most often the same: nearly 150 former prisoners, guards, civilians, and medical staff testified that Wirz was to be blamed, as he had violated the laws of war by not only withholding available food and supplies, but also by issuing orders that resulted in the death of Union prisoners of war. Henry Wirz was charged with all of the deaths that occurred at the Andersonville prison.
This had a big impact on the reason why there were prison reforms. The first problem that arose when the number of prisoners increased was the fact that there were not enough tents for all of the prisoners. Since there were not enough tents many of the prisoners were “crammed into the Sibley well beyond their twelve- person capacity”(Gourley 15). The capacity of the tents were about twelve men and the generals crammed more than the limit into each tent. Each prisoner did not have enough space and this was a reason the death count was so high because people were dying while they sleep, this is why now many prisons provide beds and cells for the prisons to sleep in.
From such a outdated method of fighting, on such a large scale, only a large amount of destruction and death could come from the conflicts in which the armies found themselves entangled enough to fight. The style of Civil War battles created an environment that presented an even more hazerdous environment to those soldiers who fought the battle and, combined with poor medical knowledge, the soldiers were exposed to a level of lethality that supports the argument of the Civil War being the most painful and taxing war of American
Before the war occurred, there were an estimated 2,000 hospital beds and by the end, nearly 135,000 more were produced. The Civil War created a new solution for wounded soldiers called anesthetics. They were plastic limbs used for when soldiers got a limb amputated and could no longer use them anymore (“Civil War Medicine”). The knife used for amputation was very dirty and unsterilized, due to the fact they had no idea that germs caused disease. It was a small long knife that was very sharp to get far into the bodies of the wounded soldiers without having to touch much of their flesh (“Object Record- Knife”).
Life for the Union Soldier was not only brutal on the battlefield, but the camp life for a Union soldier was just as cruel. With the lack of personal hygiene, unsavory and repugnant food, and the shortage of clothing made living, a very difficult thing to do. Growth in the number of people with diseases was also a contributing factor to the massive amounts of death within the camp and as well as the post-battle wounds that often left either a man with one less limb or put in a mental institution. A Union Soldier’s life during the Civil War was cruel and horrific during their stay at the camps.
Before the Civil War most black people living in America were slaves. Once the Civil War ended slavery was abolished and black people were given rights. However, people in the south thought otherwise. After the civil war, slavery returned in the form of convict leasing, blacks lost rights again, and were arrested for petty crimes.
The Civil War was filled with many diseases and deaths. Over 620,000 men lost their lives during this war; roughly two thirds of the casualties were caused by the lack of medical knowledge of many diseases. The remaining one third of the casualties was from the actual battle itself. The war became a turning point for many women interested in the medical field. The knowledge of medicine was the beginning of a new age during the Civil War, and the lack of it led to many gruesome deaths.
Imagine seeing a friend get shot but not being able to do anything to help because if one would help they’d be the next to go. This is what was happening in the American Civil War from 1861-1865. Many soldiers came back and very different, some in good ways but many in bad ways. During the Civil War, soldiers experienced horrific and terrifying things often causing severe psychological trauma; as a result of this trauma, men often suffered mistreatment and went wrongly diagnosed until Jacob DaCosta discovered and researched what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The city of Yuma, Arizona is not a city that catches tourists eyes a lot, but every once in a while it does and one of the reasons people notice Yuma is because of the Yuma Territorial Prison. The Yuma Territorial Prison has been through thick and thin and is still standing today, a century and a half later(Murphy 1). The prison is no longer functioning, but it still manages to lure people in, not by breaking the law, but by its historical significance. The prison is unique in design and the impact it has had not just in Yuma, but in Arizona as a whole. The Yuma Territorial Prison today, as a museum, allows people to examine the design of the prison and how it reflects the time and place it was built, the negative effects the prison has caused
During the Civil War, it is said that almost 180,000 Black Soldiers served in the Union Army. The families of these soldiers would camp in nearby makeshift villages to be near their husbands, sons and fathers. The soldiers assisted them the best they could by share food and clothing from their military rations. Nearly 40,000 Black Soldiers died during the course of the war with 30,000 due to infections and diseases. Although Blacks were giving the chance to fight for their freedom, they were still not looked as equals.