Between 1861 and 1865, American Civil War prison camps were operated by the Union and the Confederacy to detain over 400,000 captured soldiers. From the start of the Civil War through to 1863 a parole exchange system saw most prisoners of war swapped relatively quickly.
Full Answer
What happened to civil war prisoners of war?
American Civil War prison camps. A Union Army soldier barely alive who survived Andersonville Prison in Georgia on his release in May, 1865. Both Confederate and Union prisoners of war suffered great hardships during their captivity.
How were prisoners of war treated during the Revolutionary War?
This way of thinking resulted in more humane treatment for those officially classified as prisoners of war. Captured Americans during the Revolution were not accorded this special status as prisoners of war. The British considered the freedom fighters to be criminals and thus treated them harshly.
How did the Union handle prisoners of war during the Civil War?
During the American Civil War, prisoners of war presented major logistical, political and humanitarian challenges to both the Union and the Confederacy. And, like virtually all other aspects of that conflict, the Union, for the most part, did a better job of handling those challenges.
What were the effects of the Confederate prison camps?
Consequently, overcrowded and unsanitary prison camp facilities resulted in widespread disease, starvation, and death. Of course, the Confederate prison camp near Andersonville, GA has received the most notoriety, including extensive coverage in books and movies.
How were military prisoners treated during the Civil War?
Some soldiers fared better in terms of shelter, clothing, rations, and overall treatment by their captors. Others suffered from harsh living conditions, severely cramped living quarters, outbreaks of disease, and sadistic treatment from guards and commandants.
What were the conditions like for the soldiers taken prisoner during the Civil War?
Prisoners on both sides of the conflict faced similar hazards such as contaminated drinking water, overcrowding, and diseases that passed between prisoners and prison camps. Diarrhea, dysentery, gangrene, scurvy and smallpox were all conditions that plagued prisoners.
How are prisoners of war treated?
POWs must be treated humanely in all circumstances. They are protected against any act of violence, as well as against intimidation, insults, and public curiosity. IHL also defines minimum conditions of detention covering such issues as accommodation, food, clothing, hygiene and medical care.
How did the prisoners of war suffer?
Mismanagement, lack of adequate planning, retaliation and many other factors led to suffering by prisoners on each side. By the end of the war, camps such as Andersonville suffered from a lack of supplies and experienced extremely high mortality rates, as well as death and desertion by many of its guards.
What problems did captured soldiers face during the Civil War?
Hasty prison camps were set up. The Confederacy could barely feed it own soldiers let alone thousands of prisoners. Living conditions were crowded, there was little food or medicine, disease was common and thousands died. The Confederate camp at Andersonville in Florida was particularly appalling.
What challenges and threats did prisoners and wounded soldiers both face?
What challenges and threats did prisoners and wounded soldiers both face? Prisoners and wounded soldiers faced challenges from shortages and threats from disease due to conditions in prisons and field hospitals.
How were the POWs treated when they returned?
They were often chained or imprisoned in small cages. Some of the younger RPOWs showed maturation deficiencies due to the malnutrition, disease and infections. For many POWs returning to their families, the enduring physical problems were not their only concern.
What happened to captured soldiers in the Civil War?
Records indicate the capture of 211,411 Union soldiers, with 16,668 paroled and 30,218 died in captivity; of Confederate soldiers, 462,684 were captured, 247,769 paroled and 25,976 died in captivity. Just over 12% of the captives in Northern prisons died, compared to 15.5% for Southern prisons.
What was a common disease that civil war prisoners suffered from while in captivity?
Many-- between 45,00 and 50,000--died in prison from wounds, from infectious diseases such as smallpox, or, most commonly and tragically, from illnesses related to substandard sanitary conditions, contaminated food and water, abysmal nutrition, and from lack of proper clothing and shelter.
Why were military prisons during the Civil War not constructed very well?
Blankets and clothing were in short supply. Both North and South had difficulties with prison food and accommodations. The Confederates could barely feed their own soldiers, the prisoners received much less. There were incidents of guard brutality and stealing of food and supplies meant for prisoners.
How were civilians treated during the Civil War?
White women and children were left to fend for themselves, and many became widows and orphans when one in five Confederate soldiers died. In the countryside, armies destroyed and appropriated property, seized food, burned fences, and turned houses into hospitals.
What was the treatment of prisoners of war?
The treatment of prisoners of war in the American Civil War was truly horrific. During the American Civil War, prisoners of war presented major logistical, political and humanitarian challenges to both the Union and the Confederacy. And, like virtually all other aspects of that conflict, the Union, for the most part, ...
How many prisoners died in the Civil War?
But the Civil War’s sad lasting legacy of American sacrifice still includes nearly 60,000 prison camp deaths (both Union and Confederate), and the murder of surrendering African American troops.
How many acres were there in the Confederate prison camp?
The camp was built by slave labor on 16 acres, later expanded to 26 ac res, and was formally called “Camp Sumter” by the Confederacy. Andersonville was designed to imprison up to 10,000 “overflow” prisoners ...
How many prisoners died in Andersonville?
By the end of the war, 13,000 Andersonville prisoners (30 percent of the camp’s population) had died from a variety of diseases such as dysentery, scurvy and gangrene, as well as malnutrition and exposure.
How many enemy soldiers were captured by the Vicksburg Campaign?
His Vicksburg campaign to reopen the Mississippi River resulted in the capture of an army of nearly 40,000 enemy soldiers. The logistical challenges of transporting those troops up the river to a Union prison camp would have significantly diminished the fighting strength of Grant’s own Army of the Tennessee.
Why did Grant send Lee's soldiers home?
Thus, by the end of the Civil War, while significant war crime allegations would be made over the next several years and debated even to the present day, Grant chose to send Lee’s soldiers home with their horses and other personal belongings to get back to planting and harvesting crops.
What did the CS government do to help the prisoners?
However, as a general rule the CS government did what they could to alleviate the suffering of prisoners while the US government adopted deliberate policies of torture, starvation and exposure.
Did the prisoners in Andersonville die of disease?
Even in the worst of them, like Andersonville, prisoners received the same rations that their guards were issued. Most of the Union prisoners that died at Andersonville died of disease and NOT for lack of rations or shelter and their guards died of those diseases at the same rate the prisoners did. Compare the rate of death at Cahaba POW camp ...
How many soldiers died in prison during the Civil War?
About 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the war, accounting for almost 10% of all Civil War fatalities. During a period of 14 months in Camp Sumter, located near Andersonville, Georgia, 13,000 (28%) of the 45,000 Union soldiers confined there died.
What was the lack of parole in the Civil War?
Parole. Lacking means for dealing with large numbers of captured troops early in the American Civil War, the Union and Confederate governments both relied on the traditional European system of parole and exchange of prisoners.
How many Confederate prisoners died in captivity?
By contrast 464,000 Confederates were captured (many in the final days) and 215,000 imprisoned. Over 30,000 Union and nearly 26,000 Confederate prisoners died in captivity. Just over 12% of the captives in Northern prisons died, compared to 15.5% for Southern prisons.
What was the change after the Battle of Bull Run?
Public opinion forced a change after the First Battle of Bull Run, when the Confederates captured over one thousand Union soldiers.
What was the Dix-Hill Cartel?
Dix-Hill Cartel of 1862. Prison camps were largely empty in mid-1862, thanks to the informal exchanges. Both sides agreed to formalize the system. Negotiations resumed in July 1862, when Union Maj. Gen. John A. Dix and Confederate Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill were assigned the task.
How many Confederates were allowed to join the Union Army?
Around 5600 Confederates were allowed to join the Union Army. Known as " Galvanized Yankees " these troops were stationed in the West facing Native Americans. Prisoner exchanges resumed early in 1865, just before the war's end, with the Confederates sending 17,000 prisoners North while receiving 24,000 men.
Why did the South need the exchanges?
The South needed the exchanges much more than the North did, because of the severe manpower shortage in the Confederacy. In 1864 Ulysses Grant, noting the "prisoner gap" (Union camps held far more prisoners than Confederate camps), decided that the growing prisoner gap gave him a decided military advantage.
How were prisoners held during the Civil War?
Initially during the Civil War, a system of paroles and exchanges was used. Paroled prisoners were released to their homes after signing a document pledging not to bear arms until formally exchanged.
What was the history of prisoners of war?
The history of prisoners of war is as old as the history of warfare. In primitive times, the captured warriors were considered the personal property of the captor and were forced into slavery. During the Middle Ages, when the concept of ransom was developed, it became beneficial for warriors to capture wealthy soldiers. Holding prisoners required expenses for their upkeep; therefore, prisoners were not kept unless it was expedient to the captor to do so. Soldiers of little status or wealth were killed to reduce the enemy's numbers.
Why were individual soldiers enemies?
Individual soldiers were enemies only so long as they were armed and the captors only rights over prisoners were to keep them from returning to the battle lines. This way of thinking resulted in more humane treatment for those officially classified as prisoners of war.
Why were soldiers of little status or wealth killed?
Soldiers of little status or wealth were killed to reduce the enemy's numbers. During the 17th and 18th centuries, more modern thinking on the status of prisoners of war began to develop as war began to be considered strictly a relationship between states.
When did the military give names to prisoners?
The Code of Conduct, issued on executive order by President Eisenhower in 1955, requires the military prisoner to give only name, rank, service number, and date of birth.
Do prisoners of war carry scars?
Most prisoners of war carry physical or psychological scars from their experiences as captives. Just as the responsibities of the captor nation have changed and evolved over the years, so has the responsibility of the individual prisoner.
