Camp Douglas

Stephen A. Douglas Tomb

636 E. 35^th Street
 A ten-foot statue of the democrat best remembered for defending slavery in a debate with Abraham Lincoln stands atop a 46 ft column of white marble from his native state, Vermont. Douglas died from typhoid fever on June 3, 1861 in Chicago, where he was buried on the shore of Lake Michigan.   Some people would like to see this memorial torn down since he stood with the southern views and was the champion and favorite of the institution of slavery.  When Douglas died he was buried in a temporary brick tomb near his Chicago cottage.  His friends soon organized a Douglas monument Association to build him a suitable tomb.  Work on the monument designed by Leonard W. Volk, began in 1866 and two years later his remains were entombed in the base of it.  Lack of funds delayed construction until the State of Illinois appropriated money in 1877 to finish it.  The column was raised the following year and crowned by Volk's statue of Douglas.  The statues around the column are said to be the four pillars of Douglas's life clockwise from the NW corner they are called History, Justice, Eloquence and Illinois.  The four large base reliefs around the base of the column were meant to show the advance of the american Civilization, one shows a romantic view of the native Americans, the next shows pioneers taming the forest and raising log cabins, the next shows the building of Chicago as the great transportation and commercial hub of the west, and finally the "Little Giant" Douglas himself wields the gavel in the U.S. Senate chamber.

Civil War
Abraham Lincoln entered politics in 1840 with a strong opponent of slavery, in 1860 he was elected president and 11 southern states formed their own country to protect the institution of slavery.  In 1865 the United States defeated the Confederate States and abolished slavery nation-wide.

Camp Douglas

Following Douglas's death, the government took control of his property and constructed a training camp for volunteer regiments.  Camp Douglas was bounded roughly by what now are 31st Street on the north, 33rd Place on the south, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive on the west and Cottage Grove Avenue on the east.  

Description of the camp:
The camp was divided up into squares:
Garrison Square, on the East side which was almost 20 acres, was lined on all 4 sides by the houses of the officers and men. It had a flat and level parade ground in the center of the square.
Hospital Square on the South side contained 10 acres and served as the camp's hospital.
Whiteoak Square on the West side contained 10 acres and originally served as the camp's prison.

Conversion to prison camp
When a very large influx of Confederate soldiers captured at battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson would add another 15,000 prisoners to the Union's rolls, there was a frantic search for places to confine them. Camp Douglas was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp. The first group of 3,200 prisoners arrived at the camp on February 21, 1863.  Whiteoak Square was called Prison square and increased to 20 acres.

Prison Square contained 64 barracks sitting side by side. Each building was 24x90 feet, with 20 feet partitioned off as the kitchen. The remaining room held tiers of bunks along its walls. Each building was to hold 95 prisoners. The original capacity of the camp was estimated to hold 6,000 prisoners.

Within the first month, each barrack would hold an average of 189 prisoners instead of the 64 it was designed for, with the camp population growing to 12,000. That mean each prisoner had 2.7 feet.

The camp is low and flat, rendering drainage imperfect, it flooded nearly every rainfall. Its close proximity to Lake Michigan, and consequent exposure to the cold, damp winds from the lake, with the flat, marshy character of the soil created a tendency for disease.  When the ground was not frozen in the winter months it was a sea of mud.

Col. James A. Mulligan of the 23rd Illinois Regiment, who had been captured at the battle of Lexington and released on parole, was the first camp commandant. Within the first few weeks of the camp's opening, the escape attempts began. The compound was only guarded by 450 Union enlisted men and officers.  Camp commandants were rotated in and out, one after another, possibly in a feeble attempt to halt the increasing number of escapes and escape attempts.  When the camp was first opened, many escapes occurred when a prisoner darkened his hands and face with charcoal or some other substance and walked out the front gate with other black prison laborers.  The use of black laborers was soon ended after this was found out.

After Mulligan, Col. Daniel Cameron, captured at the battle of Harper's Ferry and released on parole, was the next commandant, followed by Col. Joseph H. Tucker.

Tucker used 2 detectives, under the guise of being camp prisoners, to inform him of any future escape attempts and the aides of escaped prisoners.

Following the constant escapes, some of the next commandants in 1863 were Gen. Jacob Ammen, who took command in January; Col. DeLand in August; and Brig. Gen. William W. Orme in December.

In January and February 1863 an average of 18 prisoners died every day, for a death rate of 10% a month, more than any other Civil War prison in any 1-month period. The Sanitary Commission pointed out that at this rate, all the prisoners would be dead in 320 days. The majority of prison deaths was from typhoid fever and pneumonia, the result of filth, the bad weather, and a lack of heat and clothing. Other prevalent diseases included measles, mumps, "epidemic" catarrh, and chronic diarrhea.

In November 1863, 75 very ragged prisoners managed to tunnel their way beneath the walls.

The president of the U.S. Sanitary Commission inspected the prison and gave a dismal report of an "amount of standing water, of unpoliced grounds, of foul sinks, of general disorder, of soil reeking with miasmic accretions, of rotten bones and emptying of camp kettles.....enough to drive a sanitarian mad." The barracks were so filthy and infested, he said, that "nothing but fire can cleanse them." He proposed that a proper sewage system was needed immediately. Quartermaster General Meigs responded that such an undertaking would be much too "extravagant". After continued pressure by the Sanitary Commission, he finally relented and authorized the construction of a sewer system for the camp in June 1863. Only 3 water hydrants were provided to supply fresh water for the entire camp.

With but 1 surgeon, by the end of 1863, epidemics of smallpox were emerging at the camp. The commandant and his subordinates worked in collusion with contractors to reduce the quality and quantity of prisoner rations for personal profits. 

In May 1864, Col. Benjamin J. Sweet took over. He installed some radical changes to prevent escapes:

To prevent tunneling, flooring was replaced in the barracks and the buildings were elevated on posts to 4 feet above ground.

To prevent escapes by fence, an additional 12-foot high, solid-oak barricade was constructed with an elevated walkway for guards around the existing fences to create a triple plank enclosure from which the guards to look down into the pen.

Security was also tightened within the camp. Candles were no longer issued and at daybreak, the prisoners were required to lay in bed until a bugle sounded to signal they were allowed to get up. At the end of the day, the prisoners were not allowed to talk to one another after they went to bed.

Captured escapees were put in a place of close confinement, called the lockup cell. The lockup was a room 18 sq. feet large. It was lit by one closely barred 18x8 inch window about 6 feet above the floor. The only entry into the room was by a hatch about 20 sq. inches in the ceiling. The floor was constantly damp, and an intolerable stench radiated from the sink in the corner of the room.

A reduction in prisoner rations took place by orders from Washington, D.C. The ration was typically 1/2 loaf of baker's bread daily, with about 4 oz. of meat and a gill of beans or potatoes.  After the retaliatory measures were adopted, the stoves were taken away and all vegetables were cut off from the rations.

Prisoners were deprived of clothing to discourage escapes.  Many wore sacks with head and arms holes cut out; few had underwear.  Blankets to offset the bitter northern winter were confiscated from the few that had them.  The Chicago winter of 1864 was devastating.  The loss of 1091 lives in only four months was the heaviest  of any period

With the elimination of the vegetables, scurvy occurred in epidemic numbers, followed by another smallpox epidemic.

Local residents offered relief and assistance to the prisoners, not as a matter of politics but purely out of compassion until the Federal Government put a stop to it. An observatory tower was built just outside the prison gate for onlookers to look at the prisoners, for 10 cents per person. The spectators would go to the top of the tower where, with the aid of spy or field glasses, they could look down upon the camp.

Prisoners and nearby residents helping the camp accumulated enough books to set up a prison library system.  Chicago was filled with southern sympathizers who might do anything to arm the prisoners.

In November 1864, as repairs were being carried out, water was cut off to the camp and even to the hospital. Prisoners had to risk being shot in order to gather snow, even beyond the dead line, for coffee and other uses.

On December 5, 1864, prisoners from Confederate General John Bell Hood's army, which had been shattered at the Battle of Franklin and the Battle of Nashville, began to arrive at Camp Douglas. These "weak and destitute" prisoners were made to undress and stand outside for a long period of time in ice and snow while guards robbed them of any valuables.

Finally a new 6-inch (150 mm) water pipe kept latrines running smoothly. With bath and laundry facilities now available, prisoners themselves enforced clothes washing and bathing if other prisoners were recalcitrant.

Although censored, mail was sent and delivered faithfully, even to and from prisoners in the dungeon.

Near the end of March 1865, a sewer pipe broke and with the incentive of forty–two barrels of whiskey, prisoners were put to work repairing it.

The camp officials contracted with an unscrupulous undertaker, C. H. Jordan, who sold some of the bodies of Confederate prisoners to medical schools and had the rest buried in shallow graves without coffins. Some bodies reportedly were even dumped in Lake Michigan, only to wash up on its shores. Jordan shipped 143 bodies to Kentucky, and claimed to have sent 400 bodies to the families of the deceased during the course of the war.

With the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army on April 9, 1865, enough former Confederate prisoners volunteered to enlist in the U.S. Army to "join in the frontier Indian warfare" to fill ten companies.

On May 8, 1865, Colonel Sweet received the order to release all prisoners except those above the rank of colonel.  Those who took the oath of allegiance were provided transportation home but those who did not were on their own.  About 1,770 prisoners refused to take the oath.

On July 5, 1865, the guards were withdrawn from the camp.  Only sixteen prisoners then remained at the camp hospital.

Sweet resigned from the army on September 19, 1865 and was briefly replaced as commander of the camp by Captain Edward R. P. Shurley.

About October 1, 1865, Captain E. C. Phetteplace was appointed as the last commander of the camp.

About 26,060 Confederate soldiers had passed through the Camp Douglas prison camp by the end of the war.  After the war, the camp was decommissioned and the barracks and other buildings were demolished.  For a short time, the camp was used as a rendezvous point for returning Federal troops. The structures were taken down by the end of November 1865. The property was sold off or returned to its owners during late 1865 and early 1866.

By the end of 1864, the Official Records showed that 2,235 prisoners had died at Camp Douglas. Another 867 died in 1865, making it the worst short period for mortality of prisoners at the camp.

Death is estimated that from 1862 through 1865, more than 6,000 Confederate prisoners died from disease, starvation, and the bitter cold winters, based in part on an 1880s memorial in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery that states 6,000 Confederate dead (4,275 known dead) are buried there in a mass grave. (As many as 1,500 more were reported as "unaccounted" for.) historians discovered that unscrupulous contractors buried some crude empty coffins in the relocated graves to increase their profits.

Many dead prisoners' bodies initially were buried in unmarked paupers' graves in Chicago's City Cemetery

In 1867 their bodies were reinterred at what is now known as Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery (5 miles (8.0 km) south of the former Camp Douglas).

Hauntings

Today the Lake Meadows Condominiums at 500 E. 33rd Street are now located where the prison camp used to be and the tales of paranormal activity continue. People who now live at the Lake Meadows Condominiums claim to hear men talking inside their units and some have claimed to see the ghosts of men in ragged clothing. A one armed man dressed in a ragged confederate uniform has been seen inside the condos of several different residents. Over the years construction projects in the area have uncovered many graves of Confederate dead. And every time a grave is disturbed the level of paranormal activity goes up.

It was not long before the tales of Confederate ghosts on and around the former prison camp site started. People over the years have quite often reported screams of pain and cries of help coming from the area where the prison camp once stood. Many times over the years people have claimed to smell the horrible smell of bodies decaying in the area. The sound of men marching is quite often reported.

Confederate Mound – Oak Woods Cemetery

1035 E. 67^th Street
The confederate mound is a 30 foot granite column topped with a bronze statue of a confederate soldier.  At the base are three brass relieve images, The Call to Arms, A Soldier's Death Dream, and A Veteran's Return Home.  General John C. Underwood designed the monument and was at its dedication on May 30, 1895, along with President Grover Cleveland with an estimated 100,000 onlookers.  The Commission for Marking the Graves of Confederate Dead paid to have the monument lifted up and set upon a base of red granite.  On the four sides are bronze plaques inscribed with the names of confederate soldiers known to be buried in the mass grave.  Four cannons surround the monument forming a square 100 fee on each side.  Between the monument and the northern cannon 12 marble headstones laid in an arc mark the graves of unknown Union guards at the Camp Douglas prison camp.  Also near the monument are the plat's flagpole and a large cannonball pyramid.