How were Union soldiers treated in Confederate prisons?
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.
How were prisoners on both sides treated during the 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.
What were the worst civil war prisons?
Camp Sumter Military Prison, more commonly known as Andersonville, was in operation from February of 1864 until the end of the war. During that time approximately 45,000 Union soldiers were held in captivity at Andersonville. Of these, nearly 13,000 died, making Andersonville the deadliest landscape of the Civil War.
What was the worst United States Civil War prison?
Despite all that, there is one prison that has garnered a very bad reputation, and for very good reasons. Andersonville, or Camp Sumter as it was officially known, has garnered a lot of attention by historians as the worst of the worst when it comes to Civil war POW camps.
How many prisons were in the Civil War?
There were over 160 prisons used throughout the Civil War. These institutions were established all along the East Coast as far north as Boston, as far south as Dry Tortugas Island off Key West, Florida, and as far west as Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Craig , New Mexico.
What was the worst civil war prison camp?
Andersonville was the most notorious Confederate Prison for Union prisoners of war. They killed the most amount of people in the Civil War and it was the worst camp out of bot…h the Union and Confederate sides.
How were the prisons during the Civil War?
In the north, prisons were shaped out of existing military fortifications, like Fort Monroe or Fort Delaware. Some prisons were also built out of existing racetracks, and fairgrounds, military training grounds, and other structures. One of the most surprising prisons during the Civil War is on a small place called Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor.