The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Unearthing Chicago's Civil War History-- Part 1

From the July 1st Chicago Tribune by Mitch Smith.

Excavations were being made last week east of 32nd Street and Rhodes  Avenue near some Near South Side parkland that hasn't been disturbed for generations.  There is nothing there to indicate that, just a few feet down, is a camp where about 30,000 captured Confederate soldiers were held during the war.

One hundred and fifty years worth of accumulated dirt has to be removed.  They came across limestone that probably served as the foundation of one of the camp's buildings.  The team is from Northern Michigan University, Loyola and the Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation and they are digging in what is today the Lake Meadows Park.

Camp Douglas was named after US Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who owned the 60-acre site where the camp's 200 buildings stood.  Before being a prison, some 25,000 Chicago-area Union soldiers trained here.

After training, the camp became a prison in 1862. In 1864, anti-war activists staged the "Camp Douglas Conspiracy," a failed attempt to free prisoners in hopes of disrupting that year's presidential elections.

More to Come.  --Old Secesh

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