The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Truths From Rock Island's Arsenal Island-- Part 1

From the July 7, 2012, Quad City (Iowa) Times by David Burke.

It has been 75 years since the Rock Island Prison (Rock Island, Illinois) was "dissed" by the movie "Gone With the Wind,"  and now a new documentary sets the story straight.

Ezra Sidran of Heritage Documentaries has made the 30-minute presentation  "The Rock Island Civil War Prison, Andersonville of the North?"  It was to be shown on the hour this date at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum's theater.

In GWTW, Margaret Mitchell wrote that the Arsenal mortality rate was 75%.  This number was not true,  Inmates were actually safer there than in the Confederate Army.  They were housed in solid buildings and each barracks had two stoves.

What killed the Confederates was a small pox epidemic.

Prisons were horrific on both sides during the war.

More to Come.  --Old Secesh

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