A Prison Diary: 15 Months at Fort Delaware-- Part 6: Prison Humor and Starvation

Even in a place as bad as Fort Delaware, it helped when the prisoners had a sense of humor. A standard joke among the POWs and political prisoners was about the sorry soup that often had dead flies and worms in it.

The joke was that the soup was so weak and devoid of nourishment that these creatures had not drowned in it, but had died of starvation.

However, the reality of starvation was not a laughing matter. A U.S. surgeon who inspected the fort reported that from November 1, 1863, to February 1, 1864, there were 365 cases of scurvy and that some prisoners had died of malnutrition.

Making matters even worse, in 1864, in retaliation for food scarcity in Confederate prisons, rations in Northern prisons were reduced drastically.

--Old Secesh