Confederate Prison at Rock Island, Illinois-- Part 1: Rampant Diseases

From the Nov. 19, 2015, Quad Cities (Davenport, Iowa) .com.  "Rock Island Arsenal Inside the Gates:  Confederate Cemetery" by Chris Langlors.

The first Confederate POWs arrived in December 1863.  Many had small pox/variola and there was a very large number of deaths in the first month.  Officials from the U.S. Surgeon General's office came and ordered a hospital complex built to separate the sick from the healthy, then ordered a drainage system and the camp cemetery to be moved further away from the prisoners.

The three most common causes of death among the prisoners:  small pox/variola, diarrhea/dysentery and pneumonia.

--Old Secesh