MCCWRT Prisons Discussion-- Part 5: Horrible Conditions and Diseases

**  The conditions at Illinois' Rock Island Prison were horrible and om top of that they had a small pox outbreak.

**  At one time, early on in the camp's history, prisoners were even able to leave prison quarters abd go to town at Camp Douglas in Chicago and also in Rock Island.

**  An Iowa regiment dubbed the "Graybeards" because of their advanced age once guarded the Rock Island Prison Camp.  Also the 108th USCT.

**  I forgot which Union prison camp this was, but it might have been Point Lookout in Maryland, but there were 64 barracks there, each with 95 prisoners.

**  At Camp Douglas, an average of 18 prisoners died each day

**  Prisoners died from typhoid fever, pneumonia, measles, mumps and chronic diarrhea (called the Soldiers' Disease).

--Old Secesh

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