Prison Life of the Civil War

It was not easy being in the Civil War, but it was even harder times to be in captivity. Both sides said that they wouldn’t intentionally treat their prisoners cruelly, but death still prevailed in high amounts. This report explains these deaths, food and water rations, medical care, what they did in their captivity, and one half-successful escape story.

There was an incredibly large amount of casualties in the Civil War prisons. Let’s do a little math. In Andersonville, the most well know prison camp in the Civil War, in one day, 129 deaths occurred, and if you get your math right, that would mean that a prisoner would have died every eleven minutes. Of all the prisoners, 56,000 inmates died of disease. In Andersonville alone, 13,000 deaths were witnessed, despite their ‘efforts’ to prevent a cruel stay at the prison camps.

Food and water rations in the prison camps were horrible- even deadly in some perspectives. On both sides, raw meat and bacon were available, and were commented to be ‘rusty’ and ‘slimy’. The soup was claimed to have worms in them, and that they would fry and eat every rat they could find in the camps. Vicious and even deadly brawls occurred, even over the smallest morsels of meat. Water was not any better. Do not make any assumptions over the river name ‘Sweet Water Branch’ quite yet. The water was extremely filthy due to garbage dumping. This attracted many different insects to breed in its waters. This was their main source of water, too. It was very tough to stay alive under these gruesome conditions.

As far as medical care goes, they may as well call it ‘medical kill’. As it is said, it is more hurt than help. The main reason of this is because of their extreme lack of hygiene and sterile medical facilities. In their ‘hospitals’, the ‘doctors’ would pour dirty water into the patients’ open wounds, and were left exposed so insects could easily breed there. The patients would have to lay on a wooden board in sheds without walls around them. I think they would’ve been better off not even being brought into these places. Evidently, proper hygiene and sterility was a rarity during the Civil War period.

During the captivities of the prisoners of war, it would be wrong to assume that they sat there and did nothing. Many prisoners found ways to keep themselves occupied. As recreation, they would play cards, checkers, and chess. They rolled dice and marbles, pitched balls and stones, and read books where available. One popular thing to do was to carve things from wood or bones, with a wide range of different creations. Some prisoners even had religious services that were held and preached by prisoners, and some prison camps had a Bible. So even if it was a horrific experience, there were many opportunities to maintain a high morale.

There have been several different escape attempts, but most had resulted unsuccessfully. Let me tell you one that was successful, yet in a way it was not. In one prison, inmates made an attempt of escape by digging a fifty-foot tunnel from the basement of the prison to outside the fence surrounding the camp. Their tools, you ask? They had a table knife, an old chisel, a wooden box, a string and candles. Over the course of many days and nights, they worked two at a time; one would dig while the other would blow air with their hat like a makeshift fan. They would put the dirt in the box and pull it with the string when the box was full. Finally, it was the day of the escape. Several inmates had a loud and rowdy musical show to cover up the escape. 109 men had escaped while the guards were watching the show. It took them until the next morning’s roll call for them to notice that those 109 men were missing. Unfortunately, the guards were successful in recapturing forty-eight of the escapers (two had drowned trying to escape via the river). Those who were recaptured were placed in solitary confinement. It seemed impossible for some prisoners to ever touch beyond that fence. There was one other way to get out, though, and that was by the exchange agreement. This agreement allowed to have equally-ranked prisoners on both sides to be freed from their prison camps. This meant there was still hope for freedom.

I thank that upon the most important things a prisoner needed- besides basic necessities to live- was hope and a high spirit. If they did not keep themselves happy, it would be just the same as committing suicide. If you are felling very negative about yourself, you might not care how and when your life ends. To find your way out of a tragedy, you need to find peace within yourself, and that will lead you to freedom.