Hell Hole: Camp Douglas Trivia Quiz

Answer: Illinois

In the fall of 1861, the Union Army training post, Camp Douglas, was developed in Chicago, Illinois. According to Victor Hicken, "Illinois Camps, Posts, and Prisons," thirty-two units had commenced training at the outpost. They included the 9th Calvary, 51st Illinois Infantry and the 55th Illinois Infantry.

When the war endured longer than either side expected, prison sites became a necessity to accommodate captured soldiers. After the Battle of Fort Dickson, General Ulysses S. Grant detained eight thousand Confederate rebels and had them transported by railway to the converted prison in February 1862.

It became the north's largest military prison and had the highest death rate among northern prisons, yet its immoral history has been swept under the rug over the years.

At the war's end, over 26,000 men had been imprisoned there. For three years, it was a vicious hell to all the souls who dwelled within its walls.

Answer: Stephen A. Douglas

In June 1861, following the demise of Stephen A. Douglas, the government designed and constructed a training camp named in his honor. The property was sixty acres of swampy, marshland at 31st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in the south side of Chicago. Douglas had been a political figure and an Illinois legislator for twenty-five years, and was probably best known as being the Democratic presidential candidate and rival of Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1860.

John Sholto Douglas (not to be confused with Marshal of the RAF Sholto Douglas, Lord Douglas of Kirlteside) , a Scottish nobleman, was the ninth Marquess of Queensberry. Michael K. (Kirk) Douglas is an American screen actor and son of famed actor, Kirk Douglas. T.C. "Tommy" Douglas was a Canadian political figure to whom society has referred to as the "Father of Medicare".

Answer: Lake Michigan

The largest number of prisoners held at any one time in the history of Camp Douglas was 12,000 in December 1864. Winter was Chicago's most treacherous season with sub-zero temperatures and icy winds that blew from the southern shores of Lake Michigan. Being a harsh winter 1,091 men perished, the highest death count in the camp's history. To discourage captives from escaping, men were deprived of clothing, causing the weakest to freeze to death in the most relentless weather conditions. Feet, toes, fingers, ears, and other extremities were lost to severe frostbite.

A mass of prisoners wore only thin sacks with cutouts for the head and arms. Many did not even have underwear. For the select few who were fortunate to possess a blanket, the army sequestered them. Further punishment and suffering in the Arctic climate was making the Confederates pull their pants down and sit with their exposed underside for four to five hours on the snow and ice-frozen ground. Sadly, with the tremendous level of the deaths, Lake Michigan became a mass grave, and some of the bodies would wash up on its shoreline years later.

Answer: Sam Houston, Jr.

Sam Houston Jr. was the son of the prominent Sam Houston, for whom the modern-day city of Houston, Texas is named. Davy Crockett was a politician who lobbied in Washington, D.C. in his latter years. Jim Bowie is famous for the creation of his large Bowie knife, and William Barrett Travis was the commander of the courageous men who fought and died at the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas from February 23, until March 6, 1836, many years before the War Between the States.

Answer: Sold the deceased to an undertaker

After a greedy, residential undertaker signed a contract with the Union military, they sold him a vast quantity of corpses for one dollar and fifty cents each. Initially, they were obscured in shallow pauper's graves without coffins in Chicago's City Cemetery.

It rapidly became a favorite hunting ground for grave robbers. The majority of Northwestern Medical Colleges were utilizing the stolen bodies as cadavers. All remains were moved in 1867, and placed into a huge mass grave on one acre of land, five miles south of where Camp Douglas had stood two years prior. Today, the gravesite is known as "Confederate Mound", located in Oak Woods Cemetery. To date, it is the largest mass grave in the western hemisphere, as documented in the 1994 book, "To Die in Chicago" by George Levy.

A forty-six foot, Georgia granite monument was erected in July 1893 by southerner sympathizers and friends in Chicago and surrounding northern areas. A dedication observance was held on Memorial Day on May 30, 1895, with 100,000 in attendance, including President Grover Cleveland and his cabinet. Since that time, however, on Memorial Day each year, only a small group of loyal supporters visit to honor the inopportune prisoners of war.

Answer: Eighty Acres of Hell

During the Civil War, the press was broadly circulated in the South. Almost immediately, the facts of the atrocious prison were disseminated concerning its horrendous environment. Overcrowding, starvation, harmful conditions, despicable, torturous punishment, diseases, an extreme lack of medical attention, and death, led to Camp Douglas being regarded as a living hell on earth. A&E network, in conjunction with "The History Channel", produced a television documentary using the fitting nickname for its title, "Special: Eighty Acres of Hell" (2006).

The Yankees called it, "The North's Andersonville". Andersonville was a prison located in Georgia where Union soldiers were held. According to the documentary, when the epidemic and infectious smallpox and pneumonia erupted, the South supplied Camp Douglas with free medicine for their incarcerated comrades, but the Union militia withheld it as smuggled goods of war. Eventually, all medical supplies were entirely cut off from the rebels.

It is estimated that over 6,000 died and 1,500 were unaccounted for from February 1862 to November, 1865.

Answer: rats

Union guards and officials were bizarrely malicious in punishment when it came to food supply. Food provisions were restricted to virtually nothing, chiefly as revenge for Confederate Army victories on the battlefield. Confederate soldiers were starved to death from inadequate nourishment. Eliminating vegetables that contained essential vitamins from the diet amplified diseases such as scurvy and dysentery, which maximized the mortality rate. Even punishment by beatings or shootings came to those who were caught eating snow.

In George Levy's book, "To Die in Chicago", it was acknowledged that dogs ate better than the men did. The prisoners succumbed to catching big gray rats, skinning them, and making them into pies to consume. Latrines being left open contaminated the source of their drinking water.

The rain had washed raw sewage into it, making it impossible to drink.

Answer: U.S. Sanitary Commission

After his visit to Camp Douglas, Mr. Bellows wrote his superior, Colonel Hoffman, this negative report. "Sir, the amount of standing water, un-policed grounds, of foul sinks, of unventilated and crowded barracks, of general disorder, of soil reeking miasmatic accretions, of rotton bones and emptying of camp kettles, is enough to drive a sanitarian to despair. I hope that no thought will be entertained of mending matters.

The absolute abandonment of the spot seems to be the only judicious course; I do not believe that any amount of drainage would purge that soil loaded with accumulated filth or those barracks fetid with two stories of vermin and animal exhalations. Nothing but fire can cleanse them". Post Surgeon, D.V. McVickar warned Commandant Colonel Tucker on June 30, 1862, "The surface of the ground is becoming saturated with the filth, slop from the privies, kitchens, and quarters, and must produce serious result to health as soon as the hot weather sets in." Resource: Documentary, "Eighty Acres of Hell" (2006).

Answer: mule

On June 28, 1864, as a means of extracting information or persuading the rebels to pledge loyalty to the Union Army, they created a wooden structure, similar to that of a carpenter's sawhorse. The jagged and splinter-laden, center beam plank, turned up edgewise, stood nearly four feet off the ground.

This provided entertainment for the guards. If any prisoner did anything that displeased them, they forced them to ride, "The Mule". To make it even more excruciatingly painful, buckets of sand would be tied to each foot.

This was referred to as spurs. Men were made to sit bare-back in the harsh climates of the bitter cold of winter, or the searing heat of the summer. By 1865, "The Mule" had inclined to fifteen feet in height and a ladder was imperative to climb onto it.

It severely injured the genitals, and many men were crippled and were never able to walk again after their experience. Others sat for such extended periods on the sharp edge until they fainted and fell off from sheer exhaustion.

Another ruthless torture included what the Yankees called, "Reaching for the Grub". This was done by making men bend over for several hours, keeping knees completely straight and locked, with fingertips touching the ground. Some stayed in the position for so long, that the blood surged from their mouth and nose. At times, the eyeballs protruded until almost bursting from their sockets. Other common means of punishments were whippings or beatings. By positioning men over a barrel, they would use sharp-edged belts with a metal clasp until they cut through their skin. Another was by forcing the captives to stand at attention in the environment for hours without moving. Guards would ensure no footprints could be found, or further punishment would be imparted on them. To disturb the sleep of the weary prisoners who were assigned three to a bunk, guards would aimlessly shoot into the crowded barracks, that averaged 25 by 70 feet. Prisoners were hanged by their thumbs and those who were weak or moved too slowly were shot on the spot. Humiliation was commonplace at Camp Douglas. The cruel and curious citizens of Chicago paid a small fee to climb to the top of the observation tower and watch prisoners being paraded back and forth with half a barrel over their head. This gave them the perfect opportunity to yell, laugh, and curse the rebels. All northern and southern prisoner of war camps had what they called, "The Deadly Deadline". Boundaries were established specifically for when nature called. This could have been the perfect opportune time for an escape. Several Confederate prisoners violated or crossed the restricted limits at Camp Douglas and were shot or bayoneted to death, usually while in the act of relieving themselves. Lastly, solitary confinement, in which no man wanted to experience, consisted of a ten-foot square room with a floor of earthen dirt and one ten-inch ventilated window. Twenty prisoners could be crammed into confinement at one time. Referenced from: "Eighty Acres of Hell".

Answer: Both of these were done

Ernest Griffin owned and operated an African-American funeral home. Being a native of Chicago, Mr. Griffin had an interest in the history of Camp Douglas. Shortly after his research and studies began, he soon learned that his own grandfather, Charles H. Griffin, who joined the Union Army as a soldier in 1864 had been at Camp Douglas. It was at this juncture, Griffin Funeral Home played a most unusual and unique chapter within history itself. In a predominantly black population, Mr. Griffin preserved some prisoner records for many years. The Union Army had poorly kept records and numerous deaths were not registered with the city clerk. Many were intentionally destroyed and burned, so the exact number of men and their names that lost their lives at Camp Douglas will never accurately be known. His daughter, E. Dawn Griffin O'Neal, clearly remembers her father declaring to his family, "They were the sons of God before they were the sons of man". This empathetic family memorialized the southern soldiers with a Heritage Memorial Wall outside of the funeral parlor. The Confederate flag was always flown at half-staff. Ernest Griffin, passed away in 1995, and bequeathed the business he launched in the 1940's to future generations. On December 31, 2007, after sixty years, the funeral home at 32nd and King Drive closed its doors for the last time. For twelve years preceding the death of their father, the children sustained the funeral parlor, but have since retired according to Shamus Tomey from the "Chicago Sun Times" on November 12, 2007.

Andersonville will always be acknowledged as the most terrible prisoner of war camps, but largely forgotten is Camp Douglas: The north's best kept secret. The Federal government never held anyone accountable for the deplorable conditions and events that took place at Camp Douglas.

Other references: http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/2757/issues/camp.htlm