Prisons--Military Prisons

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate authorities operated prison camps to hold soldiers captured during combat operations between 1861 and 1865. More than 210,000 Union soldiers and more than 460,000 Confederate soldiers became prisoners of war during the conflict. Several prison camps were originally military training camps converted into holding facilities out of necessity. As the war progressed, new camps were constructed specifically to hold prisoners of war. Prison camp conditions deteriorated as large numbers of new detainees arrived, particularly after large battles, stretching existing camps beyond their intended capacities. The most notorious prisons were the Camp Sumter (more popularly known as Andersonville) in Georgia and Camp Douglas in Illinois. More than 30,000 Union prisoners (15%) died in captivity, while almost 26,000 Confederate prisoners (12%) died in Union hands.

Early in the war, Union and Confederate authorities engaged in a parole system, which typically involved exchanging prisoners. The system occasionally involved instances when direct exchanges were not possible, but officials still released prisoners of war under oath to not take up arms again until the opposing governments had processed a legal exchange at a later date. Parolees guilty of violating the conditions of their release were subject to execution. One notable example of widespread parole was Ulysses S. Grant’s release of thousands of Confederate prisoners captured at Vicksburg in July 1863. This parole system was common in European warfare, but was most often used due to practical limitations of field armies detaining large numbers of prisoners.

The parole system broke down in 1863 when the Confederate government refused to recognize African American Union soldiers as legitimate combatants. Additionally, Union officials recognized that the Confederacy, with its smaller pool of manpower, benefitted more from the parole system than the Union. As a result, the parole system almost entirely ceased in 1864 and the numbers of prisoners of war held in camps in the Union and Confederacy increased significantly. It resumed in early 1865, when the Confederate war effort was collapsing. (Wikipedia)