American Civil War prison camps

American Civil War prison camps

Company type	Historical military prisons
Industry	Military detention
Founded	1861
Defunct	1865
Area served	United States (Union and Confederate states)
Products	Detention of prisoners of war

Between 1861 and 1865, more than 400,000 soldiers captured during the American Civil War were held in prison camps managed by both the Union and the Confederacy. Early in the conflict, a parole exchange system allowed for swift swapping of prisoners until it broke down in 1863. This breakdown occurred because the Confederacy declined to grant equal treatment to black Union captives, leading to a sharp rise in prisoner numbers on both sides.

Historical data indicate that 211,411 Union troops were taken prisoner, with 16,668 released on parole and 30,218 perishing while imprisoned. Meanwhile, 462,684 Confederate soldiers were captured; of these, 247,769 were paroled and 25,976 died in captivity. The death rate was notably greater in Southern detention facilities (14.29%) compared to those in the North (5.6%).

According to historian Lorien Foote, the hardships endured by prisoners "had a greater impact on hindering postwar reconciliation than any other event during the war."

Parole

At the war’s beginning, both sides depended on a traditional European system of parole and prisoner exchange due to limited infrastructure for housing large numbers of detainees. Prisoners released on parole pledged not to resume combat until they were officially swapped for enemy soldiers. Until exchanged, these individuals remained confined within prison camps.

The exchange arrangement fell apart in mid-1863 when the Confederacy refused to treat black prisoners equally. As a result, prison populations escalated rapidly. The Confederacy maintained 32 principal prisons—half situated in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina—often repurposing training camps or creating new facilities for confinement. The North's larger population provided strategic advantages; General Ulysses S. Grant recognized that detaining Southern soldiers in Northern prisons weakened the Confederate war economy.

Prisoner exchanges

Initially, the federal government avoided formal prisoner exchanges to deny recognition of the Confederate government. However, after the First Battle of Bull Run, where over a thousand Union soldiers were captured by Confederate forces, public opinion pressured officials to reconsider.

Exchanges between Union and Confederate forces occurred irregularly and were frequently motivated by humanitarian concerns. As Northern losses and captures mounted, support for exchanges increased through petitions and media editorials urging action. On December 11, 1861, Congress urged President Lincoln to "initiate systematic measures for exchanging prisoners." Early in 1862, Union Maj. Gen. John E. Wool and Confederate Brig. Gen. Howell Cobb negotiated terms similar to those later formalized in the Dix-Hill agreement but failed to finalize due to disputes over transportation expenses.

Dix-Hill Cartel of 1862

By mid-1862, informal prisoner exchanges had largely emptied many camps, prompting formal agreements. In July 1862, Union Maj. Gen. John A. Dix and Confederate Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill signed an accord establishing an equivalency scale for exchanging officers and enlisted men—for instance, equating a navy captain or army colonel with fifteen privates. Equal ranks were exchanged on a one-for-one basis.

Both sides appointed agents responsible for overseeing prisoner exchanges and paroles; these provisions extended beyond combatants to include civilians accused of disloyalty and military personnel such as clerks or laborers. Commanders retained authority to conduct informal paroles or exchanges independently.

Prisoners not exchanged within ten days were required to be paroled and barred from returning to any military role—including field service, garrison duty, policing, or guard assignments—to ensure adherence to cartel conditions.

Termination of prisoner exchanges

The system of prisoner exchanges disintegrated in 1863 when the Confederacy declined to recognize Black captives as equal to White soldiers, arguing that these individuals were likely former slaves belonging to their owners rather than legitimate Union combatants. The South, grappling with acute shortages in manpower, depended more heavily on prisoner swaps compared to the North. In 1864, General Ulysses Grant capitalized on the disparity in prisoner numbers—Union camps holding a greater number—to secure a strategic edge by opposing extensive exchanges until the conflict concluded. Nearly 5,600 Confederates who enlisted in the Union forces, referred to as galvanized Yankees, were assigned to frontier duties against Native American tribes in the Western territories.

Exchanges briefly recommenced in early 1865, with Confederate authorities sending approximately 17,000 prisoners northward while receiving around 24,000 men in return. Shortly after the war's conclusion, the steamboat Sultana, transporting about 1,900 former prisoners upriver along the Mississippi, suffered a catastrophic explosion resulting in nearly 1,500 fatalities.

Mortality rates

Death rates within prisons on both sides were comparably severe. Numerous Southern detention facilities endured rampant disease and critical shortages of medical supplies, physicians, nourishment, and ice. Northern observers suspected intentional neglect and maltreatment of Union prisoners held by the Confederacy and consequently advocated for stricter conditions for Confederate captives detained in Northern prisons, despite those facilities experiencing fewer resource scarcities.

An estimated total of 56,000 soldiers perished while imprisoned during the war—accounting for close to 10% of all Civil War deaths. At Camp Sumter near Andersonville, Georgia, roughly 13,000 Union prisoners (28% of the 45,000 held) died over a fourteen-month period. Camp Douglas recorded a death rate of approximately 10% among Confederate inmates during a single winter month; meanwhile, Elmira Prison in New York experienced a mortality rate near 25%, closely paralleling that of Andersonville.

Principal prison camps

Side	Facility	Location	Details	Image
Union	Camp Chase	Columbus, Ohio	Opened in May 1861 and closed in 1865. Initially designed to hold 4,000 inmates but expanded capacity to 7,000; by war’s end, numbers swelled up to 10,000. Site of the Confederate Soldier Memorial, dedicated in 1909.
Union	Camp Douglas	Chicago, Illinois	The largest Union prisoner-of-war camp; originally a training ground in 1861 before conversion in 1862. Known for harsh conditions and an approximate 15% mortality rate; nearly 4,000 out of 26,060 detainees died.
Union	Fort Slocum	Davids Island, New York City	Functioned from July to October 1863 as a temporary hospital for Confederate troops wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Union	Elmira Prison	Elmira, New York	Transformed from Camp Rathbun training camp into a POW facility in 1864 with an approximate capacity of 12,000; recorded 2,963 deaths prior to its closure in 1865.
Union	Fort Delaware	Delaware City, Delaware
Union	Fort Warren	Boston, Massachusetts
Union	Gratiot Street Prison	St. Louis, Missouri
Union	Johnson's Island	Lake Erie, Sandusky, Ohio
Union	Ohio Penitentiary	Columbus, Ohio
Union	Old Capitol Prison	Washington, DC
Union	Point Lookout	Saint Mary's County, Maryland
Union	Rock Island Prison	Rock Island, Illinois	A federal government-owned island situated in the Mississippi River utilized as a detention center.
Union	Camp Morton	Indianapolis , Indiana
Confederate	Andersonville	Andersonville, Georgia	The deadliest Civil War prison with approximately 13,000 deaths among its 45,000 Union inmates; presently hosts the National POW Museum.
Confederate	Camp Lawton	Millen, Georgia	Constructed during summer 1864 to alleviate overcrowding at Andersonville; housed around 10,000 prisoners between October and November of that year. Now part of Magnolia Springs State Park.
Confederate	Belle Isle	Richmond, Virginia
Confederate	Blackshear Prison	Blackshear, Georgia
Confederate	Cahaba Prison (Castle Morgan)	Selma, Alabama
Confederate	Camp Ford	Near Tyler, Texas
Confederate	Castle Pinckney	Charleston, South Carolina
Confederate	Castle Sorghum	Columbia, South Carolina
Confederate	Castle Thunder	Richmond, Virginia
Confederate	Danville Prison	Danville, Virginia	Comprised six tobacco warehouses used as detention facilities during 1863–1865; only Prison Number 6 remains located at 300 Lynn Street.
Confederate	Florence Stockade	Florence, South Carolina
Confederate	Fort Pulaski	Savannah, Georgia	Served as a Confederate prison camp from 1861 until 1862.
Confederate	Libby Prison	Richmond, Virginia
Confederate	Salisbury Prison	Salisbury, North Carolina

Related topics

• Prisoner-of-war camp, historical overview worldwide
• Henry Wirz, commander of Andersonville executed for war crimes
• Parole camp

General works

• Burnham, Philip. So Far from Dixie: Confederates in Yankee Prisons (2003)
• Butts, Michele Tucker. Galvanized Yankees on the Upper Missouri: The Face of Loyalty (2003); focuses on Confederate POWs who enlisted with the Union Army
• Current, Richard N., et al., editors. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993); includes entries on "Prisoners of War" and "Prisons"
• Gillispie, James M. Andersonvilles of the North: The Myths and Realities of Northern Treatment of Civil War Confederate Prisoners (2012)
• Gray, Michael P., editor. Crossing the Deadlines: Civil War Prisons Reconsidered (2018)
• Hesseltine, William B. (1930). Civil War Prisons: A Study in War Psychology. Ohio State University Press.
• Hesseltine, William B. (1935). "The Propaganda Literature of Confederate Prisons," Journal of Southern History vol.1 no.1 pp. 56–66
• Joslyn, Mauriel P. (1996). Captives Immortal: The Story of Six Hundred Confederate Officers and the United States Prisoner of War Policy. White Mane Publishing.
• Kellogg, Robert H. (1865). Life and Death in Rebel Prisons, Hartford: L. Stebbins.
• Pickenpaugh, Roger (2013). Captives in Blue: The Civil War Prisons of the Confederacy
• Pickenpaugh, Roger (2009). Captives in Gray: The Civil War Prisons of the Union.
• Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (1904), vol.4 ch.29; provides an unbiased narrative.
• Robins, Glenn. "Race, Repatriation and Galvanized Rebels," Civil War History vol.53 no.2 pp. 117–140
• Sanders Jr., Charles W. (2005). While in the Hands of the Enemy: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Louisiana State University Press.
• Silkenat, David (2019). Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War. UNC Press.
• Speer Jr., Lonnie R. (1997). Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War.
• Speer Jr., Lonnie R. (2002). War of Vengeance: Acts of Retaliation Against Civil War POWs. Stackpole Books.
• Stokes Jr., Karen (2013). The Immortal 600: Surviving Civil War Charleston and Savannah. The History Press.

Works on specific camps

• Arnold-Scriber,Theresa and Terry G. Scriber (2012). Ship Island Mississippi: Rosters and History of the Civil War Prison. McFarland.
• Byrne,F.L.(1958). "Libby Prison: A Study in Emotions," Journal of Southern History vol.24 no.4 pp. 430–444.
• Casstevens,F.(2004). George W. Alexander and Castle Thunder: A Confederate Prison and Its Commandant. McFarland.
• Davis,R.S.(2006). Ghosts and Shadows of Andersonville: Essays on Secret Social Histories at America’s Deadliest Prison. Mercer University Press.
• Fetzer Jr., Dale & Bruce E.Mowdey(2002). Unlikely Allies: Fort Delaware's Prison Community during the Civil War. Stackpole Books.
• Genoways,Ted & Hugh H.Genoways(eds.) (2001). A Perfect Picture of Hell: Eyewitness Accounts by Civil War Prisoners from the 12th Iowa. University of Iowa Press.
• Gray,M.P.(2001). The Business of Captivity in Chemung Valley: Elmira and Its Civil War Prison.
• Hesseltine,W.B., ed.(1972). Civil War Prisons, including:
  • Futch,Ovid(1962)."Prison Life at Andersonville," Civil War History vol.8 no.2 pp. 121–135
  • McLain,M.H.(1962)"The Military Prison at Fort Warren," Civil War History vol.8 no.2 pp. 135–151
  • Robertson,J.I.Jr.(1962)."The Scourge of Elmira," Civil War History vol.8 no.2 pp. 184–201
  • Walker,T.R.(1962)."Rock Island Prison Barracks," Civil War History vol.8 no.2 pp. 152–163
• Hesseltine,W.B.(1956)."Andersonville Revisited," The Georgia Review vol.10 no.1 pp. 92–101.
• Horigan,M.(2002).Elmira: Death Camp of the North. Stackpole Books.
• Levy,G.(1999).To Die in Chicago: Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas, second edition.
• Marvel,W.(1994).Andersonville: The Last Depot. University of North Carolina Press.
• McAdams,B.(2000).Rebels at Rock Island: The Story of a Civil War Prison.
• Potter,C.W.Jr.(2024).Yankees in Hill City: The Union POW Camp at Lynchburg Virginia, McFarland.
• Richardson,R.B.(1880)."Andersonville," New Englander & Yale Review vol.39 no157 pp. 729–774.
• Triebe,R.H.(2011).Fort Fisher to Elmira: The Fateful Journey of 518 Confederate Soldiers. CreateSpace.
• Waggoner,J.(2008)."The Role of Physician Eugene Sanger & Standards at Elmira Prison Camp," Journal Hist Med Allied Sci vol63 no1 pp. 1–22.
• Wheelan,J.(2010).Libby Prison Breakout: Daring Escape from Notorious Civil War Jail. Public Affairs.

Historiographical studies

• Chesson,M.B.(1996)."Prison Camps & POWs,"in Steven E.Woodworth ed.,The American Civil War,pp. 466–78; survey article.
• Cloyd,B.G.(2010).Haunted by Atrocity: Civil War Prisons in American Memory. Louisiana State University Press; explores evolving views on POW treatment by both sides.
  • Robins,G."Andersonville in History & Memory," Georgia Historical Quarterly vol95 no3 pp. 408–422; review essay on Cloyd(2010).
• Schmutz,J.F.(2024).The 'Immortal Six Hundred' & Failure of POW Exchange Process. McFarland.

Fiction

• Kantor,Mackinlay(1956).Andersonville. Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Primary source materials

• Reports from Harper's Weekly, years 1863–64; illustrated coverage.
• Civil War Research Database for soldier records.
• Chandler's official Confederate report from series ii vol.vii pages 546–551; significant primary document.
• Excerpts from Minutes Proceedings Standing Committee United States Sanitary Commission...1864 detailing events.
• Appendix to Sanitary Commission Report (1864) providing comprehensive data.
• Trial records related to Captain Henry Wirz.
• Ransom,J."Andersonville"(1881), reprinted as "Andersonville Diary"; firsthand narrative considered historically unreliable.
• Kellogg,R.H."Life & Death in Rebel Prisons"(1866), chapter one.
• Letters from Massachusetts soldiers who died while imprisoned.

External links

• Andersonville National Historic Site on NPS.gov – official website
• "Andersonville: Prisoner of War Camp" National Park Service educational resource
• "Comprehensive Guide to Civil War Prisons" (2004)