Prison - Pens of the North
Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #2071
by Bobby Tully

Rock Island

Rock Island, Illinois - The first 468 Confederate prisoners at Rock Island Prison Camp arrived at the 12 acre site just before Christmas 1863 - captured near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Nearly 20 months later, more than 1,960 prisoners had died from smallpox, pneumonia, dysentery, and other illnesses and medical problems. Temperatures at the prison camp were 0 degrees when the first prisoners arrived. Sanitation was also very poor and, with the various illnesses of the prisoners, more than 95 of them died within the first month. By spring, more than 900 Confederates were buried on the island; nearly 30 Union guards had also died. More than 12,000 prisoners were housed on Rock Island, now called Arsenal Island. The dead are buried in the Confederate Cemetery on the island. Originally the Confederates were buried in hastily dug graves near the prison, but in February 1864, the cemetery was moved to its present location for sanitary purposes. In the spring of 1864, a hospital was built and a sewage system was developed. Later that same year federal authorities cut rations in response to the treatment of Union prisoners at Camp Sumer (Andersonville). This led to malnutrition and scurvy among the prisoners. "Camp Sumer did not have enough food." During the short, but deadly, history of the prison camp, 12,409 prisoners had been confined.Of these, more than 3,875 were transferred to other camps, 1,960 died while in the prison, 41 escaped to freedom. More than 5,580 were released upon taking the amnesty oath, and nearly 4,000 galvanized - enlisted in the Union army, not to take up arms against Confederates, but to fight on the western frontier. There were also 213 civilian or citizens prisoners.