To Die in Chicago: Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65
- ISBN13: 9781565543317
- Condition: New
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“Did Wirtz, the commandant of Andersonville prison, ever do anything as inhumanly brutal as was inflicted on Confederate prisoners in Camp Douglas?” Sgt. T. B. Clore, Camp Douglas survivor The Chicago doctors who inspected the facility in 1863 called Camp Douglas an “extermination camp.” It quickly became the largest Confederate burial ground outside of the South. What George Levy’s meticulous research, including newly discovered hospital records, has uncovered is not a pretty picture.
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The Crown Jewel of Civil War POW Stories,
Lets start with the author. His research is exacting, methodical, and painstaking. He brought zero bias to the enterprise and the result is a stunning achievement that is both scholarly and readable. Douglas, the “accidental” prison camp began as a training camp for IL. volunteers. Donalson and Island #10 changed that. The long war no one expected combined with artic cold, primitive medical care and the barbarity of the captors created in the authors own words “a death camp.” Stanton’s and Grant’s policy of halting the prisoner exchange behind the pretense of Fort Pillow accelerated the suffering. In the latest edition Levy found the long lost hospital records at the National Archives which prove conclusively that casualties were deliberately under reported. Prisoners were tortured, brutality was tolerated and corruption was widespread. The handling of the dead rivals stories of Nazi Germany. The largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere is filled with….the bodies of Camp Douglas dead, 4200 known and 1800 unknown. No one should be allowed to speak of Andersonville until they have absorbed the horror of Douglas.
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|Well researched and detailed presentation of POW camp,
George Levy does an excellent job in presenting the life and times of a Civil War prisoner of war camp — from its origin to its closing after the completion of the War. The most positive aspect of the book, however, is that it lacks bias; Levy is objective throughout his presentation. The only detractions of the book are what I perceived to be poor editting. For instance, several statements and facts were often repeated in later chapters. Also, tables of data were poorly presented in their format. This is not the author’s fault, but rather the editor’s. With regard to content, I would have preferred to read more descriptions of Camp Douglas from the Union soldiers’ point of view (especially those within the Camp’s garrison or the VRC). Nearly all of the views of the Camp from the Union perspective were based on administrator’s reports and communications. How different were the views between the common Union soldier and the Confederate POWs? We really don’t get a clear picture of this dichotomy from Levy’s book. Overall, the book is better than any Andersonville book that I’ve read.
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|Superb Book,
To Die in Chicago is a wonderfully researched and well-written book that provides a vivid and heartbreaking account of the Confederate prisoners who lived and died in a Union prison camp. It gives much information for anyone seeking information about ancestors held there and it offers a real sense of the prisoners’ daily lives and ordeals. I checked it out six times from the library and decided it is time to buy it. You should too!
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