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Civil War prisons were dismal places at best and the notorious
Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia, produced
incredible suffering and a war crimes trial for its commandant.
After the war, and especially from the 1920s on, defenders of the
Confederacy pointed to the Rock Island Barracks in Illinois as an
"Andersonville of the North" where prisoners were starved and
brutalized by guards under the command of Colonel Adolphus
J.Johnson. "A Short History of the Rock Island Prison Barracks"
provides a concise account of the establishment of the Rock Island
Barracks as a camp for Confederate prisoners of war, the harsh
conditions that typified such camps on both sides, and attempts at
escape. It also demonstrates that certain Northern newspapers
exaggerated the difficult conditions in the Barracks for political
and sensation-seeking reasons and contemporary and later
Southerners pounce upon such reports to dispel criticism of
conditions at Andersonville. The author concludes that Rock Island
Barracks "Among a bad lot...despite its shortcomings, was one of
the best," yet "the camp induced suffering to a degree that makes
modern society flinch, despite our memories of more recent camps
that were infinitely worse."
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