The Civil War Of The United States Prisons - 1077 Words

â€Å"Brother against brother.† This was the Civil War being summed up in just three words. Mike Wright wrote, â€Å"On both sides of the war, men and women were locked away in dark prisons or held in outdoor camps under blistering sun and freezing snow. They were fed too little and lived and died under primitive conditions.† One would arguably say that the Northern prisons might feel a little more at home than the Southern prisons, but this wasn’t the case at all, the prisons on each side were both poorly managed, overcrowded and full of diseases.The intentions of the prisons were not necessarily to kill the inmates, but because of poor planning were the prisons filthy. Both the Union’s and the Confederate’s prisons were equally appalling. The†¦show more content†¦During the early years of the war, the two sides frequently had prisoner exchanges, but that was stopped by a decision made by U.S General Grant and Secretary of War, Stanton. T hey both thought that it was pointless and using too much time and people. Robert H. Kellogg, who was a sergeant major, described his entry as a prisoner into the camp on May 2nd, 1864: â€Å"As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect; stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. Can this be hell? God protect us! and all thought that He alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm s ummer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then.† Andersonville is a southern camp that could easily be compared to concentration camps,. Henry Wirz, in charge of Andersonville, was tried and executed for the crimes that he committed while being in charge.