Alton was one of four major Civil War prisons in state - IL

CMWinkler

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Alton was one of four major Civil War prisons in state

The remains of Alton's historic Civil War prison now sit on William Street with a commemorative marker claiming it to be the first state prison in Illinois.

Posted: Saturday, May 4, 2013 6:00 am

By TOM EMERY Special To The Telegraph

During the Civil War, Alton was one of four major Confederate prisoner-of-war facilities in Illinois.
The prisons not only added an unusual aspect to life on the Illinois homefront but carved a place among the more notorious of Civil War prison encampments.

Like Alton, the other Illinois prisons were riddled with smallpox, and several had housed training facilities for Union soldiers in the early months of the war. Among them was Camp Douglas on the south side of Chicago, named for Stephen A. Douglas, the recently deceased political rival of Abraham Lincoln, where many Illinois recruits were mustered and trained.

The beginnings of Camp Douglas as a POW facility were sudden and haphazard, as the federal government, saddled with thousands of captured Confederates from the fall of Fort Donelson in Tennessee, was wholly unprepared to handle the influx of incarcerated enemy soldiers. By March 17, 1862, Camp Douglas was home to 5,500 Confederates, with more on the way. More than 26,000 Confederates eventually were held at the facility, which was racked by poor air, filthy water and inadequate control of milk production in the vicinity.

The horrid surroundings caused rampant disease. More than 70,000 cases of illness were reported, led by smallpox, malaria and dysentery. Some 4,009 prisoners reportedly lost their lives, including 823 by smallpox. More men died at Camp Douglas than any other Northern prison.

For the rest: http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/local/article_e1d3e8be-b446-11e2-b9b0-0019bb30f31a.html
 
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And this is a photo from the era:
 

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As many new posts here, this may be redundant but I have to ask... was the camp at Alton Illinois on an island in the river or over on the "solid" side in Illinois? And, more specifically, what would be the significance pertaining to taking an Oath of Allegiance on June 19th, 1865?
 
As many new posts here, this may be redundant but I have to ask... was the camp at Alton Illinois on an island in the river or over on the "solid" side in Illinois? And, more specifically, what would be the significance pertaining to taking an Oath of Allegiance on June 19th, 1865?

The prison camp was on the "solid side of Illinois." There was an island on the Missouri side (west Alton) of the river which was notoriously nicknamed "small pox island. During the ACW, the island was used to quarantine prisoners affected (and many later died) by a small pox epidemic. I am not certain the significance of the Oath, however.

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/confederate-burial-listing-small-pox-island-west-alton-il.105897/
 
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