Immortal Captives

[Copperhead-mi]

A question just crossed my mind. Does anyone know of a comparison of death rates in prison camps as opposed the death rate in large encampments. I know that early in the war the rates were high and that across the river from Fredericksburg they were high but I can't find numbers per capata.

I can't answer your exact question but I did read that 28% of Confederate pneumonia cases ended up in death at Camp Douglas while 18% of Confederate prisoners who contracted smallpox at the same facility died. In comparison, Confederate soldiers who were patients at Chimborazo, the Confederacy's military hospital in Richmond, experienced a death rate of 37% when stricken by pneumonia and 22% when infected by smallpox.

 

[nc native]

I can't answer your exact question but I did read that 28% of Confederate pneumonia cases ended up in death at Camp Douglas while 18% of Confederate prisoners who contracted smallpox at the same facility died. In comparison, Confederate soldiers who were patients at Chimborazo, the Confederacy's military hospital in Richmond, experienced a death rate of 37% when stricken by pneumonia and 22% when infected by smallpox.

That would be an interesting set of numbers to see. I had two 3X Great Grandfathers who survived
the malnutrition and unhygienic conditions in Civil War prison camps and two that contracted disease
in regular encampments and died during the Civil War. I have one more direct ancestor who is not
in my signature due to a lack of space who served in the Confederate Army and died in camp due
to disease. His name was Nathaniel Jean who served in the 47th NC Infantry in Company B. He
died in Raleigh, N.C. in April 1862 before his regiment was sent into the field in North Carolina and
then to the Army of Northern Virginia in 1863.