Research Catalog

Rebels at Rock Island : the story of a Civil War prison

Title: Rebels at Rock Island : the story of a Civil War prison / Benton McAdams.
Author: McAdams, Benton.
Publication: DeKalb, Ill. : Northern Illinois University Press, 2000.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	E616.R6 M38 2000	Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 260 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm

Summary

"While the testimony of its famous fictional inmate, Ashley Wilkes of Gone with the Wind, has helped to cast Rock Island's reputation as the "Andersonville of the North," McAdams shows that this Illinois prison was considerably more humane than some accounts have suggested."
"Rock island, like other Civil War prisons, was not without problems, including brutal weather, incompetent guards, and inadequate facilities. Malnutrition, smallpox, and a lack of basic supplies were just some of the hardships prisoners suffered, in part because of the eccentric miserliness of William Hoffman, Union commissary general of prisoners, who focused on financial concerns over human needs. The conditions at Rock Island were, however, no worse than at other Northern prisons such as Camp Douglas, nor was the prison's mission to be unjustly cruel.
McAdams establishes that the Union officers in charge of the camp sought to maintain humane conditions in the face of severe shortages, disease, and a war that raged on longer and with greater hardships than anyone had anticipated." "Showing how Rock Island was a microcosm of the political mood of the entire nation during the Civil War, McAdams gives special attention to the prison's political and economic ties to the local community, including controversies between the camp commander and the local Copperhead newspaper editor. Readers interested in the Civil War, prison systems, and Illinois politics will find a fresh and fascinating story in Rebels at Rock Island. Two dozen rare photographs round out the unflinching descriptions of prison life."--Jacket.

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-251) and index.

Contents

"That Is the Way You Do Here, Is It?" -- "They Are Dying Off Very Fast" -- "A Disagreeable Place to Be" -- "Such Reckless Conduct" -- "The Glare of Wolfish Hunger" -- "Had I the Power" -- "All of the Prisoners Have Left This Island."

ISBN

0875802672
9780875802671

LCCN

00037226

OCLC

ocm44675953
44675953
SCSB-1140698

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library