|
a.
|
Note: H00003
Note: He died at Point Lookout, which is a confederate prison camp. A prisoncamp for Confederate prisoners of war was built at Point Lookout, Md.,on the tip of the peninsula where the Potomac River joins ChesapeakeBay. In the two years during which the camp was in operation, August,1863, to June, 1865, Point Lookout overflowed with inmates, surpassingits intended capacity of 10,000 to a population numbering between12,500 and 20,000. In all, over 50,000 men, both military andcivilian, were held prisoner there.
G.W. Jones, a private of Co. H, 24th Virginia Cavalry, described hisominous entrance into the prison amidst "a pile of coffins for deadrebels," hearing the lid close shut on his own soon thereafter when helearned that the system of prisoner exchanges had been suspended forthe duration of the war. Jones described the camp as laid out into aseries of streets and trenches, intended to aid in drainage, andsurrounded by a fourteen foot parapet wall. Prisoners, who livedsixteen or more to a tent, were subjected to habitually short rationsand limited fire wood in winter, and when the coffee ration wassuspended for federal prisoners at Andersonville, the Point Lookoutprisoner lost theirs as well.
The worst the prisoners suffered, however, may have been inflicted bythe physical conditions. The flat topography, sandy soil, and anelevation barely above high tide led to poor drainage, and the areawas subjected to every imaginable extreme of weather, from blazingheat to bone-chilling cold. Polluted water exacerbated the problems ofinadequate food, clothing, fuel, housing, and medical care, and as aresult, approximately 4,000 prisoners died there over 22 months.
|
