I became interested in the Civil War prison camps when during my research of family history I found that My Great Grandfather was held prisoner at both Point Lookout (May-August, 1864) and then transferred to Elmira, New York. (August, 1864 to June, 1865). He was captured at the 2nd battle of the Wilderness on May 5th or 8th, 1864 and remained at Elmira until his release on June 14, 1865.

"Hugh & Mary" Courtney
	Family Members Served With:  Alabama 36th infantry.  Alabama 5th infantry Union Prison Camps Hugh held at:  Point Lookout, Maryland  Elmira, New York

Here to Prisoners Listing Project

There were many prison camp throughout the North and South during the Civil War. Many of them became as well known as the Civil War battles. Prison camps were setup in warehouses, military training camps, old forts, factories, local city jails, state penitentiaries were also used on occasion, even a church was pressed into service. They went by the names: Castle Thunder, The Libby, Castle Pinckney, Old Capitol Prison, Fort McHenry, Fort Lafayette, Fort Columbus, Gratiot Street Prison, Johnson's Island, Camp Butler, Camp Groce, Camp Randall, Camp Douglas(death rate reached 10 percent a month), Camp Morton , Camp Chase, Salisbury (In less than five months, over a third of 10,000 perished), Alton, Camp Parole, Rock Island, Point Lookout (the largest Union prison), Fort Delaware (one of the highest mortality rates), Fort Pulaski, Fort Warren, Belle Isle, Andersonville (Camp Sumter), Macon, Cahaba, Camp Ford, Elmira, Hart's Island, Millen, Beaufort, Blackshear, and others. Within these prisons over 56,000 men died.

As with all the Civil War many lessons from the past were not applicable and the prison system was no exceptions. The North and South were both facing burdens they were unprepared to adequately address. What follows is information I have gathered about the prison camps. Some of the information I have obtained through internet resources, some through books I have read.

I often received questions concerning prison camp of the civil war.

• Did the camps keep any sort of records?
• Where might I find camp records?
• Did the camp list information such as capture location , unit numbers, dates, burials, prisoners names, family contacts.
• etc.

I will attempt to answer some of these question, where I can, Please select this link for the Frequenctly Asked Questions Listing and Miss. State Archives information related to prison camps.

The following are starting point to help you find addition information concerning prison camps of the civil war. Where there are available links to other informational sites about a camp I have tried to provided it. I will continue to add to the page as I come accross interesting information concerning the prison camps of the civil war.

1. Alabama Civil War Infantry Regimental Histories. www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/alregts.html
3. Books on Prisons. www.bookguy.com/Catalog/Military/pow.htm