Monday, May 5, 2014

Civil War POWs: Clawing for survival

Confederate soldiers at Camp Douglas in Chicago (Library of Congress)
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the peak year of suffering in Civil War prisons. At Andersonville alone, nearly 13,000 men died over 14 months -- an average of more than 30 a day in that span. Overall, 30,000 Union and 26,000 Confederate soldiers died in captivity. Thousands of Civil War POWs clawed for life. When not dreaming of home and freedom, they were obsessed with food, sometimes consuming rats or boiling grass to ward off scurvy. • Article

No comments:

Post a Comment