[CIVIL WAR] Confederate Prisoners at Rock Island

Outdoor albumen CDV of guards and POWS at attention. Rock Island Barracks, Illinois: Josh Smith, ca 1864-1865. Photographer's imprint to verso, identifying Smith as "Post Artist." Residue of removed revenue stamp.

An impressive carte de visite (CDV) photograph of guards and prisoners-of-war. Rock Island was home to thousands of captured Confederate soldiers from late 1863 through the end of the Civil War. These men were primarily guarded by members of the Union’s Veteran Reserve Corps, who can be seen standing in line in the forefront of this image. A relatively primitive facility compared to other northern prison camps, Rock Island still managed to achieve a lower mortality rate than all but one other location. That did not prevent speculation that it was the “Union’s Andersonville”, a myth perpetuated in large part by author Margaret Mitchell, who dramatized Rock Island in her epic novel Gone With The Wind. This photograph presents a cold but realistic view inside the camp, with row after row of prisoners next to their simple whitewashed shelters. While the camp is no more, nearly 2,000 prisoners and guards remain buried in its cemetery.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Prisoner of War, POW, Medical History, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, Ephemera, Historic Photography, Daguerreotype, Tintype, Ambrotype, Early Photography, CDV, Carte-de-Visite, Cartes de Visite, Carte de Visite, Albumen, Albums]