Rock Island Prison Barracks

ROCK ISLAND PRISON BARRACKS G. R. Walker One of the westernmost Confederate prisoner-of-war camps was located on Rock Island, a government-owned island in the Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois. In the frontier era from 1816 to 1836, Fort Armstrong stood on the western tip of this island, and for the past century the plot of land has been widely known as the site of Rock Island Arsenal. Constructed in mid-1863, the Rock Island prison camp received its first prisoners in December of that same year. In the months that followed, the camp quickly gained a mixed reputation—to some it was a Northern "Andersonville "; to others it offered more than the necessary comforts. On July 14, 1863, Captain Charles A. Reynolds of the Quartermaster Department received orders from Quartermaster General M. C. Meigs to construct a depot for prisoners of war at Rock Island. The Commissary General of Prisons furnished construction plans, which called for the erection of eighty-four prisoners' barracks and a rough board fence to enclose them. Construction began during the last of August, 1863; two months later the camp stood ready to receive its first contingent of prisoners.1 Each barracks building was 100 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 12 feet high; all barracks faced eastward. Each barracks had twelve windows, two doors, and two roof ventilators, four feet long and two feet wide. The kitchen for each building was located at the west end and separated from the sleeping quarters by a wall located eighteen feet from the west end. The remaining eighty-two feet were taken up by living and sleeping quarters. Sixty double bunks were constructed, enabling each barracks to house 120 prisoners. There were six rows with fourteen barracks in each row. The buildings were thirty feet apart and, with one exception, faced onto streets 100 feet wide. The fourth row opened on an avenue 130 feet wide—one of two avenues bisecting the prison. Sct. T. R. Walker is Curator of the John M. Browning Memorial Museum at the Rock Isfond Arsenal and, as such, is eminently qualified to recount the story of this is^nd-prison. 1 U.S. War Dept. (comp.) War of the RebeUion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, 1880-1901), Ser. II, VI, 115, 281, 634, 663, 938, 948. Hereafter cited as OR; all references are to Ser. II. 152 The barracks were enclosed by a stockade fence 1,300 feet long, 900 feet wide, and 12 feet high. A board walk was constructed on the outside ofthe fence, four feet from the top, and sentry boxes were placed every 100 feet. Double-gate sally ports located on the east and west ends of the fence afforded the only openings into the enclosure. A strong guardhouse was erected outside the fence at each of the two gates.2 The Commissary General of Prisoners, Colonel WUliam Hoffman, made an inspection of the empty prison in November, 1863. Just a few days before Colonel Hoffman's trip, a large fire destroyed several of the prison barracks in Camp Douglas, near Chicago, Illinois. Colonel Hoffman, in his report to the Secretary of War, stated his intention of transferring 1,000 prisoners left without shelter at Camp Douglas to Rock Island Prison Barracks. This transfer did not occur until December, 1863, when 5,592 prisoners —most ofwhom were captured by Grant's army at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge—arrived at Rock Island. A great deal of suffering characterized this first group. They were far from their homes; moreover , the coldness of the climate had left them half-frozen, for on the day of their arrival the temperature dropped to thirty-two degrees below zero. This condition was aggravated at the very outset by an epidemic of dreaded smallpox. Prison doctors found ninety-four cases of this disease in the group, and all had been exposed to it. The prison surgeon in charge, Dr. J. J. Temple; his aged assistant, Surgeon T. J. Iles; and Dr. Marcellus Moxley were faced with the responsibility of checking this terrible disease without hospital wards or...