Andersonvilles of the North: The Myths and Realities of Northern Treatment of Civil War Confederate Prisoners

7. Point Lookout, Fort Delaware, and Elmira

–7– POINT LOOKOUT, FORT DELAWARE, AND ELMIRA I followed old mas. Robert For four years near about, Got wounded in three places, And starved at Pint Lookout. SO WROTE THE AUTHOR OF THE POPULAR SOUTHERN TUNE, “I’m a Good Old Rebel.” In all likelihood the writer did not intend to single out Point Lookout so much as to use it to represent the hardships Confederate prisoners endured in all Yankee pens because it was easier to rhyme with than Fort Delaware or Alton. Other writers over the last century and a quarter, however, have pointed to that particular prison as especially nasty. Anthony M. Keiley, an unreconstructed Rebel politician from Virginia who was no more above waving the bloody prison shirt than were others in and outside of his region, said the food was awful at Point Lookout and there was never enough of it. Prisoners were, according to Keiley, abused physically and denied adequate clothing and shelter as a matter of policy. He claimed that to get decent treatment one had to appeal to guards’ greed—a congenital defect found in Northern character. Bribery was the only effective way to assure humane treatment in Federal military prisons because, according to Keiley; “Yankee soldiers are very much like ships: to move them, you must ‘slush the ways.’”1 178 In 1972, a historian of the prison echoed Keiley, writing that “the prisoners at Point Lookout died from lack of sufficient food, clothing, blankets , shelter, and medical attention that the Federal Government could have provided.” The Point Lookout Prisoner of War Organization’s website tells visitors: “Rations were below minimal, causing scurvy and malnutrition . Prisoners ate rats and raw fish. It’s recorded that one hungry Rebel devoured a raw seagull that had been washed ashore. Soap scum and trash peelings were often eaten when found.” If ever there was a “Northern Andersonville,” Point Lookout was certainly in the running for that title.2 Without question, life at Point Lookout was primitive and unpleasant. Conditions were crowded, unsanitary, and with some 4,000 deaths occurring there, potentially deadly. Of course such descriptions could and generally did apply to any Civil War military camp regardless of which side one is talking about. The important question is not whether life at the prison was difficult, but whether the prisoners there were neglected or abused as a matter of Union policy. Were officials responsible for increasing prisoners’ suffering and mortality through what one commentator has described as “vindictive directives from the high command in Washington”?3 As was the case with most Northern prisons, Point Lookout was often described by postwar writers as a place where prisoners were starved, or nearly so, as a matter of policy. Postwar claims of prisoners gnawing on raw seagulls notwithstanding, contemporary evidence exists suggesting that food was not systematically withheld or doled out in ridiculously tiny amounts. Berry Benson of South Carolina was held for a time at Point Lookout and he recalled, “As a whole, I don’t think Confederate prisoners [at Point Lookout] suffered greatly for food, tho’ we had none too much truly.” Four months after Point Lookout opened as a prison in August 1863, Brigadier-General Gilman Marston sent a report to Hoffman in which he assured the Commissary-General of Prisoners that the Southerners under his care received “wholesome food sufficient to insure vigorous health.” On December 1, 1863, the Commissary-Sergeant, J. H. Wilkinson, noted the prisoners got plenty to eat and were fed according to official guidelines. “I would remark here in regard to the issue of vegetables ,” he added, “that I never knew a time during my service when Federal troops got so constant a supply of vegetables as has been issued to the prisoners here.” Anthony M. Clark inspected the camp as well in December 1863 and found nothing to complain about as far as food was Point Lookout, Fort Delaware, and Elmira 179 concerned at Point Lookout. In fact, Clark noted that prisoners even gambled some of their rations away, something it is hard to imagine starving men doing.4 Official reports do not note any change in the food situations during 1864. There were occasional recommendations that more vegetables be issued, but evidence that would support the claim that prisoners were placed on “starvation rations” is lacking from these reports. Henry Clay Dickinson, a Confederate captain who spent some time at Point Lookout in...