News Committed to the Preservation of History

Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation Chicago, Illinois

Winter 2012 Volume 3, Issue 4 Project Phases: Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation—Latest News Awareness and Support: place the artifacts within VIRTUAL CAMP 2010-2013 historic perspectives. DOUGLAS PROJECT

CONTINUES Site Location and Site GRIFFIN FUNERAL HOME The students from IIT Planning: 2012 TO BE DEVELOPED presented their results Prologue, Inc. announced November 30 as part of plans to develop an Archaeological Investigation: the IPRO Day at IIT. alternate school, 2012-2013 They, along with 29 community center and Civil other IPRO teams, War museum on the site of Virtual Camp Douglas: 2013 were judged on a the former Griffin Funeral video, table top display Home, 3232 S. King Drive. and oral presentation Construction: 2013-14 The announcement was to a panel of judges. made by Dr. Nancy

Jackson, Executive Director of Prologue which Preliminary views of the camp map, story operates alternate schools in Chicago providing boards and web site were impressive. Students educational opportunities to school drop-outs working on the story boards have conducted who are not eligible to reenter the public Civil War research into stories about camp life in schools. The Foundation has been in contact preparation for videos to be produced. Mapping with Dr. Jackson and is cooperating with them Bits & Pieces of Camp Douglas is nearly completed and the on the development of the museum. web site brings stories and mapping together. Ernest Griffin and his Next semester the project will continue at IIT Civil War Units family, after his death in 1995 under the leadership of Professor Laura Batson. The basic unit recruited dur- and the closing of the funeral ing the war was the Regiment home in 2007, maintained a ARCHAEOLOGICAL UPDATE consisting of about 1,000 men display of Civil War and Camp Scott Demel and students from Northern and commanded by a Colonel. Douglas memorabilia as a Michigan University are in the process of Four or more Regiments com- tribute to his grandfather cleaning and cataloging all artifacts found in bined to make a Brigade com- Charles Griffin who entered the excavation this past summer. After this is manded by a Brigadier General the 29th USCT at Camp completed, students from Loyola University will or Colonel. Two or Three Bri- Douglas. gades made up a Division com- manded by a Brigadier or Major General. Up to four Divisions made up a Corps commanded by Company K 1st Michigan Sharpshooters Major General in the Union Ar- Chicago Connection With Native American Union Soldiers my and Lieutenant General in the Confederacy. The 1st Michigan Sharpshooters the Army of the Potomac in March Senior officers were appointed were mustered into the in 1864. while company officers (Captain July 1863 and were commanded by After participating in fierce fighting and Lieutenant) were frequently Colonel Charles V. De Land. The unit during General Grant’s 1864 campaign elected by the units. included Company K that was the 1st, including Company K, arrived Illinois Troops comprised of Native Americans and at the siege of Petersburg in June **58% of 1860 census Illinois recruited from tribes in Michigan 1864. military-aged white men served including the Chippewa and Ottawa, At the famous battle of the Crater in the Union Army. This com- even though Native Americans were the 1st Sharpshooters, part of pared to 42% in New York and not subject to the draft and therefore Humphrey’s Brigade, were on the left 41% in . were not required to serve in the of the 29th USCT from Illinois **Of 217,000 Illinois volun- Union Army. commanded by Lt. Col. John Bross of Chicago teers, 18,000 were from Germa- These soldiers developed into an excellent who died in the battle. Their Brigade suffered ny, 12,000 from Ireland and fighting unit. The 1st Sharpshooters in July 216 casualties compared to 722 casualties for 2,000 were African American. 1863 were sent to to check the advances the brigade containing the 29th. of Morgan’s Raiders. The unit was then ordered From Camp Douglas to the Crater the Native These Bits and Pieces were to Camp Douglas where they served as guards. Americans of Company K, 1st Michigan from Chicago’s Irish Legion, the They proved to be an oddity. Many Chicagoans Sharpshooters had a connection with Chicago. 90th Illinois Volunteers in the wanted to go see the mysterious group of Indians. Col. De Land commanded the camp Special thanks to Shari Aljimah for bringing this Civil War, James B. Swan, 2009 from August 1863 until the unit was sent to join story to our attention. Camp Douglas Restoration Recollections-Letters, Diaries and Journals Foundation Chicago, Illinois www.campdouglas.org Editors Note: This section of the newsletter will be devoted in this and future editions to letters, diaries and journals of Civil War veterans. Often considered the best source of David L. Keller, Managing Director contemporaneous information on the war, readers must be cautioned that this material 1368 N. Mohawk 2S represents individual experiences and feelings. In addition, many of the journals were written well after the war and include the frailties of age and time. Chicago, IL 60610 Tel: 312-751-1693 Mobile: 312-859-1940 Curtis R. Burke, a 1865) are archived at the [email protected] member of Morgan’s Chicago History Museum. Raiders was captured in The battery was organized July 1863, arriving at in Camp Doggett, a Camp Douglas August satellite camp of Camp 18, 1863. He remained Douglas. there until March 2, In September 1862, 1865. His journal, after capture at Harpers covering the period Ferry, units from New October 1862 to June York, Vermont, , 1865, was dictated in Illinois and Indiana were 1915 at , sent to Camp Douglas to IN. He died November await exchange. These 5, 1919 at the age of 77. units refused to Many excerpts from his participate in any journal can be found in military activities and George Levy’s, To Die in Chicago. burned their barracks three times during Burke arrived at Camp Douglas after their stay. They also disrupted life in and traveling by train from Camp Morton in around the camp including a number of Indianapolis, through Michigan City, IN. His incidents with the Chicago police as a result first comments on the camp were dated of their drunkenness. They were exchanged Tuesday, August 18, 1863. “The camp in December 1862 relieving the Camp of appeared pretty large with a high fence some of its most disruptive and destructive round it… The barracks [in White Oak troops. A Chicago Story that Square] were divided into little rooms with In a letter to his father, September 29, Needs to be Told from two to ten bunks in each 1862 Brown commented “The and doors and windows to paroled men from Harpers match.” “We received rations of Ferry are nearly all here and a Join us at: crackers, bread, bacon, harder looking set of customers www.campdouglas.org pickelled [sic] pork, coffee, I never saw. Ragged, dirty and sugar , potatoes, hominy, salt, nasty with few exceptions and sugar, soap and candles. Of most of them have only been in Satellite Camps course a man only got a hand the field about five weeks. I full of each when it was divided, talked to several smart fellows Camp Douglas had many satellite but we received better rations and they say they are treated camps during its existence. Physical here than we did at Camp like dogs.” facilities were limited in Camp Douglas Morton, Ind.” He continued, "A After the war Brown became a requiring units to bivouac in the area heavy dew fell during the night. leader in the iron ore and ship surrounding the camp. These camps I slept better than I expected in building industry in Chicago could be found as far south as Hyde my bunk without any blankets.” with Picklands, Brown and Park and as far west as today’s Dan Company and Chicago Ryan Expressway. 132 letters written by William Shipbuilding Company. He Sub-camps such as Camp Dunne Liston Brown, Quartermaster of the Chicago died November 1, 1929 in Pasadena and Camp Doggett, usually named after Mercantile Battery (August 1862 to July California. a commander or financial backer, were common. For example, the 90th Illinois Volunteers (Chicago Irish Legion) were at Camp Dunne, one mile south of Concordia Guards –Chicago’s Jewish Company Camp Douglas but followed the routine laid out for soldiers at Camp Douglas Company C (Concordia Guards), tomac, then commanded by General and acted as guards for the 82d Illinois Infantry was the only Burnside. They participated in the Confederate prisoners. all-Jewish unit to fight in the Civil battle of Fredericksburg, the famous War. The unit was nicknamed be- “Mud March,” and Chancellorsville. cause the men volunteered at a At Gettysburg the 82d was assigned Firing Weapons B’nai B’rith Ramah Lodge meeting to defend Cemetery Hill and partici- at the Concordia Club in Chicago. pated in all three days of the con- Colonel Joseph Tucker in mid-1862 The unit was recruited largely flict. In October1863 they were issued General Order Number 10 in through the influence of Henry transferred to the Army of the Cum- response to concerns about the Union Greenebaum, Chicago banker and berland participating in battles at soldiers wounding fellow recruits rather alderman. Within three days of Missionary Ridge (Chattanooga), than developing weapons proficiency. formation, the initial 96 recruits, Atlanta Campaign (Resaca, Kenesaw The order directed “whenever arms are from a Jewish population in Chicago estimat- Mountain, Peachtree Creek), March to the to be discharged the men should be ed to be 1,500, raised $11,000 for the benefit Sea, and the Campaign of the Carolinas sent to the Lake Shore.” of the men. (Bentonville). The 82d was mustered out No one knows how effective the order Organized in Springfield October 28, 1862, June 1865 in Washington D. C. turned out to be. the unit was assigned to the Army of the Po-