Camp Douglas News Committed to the Preservation of Chicago History

Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation Chicago, Illinois

Fall/Winter 2016 Volume 7, Issue 3

Project Phases: Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation—Latest News National Register Nation Park Service have resulted in Awareness and Support: concerns of the agencies that the

2010-2017 “integrity” of the site is in question. The Camp Douglas This is a result of our successful, Restoration Foundation but limited, archaeological Site Planning: 2014-2017 continues to work on the excavation of the site. application to have the foot print Michael Gregory has been Archaeological Investigation: of Camp Douglas listed on the working on confirming and 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, National Register of Historic documenting the integrity of the site 2016 Places. including incorporating archaeological studies Over 700 people have supported the petition conducted in other urban areas. drive which is available on our web site, Construction: 2017-2018 In addition, with the assistance of www.campdouglas.org. In addition, we have Alderman Sophia King ,we are investigating received letters of support from many individuals limited excavation in public parkways on the and organizations. These include both Illinois site. We are also planning to investigate in a few Fall/Winter senators. private sites that have been identified. The The basis for inclusion in the Register is the major land holder on the site, Draper & Kramer, Newsletter archaeological significance of the area. Most continues to refuse to communicate with the properties listed in the Register are buildings or foundation. groups of buildings. While unusual, designation Due to my illness during The Foundation continues to believe that of Camp Douglas would join prison camps the summer and fall, the fall listing on the Register is important; we will work Johnson’s Island in Ohio and Belle Isle in newsletter was not published. toward that end. Richmond, VA. This combined Fall/Winter, Anyone interested in assisting in this Initial discussion with the State of Illinois, Camp Douglas News is a one project should contact us at Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and the time event. [email protected]. As in past years, subse- quent newsletters will be pub- lished quarterly beginning with the spring 2017 edition. Prisoner of War Training Thank you for your pa- tience. While many other factors own after a trial of the leaders of contributed to conditions in Civil the “Raiders.” These raiders preyed David Keller, Managing War prison camps, the lack of on other prisoners until Camp Director/Editor. training of Civil War soldiers on Commander Captain Henry Wirz how to act as a prisoner of war was agreed to a trial. part of the cause of prison camp Lack of discipline and respect Camp Douglas Web conditions and deaths. for the chain of command was also With both the Union and evident at Camp Douglas and other Site Confederates failing to consider the camps. need to confine prisoners for lengthly Camp Douglas What was a soldier to do? His periods of time during the war, sergeant, who was also a prisoner CDRF Communications training of soldiers in matters tells him one thing and a guard Director, Mary Brennan, is other than moving and shooting with a gun tells him another. The working on upgrading the foun- was omitted. choice for the untrained POW was dation web site Today our military is trained easy...the guard. www.campdouglas.org. This will in the Code of Conduct that clearly Morgan’s Raiders at Camp Douglas include improving the front page defines the responsibilities of were an exception to the lack of and displaying other material in soldiers as POWs. The duties discipline. They supported each a more organized way. include not cooperating with the other and made certain that Anyone wishing to volunteer enemy, refusing to sign parole or soldiers’ wants were met. As a Andersonville to assist Mary should contact other documents, attempting to result, the death rate among this Prisoner Executions her at: escape, and maintaining the chain of group was between 6% and 7% [email protected] command. compared for 17% in the total Camp Douglas This last point, the chain of command, was a population. The web site is fully availa- major contributor to Civil War prison problems. Story after story of the lack of preparation ble during the improvements. At Andersonville anarchy was so prevalent that of the average soldier during the war to be a POW Visit the site and see the Camp Union soldiers eventually executed six of their have been told in journals, letters, and historic Douglas items available. Camp Douglas Restoration Camp Douglas and the Lost Cause Foundation Chicago, Illinois Camp Douglas, “the published a variety of www.campdouglas.org Andersonville of the North,” drawings and cartoons was a title given to the referring to the tyranny of David L. Keller, Managing Director camp as part of the the unrepenant South. 1368 N. Mohawk 2S prisoner of war conflict Chicagoan, Charles F. Chicago, IL 60610 after the Civil War. Gunther (see article below) Tel: 312-751-1693 The Lost Cause contributed to the Northern interpretation was position on the ritcheous Mobile: 312-859-1940 developed by white Union versus the barbarian southerners defining the confederacy . Civil War as an honorably contested Andersonville All of this contributed to battle over constitutional the Lost Cause entrenchment principles. The Lost Cause in the South. A component of provided a sense of purpose the Lost Cause was defiance of and a justification of how the the northern prison honorable South was defeated interpretation, justification of by the brutal North. the honorable Confederate war In part, the Lost Cause effort, and the sacrifice of the was a reaction to Northern Confederate victims of Union attempts to further dishonor prisons. Camp Douglas the defeated South through The Lost Cause versus the Union accusations of mistreatment of Union view of the prisoner situation in the Civil War soldiers in Confederate prisons. The continued for decades after the war was over. execution of Captain Henry Wirz, commander In1876 the Southern History Society Papers of the Andrsonville prison, fueled the (SHSP) led in defending the Confederate negative sentiment in the south. Wirz was prison record while attacking the hypocritical the only Confederate officer executed for war North. Not until the survivors of the prison crimes. camps were dead in the early Twentieth A Chicago Story that Must The North continued, in the view of the Century did the Lost Cause arguments Be Told South, to demean the Confederacy by Union decrease. Civil War prisoners “waiving the bloody The impact on the Lost Cause from 1914 Join us at: shirt.” This asserted their virtue and until the present will be the subject of future www.campdouglas.org reminded them of the South’s barbarity Camp Douglas News articles. toward prisoners of war. Much of the material for this article was The Republican press, portraying the taken from the following excellent books: Democrats as unsympathetic, unpatriotic, Haunted by Atrocity, Civil War Prisons in Camp Douglas in and disrespectful of the dead Union American Memory, by Benjamin G. Cloyd, prisoners, further added to the concern of the Louisiana State University Press, 2010,. Historic Novels Southern place in reconstruction. Andersonvilles of the North, The Myths The Grand Army of the Republic’s (GAR) abd Reality of Northern Treatment of Civil War super Northern political justification of the Confederate Prisoners by James M Gillispie, Camp Douglas is frequently in- war and the influence of major publications, University of North Texas Press, 2008. cluded in historic novels about the such as Harper’s Weekly, further heaped Civil War.. blame on the Confederacy. Harper’s Three books include Camp Doug- las are: Faded Lines of Gray, An Historical Novel, Steven D. Harris, Bookstand Charles F. Gunther Publishing, Morgan Hills CA, 2013. Charles F. Gunther, known as display in a private museum he Long Road Home, Trials and Tribu- “the candy man,” came to the United operated above his candy store in lations of a Confederate Soldier, Rich- States in 1837. the late 1800s. They were later, ard G. Zevitz and Michael C. Braswell, He worked for the Confederate Navy during the 1893 Columbian Expe- Brandon Books, Boston, 2012. when the Civil War broke out. He dition, exhibited inside his most The Late Unpleasantness, Pamela moved to Chicago after the boat he stunning achievement as a collec- Wielgus-Kwon, Friesten Press, Victoria was working on was captured by the tor: The totally reconstructed Libby BC, 2016. Union Navy and he was released. Prison, a facility used to house It was here that he struck it Union prisoners during the Civil rich as a confectioner, starting with a small War. Gunther had the building, originally in candy store that opened in 1868 at 125 N. in Richmond, Va., taken apart, shipped to Upcoming Events Clark St. When destroyed in the 1871 fire, Chicago by railroad, and rebuilt in 1888-89 Gunther re-established his business and in the 1400-1600 blocks of South Wabash prospered enough by the 1880s to open an- Avenue. The museum was devoted largely, to Presentations other store and factory in the 200 block of the Civil War, but, also included shrunken South State Street. His caramels became heads and the skin of the serpent from the February 21, 2017, Country House famous enough that he soon began shipping Garden of Eden. There was no mention of 5600 127th Alsip, IL 6:30 p.m. them throughout the U.S. Chicago’s Camp Douglas at the exhibit. In the late 1800s he began collecting a The relocated Libby Prison later became March 2, 2017, Darien Public Li- fantastic array of artifacts including nearly the site of the Chicago Coliseum. brary, Darien, IL 7:00 p.m. every item (including his death bed) from the Following Gunther’s death in 1920, the Petersen House where President Lincoln died. Chicago Historical Society acquired his ex- Almost everything he gathered was put on tensive collection.