H voL. 3y3 d N0. 1 e PublishedPa by ther Hydek Park H istoricalH Society istoWINTErr 201y1 The Civil War 1 1 20 R te WIN Touches Hyde Park Frances S. Vandervoort eptember 11, 2010, was a day of national reflection and remembrance. Dr. Mindy A. Schwartz, Society member and Permit No. 85 No. Permit Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Chicago, chose this day to describe how another national trauma—the AID P HS 37 6 Chicago, IL 60 IL Chicago, Civil War—affected Chicago. Dr. Schwartz has had a long-standing U.S. Postage U.S. S 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue Park Lake S. 5529 interest in history. In 2001, convinced that adding historical references HP Org. Non-Profit Society Historical Park yde H would make clinical teaching interesting and memorable, Dr. Schwartz and medical residents created the University of Chicago History of Medicine Project, which has been an unqualified success. Dr. Schwartz has received numerous awards for her work, including being named Outstanding Clinical Teacher by senior medical students thirteen times since 1995. The history project has received national attention; Dr. Schwartz has been asked to develop a syllabus and curriculum for use by peer institutions. She has received recognition for her work This Newsletter is published by in gender equality, nutrition, and humanism in medicine. the Hyde Park Historical Society, a The Civil War, endured by our nation from 1861 until 1865, led to the construction on Chicago’s south side of Camp Douglas, Hyde Park Historical Society not-for-profit organization founded Collecting and PresErving Hyde PArk’S History first a training camp for young recruits but soon a prisoner-of-war in 1975 to record, preserve, and camp or Confederate soldiers. Camp Douglas, located between Time for you to join up or renew? promote public interest in the history what is now Cottage Grove Avenue on the east and Dr. Martin Fill out the form below and return it to: Luther King, Jr., Drive on the west, and 31st to 33rd Streets north of Hyde Park. Its headquarters, to south, was built using state funds on land originally owned by The Hyde Park Historical Society located in an 1893 restored cable car Senator Stephen A. Douglas. After Douglas’s death from typhoid 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue • Chicago, IL 60637 station at 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue, fever on June 3, 1861, in Chicago’s Tremont Hotel, the camp was appropriated by the federal government. ✁ houses local exhibits. It is open to In her talk, Dr. Schwartz described events of the years Enclosed is my new renewal membership the public on Saturdays and Sundays leading up to the Civil War, including the Lincoln-Douglas in the Hyde Park Historical Society. from 2 until 4pm. debates of 1858. Abraham Lincoln had challenged Senator Stephen A. Douglas, then running for re-election in Illinois, Student $15 Sponsor $50 Web site: hydeparkhistory.org to a series of debates to be held throughout the state. Douglas Member $30 Benefactor $100 Telephone: HY3-1893 won the election, but two years later Lincoln’s principled eloquence and charisma convinced voters to elect him Name President: Ruth Knack President of the United States. In the short time Douglas Editor: Frances S. Vandervoort lived after the war’s onset, he became a staunch supporter T Address Membership Coordinator: of the Union cause. Claude Weil rvoor In the last half of the 19th Century, Chicago’s ➤ 2 Zip Designer: Nickie Sage Vande . Confederate soldier looks down on the Confederate Mound o r ETE P 2 7 ➤ 1 population was growing faster than any other northeast corner of the camp, provided water for the Archive Collection: city’s in the nation. Between 1850 and 1890, entire facility. Formal sanitary facilities were not in its population increased from 30,000 to more place until November, 1863. Prisoners, who usually Queries and Acquisitions than one million. During the four years of the arrived with little more than the clothes upon their Archivist Michal Safar reported at the October war alone, numbers increased from 109,000 to backs, suffered from exposure to Chicago’s harsh Board Meeting that the collection of Aitchpees M u 178,000. In 1848, the opening of the Illinois winters—many died. Diseases—smallpox, scarlet (Hyde Park High School yearbooks) continues to LB A and Michigan Canal connected Chicago to the fever, pneumonia, measles, scurvy, and typhoid fever grow. She has picked up several additional “years” EB Mississippi Valley. Within a few years, the all took their toll. As punishment for infractions, some from used booksellers, and has learned that the 1915 W expanding rail system joined Chicago with other prisoners were forced to drag 30-pound cannon balls Aitchpee, from the year Amelia Earhart graduated, icasa P parts of the nation by land. shackled to their ankles. is listed for sale at $3,500. The Society does not have S r’ E The original University of Chicago, founded by this Aitchpee, but Society has Aitchpees from 44 u Douglas in 1857, was unhappy about the presence years between 1916 and 1972. A number of posters, BA of a prison camp directly across 33rd Street from the photographs, maps and postcards were received from o Hof campus. The University also objected to the camp’s a variety of sources. Other donations included Hyde NI o smallpox hospital in a converted stable just to the west Park Art Fair posters, and an arcade token found on NT A of the campus. the northeast corner of the Rose Garden of Jackson M The camp attracted a large number of opportunists— Park. Inquiries included requests for information about o fro T evangelists, entrepreneurs, and out-and-out inherited costume jewelry, records of relatives and o H troublemakers. Dwight Lyman Moody, who later former residents, and information about the Hyde Park P founded the Moody Bible Institute, began a Sunday Jazz Fest. On August 21, 2010, Fred Despres, son of school to bring religion to the prisoners. Sutlers— Robert and Louise Despres, and Lisa Ferris itinerant businessmen—sold items of clothing and Society’s Oral History of Joliet were married at Glessner House, other goods. “Peace Democrats” opposed Lincoln and which Bob’s parents, Leon and Marian “his war.” More ominous were the “Copperheads,” Committee Moves Ahead Despres had helped save from demolition Confederate sympathizers, who, in 1864, hatched a Kathy Huff, and Lala Rodgers, Committee co- in the 1960s. plot to free prisoners held at Camp Douglas and a chairmen, report that the October 17, 2010, tour of prison camp in Rock Island. The plot ultimately failed, two houses on Ellis Avenue was a success, grossing but the ensuing uproar led to a declaration of martial more than $1200. A separate report on this event is y Huff law in Chicago. Eventually, a military court trial in included in this issue. In addition, $4,600 has been UPCOMING EVENTS Kath Cincinnati resulted in several convictions and a death received from contributors. An oral history program Dr. Schwartz describes conditions at Camp Douglas sentence for one member of the conspiracy. will be held at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club on Saturday, December 11, 2010 Conditions in Andersonville, the infamous Sunday, November 14, 2010. Doors will be open to 2-4 pm Chicago’s support for the war ran deep. When war Confederate prison in Georgia, were far worse than the entire community who will come with tales to tell Holiday Party at HPHS broke out, thousands of Chicago’s finest young men those in Camp Douglas. Andersonville, which was about life in Hyde Park. Headquarters. rushed to enlist. Their first stop was almost certainly open only from 1864 until 1865, had no shelter or Camp Douglas. Soon these young recruits were on the sanitary facilities at all. The death rate was far higher, Frederick Douglass Memorial Saturday, January 22, 2011 way south, carried by the Illinois Central Railroad to and the Confederate commander, Henry Wirz, was Chronicle and Marker 2-4 pm Cairo to join forces against Confederate rebels. court-martialed, tried, and sentenced to death for his Rebecca Graff: Jackson Park Because the war was projected to last only a few role in the mistreatment of 30,000 Union soldiers. A 7 has been omitted from Barry Rapoport’s e-mail Archeology of the Columbian weeks, the Union had made no provisions for holding No one knows the exact number of prisoners who address. Please correct it to [email protected] Exposition. captured prisoners. It soon became obvious that a place perished in Camp Douglas during those terrible years, The Chronicle is also linked and can be downloaded had to be found for the prisoners. Even though not but a conservative estimate is 6,000. Bodies were first directly from http://hydepark.org/parks/jpac/ Saturday, February 26, 2011 designed as a prison, Camp Douglas soon was receiving buried in the City Cemetery of Chicago, now the site FredDougMem.htm prisoners sent north on the same trains that had carried of modern-day Lincoln Park. In 1867, the decision 5:30–9:30 pm Barry’s web page can be viewed at this address: HPHS annual dinner. young recruits south. By February, 1862, nearly 9000 was made to move more than 5,000 bodies to Oak http://partnersatlearning.weebly.com Confederate prisoners had arrived at the camp. Early Woods Cemetery on the city’s south side. On this site, on, prisoner exchanges kept the prison population Answer to Mystery Quiz: Saturday, March 12, 2010 at manageable levels, but General Ulysses S.