Civil War History in Chicago....

[tomjiggy]

Any MD'ers in Chicago? I hope so. Unfortunately I don't live anywhere near Chicago, but if I did I'd definitely be hunting for the old Civil War Camp that was a disgrace to the Union army. Camp Douglas. I just watched a documentary on the History channel, and it was pretty depictive. The camp was located just to the north and west of the University of Chicago right in the area of East 55th, 56th and 57th streets. It was called "80 acres of Hell", and was named so for the brutal and enforced conditions placed on Confederate troops that were sent there. Best calculations gives a death toll of close to 6000 Confederate prisoners of war with at least 1500 unaccounted for deaths. They were sent there but never were accounted for after the war ended. The deaths were a product of Union revenge more than anything as these soldiers were denied fair treatment. Someone could very possibly recover some excellent artifacts from that area, and I would look forward to seeing future posts of finds from that camp.

 

[bazinga]

Nope, nobody in Chicago metal detects.

 

[Mackaydon]

I Google Earth that area.
From 55th north is loaded with about a dozen baseball fields.
South of 55th appears to be a massive park area.
You may be on to something.
Don........

 

[tomjiggy]

LOL bazinga...I hope you are admitting to living in the Chicago area. Mack, it won't be as far west as the Washington Park area. If it is, then you can forget hunting it unless you do some stealth hunting....and I'm not saying you should. There might be some relics on campus as well because at one point martial law was declared and Union soldiers actually marched on the campus because of a simpathiser to the atrocities being comitted at Camp Douglas. The camp was built literally on a swamp with inadequate drainage, and despite requests to put in a sewage system the request was denied. Dysentary, scurvy, starvation, and small pox are just some of the reasons for so many deaths in the camp. There were other places in the city that might turn up relics as well. The Confederate prisoners at first couldn't be kept inside the camp....they were escaping constantly due to undermanned guard posts. They didn't construct a proper stockade wall until almost a year after the first POW's showed up. It was afterwards that it got really ugly brought on by a change of command. The new Commander of the camp was an ex-POW from a Confederate POW camp. Aparently he had been mistreated or witnessed it in the Confederate POW camp and decided it was time to return the favor.

 

[beepn]

CAMP DOUGLASS

UNFORTUINETLY AFTER MUCH RESEARCH THE AREA HAS BEEN FILLED IN AFTER CLOSING OF THE CAMP, IT WAS LOW AND SWAMPY DURING WAR, RELICS ARE STILL THERE JUST WAY DOWN

LOL bazinga...I hope you are admitting to living in the Chicago area. Mack, it won't be as far west as the Washington Park area. If it is, then you can forget hunting it unless you do some stealth hunting....and I'm not saying you should. There might be some relics on campus as well because at one point martial law was declared and Union soldiers actually marched on the campus because of a simpathiser to the atrocities being comitted at Camp Douglas. The camp was built literally on a swamp with inadequate drainage, and despite requests to put in a sewage system the request was denied. Dysentary, scurvy, starvation, and small pox are just some of the reasons for so many deaths in the camp. There were other places in the city that might turn up relics as well. The Confederate prisoners at first couldn't be kept inside the camp....they were escaping constantly due to undermanned guard posts. They didn't construct a proper stockade wall until almost a year after the first POW's showed up. It was afterwards that it got really ugly brought on by a change of command. The new Commander of the camp was an ex-POW from a Confederate POW camp. Aparently he had been mistreated or witnessed it in the Confederate POW camp and decided it was time to return the favor.

 

[Mackaydon]

Bummer !!
Welcome to Treasure Net, 'beepn' !!

 

[JmCraz8]

I can't remember what university but there doing an archaeological dig right now of camp Douglas.