To Die in Chicago

A review of To Die in Chicago: Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas (Pelican, 1999) by George Levy

The dead are buried somewhere in Chicago and there are over 4,000 of them—that much we know. Treatment was just as harsh in most other Northern prison camps – worse in Elmira. But at least they keep better track of the corpses produced. Here at Camp Douglas things were done Chicago—style.

Beginning in August of 1864, they started burying the small pox cases right on the Douglas Estate. But over 3,300 others ended up six miles north in the pauper’s section of what was then the old city cemetery. It is now Lincoln Park. Some of the dead may still be there but the graves were shallow, the water – table high. Many washed out into the lake. Many others were probably dumped into the lake -the contractors were getting $1.50 per body, and nobody was looking.