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Camp Butler served a duel purpose during the Civil War. The site was originally apportioned as training camp designed to create, reorganize and discharge Union soldiers. Originally conceived in late July of 1861 as a replacement for Camp Yates, Camp Butler was intended to be the primary center of concentration and training for Illinois Union recruits. It was named after the infamous William Butler[1]. During the War, Camp Butler housed the largest number of men while more than 200,000 men spent time there for one reason or another. For over 13 months, Camp Butler contained legions of Confederate Prisoners of War captured. Of the 167 Illinois infantry, artillery, and cavalry regiments who saw service during the American Civil War, Camp Butler accommodated 114 regiments of Union soldiers. Today, only 53 acres is being used for the National Cemetery.
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Camp History
In 1933 , well after the War ended, the US government donated headstones for all soldiers buried at the site. Currently, a total of 1,642 headstones decorate the grounds of Camp Butler. 866 Confederate prisoners and 776 Union grave markers exist, leaving a permanent record of the detrimental effects of the Civil War. The Confederate headstones are easily discernible by the pointed tops, whereas Union markers are rounded as noted in the photos below. The design originated from a superstitious belief the devil will sit on flatter markers and torment the dead.
In 1997, Camp Butler was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It serves as a home to thousands of soldiers who have sacrificed and given their lives in military service. Alongside Confederate and Union soldiers laid to rest at Camp Butler National Cemetery, veterans of the Spanish-American War, both World Wars, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War are buried there.
Sanitation Standards
Historians have noted this camp for functioning as both a training post for Union soldiers and housing Confederate prisoner-of-wars under the worst sanitation and living conditions of all military prison camps during the Civil War.[2]
The exceptionally high death rate at Camp Butler was not the only problem soldiers were faced with. On March 9, 1862, the Commissary General of Prisons William Hoffman submitted a report to the Major General Henry Halleck and the U.S. Sanitation Commission revealing the unacceptable and devastating lack of hygiene and cleanliness present at Camp Butler. Upon Hoffman’s arrival, he was greeted by malnourished, disease-ridden, half-alive captives and the guards were fairing only slightly better. The guards were clothed and fed and housed inside buildings; however, their accommodations left something to be desired even in times of war.
Because of harsh and unfamiliar weather conditions during the transportation process, Confederate soldiers were infected or close to death’s door before even arriving to the prison. Once confined however, the conditions were even more devastating. Sadly, the prisoners’ assigned uniforms were “rags of all colors,” and strips of carpet were ripped and distributed as blankets.[3] Prison clothing was issued from the “condemned stock” and of supplies “not of regulation color or cut.”[4] It was of such poor quality that friends and loved ones of prisoners were allowed and encouraged to send supplies to the Camp without negative actions. The commanding officers of Camp Butler saw this as an opportunity to deny wasting their own resources and supplemented prisoner needs with donations from Southern sympathizers. This compelled him to submit recommendations for cheap, efficient improvements for soldiers and prisoners, however, those endorsements were disregarded and Halleck continued to send captured Confederates to Camp Butler. After his departure and for the rest of the war, deliberate over-crowding became an accepted practice of Union POW planning. The effects resulted in catastrophe.
Health and sanitation facilities were primitive at best. Daily rations of food typically consisted of little more than hardtack and a cup of watered-down coffee[5]. Shortly after POWs arrived, large numbers of soldiers began dying at a rapid rate. Extreme temperatures contributed greatly. The heat of the summer in connection with the brutal winter contributed to the lice and typhus infestations and rampant spread of diseases such as smallpox, pneumonia, and dysentery decimated the POW population of Camp Butler. Approximately 700 prisoners died during the smallpox epidemic of that started in summer 1862.
Because of the growing death rates, in March 1862, Camp Butler designed a Confederate cemetery[6]. Prisoners who died in custody were given a decent burial and grave marker. Whatever property they had was returned to relatives or sold off in contribution to the new hospital being built, as was the case when no claimants could be found[7].
Very little remains of the hospital at Camp Butler. The hospital and its records were destroyed in 1865 in a fire. Few personal records of Dr. Thomas Madison Reece at the Medical Purveyors Office in Chicago and the memoirs of the Surgeon-in-Charge Dr. William I. Kincaid have been preserved and are archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
Historians have noted this camp for functioning as both a training post for Union soldiers and housing Confederate prisoner-of-wars under the worst sanitation and living conditions of all military prison camps during the Civil War.[2]
The exceptionally high death rate at Camp Butler was not the only problem soldiers were faced with. On March 9, 1862, the Commissary General of Prisons William Hoffman submitted a report to the Major General Henry Halleck and the U.S. Sanitation Commission revealing the unacceptable and devastating lack of hygiene and cleanliness present at Camp Butler. Upon Hoffman’s arrival, he was greeted by malnourished, disease-ridden, half-alive captives and the guards were fairing only slightly better. The guards were clothed and fed and housed inside buildings; however, their accommodations left something to be desired even in times of war.
Because of harsh and unfamiliar weather conditions during the transportation process, Confederate soldiers were infected or close to death’s door before even arriving to the prison. Once confined however, the conditions were even more devastating. Sadly, the prisoners’ assigned uniforms were “rags of all colors,” and strips of carpet were ripped and distributed as blankets.[3] Prison clothing was issued from the “condemned stock” and of supplies “not of regulation color or cut.”[4] It was of such poor quality that friends and loved ones of prisoners were allowed and encouraged to send supplies to the Camp without negative actions. The commanding officers of Camp Butler saw this as an opportunity to deny wasting their own resources and supplemented prisoner needs with donations from Southern sympathizers. This compelled him to submit recommendations for cheap, efficient improvements for soldiers and prisoners, however, those endorsements were disregarded and Halleck continued to send captured Confederates to Camp Butler. After his departure and for the rest of the war, deliberate over-crowding became an accepted practice of Union POW planning. The effects resulted in catastrophe.
Health and sanitation facilities were primitive at best. Daily rations of food typically consisted of little more than hardtack and a cup of watered-down coffee[5]. Shortly after POWs arrived, large numbers of soldiers began dying at a rapid rate. Extreme temperatures contributed greatly. The heat of the summer in connection with the brutal winter contributed to the lice and typhus infestations and rampant spread of diseases such as smallpox, pneumonia, and dysentery decimated the POW population of Camp Butler. Approximately 700 prisoners died during the smallpox epidemic of that started in summer 1862.
Because of the growing death rates, in March 1862, Camp Butler designed a Confederate cemetery[6]. Prisoners who died in custody were given a decent burial and grave marker. Whatever property they had was returned to relatives or sold off in contribution to the new hospital being built, as was the case when no claimants could be found[7].
Very little remains of the hospital at Camp Butler. The hospital and its records were destroyed in 1865 in a fire. Few personal records of Dr. Thomas Madison Reece at the Medical Purveyors Office in Chicago and the memoirs of the Surgeon-in-Charge Dr. William I. Kincaid have been preserved and are archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
Prisoners & Guards
Prisoners In August 1861, the first troops arrived at Camp Butler. By the end of the month, more than 5,000 men occupied the grounds. As the war progressed, intentions of the camp evolved to include a prisoner-of-war camp. In February 1862, roughly 2,000 Confederate soldiers were captured and transported from the surrender of Fort Donelson, TN.[8] POWs from 11 Southern states arrived in Springfield, and were immediately put to work constructing a stockade and hospital barracks.[9] Due to over-crowding, an extreme shortage of supplies and lack of time to build the structures resulted in inadequate edifices. With high volume populations and no barracks to house anyone, tents were set up in the open areas surrounding the buildings. Thievery was rampant among the soldiers; and with no formal security system in place and too many prisoners for guards to keep track of, escapes through bribery or luck were fairly simple and frequent until the erection of a 12-foot-high fence in May 1862. Around the same time, 10 more buildings were erected in order to accommodate and properly house a total of 3,000 men. Up to 2200 Confederates were detained at one time.[10] By December 1863, more than 3,600 soldiers occupied Camp Butler. Unfortunately, the fence did nothing to improve conditions, but instead aided in the spread of disease and death. Guards
114 out of 167 Illinois Regiments saw service at Camp Butler which equals roughly 200,000 US soldiers. With such poor living conditions and lack of resources-i.e. clothes, food, cleaning supplies, etc., - their training regiments seemed even more rigorous to the Union soldiers. Rising at 5:30 AM and lights out at 9:30 PM, Union routine consisted of drum and trumpet alarms sounding throughout the day, roll call, drill and physical training, light meals, and bed. Because Butler was the first stop of many for soldiers in the War, the higher the volume of soldiers, the lower the quality of supplies, sanitation, and cleanliness. Neither guards nor prisoners were able to receive proper (or almost any) medical attention, resulting in such a high infirmed and/or death rate. |
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Survivors
William Williston Heartsill
Confederate States of America, 2nd Regiment Texas Cavalry (Lane Rangers) Prisoner of War at Camp Butler: January 1863- April 1863.[11] First Sergeant William Williston Heartsill enlisted in the 2nd Regiment Texas Calvary when the War initially broke out. In January 1863, he and approximately 2,000 Confederate soldiers were captured at Arkansas Post and relocated to Camp Butler. During the Prisoner exchange of April 1863, the Confederate soldiers were traded, and thereafter, no more Confederate POWs were housed at Camp Butler. Unlike so many POWs at Camp Butler, William Heartsill survived the Civil War. He remained in Texas where he died in 1916. |
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[1] General William Tecumseh Sherman, dispatched by the War Department, joined State Treasurer William Butler, dispatched by Governor Yates, to choose the ideal location for new training camp. It was Sherman who named the camp in honor of his partner.
[2] Historians such as Victor Hicken in Illinois in the Civil War and Charles W. Sanders, Jr. have discussed such conclusions regarding the lack of sanitation and health standards in their books.
[3] W. B. Hesseltine (1930). Civil War Prisons: A Study in War Psychology. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. p 46.
[4] Ibid.p46.
[5] Hardtack is a thin, tough biscuit with an incredibly long life shelf. Typical fare when traveling, martime adventures, and wartime.
[6] Chalres W. Sanders, J. (2005). While in the hands of the Enemy: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
[7] W. B. Hesseltine (1930). Civil War Prisons: A Study in War Psychology. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. p 54.
[8] The Battle of Fort Donelson lasted from February 11-16, 1862, when Gen. Simon B. Buckner surrenders to General Ulysses s. Grant.
[9] No soldiers from Florida were transported to Camp Butler at this time.
[10] Alexis A. Praus (1973). Confederate Soldiers and Sailors who died as Prisoners of War at Camp Butler, Illinois. Kalamazoo: Edgar Gray Publications
[11] W.W. Heartsill (1876) Fourteen Hundred and 91 days, in the Confederate Army: A Journal
[2] Historians such as Victor Hicken in Illinois in the Civil War and Charles W. Sanders, Jr. have discussed such conclusions regarding the lack of sanitation and health standards in their books.
[3] W. B. Hesseltine (1930). Civil War Prisons: A Study in War Psychology. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. p 46.
[4] Ibid.p46.
[5] Hardtack is a thin, tough biscuit with an incredibly long life shelf. Typical fare when traveling, martime adventures, and wartime.
[6] Chalres W. Sanders, J. (2005). While in the hands of the Enemy: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
[7] W. B. Hesseltine (1930). Civil War Prisons: A Study in War Psychology. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. p 54.
[8] The Battle of Fort Donelson lasted from February 11-16, 1862, when Gen. Simon B. Buckner surrenders to General Ulysses s. Grant.
[9] No soldiers from Florida were transported to Camp Butler at this time.
[10] Alexis A. Praus (1973). Confederate Soldiers and Sailors who died as Prisoners of War at Camp Butler, Illinois. Kalamazoo: Edgar Gray Publications
[11] W.W. Heartsill (1876) Fourteen Hundred and 91 days, in the Confederate Army: A Journal