The Rock Island Civil War Prison: Andersonville of the North?
In December of 1863 a Civil War prison camp was established on Rock Island, an island in the Mississippi River between Illinois and Iowa. Over the following twenty months the camp would house a total of over 12,000 prisoners-of-war from the South of whom almost 2,000 would perish there. This video documentary draws on prisoners' letters, photographs, and other documents to tell the story of the prison. It focuses especially on how Rock Island gained the undeserved reputation as the "Andersonville of the North." View a trailer for the documentary here.
