The Civil War was also called the War Between The States. A four year government (1861-1865) between the federal government of the United States and eleven other southern states that asserted their right to succeed from the union. By the summer of 1863 certain aspects of the war had fallen into set patterns. After a couple of years each of the sides had taken thousands of prisoners. At the beginning most of the prisoners were exchanged after a couple of months. After 1863 a lot less exchanges were effected. In April of 1864, Grant, was taking advantage of the superior manpower of the North. It practically stopped exchanges.

The treatment of prisoners were the subject of heated arguments. The Union prisoners suffered a great deal in Confederate camps such as Andersonville, Georgia, Confederate prisoners such as Douglas, Illinois. It was beyond questioning. In both of the sections, the death rate among prisoners was appalling. Willful mistreatment that caused most of the deaths was one of the prison conditions. Southern boys, that were hardly clothed, could not stand the cold, harsh Northern winters. The Northern boys suffered greatly from the intense heat of the Southern summers. When the food supply was sufficient, the food was still poor quality. Prisoners received the same amount of food as the troops who guarded them. Deplorable sanitary conditions resulted from ignorance and over crowding.

Neither the North or the South had the large faculties or the knowledge for handling a large number of prisoners. The Civil war marked the first time that the nation had to cotend with the prisoners in any amount of numbers. The policies and treatments were varied greatly, and often fatally.

During the course of the war the Confederates captured about two hundred and eleven thousand Federal soldiers. Out of the two hundred and eleven thousand Federal soldiers, sixteen thousand of the accepted battle field paroles that were signed promises not to bear arms again. Two hundred and fifteen thousand Confederates had taken in prisoners from the Federal forces.

At different times during the war, both sides made the effort to establish workable programs for prisoner exchanges. Prisoner exchange was slight and sporadic due to the misunderstandings, violations of terms, and GrantÕs determination late in the war. GrantÕs determination brought the south to its knees at all costs.

The most notorious Southern prisons were Libby and Castle Thunder. They converted warehouses in Richmond. Belle Isle in the James River, Virginia. ÒCamp SorghumÓ at Columbia, South Carolina. Camp Sumter at Andersonville, Georgia. Elmira Prison Camp, which is in southwestern New York, were the worst of the Northern compounds. Point Lookout, which is on Chesapeake bay, JohnsonÕs Island, in Lake Erie, which is a couple of miles offshore from Sandusky, Ohio, Camp Douglas, which is near Chicago, and Rock Island Prison Camp, which is between Illinois and Iowa.

Every Civil War prison, that is major, was judged by pleasant-day standards, which would have been condemned as unintended. The suffering prisoners were universal and severe.

The nine-month history of the huge stockade in Andersonville, Georgia has forty five thousand, six hundred, and thirteen Federals. All of them were jammed into sixteen and half barren acres. Each of them contained one polluted stream, a couple shelters, not very much food, and no sanitation. There are more than twelve thousand, nine hundred prisoners that died from diseases, exposures, and starvations. The NorthÕs prison camp, Elmira, New York, existed for a little under a year. During the period, two thousand, nine hundred, and sixty-three of twelve thousand, one-hundred, and twenty-three confederates died because of sicknesses and neglections.

The United States Chief Record and Pension Office reported that twenty-five thousand, nine-hundred, and seventy-six Southerners and thirty thousand, two-hundred, and eighteen Northerners perished in Civil War prisons in 1903.