The Legacy of Civil War Prison Camps

The story of prison camps during the American Civil War is one that is often ignored. During the course of the Civil War both the North and the South had to improvise and create prison camps for thousands of captured soldiers. These camps were often crowded, unsanitary, and lacking basic supplies. Places such as Andersonville and Elmira Prison became known as literal hells on earth for all those who were incarcerated in them. These camps became places were thousands upon thousands died. Pictured above is the legacy that is left by these prison camps. These pictures are the longstanding legacy left behind by the prison camps of the Civil War. On top is a cemetery in Elmira N.Y., which is now the resting place for thousands of Confederate prisoners. Pictured below is the cemetery at Andersonville. Many consider these prisons the first modern concentration camps.