Talk:Camp Douglas (Chicago)

message: Tonight on the History Channel, there will be a program about Camp Douglas. I'll be paying attention to see what I can get from it. Linuxbeak (drop me a line) 01:30, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: History Channel

message: The article states that seminary students from the University of Chicago provided humanitarian aid; the University of Chicago was founded in 1890, well after the Civil War.  Perhaps instead these were students from the Chicago Theological Seminary, a separate institution?
-- I removed the sentence about University of Chicago. Maybe someone else can verify whether the Theological Seminary is the real answer.
It's the UoChicago. Pucci, K. (2007.) Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison. Arcadia Publishing. 34.
Senator Steven A. Douglas started the "first" University of Chicago with a grant in 1856.
Goodspeed, T. (1916.) A history of the University of Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 13.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.72.180.231 (talk) 20:35, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  University of Chicago? 

message: Does someone have a good map of where this was?  I was walking around the area, but wan't sure where it was.  I don't know if there were ever any historical markers put up.  There should be.  --Kalmia 07:31, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Map 

message: I'd like to see more on the "pre-POW camp" phase of Camp Douglas.  It was an extremely significant training and mustering center in the early days of the war.  
The article would be greatly strengthened by placing the blame for the deplorable conditions on named individuals, such as the camp commander(s) and senior officers or state officials responsible.  As written, the conditions appear without any context.  Scromett 20:17, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The cable documentary referenced in this talk page does go into that sort of discussion of which commanders were to blame for the deplorable conditions (I saw a while enough back I can't remember specific names). --Bobak 19:20, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Issues and suugestions

message: Within the next few days, I should be able to complete the revision and expansion of this article. I have brought the article up to mid-1863. As I have progressed, I have left the last three sections which were part of the existing version of the article so that the article would in some sense remain complete as I expanded it. I plan to incorporate directly or include the information from the sections on conditions and deaths as I complete the article but I will use the formatting I have been using. I will exclude any statements that I cannot verify. I also plan to see if I have other sources on Camp Douglas or can use any online editions of books (if any) that were published before 1923 and are free of copyright. On the other hand, some information about the camp has only been found in the recent past. The discovery of the additional information is why Mr. Levy revised his book in 1999. So more current sources such as Mr. Levy's book and the Heidler encyclopedia may be the best available information. I have seen the History Channel documentary on Camp Douglas but in the absence of a transcript, I cannot add any information from that source. I will advise the work groups of the revision of the article when I complete my editingDonner60 (talk) 08:07, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Further revisions to come 

message: I have deleted seven references from the original article. Three are master's theses which I could not find on the internet. Two were passing mentions in the sources cited and are not true references for any Camp Douglas information. I could not find any mention of one of the references (De Jonge) on the internet. I could not retrieve one of the references (Praus) but have added a very similar reference (United Confederate Veterans). I added six other references and updated or completed three others. The original article contained no in-line citations to any of the seven deleted references and the revised and expanded article obviously does not cite or depend on any of them. Since it seems they would be difficult if not impossible to retrieve, they do not provide additional sources of information or add to the verifiability of the articleDonner60 (talk) 07:32, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  References deleted 

message: Just to test the web site that performs analyses of the readability of Wikipedia articles, I submitted this article to http://www.readabilityofwikipedia.com/check/Camp%20Douglas%20%28Chicago%29 today to determine its readability. "The Flesch reading ease score was 63, this means that 83% of the articles on Wikipedia are harder to read than this one." For what it's worth. Donner60 (talk) 04:37, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Readability score 

message: There was material about the spring of 1862 that referred to Colonel Hoffman. I have more fully identified the office that he headed, noting that it was a national office reporting to the Sec'y of War directly from June 1862. But, he didn't take office until Aug. 1862, according to sources about him, so could not have been giving advice about quarantine in Feb-April 1862 when the prisoners at Camp Douglas were having the epidemic of pneumonia and other disease. Have moved material about Meigs into the article from the note, as his failure to authorize sewers until June 1863 (and then they had to be built) obviously affected health at Camp Douglas - this also shows the conflicting lines of authority for getting things done at the camps.Parkwells (talk) 21:43, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Hoffman may have had oversight of some or all camps, including Camp Douglas, before he took the national office. I think he was stationed outside of Washington during the early part of the war. This is just recollection. I suppose he may have been criticized about the same general problem or problems that still existed at a later date but he also may have been an inspector or some sort before he became the overall head of the Union prisoner of war camps. I will try to find a source that is more specific and definite. Donner60 (talk) 03:35, 24 September 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: My guess was wrong. According to the Wikipedia article on Hoffman, he was taken prisoner in Texas at the start of the war and did not assume his office in Washington until August 1862. He had been promoted to colonel while a prisoner but that does not affect his ability to perform his duties. So the text was a poorly lumped together statement. Donner60 (talk) 05:17, 24 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: ID major figures - chronology

message: Pleas add some iLLustration.--Aro84 (talk) 13:58, 6 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Illustration 

message: From "Portals to Hell:Military Prisons of the Civil War"
Feb 1862
“When Camp Douglas was first established,” reported prisoner Thomas A. Head, 16th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment, “the prisoners had kitchens supplied with stoves and cooking utensils, and were supplied with more provisions than they were able to consume. They were also allowed as much clothing as they pleased.”
Late summer 1862
"found the barracks and grounds in general disorder during his inspection in mid-1862, with large amounts of standing water, foul sinks, and the soil around the barracks “reeking with miasmatic accretions, of rotten bones and the emptying of camp kettles.”24
Camp Douglas was indeed established on low ground, and it flooded with every rain. During most of the winter months, when it wasn’t frozen, the compound was a sea of mud. “Our prison pen was like a cattle-yard,” complained Henry Morton Stanley,"
If I can find more, I will. Doug Weller talk 16:41, 11 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Conditions at Camp Douglas 

message: Wondering when there will be more digging at the Camp. Im from Georgia and live here in Illinois.  I would like to join in and find some History from possible southern soldiers. 
raven1228@hotmail.com is my email address.  Thank you. 130.126.255.53 (talk) 23:24, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Digging