The Daily Times Saturday, June 10, 1950 Note Anniversary of Island Prison By Dick Herman Times Staff Writer It's been 85 years since a Union army rifle volley crashed through the stillness of the woods and his body was eased into the grave-the last Confederate soldier to be buried on Rock Island arsenal grounds. Of course, back in those days the kidney-shaped chunk of land in the Mississippi river wasn't studded with massive concrete buildings. Federal officials hadn't even thought of locating a mighty arsenal there. It was merely one of the major prison camps north of the Mason-Dixon line. And Saturday will mark the 85th anniversary of the close of that prison camp. There won't be any speeches. Dixiecrats won't lay wreaths on the site of the old prisoner barracks. In all probability, no more than a dozen people will stop and inspect the only tangible remains of that camp-the cemetery where 1,959 Confederates lie sleeping, far from their homes and decades removed from the Civil war. About once a year quad-citians are reminded of that era in the island's history. The occasion is Memorial day. Then some veteran's group salutes the Southern dead, small American flags are planted on the graves and the Stars and Bars, emblem of the confederate States of America, snaps from a flag-staff. With the setting of the sun, the 13-star ensign is run down, packed away for another year and history enfolds the small plot of ground. Not Forgotten While many local residents have never even bothered to inspect the historic scene, the Rock Island military prison and adjoining cemetery isn't forgotten in some quarters of the nation. Arsenal authorities report that every year a stream of visitors from stats like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida-those which constituted the ill-fated Confederacy-visit the area. They walk past the neat row of granite head-stones, seeking out the grave of one who died in captivity. Sometimes a dead relative's resting-place is found. More often it is not. Other guests tell officials that "great-great-grandfather escaped from the prison by tunneling under the stockade and swimming the river to the he Iowa side." Yet, they too, stroll past the grave-markers. Those small, pointed stones reveal great names of the Confederacy-names of organizations and units famed for their fighting skill against terrific industrial and man power odds. Names like "Jeb Stewart's Tennessee cavalry," "Kentucky Mountain rifles," "Ferguson's South Carolina battery" and "Russell's Alabama cavalry." Only after it became evident that the Union would win the war was some thought given in Washington circles to the problem of prisoner camps. Isolated Because of its isolated location, distance from combat zones and government ownership, Rock Island was selected as one of the prime POW bases in that conflict. The camp opened the first week in November, 1863, after the summer was spent building barracks and the grim stockade. Initial "Rebel" prisoners arrived soon after the Battle of Lookout Mountain, Tenn. All told, 12,286 gray-clads were quartered on the island, according to best records. As far as can be determined, the prison camp was not the worst in the North, and yet, not the best. Medical attention was lacking, as is evidenced by the fact that one-sixth of the personnel died from smallpox, scurvy and pneumonia. Food wasn't always good. And the work of guards in exercising precautionary measures was bad, historians point out. Many prisoners had knives and other weapons. The Confederates often bribed prison officials in getting supplies. Perhaps the best expression of the general attitude toward the prisoners is found in a book written by B. F. Tillinghast in 1898 entitled, "The Rock Island Arsenal in War and Peace." Says Tillinghast, "All rights and treatment extended Union soldiers in the South were accorded the Confederates." Readers are free to interpret for themselves on this point. The prison itself was located on the north side of the island, about one mile east of where the government bridge today juts Davenportward. It consumed a total of 12 acres. There were the barracks; 14 rows of the one-story, frame structures, six barracks in a row. Around the barracks ran the stockade and sentry boxes 100 feet apart. Then there was the "dead line." This little geographical figment was an imaginary line at the edge of a ditch between the barracks and the wooden stockade. For a prisoner to be seen on the "outside" of the dead line meant certain death. Few Escaped Not too many Confederates escaped from the prison. In fact, one southerner who was "stationed" at the camp, later wrote in a Louisville paper, "Fewer prisoners gained their freedom surreptitiously from Rock Island than from any other like prison, either in the North or South." Yet escapes were attempted-daring escapes entailing tunnels which were always discovered, mad rushes at guards and crossing the dead line and ditch to throw a rope ladder over the plank wall. A sizeable number of Confederates were shot trying to escape. Within the camp, the Southern boys had a surprising amount of freedom. They lived in autonomous groups. They elected their own officers, had their own courts, taught each other French and German and many carved hand trinkets and buttons from shells. Punishment meted out by the prisoner courts consisted of riding a wooden rail for hours, hanging by the thumbs or being clamped with an iron ball and chain. The prisoners were allowed one letter per month, and that was pre-censored. All money was taken out and, according to regulations, receipts were "supposed" to be given to the prisoners, pending payment after the war. Comfort or discomfort was a personal matter. If the prisoners of any particular barracks wanted to fix up their "home" by cementing the walls with mud and placing curtains and pictures about, that was up to them. The Union guards didn't care a jot. It was usually advisable to chink the non-plastered, non-painted walls, too. Two stoves didn't produce much heat. Disease was the greatest fear. Many prisoners reportedly attempted to escape to flee from scourge. Prisoners taken critically ill were removed to the pest-houses, on the south side of the island. Few returned. The success of the prison at Rock island was such that in 1873 congress passed an act for the location of a permanent military prison on the isle. Only pressure from war department sources, who claimed poor drainage on the island, kept the prison from being placed here instead of at its present site, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. In 1919, two white columns were erected outside the neat cemetery. On one of the columns is this plaque, "Let us cross the river and rest in the shade of the trees." Author of that description was Gen. T. J. Jackson, C. S. A., better known as "Stonewall" Jackson. Some of "Stonewall's" men are here-sleeping under Yankee sod with a bright Confederate flag flying above them. ~~~~~*~~~~~