Letters from Wells Sponable

Camp Douglas, in Chicago, Illinois was one of the largest Union Army prisoner-of-war camps for Confederate soldiers taken prisoner during the American Civil War. Although not alone in this distinction, it is sometimes described as "The North's Andersonville." Based south of the city on the prairie, it was also used as a training and detention camp for Union soldiers. The Union Army first used the camp in 1861 as an organizational and training camp for volunteer regiments. It became a prisoner-of-war camp in early 1862. Later in 1862 the Union Army again used Camp Douglas as a training camp. In the fall of 1862, the Union Army used the facility as a detention camp for paroled Confederate prisoners.