Remembering and Forgetting: Civil War Prisoner of War Camp Cemeteries in the North

Summary

Andersonville is a familiar name to Americans because of the effective way both the POW camp and the cemetery are memorialized as National Heritage Sites.  But what were the conditions in the Northern POW camps for Confederate prisoners?  The Elmira, New York Prisoner of War Camp was the Andersonville of the north.  This site, like other Northern POW camps, was dismantled after the war. What was the fate of the Northern POW camp cemeteries? Were there monuments to the Confederate dead? Did any Confederate organizations erect monuments at these cemeteries? Who controled the heritage narrative? This paper evaluates the varying degrees of memorialization and remembrance at Northern POW camp cemeteries for Confederate Prisoners in Chicago; Indianapolis; Rock Island, Illinois; North Alton, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Scotland, Maryland; Salem, New Jersey; and Elmira, New York compared to the Southern POW camp cemetery for Union prisoners at Andersonville, Georgia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "Spirits of the Dead": The Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries and Commemoration   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 174