Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 4-28-2023
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
History
First Advisor
April Holm
Second Advisor
Beth Kruse
Third Advisor
Andrew Donnelly
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The Dix-Hill Cartel was a system of prisoner exchange established during the Civil War. Only a year after it was created, the exchange system was shut down due to Confederate refusal to acknowledge black soldiers as prisoners of war rather than slave labor. This paper is an exploration of the effects the shut down of this system had on both Confederate and Northern prisons. In order to accomplish this, I analyzed the diaries of six prisoners who were held in the Confederate prison of Andersonville in Georgia and the Union prison of Elmira in New York.
I examine the daily conditions in six different areas: the problem of overcrowding, the provided shelter and supplies, the differences in food rations and the markets, medical care provided at the prison, the differences in daily activities, and the relationships between the prisoners and the guards. The first section analyzes the problem of overcrowding in the prisons. This includes background as to how both Andersonville and Elmira were created to ease overcrowding in various other prisons. It also examines the conditions the prisoners were expected to live in once they arrived. That topic leads into the next section which covers the shelter and supplies provided by each prison. Some prisons actually provided supplies while others expected the prisoners to make do with what they came with. The third section looks into the differences in the food rations of the different prisons. It also analyzes and compares the different markets that popped up in the prisons to sell and buy things such as clothing and rations. The next section looks into the different medical practices that were used in the various prisons. This includes the treatment of both their own soldiers and prisoners. The fifth section analyzes the different activities and general attitudes of the prisoners in their daily routines. The final section focuses on the relationships between the prisoners and the guards. It also looks into the differences of these relationships based on the races of both the prisoners and the guards. This thesis argues that the shut down of the Dix-Hill Cartel had a huge effect on the prison system and played a major role in the prisoners being faced with horrible conditions as they stayed in prison for the remainder of the war. The suspension of the Dix-Hill Cartel was the defining factor that led to the terrible conditions of overcrowding, poor treatment, starvation, and lack of resources in the prisons of the Union and Confederacy, however, the positioning of the prisons in the South to the frontlines made the conditions there more prominent than in the Union.
Recommended Citation
Stoner, Rachel, "The End of the Prisoner Exchange System in the Civil War: A Case Study into the Effects on the Daily Conditions of Prisoners in Confederate and Union Prisons" (2023). Honors Theses. 2898.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2898
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