Where Five Thousand Confederate Prisoners Lay Encamped – A Scene after the Battle of Spotsylvania – May, 1864

On the heights above the hollow the Union sentries can be descried against the sky-line. The cluster of huts on the right-hand page is part of the Federal camp. From December, 1862, to June, 1863, the gloomiest half-year of the war for the North, the Federal army was encamped near Falmouth, Virginia, a little town on the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg. The winter-quarters stretched back for miles toward Belle Plain and Aquia Creek, the bases of supplies. Continuous scouting and skirmishing went on throughout the winter, and the Confederate prisoners captured during this time were confined at Belle Plain until arrangements could be made to send them to Northern prisons. Here, also was the great quartermaster's supply depot, and these prisoners at least never lacked ample rations. They were but a few of the 462,634 Confederate soldiers who were captured during the war. This figure is that of General F. C. Ainsworth, of the United States Record and Pension Office. Of this number 247,769 were paroled on the field, and 25,796 died while in captivity. The Union soldiers captured during the war numbered 211,411, according to the same authority, and of these 16,668 were paroled on the field, and 30,1218 died while in captivity. The difference between the number of Union and Confederate prisoners is due to the inclusion in the Confederate number of the armies surrendered by Lee, Johnston, Taylor, and Kirby Smith during the months of April and May 1865. There are other estimates ‑ which differ very widely from this, which is probably as nearly correct as possible, owing to the partial destruction of the records.