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    The Photographic History of the Civil War
                  Volume 7 -
Prisons and Hospitals

  Lining Up For Rations from the Conquerors

 

 

Lining Up For Rations from the Conquerors

Confederate Prisoners at Belle Plain, Captured At Spotsylvania, May 12, 1864

Capture was not an unmixed evil for the Confederate soldiers in the Wilderness campaign. The Army of Northern Virginia had already taken up a hole in its belt on account of the failure of supplies; but the Union troops were plentifully supplied with wagon-trains, and the men in gray who were captured near their base of supplies at Belle Plain were sure at least of a good meal. The Confederate prisoners here shown were captured at Spotsylvania, May 12, 1864, by the Second Corps under General Hancock. They were taken to Belle Plain, where they found not only a Union brigade left to guard them but a brigade commissary and his wagons ready to feed them. Some of the wagons can be seen in this photograph on the left-hand page, unloading supplies for the Confederate prisoners. The camp at Belle Plain was only temporary; the prisoners were taken thence by transports in the direction of Baltimore or Washington, sometimes even New York, and forwarded to the great Union prisons at Elmira, Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, or Camp Douglas, Illinois. On the brow of the hill to the right stands a Union field-piece pointing directly at the mass of prisoners. Behind it are the tents of the guard stretching up over the hill.

pages 154 and 155   in 1911 book

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This online edition of The Photographic History of the Civil War includes improved images using digital images from the Library of Congress, when available. It also includes additional images that are either cropped from the Library of Congress digital images or are related to the specific topic being discussed in the article or page.

Volume 7 of the History is the first volume I'm publishing online simply because it was the one I was interested in when I decided to publish.

More to come, I hope.

 

Copyright © 2004 Michael P. Goad  All rights reserved.