Hello,
The October meeting of the Bowling Green Civil War Roundtable is at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 18th in Cherry Hall 227 on the Campus of Western Kentucky University. Our meetings are always open to the public. Free parking in the lot across the street. Cherry Hall is up on the hill in campus center. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcome.
Notice: Meeting Location Changed for October
Due to a scheduling conflict the Bowling Green Civil War Roundtable will be unable to meet in our regularly scheduled location of room 125 in Cherry Hall. As a result, we will meet on the second floor of Cherry Hall in room 227. If you take the elevator up, you take a right and go down to the very end of the hallway, and the last door on the right is where we will be meeting. We apologize for any inconvenience, and hope to see you there!
Our Program for October 2016:
“The Alton, Illinois Prisoner of War Camp and the 10th Kansas Infantry”
Alton, Illinois, right across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri, was one of the first Union prisoner of war camps established. Based on the 1830s old penitentiary complex that was replaced by a newer facility in Joliet, outside of Chicago, the buildings were taken over by the US Army in early 1862. In early February the first prisoners arrived, taken in the Fort Donelson Campaign among other places. The 13th U.S. Infantry were the first guards.
As with all Civil War prisons, north and south, overcrowding soon took hold. Alton was listed for 800 men but usually double that could be found there. This caused sanitation, water, food and disease problems not only for the inmates but also the guards (often left out of this discussion). Over 1500 prisoners died there, many buried on a now gone island in the river. Cold winters and humid summers indeed took their toll. Some prisoners were able to escape by ingenious methods.
Civil War military prisons all have interesting stories. They range from the horrors of Andersonville to similar stories from Ft. Delaware and Elmira. The struggles of captives and the excitement of escapes predominates prison literature. Less frequently the experiences of guards are told.
Several Union regiments guarded the prison during the war. The 10th Kansas Infantry was assigned guard duty at Alton prison in January 1864 for eight months. This is their and Alton's story.
Our speaker this month is Howard Mann from the Nashville CWRT. Howard is descended from George T. Tracy, 10th Kansas Infantry. He is a former member of the Kansas City Civil War Roundtable and past president in 2009. Howard speaks on a variety of Civil War topics including the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi. He is a member of the Nashville CWRT and now lives in Nashville.