Rebels at Rock Island: The Story of a Civil War Prison

by Benton McAdams

Ashley Wilkes of Gone with the Wind helped to seal Rock Island's reputation as the "Andersonville of the North." McAdams separates truth from fiction about the Rock Island Barracks, the prison that held tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. Revealing that Rock Island was not without its problems—ignominious punishments, inadequate facilities, malnutrition, and lack of basic supplies—McAdams shows how Union officers sought to maintain humane conditions in the face of a war that raged on longer than anyone anticipated. Two dozen rare photographs round out the unflinching descriptions of prison life.

Genres: Civil War

274 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history details a rather fascinating bit of lost history, especially since I lived on all sides of Rock Island at one time or another. This lack of memory is indicated by the rather silly repetitions of one scene in the execrable racist masterpiece of schlock, Gone with the Wind. I would have read this anyway, given it the same rating were GWTW never mentioned, and it feels like a hook suggested by an editor to draw in general readers.
So with that in mind, the information about what happened - how the Federal Government took possession of the island, and how it was used, the daily management - is well presented, but the temporal order gets mixed at points. and there are a lot of similar names which McAdams throws in as a matter of given name at one point, surname at another. Thereby the action and the timing is tedious to puzzle out. Otherwise though I pushed through to reach the end.

[Ken Wahe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow read...similar to other civil war prison books...rock island prison not an andersonvile...small pox fault of Kentucky official who knowingly sent pox infected prisoners north...