Camp Douglas was opened in 1861 by the Union Army as a training camp for volunteer regiments. It subsequently became a prison camp, housing over 30,000 Confederate soldiers, from 1862 until its demolition in 1865. Henry Graves owned most of the property on which Camp Douglas was located. A gate in its south fence accessed a 10-acre property donated by Senator Stephen Douglas to the Old University of Chicago. A smallpox hospital, four rows of garrison barracks, and an Illinois Central Railroad station were located on the donated former Douglas property. The boundaries of the camp are marked in red on the modern-day satellite map.

It became a prisoner-of-war camp in early 1862. In the fall that same year, the Union Army used the facility as a detention camp for paroled Union prisoners captured by the Confederacy at Harpers Ferry until they were exchanged in December of 1862. These troops included approximately 8,000 paroled soldiers from the 60th Ohio, 32d Ohio, 65th Illinois, 31st, 111th, 115th, 125th, 126th New York, and the 9th Vermont as well as artillery units from the 1st Independent Indiana Battery, 15th Indiana Battery, 19th Ohio Battery, 5th New York Battery and Phillips Chicago Battery. In the summer and fall of 1865, the camp served as a mustering out point for Union Army volunteer regiments. The camp was dismantled, its property sold, and the land sold and developed. Nothing remains of the camp.

Camp Douglas consisted of four parts: Garrison Square; White Oak Square, Hospital Square (South Square); and Prisoners Square.

Garrison Square was to the north fronting on Cottage Grove. Located here were the main gate and camp headquarters, an eighty by forty foot permanent building constructed on a stone foundation, and barracks for permanently assigned officers and men. It was approximately twenty acres in size. The barracks surrounded a large rectangular parade ground. Stables were initially located at the southern end of Garrison Square. Other administrative buildings, including hospitals, quartermaster buildings, and a saw mill, were also located here. The ten acre White Oak Square, to the south fronting on Cottage Grove, contained one-story troop barracks. These barracks housed Confederate prisoners of war until early 1864, when Prisoners Square opened. Hospital Square was located on approximately ten acres west of White Oak Square along Thirty-Third Place. It contained the hospitals and quartermaster and support facilities. Prisoners Square encompassed twenty acres located along the western side of the camp and ran from 31st to 33rd streets on Giles Avenue. In addition to prisoner barracks a variety of administrative and logistical structures were here including: a sutler’s store; a drug dispensary; surgeon’s office; photo studio; guard house; express office; and wash houses; coal sheds; and nine hydrants.

Nothing remains of the camp. It is interpreted by the two signs below. A small exhibit is also present in the Chicago History Museum.

Interpretation at the Chicago History Museum- 1601 North Clark Street

Photos of Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas