Rock+Island

=Rock Island= ==Rock Island Prison was one of the largest prisons up in the Union. It was described by federal doctors as a "camp of strike". The first Confederate prisoners arrived at Rock Island on December 3, 1863. Although the first group of prisoners numbered 468, by the end of December, 98 were dead from smallpox. Six thousand prisoners were crammed into the prison by January 1864. Just in that month, 231 prisoners died from filth and disease. In Feburary, another 350 died. By July 1864, 1,300 prisoners had died in 7 months. Out of all the prisoners, only 12,000 Confederates passed through but at least 1,950 prisoners died.==