Alton Military Prison Site - Alton, Illinois
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 38° 53.479 W 090° 11.373
15S E 743754 N 4308471
Historic Civil War era military prison site located in Alton, Illinois
Waymark Code: WMV8H
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 10/14/2006
Views: 56
Constructed
in 1830-31 the Illinois State Penitentiary in Alton was persistently criticized
for its unsanitary conditions by Dorothea Dix, a pioneer in prison reform. The
prison was closed in 1860 when the last prisoners were transferred to the new
state penitentiary in Joliet. With the advent of the Civil War, the prison was
reopened as the Alton Federal Military Prison. The first guards were from the 13
th U.S. Infantry. The prison was used to incarcerate Confederate prisoners with
the first prisoners to arrive February 9, 1862. Over the next three years over
11,764 Confederate prisoners would enter the prison. The conditions at the
prison were harsh and deaths averaged six to ten a day. Currently only one short
wall of the prison remains on site.