Camp Douglas

[reb64]

Hey all. I am working in Chicago as of late and in my off time went and tried to find the acres of **** known as CampDouglas. It is all gone and the site in a very rough neighborhood on mlk blvd. there is a funeral home run by nct decendeants near the area and they fly a battle flag (rectangular kind) plus african and us flags. they, (the griffin funeral home) also has a display to the south pows, and several strrets south is a huge cemetary, flanked on all sides by huge concrete walls. Inside is a huge monument to the pows of camp douglas. All civil war history here is hard to find. Funny thing is I went to a country western bar that had a battle flag flying but recently took it down. ironic isn't it, a union decendant and african american flys it, but the whites are scared too. Chicago is pitful on civ war heritage, even more shameful is the lethargic attitude by southerners here.

[celtfiddler]

All civil war history here is hard to find.

Keep in mind the Great Chicago Fire (October 8-10, 1871) destroyed a lot of Chicago's civil war era history. Link for a map to give you an idea of how large an area of the city was affected. http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/conflag/pic-firemap.html

Head over to the Chicago Historical Society (they just renamed it the Chicago History Museum), I know in the past they had a major exhibit featuring their civil war artifact collection.

Get over to the Harold Washington Library Special Collections Dept--they possess a large GAR collection.

Check out the Newberry Library also.