Summary Of Rebels At Rock Island By Benton Mcadams

Rebels at Rock Island: the story of a Civil War prison is a book written by author Benton McAdams and was published by the Northern Illinois University Press in DeKalb, Illinois. This 260-page non-fiction book was published in 2000 based on a prison during the Civil War. Benton McAdams purpose to writing this book was to break the common thought that Rock Island prison was an overall horrible place for the prisoners to be in. The information given in the book can change people points of view and their opinions on whether the prison was actually as bad as people have said.

Rebels at Rock Island was written to change the readers’ viewpoint about the prison that is sometimes referred to as the “Andersonville of the North.” This is because of

Important people such as William Hoffman, who controlled many prisons and squeezed every penny out of the prisons could to make a profit. Throughout chapters 2 and 3, the book really focuses on the prisoner’s life and the harsh conditions that not just the prisoners but also the owners of the prison went through. These harsh conditions include a blizzard that went passed the prison, “… the temperature dropped to twenty degrees below zero.” There was also an outbreak of many diseases and complaints that prisoners had such as smallpox, concussions, and broken bones. Many of the reasons why Rock Island Prison is also viewed as a horrible prison is because of other books and article. Then again nothing is perfect and there are always bumps in the

This goes to show that there was hunger on both sides of the war, not only in the prisons. According to Exploring American Histories, Value Edition, union soldiers were basically fighting two battles, the Civil War and Hunger. “Rations, too, ran short.” The prisoners of war were sent to war prisons like the Rock Island where rations were also short. The Civil War also provided a somewhat a boom for companies and markets. They were a little hectic at first and struggled but as the war went on the companies were able to pick themselves up and thrive. The manufacturing of many items increased throughout the Civil War such as coal, cotton and wood which also meant that the money in the federal budget would also increase in a drastic matter, more than doubled.

At Rock Island many people suffered from hunger. This is largely due to the ration cuts that the prison system put in place to increase the amount of money in the prison fund. The ration cuts malnourished the prisoners, this is also why the prison was viewed as a bad place. The small town outside of the prison suffered at the beginning of the war because everyone was scared and did not want to go out or do anything but as the war progressed the small town boomed. Progress was slow when the war started and when Rock Island was being constructed and things remained