3-016-872 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War in America: camp of Federal prisoners on Belle Isle, Richmond - from a sketch by our special artist, 1864. '...in Richmond especially the prisons are full to overflowing...the authorities, to provide a remedy, have established a camp of détenus on Belie Isle. This is the largest of the numerous islands that intersect the channel of the James River, in the immediate neighbourhood of Richmond...the camp occupied by the prisoners is intrenched, and there is an inner line of guards pacing around its outskirts, with imperative orders to shoot the first man who attempts to cross the embankment...at the latter end of January, there were more than 7000 prisoners in the camp...The rations which I saw distributed to the prisoners were in every respect the same as those issued to the Southern soldier; possibly the former may get more fresh meat, and that, I apprehend, is scarcely a ground for objection...The point from which my sketch is taken affords a capital view of Richmond...The bridge that crosses the river just below Belle Isle is known as the Petersburg Bridge, and it connects the Southern Railroad with the metropolis of the Southern Confederacy'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.