December 24, 1861… Gratiot Street Prison Receives First Confederate Prisoners of War.

Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis received its first group of Confederate prisoners of war, December 24, 1861, when they “entered the college from which they will not soon graduate.” McDowell Medical College had been confiscated by the government early in December 1861 and converted into a military prison. The former classrooms of the college had been reconditioned, bunks built and “with a realistic disregard for possible squeamishness among the inmates, the dissecting room was transformed into a mess hall.”

Conditions at the makeshift prison, not too good at the beginning, gradually grew worse as the war continued. Although the prison was crowded nearly to capacity, its population was further enlarged in November 1862 when the prisoners in Lynch's former slave pen on Myrtle Street were moved to the college. This transfer placed 800 prisoners in quarters intended for 500 until November 5 when 150 men were moved back to the unsanitary slave pen. Relief was temporary, however, as in a few days there were 1100 prisoners in the former school. Crowded conditions occasioned a great increase in disease and caused the Union forces to cut the number of prisoners to 560 by sending many to Alton during December.

In the summer of 1863 some repairs were made to the buildings at the prison, but during the winter of 1863-1864 the situation was unbelievably bad. Prisoners were forbidden to buy fruits or vegetables and were not allowed to receive anything from friends or relatives. A shortage of vegetables in the diet of the war-weakened prisoners caused an increase in scurvy and in the death rate. Again in the summer of 1864 the prison was repaired, vegetables were obtained for the prisoners and restrictions on purchases were lifted. During the winter of 1864-1865 conditions again grew so bad that estimates for a new prison were made but were not approved. Hundreds of Confederate soldiers, weakened by war or wounds, died in the prison hospitals or before they could get into the crowded wards.

Shortly after the end of the war a board of examiners were appointed to clear the prisons. Two hundred prisoners were released at once from the Gratiot Street Prison and the one at Alton. By May there were only 150 prisoners in the former medical college and by August 31, 1865, only one prisoner remained. There is no record of this prisoner's release.

A page from a Gratiot Street Prison record book.

For primary source material see…