Camp Sorghum was a Confederate States Army prisoner of war camp located in Columbia, South Carolina during the American Civil War.
Established in 1862 as a makeshift prison for approximately 1,400 Union officers, Camp Sorghum consisted of a 5-acre (20,000 m2) tract of open field, without walls, fences, buildings, or any other facilities. A "deadline" (boundary line) was established by laying wood planks 10 feet (3.0 m) inside the camp's boundaries.
Rations consisted of cornmeal and sorghum syrup as the main staples in the diet, thus the camp became known as "Camp Sorghum". Due to the lack of any security features, escapes were common. Conditions were terrible, with little food, clothing or medicine, and disease claimed a number of lives among both the prisoners and their guards.
Famous quotes containing the word camp:
“A healthy man, with steady employment, as wood-chopping at fifty cents a cord, and a camp in the woods, will not be a good subject for Christianity. The New Testament may be a choice book to him on some, but not on all or most of his days. He will rather go a-fishing in his leisure hours. The Apostles, though they were fishers too, were of the solemn race of sea-fishers, and never trolled for pickerel on inland streams.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)