"I was registered in Ward 11. All of my clothing was taken from me and I was clad in shirt and drawers of coarse texture belonging to the hospital and which probably had been frequently used before by smallpox and other diseased patients. 'Doctor' Miller, a youth of perhaps 20 years, diagnosed my disease and pronounced it 'remittent fever'. Judging by his appearance he must be some medical student practicing to gain experience solely...
"The poor fellows suffering from scurvy are a sad sight. Their legs and feet are so drawn as to compel them to walk on tiptoe, their heels being unable to touch the floor as they walk from their beds to huddle around the stove..."
Captain Robert E. Park, 12th Alabama
Confederate Prisoner at Fort Delaware

So wrote Captain Park after spending his first day in a mosquito-infested prison camp on a marshy piece of ground called Pea Patch Island in the middle of the river separating Delaware from New Jersey. Arriving that day sick, he was placed in the prison hospital. The place? Fort Delaware Prison --often considered by Confederate soldiers to be the North's version of Andersonville. Now known as Fort Delaware State Park, the fort not only still exists, it is very much as it was when it held a total of 37,000 Confederate, Union and political prisoners. Though now they go home at night, during the day, its dark, damp corridors still echo to the sounds of prisoners and guards as military and civilian reenactors re-live the horrors and pathos of this infamous island. We cordially invite you to come out and experience first-hand what the men of the North and South alike endured.

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