Editing Prisoner of war (section)

===American Civil War===
{{main|American Civil War prison camps}}

[[File:Price Raid (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] prisoners of war on the way to [[Camp Ford]] prison in October 1864]]
[[File:Prisoner of war, from Belle Isle, Richmond, at the U.S. General Hospital, Div. 1, Annapolis.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Union Army]] soldier on his release from a [[Military forces of the Confederate States|Confederate]] POW camp, c. 1865]]
At the start of the American Civil War a system of paroles operated. Captives agreed not to fight until they were officially exchanged. Meanwhile, they were held in camps run by their own army where they were paid but not allowed to perform any military duties.<ref>{{cite book|author=Roger Pickenpaugh|title=Captives in Blue: The Civil War Prisons of the Confederacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWOfsOceCNUC&pg=PA57|year=2013|publisher=University of Alabama Press|pages=57–73|isbn=978-0817317836}}</ref> The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when the Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. In the late summer of 1864, a year after the [[Dix–Hill Cartel]] was suspended, Confederate officials approached Union General Benjamin Butler, Union Commissioner of Exchange, about resuming the cartel and including the black prisoners. Butler contacted Grant for guidance on the issue, and Grant responded to Butler on 18 August 1864 with his now famous statement. He rejected the offer, stating in essence, that the Union could afford to leave their men in captivity, the Confederacy could not.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/ande/historyculture/grant-and-the-prisoner-exchange.htm |title=Myth: General Ulysses S. Grant stopped the prisoner exchange, and is thus responsible for all of the suffering in Civil War prisons on both sides – Andersonville National Historic Site |publisher=U.S. National Park Service) |date=18 July 2014 |access-date=28 July 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307202416/https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/grant-and-the-prisoner-exchange.htm|archive-date= 7 March 2023}}</ref> After that about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons during the [[American Civil War]], accounting for nearly 10% of the conflict's fatalities.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2008/01/national_life_after_death.html |title=National Life After Death |author=Richard Wightman Fox |date=7 January 2008 |magazine=Slate |access-date=10 December 2012 |archive-date=15 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615092827/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2008/01/national_life_after_death.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Of the 45,000 Union prisoners of war confined in [[Camp Sumter]], located near [[Andersonville, Georgia]], 13,000 (28%) died.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/11andersonville/11facts1.htm |title=Andersonville: Prisoner of War Camp-Reading 1 |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |access-date=28 November 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821213258/http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/11andersonville/11facts1.htm|archive-date= 21 August 2013}}</ref> At [[Camp Douglas (Chicago)|Camp Douglas]] in Chicago, Illinois, 10% of its Confederate prisoners died during one cold winter month; and [[Elmira Prison]] in New York state, with a death rate of 25% (2,963), nearly equalled that of Andersonville.<ref>Hall, Yancey (1 July 2003). [https://web.archive.org/web/20030707041320/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0701_030701_civilwarprisons.html "US Civil War Prison Camps Claimed Thousands"]. ''National Geographic News''.</ref>