Alton Military Prison began in 1833 as Illinois’s first state penitentiary, expanding from 24 cells to 256 before being replaced in 1857 by the new prison in Joliet. Its early years exposed the harsh realities of nineteenth-century punishment, holding both men and women under degrading conditions, with women suffering additional abuses. Reopened by the U.S. government in 1862 during the Civil War, it became a prison for Confederate captives, with more than 11,000 passing through. Disease and severe conditions made it one of the deadliest Union prisons; 1,534 Confederate soldiers, along with many Union soldiers and civilians, died there. The prison closed in 1865.

West Alton, Missouri · USA