View of Camp Douglas The captured, now paroled soldiers arrived on September 27 th  at the Union Camp southeast of Chicago near land once owned by Stephen A. Douglas of the famed Lincoln–Douglas debate (1858). Soon after arriving and settling into the dismal place where they were housed during their removal from service, the men learned that the food was just as dreary as the location. Stale bread, wormy rice, and old beans, were described in letters home as “unfit for anything but swine”....

The 111th and 126th are forced to surrender in their first battle.

The 111th Regiment travels from Auburn to Harper's Ferry in 1862.