Camp Morton's first Confederate prisoners arrived on February 22–23, 1862. Many of the 2,398 Confederates in the first group were sick, ill fed, and without sufficient clothing for the cold, northern winters. The citizens of Indianapolis rallied to provide humanitarian aid for the prisoners, which included additional food, clothing, and supplies. Local doctors aided the sick and local women provided nursing care.Leary, p, 100.Dunn, Greater Indianapolis, v. 1, pp. 226–27. The Athenaeum, at the corner of East Michigan Street and Massachusetts Avenue, and another local building were converted into hospitals to treat the Confederate prisoners.Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., pp. 382, 441. For the remainder of the war, Camp Morton typically housed between 3,000 and 6,000 prisoners.Sulgrove, p. 313.
