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it was relatively mild. About midnight, the steamer cast off and headed down the Cumberland River to the Ohio for a journey either to Cairo or St. Louis. The 150 miles between Dover and Cairo was made in less than 24 hours, with Universe tying up at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. The prisoners of war were kept on board overnight.
On Wednesday morning, February 19, Federal authorities decided to send the Confederates to Chicago following a rumor that three boatloads of Confederate troops had been recaptured en route to St. Louis. After sundown, Company E and the rest of the 20th Mississippi were taken ashore and marched to the Illinois Central Railroad depot in Cairo, there to begin the 360-mile trip to Chicago and Camp Douglas, the prison camp that was their destination.
The train consisted of passenger cars plus a baggage car or two, a luxury not often enjoyed by the Mississippi regiment on its previous rail journeys. The first sergeant of Pvt. Baxter?s company, Charles E. Taylor, describes in his diary the trip to Chicago: ?Last night very cold - still we were very well provided for having good passenger cars to ride in - in which was a good stove and plenty of fuel. Morning cold - ground covered with snow - very pretty country through which we traveled. Our route was the Illinois Central Railroad as far as Centralia when we took the Chicago branch of the Illinois Central. Was on the cars the whole day and the greater part of the night."
The main tracks of the Illinois Central ran parallel to 16th Street before turning north at Michigan Avenue for the railroad?s passenger station near the Chicago River. Near the spot where the tracks turned north were a number of sidings, and the train carrying the Confederate prisoners was run onto one of these for unloading. It was about 1 a.m. on Friday, February 21, when the train braked to a stop, and by the time the prisoners had been assembled and marched under guard the mile and a half south to Camp Douglas, it was after 3 o?clock. They were herded into camp through the fortress-like main gate on Cottage Grove Avenue, had their names enrolled, were assigned barracks, and drew two days? rations. Thirty-six members of Company E (including Lt. Champlin) entered the prison camp that morning.
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