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Johnson Island Civil War Prison and Fort Site

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Verified 28 May 2026
Fresh · 2d ago

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Photograph of Johnson Island Civil War Prison and Fort Site
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Background

Johnson's Island is a 300-acre (120 ha) island in Sandusky Bay, located on the coast of Lake Erie, 3 miles (4.8 km) from the city of Sandusky, Ohio. It was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate officers captured during the American Civil War. Initially, Johnson's Island was the only Union prison camp exclusively for Confederate officers but eventually it held privates, political prisoners, persons sentenced to court martial, and spies. Civilians who were arrested as guerrillas, or bushwhackers, were also imprisoned on the island. During its three years of operation, more than 15,000 men were incarcerated there.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

Current population

Occupancy

Year opened

Operational

Facility profile

Operator

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

Region

Security level

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

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Insufficient data
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Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources