John Jacob Omenhausser's sketchbook on life in the prison camp

Confederate soldier John Jacob Omenhausser was imprisoned at the Union prison camp in Point Lookout, Maryland, from June 1864 to June 1865, close to the time Armistead was in the camp. While at Point Lookout, Omenhausser documented prison life in sketchbooks with vibrant watercolors. His paintings were annotated with captions and dialog and, while intending to be humorous, often touch upon the grimmer aspects of camp life. Because he had relatives in the North, Omenhausser may have had an easier time obtaining supplies to make his life more bearable during that year. However, Armistead didn't seem to have shared such fortune. 

From these caricatures, we can see that there were African American soldiers working as prison guards, and their hatred towards the Confederate soldiers was to the bones.

Either that or this was what Omenhausser wanted his readers to believe. It seems that the black soldiers were deliberately depicted as "stupid, misbehaving, and vengeful to the Confederacy." Moreover, the words of these black soldiers were misspelled on purpose to show a weird accent.

The writer believes that Omenhausser might have been a racist, and this sketchbook may have been his attempt to deliver his anti-north message. Therefore we must read this material critically.