Rock Island Confederate Cemetery

The Mississippi River forms the border between Illinois and Iowa, and in the middle of the river -- in the midst of the Quad Cities -- lies Rock Island.

As an Army installation, the Rock Island Arsenal dates back to the early 1800s. While today it is the only active Army foundry and employs about 6000 civilians, during the Civil War the "Rock Island Barracks" was a POW camp.
As anyone familiar with Midwestern weather can tell you, it was not a pleasant place to be a prisoner. Freezing temperatures during winter and hot, humid summers -- combined with primitive sanitation and epidemics -- made camp life miserable. Of the 12,400 prisoners that were kept there, nearly 2,000 died during the camp's two years of operation.

Those who died at Rock Island during that time are still there, laid to rest in the Confederate Cemetery. It is a curious place -- a burial site for those who fought the Union Army, on a U.S. Army installation, deep in once-Union land.

But the symbolism is clear enough. There is no Confederate flag in sight; the only flags on the flagpole are the POW/MIA flag and U.S. flag...

...with all 50 stars.