Here are the questions posed by prison authorities at Point Lookout, Md. prison camp starting early in 1864, I would assume these also were asked at Camp Douglas.
HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA,
Fort Monroe, January 9, 1864.
Brig. Gen. G. MARSTON:
You will cause every prisoner at Point Lookout to answer one of the following questions, taking his answer, after he has heard them all:
First. Do you desire to be sent South as a prisoner of war for exchange?
Second. Do you desire to take the oath of allegiance and parole, and enlist in the Army or Navy of the United States, and if so in which?
Third. Do you desire to take the oath and parole and be sent North to work on public works, under penalty of death if found in the South before the end of the war?
Fourth. Do you desire to take the oath of allegiance and go to your home within the lines of the U.S. Army, under like penalty if found South beyond those lines during the war?
You will adopt the form set forth in this book, and let each signature be witnessed, causing the oath and parole to be read to each man, the questions to be propounded to these men alone and apart from any other rebel prisoner.
The book mentioned herein will be forwarded in a few days.
Truly, yours,
BENJ. F. BUTLER,
Major-General, Commanding.
OR II, V. 6, p. 823
............
Consider what would life be like if he did manage to return home, still within Confederate lines. Could he stand the censure he would receive by his peers, families of soldiers still in Confederate service, etc? He would also be subject to impressment by Confederate conscription officers., thus, he would have to stay in hiding and put his family in jeopardy for hiding a fugitive.
Here is an excerpt of a letter of a POW at Point Lookout in a letter to his wife:
"What must I do? I must not disgrace friends, character and more than all, kindred--wife, child! No . . I do not think you desire this. Let me stay in prison until released honorably: let me discharge my duty."
Dee Brown's Galvanized Yankee, p. 69