Editing Fort Slocum (section)

===Civil War===
Military use of the island dates from 1861, when the 3rd Regiment ([[63rd New York Infantry]]) of the [[Irish Brigade (U.S.)|Irish Brigade]] established Camp Carrigan. In 1862, Davids Island was leased by the [[United States Government|U.S. Government]]. This marked the first use of Davids Island by the [[Regular Army (United States)|Regular Army]]. At that time, '''De Camp General Hospital''' (named for Dr. Samuel G. I. de Camp)<ref name=FWiki1/> was established to serve thousands of wounded individuals from the battlefields of the [[American Civil War]]. By late 1862, De Camp was the Army's largest general hospital, housing more than 2,100 patients.<ref name="Hart Island Nike Base History">{{cite web|url=http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/hart/nike/hartnike.htm|title=Hart Island Nike Base History|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref>

Originally, De Camp General Hospital treated only Union soldiers, but following the [[Battle of Gettysburg]] in July 1863, the War Department opened it to care for hundreds of wounded [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] soldiers. Even though a prison camp had been established on [[Hart Island (New York)|Hart Island]] in 1865,<ref name="Hart Island Nike Base History"/> Davids Island soon held more than 2,500 Confederate prisoners of war. Most had recovered by October, and they were moved to prisoner-of-war camps elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.home.earthlink.net/~michaelacavanaugh/id2.html|title=Davids Island & Fort Slocum: Some Overviews|access-date=10 April 2016|archive-date=16 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316170751/http://www.home.earthlink.net/~michaelacavanaugh/id2.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> A [[ferry]] connection was established during the war from [[Neptune Island (Long Island Sound)|Neptune Island]], under the control of [[Simeon Leland]].