Alcatraz Citadel having some 111 cannons encircling the island at peak, and was also used as a war camp. During the Civil War, the defense establishment at Alcatraz Citadel had the onerous task to defuse the possibility of any local war between the Union and Confederate supporters who were both part of the population of California, and to protect San Francisco. Ammunition in the form of 10,000 muskets and 150,000 cartridges was supplied to the fort, which made the Fort Alcatraz and the island most impregnable and thus leaving any plans of the Confederate soldiers of taking control of the San Francisco
Alcatraz Library Federal Bureau of Prisons booklet in 1960: "These men read more serious literature than does the ordinary person in the community. Philosophers such as Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, etc. are especially popular." Other authors include Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, Washington Irving, Zane Grey, Hamilton Garland, Alexandre Dumas, Daniel Defoe, Joseph Conrad, Cervantes and magazines such as "Adventure to Time", "Better Homes and Gardens" and "Library Digest". A law library was later added to A-Block. A library scene in Alcatraz appeared in the 1979 Clint Eastwood film "Escape from Alcatraz" in which Eastwood's character of Frank Morris converses with another inmate. Alcatraz