Andersonville Prison

After researching Andersonville Prison I feel confident in saying it was one of the worst tragedies to come out of the American Civil War. Several thousand men lost their lives, and those that did survive spent the rest of their lives suffering from illness due to the fact they spent time at Andersonville Prison.

Andersonville Prison is located in Macon County, Georgia not that far from Atlanta. It was established as a Confederate Prison in February of 1864 and was originally named Camp Sumter, but was quickly renamed Andersonville after the railroad station that is close by. This was a remote location, which was perfect for a prisoner of war camp, but terrible for getting the much needed supplies. It was because of this remoteness that Andersonville Prison is documented as “the most notorious of Confederate atrocities inflicted upon Union troops” (www.georgiaencylopdia.org/Andersonville).

Andersonville Prison was “surrounded by fifteen to seventeen feet high stockade fence”, and the logs placed so tightly together there was no view available of the outside world. The original plan was to be just around sixteen acres, but was quickly expanded to nearly twenty-six acres. Andersonville was built to house up to ten thousand prisoners, but quickly grew to nearly twenty thousand in less than six months (www.historynet.com/Andersonville). There have been figures stated that Andersonville housed upwards of nearly thirty-two thousand Union prisoners of war (www.nps.gov/Andersonville). It was because of this large number that several horrible things happened at Andersonville Prison. Soldiers who were taken prisoner came into the prison “wounded and starving, diseases ran rampant, there was contaminated water, and only minimal shelter from the blazing sun and the chilling winter rain” (www.nps.gov/Andersonville). So much so that of the nearly “45,000 Union soldiers that came into Andersonville 12,900 died and were buried in a cemetery outside the prison walls”...