Officially named Camp Sumter, the notorious Anderson-ville Prison was one of the largest prison camps during the American Civil War.
In the latter part of 1863, Union forces began penetrating deeper into the Southern states. As a result, Confederates captured prisoners of war in greater numbers than ever before. This influx quickly showed that the detention facilities used during the prior two years of war—mainly old forts, warehouses, and jails—were insufficient. The Southern captors feared that the prominent presence of Yankee prisoners would increase the possibility of overrunning the northernmost facilities just as they had threatened Richmond, the Confederate capital, in 1862.
In order to rectify the problem, Confederate officials were sent to Georgia in November 1863 to scout a potential prison site in Sumter County near the town of Ander-sonville. They determined that the area in south-central Georgia was an ideal location for the facility because it was, at the time, far from the reach of the Union forces. Other reasons for selecting the area included the availability of potable water from a nearby creek, the close proximity of the Georgia Southwestern Railway, and the plentiful timber supply. In addition, because the town of Andersonville itself had a population of only about 20 people, little political resistance to the facility developed. Finally, local slaves could be impressed by the army to build the prison.
Andersonville’s construction began in December 1863. On February 24, 1864, 600 prisoners from Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, arrived. One entire wall of the stockade was still under construction. Confederate artillery pieces were positioned by the opening to deter any attempts to escape until the work was finished. Once completed, the walls of the prison formed a rectangle of rough-hewn pine standing 15-20 feet in height and built on a 161/2-acre tract intended to house no more than 10,000 Union prisoners of war.
During the first few months, conditions at Andersonville were fair. But by July the facility was jammed with over 32,000 soldiers, almost all enlisted men. This increase occurred because of renewed Union aggression and the decision of Northern officials to stop the exchange of prisoners. They believed that keeping Southern soldiers in Northern prisons would deprive the South of desperately needed manpower and thus hasten the end of the war.
The Northern leadership’s decision was a hard blow for Union soldiers in prisons like Andersonville. The open-air stockade was expanded to 26 acres but remained horribly overcrowded, and conditions became more and more intolerable. Nevertheless, thousands of soldiers continued to be shipped to the prison. Running through the middle of the camp was a stagnant stream, sarcastically referred to as “Sweet Water Branch,” which served as a sewer as well as a source of water for bathing and drinking. There were no barracks; prisoners were forbidden to construct shelters. Some did erect tents, but most were left fully exposed to the elements. No clothing was distributed to the captives, so most wore ragged remnants of their uniform or sometimes nothing at all. Medical treatment and supplies were virtually nonexistent.
With the South barely able to provide for its own men, the prisoners starved. Their daily diet might consist of only rancid grain and a few tablespoons of beans or peas. The poor food and sanitation, the lack of shelter and health care, the crowding, and the hot Georgia sun took their toll in the form of dysentery, scurvy, and malaria. Capt. Henry Wirz, who assumed command of Andersonville in June 1864, wrote the Confederacy’s War Department to ask for additional supplies to sustain the prisoners but received no assistance. Attempts to improve the situation were futile, given the limited supplies available. Beyond that, many embittered Confederates were unwilling to do anything to make conditions better because they believed that all Union soldiers should die.
During the summer months, more than 100 prisoners died of disease on a daily basis. Others fell victim to thieves and marauders among their fellow captives. The desperate situation led a Confederate medical commission to recommend relocating those prisoners who were not too ill to move, and in September 1864, as William T. Sherman’s army approached, most of Andersonville’s able-bodied inmates were sent to other camps.
Remaining in operation until the war’s conclusion, Andersonville held more captured Union soldiers than any other Confederate camp, a total of over 45,000. Nearly 30 percent of these died in captivity. The North had learned of the camp’s appalling conditions well before the emaciated survivors were released in April 1865, and outraged citizens urged retribution on Southern prisoners of war. Of course, the Union had wretched prison camps of its own. Death rates were high in some of these as well, even though the North was far better equipped to cope with captured soldiers. Mismanagement and severe shortages were more to blame for the terrors of Andersonville than any deliberate attempt to mistreat prisoners. Nevertheless, many Northerners insisted that the abuse was deliberate and demanded vengeance. Consequently, after being tried by a U. S. military court and convicted of war crimes, Henry Wirz was hanged. Meanwhile, government workers led by Clara Barton compiled a list of 12,912 prisoners who had died at the camp. Andersonville’s mass graves were replaced by a national cemetery, which is today still used as a burial ground for American veterans.
See also prisons.
Andrews's Raid (April 12, 1862)
In the spring of 1862, one of the western Union army’s most trusted spies, James J. Andrews, was given the task of launching a secret commando raid deep into the South. Also known as “The Great Locomotive Chase,” Andrews’s Raid is a perennial favorite among those who enjoy colorful war tales and has been the subject of paintings, songs, and at least two movies. Andrews had no trouble recruiting 22 volunteers for the daring adventure. Their aim was to cut the rail line that served as the supply link between Marietta, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The plan developed by Andrews was simple. His men would divide up into small groups, out of uniform, and go to Marietta where they would board a northbound train headed for Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw Mountain). The tiny crossroads town was a meal stop on the railroad, and when the other passengers were eating their breakfast, Andrews and his men would steal a locomotive and race unhindered toward Chattanooga, stopping only to cut telegraph lines, burn bridges, and render unusable a critical part of the Confederacy’s railroad lifeline.
The execution of the plan, however, did not go as planned. One major setback arose when the weather turned very wet, making the roads impassable and bridges unburnable. Another unforeseen complication was that the Confederates had established a military camp at Big Shanty. Now, instead of few or no rebel soldiers, there were hundreds in the area. Nevertheless, Andrews and his men started their raid on the night of April 12 with high hopes. They did manage to capture a locomotive, called “The General,” along with three boxcars, and then took off in a hurry. Their deed immediately discovered, the Confederates grabbed another engine and went in hot pursuit. The wild chase continued for almost 90 miles, until “The General” ran out of fuel near Grayville, about 18 miles south of Chattanooga. At that point, Andrews and his men jumped off the train and hid in the woods, where all were captured.
As the raiders were out of uniform when arrested, they were treated as spies. Two months later, Andrews and seven Union soldiers were court-martialed and executed. Eight other raiders escaped, and the rest were paroled in an exchange organized by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Later, the survivors of Andrews’s Raid became the first recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for bravery.
See also railroads.
Further reading: William Best Hesseltine, Civil War Prisons: A in War Psychology (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998); William Marvel, Andersonville: The Last Depot (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994).
—Emily E. Holst
Further reading: William Pittenger, Daring and Suffering: A History of the Great Railroad Adventure (Philadelphia: J. W. Daughaday, 1887).
World History
