Andersonville Prison of the Civil War
Andersonville, Georgia, a name synonymous with suffering and survival, stands as a stark reminder of the brutal realities of the American Civil War. Formally known as Camp Sumter, this Confederate military prison was the largest of its kind, a sprawling enclosure where tens of thousands of Union soldiers endured unimaginable hardships. Today, the Andersonville National Historic Site serves as a poignant memorial, not only to those who perished within its walls but to all American prisoners of war throughout the nation’s history.
Genesis of a Prison
As the Civil War raged on, the Confederate States government found itself grappling with an ever-increasing number of Union prisoners. The prisons in Richmond, Virginia, were overflowing, straining the city’s already dwindling food supplies. General Robert E. Lee, in October 1863, astutely pointed out that these captives posed a significant liability. Guarding them required manpower that was desperately needed on the battlefront, and the local population feared a potential prison break.
Confederate authorities embarked on a search for a more suitable location, one that was remote from the active theaters of war, easier to guard, less vulnerable to enemy raids, and where food could be more readily obtained. After considering several sites in Virginia and North Carolina, they settled on Andersonville, Georgia, in December 1863. The site’s proximity to the railroad, the presence of a "large supply of beautiful clear water," and the mild climate were key factors in their decision. At the time, Andersonville Station was a small, unassuming community of about 20 people, consisting of a depot, a church, a store, a cotton warehouse, and a handful of houses.
Constructing a Living Hell
In January 1864, Confederate soldiers and enslaved African Americans from nearby plantations began the arduous task of clearing the land for the prison. For six long weeks, the hillsides east of the depot echoed with the sounds of axes, the crashing of trees, the thud of shovels, and the shouts of men as the sandy Georgia soil was stripped bare. The lofty pines were trimmed and topped, the logs hewed to a thickness of 8 to 12 inches, and then set vertically five feet into the ground, forming a formidable stockaded enclosure. Initially, the enclosure encompassed about 16.5 acres, but it was later expanded to 26.5 acres to accommodate the burgeoning prisoner population.
Sentry boxes, or "Pigeon-Roosts" as the prisoners sarcastically called them, were strategically positioned along the top of the stockade. These elevated posts provided the guards with a clear view of the activities within the prison yard. A "deadline" was established inside the stockade, parallel to the palisades, marked by a simple wooden railing. Any prisoner who crossed this line, day or night, faced the deadly consequence of being shot. The ground between the deadline and the palisades was ominously referred to as the "dead run."
Adding to the natural division of the landscape, the Stockade Branch of Sweetwater Creek flowed west to east through the prison yard, bisecting it roughly in half. To bolster the prison’s defenses against external attacks and internal disturbances, earthen forts equipped with artillery were constructed at strategic points along the stockade’s perimeter, interconnected by a line of palisades. The principal fortification, known as the "Star Fort," stood prominently at the southwest corner of the prison.
Adjacent to the stockade, other structures were erected, including a bakery, a cookhouse, and two stockaded hospitals, each a testament to the grim realities of life and death within Andersonville. General John H. Winder, a seasoned administrator of Confederate prisons, was appointed as the post commander, overseeing the overall administration of Andersonville during the summer of 1864. The day-to-day management of the prison, maintaining order and discipline, fell to the Swiss-born Captain Henry Wirz, the prison commandant.
The guard force, tasked with maintaining control over the massive prisoner population, was composed of several Confederate regular regiments. Unfortunately, these units were often made up of undisciplined older men and young boys who had recently been pressed into service. Both the prisoners and the prison authorities held these guards in low esteem. Wirz and Winder repeatedly requested replacements with more seasoned troops, but their pleas went unanswered as all combat-ready units were desperately needed to counter General William T. Sherman’s advancing Federal columns in northern Georgia.
The Gates Open to Despair
The first contingent of prisoners, a group of 500 men, arrived at Camp Sumter on February 27, 1864. In the weeks and months that followed, the influx continued, with approximately 400 new prisoners arriving each day. These unfortunate souls came from various sources, including those transferred from the overcrowded prisons in and around Richmond, soldiers captured on the battlefields of Virginia and Georgia, and prisoners relocated from Confederate camps in Florida and Alabama.
Overcrowding quickly spiraled into a catastrophic crisis. By late June, an estimated 26,000 Union soldiers were crammed into an enclosure designed to hold a maximum of 10,000. The relentless arrival of new prisoners pushed the total number of men confined within the prison to a staggering 31,678 by the end of July. The peak population was reached in August 1864, when more than 32,000 souls were imprisoned within Andersonville’s walls.
The absence of adequate shelter compounded the misery caused by the overcrowding. With the exception of those confined to the hospitals, prisoners were left to fend for themselves, tasked with creating their own protection from the elements. The early arrivals scavenged for lumber, logs, and branches left over from the stockade construction, using these materials to build crude huts. However, the limited wood supply was soon exhausted, and the more resourceful Federals improvised tents from scraps of clothing and other available cloth. Others desperately dug holes in the ground for protection, while hundreds were left with no shelter whatsoever.
The prisoners’ already precarious situation was further exacerbated by the state of their clothing. Many men arrived from other Confederate prisons already dressed in rags. Those brought directly from the battlefields wore clothes that were heavily worn and soon deteriorated. Some prisoners were completely naked, exposed to the harsh Georgia sun and the chilling night air.
A Daily Struggle for Survival
The daily food ration, a meager offering that barely sustained life, consisted of a quarter-pound of cornmeal and either a third of a pound of bacon or one pound of beef. Occasionally, peas, rice, vinegar, and molasses were provided, but these were rare treats. Food was typically issued uncooked, a consequence of the rapid influx of prisoners outpacing the completion of cooking facilities. By the time a cookhouse and a bakehouse were finally finished in the summer of 1864, they were woefully inadequate to serve the needs of the massive prisoner population.
Prisoners who had managed to retain their money and valuables were allowed to supplement their meager rations by purchasing food from the prison sutler and other merchants who set up shop inside the stockade. However, prices were exorbitant, and only those with substantial cash reserves could afford to trade regularly.
The primary water supply came from the five-foot-wide stream that flowed through the prison yard. However, this stream was quickly contaminated by human waste and refuse, becoming a breeding ground for disease. Several springs were later discovered in the bottom south of the stream, and while the water from these sources was brackish, it was considered a safer alternative to the polluted stream.
Recognizing the severity of the water contamination problem, prison officials encouraged the captives to dig wells. These wells, typically dug by groups of men from the same mess, were laborious projects, undertaken with improvised tools such as spoons, half canteens, mess plates, and borrowed shovels. The wells were approximately 3 feet wide and could reach depths of up to 75 feet. Ropes attached to buckets, cups, or even boots were used to draw water from the depths.
Disease and Death: The Inevitable Outcome
The overcrowding, inadequate shelter, meager rations, and appalling sanitary conditions inevitably led to widespread disease and a tragically high mortality rate. Over the course of its existence, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were confined within Andersonville’s walls. Of these, a staggering 12,912 lie buried in the Andersonville National Cemetery. The primary causes of death were diarrhea, dysentery, gangrene, and scurvy, diseases that Confederate doctors were unable to effectively combat due to a severe lack of proper facilities, personnel, and medical supplies. During the prison’s 13-month existence, an average of more than 900 prisoners died each month. The single deadliest day was August 23, 1864, when 97 prisoners succumbed to their suffering.
In addition to the unhealthful and debilitating prison conditions, the Federal soldiers at Andersonville had to contend with the predatory behavior of their fellow prisoners. Theft of food, clothing, and valuables was rampant, often accompanied by violence. The "Andersonville Raiders," a large and organized group of thieves, cutthroats, and murderers, were the most notorious and dangerous of these predators. For nearly four months, the Raiders terrorized the prisoners, making robbery and murder daily occurrences.
Finally, with the tacit approval and assistance of General Winder and Captain Wirz, the six ringleaders of the Raiders were captured. On July 11, 1864, after a swift trial by their fellow inmates, they were hanged from a newly constructed scaffold near the South Gate. Other members of the Raiders were forced to run a gauntlet of club-wielding prisoners. This brutal form of justice brought an end to the wholesale murder and pillage, although petty thievery continued to plague the prison.
Hope and Despair: The Elusive Dream of Escape
Escape from Andersonville was a constant aspiration for many prisoners, but it was a daunting challenge. During the prison’s existence, only 329 prisoners managed to escape successfully. Many more made temporary escapes, only to be caught and returned. The prison’s location, far from Union lines, and the effectiveness of the Confederate dogs used to track runaways, made successful escapes exceedingly difficult.
Numerous tunnels were dug, often under the guise of well-digging, but very few men are believed to have escaped through these subterranean passages. Successful escapees typically slipped away from their guards while on work details outside the stockade.
When General William T. Sherman’s armies captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864, most of the able-bodied prisoners at Andersonville were transferred to Charleston and Florence, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, to prevent their liberation by Union cavalry columns.
After Sherman’s forces embarked on their march across Georgia to the sea, the prison operated on a smaller scale until April 1865. On April 17, a powerful Union column under General James H. Wilson captured Columbus, Georgia. Within three weeks, the last Andersonville prisoner had been released, and Captain Henry Wirz was placed under arrest.
Justice and Scapegoating: The Trial of Henry Wirz
As the emaciated survivors of Andersonville returned to their homes at the war’s end, a wave of outrage swept across the North, demanding punishment for those responsible for what many perceived as deliberately planned atrocities. Second only to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the Andersonville story became a powerful weapon in the hands of those who sought to impose a harsh reconstruction on the former Confederate States of America.
Public indignation, bitterness, and anger concerning Andersonville soon focused on prison commander Henry Wirz, as General Winder had died. The Northern press portrayed him as a vicious sadist, using terms like "monster" and "beast" to describe him. While he was known as a "firm and rigid" disciplinarian, he was not indifferent to the prisoners’ plight. He attempted to provide adequate shelter and obtain food and medical supplies for his charges, but his efforts were consistently hampered by governmental red tape, labor shortages, high prices, local opposition, and the overall economic collapse of the Confederacy.
After his arrest in 1865, Wirz was taken to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., where he was tried and found guilty of conspiring with others to "impair and injure the health and to destroy the lives… of large numbers of federal prisoners" and for "murder, in violation of the laws and customs of war." He was hanged in Washington on November 10, 1865.
Despite numerous claims to the contrary, primarily from understandably embittered former inmates, there is no credible evidence of a conspiracy by Wirz, Winder, or other Confederate officials to deliberately exterminate the Federal soldiers confined at Andersonville. The horrors of Andersonville resulted primarily from the breakdown of the Southern economy and the overwhelming strain placed on its resources by the war. Captain Henry Wirz’s conviction and subsequent execution remain a subject of debate to this day.
In a grim statistical parallel, almost as many Confederates (25,976) died in Northern prison camps as the 30,218 Federals who perished in Southern prisons.
Andersonville Today: A Place of Remembrance
The cemetery, established in 1864 just 300 yards north of the prison site, became the final resting place for those who died within Andersonville’s walls. The first burial took place on February 27, 1864, a mere three days after the arrival of the first prisoners. The dead were buried in trenches three feet deep, ranging from 100 to 200 feet in length.
Following the end of the Civil War, the burying ground for the prison was officially designated a National Cemetery on July 26, 1865. Former Union soldiers and volunteers, including former prisoner Dorence Atwater, who had worked as a clerk in the prison maintaining the death register, and Red Cross Founder Clara Barton, played a vital role in identifying and marking the graves of the Union dead. Thanks to their efforts, only 460 of the Andersonville graves had to be marked as "unknown U.S. soldier."
By 1868, additional Union soldiers whose bodies had been recovered from hospitals, battlegrounds, and cemeteries throughout the region were reinterred at the Andersonville National Cemetery, bringing the total number of burials to more than 13,800.
Since the 1870s, approximately 7,000 more American servicemen and their families have joined the prisoner burials, making Andersonville National Cemetery their final resting place. The cemetery continues to be active today, with an average of over 150 burials each year.
Today, the National Cemetery encompasses a 27-acre site, enclosed by a 4.5-foot high brick wall. Large monuments stand among the rows of marble headstones and beneath the shade of large canopy trees.
The rest of the prison site reverted to private ownership in 1875. Over time, the stockades disappeared, and all the buildings were removed as the land was returned to agricultural use.
In December 1890, the Georgia Department of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans organization, purchased the site. Unable to finance the necessary improvements to protect the property, they sold it for one dollar to the Woman’s Relief Corps, which made significant improvements to the landscape to create a memorial park. Over the years, numerous patriotic organizations erected monuments to the soldiers imprisoned there.
The prison site, covering 84.20 acres, was donated to the United States in 1910. The U.S. Department of the Army administered it until 1970, when it was designated a national historic site and placed under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.
Today, Andersonville National Historic Site comprises three distinct components: the former site of Camp Sumter military prison, the Andersonville National Cemetery, and the National Prisoner of War Museum, which opened in 1998 to honor all U.S. prisoners of war in all wars. The museum, which also serves as the park’s visitor center, tells the story of prisoners of war throughout American History.
The historic 26.5-acre prison site is outlined with double rows of white posts, marking the boundaries of what was once a living hell. Two sections of the stockade wall have been reconstructed at the north gate and the northeast corner, providing a glimpse into the physical structure of the prison.
Located south of the National POW Museum, a tour road encircles the site, providing easy access to the most important locations. Roadside pull-offs and exhibits are located at the Wisconsin Monument, the North Gate, Providence Spring, the Star Fort, and the reconstructed northeast corner of the stockade.
The historic prison site can be toured on foot or by car. A free self-guided audio tour is available for checkout at the museum information desk, allowing visitors to delve deeper into the stories of those who endured unimaginable suffering within Andersonville’s walls.
Andersonville National Historic Site stands as a solemn reminder of the cost of war and the enduring spirit of those who have been held captive in the service of their nation.