Andersonville

Camp Sumter, or Andersonville as it was commonly known, was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps of the Civil War. The Confederate prison remained open for 16 months, receiving a total of almost 43,000 Union prisoners—12,912 of whom died within its gates. The notoriously poor conditions at Andersonville and the resultant death rate prompted widespread public outcry in the North beginning late in 1864 and helped solidify, if only briefly, northern opinion about the depravity of the Confederacy. To this day, Andersonville is memorialized as an emblem of the sufferings of prisoners of war.

Located near Andersonville, Georgia, the camp opened in February 1864. Originally designed to house 10,000 on an area of 16.5 acres, by May 1864 Andersonville had more than 12,000 prisoners. The numbers continued to swell through the summer, forcing prison commanders to expand the compound to 26 acres in July. In August, the camp reached its highest population, approximately 33,000 prisoners, most of whom had little clothing and no shelter.

The entire area was enclosed by a stockade fence of rough-hewn logs approximately 15 feet high. Seventeen feet inside the stockade fence, a dead-line was delineated by 4-foot posts topped by a thin board. Any prisoner crossing the dead-line was likely to be fired upon without warning by guards on towers placed intermittently along the stockade. Outside the stockade, earthworks were erected to protect against cavalry raids; these were manned by members of the Georgia Home Guard, including an artillery company. Many [Page 44]of the artillery pieces were pointed into the stockade to guard against attempts at mass escape.

Andersonville quickly became the most feared prison in the Confederacy because of its extremely unsanitary conditions. Water for bathing, drinking, cooking, and latrine use was provided by a swampy creek that flowed through the prison. Within a few weeks of operation, the creek was completely contaminated, becoming a major source of disease. The situation was exacerbated by the placement of the camp bakery, which dumped offal into the creek, upstream from the prison. Sufficient rations were never issued for all of the prisoners. At no time during its operation did Andersonville ever issue more than 12,000 rations in a single day. By August, the camp mortality rate was more than 100 prisoners daily. At the height of the deadly summer, a freshwater spring burst forth from the ground in the prison, providing water for thousands of prisoners. The captives named it “Providence Spring,” believing it a gift from God to aid in their salvation. Prisoners also dug dozens of wells, with mixed success, in the hope of finding clean water.

As conditions within Andersonville worsened, prisoners turned upon one another. A group of prisoners, calling themselves “Raiders,” preyed upon their fellow captives, attacking and robbing new prisoners as they entered the prison. In June, other prisoners formed a posse to attack the Raiders, capturing six ringleaders. The other prisoners conducted a trial of the leaders, sentenced them to death, and executed them, using a gallows provided by prison authorities. The executioners then buried the leaders in a separate section of the prison cemetery, forever secluding their remains from their fellow prisoners.

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