Andersonville Prison Camp

The Andersonville Prison Camp was one of the most deadly prison camps in the Civil War. Prisoners of war were treated like dirt. This camp reminds me of the Holocaust Concentration Camps. The leader of Andersonville was Henry Wirz. He was just a brutal man, who treated these prisoners of war like dogs. The camp, as you can see in the above picture, was very large. It covered around 16 acres, and was surrounded by walls. To keep the prisoners from escaping, the death line was created. The death line was located behind the stockade. If a prisoner attempted to escape, then they were shot by the sentries who were stationed in the pigeon roosts. Andersonville was not over run with food. The prisoners, as well as the staff never really had enough to eat. Wirz on the other hand had plenty. He was so diabolical that he had food snuck in for his own personal enjoyment. Around 45,000 prisoners lived at Andersonville. At the end of the Civil War, 13,000 of them had died from various causes. Wirz was put on trial and convicted of conspiracy and murder. He was hanged, making him only the second man, behind Champ Ferguson to be executed at the end of the Civil War. Andersonville was defiantly one of the more brutal parts of the Civil War.

Above is a picture of Henry Wirz.

Many Union POWs were in rough shape when the war was over and they were released. Above is a picture of one of the survivors.

Above is a picture of the monuments at Andersonville.

Above is a picture of the Andersonville cemetery.

Here is a link to the Andersonville Prison Camp article on the Civil War Trust website: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/warfare-and-logistics/warfare/andersonville.html

Stay tuned for more blog posts about tales from Tennessee and beyond.