SIGHTSEERS
Revisiting the Horrors of Andersonville
by Randy Karr

Few places in the United States can evoke the horrors of the Civil War as Andersonville, a Confederate prisoner of war camp located in southwest Georgia.

Andersonville was built in early 1864 to relocate Union prisoners being held in Richmond, VA, to a more secure and isolated location. During its 14 months of operation, 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned here. Of these, 13,000 died due to poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding and exposure. The greatest death toll on a single day was 100 and, in a single month, 900.

While waiting for a prisoner exchange that never happened, prisoners languished without housing, toilets, shade, medical attention or clean water. As their bodies withered away on a diet of corn bread and polluted water, they succumbed to a host of maladies, including malaria, dysentery, smallpox, hepatitis and scurvy. One soldier from the 9th Ohio Cavalry described the scene of suffering and starving soldiers as “hell on Earth, where it takes 7 of its occupants to make a shadow.”

Those who were able to survive did so on daily food rations consisting of small amounts of meal, bacon or beef, often uncooked, and occasionally peas and rice. The lucky few who had money or anything of value could buy or trade for food from local merchants who sold their wares inside the prison. Prices were high, and most prisoners lacked the resources to buy food on a regular basis.

Prisoners were confined in a 26-acre pen surrounded by a 15-foot high stockade. Lining the top of the wall were sentry boxes, which prisoners dubbed “pigeon roosts.” From these vantage points, guards could oversee prisoners. They could also monitor the “deadline,” a four-foot tall wood rail that ran parallel to and 19 feet away from the stockade wall. If a prisoner crossed this line with any part of his body, he would be shot without warning by a guard.

Concerned about the grief and uncertainty families would experience if they never found out what happened to their loved ones, a captured Union soldier recorded each death in a book. Using this book, Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, successfully identified most of the prisoners’ graves and marked them with a headstone.

Not all deaths were a consequence of disease or wretched conditions. Some prisoners died at the hands of the “Andersonville Raiders.” Raiders were Union prisoners who attacked, beat and robbed fellow prisoners. In particular, they preyed on “fresh fish,” the newly arrived prisoners who still had all their possessions with them.

Ultimately, the victimized prisoners rose up against the Raiders. With the consent of the Confederate camp commander, a jury of 24 Union army sergeants found six of the Raiders guilty of being ruthless ringleaders and sentenced them to be hanged. They were buried in graves separate from the graves of those who died with dignity. Other Raiders found guilty of lesser offenses were forced to run a gauntlet of club-wielding prisoners.

When the Civil War ended in 1865, the prison closed and the area where prisoners were buried was established as a United States National Cemetery. A month later, the first U.S. flag to fly above the burial ground was hoisted by Civil War nurse Clara Barton.

Belying the suffering that once took place in Andersonville is the serenity of the National Cemetery and the peacefulness of the now grassy prison site that has been designated by the National Park Service as Andersonville National Historic Site.

For more information on this and other National Park Service sites in Georgia, go to www.nps.gov/state/ga.

©2011 Randy Karr