Andersonville National Historic Site and National POW Museum

Now that we were in Georgia, I was anxious to pay a visit to the Andersonville National Historic Site.  This was the location of the WORST prison during the Civil War.  I had on cousin 3rd cousin die there and another 1st cousin luckily escape it's horrible tortures!  There is a book that was given to me detailing life at Andersonville by members of the Iowa 16th - the regiment that my escapee 1st cousin came from.  It's called Reminiscences of Andersonville and Other Rebel Prisons.  A Story of Suffering, Starvation and Death by Martin O'Hara who escaped POW at Andersonville.  It was printed at Lyons, Iowa in 1880.  The Library of Congress listing is here.  The book mentions my 1st cousin as well as how life was like in Andersonville which I read before going here.  This site is a MUST GO TO place if you are interested in the Civil War and the realities of war.  

First, we'll stop at the Visitor Center.  There was a whiteboard listing what happened June 19th, 1864 - 154 years ago the day I was there...

The Visitor's Center has a database there of all the prisons that were at Andersonville Prison.  Most soliders taken to Andersonville we brought from other local prisons - Libby and Belle Isle which were overflowing with prisoners.  Conditions were harsh, but none as harsh as Andersonville.  This prison was slated as a 16.5 acre prison but within a few months, they were overflowing and so they expanded 10 extra acres.  In 14 months that the prison existed before the end of the Civil War, 45,000 men were brought to Andersonville and 13,900 died there!  13,900 men in just over a year!  Below is the database records of Lucius Wainwright, my 3rd cousin who died there at age 21 and Charles "Case" Bacon my 1st cousin who escaped.  The database doesn't say he escaped but he did and died in 1923.  He was not exchanged.

After I did research at the database, I walked through a memorial garden before walking to the remaining prison walls..

Here at the remaining walls, you can see part of the fence that was put up there around the prison, the "deadline," which is a 13 foot area inside the prison where prisons were NOT permitted to cross - even a hand or finger.  Many men were shot and killed just for having an arm or foot across the line.  At one point in the above book, women from Andersonville came to "see" the prisons, smelled the stench from inside, and one woman crossed into the deadline and a prison told her to get back - in turn a leaned through the deadline to save her and the guards shot him dead!  Each soldier to came to Andersonville kept the clothes on his back, money in his pocket, and anything he had unless is was taken from him.  At the prisons, the prisoners had to supply their own bedding, tent for shelter and food.  They were given one piece of cracker per day sometimes more and sometimes nothing at all.  Many starved to death, others from the elements, other from lack of water - except for the spring that held animal feces and urine that they had to drink, others from scurvy.  It was, as was described in the book, "hell" and the men thought this must be hell.  Inside Andersonville prison, some Union soldiers were ruffians and harassed and killed other soldiers for money, food, shelter, etc.  Finally, men in the prison got together and hung the six men who did these things and law and order was established.  Now, I've mentioned all the horrible BUGS and the heat this morning was in the 90s by 10 a.m. with 60-80% humidity.  Can you imagine this place in August?!  I just can't.  It was miserable just to walk around part of the prison and I was drenched from sweat from the heat in only an hour.  I was dying for water.  Can you imagine being a prisoner there and having nothing to eat or drink?!  What a ghastly place is must have been for sure and the stench must have been horrible - not just body sweat but excretions as well.

The wood fence is the "deadline."

In the museum at Andersonville, here are displays regarding Andersonville.  Below is Capt. Henry Wirz who was the commandant of Andersonville.  Soldiers here tried to tunnel out - most unsuccessfully.

Interestingly, women also participated in the Civil War.

At the Andersonville National Historic Site is also the National POW Museum including information on the Vietnam War that I found interesting and sobering.

After touring the museum and the walk over to the Andersonville Prison walls, I drove the loop of the entire location of Andersonville.  There is a story at Andersonville, that water was in such dire need that there came a lightening strike that struck the ground, water shot up out of the ground like a waterfall causing a large spring to emerge which never left.  Today, this spring is memorialized as mana from heaven.  The water still springs forth from this spot today.

Also, on the drive, I discovered other sites - the stockyard, more on the size of the prison as it expanded and notice the venomous snakes that lived near the watering hole.  So, not only were you starving, lack of water and hygiene but also dealing with creapy venomous snakes!

This was the original steam the men had to drink from - filled with feces and urine.

Men walked through these doors to enter Andersonville Prison.

The Stockade looking down to Providence Spring.

The Stockade and Providence Spring

This stone is the end of the prison.  It went down the valley and up to the other side by the statues
and to the right where the road curves.  This held 26,000 men!

Also on site is the Andersonville National Cemetery.  This is a sober cemetery as the stone are side-by-side not staggered like most national cemeteries and located 300 yards north of the prison site on 27 acres.  Here is the stone of my 3rd cousin, who died at Andersonville at age 21 years old.

Lucius Wainwright Cemetery Stone.  Section E.
I placed a penny on his grave.
Artificial flowers are not allowed and I didn't have any fresh flowers.

Lucius stone is at the bottom right corner

As the war came to a close, Clara Barton, nicknamed "The Angel of the Battlefield," having been a nurse during the war, received scores of letters of family wanting to know the outcome of their loved ones during the war.  During the Civil War there was no system to document missing or dead soldiers and so Clara Barton decided to do something about it - find the soldiers and respond to each and every letter.  In June 1865, Dorence Atwater, a young clerk, contacted Clara and requested copies of her lists of missing soldiers.  Atwater had been a prisoner at Andersonville and had been paroled to work in the hospital where he maintained a copy of the death records.  In 1865, with the US Army's expedition to Andersonville Prison to identify graves there, Atwater and Barton poured through the letters she had received and they began searching the death records at Andersonville and responding to the letters while the Army began erecting headboards in the cemetery.  At the end of the expedition, Andersonville was named a national cemetery and Clara Barton was given the honor of raising the American flag for the first time over that cemetery.  But, the story doesn't stop there!  In 1865 after returning to Washington, she hired clerks including Atwater, to respond to more than 60,000 letters she received.  By 1867, Barton and her staff identified more than 20,000 missing soldiers, including 13,900 who had died at Andersonville Prison.

If you ever get the chances to come to Andersonville, I would highly recommend it.  There is just so much information to learn and the opportunity to pay homage to those who paid the ultimate price for freedom from oppression.