A picture which shows the extremely
crowded conditions at Andersonville.Andersonville: A Living Nightmare
By: Marc Leyrer
Imagine a camp where the water was almost as sanitary as sewage water and the food was filled with maggots. If you can imagine this then you are imagining Camp Sumter. Camp Sumter prison was the worst prison camp throughout the entire war. Some 13,000 men died of many unknown diseases. The camp was set up around the small town of Andersonville, which was located in Sumter County, Georgia. Because of the location at Andersonville, it was later referred to as Andersonville prison camp. Andersonville was a small town with a population of rufly 20 people. This town of 20 people would soon house one of the worst prison camps in the history of the Civil War.
The site was placed at Andersonville because the population was very small and had almost no political power to oppose the construction of such a prison. The area was located way down south, meaning that there was less of a chance that there would be Yankee raids. There was a stream that ran strait through the proposed site of the fort and could be used to supply fresh water. Andersonville was also in close proximity to the Southwestern Railroad, which allowed them to transport prisoners and supplies easily. The reason they chose to build such a camp was there was a growing need for prison camps as the south was getting more and more prisoners with each passing battle. The site was supposed to have adequate food and shelter for Union prisoners although this would later prove devastating.
Captain W. Sidney was sent to Andersonville to see if the site would prove worthy for a prison camp. He sent is answer back to Richmond, and they sent Captain Richard B. Winder to start construction of the camp. The prison was to be made on a 16.5-acre area and was supposed to hold 10,000 prisoners. The prison had a rectangular shape and was placed over the flowing stream. The area was 1010 feet long by 780 feet wide. Slaves from the surrounding areas were forced to cut trees and dig ditches to help the construction of the prison. The prison walls were made of pine logs that would make it so the prisoners could barely have a glimpse of the treetops outside the prison. The walls were constructed so they were around 15-20 feet high. It was said that the walls "matched so well on the inner line of the palisides as to give no glimpse of the outer world"(www.cr.nps.gov/seac/histback.htm pg. 1). A paliside is the fencing that is put up for protection and as a barrier for the prisoners. While another line of fencing was set up about 19-24 feet away from the walls. This fencing was about 4 feet high and was known as the deadline. The prisoners were not supposed to cross the deadline, if they did they would be shot immediately by guards stationed along the walls. Guard towers were spaced evenly all along the outer walls to enforce the deadline and to help protect the prison. The fort was constructed with two gates along the West Side of the prison. The gates were 30 square feet. One opened toward the prison while the other opened outward. Each gate was constructed with a regular size door at the bottom so people didn’t have to constantly open and close the much larger gates.
General Winder commanded the prison, although Captain Wirz was the one who was the on site commander. General Winder was the one who controlled what went in and what came out of the prison. At most the prison had over 33,000 people while it was only supposed to have 10,000. The creek was the only water source except for the occasional freezing rain that came during the wintertime. There was no shelter so the prisoners had to bare the 100 plus degree heat in the summer, and the high chance of getting sun burn, heat exhaustion, and dehydration because of the lack of water. In the winter the prisoners had to bear below freezing temperatures, snow, and extremely cold rain during the harsh winters. What small shelter the prisoners had was made of scraps of wood, tent fragments, or holes dug in the ground. There was no clothing provided for the prisoners, so most had to bear the elements in nothing but rags.
The conditions at Andersonville were appalling. Food was very scarce because the south was mostly had tobacco and cotton producing farms, and barely had enough food farms to produce enough food for itself, much less an army. The prisoners were forced to suffer and their rations were cut. General Winder was such a horrible man because he didn’t allow the farmers to bring food to the prisoners or soldiers. He only took what the Confederacy gave him. The rations were very small consisting of one-forth pound of corn meal, and a choice between one pound of beef or 1/3 pound of bacon. If the prisoners were lucky he would get some beans, peas, rice, or molasses. The water they drank from was terrible. The only source was either the river or the wells. The wells were hardly ever full and would never supply enough water for the whole camp. Sometimes gangs of Union soldiers, wanting to keep the water to themselves, would guard it and not let anyone else drink from it. Upstream was the encampment of the Confederates. In the Confederate camp the river was used for many things such as dumping trash, bathing, disposing of human waste, and many other filthy things. When it came time for the Union prisoners to drink, it was unsanitary water. Most of the men would catch many diseases and would usually die. Among these diseases were Diarrhea, Scurvy, General Dropsy, Typhoid Fever, Pneumonia, Debility, Remittent Fever, and Pleurisy just to name a few. There were over 40 different types of diseases present inside the camp. Yet the Confederates lacked the facilities, men, and supply’s to combat these diseases.
Every day was a struggle for survival. There were gangs of Union men who would jump newcomers and steal things like blankets, food, tools, and tents. They would even take from the old and they would strip the bodies of the dead of all their valuables. Later they would trade these stolen items with the guards for things like whiskey and other unessential goods. Men had the risk of dying every day. The ground was covered with mud and maggots. The food was sometimes withheld as a form of punishments to the prisoners. Every day was a day of fear and dread, they were in constant fear of catching a disease or being robbed. There was a constant smell of death and suffering in the camp. Morale was extremely low not just because of the conditions, but because they knew they would never be freed in a prisoner exchange. The south did not want to give up black prisoners, and Grant wanted all or none. He knew that this was a war over slavery and allowing the south to keep the blacks defeated the purpose of the war.
Sergeant John Ransom was one such man who was captured and held inside Andersonville. While he was in Andersonville he wrote in a diary. On one such day he saw a man shot and he writes. "A crazy man was shot dead by the guard an hour ago. The guard dropped a piece of bread on the inside of the stockade, and the fellow went inside the dead line to get it and was killed." Showing the cruelty of the Confederates. Men were in extreme pain as he states, "Today saw a man with a bullet hole in his head over and inch deep, and you could look down in it." This man he talks about was still alive even though he was shot by one of the guards. Conditions just keep getting worse as John writes, "Have taken to rubbing my limbs, which are gradually become more dropsical. Badly swollen. One of my teeth came out a few days ago, and all are loose. Mouth is very sore." He talks about even worse things when he writes, "Am myself much worse, and cannot walk, and with difficulty stand up. Legs drawn up like a triangle, mouth in terrible shape, and dropsy worse than all . . . At my earnest solicitation was carried to the gate this morning, to be admitted to the hospital. Lay in the sun for some hours to be examined, and finally my turn came and I tried to stand up, but was so excited I fainted away. When I came to myself I lay along with the row of dead on the outside. Raised up and asked a rebel for a drink of water, and he said: "Here, you Yank, if you ain't dead, get inside there!" He was imprisoned at Andersonville from March 1864 to September 1864. He survived this horrible catastrophe and returned to his home in Jackson, Michigan where he later died in 1919. He would never forget the horrible conditions at Andersonville.
Because of the advance of the Union army the prison was forced to build defenses. Captain Wirz had the prisoner’s construct a small fort located southwest of the prison and was named Star Fort. 6 redans, which were small bunkers equipped with artillery, were constructed all around the fort. This was when they added 10 more acres to the fort and again forced the prisoners to cut down logs and put up the fencing, which were going to encase them in the prison.
The Northern camps were not a walk in the park either. Prisoners were usually forced to live in shacks some seventy to eighty feet long. Their quarters were searched every day and any extra items were taken away, even extra blankets. While they were forced to wear a barrel shirt for the slightest infraction. A barrel shirt was a large and heavy barrel with a hole in the top for your head and the bottom end was cut out. The prisoners were forced to wear it twice a day and for two hours each time if they disobeyed the rules. While the Negro guards were very cruel, they were known to fire their muskets into a mass of prisoners for no apparent reason. These obscene acts were tolerated, and sometimes watched, by the white officers. The physicians were brutal and cruel. The physicians would almost always prescribe opium pills no matter what the case. And there were no reprimands for the cruelty towards the patients. One time a man prescribed 4-5 drops of Fowler’s solution to arsenic for three patients who had visible shaking. The Doctor wrote forty-five and the prisoners died very quickly. Barely 20% of any of the men who went to the hospital came out alive. The Yankee guards would often get together and discuss the things they did that day. This topic often included the number of Confederate soldiers they killed. The conditions were barely better than that of Andersonville. Their rations were three to four crackers, and a small slice of fat pork in the morning. While in the afternoon they got a few beans, and a watered broth in which meat or pork had been boiled. Most men would resort to catching rats, dogs, and cats, and either sell them to others for money, or eat them for themselves. It was even said that the mortality rate in a prison in New York called Elmira far exceeded that of Andersonville.
Finally the Confederacy recognized that the prison was in horrible condition and that it was way overcrowded. Many of the prisoners were taken out of the fort and placed in smaller prisons in the area. In the end it totaled only 5000 men. While it had over 45,000 prisoners and 33,000 at one time. The prison was a mass grave where over 13,000 men that had died in the prison were buried. Even though this prison is looked upon as the worst prison ever, there were many other prisons that had almost the same conditions, just on a smaller scale. These appalling prisons were in the North and the South. Overall this was one of the worst prison camps ever maintained in the history of this war.
A picture which shows the extremely
crowded conditions at Andersonville.
A picture which shows the lack
of shelter they had while in the camp.
Bibliography
(Information on what the camp looked like and it’s conditions, and pictures)
(Information on the conditions)
(What it was like)
(Pictures)
(Construction, conditions, what it looked like)
(Information on the Conditions and life at Andersonville)