What was andersonville

Fearing loss of the death records at war's end, Atwater made his own copy of the register in hopes of notifying the relatives of the more than 12, dead interred at Andersonville.

Civil War Article. Andersonville Prison. Andersonville, Georgia. The deadline that kept prisoners back from the walls of the stockade was marked by a simple fence. The man in this image was shot reaching under the fence as he tried to obtain fresher water than was available downstream. Andersonville National Historic Site In an emergency, eight small earthen forts around the outside of the prison could hold artillery to put down disturbances within the compound and to defend against Union cavalry attacks.

Related Articles. View All Related Resources. You may also like Hell Hath a New Name. Andersonville National Historic Site. The stockade was constructed in the shape of a parallelogram that was 1, feet long and feet wide. Approximately 19 feet inside of the stockade wall was the "deadline," which the prisoners were not allowed to cross. If a prisoner stepped over the "deadline," the guards in the "pigeon roosts," which were roughly thirty yards, apart were allowed to shoot them.

The first prisoners arrived at Camp Sumter in late February Over the course of the next few months approximately prisoners arrived daily. By June over 26, prisoners were confined in a stockade designed to house 10, The largest number of prisoners held at one time was 33, in August The Confederate government was unable to provide the prisoners with adequate housing, food, clothing, and medical care, Due to the terrible conditions, prisoners suffered greatly and a high mortality rate ensued.

You could not sit down anywhere. You might go and pick the lice all off of you, and sit down for a half a moment and get up and you would be covered with them. In between these two hills it was very swampy, all black mud, and where the filth was emptied it was all alive; there was a regular buzz there all the time, and it was covered with large white maggots. When General William T, Sherman's Union forces occupied Atlanta on September 2, , moving Federal cavalry columns within easy striking distance of Andersonville, the Confederate army moved most of the prisoners to other camps in South Carolina and coastal Georgia.

From then until May , Andersonville was operated on a smaller basis than before. Some guards brutalized the inmates and violence broke out between factions of prisoners. On April 9, , General Robert E. The following month, Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville was arrested for the murder of soldiers incarcerated at the prison during the war. Wirz was born in Switzerland in andmoved to the United States in the late s. He lived in the South, primarily in Louisiana , and became a physician.

Winder had Wirz transferred to his department, and Wirz spent the rest of theconflict working with prisoners of war. He commanded a prison in Tuscaloosa, Alabama ; escorted prisoners around the Confederacy; handled exchanges with the Union; and was wounded in a stagecoach accident. After returning to duty, he traveled to Europe and likely delivered messages to Confederate envoys.

When Wirz arrived back in the Confederacy in early , he was assigned the responsibility for the prison at Andersonville. Wirz oversaw an operation in which thousands of inmates died. Partly a victim of circumstance,he was given few resources with which to work. As the Confederacy began to dissolve, food and medicine for prisoners were difficult to obtain. When word about Andersonville leaked out, Northerners were horrified.

His trial began in August and ran for two months. During the trial, more than witnesses were called to testify. Nonetheless, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Just before he was executed by hanging in Washington , D.

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