Andersonville Prison

Andersonville, officially named Camp Sumter, was the most infamous Confederate prison during the Civil War (Davis 350; Reeder 140). The camp first opened in February 1864 close to the village of Andersonville in Sumter County, Georgia. Due to a food shortage at the compound in Richmond, Virginia, caused by an overflow of war prisoners, the Confederate officials decided to build a new prison in southwest Georgia (Turner 161, 162). The first prisoners arrived to an open expansion of sixteen acres, later increased to twenty-six acres, surrounded by a fifteen-foot tall fence (Davis 351). The conditions of this prison were truly horrendous because the prisoners were not provided with any form of soap, clothing, or shelter (Reeder 141). Andersonville was notorious for their ill treatment, lack of nutrition and protection, and harsh security along with their cruel wardens (Turner 161).

The Andersonville Prison was occupied by innumerable soldiers, much more than the camp was designed for, and because of that many men had inadequate shelter. The prison was built to only house ten thousand people, but ended up holding more than three times that amount (Turner 162). Nonetheless, four hundred new prisoners arrived daily, and by the time summer ended, the camp contained thirty-three thousand citizens, which made Andersonville the fifth largest city in the Confederacy (Davis 351; Savage 43). Forty-nine thousand and five hundred Union troops had passed through the camp’s gates by the time the war ended (Hyde 131). At any

Smith 2 given time, anybody could find around fifteen thousand men without any kind of shelter (Davis 352). Since the Confederate government did not prepare living quarters for the prisoners, the captives had to learn to make...

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...etheless, over a hundred men died per day due to lack of nourishment, healthcare, and even suicide by purposefully crossing the deadline causing the mortality rate to be twenty-nine percent (Davis 352; Savage 45; Turner 162).

Works Cited

Davis, Kenneth C. Don’t Know Much about the Civil War. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Print.

Futch, Ovid. “Prison Life at Andersonville.” Civil War Prisons. Ed. William B. Hesseltine. Kent:

Kent State UP, 1962. Print.

Hyde, Solon. “Andersonville.” The Civil War. Evanston: Nextext, 2000. Print.

Reeder, Red. The Story of the Civil War. New York: Meredith, 1968. Print.

Rees, Bob. The Civil War. Chicago: Heinemann, 2012. FolletShelf. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

Savage, Douglas J. Prison Camps in the Civil War. Philadelphia: Chelsea, 2000. Print.

Turner, Thomas R. 101 Things You Didn’t Know about the Civil War. Avon: Adams, 2007.

Print.