Word Celebrity Blog

Andersonville Prison (Camp Sumter)



















Camp Sumter, commonly called "Andersonville", was one of the largest military prisons established by the Confederacy during the Civil War. In existence for 14 months, over 45,000 Union soldiers were confined at the prison. Of these, almost 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, and exposure to the elements. The largest number of prisoners held in the 26½-acre stockade at any one time was more than 32,000, during August of 1864.
























By the end of 1862 ,it had became obvious to the leadership of the Confederacy that they could no longer house Union prisoners of war in the Richmond, Virginia, prisons. These prisons were being run by skeleton crews, and the Confederacy feared that if Union cavalry penetrated the city, the prisoners would be spurred on to riot and break out of their confines, aiding their fellows and depriving the South of prisoners that they could exchange for their own men who were being held in the North.


























James Alexander Seddon, Confederate States Secretary of War.



Furthermore, the 13,000 Yankee prisoners in Richmond were consuming large quantities of food in a city that had little for its own population. General Robert E. Lee and Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon agreed that it was time to relocate these prisoners deeper in the South where they would be farther from the reach of Union forces and where food should be more available.


























Brigadier General John H. Winder, CSA.


Secretary of War Seddon assigned Brigadier General John Winder, the chief prison keeper of the Confederacy, to the task of finding a suitable location for a new prison.


























Captain W. Sidney Winder.


Brig, Gen. John Winder dispatched his son, Captain W. Sidney Winder, to find a place that met Secretary Seddon's specifications. The site had to be isolated yet near a railroad line. It also had to have abundant sources of fresh water and mature timber.





Railroad station at Andersonville Station, Georgia.


As Captain Sidney Winder began his search, he soon found that the site also had to be far from any significant population since no right-minded voting citizen wanted a war prison in his immediate vicinity. The captain found the perfect spot in Sumter County, Georgia, a village called Andersonville Station on the Southwestern Railroad.



















The village of Andersonville, Georgia.


Andersonville had a population of less than 20 persons, and was, therefore, politically unable to resist the building of such an unpopular facility.  So Andersonville Station was chosen as the site for a prison.  Andersonville Prison was established as a "stockade for Union enlisted men".   The prison consisted of 27 acres and was enclosed with walls made of pine logs, which stood 15-20 feet high.   The prison held a hospital.  No barracks were ever constructed for the prisoners. 

































Today when we visit and see the beauty of the Andersonville prison site, it is hard for us to visualize the suffering that once took place inside the stockade.

After the prison site was selected, Captain Richard B. Winder was sent to Andersonville to construct a prison. Arriving in late December of 1863, Captain Winder adopted a prison design that encompassed roughly 16.5 acres which he felt was large enough to hold 10,000 prisoners.  The prison was to be rectangular in shape with a small creek flowing roughly through the center of the compound. he prison was given the name "Camp Sumter".




















Andersonville Prison.


In January of 1864, slaves from local farms were impressed to fell trees and dig ditches for construction of the prison stockade. The stockade enclosure was approximately 1010 feet long and 780 feet wide. The walls of the stockade were constructed of pine logs cut on site, hewn square, and set vertically in a wall trench dug roughly five feet deep.

According to historical accounts, the poles were hewn to a thickness of eight to 12 inches and "matched so well on the inner line of the palisades as to give no glimpse of the outer world" (Hamlin 1866:48-49).



















Andersonville, or "Camp Sumter" as it was officially known, was one of the largest of many established prison camps during the American Civil War. It was a prison for enlisted soldiers, it was designed to hold for a short time, 10,000 prisoners of war, but by August 1864, due to deteriorating resources and the breakdown of the prisoner exchange system, the prison population had swelled to over 32,000. This atrocious overcrowding quickly led to health and nutritional conditions that resulted in 12,912 deaths by war's end in May of 1865.

Adam Swarner, a young Cavalryman from New York State was the first prisoner to die at Andersonville. Five months later, his brother Jacob was buried in grave number 4,005 of the National Cemetery.

The prison guards at Andersonville, were composed mostly of older men and boys. They watched from sentry boxes (called "pigeon roosts" by the prisoners) that were perched atop the stockade.  The guards shot any prisoner who crossed a wooden railing, called the "deadline." The prison stockade pen initially covered 16 1/2 acres, but was enlarged in June 1864 to 26 1/2 acres. A small, slow moving stream running through the middle of the stockade enclosure supplied water to most of the prison. Eight small earthen forts located around the exterior of the prison were equipped with artillery to put down disturbances and to defend against union cavalry attacks.

As in many other aspects of the War, a soldier's rank and social class mattered. Officers were sent to separate prisons, where they received at least marginally better rations than their enlisted counterparts.  Those that had money in either kind of camp might be able to purchase food to supplement their daily food rations, new clothing or tents as long as the money lasted and the guards were willing. Daily life for the average prisoner, however, was dismal.


























Henry Wirz was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1822.  After graduating from the University of Zurich he obtained medical degrees from Paris and Berlin . Henry Wirz emigrated to the United States in 1849 and established a medical practice in Kentucky.  After he married, the family moved to Louisiana.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Henry Wirz  joined the Confederate Army.  While he was a sergeant in the Louisiana Volunteers, Henry Wirz  was badly wounded at the battle at Fair Oaks in May, 1862.  He lost the use of his right arm. Unable to continue in active service,  Sergeant Wirz became a clerk at Libby Prison in Richmond.  His commanding officer,  Brigadier General John Henry Winder,  was impressed by Sergeant Wirz and he was soon promoted to the rank of major.

Major Henry Wirz spoke fluent English, German and Dutch,  and on the advice of General John Henry Winder,  President Jefferson Davis decided to send him on a secret mission to England and France.

When Major Wirz returned to America, he rejoined General John Henry Winder's command, who was now in charge of all Union Army prisoners east of the Mississippi.  In April, 1864,  General Winder appointed Major Henry Wirz as commandant of the new prison camp of Andersonville.




















Almost all of the prisoners who were incarcerated at the Andersonville prison camp,  arrived there on a train.  The small town was picked, in part, because of the railway line.  The railroad terminal at Andersonville, Georgia, was the arrival point for 45,000 Union prisoners destined for incarceration at "Camp Sumter"  also known as the "Andersonville Civil War Prison".  Most people just refer to it as "Andersonville"




















The prisoners were marched the quarter mile down the road from the railroad depot to the Andersonville Prison.


















When the prisoners approached the prison camp, the could see the prison office off to their left, as they marched toward the high walls of the prison stockade with the guard towers around it.  There was a larger log building, the prison hospital, that they passed on their way to the stockade entrance.  There were eventually, twenty-two hospital sheds with fifty men in each,





















After it became the supply center for the prison, the small town of Andersonville was also the location for the office of Captain Henry Wirz, the keeper of Andersonville Prison.  It was also his place of residence.




































Two regiments guarded the prisoners at Andersonville:  the 5th Georgia and the 26th Alabama.  There was also some cavalry units stationed there.  The cavalry was mainly used to guard the outside of the prison and chase any prisoners trying to escape.
 





































The Confederate military personal lived in tents that were setup outside of the stockade.





















The new arrivals got to observe first hand, some prisoners who had attempted to escape being run back by armed guards, some with bloodhounds, and some on horseback.

















The escapees are placed in stocks as part of their punishment.



















These stocks are one part of the punishment areas.

















The new arrivals are led through the high prison gates into their new home at Andersonville.




















































This is an outside view of the southern gates of the stockade.























A light fence known as the deadline was erected approximately 19-25 feet inside the stockade wall to mark a no-man's land keeping the prisoners away from the stockade wall.





















The deadline that kept prisoners back from the prison wall.


Anyone crossing this line was immediately shot by sentries posted at intervals around the stockade wall.




















Included in the construction of the stockade were two gates positioned along the west stockade line. The gates were described in historic accounts as "small stockade pens, about 30 feet square, built of massive timbers, with heavy doors, opening into the prison on one side and the outside on the other"





















Flowing through the prison yard was a stream called Stockade Branch, which supplied water to most of the prison.  Two entrances,  the North Gate and the South Gate,  were on the West side of the stockade.

Eight small earthen forts located around the exterior of the prison were equipped with artillery to quell disturbances within the compound and to defend against the feared Union cavalry attacks.





















Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.


Charging that the Confederate authorities had violated the Dix-Hill Cartel, as well as having mistreated captured Negro Soldiers and their white officers,  on October 27,  United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton halted the exchange of prisoners of war.  This action caused the prison inmate populations on both sides to sharply increase.

















During the next few months, approximately 400 more arrived each day, until,  by the end of June,  there were about 26,000 men were confined in a prison area originally intended to hold 10,000.






















A Government map of the prison.


It was decided that a larger prison was necessary, and by mid-June work was begun to enlarge the prison. The prison's walls were extended 610 feet to the north, which covered an area of roughly 10 acres.   That brought the total prison area of the prison to 26.5 acres.

The extension was built by a crew of Union prisoners and consisted of 100 whites and 30 black soldiers, in about 14 days.


















On July 1, the northern extension was opened to the prisoners.  They subsequently tore down the original north stockade wall, then used the timbers for fuel and building materials.  By August, over 33,000 Union prisoners were held in the 26.5 acre prison.  That is about the present-day population of Sumter County.

As soon as Captain Henry Wirz took command of the camp, he paroled all the drummer boys.  There were about fifty of them.  Captain Wirz said that he did this to "protect these young boys from the hardships of the prison-camp life".


























A compatriot of Captain Wirz asked  him why he did not wear his sword and sash into the camp.  He replied, "The poor fellows have enough reminders of war without my parading with sash and sword."

The prisoners called a mass meeting July 20th and drew up a petition to send to the Federal Government about resuming prisoner exchange.  A prisoner committee was paroled and allowed to go in person to intercede for them.

The names of these men were:
    Edward Bates, Co. K, 42nd N. Y.
    H. C. Higgenson, Co. K, 19th Ill.
    Prescott Tracey, Co. G, 82nd N. Y.
    Sylvester Noirot, Co. B, 5th N. J.

They were paroled for this purpose.  Three of them returned to make a report about their failure.

In speeches at the mass meeting, Secretary of War Stanton was "painted as black as could be".  One prisoner raised his arm and shouted,  "I hold Secretary Stanton personally responsible for my misery!"


















The Battle of Atlanta.


Due to the threat of Union raids (General Sherman's troops were marching on Atlanta), General Winder ordered the building of defensive earthworks and a middle and outer stockade around the prison.

Construction of the earthworks began July 20th. These earthworks consisted of Star Fort located southwest of the prison, a redoubt located northwest of the north gate, and six redans.

The middle and outer stockades were hastily constructed of unhewn pine logs set vertically in wall trenches that were about four feet deep.  The middle stockade posts projected roughly 12 feet above the ground surface and encircled the inner prison stockade as well as the corner redans.  The outer stockade,  which was never completed, was meant to encompass the entire complex of earthworks and stockades.  The posts of the outer stockade extended about five feet above the ground surface.

Handicapped by deteriorating economic conditions, an inadequate transportation system, and the need to concentrate all available resources on the army, the Confederate government was unable to provide adequate housing, food, clothing, and medical care to their Federal captives.  These conditions, along with a breakdown of the prisoner exchange system,  resulted in much suffering and a very high mortality rate.

















 
The latrine at Andersonville, ran right next to the "Stockade Branch" creek, which was only about three feet away.


















Prison latrine runs right next to the stream used for drinking water.


Water or lack of water was the major problem. The Stockade Branch, a branch of Sweetwater Creek, flowed through the prison yard and was the only source of water for most of the prison. It was used for everything, so you can only imagine what it was like. Dysentery, scurvy, malaria, and exposure were rampant.


The Providence Spring

Most of the visitors who visit the National Park Service site at Andersonville, Georgia, make the trip to see the Providence Spring.

There have been many accounts about the spring  at the Andersonville Prison.

The following was erected by the National Park Service. - "During a heavy rainstorm on August 14, 1864, a spring suddenly gushed from this hillside. The prisoners were desperate for fresh water, and over time the event became legendary. Several men claimed to have seen lightning strike this spot just before the spring burst forth."

"This damp slope, with its many natural seeps, would appear to be a likely site for a spring. Workmen may have inadvertently buried the spring´s outlet while digging the stockade trench. Whether an act of nature or divine providence, the effect of the stream was an answer to thousands of prayers."























There have been numerous accounts as to how and when the spring at Andersonville prison stockade first appeared.  I am posting twelve (12) of them, for your consideration.

(1) The water furnished the stockade by the branch became so unfit from the filth on the outside and from the cook house and stables that there was a general cry for water from all over the camp and God heard the cries of his people and gave them Providence Spring. The Confederates at the time, and even to this day, call this Providence Spring, and say that God answered the soldiers' prayer for water.

(2) It is said that a deafening noise like thunder or an earthquake shook the earth around the prison one day, and a stream of water burst forth from the torn ground. They considered this phenomenon a providential act of God and so the stream of water was called Providence Spring.

(3) A group of Christian prisoners finally decided they would pray to God for pure water and would not stop until their prayers were answered. They prayed for hours. Finally a deafening noise like thunder or an earthquake shook the earth, and where they were kneeling a stream of water burst forth from the torn ground. They considered this phenomenon a providential act of God and so the stream of water was called Providence Spring.

(4) One of the historical accounts reported that the spring was originally there, but had been covered over when the camp construction work was in progress. Nevertheless, those who prayed for water believed God's providential act provided an answer to their prayers.

(5) An unknown prisoner has written "There has been a great deal written about Providence Spring and what caused the water to come out of the earth at this place. I will state that I was there at the time God gave this spring to us, and this spring came through prayer for water."

(6) One eye-witness account was handed down to his Grandson by Blake Myers. Blake Myerrs was one of those in the prayer group and he insisted that the story he told  told his grandson when he was a boy was true.

(7) A Mr. John Wallace Adams of Muddy Creek, Butler County, Pennsylvania, had spent 9 months in Andersonville, has said "During the hottest part of the summer, when the fetid stream was a mere trickle, and prisoners were dying of thirst, they began to pray for water. A spring burst forth inside the stockade. Many prisoners attributed the occurrence to Divine Providence and named it Providence Spring. It was a permanent source of fresh water that still exists to this day."  John Wallace died in 1910.

(8) In the "Andersonville Memoirs of Henry A. Harman" - 1893 - "Aug. 9, 1864, when something took place that was singular, and certainly providential. During a heavy thunder storm, some of the timbers of the stockade, alongside of the branch at the upper side of the camp, were washed loose, tearing away the embankment considerably. After the storm it was noticed that a beautiful, clear stream of water flowed from out the embankment. After the stockade was replaced this continued to run. As the spring was inside the dead-line, the rebs kindly put a trough in such a shape that it conveyed the water within the reach of the prisoners. Although the stream was small it was continuous and cold."

(9) In "A Civil War Veteran's Recollections" by Israel W. Miller - 1925 - "One morning the camp was astonished beyond measure to discover that during the night a large spring had burst out, on the north side, about midway between the swamp and the summit of the hill. This spring was afterwards called "Providence Spring" for "to the many who looked in wonder upon it, it seemed as truly a heaven wrought miracle as when Moses' enchanted rod smote the parched rock in Sinai’s desert waste and the living waters gushed forth".

"At the close of the war the colored people took charge of the spring known as "Providence spring" in the Andersonville Prison, as they considered that it was the Hand of God that opened up the spring, and to them it was sacred ground. A barrel was sunk by them and when the barrel would decay they replaced it doing this for a number of years. After the organization of the Women's Relief Corps, the officials made a trip to Andersonville for investigation and suggestions for the preservation of the Spring. Upon their return an appeal was made to the United States Congress to purchase the ground and care for the spring. After several persistent appeals, a commission was appointed to visit the place and see what could be done. The ground was purchased and the spring walled with sandstone, and a large stone placed over as a canopy top, with "Providence spring" cut in the stone in front. It remains there to this day and the water is still gushing forth to quench the thirst of all visitors."

(10) In "A Private's Story" by Thomas Newton - Late of Co. I, 6th Wis. Vol. Inf. - "One day in August, I think about the 23rd, there was a heavy rain storm that washed out the stockade entrance and outlet of the brook. Had we then been united we could have made a grand rush, overpowered the guard and part of us would probably have reached our lines, but we did not grasp the situation soon enough."

"The rain was a God-send to us in more ways than one; all of us had a good shower bath; it cleansed the camp wonderfully and lastingly. The next morning we discovered a good spring that had broken out in the side hill between the north gate and the brook, a few feet from the “dead line.” We fished it over the dead line a few days, but finally the rebels allowed our men to nail a couple of boards together to make a trough to conduct the water into camp, when there would be such a rush for it with old canteens, tin cups, boot legs fastened together to hold water, and many other contrivances making such a jam it was difficult for any of us to get any until a guard was stationed to make them take turns, when there would be from one to two or three hundred at a time waiting their turn. It was rightly named Providence for it was truly providential. I read a year or two ago that it was still running and is known by the same name."

(11) John L. Maile, 8th Michigan Infantry August 15, 1864. - "During a heavy rainstorm on August 14, 1864, a spring suddenly gushed from this hillside. The prisoners were desperate for fresh water, and over time the event became legendary. Several men claimed to have seen lightning strike this spot just before the spring burst forth."

"This damp slope, with its many natural seeps, would appear to be a likely site for a spring. Workmen may have inadvertently buried the spring´s outlet while digging the stockade trench. Whether an act of nature or divine providence, the effect of the stream was an answer to thousands of prayers."

"A spring of purest crystal water shot up into the air in a column and, falling in a fanlike spray, went babbling down the grade into the noxious brook. Looking across the dead-line, we beheld with wondering eyes and grateful hearts the fountain spring."

(12) Isaac C. Sutton, in his “A West Virginia boy’s Experiences in the Field and in Prison,” that was printed in the NATIONAL TRIBUNE (Washington, DC), November 8, 1906.  “{At  Andersonville} I was at the famous spring, now called “Providence Spring,” five minutes after it burst out of the hot sand. It was there I first saw Boston Corbett. He got on a big pine stump when the rebs brought in a big wagonload of lumber. Some of our boys said, “They are going to take the spring from us,” and when they commenced to unload the wagon Corbett said, “Boys, never fear. The first rebel that raises a hand to take from us that which God has sent, God Almighty will strike him dead in his tracks.” So they made a big spout to the spring; then we had what our boys called delicious water.”












































The water runs up into a large marble bowl in the shadows of  a well house built by Union soldiers after the war then overflows through a series of piping to a shallow wading pool.




















The ground was purchased and the spring walled with sandstone. It remains there to this day and the water is still gushing forth to quench the thirst of all visitors.


















What was called Providence spring is still flowing today.




















There is a stone house that was erected at the site.



















Inscription is on the wall states:  "The Prisoners' cry of thirst rang up to Heaven; God heard, and with His thunder cleft the earth and poured his sweet water came rushing here." On another side of this house is the inscription: "God smote the hillside and gave them drink, August 16, 1864."


























This water bottle was used in 1889 to collect water from Providence Spring .  By that time, the war was over, and the water was collected as a souvenir. (The bottle is on display at the Michigan Historical Museum)


By early September, General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops had occupied Atlanta and the threat of Union raids on Andersonville prompted the transfer of most of the Union prisoners to other camps in Georgia and South Carolina. By mid-November, all but about 1500 prisoners had been shipped out of Andersonville, and only a few guards remained to police them.

Transfers to Andersonville in late December increased the numbers of prisoners once again, but even then the prison population totalled only about 5000 persons. The number of prisoners at the prison would remain this low until the war ended.


















During the 15 months during which Andersonville was operated, almost 13,000 Union prisoners died there of malnutrition, exposure, and disease. Andersonville became synonymous with the attrocities which both North and South soldiers experienced as prisoners of war.

***

Ole Steensland




























Ole Steensland was born in Hjelmeland, Norway, on 29th April, 1842. His family emigrated to America when he was twelve years old and settled in Iowa County, Wisconsin.

On the outbreak of the Civil War Ole Steensland joined the Scandinavian Regiment that was commanded by fellow Norwegian, Colonel Hans Heg. Steensland took part in the successful raid on Union City, Tennessee. After an extensive campaign in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, Steensland also took part in the battle at Perryville (8th October, 1862)




















Steensland helped capture a Confederate artillery battery at Knob Gap, Tennessee on 15th December, 1862 and fought at Murfreesboro (Stones River) on 31st December, 1862.

At the Battle of Chickamauga (September19th - 20th, 1863) the Scandinavian Regiment suffered heavy casualties including the loss of its commander, Colonel Hans Heg. Steensland was captured and imprisoned on Belle Island where he caught smallpox. Later he was transferred to Andersonville Prison in Georgia.

























Ole Steensland was a prisoner for over 19 months before being released at the end of the war. While in Andersonville,  he  had seen several of his comrades die including Sivert Pederson,  who had fought at Murfreesboro (Stones River) on 31st December, 1862 and in "recognition of distinguished gallantry" was granted the honorary rant of Brevet Captain.   Sivert Pederson died in the camp of scorbutus on 5th of September, 1864.

Steensland later described their appearance when they left Andersonville: "We were a hard looking bunch. Some of us almost naked, unshaved, with our louse eaten hair hanging down to our shoulders. My ankles were so stiff and my feet so swollen that I could hardly hobble around."

Ole Steensland finally made it home in May 1865, He married Anna Isaacson and purchased a farm in Moscow, Wisconsin, where they raised ten children. Steensland served as chairman of the town council and was a trustee of the Iowa County Insane Asylum.

When Ole Steensland retired he applied for a veteran's pension, but his claim was rejected. Ole Steensland died of "a stroke of apoplexy", at Blanchardville, Wisconsin, on 15th August, 1903.

Ole Steensland  had survived over 11 months in the stockade at Andersonville, one of only a handful of prisoners that lasted through such a long stretch.

***

























Warren Banister Persons


The following is a letter that a soldier, Warren B. Persons, who was near death, wrote to his family at home. He gave this letter to another prisoner and friend, Thomas White to deliver.

Confederate Hospital near
Andersonville, Georgia  July 2, 1864

Dear Friends at Home:

It is just one year since I was captured and I have taken the best care I could of myself, and struggled long and hard for life, for my sake and for the sake of loved ones at home, but it is of no use. I discover I lose strength daily, and the feeble beating of my pulse warns me that what little remains for me to do must be done quickly. I have no particular disease, except general disability, and I shall probably die an easy death. My principle reason for writing this to you is to let you know that I die in hope of a blessed immortality beyond the grave, and I can truly say, "O Grave, where is thy victory, O Death where is thy sting?"

I pray these few lines may reach you someway, for I know that such an assurance from me will afford you more consolation than any other message I could send. I wish I had more strength to think and write, I could say so many things, but I am easy and happy. I find great comfort in reading the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters of St. John.

The whole word of God is precious to me, and I only wish I might live to preach it. I thank God that others have been raised up to preach it, and through its hearing and believing I feel I am saved. Do not regard me as one lost, but as one merely gone before, waiting to receive you to Heaven's untold joys. Oh, be sure to meet me there, where weeping and parting are no more. I have hated to die, and have temptations at times that way now, but what are the moments and pleasures of time compared with the unending duration and untold joys of Eternity. It fills my soul with rapture to contemplate now.

I die the death I have always prayed for, that is, I have ample time for meditation upon and preparation for this great and final change. I am well aware that I have not always lived as I should, and perhaps this is my punishment that I must die away from home and friends, but Christ is my friend and comforter, and I feel I am not alone.

I would love to write more, but if this reaches you it will do perhaps.

Give Frank Woods a nice book from my library, and one to Albert Damon. Everything else I leave at your disposal.

Farewell until we meet in Heaven.

Your loving son and brother,

W. B. Persons


The following is a transcription of a copy made by Pluma (Banister) Persons, mother of Warren B. Persons, of the cover letter that the Warren B. Persons wrote to Thomas White, who was also at Andersonville Prison. July 4, 1864

Friend White,

I am daily growing weaker in every respect and my case is such I consider myself liable to die any moment and I may linger a considerable time, but I am sure to go.

I want you to be sure, if it is a possible thing, to get these lines written with ink to my Mother. You will thereby do her and me, the greatest favor it is possible for you to do us, and if you ever get away.

To make the thing sure, I request Paul and Lisby to do me the favor of reading what I have written, taking my address and writing the impost to my friends. I wish I could leave you my things, you need them, but this is impossible. Good by..

I think you will be released soon. I have not given up through discouragement. I think I understand my condition. When a man's physical energies are expended, he cannot live. My pulse just beats and I know it is impossible for me to rally with such assistance as can be afforded me and every attempt at it only to make me miserable.

This must do

W. B. Persons


Warren B. Persons, B. Persons died on July 9, 1864, and Thomas White died a month later on August 8, 1864 at 4 PM.

Before his death, Thomas White passed the letter to another friend with a note requesting that it be delivered to the Persons family.

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John L. Ransom


John L. Ransom was a Civil War Union Soldier, Diarist. He served during the Civil War as Quartermaster of Company A, 9th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. He was a 20-year-old Union soldier when he was captured in Tennessee in 1863. He was then imprisoned at the infamous Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.  He maintained a diary during his one- year imprisonment, and that diary, John Ransom's "Andersonville Diary" has become a key primary source for Civil War researchers.

This non-fiction account of the conditions at the Andersonville prison is emotionally difficult to take. The events are powerfully depicted.  John Ransom’s upbeat attitude through the ordeal makes it easy reading and the insight that he provides helps us to better understand, as he shines a light on a dark time in our country's history.

After John Ranson made an unsuccessful escape attempt from Andersonville, he was nursed back to health by Confederate citizens who felt sorry for his condition.

John L Ransom was born in 1843,  and had enlisted on November 26, 1862,  and was discharged on July 21, 1865. John. Ransom's book, "Andersonville Diary", was published in 1881.  He was a member of Pasadena GAR Post #93. He died on September 23, 1919,  at age of 76,  in Los Angeles County.   He is buried at Altadena, Los Angeles County, California.





















John L. Ranson, Andersonville Diary (July, 1864)

"6th July:  Boiling hot, camp reeking with filth, and no sanitary privileges; men dying off over 140 per day. Stockade enlarged, taking in eight or ten more acres, giving us more room, and stumps to dig up for wood to cook with. Jimmy Devers has been a prisoner over a year and, poor boy, will probably die soon. Have more mementos than I can carry, from those who have died, to be given to their friends at home. At least a dozen have given me letters, pictures, etc., to take North. Hope I shan't have to turn them over to someone else."

"7th July:  Having formed a habit of going to sleep as soon as the air got cooled off and before fairly dark. I wake up at 2 or 3 o'clock and stay awake. I then take in all the horrors of the situation. Thousands are groaning, moaning, and crying, with no bustle of the daytime to drown it."

"9th July:  One-half the men here would get well if they only had something in the vegetable line to eat. Scurvy is about the most loathsome disease, and when dropsy takes hold with the scurvy, it is terrible. I have both diseases but keep them in check, and it only grows worse slowly. My legs are swollen, but the cords are not contracted much, and I can still walk very well."

"10th July:  Have bought (from a new prisoner) a large blank book so as to continue my diary. Although it is a tedious and tiresome task, am determined to keep it up. Don't know of another man in prison who is doing likewise. Wish I had the gift of description that I might describe this place."

"Nothing can be worse kind of water. Nothing can be worse or nastier than the stream drizzling its way through this camp. And for air to breathe, it is what arises from this foul place. On al four sides of us are high walls and tall tress, and there is apparently no wind or breeze to blow away the stench, and we are obliged to breathe and live in it.

Dead bodies lay around all day in the broiling sun, by the dozen and even hundreds, and we must suffer and live in this atmosphere."



















"12th July:   I keep thinking our situation can get no worse, but it does get worse every day, and not less than 160 die each twenty-four hours. Probably one-forth or one-third of these die inside the stockade, the balance in the hospital outside. All day and up to 4 o'clock p.m., the dead are being gathered up and carried to the south gate and placed in a row inside the dead line. As the bodies are stripped of their clothing, in most cases as soon as the breath leaves and in some cases before, the row of dead presents a sickening appearance."




















"At 4 o'clock, a four or six mule wagon comes up to the gate, and twenty or thirty bodies are loaded onto the wagon and they are carried off to be put in trenches, one hundred in each trench, in the cemetery. It is the orders to attach the name, company, and regiment to each body, but it is not always done. My digging days are over. It is with difficulty now that I can walk, and only with the help of two canes."

Some captured Union Army prisoners in Andersonville' began stealing from fellow inmates and killed or aused the deaths of the other inmates. 

The group, collectively known as "Mosby's Raiders" and led by William "Mosby" Collins, that beat, stole from, murdered and terrorized fellow Union prisoners before they revolted. In a trial conducted by the prisoners, and endorsed by Prison commander Captain Henry Wirtz, the six "Raiders" were found guilty, and hanged. Their remains were interred away from the rest of the Union soldiers who died at the prison.

Confederate Captain Henry Wirz who was in charge of Andersonville, gave instructions for the non-commissioned to arrest the men, and they were to be tried in a court to be held by the prisoners. They jury, which was made up of new prisoners (they did not know the accuses men) was to decide their guilt or innocense, and if they were found guilty, the jury would determine the sentence.  The inmates were then to carry out the Jury's sentence. 

Six men were tried and convicted of killing or directly causing the death of other prisoners and the jury decided that they were to be hanged.










Their remains were interred away from the rest of the Union soldiers who died at the prison.

























John L. Ransom recorded in his diary how six of the men were executed.


"This morning, lumber was brought into the prison by the Rebels, and near the gate a gallows erected for the purpose of  executing the six condemned Yankees. At about 10 o'clock they were brought inside by Captain Wirtz and some guards.

Wirtz then said a few words about their having been tried by our own men and for us to do as we choose with them."

"I have learned by inquiry their names, which are as follows: John Sarsfield, 144th New York; William Collins, 88th Pennsylvania; Charles Curtiss, 5th Rhode Island Artillery; Pat Delaney, 83rd Pennsylvania; A. Munn, U.S. Navy and W.R. Rickson of the U.S. Navy."

"All were given a chance to talk. Munn, a good-looking fellow in Marine dress, said he came into the prison four months before, perfectly honest and as innocent of crime as any fellow in it. Starvation, with evil companions, had made him what he was. He spoke of his mother and sisters in New York, that he cared nothing as far as he himself was concerned, but the news that would be carried home to his people made him want to curse God he had ever been born."

"Delaney said he would rather be hung than live here as the most of them lived on the allowance of rations. If allowed to steal could get enough to eat, but as that was stopped had rather hang. He said his name was not Delaney and that no one knew who he really was, therefore his friends would never know his fate, his Andersonville history dying with him."

"Curtiss said he didn't care a damn only hurry up and not be talking about it all day; making too much fuss over a very small matter. "

"William Collins said he was innocent of murder and ought not be hung; he had stolen blankets and rations to preserve his own life, and begged the crowd not to see him hung as he had a wife and child at home."

"Collins, although he said he had never killed anyone, and I don't believe he ever did deliberately kill a man, such as stabbing or pounding a victim to death, yet he has walked up to a poor sick prisoner on a cold night and robbed him of  blanket, or perhaps his rations, and if necessary using all the force necessary to do it. These things were the same as life to the sick man, for he would invariably die."

"Sarsfield made quite a speech; he had studied for a lawyer; at the outbreak of the rebellion he had enlisted and served three years in the army, being wounded in battle. Promoted to first sergeant and also commissioned as a lieutenant. He began by stealing parts of rations, gradually becoming hardened as he became familiar with the crimes practiced; evil associates had helped him to go downhill."

"At about 11 o'clock, they were all blindfolded, hands and feet tied, told to get ready, nooses adjusted, and the plank knocked from under."


















"Collins' rope broke and he fell to the ground, with blood spurting from his ears, mouth and nose. As they was lifting him back to the swinging-off place, he revived and begged for his life, but no use, was soon dangling with the rest, and died hard."

***


Dr. Jones found 9,501 prisoners afflicted with scurvy and concluded this disease of vitamin C deficiency was responsible either directly or indirectly for nine-tenths of the deaths.23 Actually, the prisoners appeared to be dying of “scorbutic dysentery.”  The Chief Surgeon at Andersonville was Dr. Isaiah H. White. In May 1864, he reported that

“The diseases now prevailing are those of the digestive system, diarrhea and dysentery, which have in most instances a scorbutic connection.”  Scurvy combined with diarrhea was a particularly lethal combination, not only at Andersonville but also in London prisons (1823), polar expeditions (1853), among the British and French troops in the Crimea (1854-56), and during the Boer War (1899-1902). 

The severe malnutrition at Andersonville produced a nutritional multiple deficiency state in which scurvy was the more or less prominent feature. The diet deficient in protein and vitamins, particularly B12 and folic acid (in addition to vitamin C), produced intestinal malabssorption and diarrhea. 

The Confederates fed the prisoners a ration consisting chiefly of unbolted corn meal (corn kernel, husks and cobs all ground in together.)

Captain Henry Wirz, the commander of the inner stockade, reported on June 6, 1864 that “the bread which is issued prisoners is of such an inferior quality, consisting fully of one-sixth of husk, that it is almost unfit for use and increases dysentery and other bowel complaints.”  The physicians at Andersonville also recognized this diet was unhealthy. Dr. R. Randolph Stevenson, the chief surgeon of the hospital at Andersonville, recalled, “The bread was made from cornmeal…[that] produced diarrhea, and hence laid the foundation of all those symptoms resulting from defective nutrition.” 

Dr. White appears to have deduced the connection between the unbolted corn bread, accelerated scurvy, and diarrhea. In early August, he noted that feeding the prisoners the unbolted corn meal was “unwholesome” and added that “amongst the older prisoners, scurvy prevails to a great extent, which is usually accompanied by diseases of the digestive organs.”

In his report to the Confederate Surgeon General, Dr. Jones stated: “From this examination we may conclude that there is no recognizable source of disease in the waters or soil of Andersonville.”


***


The Trial Of Henry Wirz

The first charge alleged that Henry Wirz had conspired with Jefferson Davis, John H. Winder, and various other high ranking Confederate officials to "impair the health and destroy the lives" of Union prisoners of war.

The second charge had thirteen specifications, alleging that Wirz had murdered thirteen Union prisoners of war at Andersonville by shooting, stomping, subjecting such prisoners to the mauling of bloodhounds, and various other mistreatment.

Not in a single one of the specifications was even one of the alleged victims name , nor their unit, rank or any other details about them. This is in spite of the thousands of Union prisoners who could have witnessed the alleged atrocities.

 On August 23, 1865, a Military Commission of the War Department, on the orders of the President, filed two charges against Captain Henry Wirz. 

The first charge alleged that Henry Wirz had conspired with Jefferson Davis, John H. Winder, and various other high ranking Confederate officials to "impair the health and destroy the lives" of Union prisoners of war.

The second charge had thirteen specifications, alleging that Wirz had murdered thirteen Union prisoners of war at Andersonville by shooting, stomping, subjecting such prisoners to the mauling of bloodhounds, and various other mistreatment.

Not in a single one of the specifications was even one of the alleged victims name , nor their unit, rank or any other details about them. This is in spite of the thousands of Union prisoners who could have witnessed the alleged atrocities.


Transcript Of  Major Henry Wirz Trial

The following is a partial Transcript from the printed testimony at the Major Henry Wirz Trial,

October 7, 1885.

Questions by the Judge Advocate.


Question. Where do you reside

Answer. In Augusta, Georgia.


Question. Are you a graduate of any medical college?

Answer.  Of the University of Pennsylvania.


Question. How long have you been engaged in the practice of medicine?

Answer.  Eight years.


Question. Has your experience been as a practitioner, or rather as an investigator of medicine as a science?

Answer.  Both.


Question. What position do you hold now?

Answer.  That of Medical Chemist in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta.


Question. How long have you held your position in that college?

Answer.  Since 1858.


Question. How were you employed during the Rebellion?

Answer.  I served six months in the early part of it as a private in the ranks, and the rest of the time in the medical department.


Question. Under the direction of whom?

Answer.  Under the direction of Dr. Moore, Surgeon General.


Question. Did you, while acting under his direction, visit Andersonville, professionally?

Answer.  Yes, Sir.


Question. For the purpose of making investigations there?

Answer.  For the purpose of prosecuting investigations ordered by the Surgeon General.


Question. You went there in obedience to a letter of instructions?

Answer.  In obedience to orders which I received.


Question. Did you reduce the results of your investigations to the shape of a report?

Answer.  I was engaged at that work when General Johnston surrendered his army.

(A document being handed to witness.)


Question. Have you examined this extract from your report and compared it with the original?

Answer.  Yes, Sir; I have.


Question. Is it accurate?

Answer.  So far as my examination extended, it is accurate.'

The document just examined by witness was offered in evidence, and is as follows:

Observations upon the diseases of the Federal prisoners, confined to Camp Sumter, Andersonville, in Sumter County, Georgia, instituted with a view to illustrate chiefly the origin and causes of hospital gangrene, the relations of continued and malarial fevers, and the pathology of camp diarrhea and dysentery, by Joseph Jones; Surgeon P. A. C. S., Professor of Medical Chemistry in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta, Georgia.

Hearing of the unusual mortality among the Federal prisoners confined at Andersonville; Georgia, in the month of  August, 1864, during a visit to Richmond, Va., I expressed to the Surgeon General, S. P. Moore, Confederate States of  America, a desire to visit Camp Sumter, with the design of instituting a series of inquiries upon the nature and causes of the prevailing diseases. Smallpox had appeared among the prisoners, and I believed that this would prove an admirable field for the establishment of its characteristic lesions. The condition of Peyer's glands in this disease was considered as worthy of minute investigation. It was believed that a large body of men from the Northern portion of  the United States, suddenly transported to a warm Southern climate, and confined upon a small portion of land, would furnish an excellent field for the investigation of the relations of typhus, typhoid, and malarial fevers.

The Surgeon General of the Confederate States of America furnished me with the following letter of introduction to the

Surgeon in charge of the Confederate States Military Prison at Andersonville, Ga.:


        CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,

        SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE, RICHMOND, VA.,

        August 6, 1864.

SIR: — The field of pathological investigations afforded by the large collection of Federal prisoners in Georgia, is of great extant and importance, and it is believed that results of value to the profession may be obtained by careful investigation of the effects of disease upon the large body of men subjected to a decided change of climate and those circumstances peculiar to prison life. The Surgeon in charge of the hospital for Federal prisoners, together with his assistants, will afford every facility to Surgeon Joseph Jones, in the prosecution of the labors ordered by the Surgeon General. Efficient assistance must be rendered Surgeon Jones by the medical officers, not only in his examinations into the causes and symptoms of the various diseases, but especially in the arduous labors of post mortem examinations.

The medical officers will assist in the performance of such post-mortems as Surgeon Jones may indicate, in order that this great field for pathological investigation may be explored for the benefit of the Medical Department of the Confederate Army.

        S. P. MOORE, Surgeon General.

Surgeon ISAIAH H. WHITE,

In charge of Hospital for Federal prisoners, Andersonville, Ga.

In compliance with this letter of the Surgeon General, Isaiah H. White, Chief Surgeon of the post, and R. R. Stevenson, Surgeon in charge of the Prison Hospital, afforded the necessary facilities for the prosecution of my investigations among the sick outside of the Stockade. After the completion of my labors in the military prison hospital, the following communication was addressed to Brigadier General John H. Winder, in consequence of the refusal on the part of the commandant of the interior of the Confederate States Military Prison to admit me within the Stockade upon the order of the Surgeon General:


        CAMP SUMTER, ANDERSONVILLE GA.,

        September 16, 1864.

GENERAL: — I respectfully request the commandant of the post of Andersonville to grant me permission and to furnish the necessary pass to visit the sick and medical officers within the Stockade of the Confederate States Prison. I desire to institute certain inquiries ordered by the Surgeon General. Surgeon Isaiah H. White, Chief Surgeon of the post, and Surgeon R. R. Stevenson, in charge of the Prison Hospital, have afforded me every facility for the prosecution of my labors among the sick outside of the Stockade.

        Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

        JOSEPH JONES, Surgeon P. A. C. S.

Brigadier General JOHN H. WINDER,

Commandant, Post Andersonville.


In the absence of General Winder from the post, Captain Winder furnished the following order:

        CAMP SUMTER, ANDERSONVILLE;

        September 17, 1864.

CAPTAIN:  —  You will permit Surgeon Joseph Jones, who has orders from the Surgeon General, to visit the sick within the Stockade that are under medical treatment. Surgeon Jones is ordered to make certain investigations which may prove useful to his profession. By direction of General Winder. Very respectfully, W. S. WINDER, A. A. G. Captain H. WIRZ, Commanding Prison.


Description of the Confederate States Military Prison Hospital at Andersonville.

Number of prisoners, physical condition, food, clothing, habits, moral condition, diseases.

The Confederate Military Prison at Andersonville, Ga., consists of a strong Stockade, twenty feet in height, enclosing twenty-seven acres. The Stockade is formed of strong pine logs, firmly planted in the ground. The main Stockade is surrounded by two other similar rows of pine logs, the middle Stockade being sixteen feet high, and the outer twelve feet. These are intended for offense and defense.

If the inner Stockade should at any time be forced by the prisoners, the second forms another line of defense; while in case of an attempt to deliver the prisoners by a force operating upon the exterior, the outer line forms an admirable protection to the Confederate troops, and a most formidable obstacle to cavalry or infantry. The four angles of the outer line are strengthened by earthworks upon commanding eminences, from which the cannon, in case of an outbreak among the prisoners, may sweep the entire enclosure; and it was designed to connect these works by a line of rifle pits, running zig-zag, around the outer Stockade; those rifle pits have never been completed. The ground enclosed by the innermost Stockade lies in the form of a parallelogram, the larger diameter running almost due north and south.

This space includes the northern and southern opposing sides of two hills, between which a stream of water runs from west to east. The surface soil of these hills is composed chiefly of sand with varying admixtures of clay and oxide of iron. The clay is sufficiently tenacious to give a considerable degree of consistency to the soil. The internal structure of the hills, as revealed by the deep wells, is similar to that already described. The alternate layers of clay and sand, as well as the oxide of iron, which forms in its various combinations a cement to the sand, allow of extensive tunneling.

The prisoners not only constructed numerous dirt huts with balls of clay and sand, taken from the wells which they have excavated all over those hills, but they have also, in some cases, tunneled extensively from these wells. The lower portions of these hills, bordering on the stream, are wet and boggy from the constant oozing of water. The Stockade was built originally to accommodate only ten thousand prisoners, and included at first seventeen acres. Near the close of the month of June the area was enlarged by the addition of ten acres. The ground added was situated on the northern slope of the largest hill.

The average number of square feet of ground to each prisoner in August 1864: 35.7

Within the circumscribed area of the Stockade the Federal prisoners were compelled to perform all the offices of life - cooking, washing, the calls of nature, exercise, and sleeping. During the month of March the prison was less crowded than at any subsequent time, and then the average space of ground to each prisoner was only 98.7 feet, or less than seven square yards.

The Federal prisoners were gathered from all parts of the Confederate States east of the Mississippi, and crowded into the confined space, until in the month of June the average number of square feet of ground to each prisoner was only 33.2 or less than four square yards. These figures represent the condition of the Stockade in a better light even than it really was; for a considerable breadth of land along the stream, flowing from west to east between the hills, was low and boggy, and was covered with the excrement of the men, and thus rendered wholly uninhabitable, and in fact useless for every purpose except that of defecation.

The pines and other small trees and shrubs, which originally were scattered sparsely over these hills, were in a short time cut down and consumed by the prisoners for firewood, and no shade tree was left in the entire enclosure of the stockade. With their characteristic industry and ingenuity, the Federals constructed for themselves small huts and caves, and attempted to shield themselves from the rain and sun and night damps and dew. But few tents were distributed to the prisoners, and those were in most cases torn and rotten.

The police and internal economy of the prison was left almost entirely in the hands of the prisoners themselves; the duties of the Confederate soldiers acting as guards being limited to the occupation of the boxes or lookouts ranged around the stockade at regular intervals, and to the manning of the batteries at the angles of the prison.

Even judicial matters pertaining to themselves, as the detection and punishment of such crimes as theft and murder appear to have been in a great measure abandoned to the prisoners. A striking instance of this occurred in the month of July, when the Federal prisoners within the Stockade tried, condemned, and hanged six (6) of their own number, who had been convicted of stealing and of robbing and murdering their fellow-prisoners. They were all hung upon the same day, and thousands of the prisoners gathered around to witness the execution.

The Confederate authorities are said not to have interfered with these proceedings. In this collection of men from all parts of the world, every phase of human character was represented; the stronger preyed upon the weaker, and even the sick who were unable to defend themselves were robbed of their scanty supplies of food and clothing. Dark stories were afloat, of men, both sick and well, who were murdered at night, strangled to death by their comrades for scant supplies of clothing or money.

I heard a sick and wounded Federal prisoner accuse his nurse, a fellow-prisoner of the United States Army, of having stealthily, during his sleep inoculated his wounded arm with gangrene, that he might destroy his life and fall heir to his clothing.

The large number of men confined within the Stockade soon, under a defective system of police, and with imperfect arrangements, covered the surface of the low grounds with excrements. The sinks over the lower portions of the stream were imperfect in their plan and structure, and the excrements were in large measure deposited so near the borders of the stream as not to be washed away, or else accumulated upon the low boggy ground. The volume of water was not sufficient to wash away the feces, and they accumulated in such quantities in the lower portion of the stream as to form a mass of liquid excrement heavy rains caused the water of the stream to rise, and as the arrangements for the passage of the increased amounts of water out of the Stockade were insufficient, the liquid feces overflowed the low grounds and covered them several inches, after the subsidence of the waters. The action of the sun upon this putrefying mass of excrements and fragments of bread and meat and bones excited most rapid fermentation and developed a horrible stench.

The accommodations for the sick were imperfect and insufficient. From the organization of the prison, February 24, 1864, to May 22, the sick were treated within the Stockade. In the crowded condition of the Stockade, and with the tents and huts clustered thickly around the hospital, it was impossible to secure proper ventilation or to maintain the necessary police.

The Federal prisoners also made frequent forays upon the hospital stores and carried off the food and clothing of the sick. The hospital was, on the 22d of May, removed to its present site without the Stockade, and five acres of ground covered with oaks and pines appropriated to the use of the sick.

The supply of medical officers has been insufficient from the foundation of the prison.

The nurses and attendants upon the sick have been most generally Federal prisoners, who in too many cases appear to have been devoid of moral principle, and who not only neglected their duties, but were also engaged in extensive robbing of the sick.

From the want of proper police and hygienic regulations alone it is not wonderful that from February 24 to September 21, 1864, nine thousand four hundred and seventy-nine deaths, nearly one-third the entire number of prisoners, should have been recorded. I found the Stockade and hospital in the following condition during my pathological investigations, instituted in the month of September, 1864:

STOCKADE, CONFEDERATE STATES MILITARY PRISON.

At the time of my visit to Andersonville a large number of Federal prisoners had been removed to Millen, Savannah; Charleston, and other parts of, the Confederacy, in anticipation of an advance of General Sherman's forces from Atlanta, with the design of liberating their captive brethren; however, about fifteen thousand prisoners remained confined within the limits of the Stockade and Confederate States Military Prison Hospital.

If one might judge from the large pieces of corn-bread scattered about in every direction on the ground the prisoners were either very lavishly supplied with this article of diet, or else this kind of food was not relished by them.






















Each day the dead from the Stockade were carried out by their fellow-prisoners and deposited upon the ground under a bush arbor, just outside of the Southwestern Gate. From thence they were carried in carts to the burying ground, one-quarter of a mile northwest, of the Prison. The dead were buried without coffins, side by side, in trenches four feet deep.

The low grounds bordering the stream were covered with human excrements and filth of all kinds, which in many places appeared to be alive with working maggots. An indescribable sickening stench arose from these fermenting masses of human filth.

There were near five thousand seriously ill Federals in the Stockade and Confederate States Military Prison Hospital, and the deaths exceeded one hundred per day, and large numbers of the prisoners who were walking about, and who had not been entered upon the sick reports, were suffering from severe and incurable diarrhea, dysentery, and scurvy. The sick were attended almost entirely by their fellow-prisoners, appointed as nurses, and as they received but little attention, they were compelled to exert themselves at all times to attend to the calls of nature, and hence they retained the power of moving about to within a comparatively short period of the close of life. Owing to the slow progress of the diseases most prevalent, diarrhea, and chronic dysentery, the corpses were as a general rule emaciated.

I visited two thousand sick within the Stockade, lying under some long sheds which had been built at the northern portion for themselves. At this time only one medical officer was in attendance, whereas at least twenty medical officers should have been employed.

Died in the Stockade from its organization, February 24, 186l to

September 2l ...................................3,254

Died in Hospital during same time ......6,225

Total deaths in Hospital and Stockade 9,479


Scurvy, diarrhea, dysentery, and hospital gangrene were the prevailing diseases. I was surprised to find but few cases of malarial fever, and no well-marked cases either of typhus or typhoid fever. The absence of the different forms of malarial fever may be accounted for in the supposition that the artificial atmosphere of the Stockade, crowded densely with human beings and loaded with animal exhalations, was unfavorable to the existence and action of the malarial poison. The absence of typhoid and typhus fevers amongst all the causes which are supposed to generate these diseases, appeared to be due to the fact that the great majority of these prisoners had been in captivity in Virginia, at Belle Island, and in other parts of the Confederacy for months, and even as long as two years, and during this time they had been subjected to the same bad influences, and those who had not had these fevers before either had them during their confinement in Confederate prisons or else their systems, from long exposure, were proof against their action.


mucous canals, and large, ill-conditioned, spreading ulcers covered with a dark purplish fungus growth. I observed that in some of the cases of scurvy the parotid glands were greatly swollen, and in some instances to such an extent as to preclude entirely the power to articulate. In several cases of dropsy of the abdomen and lower extremities supervening upon scurvy, the patients affirmed that previously to the appearance of the dropsy they had suffered with profuse and obstinate diarrhea, and that when this was checked by a change of diet, from Indian corn-bread baked with the husk, to boiled rice, the dropsy appeared. The severe pains and livid patches were frequently associated with swellings in various parts, and especially in the lower extremities, accompanied with stiffness and contractions of the knee joints and ankles, and often with a brawny feel of the parts, as if lymph had been effused between the integuments and apeneuroses, preventing the motion of the skin over the swollen parts. Many of the prisoners believed that the scurvy was contagious, and I saw men guarding their wells and springs, fearing lest some man suffering with the scurvy might use the water and thus poison them.

I observed also numerous cases of hospital gangrene, and of spreading scorbutic ulcers, which had supervened upon slight injuries. The scorbutic ulcers presented a dark, purple fungoid, elevated surface, with livid swollen edges, and exuded a thin; fetid, sanious fluid, instead of pus. Many ulcers which originated from the scorbutic condition of the system appeared to become truly gangrenous, assuming all the characteristics of hospital gangrene. From the crowded condition, filthy habits, bad diet, and dejected, depressed condition of the prisoners, their systems had become so disordered that the smallest abrasion of the skin, from the rubbing of a shoe, or from the effects of the sun, or from the prick of a splinter, or from scratching, or a musketo bite, in some cases, took on rapid and frightful ulceration and gangrene.

The long use of salt meat, ofttimes imperfectly cured, as well as the most total deprivation of vegetables and fruit, appeared to be the chief causes of the scurvy. I carefully examined the bakery and the bread furnished the prisoners, and found that they were supplied almost entirely with corn-bread from which the husk had not been separated. This husk acted as an irritant to the alimentary canal, without adding any nutriment to the bread. As far as my examination extended no fault could be found with the mode in which the bread was baked; the difficulty lay in the failure to separate the husk from the corn-meal.

I strongly urged the preparation of large quantities of soup made from the cow and calves' heads with the brains and tongues, to which a liberal supply of sweet potatos and vegetables might have been advantageously added. The material existed in abundance for the preparation of such soup in large quantities with but little additional expense. Such aliment would have been not only highly nutritious, but it would also have acted as an efficient remedial agent for the removal of the scorbutic condition. The sick within the Stockade lay under several long sheds which were originally built for barracks. These sheds covered two floors which were open on all sides. The sick lay upon the bare boards, or upon such ragged blankets as they possessed, without, as far as I observed, any bedding or even straw. 


The entire grounds are surrounded by a frail board fence, and are strictly guarded by Confederate soldiers, and no prisoner except the paroled attendants is allowed to leave the grounds except by a special permit from the Commandant of the Interior of the Prison.

The patients and attendants, near two thousand in number, are crowded into this confined space and are but poorly supplied with old and ragged tents. Large numbers of them were without any bunks in the tents, and lay upon the ground, oft-times without even a blanket. No beds or straw appeared to have been furnished. The tents extend to within a few yards of the small stream, the eastern portion of which, as we have before said, is used as a privy and is loaded with excrements; and I observed a large pile of corn-bread, bones, and filth of all kinds, thirty feet in diameter and several feet in hight, swarming with myriads of flies, in a vacant space near the pots used for cooking. Millions of  flies swarmed over everything, and covered the faces of the sleeping patients, and crawled down their open mouths, and deposited their maggots in the gangrenous wounds of the living, and in the mouths of the dead. Musketos in great numbers also infested the tents, and many of the patients were so stung by these pestiferous insects, that they resembled those suffering from a slight attack of the measles.

The police and hygiene of the hospital were defective in the extreme; the attendants, who appeared in almost every instance to have been selected from the prisoners, seemed to have in many cases but little interest in the welfare of  their fellow-captives. The accusation was made that the nurses in many cases robbed the sick of their clothing, money, and rations, and carried on a clandestine trade with the paroled prisoners and Confederate guards without the hospital enclosure, in the clothing, effects of the sick, dying, and dead Federals. They certainly appeared to neglect the comfort and cleanliness of the sick intrusted to their care in a most shameful manner, even after making due allowances  for the difficulties of the situation. Many of the sick were literally encrusted with dirt and filth and covered with vermin. When a gangrenous wound needed washing, the limb was thrust out a little from the blanket, or board, or rags upon which the patient was lying, and water poured over it, and all the putrescent matter allowed to soak into the ground floor of the tent. The supply of rags for dressing wounds was said to be very scant, and I saw the most filthy rags which had been applied several times, and imperfectly washed, used in dressing wounds. Where hospital gangrene was prevailing, it was impossible for any wound to escape contagion under these circumstances. The results of the treatment of wounds in the hospital were of the most unsatisfactory character, from this neglect of cleanliness, in the dressings and wounds themselves, as well as from various other causes which will be more fully considered. I saw several gangrenous wounds filled with maggots. I have frequently seen neglected wounds amongst the Confederate soldiers similarly affected; and as far as my experience extends, these worms destroy only the dead tissues and do not injure specially the well parts. I have even heard surgeons affirm that a gangrenous wound which had been thoroughly cleansed by maggots, healed more rapidly than if it had been left to itself. This want of cleanliness on the part of the nurses appeared to be the result of carelessness and inattention, rather than of malignant design, and the whole trouble can be traced to the want of the proper police and sanitary regulations, and to the absence of intelligent organization and division of labor. The abuses were in a large measure due to the almost total absence of system, government, and rigid, but wholesome sanitary regulations. In extenuation of these abuses it was alleged by the medical officers that the Confederate troops were barely sufficient to guard the prisoners, and that it was impossible to obtain any number of experienced nurses from the Confederate forces. In fact the guard appeared to be too small, even for the regulation of the internal hygiene and police of the hospital.

The cooking arrangements are of the most defective character. Five large iron pots similar to those used for boiling sugar cane, appeared to be the only cooking utensils furnished by the hospital for the cooking of nearly two thousand men; and the patients were dependent in great measure upon their own miserable utensils. They were allowed to cook in the tent doors and in the lanes, and this was another source of filth, and another favorable condition for the generation and multiplication of flies and other vermin.

The air of the tents was foul and disagreeable in the extreme, and in fact the entire grounds emitted a most nauseous and disgusting smell. I entered nearly all the tents and carefully examined the cases of interest, and especially the cases of gangrene, upon numerous occasions, during the prosecution of my pathological inquiries at Andersonville, and therefore enjoyed every opportunity to judge correctly of the hygiene and police of the hospital.
There appeared to be almost absolute indifference and neglect on the part of the patients of personal cleanliness; their persons and clothing inmost instances, and especially of those suffering with gangrene and scorbutic ulcers, were filthy in the extreme and covered with vermin. It was too often the case that patients were received from the Stockade in a most deplorable condition. I have seen men brought in from the Stockade in a dying condition, begrimed from head to foot with their own excrements, and so black from smoke and filth that they, resembled negros rather than white men. That this description of the Stockade and hospital has not been overdrawn, will appear from the reports of the surgeons in charge, appended to this report. 

























***



The major accepted the invitation and shared with the family their frugal meal of bacon and corn bread.  With a woman's instinct,  Mrs. Wirz did not like the ominous silence of Captain Noyes,  and became greatly agitated when her husband bade her goodbye. Henry Wirz tried to comfort his weeping wife and children, assuring then that all would be well. 

After an affectionate goodbye, he left for Macon.

General Wilson examined the records, and finding them all right, said that Henry Wirz could return to his family.  He was at the depot waiting for the delayed train, when an officer came up and arrested him and he was taken by train to Washington, D.C., where the federal government intended to place him on trial for conspiring to impair the lives of Union prisoners of  war.
A military tribunal was convened with Major General Lew Wallace presiding.  The other members of the commission were Gershom Mott,  John W. Geary,  Lorenzo Thomas,  Francis Fessenden,  Edward S. Bragg,  John F. Ballier,  T. Allcock,  John H. Stibbs.  Norton P. Chipman served as prosecutor.

Major Henry Wirz was defended by the competent Washington, D.C. attorney, Louis Schade,  who promptly filed for dismissal of the charges on the grounds that a military tribunal had no jurisdiction to try a civilian,  that the charges were vague as to time, place and manner of offense,  and that as a Confederate officer Major Henry Wirz was entitled to the terms agreed to between Generals Sherman and Johnston upon General Johnston's surrender.

Henry Wirz's trial began on August 25, 1865. Col. N. P. Chipman, USA  Judge Advocate, headed the prosecution. Louis Schade, a Washington attorney and Swiss countryman of Henry Wirz was counsel for the defense. Attorney Schade acted in this capacity without pay since Henry Wirz had no money which he could  pay him.

The government presented 160 witnesses, nearly all of whom had been prisoners at Andersonville. The government's key witness was Felix "De la Baume" (that was not his real name)  testified to the manifest cruelty of Major Wirz, and that he had witnessed most of the killing attributed to the defendant Henry Wirz.

James Madison Page wrote "His omnipresence while at Andersonville seemed something bordering on the supernatural. Nothing escaped him. Witness de la Baume held the surging crowd like an inspiration." Before the trial was over, "de la Baume" was rewarded for his testimony on the  government's behalf and given a position in the Department of the Interior.

Of the 160 witnesses that were called by the prosecution, less than a dozen testified to any alleged cruelty on the part of Major Henry Wirz. Approximately 145 of the government's own witnesses, nearly all of whom were former inmates of Andersonville, testified that they had no knowledge of Major Henry Wirz ever murdering or killing a prisoner with his own hands or otherwise.

James Madison Page (a former lieutenant with the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, former Andersonville inmate and the author of "The True Story of Andersonville Prison" (1908)) was subpoenaed, but after being interviewed, he was not called as a witness.  Lieutenant James Page stated that any act of cruelty that was described in the specifications could not possibly have taken place without his knowledge, and that he heard nothing of the alleged murders until Major Wirz's trial.

The Andersonville prisoners had little to do all day but talk, and any events within the prison that affected prisoners would be the subject of intense, widespread discussion.  Acts such as those alleged against Major Wirz could not have  happened  without the widespread knowledge within the inmate population.  But Lieutenant James Page never heard of the alleged incidents.

Dr. A. W. Barrows was called for a witness, but when he would say nothing derogatory of Major Wirz he was quickly dismissed from the witness stand. Not a surgeon or hospital attendant testified to any cruelty on the part of  Major Henry Wirz.

The Surgeon General sent Surgeon Joseph Jones to visit the sick and to make investigations and to report. His report was sent to Dr. J. H. White, Surgeon of the Hospital for Federal Prisoners at Andersonville.

Col. Chipman selected only the portion of the report relating to atrocities at the prison, the remainder of the report was mutilated. It never reached the authorities at Washington.

Col. Ould was called to be a witness, but when he stated that he would testify in favor of Major Wirz he was never called, and his subpoena was taken from him.

Father Whelan went to Washington DC to testify. When his views were learned he was never called.

Gen. Howell Cobb was summoned as a witness, but when it was learned he would testify in favor of Major Wirz, Sec.

Stanton telegraphed he was not needed as a witness.

All the accumulated passions of war were concentrated upon that one man. He was the magnet that drew the Northern wrath. 

Major Henry Wirz was doomed before he was heard, and the permission to be heard according to law was denied him.

The defense was forced to operate under a different set of rules than the prosecution.  Where the prosecution could call anyone of its choosing as a witness, any potential witnesses for the defense had to be approved in advance by the prosecution!  Witnesses who could have helped Captain Wirz's cause, like the former Confederate Commissioner of  Exchange Robert Ould who could have testified about prisoner exchange and the offers of unreciprocated  prisoner  releases, were not allowed to testify.  The trial was a farce, but not due to any lack of effort on the part of Henry Wirz's selfless and dedicated attorney, Louis Schade. 

The  trial  ended  on November 4, 1865. Major Henry Wirz was found guilty on the first charge of conspiring with other Confederate officials to murder the prisoners even though not a shred of evidence or testimony of any kind had been presented in support of this theory during the trial. 

On the second charge, Major Henry Wirz was found guilty of eleven of the thirteen alleged murders of Union prisoners.  Of the eleven Union prisoners whom Major Henry Wirz was convicted of murdering, none were ever identified as to their  name or any other particulars.

That the ailing were refused proper lodging, nourishment or medical care.

The clothing and blankets were taken away from them by the commandant. The prisoners were forced to drink the offal and drainage of cook house. They were bound together with large chains and left for hours in the burning sun without food or drink. They were forced to set or lie in one position without changing. Major Wirz established a deadline and in many places it was only an imaginary line, but the prison guards were instructed to fire upon any soldier who might touch or accidentally fall across this line. In all, the guards killed 300 prisoners, following out the instructions given. Then Wirz kept ferocious bloodhounds to run down the prisoners and these animals were incited to mangle and maim these frightened prisoners of war.

There besides this, Major Wirz would jump upon them, stamp them, kick them and bruise them with his boot heels. Then there were cases of gangrene but nothing but water given for treatment. The prisoners would even beg for bones when their food was distributed."

The sentence was that Major Henry Wirz was to be "hanged by the neck til he be dead."

***

Praise From Jefferson Davis

Beauvoir, Miss., October 15, 1888.
Louis Schade, Esq.

My Dear Sir:

I have often felt with poignant regret that the Southern public have never done justice to the martyr, Major Wirz. With a wish to do something to awake due consideration for his memory, I write to ask you to give the circumstances, as fully as may be agreeable to you, of the visit made to him the night before his execution, when he was tempted by the offer of a pardon if he would criminate me, and thus exonerate himself of charges of which he was innocent, and with which I had no connection.

Respectfully and truly yours,
JEFFERSON DAVIS.

***

In a carnival atmsphere, surrounded by soldiers shouting "Andersonville, Andersonville" over and over, Major Henry Wirz mounted the scaffold in the prison yard, accompanied by Father Boyle. Henry Wirz displayed no fear and faced his death stoically.  When he was asked by the priest if he wanted to make a last confession, he refused, saying "I die innocent."

This photograph taken by Alexander Gardner shows Major Russell reading the death warrant to Henry Wirz on the gallows at Washington Penitentiary.

Major Russell read the death warrant and then told Major Wirz that he "deplored this duty."  Henry Wirz responded:  "I know what orders are, Major.  And I am being hanged for obeying them."

Father Boyle later wrote, in a letter to Jefferson Davis:  "I attended the Major to the scaffold, and he died in the peace of God and praying for his enemies.  I know that he was indeed innocent of all the cruel charges on which his life was sworn away, and I was edified by the Christian spirit in which he submitted to his persecutors."

Within two weeks after Henry Wirz's death, Union soldiers of German ancestry identified Monsieur "de la Baume" as a deserter from the 7th New York Infantry whose real name was Felix Oeser.  The perjurer Felix Oeser had never set foot in Andersonville Prison or even been near it.  The Secretary of the Interior quietly fired the liar from his job in the Department of the Interior. The perjurer quickly disappeared from the public's view.  

The government refused the request of Henry Wirz's widow to return the body to his family for a  Christian burial. Instead, Henry Wirz's body was to be buried "without ceremony" in the prison yard.

Henry Wirz's conviction was controversial at the time of his trial, and continues to cause controversy to this day. Historical records show that Major Henry Wirz attempted to improve conditions at the prison and constantly appealed for money and supplies, but the war strapped Confederate government did not (and could not) provide him with the adequate materials.  There are some (including me) who claim that Major Henry Wirz's conviction had more to do with the Union's need to find retribution for the "actual prison conditions" than for any real crimes.

During July and August, 1865, Clara Barton, with a detachment of laborers and soldiers, and a former prisoner named Dorence Atwater  came to Andersonville cemetery, to identify and mark the graves of the dead Union soldiers. 



As a prisoner,  Dorence Atwater was assigned to record the names of deceased Union soldiers for the Confederate Government.  Fearing the loss of of the death record at the end of the war,  Dorence Atwater made his own copy in hopes of notifying the relatives of over 12,000 dead men that were interred at Andersonville.


The prison reverted to private hands and was planted in cotton and other crops until the land was acquired by the Grand Army of the Republic of George in 1891.  During their administration,  stone monuments were constructed to mark various portions of the prison including the four corners of the inner stockade and the North and South Gates.

Relic hunters later arrived at the prison and ransacked the entire stockade looking for souvenirs.  The weather,  roaming livestock,  and additional waves of souvenir hunters continued to destroy the Andersonville stockade for years after the war.

In December 1890, The "Georgia Department of the Grand Army of the Republic" purchased the prison site. It was later turned over to the Women's Relief Corps,  and still later,  in 1910, it was donated to the people of the United States.

***


General Ulysses S. Grant's Testimony.



Question: It has been said that we refused to exchange prisoners because we found ours starved, diseased, unserviceable when we received them, and did not like to exchange sound men for such men.

Answer: There never has been any such reason as that. That has been a reason for making exchanges. I will confess that if our men who are prisoners in the South were really well taken care of, suffering nothing except a little privation of liberty, then, in a military point of view, it would not be good policy for us to exchange, because every man they get back is forced right into the army at once, while that is not the case with our prisoners when we receive them. In fact, the half of our returned prisoners will never go into the army again, and none of them will until after they have had a furlough of thirty or sixty days. Still the fact of their suffering as they do is a reason for making this exchange as rapidly as possible.

Question: And never has been a reason for not making the exchange?

Answer: It never has. Exchanges having been suspended by reason of disagreements on the part of agents of exchange on both sides before I came in command of the armies of the United States, and it being near the opening of the spring campaign I did not deem it advisable or just to the men who had to fight our battles to reinforce the enemy with thirty or forty thousand disciplined troops at that time. An immediate resumption of exchanges would have had that effect without giving us corresponding benefits. The suffering said to exist among our prisoners South was a powerful argument against the course pursued, and I so felt it.

***

Continuing, Representative  Hill said: "In August, 1864, there were two more propositions. The cartel of exchange had been broken by the Federals under certain pretences, and the prisoners were accumulating on both sides to such an extent that Mr. Ould made another proposition to waive every objection and to agree to whatever terms the Federal Government would demand, and to renew the exchange of prisoners, man for man, and officer for officer, just as the Federal Government might prescribe. That proposition was also rejected."

"In the same month, August, 1864, finding that the Federal Government would neither exchange prisoners nor agree to sending surgeons to the prisoners on each side, the Confederate Government officially proposed, in August, 1864, that if the Federal Government would send steamers and transports to Savannah, the Confederate Government would return the sick and wounded prisoners on its hands without an equivalent. That proposition, which was communicated to the Federal authorities in August, 1864,  was not answered until December, 1864,  when some ships were sent to Savannah.  The record will show that the chief suffering, the chief mortality at Andersonville,  was between August and December, 1864.  We sought to allay that suffering by asking you to take your prisoners off our hands without equivalent, and without asking you to return a man for them, and you refused."

Commenting, Representative Hill said: "Brave men are always honest, and true soldiers never slander; I would believe the statement of those gallant soldiers at Andersonville, as contained in those resolutions, in preference to the whole tribe of Republican politicians."
Andersonville Prison.
Vol. XVII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1889.

Richmond Times, August 7, 1890,

Recently several articles have appeared in leading magazines and journals in the country agitating the treatment of prisoners at Andersonville and other Southern prisons during the late war between the States.

In order that the true condition of this subject might be learned, a reporter for The Times called upon Dr. Isaiah H. White yesterday, who was chief surgeon of military prisoners east of the Mississippi during those days, and his headquarters were for a time at Andersonville.

As evidence of the efficiency of Dr. Isaiah H. White in the position which he held the "Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion," in referring to one of his sanitary reports, says: "The following extract shows him neither insensible to the suffering around him nor ignorant of the cause."

Dr. White's Position

"The papers published by the committee of the House of Representatives show that Dr. Isaiah H. White, surgeon in charge of the prison camp, repeatedly called the attention of his superiors to the condition of the prisoners, appealing for medical and hospital supplies, additional medical officers, and adequate supply of cooking utensils, hospital tents, etc. The medical profession owes a debt of gratitude to this gentleman and his colleagues in their labors for the unfortunate men confined at Andersonville."

Facts From Knowledge

When asked to give his knowledge of the facts connected with the reports of the inhuman treatment of Federal prisoners by Confederate authorities, Dr. White said: "It is not easy to see what purpose is served by the publication of these articles. Under circumstances like those of the civil war, the remembrance is painful."

It was the saddest of its episodes not to be willingly recalled either by the North or South. If its history is to be written, however, it is better for it to be based upon facts than fiction.

"It is a well-known fact," said Dr. White, "that the Confederate authorities used every means in their power to secure the exchange of prisoners, but it was the policy of the United States Government to prevent it, as is well shown by a letter of General Grant to General Butler, dated August the 18th, 1864, in which he said:

"It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man released on parole or otherwise, becomes an active soldier against us at once, either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those caught they amount to no more than dead men."

"At this particular time to release all rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here.'

"This policy," continued the Doctor, "not only kept our men out of the field, but threw upon our impoverished commissariat the feeding of a large number of prisoners."

In refutation of the charge that prisoners were starved, let it be noted that the Confederate Congress in May, 1861, passed a bill providing that the rations furnished to prisoners of war should be the same in quantity and quality as those issued to the enlisted men in the army of the Confederacy. And the prisoners at Andersonville received the same rations that were furnished the Confederate guard. That this was sometimes scant, every old rebel in the field can testify. But this was due to our poverty.

"According to the report of Secretary of War Stanton, the number of Federal prisoners who died in Confederate prisons is 22,576, and according to the same authority the number of Confederate prisoners who died in Northern prisons is 26,436. According to the report of Surgeon-General Barnes the number of Confederates held in Northern prisons during the war was 220,000, and the number of Federal prisoners held in Confederate prisons was 270,000."

"It is to be observed that in all of the calculations of mortality made by the writers of these articles the figures relate to Andersonville, which was acknowledged the most unhealthy of any of our prisons, and yet the mortality rate will compare favorably with that of Alton, Ill., which was 509,4 annually per thousand."

"The camp at Andersonville was established on a naturally healthy site in the highlands of Sumpter county, Georgia. The officers sent to locate this prison were instructed to prepare a camp for the reception of ten thousand prisoners. For this purpose twenty-seven acres, consisting of the northern and southern exposures of two rising grounds, between which ran a stream from west to east, was selected. In August, 1864, nearly thirty-three thousand prisoners were crowded together in this area, in consequence of the refusal of the United States Government to exchange prisoners, we having no other prison to which to send them at that time."

"The sudden aggregation of these men at a camp unprepared for their reception, originally designed for only ten thousand men, developed many unsanitary conditions, which combined with pre-existing causes, evolving sickness and stamping it with a greater virulence. The most prominent of these were: The men came from a higher latitude and unaccustomed to a Southern climate in the most unhealthy season of the year, August. The temporary detective police of the camp, and the insufficient protection in quarters, and the bread ration, consisting of corn-meal used largely in the South, to which they were unaccustomed, contributed to the spread of diarrhœa and dysentery, which was the cause of eighty-six per cent. of the entire number of deaths. But the evil influences exercised by the camp conditions and diet would not have been followed by the same mortality had the same ground and shelters been crowded to the same extent with well-disciplined troops waiting for the opening of a campaign."

"These men on their arrival were broken down physically by previous hardships, hurried marches, want of sleep, deficient rations, and exposures in all kinds of weather, by night and by day that precede and attend the hostile meeting of armies. The prisoners seldom carried from the fields a sufficiency of clothing and blankets to protect them from weather changes. The depression of spirit consequent on defeat and capture, the home-sickness of the prisoners, and the despondency caused by the thought that they had been left by their own Government in the hands of the enemy with no prospect of exchange, conspired to render every cause of disease more potent in its action, and were the main factors in the production of disease and death."

"How were you off for medical supplies, Doctor ?" asked the reporter.

"We were sadly deficient in medicines, the United States Government having declared medicines contraband of war, and by the blockade prohibiting us from getting them abroad, we were thrown largely on the use of indigenous remedies."

***

The monument states:
The Front of the Monument

"In memory of Captain Henry Wirz, C.S.A. Born Zurich, Switzerland, 1822. Sentenced to death and executed at Washington, D.C., Nov. 10, 1865.

To rescue his name from the stigma attached to it by embittered prejudice, this shaft is erected by the Georgia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy."


On the Second Side

"Discharging his duty with such humanity as the harsh circumstances of the times, and the policy of the foe permitted, Captain Wirz became at last the victim of a misdirected popular clamor.

He was arrested in time of peace, while under protection of a parole, tried by a military commission of a service to which he did not belong and condemned to ignominious death on charges of excessive cruelty to Federal prisoners. He indignantly spurned a pardon, proffered on condition that he would incriminate President Davis and thus exonerate himself from charges of which both were..."

 ***

General Fred Crayton Ainsworth,  Chief of the Record and Pension Office said:  "According to the best information now obtainable, from both Union and Confederate records,it appears that 211,411 Union soldiers were captured during the civil war, of which number 16,668 were paroled on the field and 30,218 died while in captivity; and that 462,634 Confederate soldiers were captured during that war, of which number 247,769 were paroled on the field and 25,976 died while in captivity."

The mortality was a little over 12 per cent. at the North and 15% at the South.  Taking into account the better hospitals, more skilful physicians,  the ample supply of medicines and the abundance of food at the North and the exceptionally high death-rate at Andersonville, Florence and Salisbury,  you might have expected a greater difference,  which would probably be the case were all the deaths in the Confederacy known.   Still it should be remembered that as the Southern summer was hard on the Union prisoners so did the Northern winter increase the mortality of the Confederates as the high number of deaths from pneumonia indicates.

***

Albert D. Richardson, in his "Field, Dungeon, and Escape" that was written in 1865,  says on page 417: "The Government held a large excess of prisoners,  and the rebels were anxious to exchange man for man,  but our authorities acted upon the cold-blooded theory of Edwin M. Stanton,  Secretary of War,  that we could not afford to give well-fed, rugged men for invalids and skeletons."   and again, on page 457,   Albert Richardson says:  "Those 5,000 loyal graves at Salisbury are fitting monuments to the atrocious inhumanity of Edwin M. Stanton who steadfastly refused to exchange our prisoners."

Of this I am sure,  If he was guilty of the charge of "conspiring to impair the lives of Union prisoners of war"  as was stated in his indictment,  then there were a lot more people who should have gone on trial,  beginning with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, General Ulysses S. Grant, President Jefferson Davis and President Abraham Lincoln.   These "upstanding" gentlemen knew that their opposition to the prisoner exchange, and their attitudes were needlessly costing the lives of both Union and Confederate Prisoners of war.  And They Didn't Give A Damn.  

Those who have an interest in our American History, would like to have it passed on as accurately as possible to our descendants.  As I investigate what has been, and still is,  being portrayed in film and in history books and pulp fiction,  about the "Andersonville Prison",  Major Henry Wirz,  may have to wait another 150 years for his vindication.

*****
James Madison Page, in his "True History of Andersonville Prison page 106, says: "Many of the prisoners, being but human, raised their clenched trembling hands towards heaven and with fearful oaths cursed the authorities at Washington, and the day they were born. Oh, what hatred was engendered for our Secretary of War".

"It is true, after we were released we, for policy sake, either kept silent or joined in the clamor against Wirz. The Northern papers published it broadcast that the exchange of negro prisoners for white was the cause that the exchange was not allowed. This was not true, for as Grigsby says, "The Washington authorities had concluded to stop the exchange of prisoners before there were any negro prisoners at Andersonville."
When the war ended and "Harper's Weekly" brought out illustrations of  'the starved heroes,' then a storm of indignation burst over the heads of their own misguided statesmen, who had refused to exchange.

These returned prisoners told how the Confederate authorities urged exchange under any circumstances and even asked to send back the soldiers without exchange and the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton refused.

The storm had to be averted, something had to be done to avenge Andersonville, so Wirz was made the victim and was hanged."

Northern wives and mothers tried to carry hidden medicine to relieve their loved ones, and Union authorities, not Confederate authorities, had them searched and the medicine taken from them.

Confederate authorities never refused to let the prisoners have food, clothes, money, or medicine sent by their loved ones.

Major Henry Wirz was hanged on November 10, 1865, in Washington, D.C.  He was the only Confederate officer to be executed as a war criminal.  Was he a Scapegoat or Murderer???   That question is still being discussed today!


The Andersonville National Historic Site is a 515 acre park developed in honor of all those from the American Civil War that were stationed or imprisoned here, as well as a National Cemetary for our honored dead. 

Andersonville National Cemetery


Burial Arrangements

Cemetery Regulations

Pets must be kept on a leash at all times and should be kept only on paved areas.
No jogging, picnicking or recreational activities
Please keep your voices lowered
Please place all litter in refuse containers
Please do not sit on headstones or monuments within the cemetery grounds
Grave Decoration Policy

Graves are decorated with small US flags for Memorial Day. Flags may not be placed at any other time.
Fresh-cut flowers may be placed on graves at any time. Artificial arrangements are not allowed from April 15 through October 15. All flowers will be removed when they become faded or unsightly. During the periods ten days before and after Easter Sunday and Memorial Day, potted plants and wreaths are permitted. Christmas wreaths and floral blankets not larger than 2 by 3 feet are permitted from December 1 through January 20. The National Park Service is not responsible for floral arrangements or other items placed in the cemetery. Plantings, statues, vigil lights or other decorations are not permitted at any time. All containers should be non-breakable. Temporary floral vases are available in the Cemetery. Permanent below-ground metal floral containers are not permitted. Containers or other items may not be attached to the headstone.
The site of Camp Sumter (Andersonville Prison) is preserved as part of the the National Historic Site. The historic prison site is 26.5 acres outlined with double rows of white posts. Two sections of the stockade wall have been reconstructed, the north gate and the northeast corner.








For a number of years, the park maintained a small historic building as the POW museum, with exhibits developed by park staff. In the mid-1980’s the park staff began to work with American Ex-Prisoners of War (AXPOW) a national organization of former POWs and their families, setting in motion the idea that a National Prisoner of War Museum should be a part of this National Park Service unit. It was not until the 1990s when Congress appropriated funding for planning and development of the Museum that the project began in earnest. The NPS and AXPOW continued to work closely together to raise funding and corroborate on both design for the building and for the interpretive exhibits. The overwhelming goal for the project was that the Museum would be a fitting visitor center for the public and give visitors a total understanding of the story of all POWs.

As the project continued, another partnership group joined the effort. The Friends of Andersonville, a group of local and national supporters of the park, became involved in the fund raising process and also served as a petitioner to the state of Georgia for assistance with construction of a new entrance road for the park which would lead directly to the site of the new Museum. Finally in the summer of 1996, construction of the building began. April 9, 1998 not only commemorated the 56th anniversary of the fall of the Island of Bataan during World War II, but marked a new era of interpretation at Andersonville NHS. Thousands of former prisoners of war and their families along with national and local supporters of the park gathered to dedicate the National Prisoner of War Museum.
Operating Hours and Seasons

The National Prisoner of War Museum, which serves as the park visitor center. The Museum opened in 1998.

The park has no entrance fee, and no fees for park interpretive programs. Organized groups of 12 or more who are requesting interpretive programs especially for their group must make reservations at least two weeks in advance.