The Solution: The Richmond Prison Crisis of 1863
Channel: Andersonville National Historic Site
Date: 2013-12-29

In hindsight, we know that Andersonville became an unmitigated disaster that claimed the lives of nearly 13,000 Americans, making it the deadliest site of the Civil War.  However, in the fall and winter of 1863, Andersonville was intended to solve problems -- not create them.  The prisons in Richmond were massively overcrowded and running short of supplies, so Confederate officials began construction on a new prison in rural Georgia as a means to alleviate the sufferings of both prisoners and citizens in Richmond.