The Washington herald., 1914-03-30
THE WAR DAY BY DAY
Fifty Years Ago.
March 80 1se4-he Confederate Andnve Sumter County
Ga Opened February TO- Was Rapidly Filing Up
with Federal Soldiers Sent South from Nhmond-0sn and che
ter Of the Prison.
written expressly for The Herald,

Fifty years ago today the Confederate
prison at Andersonville. Sumter County.
Ga, which had been opened on February
20, was rapidly filling with Federal sol
diers sent south from Richmond.
The care of its prisoners had now
| become such a burden to the Confed-
eracy that neither proper food nor shell
| ter could be provided for the thousands
| Of Federals in its hands. Food even for
! the Confederate armies in the field was
not readily obtained, while labor. paid
in a currency so debased that a days
pay would not buy a full meal for the
/ laborer. was not to be had in Quantity
for such a purpose as building prisons.
Andersonyille had been chosen as a
prison site because 1t was in a section
where supplies could be more readily
] obtained than In Richmond. The men
who established the prison labored
honestly. though ineffectively, to make
IL habitable. II was destined in spite
OF them to develop. in the dying days
of the Confederacy. into a place of
| horror.
Late in 1853 the Confederate govern
ment had seen the need OF establishing
a new military prison in some remote
spot, where supplies would be more
abundant and escapes would be less fire.
quent. On November 81. 1853. Capt. W.
| Sidney Winder. a son Of Gen. John II.
/ Winder lin command of the Richmond
prisonsJ. was ordered by the Confederate
secretary OF war to select a site for a
prison in the neighborhood Of Americus
or Fort Valley. Ga The location chosen.
Andersonyille, was six miles from Amer
| icus, and sixty miles from Macon on
the line of the Southwestern Railroad.
which runs from Macon through South
west Georgia.
short of Food and Labor.
The ground chosen was about a third
of mile from the east side of the rail-
| road. On II was a grove of lofty pines,
| from which material was obtained for
administration buildings and a stockade
Wood. a prime necessity. was especially
plenty and a stream of water ran across
| the lot. The place promised well.
Capt. Richard b. Winder took charge
of the construction of Camp Sumpter as
the post was named. This officer VINO
was a quartermaster in the Confederate
service. soon found that he could not get
supplies together readily for the expected
prisoners. On February ,. before a pris-
oner had arrived. he reported urgent need
of all sorts of supplies. excepting corn
and meal.
On February Il. the day on which the
first detachment OF prisoners left Rich
mond for AndersOnville. Capt. Winder re-
ported that II was impossible to hire men
who had been exempted from conscrip-
ton to drive cattle for the needs Of the
prison. These men preferred to specu-
late on their own account Capt. Winder
was also troubled by the apprOsc ching
departure Of the negroes who were en-
ployed in the work. 800 in number. who
were soon to return to their respective
plantations. There was no labor at hanu
to replace this force. and altogether the
prospect of having the post in readiness
for its occupants was not a favorable one
What Prison Was Like.
BY the time the first prisoners arrived
the stockade OF the prison was done.
The inner inclosure. which was sur
rounded by a log structure eighteen To
| twenty feet in height. measures 100 feet
in length and T79 feet in width. This in
closure was surrounded at a distance of
sixty feet with another palisade Of logs
twelve feet high. In August. 1864. when
the prison was at its fullest tide Of popu-
latiOn, the length was extended to lou
feet
The ground inside the stockade was en-
fitirely cleared. Not a tree or shrub was
left standing
In the original inclosure was an area
Of twelve acres There were two gates
and but two corresponding apertures in
the outer palisade. These gates were
constructed OF massive timbers They
were always strongly guarded. At inter
walls of 100 feet along the top of the inner
palisade there were sentry boxes. whose
occupants could survey both the exterior
and the interior of the prison.
The first commander of the prison, Col
Parsons, OF the Fifty-fifth Georgia Re
serves. was described by some of his
charges as a humane and COnsideTate
governor. The men of his regiment fra
ternized with the first Corners. and to
its original occupants AndersOnville was
an agreeable change from the crowded
prisons at Richmond.
From such a beginning conditions were
rapidly to grow worse until the week of
August :. when the prison, vast rcek-
ing pen of sweltering. starving. Vermin-
ridden invalids. contained 8, rs men. This
was the high tide Of its population.
Soldiers of character and training could
not be spared to guard the prison, and
the guards as a rule were ignorant con-
scripts Some were brutal in acts and
words. shooting at any hapless prisoner
who approached the dead-line or savagely
cursing the prisoners. Others were often
moved to pity by the sufferers beneath
them. throwing bread to the hungry, and
speaking kindly.
Among Early Corners.
A realistic picture OF the hard life with
in the Andersonville stockade in the pris-
On's early days, is presented in the diary
of Sergt. John L. Ransom, of Company
A. Ninth Michigan Cavalry. SerGt. Ran
som was captured on November 6, 1853
near ROgersvillc. East Tennessee. He
reached Belle Isle. in the James River.
November 13 On March he was assigned
to an AndeTsonvile detachment and on