Andersonville National Historic Site

The Andersonville National Historic Site is the site of Camp Sumter (also known as Andersonville Prison) in Georgia. During the last 12 months of the American Civil War, Andersonville was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp for captured Union Army soldiers. The Andersonville National Cemetery and the National Prisoner of War Museum are also at the Andersonville National Historic Site.

The site is near Andersonville, Georgia.  Most of it lies in southwestern Macon County.  

 Andersonville Prison 
About 45,000 Union prisoners were held at Camp Sumter during the war. Conditions were so terrible that nearly 13,000 of these prisoners (nearly 3 in every 10) died.  

The camp was overcrowded, with four times as many prisoners as it was designed to hold.  There was not enough clean water, food, shelter, or sanitation. As a result, scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery were the leading causes of death.

While imprisoned at Andersonville, Union Army soldier John Ransom wrote in his diary:There is so much filth about the camp that it is terrible trying to live here. With sunken eyes, blackened countenances from pitch pine smoke, rags, and disease, the men look sickening. The air reeks with nastiness.

 Aftermath 
During the Civil War, Confederate Captain Henry Wirz ran Andersonville.  After the war, he was tried and found guilty of war crimes and executed. 

References

Category:American Civil War
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Category:War crimes