Andersonville Jail was a Confederate war prison during the Civil War, infamous for its mistreatment of Union prisoners of war. Overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and disease led to the deaths of about 30% of the prisoners held there. The prison commandant was prosecuted for war crimes after the war ended. The site is now a national cemetery and park.
Andersonville Jail, also known as Camp Sumter, was a Confederate war prison during the Civil War. It was located in southwestern Georgia in the United States, and was created in 1864 as a place to handle growing numbers of Union prisoners of war (POW). The prison generally developed a terrible reputation for its mistreatment of soldiers and poor conditions. When the war ended, many people in the north were angry about Andersonville, and the prison commandant was prosecuted for war crimes.
The prison was not complete when it opened, but many prisoners have been moved to the site. According to some reports, it was overcrowded to three times its actual capacity. Prisoners were forced to use the same stream for drinking and sewage. There was little shelter and presumably most people simply slept in the open. Conditions at Andersonville Jail generally worsened as the war continued, and things got progressively more dangerous.
Toward the end of the war, the Confederacy ran into a serious supply problem. Even necessities such as bullets and food were extremely scarce. In some cases, their own soldiers were actually starving, and sometimes their rations would be nothing more than some bread or some moldy vegetables. In this situation, the prisoners suffered even more severely and many of them starved to death. Andersonville Jail was particularly hard hit because the area was so hot and the facility itself so overcrowded.
Inside Andersonville Jail, conditions have become completely unsanitary, with diseases such as malaria and dysentery leading to dehydration and death on a massive scale. According to reports, the situation eventually got so bad that more than 100 prisoners were dying every day. There was so much lawlessness and disorder that prisoners would kill each other to steal basic supplies. Eventually, many of the prisoners were transferred to different POW camps on the orders of a Confederate medical board. Overall, about 30% of the prisoners held in the camp died, resulting in a total of about 12,000 deaths.
At the end of the war, there was a call for revenge against the people who ran the camp. This led to the prosecution of Captain Henry Wurst, who was later hanged as a war criminal. The Andersonville Jail grounds have since become a national cemetery used specifically for American war veterans. There is also a national park in the area which serves as a memorial to all the missing prisoners of war.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
