Andersonville Prison

a Confederate States military prison for captured Federal soldiers during the Civil War. It was located at Andersonville, Georgia. The prison was notorious for unhealthfulness and the severity of discipline maintained. From February 15, 1864, to April, 1865, prisoners were received to the number of 49,485. Of these, 12,926 died from various diseases. The prisoners were confined in a space of about ten acres, without shelter from the sun, and with insufficient food and polluted water. The Confederates were short of money, clothing, food, and medicine for their own sick, not to say short of supplies for their men in the field. No one at this date desires to say aught against the kindness and hospitality of the South, but the management of Andersonville was execrable. Food was scarce, but there was no excuse for allowing men to perish of exposure and thirst in sight of wood and water. The real difficulty lay in the fact that the prison was officered by men of the overseer type-men lacking in ability and humanity. The prisoners were neglected in sickness, and were subjected to inhuman treatment. After the close of the war Henry Wirz, the superintendent of the prison, was tried for cruelty and mismanagement. He was found guilty, and was executed November 10, 1865. The trenches where the Union dead were buried have since been laid out as a national cemetery. See Civil War