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  • The Prison Was Tightly Secured, With Nightly Fires To Prevent Escape on Random Things About What It Was Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter

    (#11) The Prison Was Tightly Secured, With Nightly Fires To Prevent Escape

    The men held at Andersonville tried to escape. John Levi Maile, an inmate at Andersonville, described attempts to tunnel under the wall. POWs dug at night and carried away the fresh dirt in their pockets, letting it fall as they walked the camp during the day. Sick inmates lay over the holes during the daytime so Confederates wouldn't discover the plots.

    But the Confederate guards came up with a new way to prevent tunnel escapes. "Slaves and teams were employed to build piles of pitch-pine along the cleared space beyond the outer stockade," Maile described. "At night, when these were lighted, a line of fires was made which illuminated a wide area."

    The fires made life at Andersonville even more terrible. Maile wrote, "From these fires arose columns of dense smoke, which in the sultry air of a midsummer night hung like a pall over the silent city of disease and starvation."

  • The Only Water Was Contaminated With Sewage on Random Things About What It Was Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter

    (#4) The Only Water Was Contaminated With Sewage

    The 45,000 inmates at Andersonville shared a single water source: a manmade channel that trickled through the camp. "The water is of a dark color, and an ordinary glass would collect a thick sediment," reported Private Prescott Tracy

    "The cookhouse was situated on the stream just outside the stockade," Tracy wrote, "and its refuse of decaying offal was thrown into the water, a greasy coating covering much of the surface."

    Upstream, the Confederate guards also contaminated the water. Tracy described guards dumping "a large amount of the vilest material" into the stream, "or more properly sewer." The stream was the only source of drinking and cooking water for the POWs at the camp.

  • The Commander Of Andersonville Was Executed on Random Things About What It Was Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter

    (#14) The Commander Of Andersonville Was Executed

    When the Civil War ended, news of the atrocities at Andersonville horrified Northerners. After meeting with surviving POWs, Walt Whitman wrote, “There are deeds, crimes that may be forgiven, but this is not among them.” 

    Much of the blame fell on Henry Wirz, the commander at Andersonville beginning in 1864. After the conflict, Wirz was detained and put on trial for war crimes. More than 100 witnesses testified in the trial. Wirz was blamed for the loss of thousands of Union men and received a sentence of capital punishment.

    On November 10, 1865, Wirz met his end in sight of the capital building. Just before his hanging, Wirz told the officer overseeing the job, “I know what orders are, Major. I am being hanged for obeying them.”

  • Lives Were Threatened By The Terrible Heat on Random Things About What It Was Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter

    (#9) Lives Were Threatened By The Terrible Heat

    In the summer, heat made Andersonville even more deadly. Private Ezra H. Ripple wrote about the scorched area, where "not a particle of vegetation could be seen." Men created shade from makeshift tents. Ripple and eight other men tried to escape the sun with their feet "sticking outside like the spokes of a wheel."

    POW Albert Harry Shatzel paid particular attention to the horrific smell in his diary of that time: "It's terible [sic] hot here in the sand & the stench that arises from the filth in here is enough to suffocate aney [sic] comon [sic] man. I went out & took a view of the camp & Prisoners & I dont [sic] think there ever was sutch [sic] misery on gods [sic] earth before..."

  • Andersonville Was 'Hell-Upon-Earth' on Random Things About What It Was Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter

    (#10) Andersonville Was 'Hell-Upon-Earth'

    Samuel J. Gibson, a Union soldier held at Andersonville, described the camp as a "Hell-upon-earth of a Prison." Gibson wrote, "Our condition is daily growing more disagreeable as the weather grows warmer." Three of Gibson's four comrades were sick, and as the days passed, Gibson recorded their passing in his diary.

    Several weeks later, Gibson added, "If this is not Hell itself, it must be pandemonium; which is only Hell Gate. Heaven forbid I should ever see a worse place."

  • Going To The Medical Tents Almost Guaranteed An Inmate's Demise  on Random Things About What It Was Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter

    (#6) Going To The Medical Tents Almost Guaranteed An Inmate's Demise 

    Between February 25 and May 9, 1864, a total of 4,588 patients visited the Andersonville prison hospital, and 1,026 perished. 

    Prisoner Prescott Tracy worked as a clerk in the Andersonville hospital. He reported:

    I have seen one hundred and fifty bodies waiting passage to the "dead house," to be buried with those who died in hospital. The average of deaths through the earlier months was thirty a day; at the time I left, the average was over one hundred and thirty, and one day the record showed one hundred and forty-six.

    The major threats in the prison camp were diarrhea, dysentery, and scurvy.

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About This Tool

Camp Sumter was known as one of the most notorious and cruel prisons in the Civil War, known for its overcrowding, insufficient food and water supply, and rampant death and disease. Nearly a third of the 45,000 Union soldiers held in prison died during detention. The 19-foot fence erected around the prison is called the "death line", and any prisoner who tries to cross or touch the fence will be shot immediately.

Nowadays, tourists from all over the world can visit the historic Andersonville Prison on foot or in a sightseeing car. People should remember this dark history. The random tool help us to know 14 facts about the brutal life in Camp Sumter.

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