Random Things About What It Was Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter (14 items)

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  (#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..."
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  (#12) POWs Had To Bury Members Of Their Squads

  When POWs perished, their comrades had to bury them. Union soldier Prescott Tracy wrote, "The work of burial is performed by our own men, under guard and orders, twenty-five bodies being placed in a single pit, without headboards, and the sad duty performed with indecent haste."

  POWs might earn a reward for burial duty: "Sometimes our men were rewarded for this work with a few sticks of firewood, and I have known them to quarrel over a dead body for the job."

  Inmates were so desperate to escape that some even pretended to have perished. POW John Ransom wrote, "A funny way of escape has just been discovered by [Andersonville Commander] Wirz. A man pretends to be dead and is carried on a stretcher, left with the row of the dead. As soon as it gets dark, Mr. Dead-man jumps up and runs."
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  (#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.
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  (#3) POWs Were Fed Starvation Rations

  POWs at Andersonville ate cornbread made from ground corn cobs and four tablespoons of rice per week. When they received meat, it was "condemned pork, offensive in appearance and smell." 

  Private Prescott Tracy described the Confederates dumping rations onto the ground at 4 pm: "It was the custom to consume the whole ration at once, rather than save any for the next day. The distribution being often unequal, some would lose the rations altogether."

  Starvation rations began even before POWs reached Andersonville. Tracy related that on a five-day march to Andersonville, Union troops received barely any food: "The sum of our rations for the five days was thirteen crackers."
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  (#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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  (#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.”

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