On our way to Savannah we stopped at Andersonville National Historic Site – a mega POW camp.  The Andersonville Prison (also known as Camp Sumter), a Confederate POW camp at the end of the American Civil War between February 1864 and April 1865.  The site contains the the POW camp, a National Cemetery and a Prisoner of War Museum.

The prison commander, Captain Henry Wirz, was executed after the war for war crimes. The camp was overcrowded (four times its capacity), with scarce water supply, food rations, and unsanitary conditions. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners held at Camp Sumter during the war nearly 13,000 died of scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery.

The museum

The National Prisoner of War Museum opened in 1998 as a memorial to  prisoners of war.  Through art, photographs, and video presentations the displays take you through the experience of a POW from capture and internment to the harsh living conditions. 

You “experience” the act of imprisonment

loss of freedom

harsh treatment

loneliness

starvation and disease

and extreme crowded conditions.

The grounds

The largest and most famous of prisons of the Civil War, Camp Sumter, commonly known as Andersonville, was the deadliest landscape of the Civil War.

There are several stations on the ground with artifacts and interpretation.

Visitors can walk the 26.5-acre site. Two sections of the stockade wall have been reconstructed: the north gate and the northeast corner.

 

We were almost the only people on the grounds—an eerie juxtaposition when you think about the crowded conditions experienced by the prisoners

If interested, you can read more about the camp here.

The cemetery

The cemetery is the final resting place for the Union prisoners who died while at Camp Sumter/Andersonville as POWs. It is now a national cemetery with more recent burials and holds 13,714 graves. 

Sadly, there are 921 that  are marked as unknown.

Most of the graves had wreaths in front of them

creating striking symmetric patterns

The village

The Village of Andersonville feels like stepping back in time. The Drummer Boy Civil War Museum on the main street is a must-see collection of authentic uniforms (both Union and Confederate), revolvers, carbines and muskets.  Village Hall and St. James Pennington Church on the main street makes a wonderful backdrop for destination weddings, family reunions or business meetings.

The footprints represent the prisoners march to the camp

There are several antique shops

The one below had a very special lady who went out of her way to tell us all she knows about Macon and Savannah, our next stops.

She gave us some great info!

The Village also has a six-acre Pioneer Farm with operating Grist Mill, a log cabin, and many more period buildings in a natural setting.

 

 

This is the site of the infamous Captain Henry Wirz’ office.

We stopped for a good lunch at this friendly restaurant.  The sights of the POW camp were still fresh in our minds and hard to shake off.

A quaint village in the shadow of a dark history.

The Rooster

The rooster live in the restaurant in town.  There is no special reason why the rooster has a section of its own other than the fact that we really liked it.

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