Home > Andersonville, Georgia
Andersonville is a city located in Sumter County, Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 331 (174 in 1910). It is in the southwest part of the state, about 60 miles southwest of Macon, Georgia on the Central of Georgia railway.1 History
Andersonville was the location of the largest Confederate military prison during the American Civil War. More than 13,000 Union prisoners died there, mostly of neglect. Major Henry Wirz, commandant, was the only Civil War soldier executed for war crimes.
From November 1863 until the end of the Civil War it was the seat of a Confederate military prison. A tract of 16 1/2 acres (67,000 m²) of land near the village was cleared of trees and enclosed with a stockade. Prisoners began to arrive in February 1864, before the prison was completed and before adequate supplies had been received, and in May their number amounted to about 12,000. In June the stockade was enlarged so as to include 26 1/2 acres (107,000 m²), but the congestion was only temporarily relieved, and in August the number of prisoners exceeded 32,000. No shelter had been provided for the inmates: the first arrivals made rude sheds from the debris of the stockade; the others made tents of blankets and other available pieces of cloth, or dug pits in the ground. Owing to the slender resources of the Confederacy, the prison was frequently short of food, and even when this was sufficient in quantity it was of a poor quality and poorly prepared on account of the lack of cooking utensils. The water supply, deemed ample when the prison was planned, became polluted under the congested conditions. During the summer of 1864 the prisoners suffered greatly from hunger, exposure and disease, and in seven months about a third of them died. In the autumn, after the capture of Atlanta, Georgia, all the prisoners who could be moved were sent to Millen, Georgia and Florence, South Carolina. At Millen better arrangements prevailed, and when, after General William Tecumseh Sherman began his march to the sea, the prisoners were returned to Andersonville, the conditions there were somewhat improved.
During the war 49,485 prisoners were received at the Andersonville prison, and of these about 13,000 died. The terrible conditions obtaining there were due to the lack of food supplies in the Confederate States, the incompetence of the prison officials, and the refusal of the Federal authorities in 1864 to make exchanges of prisoners, thus filling the stockade with unlooked-for numbers. After the war Henry Wirz, the superintendent, was tried by a court-martial, and on November 10November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining. Events 1444 Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Ladislaus III of Poland (or Ulaszlo I of Hungary) are crushed by the Turks under Su, 18651865 is a common year starting on Sunday. Events January 31 American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief. February 17 American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forc, was hangedHanging is a form of capital punishment / execution, or a method for suicide. Hanging may involve breaking of the neck (drop-hanging; causing instant unconsciousness without breathing, and quick death), or one or more of the following: closing the airway, and the revelation of the sufferings of the prisoners was one of the factors that shaped public opinion regarding the South in the Northern states, after the close of the Civil War. The prisoners' burial ground at Andersonville has been made a national cemetery, and contains 13,714 graves of which 921 are marked "unknown."
2 Geography
Andersonville is located at 32°11'49" North, 84°8'30" West (32.197008, -84.141701) 1The following is a list of sources used in the creation of Wikipedia articles on various geographic topics and locations, such as cities, counties, states, and countries. These sources are cited within the thousands of articles which link to this page..
According to the United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census is a part of the United States Department of Commerce. Its mission is defined in the Constitution of the United States, which directs that the population be enumerated at least once every te, the city has a total area of 3.4 km²Square kilometre (symbol km is an SI unit of surface area. It is one of the SI derived units. 1 km² is equal to: the area of a square measuring 1 kilometre on each side 1 000 000 m² 100 hectares 0. 386 102 square miles (statute) 247. 105 381 acres Convers (1.3 mi²This article is about the unit of measure. In England, the Square Mile is a traditional name for the City of London. A square mile (symbol sq. or mi is an imperial unit which is the area of a square whose side is one mile (or 5,280 feet). A square mile is). 3.4 km² (1.3 mi²) of it is land and none of the area is covered with water.
