Andersonville: American Civil War, Andersonville Prison, Georgia

[rangerrebew]

Andersonville

American Civil War, Andersonville Prison, Georgia


From February 1864 until the end of the American Civil War (1861-65) in April 1865, Andersonville, Georgia, served as the site of a notorious Confederate military prison. The prison at Andersonville, officially called Camp Sumter, was the South’s largest prison for captured Union soldiers and known for its unhealthy conditions and high death rate. In all, approximately 13,000 Union prisoners perished at Andersonville, and following the war its commander, Captain Henry Wirz (1823-65), was tried, convicted and executed for war crimes.

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/andersonville

[Smokin Joe]

Not justifying Andersonville, but it was not the only case
Point Lookout Prisoner of War Camp

https://www.mycivilwar.com/pow/md-point-lookout.html
This camp was down the Potomac from where I grew up, but no locals were allowed to access what had not washed away of the site. It remained fenced off.
Despite the north blockading southern ports and the north having a relative bounty of supplies of all kinds, more confederate prosioners died in Northern Hands than Union Prisoners died in Confederate POW camps.

No northern camp administrators were ever tried. The Point Lookout camp, built on a sandspit with the Chesapeake  Bay on one side, the Potomac River on the other, washed over during storms by brackish (undrinkable) water, in full view on a clear day of the cliffs at Westmoreland Virginia miles across the Potomac, was one of the worst.