Andersonville Raiders

Ovid L. Futch was born at Lawtey, Florida, and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Florida. After teaching die high school social sciences for three years, he returned to Emory University where he is now studying for a Ph.D. in history. AndersonviUe Raiders OVID FUTCH in the latter part of 1863, the Confederate government found it necessary to move the Federal prisoners in Richmond to a place of greater security and more abundant provisions. It was decided that a new prisoner-of-war camp should be established in Georgia, and in November Captain W. S. Winder was directed to select a prison site "in the neighborhood of Americus or VaUey Ford" after consulting with Governor Joseph E. Brown and General HoweU Cobb. The place decided upon was near Anderson Station, a short distance northeast of Americus. The new prison was officially called Camp Sumter, but it soon became known as AndersonviUe.1 AndersonviUe prison originaUy comprised sixteen and a half acres of land, enclosed by a stockade made of pine logs about twenty feet in length, hewn to a thickness of about twelve inches, fitted snugly together , and planted five feet in the earth so that the wall was fifteen feet high. In late June of 1864 the stockade area was increased to twenty-six acres. The enlarged prison was 1,620 feet long and 779 feet wide, being longer from north to south. Sweet Water Branch, a smaU stream called Stockade Creek by the prisoners, ran from west to east through the approximate center of the enclosure. At the west end were two entrances, the North Gate and the South Gate, each of which had a wall around its exterior with another gate for greater security. From each entrance a street ran through the enclosure to the opposite wall. The street on the north side of the creek was caUed North Street, the one on the other side Broadway. The area on the two sides of the creek were called the North Side and the South Side.2 The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), Ser. II, Vol. 6, p. 558; cited hereinafter as O.R., foflowed by the series number in roman numerals, the volume number in arabic, the part number (if any), and the page, as O.R., II, 6, p. 558. O.R., II, 7, p. 546; ibid., 8, pp. 730-31; Augustus C. Hamlin, Martyria: or Ander47 48OVID FUTCH The first detachment of prisoners arrived at AndersonviUe on February 27, 1864, before work on the stockade was completed. Facilities were never adequate. Inefficient government bureaucracy, inept camp officials , labor shortages, scarcity of tools and supplies, and hostility of the neighborhood had delayed construction and continued to complicate administration. Having no shelter, the prisoners were exposed to cold, sun, and rain. The creek, which served as the principal water supply for the prison was soon polluted by drainage from camp sinks and by refuse from the cookhouse, which was upstream from the stockade on the banks of the creek. The prisoners dug wells, constructed makeshift shelters, and tried to make the best of a bad situation. The prison was soon terribly overcrowded. By late June inmates numbered twenty-six thousand in a prison originally intended for ten thousand. The relief afforded by enlargement of the prison was of short duration. By the end of July, the constant arrival of new prisoners had brought the number enclosed in the stockade to 31,678. This number grew in August to over over thirty-three thousand. Evacuation of able-bodied men began early in September, 1864, but some prisoners were still there when the war ended.3 Overcrowding, coupled with poor sanitation, and coarse, meager rations, resulted in widespread disease and a high mortality rate. Altogether , 52,345 prisoners were confined in AndersonviUe. Of this number, 13,259 Union soldiers are buried in the AndersonviUe Cemetery. One hundred twenty-seven of them died on August 23, 1864; and 2,993 died that month — an average of over ninety-six each day. Many who survived wrote accounts...